Tell Me About It by Sue Limb - review

This book is about a little girl, Ruby, who goes on holiday. She meets another girl, Sasha.They have a big fall out. While all this was happening Ruby was learning to swim.

There are two main characters, Ruby and Sasha. Ruby is a happy lively girl who loves monkeys. Sasha is quite snappy and sharp and always wants her own way.

I like this book because it is funny and fun to read. I also like it because it isn't too long. I don't like this book because it has bad language in some parts. The illustrations in this book are very cartoon-like. They are also fun to look at.

Others should read this book because it is funny. I recommend this book for 7 or over.

Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!

View the original article here

Books about the power of alone time

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

A tweet has been posted to your Twitter account.

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

'Playing With Water' is a good alone time book.

Our world is a relentlessly social one: We are plugging in, signing on and checking in, it seems, at all times. With the marvels of digital life so close at hand, it's easy to lose sight of solitude's benefits. So, it's more crucial than ever to make time for peace and privacy. From Susain Cain's Quiet to Thoreau's Walden, these books reveal the many ways alone time can enrich.

1. Solitude by Anthony Storr

British psychiatrist Anthony Storr challenges the established notion that love and friendship are the "only source of human happiness." Pointing to several figures throughout history--from Beethoven and Beatrix Potter to Ann Sexton--whose greatest achievements came about in moments of solitude, he argues that taking alone time can lead to an enhanced understanding of oneself, as well as bouts of superior creativity.

BOOKISH: The power of 'negative' thinking

BOOKISH: Q&A: Don't email Andrew Weil after 3 p.m.

2. Quiet by Susan Cain

In her recent bestseller Quiet (now out in paperback), Susan Cain introduces readers to the inner lives of introverts (people for whom alone time is the norm). Drawing on her own experience as an introvert in the high-octane world of corporate law, she argues that our culture's bias towards outspokenness and charisma leads us to overlook shy people and often miss out on their acumen and potential.

3. Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

A classic of solitary literature if there ever was one, "Walden" is the story of Henry David Thoreau's two-year retreat in rural Massachusetts, where he went to live as simply and "deliberately" as he could. Holed up in a spartan cabin and subsisting solely off the land, he chronicles his rugged education in self-reliance and his meditations on God, nature and society. The experience leaves him with an irrefutable sense of self-sufficiency and a deep appreciation for aloneness. As he puts it, "I never found a companion so companionable as solitude."

BOOKISH: Get your 'om' on with these meditation guides

BOOKISH: Q&A with Eben Alexander on God, consciousness and his new life purpose

4. Celebrating Time Alone by Lionel Fisher

Six years of living alone on an island in the Pacific Northwest showed freelance writer Lionel Fisher both the bliss and treachery of extensive solitude. Fisher shares wisdom from his own experience and those of others, exploring the perils of alienation and the ways in which extensive alone time can bring happiness. "What is tragic, and so wasteful of the sanctity of life," he writes on his website, "is that we seek our happiness, our fulfillment, our answers, our very identity in others when first we must find it in ourselves."

5. Playing with Water by James Hamilton-Paterson

In "Playing With Water," renowned British travel writer and novelist James Hamilton-Paterson describes his life on a remote island in the Philippines. With little to do beyond spearing his own fish, he looks back on his life thus far, observes the graces and pitfalls of island culture, and comes to discover the tenacity of his own self-reliance.

--

This article was originally posted on Bookish.com.

BOOKISH: Essential reads: Understanding the mind

BOOKISH: Discover books with Bookish

View the original article here

Book Buzz: Steinbeck fact or fiction, new book about heaven

John Steinbeck's 'Travels With Charley' was heavily fictionalized, it's been revealed on the books 50th anniversary. (Photo: Associated Press)

12:33PM EST November 26. 2012 - Here's a look at what's buzzing in the book world today:

New and noteworthy: Michael Connelly's new Harry Bosch book, The Black Box, is out today. Check out book editor Jocelyn McClurg's picks for the week. Plus, read USA TODAY's 3-star review of Friendkeeping, about the difficult art of maintaining friendships.

Steinbeck's story: On the 50th birthday of John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, publisher Penguin admits the author heavily fictionalized the book from his 1960 road trip.

Bryce Cortenay dies: Courtenay, the Australian author of The Power of One, which was adapted into a 1992 film starring Morgan Freeman, has died at 79.

New YA imprint: HarperCollins announced today it's launching a digital imprint called HarperTeen Impulse that will focus on young adult short stories and novellas.

To heaven and back: The New York Times profiles Dr. Eben Alexander III, a neurosurgeon who has written the book Proof of Heaven, about his religious experience while in a meningitis-induced coma. The book is No. 10 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.

Food for thought: Jami Attenberg, author of the food- and weight-focused novel The Middlesteins, writes about the power and meaning behind food in literature for The Wall Street Journal.

{ "assetid": "1727025", "aws": "entertainment/books", "aws_id": "entertainment_books", "blogname": "", "contenttype": "story pages ", "seotitle": "Book-buzz-steinbeck", "seotitletag": "Book Buzz: Steinbeck fact or fiction, new book about heaven", "ssts": "life/books", "templatename": "stories/default", "videoincluded":"no", "basePageType":"story" }

View the original article here

THE (HONEST) TRUTH ABOUT DISHONESTY: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter ( Privacy Policy )

Washington Post book reviewers

Aug 10, 2012 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

Dan Ariely
Harper
ISBN 978-0062183590
284 pages
$26.99

Reviewed by Michael S. Roth

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely is a funny guy on a mission. As director of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, he insists on a commitment to absurdity, but there is nothing cynical about his approach to human behavior. In his previous book, "Predictably Irrational," Ariely exposed our false assumptions about the rationality of markets and individuals with plenty of surprising and humorous examples. Our irrationality may be very predictable, but our ability to forecast this behavior doesn't alter the conditions that give rise to it. Recognizing this, he adopts his paradoxical mission: to design better economic and social institutions to protect us from our confident pursuit of rational economic and social institutions.

In "The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty," Ariely applies his experimental approach to how we "lie to everyone - especially ourselves." The book discusses the powerful ways irrationality affects our lives and begins with a critique of those who think dishonesty is really the result of a rational cost-benefit calculation. In a series of experiments, Ariely neatly shows that neither the size of the reward nor the probability of getting caught substantially affects the likelihood of dishonest behavior. The cost-benefit framework for understanding cheating just doesn't pay off.

