The Library Book by Susan Orlean

If the Los Angeles Public Library were a living, breathing thing, then Susan Orlean, a staff writer at The New Yorker, has written a can't-put-it-down biography of its life and the people who worked there.  Interspersed throughout the book, beginning on the front pastedown, is the author's true-crime account of the library fire,  the disposition of the 700,000 books that were either wet or smoky or both, and the subsequent arson investigation into the cause of the fire, and its prime suspect Harry Peak.

With her pen, Susan Orlean seems to bring past city librarians back to life to tell their stories about the history and the  rebuilding of the Los Angeles Public Library.  She interviews library staff members, and we learn what they're doing at the library.  But most of all, we learn that they love being librarians.

I mentioned that the author begins her writing on the front pastedown with an account of the fire on April 29, 1986.  She has chapters but doesn't identify the chapters by title.  Instead, she uses the titles of books listed on library catalog cards to identify the subject matter of the chapter:

Timing is everything.  I read Chapter 25 a few weeks after The New York Times documented Donald Trump's ten-year billion-dollar losses in the real estate market.  So I had to chuckle when I read the title of the first book she uses to infer that part of the chapter is about the real estate market:

I like the book checkout information the author recorded on the library card that is displayed on the rear pastedown:

Ray Bradbury: author of Fahrenheit 451
Edith Gross: her mother
Austin Gillespie: her husband
 Her own name, Susan Orlean, with the date of the fire 4-29-86

Earlier, I mentioned something about the library being a living thing.  I'll close with the author's words as she roamed around the Los Angeles Public Library:

....The silence was more soothing than solemn.  A library is a good place to soften solitude; a place where you feel part of a conversation that has gone on for hundreds and hundreds of years even when you're all alone.  The library is a whispering post.  You don't need to take a book off a shelf to know there is a voice inside that is waiting to speak to you, and behind that was someone who truly believed that if he or she spoke, someone would listen....

The Grammarian in the Bedroom, Or, A Whole New Dimension to the Elements of Style

I am still actively collecting early editions of The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.  And I still don't have a copy of the 1918 edition.   But I'm still looking. Here's what the cover of a 1918 edition looks like in case you ever find one for me:

And here is what  the cover of any edition of The Elements of Style is not supposed to look like:

Createspace Independent Publishing Platform has been publishing this book since 2015.  I have to tell you though: reading this book will not improve your sexual prowess in the bedroom.  The cover has nothing whatsoever to do with the contents of the book.  I did, however, verify that this book is a reprint of the 1918 edition of The Elements of Style.  And William Strunk Jr. was the author of this book.  But I believe he would turn in his grave if he got a peek of this cover.

This particular book has received six reviews on Amazon:

1.  Four Stars:

I bought this book as a reference book and it works just fine that way.  I found its "plot" predictable, its "mood" thoughtful, its "pace" steady, and its "characters" developed.  It lacks suspense.  But it does have STYLE.

3 people found this helpful

2.  Five Stars:

Well written and excellent exlplanations. (sic) 

3.  Five Stars:

The book looked new.  The price was right.

One person found this helpful 

4.  Five Stars:

Perfect!

One person found this helpful

5.  Five Stars:

Get this, sit down, read it.  No don't study it, just read it, all 50 pages in one sitting. 

4 people found this helpful 

Note: There are 55 pages in this book.

6.  Four Stars:

Informative. Dry. For scholarly individuals. Not sure I'd recommend this to anyone except for high school or early college students. You should definitely know what's in the book, but I'd rather stick to the internet because I think I'd find many more references and examples. The book is a bit limiting.

