Book Review: Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Publication date: February 2011
ISBN: 9780375841989
Source: Library

Amelia Earhart was a beloved public figure, and this new biography brings little known facts to life about this aviatrix.  With a narrative from her final flight and biographical facts from everything before that, this book provides a basic and interesting look at the life and fame of Amelia.

Things I Liked:
The book really made me feel like I was living in the 1930s and I loved how it brought you back in time to the way people lived and felt and what they did.  I've not read really any bios about her, but I thought the details about Amelia's personality were so interesting.  I was really impressed with how Fleming dealt with the inconsistencies and errors in what was reported and what might be true.  She never assumed things or said they were one way or another, but brought the controveries forward objectively.  The photos and other paraphernelia were wonderful additions.  This is an awesome, readable biography for those who want to know more about this icon.

Things I Didn't Like:
Because her life was subject to speculation and based on people's personal accounts, it was hard to have anything very solid about her.  I was occasionally annoyed that Fleming couldn't be more explicit in her statements about what people heard on the radio, etc.  Still, very well done and intriguing.  I only wanted more.

Read-alikes:
Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
Almost Astronauts by Tanya Lee Stone

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ****

Have you read any great bios of Amelia or other figures of the time?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

Book Review: Jane Austen: A Life Revealed by Catherine Reef

Jane Austen: A Life Revealed by Catherine Reef
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication date: June 2011
ISBN: 978-0547370217
Source: e-ARC provided by NetGalley

Jane Austen has remained a household name for hundreds of years, an author many readers love to love.  But how much do we actually know about this historical figure?  Catherine Reef creates a biography of this mysterious woman, whose feelings and thoughts come to us only in bits and snatches. 

Things I Liked:
Yeah, I know that description was pretty crappy.  I'm not much good at non-fiction descriptions.  I enjoyed reading this biography.  Despite my being such a huge fan of Austen, I've read very few biographies about her.  I know quite a bit of the "facts" about her life, simply from online reading and such, but I wasn't as certain about other aspects of her life.  This was a good introduction to what we know and what we don't know about Austen.  I particularly appreciated that Reef clearly avoids speculation and other theories about why her letters were burned or what happened during some of her romantic escapades.  It was helpful also to get more of a perspective on the general historical time period.  A good biography for those just getting their feet wet in the Austen world.

Things I Didn't Like:
I wasn't that thrilled with the summaries of her books, which seemed sometimes to draw me out of the narrative, but which might be helpful for those who haven't read them.  It was also pretty short and I didn't think it was very original in its insights, but I'm definitely not an expert.  I became a bit frustrated with the format of this e-ARC, which I read on my Kindle and the images were absent or interrupted the text obnoxiously, but this was entirely the fault of the Kindle.  I looked at the images on the computer and they were fabulous.  I really liked what they seemed to bring to the story as well.  Good intro for younger fans of Austen.

Read-alikes:
Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
Jane Austen: Her Life And Letters, A Family Record by William Austen-Leigh
Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ***

Do you have a favorite biography or other non-fiction book about Austen?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

Book Review: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

*Comments on this post will go toward my Library Week challenge*

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice tells the story of a forgotten Civil Rights figure, the teenage girl who refused to give up her seat on the bus several months before Rosa Parks.  Claudette was beginning to feel that the adults in her life complained too much about Jim Crow laws of the south, but did too little.  When she boarded the bus that day, she wasn't thinking of denying the law right then, but she had put up with it too long.  Her actions then and later spoke of a girl with fight and a desire for justice and equality that should place her prominently with other figures of the Civil Rights Movement.  