Ariely sees two conflicting motivations at work in dishonest behavior. On the one hand, we want to view ourselves as honorable, and on the other hand we want to get as much stuff as possible. We want the benefits of cheating, and we want to see "ourselves as honest, wonderful people." So we fudge. We fool ourselves and others. Our "cognitive flexibility" cuts us so much slack that we often don't even perceive ourselves as getting away with anything. This flexibility keeps the contradictions between our principles and our behavior beyond the horizon of our consciousness.

"The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty" is full of examples of how we deceive ourselves about cheating. Somehow it seems to most people less like cheating to favorably reposition a golf ball with one's foot than to move it with one's hand. Tapping the ball with your club is best of all! As a rule, "cheating becomes much simpler when there are more steps between us and the dishonest act." We are more averse to directly taking some cash off the table, but much more likely to behave dishonestly to get a reward that in the end has cash value. Psychological distance is key.

Dishonesty isn't always so bad. The author describes how doctors and nurses lied to him repeatedly when as a teenager he was recovering from severe burns that almost killed him. If they had told him the brutal truth, he might not have mustered the strength to go on. They didn't want him anticipating excruciating pain that he was in any case powerless to avoid. The pain was real, but the altruistic dishonesty of his caregivers eased his suffering.

Ariely notes that "we quickly and easily start believing whatever comes out of our own mouths," which means that once we take credit for something, we are likely to really believe that we deserve it. When students are induced to cheat on tasks in an experimental situation, they start to really believe their skill level has increased. They certainly realize they are, say, using an answer key to "solve" a problem. Nonetheless they begin to inflate their perception of their own competence at problem solving. This kills two birds with one stone. They don't feel guilty for having cheated, and since they've forgotten about the cheating, they feel better about their performance.

Despite the good humor with which Ariely discusses his ingenious experiments, this is depressing stuff. But there is hope. Although it is easy to induce dishonest behavior in people, it is also easy to reduce the incidence of such behavior. Mostly, small reminders of basic moral standards tend to improve behavior. Whether it's the Ten Commandments, an honor code or a declaration of professional principles, bringing moral standards to mind reduces cheating. Signing a pledge before filling out a form (at the top of the page) is more effective at reducing dishonesty than signing a pledge after completing a form. Ariely likes having students write out their own honor codes on assignments so that they have to think about ethics rather than just signing something automatically.

Ariely offers some recommendations on conflicts of interest, particularly in medicine. The problem is that many of our professionals systematically find themselves in conflict situations and that they fool themselves about not falling into unethical behavior. And when these professionals know their clients well, when they are most trusted, this is when the worst conflicts tend to arise. Whether we are on the client or the professional side, we are likely to tell ourselves that these situations don't apply to us and the people we trust. We fool ourselves, and so we don't recognize the dishonesty.

Ariely shows us how some basic factors, such as being tired or hungry, undermine our efforts to be ethical. I was struck here, as I was in Daniel Kahneman's excellent "Thinking, Fast and Slow," by the example of judges who tended to defer to parole boards as the judges got hungrier. The concept of "ego depletion," that we can run out of the strength to do what we know we should, reminds us that will power is a muscle. It takes energy to do the right thing. We also learn that, once cheating starts, it tends to gain momentum and to become contagious. That's why we shouldn't tolerate small indiscretions; it lowers the bar for everyone.

Ariely raises the bar for everyone. In the increasingly crowded field of popular cognitive science and behavioral economics, he writes with an unusual combination of verve and sagacity. He asks us to remember our fallibility and irrationality, so that we might protect ourselves against our tendency to fool ourselves. I guess only advanced hindsight will one day tell us how successful we have been.

Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University and author of "Memory, Trauma, and History: Essays on Living With the Past."

Copyright 2012 Washington Post Writers Group var aid = 335;var v ="faRYDBGmVx168yo3%2f3rZpQ%3d%3d";var credomain = "adkengage.com";document.write(''); blog comments powered by

View the original article here

Books by or about all kinds of dads

To mark Father's Day Sunday, here are four new books that dads will love:

'Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge' by Etan Thomas, with Nick Chiles, is a perfect Father's Day book.

'Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge' by Etan Thomas, with Nick Chiles, is a perfect Father's Day book.

•Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge, edited by Etan Thomas with Nick Chiles (New American Library, $25.95). Thomas, a former NBA player who writes for the Huffington Post, collects essays on being a dad from Andre Agassi, Ice Cube, Michael Moore, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and other celebrities.

•A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver by Mark Shriver (Henry Holt, $24). A son pays tribute to his dad, founder of the Peace Corps and brother-in-law of President Kennedy. Sargent Shriver died in 2011, after struggling with Alzheimer's.

•Mum's List: A Mother's Life Lessons to the Husband and Sons She Left Behind by St. John Greene (Dutton, $25.95). A best-selling British memoir by a father of two about his wife, who died of cancer after creating a list of 100 things she wanted her family to know and do after she was gone.

•Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? Confessions of a Gay Dad by Dan Bucatinsky (Touchstone, $14.99, paperback original). An adoption memoir by an actor, writer and producer (HBO's The Comeback).

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

View the original article here

Book Buzz: New book has details about Obama.

By Jocelyn McClurg, USA TODAY

Dan's the man: What happens when a Brooklyn dad moves to the 'burbs? In time for Father's Day, USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer hitches a ride to Costco with funny guy Dan Zevin, author of Dan Gets a Minivan.

More Father's Day reads: Looking for a book for Dad to show you love him? USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer offers four more titles.

New Obama biography: David Maraniss of The Washington Post offers a revealing look at the president. Read Bob Minzesheimer's 3 ½ star review of Barack Obama: The Story.

USA TODAY Best Sellers: What's the buzz on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list this week? Oprah Winfrey scores with her revived book club as Cheryl Strayed's Wild climbs to No. 14, while Gillian Flynn scores her first USA TODAY best seller in style as Gone Girl debuts at No. 7. Tracey Garvis Graves, whose self-published On the Island sits at No. 26, gets a publishing deal.

Capote classics: There's nothing like a new design to goose interest in an older book. Entertainment Weekly spotlights Vintage's eye-catching new paperback jackets for seven Truman Capote titles, including In Cold Blood.

London talking: John Lanchester's sprawling new novel Capital is a modern-day portrait of London. Read his Q & A with The New York Times.

View the original article here

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD: What the Happiest People Know About Getting and Spending

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter ( Privacy Policy )

Washington Post book reviewers

Apr 27, 2012 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

Laura Vanderkam
Portfolio
ISBN 978-1591844570
248 pages
$26.95

Reviewed by Moira E. McLaughlin

Forget saving for college, cutting coupons, and even bulking up your 401k. Laura Vanderkam's newbook, "All the Money in the World" examines money from a unique perspective: What if money can buy happiness? "We often assume we can't afford X, Y or Z, or that only rich people experience certain things and we'll never be rich," she writes. "We assume certain expenditures are absolutely necessary, even though much of humanity survives without them. And so we live with a constrained mental picture of our lives."

