Entries in Book Review (290)

Sunday

07Feb2010

FirstLook: Fifty-Nine In '84 By Edward Achorn (HarperCollins/2010)

Feb 7, 2010

Review By James R. Holland

More Exciting Than Watching the Super Bowl

In the year 1884 a Providence, Rhode Island pitcher named “Old Hoss Radbourn” won 59 National League games with an l.38 ERA. That feat will probably never be equaled? Incredibly this reviewer could not put this page-turner down even while watching the Super Bowl on television. Even the goal line stand of the Colts on their one yard line wasn’t as exciting as the drama of Old Hoss Radbourn and his Providence Grays battling it out in Boston’s South End Grounds against the Boston Red Stockings in that most famous ball park of the time, for the lead in the 1884 National League pennant race. In addition to capturing the excitement and brutality of baseball during that era, the book is full of baseball trivia. For instance, that fabled ballpark was located under what is now the Ruggles MBTA Station.

For the modern baseball fans, (that word is the nickname of fanatics according to this tome), this book is brimming over with fascinating baseball history. This is the era when pitchers often pitched every game without relief and the catcher’s mitt and body padding hadn’t yet been invented. The catchers caught the ball with their almost bare hands wearing only some leather gloves with the finger coverings cut away.

Catching pitches without a mitt was murder on the player’s hands and fingers, which were often a bloody mess after only a few innings. “To reduce the threat of serious injury, catchers at times backed up ten feet behind home plate, and gingerly caught the pitch on a bounce. That didn’t work when there were runners on base “or when there were two strikes in the count, since the rules required them to catch the third strike on the fly to register an out.” To achieve that, they had to bend over in exactly the same spot as current catchers. And they weren’t crouched down, but standing up and bent over at the waist with their hands cupped in front of their groin area. There were no chest protectors or other padding in those days. The book doesn’t mention whether they had padding over their private parts. If not, it’s unlikely many catchers missed catching the ball thrown toward that area?

The professional baseball players of this time were tough as tough can be. They were also colorful. “Old Hoss Radbourn” was the son of a butcher from Illinois. His 130-pound catcher was a poor Irishman from Boston. The players weren’t rich or pampered and they had to work hard and risk their health in order to get paid what would now be considered a pittance. Radbourn for instance also made his contribution to the history of photography. In the book’s cover picture, which like most of the pictures of the players mentioned in the book was reproduced from old baseball cards, shows Old Hoss with a sparkle in his eye casually and subtly giving the camera the bird. He’d become the first photographic subject in history to achieve that feat shortly before when he slyly added the same gesture in the team picture.

This reviewer loves both Boston and Providence so this book interested me for the wonderful pictures that the author painted of both Boston and Providence in the mid-1800s. Both those cities have enjoyed excellent historical architectural preservation and many of the places so colorfully portrayed in the 1800s still exist. The descriptions of the booming Industrial Revolution and the volcano-like chimneys polluting the air with sooty clouds of coal dust seem almost unimaginable today. The descriptions of the general public and their lifestyles were particularly well told. More than once this reviewer had to Google several subjects to double-check some of the material in the book even though the book has an excellent section of notes and sources as well as game-by-game stats.

The author’s love for both baseball and for Providence (Edward Achorn is an editor at the Providence Journal) is obvious from the passion of his writing. As a member of Red Sox Nation even I found myself rooting for the Grays over the Beaneaters in the titanic struggles between these early professional baseball players.

Old Hoss had a life-long love for “Carrie Stanhope, the proprietress of a boarding house with shady overtones, a woman who was said to personally know every man in the National League,” along with almost every actor who performed in Providence. The book points out that while the Plantation of Rhode Island was part of Puritanical New England, it was not only over-whelming Republican, but it was also the “Wild West” of New England. Every train stopped in Providence and most passengers interested in a little fun arranged to spend a few hours there between trains. The longest train station in the world was located within easy walking distance of the sprawling adult entertainment districts of Providence. There were plenty of full time and part time street walkers (thanks largely to the fact female shop workers weren’t paid enough to live on), bawdy houses, taverns and gambling dens all guarded by the underpaid local police who were grateful to provide protection in exchange for cash and/ or services.