Things I Liked:
I was really impressed with Claudette and the revealing look at her life and how forgotten she is among civil rights history.  The way she stood up against police and jail and basically put her life on the line, I felt inspired.  Stories of her courage and really the courage of so many African Americans living during that time are so amazing.  One thing I didn't realize before, the bus boycott lasted 381 days!  Can you imagine trying to get around town on foot or with carpools for over a year?  It is embarrassing and shameful the things our country allowed and embraced for so long.  Books like this make me wonder if I would have accepted injustice and prejudice just because it was the way things were or if I would have fought against the Jim Crow laws.  A fabulous look at the brave people who recognized and weren't afraid to challenge our weaknesses.  I also loved the photographs and clippings and side stories on each page.  Here are a few of the quotes I loved, not directly relating to Claudette, but other civil rights leaders:

Mrs. King said this on the phone to someone who called to threaten her husband, Martin Luther King, Jr: "My husband is asleep...He told me to write the name and number of anyone who called to threaten his life so that he could return the call and receive the threat in the morning when he wakes up and is fresh." p 80 

Judge Rives during the court case to abolish segregated buses asked this: "Can you command one man to surrender his constitutional rights - if they are his constitutional rights - to prevent another man from committing a crime?" p 89

Things I Didn't Like:
I didn't particularly like the style of switching between Claudette's words and the omniscient narrator.  Sometimes I would have to look back and see which point of view the book was using as I read.  It kind of distracted me from the words.  

Read-alikes:
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none
(that I recall)

mrg-factor: X
not described, more implied in Claudette's story

v-factor: ->
violence happens, but isn't gory

Overall rating: ****

I find it amazing how many great historical figures are lost or forgotten. Any you think are important, but ignored?

Posted as part of Tween Tuesday, hosted by GreenBeanTeenQueen.

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

Book Review: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Charles and Emma seem like two very different people.  Charles Darwin is a tidy, scientific naturalist, always doing experiments with plants and studying animals.  Emma Wedgwood is a messy, religious woman, happy to remain at home and take care of her aging father and mother.  When Charles decides to take a leap and ask Emma to marry him, neither one could anticipate just how much they would come to mean to each other, or just how they would resolve their religious and moral differences.

Things I Liked:
I loved reading a biography of Charles Darwin that talked about his wife!  I thought it was very intriguing to see how much they disagreed on the subject of God and his role in the creation and in their daily lives.  I also thought it was very interesting to read about the kinds of difficulties Charles felt while trying to sort out and publish his ideas on natural selection.  I am both a religious and a scientific person (I studied physics and astronomy before I became a librarian) and I was particularly interested in Charles' friend Asa Gray's views on reconciling those two seemingly conflicting beliefs.  The book offers such a unique look at how people dealt with those kinds of discrepancies back then and probably still applies to many people today.  Reading about how both Charles and Emma interacted with their children and dealt with grief was much more interesting to me, however, than reading Darwin's work on natural selection or worms.  The relationship between them was very touching, despite their differences.

Things I Didn't Like:
I wish there had been more about Emma.  I kept wanting to know if she would discuss religion and God with Charles often or if she just let him take his own path.  We didn't get a lot of insight into her, but what we did see was intriguing.  I had to laugh a bit at the arrogance in this statement: "In The Origin, Charles wasn't trying to murder Emma's God; he was trying to show how he believed creation really occurred.  He knew he was right." (p 182).  He wasn't generally arrogant (at least that wasn't the impression I got from the biography), but this statement just made me want to laugh a bit.  I also found it highly ironic that he would often use phrases like "Thank God" in his letters - who did he think he was thanking?  I'm sure he was just using common phrases of the time, but I wonder if it ever struck him how humorous it was to use such phrases and not really believe in a God.

Read-alikes:
I kept thinking of Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
A bit like The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
It also made me interested in picking up Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !
a very few

mrg-factor: X
a couple of suggestive parts

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ****

If you are a religious person, do you ever struggle to reconcile your religious beliefs with science?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

Book Review: American Lion by Jon Meacham

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White Houseis a biography of a man of opposites - both gentle and prone to anger, both compassionate and violent. Following not the entire history of Jackson's life, but with emphasis on his years in the White House, Meacham recounts a time in history that helped to shape American politics and the presidency today.

Just in time for this book review, I was mentioned in a list of 100 Best Book Blogs for History Buffs (which was terribly surprising to me, but I'll take it). For more blogs with good history books, go to the list.

Things I Liked:
Andrew Jackson was a very interesting and complex individual, and I really enjoyed especially the anecdotal stories that portray his character and personality. The development of his policies and practices was interesting as well. I also like how both his good and his bad characteristics are told with equal parts - it seemed more objective that way.