Vanderkam's compelling book is not a lesson in greed or shallowness; rather, she asks you to consider ignoring what society says you ought to buy or own, and instead make choices according to your actual needs and desires. You like your morning latte? Buy it guilt-free knowing that you're forgoing that designer sweater. You want to head to Paraguay for two weeks with your family? Do it knowing that you picked up extra work to pay for it. You like donating your money? Find a fun cause that speaks directly to you.

Her main suggestion is to think creatively about your money, and therefore your life, and Vanderkam interviews dozens of people who are doing just that, from those who raise chickens in their backyards, to prospective parents contemplating the cost of children. The result is a book that will quell readers' anxieties about money and inspire them to stop seeing money's limitations and start seeing its potential, no matter what their tax bracket.

Moira E. McLaughlin can be reached at mclaughlinm@washpost.com.

Copyright 2012 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Email Print

Keywords:

var aid = 335;var v ="faRYDBGmVx168yo3%2f3rZpQ%3d%3d";var credomain = "adkengage.com";document.write(''); blog comments powered by

View the original article here

Here’s a good ‘One’ about James Brown

James Brown was never a big man, but even as a troubled young man growing up in abject poverty, he was larger than life. RJ Smith's The One: The Life and Music of James Brown crackles with the same intensity Brown used to overcome his destitute beginnings to become the Godfather of Soul, who could whip audiences into a sweat-drenched frenzy with his primal screams and electrifying dance moves.

PHOTOS: James Brown through the years

"He was pint-size, lacking a formidable build, but Brown compensated with a way of moving that gave off waves of energy," writes Smith, a music writer based in Los Angeles. "Even as a teenager, he was able to command attention just by skimming along. He communicated that he was not to be trifled with."

Brown, who was born in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, was the hardest-working man in show business (at his peak, he did more than 330 one-nighters a year), but he was also a hard man to work for and an even harder one to live with. He was a taskmaster who kept his bands in line with fines, firings and fists. He was also a possessive, abusive womanizer. He had a need to be in control and have things his way. That was reflected in his music, which defied conventions with its driving rhythms. It reshaped R&B in the 1960s and 1970s and had lasting influence beyond.

Smith's excellent biography draws upon more than 100 interviews with band members and studio musicians, ex-wives and girlfriends, business associates, record executives and his inner circle of friends to piece together the story of a musical genius who became a cultural icon and a lightning rod for controversy. He grounds the story in the context of the times through which Brown lived — segregation, the civil rights movement, the disco era — and illustrates how events and social conditions influenced the choices he made.

Through firsthand accounts by those who knew him, Smith digs out the truth behind the many legends surrounding Brown (the genesis of the cape act; the motivations by the famed Boston concert in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination; rivalries with other singers). Those stories also explain Brown's obsession with grooming (he had his hair done every morning and before and after shows) and how his need to be the center of attention affected everything he did. He once told protégé Al Sharpton: "Whatever you do, don't follow the crowd. You got to stand alone and have your own style, your own way of doing things."

In later years, Brown found doing things his way increasingly difficult. In the late '70s, disco slowed his momentum, and his artistic progeny attracted younger fans. Smith chronicles his decline with the same rich detail that he traces the glory years. Despite sporadic hits and renaissances fueled by such films as The Blues Brothers and Rocky IV, the former trendsetter was suddenly desperate to keep up. Tax troubles, a tumultuous marriage to Adrienne Rodriguez and an addiction to PCP took their toll, but Brown was still performing a month before he died at 73 on Christmas 2006.

View the original article here

'Mad Men' and women write real-life books about that era

It's been a mad, mad, mad, mad, maddeningly long wait for new episodes of AMC's Mad Men.

And as we count down to the premiere of Season 5 on March 25, fans of Don Draper, Roger Sterling and Peggy Olson can immerse themselves in Madison Avenue and the '60s lifestyle by dipping into a groaning cocktail cart of new books.

Among them: Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the '60s and Beyond (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.99), written by Jane Maas, dubbed the "real-life Peggy Olson" by Ad Age magazine.

Like the fictional Olson, Maas, 80, began working as a copywriter on Madison Avenue in the 1960s. Her memoir and her workplace recollections indicate "there's a lot of stuff Mad Men gets absolutely right," Maas tells USA TODAY, including:

The three-martini lunch. "Absolutely true, although women did not in fact go out for three-martini lunches as often as men did. Women tended to brown-bag it a lot more. It was more work ethic and calorie control."

The sex. "Part of it was because of all the drinking. If you happened upon someone in the stairwell kissing an account executive, and you knew both of them were married to other people, you just averted your eyes and walked on."

The fashion. "There were no pantyhose then — it hadn't been invented yet — so we had stockings with seams you had to keep checking on. We had little garter belts, and over that, we wore little panties and these bras that turned your breasts into javelins."

Real-life Don Drapers. "The creative director who sexually harassed me for two years and pursued me relentlessly was incredibly handsome, very dashing and he knew it. Like Don Draper, he considered himself a great Lothario."

For a more straightforward history, there's The Real Mad Men: The Renegades of Madison Avenue and the Golden Age of Advertising (Running Press, $28) by British adman Andrew Cracknell, who says Mad Men is "spot on."

"I've viewed some episodes of Mad Men three times, and believe me, that's not a chore. It's extraordinarily good, and I think, from all the research I did, it's pretty accurate."

From the cocktail cart

If your interest is purely gustatory:

•How to Drink Like a Mad Man by Ralph Maloney (Dover, $9.95, April 19). Retitled reprint of the 1962 humor book The 24-Hour Drink Book: A Guide to Executive Survival.

•The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook: More Than 100 Retro Recipes for the Modern Cook by Rick Rodgers and Heather Maclean (Running Press, $20, April 24). Betty Draper would approve of recipes for Waldorf Salad and Onion Dip.

•The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook: Inside the Kitchens, Bars, and Restaurants of Mad Men by Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin (Smart Pop Books, $16.95). Prepare Oysters Rockefeller and a martini good enough for Roger Sterling.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

View the original article here

THREE BOOKS ABOUT DOWNTON ABBEY

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter ( Privacy Policy )

Washington Post book reviewers

Feb 17, 2012 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

NA
NA
ISBN NA
NA pages
$NA

Reviewed by Kathy Blumenstock

With its elegantly appointed rooms and bustling domestic staff, "Downton Abbey" is destination TV for millions. The second season of PBS' Emmy-winning hit wraps up Sunday, but you can prolong your visit to the era with these books.