This book will enthrall baseball fans that may or may not be familiar with the exciting history of the game. It certainly did knock this reviewer out of the ballpark. My throwing arm and hands were aching and felt bruised and swollen just from the descriptions of what the pitchers and catchers went through to play this game. And one more sample of the book’s trivia is that the pitchers signaled the catcher what kind of pitch they were going to throw. Over the years that role has been reversed. This is a sports page-turner like this reviewer has never before had the pleasure of reading. It’s a wonderful gift for any serious, or even not-so-serious baseball fanatic.

Find the author online at edwardachorn.com/

Fifty-Nine In '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had (HarperCollins/ Mar 2010) by Edward Achorn

James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author--most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009). He reviews movies exclusively for Basil & Spice. Visit James R. Holland's Writer's Page.

Review: Pirate Latitudes By Michael Crichton (Harper/ Nov 2009)

Book Review: The 1-2-3 Money Book by Gregory Karp

Dick Morris: Obama Is Causing a Catastrophe

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Thursday

04Feb2010

FirstLook: Making Rounds With Oscar (Hyperion/ Feb 2010)

Feb 4, 2010

Review by Loyd Eskildson

When Oscar arrived (2005) at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I. he seemed like an ordinary, sometimes ornery cat (known to sometimes hiss and strike out at staff members that disturbed him) that liked to lie in the sunlight, chase his tail, and sometimes run after the other cats in the facility. Certainly his animal shelter background did not indicate otherwise. But it wasn't long before he made a reputation for himself through accurately predicting residents that would die within the next few hours by waiting til the end with them on their beds. Oscar never spends much time with the residents until they are in the last hours. Oscar's presence tells caregivers and relatives that its time to say goodbye.

Dr. David Dosa, the book's author, is a geriatrician at the facility and didn't believe the reports about Oscar at first, but quickly became convinced after several unexpected deaths that Oscar 'predicted.' Even after observing Oscar over several years and researching his prior behaviors with others (most relatives appreciated Oscar's death-bed company), Dosa is unable to scientifically either explain 'how' or 'why' Oscar does it. However, Dosa suspects that Oscar is able to smell certain biochemicals released by dying cells; another physician suspects Oscar was instead smelling the presence of bacterial infections that were taking over the patients' bodies.

One of Oscar's first 'cases' involved a woman with a blood clot in her leg; most of the residents, however, are victims of Alzheimer's. Oscar is not necessarily the first to arrive at a dying patient's bedside, but reliably spends at least the last two hours with them. Oscar spends part of each day walking from room to room, spending time inside only if the resident inside is close to death - sometimes contrary to staff opinion.

The bulk of Making Rounds with Oscar is taken up with Dr. Dosa's recounting the backgrounds of a number of Steele House residents (one couple met in a concentration camp), how their afflictions robbed them and their relatives, and how the staff tried to maintain dignity for the residents. Overall, Oscar has accurately predicted about 50 deaths in 5 years.

Bottom-Line: Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat (Hyperion/ Feb 2010) is a touching story - about Oscar the cat, his two-legged fellow caretakers, and their patients.

David Dosa MD, MPH is a practicing geriatrician and health services researcher at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. In July 2007, David garnered international attention for an essay on Oscar that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. You'll find the author online at www.daviddosa.com

Loyd Eskildson is retired from a life of computer programming, teaching economics and finance, education and health care administration, and cross-country truck driving. He's now a reviewer at Basil & Spice.

Book Review: Homer's Odyssey By Gwen Cooper

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Thursday

04Feb2010

FirstLook: The Butcher And The Vegetarian (Rodale Books/ Feb 2010)

Feb 4, 2010

Reviewed By Susan Schenck

If you loved Michael Pollan’s books, you won’t want to miss this one! In many ways it is more intriguing, coming from the perspective of a woman who was raised as a vegetarian and indoctrinated in its ideologies. The author, Tara Austen Weaver, has been ill for some time and her doctor prescribes meat. She had hypothyroidism—I would say because of all the soy she ate. (Soy is a goitrogen). The first chapters start out a bit slow: OK, so she has never fixed meat before and learns how to do it. Tara probably does not realize that for many of us raised as omnivores, our idea of fixing meat was to stick the Costco frozen chicken cutlet in the microwave—we never learned to make crown roast either. She ends up learning much more about meat than most omnivores, and certainly eating varieties we have never heard of.