Things I Didn't Like:
I found parts of the book were very dry. I suppose it is almost inevitable when doing an accurate biography of real people to not have boring sections, but there seemed to be a lot in this book. Some parts of Jackson's life were remarkably interesting and others, perhaps more when the author went on some tangents, were rather dull. I also wish it had been more chronological, especially near the beginning.

Read-alikes:
John Adams and 1776 by David McCullough

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
a few here and there

mrg-factor: X
spoken of, but not described

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ***

Book Review: The Trouble Begins at 8 by Sid Fleischman

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild Westis a humorous biography of Samuel Clemens' early years spent in Nevada and California. Clemens formative years were spent working as a printing apprentice, a steamboat pilot, a gold digger, a newspaper man, and a traveling correspondent before ever publishing under his famous pseudonym.

Fleischman is the perfect biographer for Twain's humorous view on life. The way Fleischman writes is brilliant - his phrases are hilarious and make the simplest details interesting. Twain had such an awesome sense of humor and coined about a million one-liner phrases that I wanted to quote. This is the perfect book for kids who need to do a report but loathe reading boring biographies. This is such an interesting story that I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Twain or just wants to read a funny book.

A sample of Fleischman's awesome writing:

"He changed literature forever. He scraped earth under its fingernails and taught it to spit. He slipped in a subversive American sense of humor. He made laughing out loud as respectable as afternoon tea." p. 6

And a favorite Twain one-liner:

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." qtd p. 172

Read-alikes:
Such a unique book, I would stick with stuff by Twain and Fleischman:
I recently enjoyed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and the classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnwhich has a lot of autobiographical elements from Twain's childhood
Also I enjoyed The Whipping Boyby Sid Fleischman


RATINGS:
s-factor: !
Twain tended to use some mild cuss words.

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ****

Book Review: Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

Through My Eyestells the story of Ruby Bridges' experiences being the first black girl to integrate her school back in 1960. Her own reminiscences along with those of her teacher, family, and psychologist combine with photographs to bring this story to life. When Ruby first goes to school, escorted by U.S. Marshals, she is the only child in her class. Nearly all of the white students have been withdrawn by their angry parents. But, that doesn't stop her white teacher from loving and teaching Ruby.

This was my first look into this amazing story and I just fell in love with it! (Got the recommend from here.) Ruby tells her own story and makes it seem so much more personal. Her own ignorance of what is going on and even of racial prejudice add an innocent and heartbreaking note to the story. I am continually appalled at the behavior we as Americans display to others. I was especially sickened at the descriptions of the white mothers who stood outside the school protesting - their language and their hatred towards a six-year-old girl are just disgusting! We certainly have an interesting history.

RATINGS:
s-factor: none
Though there are racial epithets.

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: ->
Not necessarily violent, but sometimes frightening.

Overall rating: ***

Book Review: Beyond the Chestnut Trees by Maria Bauer

Beyond the Chestnut Treesis a beautiful story about the author's return visit to her hometown of Prague after a forty year absence. As she walks the streets and sees familiar and unfamiliar sites, she remembers her own experiences growing up and escaping from the Nazi occupation. Her story, both past and present, is interesting and beautifully recounted.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I am not much for non-fiction, but since my parents are in the Czech Republic right now, I was interested in this somewhat obscure memoir. I thought it was really well written, and her story is fascinating and exciting, if somewhat charmed. I loved her descriptions of childhood and the places she knew and loved as she saw them again in their changed states.

RATINGS:
s-factor: !
A few scattered.

mrg-factor: X
Situations, but not details.

v-factor: ->
A few intense events.

Overall rating: ****

Book Review: A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts

A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Travelertells the interesting story of James Holman, a British naval officer who finds himself inexplicably blinded at age 25. His attempts to circumnavigate the world by himself are empowering and frustrating, as he deals with prejudiced and condescending people.

I found parts of this biography to be interesting and inspiring. Some of the tangents that Roberts drifts off on detract from the already rich life of Holman and his triumphs over disability. I found the story of Holman extremely inspiring, but this biography not entirely satisfying.

RATINGS:
s-factor: !
Probably a few.

mrg-factor: none.

v-factor: none.

Overall rating: ***