1. "The World of Downton Abbey," by Jessica Fellowes (St. Martin's, $29.99), is hefty and lush with color photos and production details. It includes a foreword by series creator Julian Fellowes, the author's uncle. Divided into sections such as "Society," "War" and "House and Estate," it introduces the real-life location, Highclere Castle, a massive, turreted house on 1,000 acres, and the people who live and serve in the magnificent home. Actors reflect on portraying the Grantham and Crawley family members, friends and servants, and the pages are peppered with behind-the-scenes tidbits: Wigs worn by Maggie Smith are prepared in advance so she can slide them on like hats; at the end of a day's shooting, according to Lesley Nicol (Mrs. Patmore), the actresses bend over the kitchen table to relieve their corsets. Dialogue coach Penny Dyer observes that "the real difference in speech with a period piece is not so much the pronunciation of the words but that the height of the ceilings and the size of the rooms affect the voice."This is a book to dip into, not devour, to savor the richness that matches its televised companion.

2. Working in less posh environments than the staff at Downton, the late Margaret Powell wrote "Below Stairs"(St. Martin's, $22.99), which depicts the hardscrabble reality of a career in domestic service - if such labor can even be described as a "career." Just reading about it is exhausting. Powell's recollections of employers who failed to see their "help" as human seem bitter, but who could blame her? Although she won a scholarship at 13, hoping to become a teacher, when her large family needed her to work, she became a maid, ironing bootlaces, cleaning staircases and cooking for the likes of Mrs. Clydesdale and Lady Gibbons. Her husband, a milkman, earned "three pounds five shillings a week ... so the ability to cook a seven-course dinner was no help at all." First published in 1968, Powell's memoir inspired the TV series "Upstairs, Downstairs." The popularity of "Downton Abbey" has sparked new interest in the book, which was recently re-edited.

3. Who could know the ins and outs of Highclere Castle better than its current resident? Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the present countess, traces the story of the home and her predecessor in "Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey" (Broadway; paperback, $15.99). An heiress even before her marriage to the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, Almina, illegitimate daughter of banker Alfred de Rothschild, is recognizable to "Downton" fans as the model for Isobel Crawley. Not content to bask in extraordinary wealth, she found outlets for her energy, including politics, "relishing this chance to get out into the world and talk about something of national importance, rather than being merely the public face of Highclere." But Almina's greatest satisfaction came from transforming the castle into a convalescent hospital for wounded British soldiers, as dramatized in the TV series. Almina micromanaged everything, even commissioning chic nurse's uniforms: "Their dresses were made of fine wool in a cheerful crushed-strawberry-pink, with starched white aprons and caps. This detail set the tone: Highclere would be a cutting-edge hospital, but also a sensual retreat from the horrors of combat. Almina proved herself to be an instinctive master of what we might call, nowadays, holistic medicine." The author includes an update on the Highclere estate today, still home to a very fortunate few.

Kathy Blumenstock is a Washington area writer and editor.

Copyright 2012 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Email Print

Keywords:

var aid = 335;var v ="faRYDBGmVx168yo3%2f3rZpQ%3d%3d";var credomain = "adkengage.com";document.write(''); blog comments powered by

View the original article here

THE MAGIC ROOM: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter ( Privacy Policy )

Washington Post book reviewers

Jan 6, 2012 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

Jeffrey Zaslow
Gotham
ISBN 978-1592406616
285 pages
$27

Reviewed by Ellen McCarthy

Or whatever. We don't really give a fig about that part.

In a wedding-obsessed society fueled by an industry constantly churning out new, expensive ways for couples to outdo their friends and make theirs the best big day(s) ever, the dress has assumed the position of a crown jewel. We don't have many debutante balls anymore, so this is it - a woman's a chance to show the world how stylish/pretty/thin she really is. As a bridal magazine executive recently told me, "It's her one red carpet moment in life."

These are the glittery waters Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow chose to wade into for his new book, "The Magic Room." Zaslow has also written "The Girls From Ames," which tracked the lives of 11 women whose deep friendships started in girlhood, and he co-authored Randy Pausch's best-selling memoir, "The Last Lecture," as well as Gabrielle Gifford and Mark Kelly's book, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope." Zaslow tends to be uplifting and lesson-bearing. So in an attempt to capture what modern romantic relationships look like and "how all of us can best show love to our daughters," he hit upon the idea of focusing on the bridal gown and the significance it carries in our private lives and cultural landscape.

Zaslow, who has three daughters of his own, zeroed in on Becker's Bridal, a salon in small town Michigan that's been run by three generations of Becker women since 1934. For some Midwest women, it's become a family tradition to buy their wedding dress at Becker's, taking their favorites into the mirror-lined "magic room" for final judgment.

As a wedding reporter, I sometimes worry that women are so eager for a wedding - and in particular, a wedding dress - that everything else becomes ancillary. Including the choice of groom. Even in a prolonged economic slump, brides (or their parents) are coughing up ever more money for the gown. A report by Brides magazine found that the average wedding dress cost $1,289 in 2010, up 20 percent from the previous year. Zaslow noticed the same heightened emphasis on gowns and wrote that he "wanted to understand the women wearing them, their fears and yearnings."

But in the next sentence, he explains that he'll turn a blind eye to this less-than-wholesome trend. "I resolved to pay less attention to brides I met whose motives seemed somewhat frivolous," he writes. "I wanted to find brides and their families whose paths here were not necessarily easy, but who have given great thought to the love that guides and connects them."

The result is a book divided between the story of the Becker women and glimpses into the lives of their customers. Some of the brides are widowed. Others are virgins, saving themselves for marriage. He profiles women who've been through car accidents, who've waited 40 years to find the right guy, and who lost parents during adolescence. The tales are sentimental, but we're not with any of brides long enough to develop an emotional attachment.

Zaslow delves deeper with the Becker women, introducing us to Grandma Eva, a tough cookie born in the early 1900s who ruled the store with an iron fist and didn't bother showing much love to her own babies. Her daughter-in-law Sharon took over the shop with her husband, Clark, and eventually turned the reigns over to Shelly Becker Mueller, who now runs the store and employs her own daughter, Alyssa. The store has been both a boon and a burden to the Beckers, as is true of almost any family business. Feelings get hurt, bottom lines are all-consuming, and no one shifts easily between "mom" and "boss."

Zaslow builds tension around the progression of Shelly's marriage. She wore a $3,000 gown with a cathedral-length train and billowing sleeves to her 1984 wedding, but it didn't stave off the feeling that she wasn't quite ready to get married. Her husband's alcoholism plagued the family for years until they divorced. And the relationships that followed weren't much better. "I'm always finding people who need to be healed first," Shelly admits. "Or who need me to love them but aren't great at giving love in return. What the heck is that all about?"