Two people found this helpful 

The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller by Carol Baxter

 

 I am slowly forming my second Sentimental Airman Collection.  So when I saw The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller listed in the February batch of Early Reviewer books on Library Thing, I requested it, won it, and received my copy in March.
     This book is about an Australian woman, Mrs Chubbie Miller, who meets a Royal Air Force Reservist, William "Bill" Newton Lancaster at a party in London in the late 1920s. He intends to be the first aviator to fly a light aircraft from Great Britain to Australia, but lacks the funds required for the trip.  Chubbie offers to help pay for the trip if she can fly as a passenger with him to Australia.  The trip is fraught with bad weather and mishaps, and another aviator becomes the first to complete the trip from Great Britain to Australia.  Chubbie, however, becomes the first woman to fly as a passenger from Great Britain to Australia.
     After spending a few months flying around in Australia, Chubbie and Bill decide to try their luck in America.  Chubbie learns to fly, and enters women's cross-country derby races, making a name for herself.
     The Great Depression happens and jobs are scarce.  Chubbie is hired to fly from Pittsburgh to Havana and back again.  The purpose of the her trip was to promote Pittsburgh as an air centre.  The weather deteriorates rapidly after Chubbie departs from Havana, and Chubbie never reaches Miami.  Search planes are sent out but no one can find her.  On the fourth day, everyone learns she is still alive.  Chubbie over-accounted for the strong winds of the storm that were pulling her off course.  Instead of running out of fuel over the Gulf, she ran out of fuel and landed in a remote marsh in Andros Island, Bahamas.
     In the last third of the book, Chubbie becomes involved in a love triangle in Miami.  While Bill is out of state looking for work, Chubbie has a romantic tryst with her ghostwriter, and then tells Bill of her ongoing affair in a letter.  Bill, still in love with Chubbie, rushes back to Miami and the ghostwriter dies that very night.  Bill either kills him or the ghostwriter commits suicide by gun.  The book now becomes a murder mystery with Bill on trial for murder and Chubbie as one of the witnesses.  And here is where I stop, because you will enjoy reading the true tale the author weaves of how the trial plays out.
   

Another Glorious Day of Toodling!

Yesterday was a glorious day of toodling. My wife Linda added two finds to her collection of Danish dinnerware:

Our friend Eve found a gift for a family member––Sorry! Can't show you––and Linda found a gift for me:  another Viking ship to help protect my set of the Oxford English Dictionary.

On second thought, are those Viking ships really protecting my OED, or are they protecting the M &Ms in the dispensing jar?

I found nine books yesterday; eight for my library, and one for Linda's Obama Collection. Here is Linda's book.  I found it at 321 Books.

Barack Obama:  The Story by David Maraniss, New York:  Simon & Schuster 2012.

I was impressed this time when we visited 321 Books located in Tyrone Mall.  We visited it shortly after it opened in 2017, and all they had at the time were new books––I like old books!  This time they had old books too! And all the books were either $3, $2, or $1.  And that was before the senior discount they gave me!  I bought two other books at 321 Books:

Submission of Recorded Presidential Conversations to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives by Richard M. Nixon, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1974.

The Most Dangerous Book:  The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham, New York:  Penguin Press, 2014.


My best find, however, was in Knot on Main Street in Dunedin.

The Columbian Orator:  Containing a Variety of Original and Selected Pieces Together with Rules; Calculated to Improve Youth and Others in the Art of Eloquence by Caleb Bingham, Boston:  J. H. A. Frost, 1827.

This work was first published in 1797 and was widely used to promote oratory and reading among the youth of America.  I found it in Knot on Main Antique Store on the bookshelves belonging to Mike Slicker, proprietor of Lighthouse Books in St. Petersburg.  Now that I think about it, I believe I have bought more of Mike's books at Knot on Main Street than at his bookstore!


One of our favorite thrift stores is the Kimberly Home Thrift Shoppe in Clearwater, which supports pregnant women.

On Fridays, books are 50% off (they're 99 cents for hardbacks and 79 cents for paperbacks every other day of the week).  I bought one of each, which came to 88 cents, and told them to keep the change.

Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, Granada:  Padre Suarez, 1963.

The Klutz Yo-Yo Book by the Editors of Klutz, Palo Alto: Klutz Press, 1998.