But then Tara takes us on an amazing journey through carnivore country, visiting eco-friendly ranches which are labors of love and the farmers are thankful if they break even financially; a butcher place owned by women; a slaughterhouse which is as sensitive and conscious as slaughterhouses can possibly be; a woman who raises her own meat in her back yard; steak houses and barbeque specialties, and much more. Throughout, we learn little tidbits such as which book is the meat bible/tome, and that if you own a share of a cow you can be sure it is more properly raised and more sensitively slaughtered. I always wondered why cows are not just shot—it’s because they must be alive (though are stunned to unconsciousness) so the heart can pump out the blood.

The book is riddled with smiling humor, and sometimes the laugh out loud kind, as when we find out that when Tara was 13, Martha Stewart was her guru. She grew up with a hippy mom, and “a generation of hippies who had fled the constraints of their traditional upbringing to create an environment where there were no boundaries, only possibility. Having grown up in such possibility, all I wanted was structure….I didn’t want to follow my bliss.” Her teenage idea of rebellion was finally fulfilled while writing this book—she made Martha Stewart’s crown roast!

We also get to experience vicariously as Tara eats various forms of meat for the first time. She considers bacon “the gateway drug,” wondering if she will be “mainlining lard” and said of barbecued bacon that it “made my head spin as if I were falling in love.” But she also adored Syrian meatballs, flank steak and chimichurri. Her description of eating meat, though having been vegetarian, is surprisingly primal. She is also amazed at the big hoopla over serving meat at gatherings. “No one oohs and aahs over vegetarian food—certainly no one ever claps… I will tell you this: Nothing I’ve ever cooked has elicited as much excitement from my guests as a piece of meat has. Which is funny because my vegetarian dishes are generally much tastier.” Her theory is that we are gathering around the meat much as our ancestors gathered around the kill from the hunt, the meat that may have lasted through the winter and sustained their lives.

Meat in the end, however, was not the magic health bullet she had been looking for. What brought back her health was the raw food diet (no surprise to me as a the author of a raw food book!). I would just caution her to be on top of nutrients not found easily in plant foods (true A, DHA, B12, K2) and supplement with cod liver oil, among other things. I am left with curiosity: Will Tara discover raw eggs from healthy chickens, and raw (or lightly seared/steamed) meat? Will she enter the world of sushi, ceviche and steak tartar? Doesn’t she realize that the toxicity of meat lies in the way it is factory farmed and cooked at high temperatures?

I normally don’t read every book cover to cover, but I did this one in two days. It is very thought-provoking throughout, showing the various reasons people are vegetarians as well why people eat meat. What I love about it is that Tara is so open-minded and nonjudgmental, willing to explore all possibilities.

Tara Austen Weaver, a freelance writer and developmental book editor, started her popular food blog, Tea & Cookies, in 2006 and writes daily for food media blog, Chow.com. She serves on the executive committee of Litquake, San Francisco’s annual literary festival, and pioneered the wildly successful Lit Crawl, an event that draws more than 200 authors and crowds of more than 5,000. You'll find her online at www.taraweaver.com

The Butcher And The Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis (Rodale/ Feb 2010) By Tara Austen Weaver

Susan Schenck is author of The Live Food Factor

10,000+ Fruit Trees Registered Across U.S. In Exchange Program

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Wednesday

03Feb2010

Review: The Politician By Andrew Young (Thomas Dunne/2010)

Feb 3, 2010

By Loyd E. Eskildson

Andrew Young was an ambitious newly-minted attorney looking for a life cause when he found John Edwards, a young, charismatic politician that Young believed would become president. Young then attaches himself to Edwards in hopes of riding along to the White House. Young's book now provides disturbing insights on a man that came far closer than most to becoming president. Drawing on his ten-year close association with Edwards and associated contemporary notes, and loyal to the point of claiming to be the father of Edwards's illegitimate child to allow Edwards to continue pursuing the presidency and then vice-presidency (assuming Edwards would set the record straight at the end of the campaign - didn't happen until just before Young's book came out). Young's accounting doesn't lack credibility or detail. The book ends with Young testifying before a federal grand jury looking at possible Edwards's campaign finance corruption, smeared by both John and Elizabeth Edwards, and believing himself to be practically unemployable.