It's a good question and one I wish Zaslow had explored further instead of moving on to the next "happy ending." Which, of course, is a total misnomer. By the last page, Zaslow has married off all his brides, as I do each week in my wedding stories, but we both know that the hardest, most interesting, rewarding and heartbreaking stuff is yet to come. And it won't happen in a dress or a crowd, or on a red carpet.

One of the book's most redeeming moments comes as almost a side note. It's after-hours at Becker's, and Alyssa, who is 24 and a salesperson at her mom's shop, has decided to try on a dress. Her on-again-off-again boyfriend Cory, who helps with the bookkeeping, sees her and reminds himself he's not ready. "I'm not prepared yet to get married," he tells Zaslow. "Even though Alyssa and I have been together a while, we're still learning about each other." Friends and relatives have been pressuring him to pop the question, but he wants to wait until he's financially stable and has established his career - until, he says, "everything feels right."

Stay strong, Cory. Good marriages are not made of satin and lace.

Ellen McCarthy can be reached at mccarthye(at)washpost.com.

Copyright 2012 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Email Print

Keywords:

blog comments powered by

View the original article here

Review-a-Day for Mon, Sep 26: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human

Review-a-Day for Mon, Sep 26: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human

THREE BOOKS ABOUT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter ( Privacy Policy )

Washington Post book reviewers

Sep 2, 2011 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

ISBN NA)

Reviewed by Christopher Sten (Univ. of Georgia, $29.95). The scope of this hefty primer (it comes close to 500 pages) is astonishing, with nearly 80 writers contributing poetry, novels, essays, memoirs and journalism. Christopher Sten, a professor of English at George Washington University, begins the survey with the capital's founding in 1800 and pinpoints the dichotomy of Washington writing -- authors focus either on the business of politics or on the everyday lives of city residents. Early Washington writers tended to be visitors and tourists (Alexis de Tocqueville, Frances Trollope, Henry James) recording their experiences while others came on missions of journalism or advocacy (John Greenleaf Whittier, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McCarthy, Frederick Douglass). The rabble-rousing Washington novel is well represented as is all the political brouhaha (think abolitionism, Vietnam and Watergate) that makes its way into fiction and reportage. Special attention is given to the historically rich African-American literary community (Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jean Toomer, Sterling A. Brown) as well as the contemporary coterie of writers (Susan Richards Shreve, Edward P. Jones, Marita Golden, Thomas Mallon and George Pelecanos) whose attention is fixed on the personal more than the political.

3. "Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation's Capital," edited by Kathryn Schneider Smith (Johns Hopkins Univ., $45). Kathryn Schneider Smith, the founding executive director of Cultural Tourism DC and a past president of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., has updated her original 1988 survey, adding six neighborhoods to this elegant guide to the District's lively and historic sectors. In many ways, it's a new book, as the text has been updated (by the original authors, where possible), fresh photographs enliven the pages, and reference notes have been added for easier navigation. D.C. straddles many lines -- North-South, federal city-hometown, wealthy-poor, black-white -- which makes it confusing for outsiders to grasp. One of this book's goals was to unmask those areas beyond the tourist sites and, in the gentlest way possible, flaunt the fascinating neighborhoods and uncommon people who live here. Though this book published last year, it's a timeless resource for D.C. and history buffs alike.

Christopher Schoppa can be reached at schoppac(at symbol)washpost.com.

Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Print

Keywords:

blog comments powered by

View the original article here

HAVANA REAL: One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth About Cuba Today

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter ( Privacy Policy )

Washington Post book reviewers

Jun 24, 2011 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

Yoani Sanchez
Translated from the Spanish by M
ISBN 978-1935554257
240 pages
$16.95

Reviewed by Mary Speck

No revolution has cultivated the image of manly, youthful rebellion longer and more successfully than Cuba's. The iconic image of Cuban communism remains the famous photo of a young Che Guevara, beret stuck atop a head of unruly hair, gaze fixed unflinchingly on the horizon. Even as Cuban leaders slip into senescence, they market their 50-year-old regime as a heroic David-vs.-Goliath story of resistance to U.S. power.

So it is fitting that the Cuban Revolution's best-known dissident is the anti-Che in almost every respect: a slender, bookish woman who writes "Generation Y," an intensely personal blog that eschews exhortations and absolute truths. Yoani Sanchez has gained an international following by chronicling the lives of those taught as school children to chant "we will be like Che" only to see their existence reduced to working at dead-end jobs, standing in line at half-empty state stores or hustling for enough cash to shop at convertible-currency-only supermarkets.

The contrast between the exalted rhetoric of Cuban communism and the realities of life in Havana has created "new men" (and women), but not in the way envisioned by the bearded guerrillas who came to power in 1959. "Our autocracy produced unexpected results, far from fanaticism or veneration," Sanchez writes in a new collection of her work, "Havana Real." "Instead of stern-faced soldiers, it bred apathy, indifference, people who concealed their true selves, rafters, infidels, and young people fascinated by material goods." The Cubans who populate these blog posts, written from 2007 to 2010, hold out little hope for top-down economic change, having learned the hard way that reform will be followed by the "dreaded rectification." Instead they plot escape plans, leaving those who stay behind, like Sanchez, in the "sad position of having to remake my group of friends."

Only when Sanchez writes of the blogosphere does her tone shift from melancholy to guarded optimism. "The Internet will not be a crumb that falls from above, a privilege earned by good conduct," she says. "It is slow but it will reach nearly all Cubans."

How many Cubans on the island are able to read Sanchez's blog? It is hard to say, though even those without access to the Web may receive this virtual samizdat in email messages, phone calls or surreptitiously distributed printed copies. What is read in Miami or Mexico City or Madrid eventually finds its way back to the island, along with the hundreds of millions of dollars sent there each month by relatives and friends abroad.

"I avoid using words such as 'eternal,' 'always' and 'never,'" Sanchez writes. "The definitive scares me and the everlasting stinks." Instead she celebrates the evanescent truths of daily existence. With her vivid portraits of family and friends, including Cuba's determined dissidents, Yoani Sanchez dissolves the abstractions used to fuse individuals into generic masses. Little wonder that state media have labeled her and her friends "cyber commandos."

Mary Speck is writing a book on pre-revolutionary Cuba.

Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Print

Keywords:

blog comments powered by

View the original article here

THE JUDGES OF THE SECRET COURT: A Novel About John Wilkes Booth

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter

Washington Post book reviewers

Jun 22, 2011 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

David Stacton
New York Review
ISBN 978-1590174524
255 pages
$15.95

Reviewed by Michael Dirda, who reviews books for The Washington Post every Thursday. Visit his book discussion at washingtonpost.com/readingroom.

For years I've been hearing about David Stacton (1923-1968). Dead at the age of 44, the author of historical novels set in ancient Egypt, Napoleonic Europe, Japan and pre-Columbian America, Stacton was chosen in 1963 by Time magazine as one of the finest young novelists in America. Others among the anointed few included John Updike, Joseph Heller, Ralph Ellison and Philip Roth.

These days Stacton's name frequently appears near the top of another list -- that of 20th- century American writers deserving rediscovery. Happily, New York Review Books has taken the hint and issued a handsome paperback edition of one of Stacton's finest works, "The Judges of the Secret Court" (1961). You'll recognize the book by its striking cover -- the close-up of a gun barrel, pointed directly at the reader.

Far more than just "a novel about John Wilkes Booth," "The Judges of the Secret Court" -- haunting title -- depicts the complex aftershock of the Lincoln assassination on a surprisingly large circle of people, including the various conspirators, the famous Booth family of actors and the Washington politicos who seize on the death of the president for their own purposes. Every one of these characters, even if he or she only appears for a paragraph or two, is conveyed with vivid, blazing life. For instance, Stacton sums up the care-worn Lincoln: "He was wistfully a little tired of doing his best to be the world's father, when what he wanted, sometimes, was someone to bring him a shawl when he was cold."

What most surprises about this "historical" novel is its urbane, mildly epigrammatic style. Stacton is never florid or old-fashioned. He writes with lean economy and speed, with what John Crowley in his superb introduction calls a "gripping cold attentiveness. "Even though most readers will know the general outlines of the events, Stacton keeps up the dramatic tension throughout: Will Booth manage to get away? Will the innocent, as well as the guilty, be hanged by a vengeful government?

Wilkes himself is depicted as a self-centered, spoiled mama's boy, half dandy, half rake, an actor who looks upon his life as one constant performance. He has a theatrical hunger for fame, and no ethics, only manners. On the afternoon before the assassination, Booth briefly calls to mind his fiancee, Bessie Hale, the daughter of an ex-senator:

"Thinking of her, he made that little gesture, his favourite, which was habitual with him, a quick tugging at the handkerchief in his breast pocket, with head modestly downcast, like that of a white cockatoo preening itself. It went so perfectly with the single syllable 'm'dear,' which only actors seem able to pronounce. That syllable came out so naturally after some young miss had played the piano or paid a compliment: 'M'dear, you have lovely shoulders: you play so well.' 'M'dear, you flatter me.' He had been photographed making that gesture. It was his favourite photograph."

Particularly proud of his crisp tailoring, this jumped-up Southern gentleman regularly studies the shiny leather of his boots, twirls the rowel of his spur. This vanity -- a kind of hubris -- neatly enough leads to his downfall: When the escaping Booth leaps to the stage from the presidential box, a spur catches in an overhanging flag, such that he lands awkwardly and breaks his leg.

While most novelists might focus on the events leading up to the assassination, Stacton begins on the day itself and moves Booth and Lincoln to their destiny with crisp, clocklike efficiency. As the actor enters Ford's Theatre, he asks a local drunk to hold his horse, then assumes the noble air that his role demands:

"It had impressed him, walking down the stage box corridor, that the walk to the scaffold is much the same as the criminal's march to the crime. It has the same inevitable pace. Yet the corridor was empty and he was no criminal. He was the hero, girding himself for an heroic act. He could only deplore that the setting was so shoddy. Still, he could see the damnable villain's back.

"Opening the door, he stepped inside, took out his deringer, cocked it, and shot the President. The time was 10:15."

End of Chapter Five.

After the quick buildup to the murder, Stacton immediately slows the pace. He details the shock of the audience and the cast of "Our American Cousin"; zeroes in on the doctors and hangers-on around the dying Lincoln; and finally reveals the impact of the assassination on the world. Newspapers typically given to denouncing the president tear up their pages to run "laudations and long descriptions of the nation's grief."

At this point we meet the true villain of the novel, not the self-deluding popinjay Booth, but the cruel and power-hungry secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton. While Lincoln is pronounced "the last of the old men," Stanton is distinctly "one of the new men," who "want nothing for themselves but the prerogatives of their office." The secretary of war is, in fact, that familiar 20th- century type, a proto-Stalin:

"He proposed to arrest everyone in sight. It was his usual method, for he had come to believe that all the world was guilty of something. It was merely necessary to discover of what, and that could be proven better in the Old Capitol Prison than in court."

In the last quarter of the novel, Stacton reveals Stanton's self-aggrandizing policy in action as the supposed conspirators face a farcical monkey trial. None of the Washington insiders, including Vice President Andrew Johnson, comes across as much more than a venal opportunist or half-drunk poltroon.

At one point a Miss Holloway tells Booth, "Patriotism isn't the same as loyalty." Throughout "The Judges of the Secret Court," people are faced with difficult, often conflicting loyalties -- to family, to friends, to the lost cause of the South, to various ideals, noble and ignoble. Wilkes' admirably responsible older brother Edwin nearly breaks down from his sense of oppressive family responsibility and guilt. In the end, though, Edwin turns his pain inward to create in his signature role a suffering Hamlet constantly tormented by the unexpected murder of a noble king. Edwin Booth became 19th-century America's greatest actor.

"The Judges of the Secret Court" isn't just a novel about John Wilkes Booth; it is a vision of what life and the world do to us. No one, writes Stacton, ever sees the invisible, draconian judges of his title. "But they are there: the whole world is a courtroom, every life is a trial," and, though we plead, plead, plead, in the end we are all found guilty -- if only of being ourselves.

Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Print

Keywords:

blog comments powered by

View the original article here

Barbara Sinatra tells about her life with Frank

Bio of the singer, his Mafia and political ties, four marriages, temper and generosity .

Barbara Sinatra was her famous husband's fourth wife. Also his last. He died in her arms in 1998. They had been married 22 years.

It wasn't always pretty, although she says she was the "luckiest woman in the world" to be his wife.

Sinatra's widow, 84, is now telling what it was like living with Ol' Blue Eyes in her aptly titled memoir Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank.

If you're interested in celebrity marriages, this memoir is the predictable dip into such shallow waters. If you're not, you can at least pass the time counting the names dropped. There are thousands.

Model, Vegas showgirl, wife of Zeppo Marx, Barbara had been out and about before she met Sinatra. He quickly won her over, but their long-term affair before their marriage did not please Sinatra's feisty mother, Dolly, who asked him, "Aren't there enough whores around?"