The Politician takes readers through Young's relationship with John Edwards, starting at the beginning. Young's first assignment was to assist in fund-raising, from there he worked his way up to "Man-Friday." In between reporting factual occurrences during that tenure, Young's bitterness shows through as he periodically drops in assertions that Edwards's wife, Elizabeth--a fellow practicing attorney, had contributed much to John's success - advising him early on regarding presentation style and subsequent case strategies. Readers also get periodic indicators that Edwards's concern for 'the other America' had become increasingly phony, and his commitment to Senator Kerry in the 2004 election was less than total. We also get periodic bits about how moody Elizabeth Edwards became.

John Edwards first met Rielle Hunter in early 2006 in New York City. At the time she was 41, divorced, living rent-free with a female friend in New Jersey, and best described as a 'gold-digger.' She became his videographer, and used part of her first paycheck to buy a camera. Elizabeth Edwards eventually realizes John was seeing another woman--he claims it was a 'one-night thing.' The bulk of the book is taken up with a long amateur intrigue of Rielle trying to contact Edwards through 'special phones' that Elizabeth would not know about, as well as using Young's cell phone; Elizabeth, in turn, becomes increasingly moody as her suspicions increase and time passes after her cancer diagnosis.

A 98-year-old matriarch, Bunny Mellon, becomes attracted to Edwards's message and eventually provides some $6+ million in funding - legal, per Young, being a gift, some of which was used to support Rielle during her pregnancy, unknown to Mellon. (Later Edwards tried to get Mrs. Mellon to fund a $50 million foundation, plus airplane, for his own use to spread his message after the campaign; she declined.) Regardless, when Mrs. Mellon's crippled daughter died, Edwards and Caroline Kennedy were both invited to the funeral - Caroline Kennedy attended, Edwards did not. Finally, in a seemingly weak attempt at soap-opera drama, Rielle ends up living with the Youngs as they bounce around the country hiding during most of her pregnancy after Andrew 'admits' fathering the child, and they're all hounded by National Enquirer (etc.) probers.

Ending his book, Young concludes that both Elizabeth and John Edwards were blinded by the thought of the power of the presidency. Someone needs to tell Andrew Young that he was too.

Finally, I can't resist adding a quote by John Edwards on Bill Clinton in 1999: "I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."

Bottom-Line: John Edwards ends up legally separated from his 30-year wife Elizabeth, Rielle Hunter fades away, along with her daughter Frances Quinn and presumably lots of child-support, and Andrew Young ends up with a sex-tape involving John Edwards and Rielle Hunter that is possibly worth more than the revenge and money derived from writing this book.

The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down Thomas Dunne Books (Jan 2010) By Andrew Young

Book Review: Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards

Lessons Learned From John Edwards In 2010

2000-2010: Paternity Testing Climbs To 60%

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Tuesday

02Feb2010

FirstLook: The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves (2010)

Feb 2, 2010

Reviewed By Loyd E. Eskildson

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves And Why It Matters (Melville House/ 2010) is a sometimes muddled and biased, but ultimately useful effort to explain North Korea's internal and foreign policies. Myers states that his conclusions are the result of researching the nation's domestic propaganda agenda, and believes the 'Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea' (DPRK) is a "paranoid nationalist, 'military-first' far-right state whose popular support now derives mostly from pride in its military might." Ergo, it cannot be pressured or cajoled to give up its nuclear program.