He was attentive, polite, but best of all he had a good eye "for stone," she writes. Meaning he could pick out amazing jewelry, including a famous Cartier necklace. And then there were the flights to Paris for dinner, the expensive cars, the suites in world-class hotels around the world. She calls it all "some candy jar."

There was a price to pay for all this, however. Sinatra could be a bully, screaming at Washington Post society columnist Maxine Cheshire and pushing a man into a phone booth, punching him before sliding the door shut.

She admits he was "definitely a Jekyll and Hyde" personality, recounting numerous evenings when he was overdrinking with his buddies, making scenes from New York to Hong Kong, ripping phones from the wall and throwing them into windows.

He also wasn't the most romantic. She had to accept that fact when a prenup was delivered to her on the morning of their wedding. She signed it.

Did he ever cheat? All she'll say is that she took Palm Springs neighbor Lee Annenberg's advice: Look the other way.

As for his connections to the Mob, she only says he got frustrated with the press for always alleging it. The press was not his favorite.

If you're a Sinatra fan, you'll learn he loved grilled cheese sandwiches, unfiltered Camels and Jack Daniels, but hated women who wore too much perfume. He also hated women who couldn't hold their liquor.

Barbara Sinatra could.

View the original article here

Joseph Nye picks 5 books about power

1.The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria (2008). Zakaria looks at whether the United States is in decline, and decides that the problem with the term “decline” is that, if it means absolute decline, as with ancient Rome, then it’s not a very good description. What the United States faces is not absolute decline but relative decline, in that the gap between the Unites States and other countries is diminishing with the rise of China, India, Brazil and others. Zakaria chose a happy term that is better than relative decline — “the rise of the rest.”

2.History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides (fifth century B.C.).Thucydides points out that sometimes people are worried not just about absolute gains but about relative gains. That is, we’re all getting better off, but if you’re getting a lot better off than I am, then you’re going to be able to exercise power over me, and I begin to develop anxieties. So when Thucydides is trying to account for the Peloponnesian War, an extraordinary war in the fifth century B.C. in which the Greek city-state system tore itself apart, he says the basic cause was the rise in power of Athens and the fear that this created in Sparta. He points out that this kind of fear, along with a belief that war is inevitable, can itself become a cause of war.

3.Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade, by Bill Emmott (2008). As we look at the rise of China, we have to ask whether China will present the kind of challenge to the United States that Athens did to Sparta. But Emmott argues that if you look more carefully, you see that Asia has its own internal balance of power. As China’s power grows, the Japanese, Indians — not to mention the Vietnamese, South Koreans and so on — become worried and ask themselves, how can we balance that power? That makes them actually welcome America’s presence.

4.Power: A Radical View, by Steven Lukes (1974). This book on radical views of power follows a tradition of people writing that power was the ability to get others to do what they otherwise wouldn’t do. Lukes said, wait a minute, if I can set the agenda so that your items don’t even arise for us to discuss, then I don’t have to twist your arm. What’s more, if I can establish your preferences, then I don’t have to coerce you to get you to do what I want. What Lukes did was to identify three faces of power: coercion and payments (or sticks and carrots); setting the agenda so that your issues don’t come up; and shaping your preferences so that you want what I want and I don’t have to spend anything on carrots and sticks.

5.Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, by Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake (2010). When you look at the enormous opportunities that the Internet has presented — economic efficiency, great communication — we generally think of the positive side. But Clarke and Knake point out that, as we open these opportunities, we also make ourselves vulnerable to their disruption. For example, you may have the capacity to do damage in the physical world just by sending electrons across a border. If there were suddenly a loss of electricity, water supply or transportation in the United States, we wouldn’t know who did it, a government or an individual. “Cyber War” is a useful introduction to the increasing availability of power to non-state actors.

View the original article here

THREE BOOKS ABOUT BASEBALL GREATS

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter

Washington Post book reviewers

May 20, 2011 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

NA
NA
ISBN NA
NA pages
$NA

Reviewed by Steven V. Roberts

"At his core," writes Mark Kurlansky, "he was just the son of immigrants trying to move beyond their world and achieve a prosperous American life." The author is describing Hank Greenberg, the slugging first baseman for the Detroit Tigers, whose Jewish parents fled Romania and raised their children in the South Bronx. But Kurlansky could have been writing about Joe DiMaggio, the legendary centerfielder for the New York Yankees, whose father came from Sicily at age 26, fished the waters of San Francisco Bay and spoke broken English with a heavy accent.

The two men were born three years apart (Greenberg in 1911, DiMaggio in 1914), and their careers overlapped from the mid-1930s to the late '40s. The Jew and the Italian both used baseball to leave their immigrant families and languages and neighborhoods behind and craft new identities as full-fledged Americans. Hank (born Hyman) and Joe (named for his father, Giuseppe) lived the oldest of American stories, seeking a new frontier where they could reinvent themselves. A diamond was their prairie, a bat their sodbuster. Once asked why he played baseball, Greenberg replied: "Escape."

These three books vary widely. In "Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One" (Yale Univ., $25), Kurlansky focuses on his subject's ethnic identity and role in the Jewish community. For my money, it's the best of the lot because it kept surprising me. I did not know, for example, about all the Jews named Cohen who played in the majors under pseudonyms like Cooney and Corey. Novelist and cultural critic Jerome Charyn is entranced by DiMaggio's failure to hit the curveballs thrown by his second wife, the former Norma Jeane Mortensen (another reinvented American, who took the name Marilyn Monroe). "Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil" (Yale Univ., $24) is often a lazy book, relying more on literary flourishes than revealing research. In "56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports" (Sports Illustrated, $26.95), Kostya Kennedy examines in great detail Joltin' Joe's 56-game hitting streak in 1941, perhaps the most remarkable record in all of sports. A good tale, but Kennedy has one habit that drives me crazy: He professes to know -- repeatedly -- what characters "thought" or "felt" 75 years ago. I think he's making it up. And if he were in my class in journalistic ethics, I'd fail him.

Still, I enjoyed these stories. On a personal level, the two ballplayers were quite different. Greenberg was a mensch, a gregarious fellow with the charm and confidence to "mingle with the upper crust of Gentiles and Jews." DiMaggio was a frigid figure, a "living ghost" totally lacking in social skills. Hank once said of Joe, "If he said hello to you that was a long conversation."

But the two of them, Hymie and Giuseppe, shared the same journey. Both disappointed their hard-working parents by turning to a frivolous pursuit, whacking a horsehide ball with a wooden bat.

Both had to battle the nativism that periodically tests our tradition of tolerance. Playing in the home city of Henry Ford and Father Charles Coughlin, "the two most notorious and virulent anti-Semites in America," Greenberg usually ignored the taunts that came with the game. But one day, as he ran to first base, a player on the White Sox bench called him a "big yellow Jew bastard." After the game he stormed into the Sox clubhouse and demanded to know who had issued the insult. Greenberg was a Jew and a gentleman. He was also very large and very tough. No one said a word. Greenberg turned and left. DiMaggio lived with similar slurs. His nickname was "Dago" or simply "Daig," and Italian stereotypes were so pervasive in 1941 that a Life magazine profile said of Joe, "Instead of olive oil or smelly grease, he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti."

Prejudice eventually gave way to performance. The surging wave of ambitious newcomers was reshaping American life -- as players on the field and customers in the stands. With so many Italians in the New York area, the Yankees played up DiMaggio. But there were even more Jews than Italians in New York, and on slow days "the newspapers occasionally floated, even advocated, the potential benefits of a DiMaggio-for-Greenberg trade."

In choosing partners, as well as professions, both men displayed a lifelong determination to defy "confining tribalism." Before Marilyn Monroe, DiMaggio briefly married Dorothy Olsen, a blonde Protestant from Minnesota who used Dorothy Arnold as a stage name. Greenberg's first wife was Caral Gimbel, heiress to a great department-store fortune, an assimilated German Jew who loved horses and slept late and could never adjust to her husband's immigrant work ethic. In the end, Hammerin' Hank and Joltin' Joe posted higher averages on the field than at the altar. These three marriages ended in divorce. Tribalism is not so easy to escape after all.

Steven Roberts teaches journalism and politics at George Washington University. His latest book, "Our Haggadah," written with his wife, Cokie Roberts, came out this spring.

Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Print

Keywords:

You are not logged in: Login | Register

View the original article here

THREE BOOKS ABOUT BASEBALL GREATS

Subscribe to Washington Post Book Reviews newsletter

Washington Post book reviewers

May 20, 2011 ARCHIVES  |  Entertainment  |  COLUMNS

NA
NA
ISBN NA
NA pages
$NA

Reviewed by Steven V. Roberts

"At his core," writes Mark Kurlansky, "he was just the son of immigrants trying to move beyond their world and achieve a prosperous American life." The author is describing Hank Greenberg, the slugging first baseman for the Detroit Tigers, whose Jewish parents fled Romania and raised their children in the South Bronx. But Kurlansky could have been writing about Joe DiMaggio, the legendary centerfielder for the New York Yankees, whose father came from Sicily at age 26, fished the waters of San Francisco Bay and spoke broken English with a heavy accent.

The two men were born three years apart (Greenberg in 1911, DiMaggio in 1914), and their careers overlapped from the mid-1930s to the late '40s. The Jew and the Italian both used baseball to leave their immigrant families and languages and neighborhoods behind and craft new identities as full-fledged Americans. Hank (born Hyman) and Joe (named for his father, Giuseppe) lived the oldest of American stories, seeking a new frontier where they could reinvent themselves. A diamond was their prairie, a bat their sodbuster. Once asked why he played baseball, Greenberg replied: "Escape."

These three books vary widely. In "Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One" (Yale Univ., $25), Kurlansky focuses on his subject's ethnic identity and role in the Jewish community. For my money, it's the best of the lot because it kept surprising me. I did not know, for example, about all the Jews named Cohen who played in the majors under pseudonyms like Cooney and Corey. Novelist and cultural critic Jerome Charyn is entranced by DiMaggio's failure to hit the curveballs thrown by his second wife, the former Norma Jeane Mortensen (another reinvented American, who took the name Marilyn Monroe). "Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil" (Yale Univ., $24) is often a lazy book, relying more on literary flourishes than revealing research. In "56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports" (Sports Illustrated, $26.95), Kostya Kennedy examines in great detail Joltin' Joe's 56-game hitting streak in 1941, perhaps the most remarkable record in all of sports. A good tale, but Kennedy has one habit that drives me crazy: He professes to know -- repeatedly -- what characters "thought" or "felt" 75 years ago. I think he's making it up. And if he were in my class in journalistic ethics, I'd fail him.

Still, I enjoyed these stories. On a personal level, the two ballplayers were quite different. Greenberg was a mensch, a gregarious fellow with the charm and confidence to "mingle with the upper crust of Gentiles and Jews." DiMaggio was a frigid figure, a "living ghost" totally lacking in social skills. Hank once said of Joe, "If he said hello to you that was a long conversation."

But the two of them, Hymie and Giuseppe, shared the same journey. Both disappointed their hard-working parents by turning to a frivolous pursuit, whacking a horsehide ball with a wooden bat.

Both had to battle the nativism that periodically tests our tradition of tolerance. Playing in the home city of Henry Ford and Father Charles Coughlin, "the two most notorious and virulent anti-Semites in America," Greenberg usually ignored the taunts that came with the game. But one day, as he ran to first base, a player on the White Sox bench called him a "big yellow Jew bastard." After the game he stormed into the Sox clubhouse and demanded to know who had issued the insult. Greenberg was a Jew and a gentleman. He was also very large and very tough. No one said a word. Greenberg turned and left. DiMaggio lived with similar slurs. His nickname was "Dago" or simply "Daig," and Italian stereotypes were so pervasive in 1941 that a Life magazine profile said of Joe, "Instead of olive oil or smelly grease, he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti."

Prejudice eventually gave way to performance. The surging wave of ambitious newcomers was reshaping American life -- as players on the field and customers in the stands. With so many Italians in the New York area, the Yankees played up DiMaggio. But there were even more Jews than Italians in New York, and on slow days "the newspapers occasionally floated, even advocated, the potential benefits of a DiMaggio-for-Greenberg trade."

In choosing partners, as well as professions, both men displayed a lifelong determination to defy "confining tribalism." Before Marilyn Monroe, DiMaggio briefly married Dorothy Olsen, a blonde Protestant from Minnesota who used Dorothy Arnold as a stage name. Greenberg's first wife was Caral Gimbel, heiress to a great department-store fortune, an assimilated German Jew who loved horses and slept late and could never adjust to her husband's immigrant work ethic. In the end, Hammerin' Hank and Joltin' Joe posted higher averages on the field than at the altar. These three marriages ended in divorce. Tribalism is not so easy to escape after all.

Steven Roberts teaches journalism and politics at George Washington University. His latest book, "Our Haggadah," written with his wife, Cokie Roberts, came out this spring.

Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Print

Keywords:

You are not logged in: Login | Register

View the original article here