Continuing, Myers believes that this ideology has generally enjoyed the support of the North Korean people . . . "without a ubiquitous police presence or a fortified northern border" (with China). That conclusion is a serious stretch - most other accounts report a strong secret police environment in which the continually indoctrinated general populace are encouraged and rewarded for reporting disloyal acts of fellow citizens. Further, while its northern border with China is lightly patrolled, potential emigres are strongly deterred by frequent Chinese sweeps that capture and return those who successfully cross over. Once returned, they face severe punishment in North Korea. Myers continues, with "about half of 'economic migrants' voluntarily return," and "the rest remain fervent admirers of Kim Il Sung" - patent nonsense, per other sources. Myers also defies reality by contending that the North Korean doctrine of 'Juche' is confusing, not understandable, and not adhered to, when most other sources have no problems contending it refers to making the nation's destructive effort to be internally self-sufficient. Finally, his several citations of Bruce Cummings without qualification is unnerving because that author's scholarship on Korea has been challenged by a number of academic critics, and his work has stirred up more controversy than that of most other historians (Wikipedia).

Returning to reality, Myers says that North Korea presents itself to the world as a misunderstood country seeking integration into the international community, while to its own citizens it presents itself as a state dictating conditions to groveling U.N. (and U.S.) officials, and keeping its enemies in constant fear of ballistic retribution. Further, the DPRK has never given up its dream of fomenting a nationalist revolution in 'south Korea.'

"A History of North Korean Official Culture - 1910-" forms Part I of Myers' book. Japan invaded Korea in 1905, and stayed 40 years until forced out after WWII. Leader Kim Il Sung, contrary to state-generated myth, sat out WWII in the U.S.S.R., but had been a commander with Mao in China's earlier battle with Japan. (Sidelight - Kim's brother interpreted for the Japanese.) Myers also asserts that Kim had read little before being put in charge by the Soviets. Tens of thousands of North Koreans fled to China during the 1995-97 famine, eroding the information embargo that allowed the DPRK to falsely claim that South Korea was more impoverished.

The DPRK then told its citizens that the reason South Korea had a higher standard of living was because of the North's 'military-first' policy which repeatedly has forced other nations to back down. South Koreans were also reported to be deeply unhappy about defilement by the presence of foreigners, and wanted to join with the DPRK. Myers believes that it is essential that North Korean citizens believe it is the better Korea, or they will decide that the South is better able to rule the entire peninsula. Therefore, "a decade of generous and unconditional aid from South Korea has not generated even a modicum of good will from North Korea."

Friendly nations (eg. Laos) are described to DPRK nationals as 'tributary' - hosting Juche study conferences to learn from North Korea, presenting eulogies to the Leader, and congratulating the DPRK on important anniversaries. China, an exception, is described more as a partner. Nonetheless, pregnant returnees from China undergo forced abortions to avoid 'contaminating the blood-line.' Similarly, it is also 'necessary' to keep foreigners away from residents in Pyongyang, its capital and showcase city - hence, separate hotels, eating facilities, buses, and 'minders' prevent mingling.

U.S. (inherently evil) aid is rationalized to North Koreans as compensation for economic blockades, etc. Myers says the government doesn't talk about the U.S. "bombing North Korea flat" because this would undermine the Leader's reputed power; yet, somehow, Myers believes it is still logical for North Korea to speak of alleged atrocities committed by American foot-soldiers.

Bottom-Line: Much of The Cleanest Race is taken up with a mystical, pointless effort to classify North Korea and its leadership as masculine or feminine, and still more by academic quibbling over whether its historical background is Confucianism, Stalinism, nationalism, or pre-war Japanese Fascism. Myers also contends that race, not socialism, is key to North Korean ideology - unsubstantiable-given government control of production, commerce, and pay. (However, claiming North Korean ideology is a mix of race AND socialism is credible.) Myers also focuses on what the regime tells its own citizens, and makes a good case for two key contentions:

1) If a decade of South Korean aid to North Korea has brought no gratitude, the U.S. hoping to ingratiate itself through aid is hopeless - it will simply become evidence of our subservience.

2) Given the constant political indoctrination at all levels, it makes little sense to think that Leader Kim (or successor) could demilitarize to any extent without risking a military coup.

On the other hand, who would have thought Deng Xiaoping, 'three time loser' under Chairman Mao, would rise after Mao's death and lead China through such dramatic foreign policy and internal reversals that it became a self-sufficient economic powerhouse in only three decades?