Now all I need for a Christmas present for one of the grandkids is a decent yo-yo.

At one time, the Park Street Antique Center may have been located on Park Street in St. Petersburg, but it has been located on Bay Pines Blvd in St. Pete for as long as I can remember.  I'll have to ask Mike Slicker if he has books there too!  I bought three books there yesterday.  And that's were my wife found her  B&G dish.

Staying on Alone:  Letters of Alice B; Toklas, New York:  Liveright, c.1973.

I wanted this pamphlet for my Leigh Hunt Collection. It has an article by Edmund Blunden titled "On a Portrait by Mrs. Leigh Hunt."  The article contains two of her silhouettes: one of Leigh Hunt and one of Lord Byron.

From Baseball to Boches by H. C. Witwer, New York:  Grosset & Dunlap, Eighth Printing, December, 1918.

I picked this book up, read a few pages, and almost bought it the last three times we visited this antique store.  This time I decided to buy it.

At the end of the day, we ended up at Glory Days Grill in Palm Harbor for drinks and then dinner.

 My Root Beer Float is on the left.  Linda's little glass of Sangria is on the right!

I did not mention it before, but we all received a tornado warning on our phones while we were in 321 Books in the Tyrone Mall.  And we stayed in the mall for the duration of the warning.  There were four tornados reported in the Tampa Bay area yesterday.  This was one of them.

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward is the third book about Donald Trump that I have read this year.  Fire and Fury was an account of the infighting inside the Trump White House during Trump's first 100 days.   House of Putin, House of Trump was a roadmap of Trump's business ties with the Russian Mafia going back 40 years.  Fear is a record of events and conversations that confirm that Americans have reason to fear while Donald Trump is still in the White House.

Woodward figured he would be writing a book about President Hillary Clinton.  But two weeks before the election, he gave a speech in Fort Worth, Texas to 400 mostly white executives of a software company who were from all over the country.  Woodward asked for a show of hands for whom they would vote for in the Presidential election: ten pairs of hands went up for Hillary; over 200 pairs of hands went up for Donald Trump.  Woodward didn't know why, but he figured the polls had to be skewed.  Two weeks later, Donald Trump was elected the President of the United States of America.

"Real Power is––I don't even want to use the word––fear."  Donald Trump made that statement to Bob Woodward and Bob Costa in an interview on March 31, 2016.  Woodward uses Trump's statement as the epigraph of this book.  And he uses it again as a Trump quote on the back cover, with an image of Trump doing a fist pump.  Moreover, Woodward uses Trump's words, "Real power is fear," on three different occasions in the book.

On page 175, Trump was giving advice to a friend who had admitted bad behavior towards women.  Real power is fear.  Trump told him that it was all about strength.  Never show weakness.  Never admit.  "You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back hard on these women."

On pages 274 and 275, Woodward provided an insight into Trump's philosophy regarding tariffs and trade deals.  Trump wanted to impose a 25 percent steel tariff and Gary Cohn was trying to talk him out of it.  Trump said,"we'll try it.  If it doesn't work, we'll undo it."  Cohn said "You do something when you're 100 percent certain it will work, and then you pray like hell that you're right.  You don't do 50/50s with the U.S. economy."

Still on pages 274 and 275,  Woodward said that Trump wanted to blow up the NAFTA deal and renegotiate it.  Trump's philosophy was "to get yes, you first had to say no."  Cohn warned that it was too risky: "That either works or you go bankrupt."  To Trump, Cohn thought, bankruptcy was just another business strategy.  And Trump had gone bankrupt six times. Real power is fear.


On page 300  Woodward wrote about Trump's foreign policy, which Trump believed he was winning.  Iran was under intense pressure, Pakistan was afraid that it might lose our aid, and South Korea was going to bow to Trump's demands for new trade talks.  Then there was North Korea.  Woodward writes that Trump's tweets about who had the biggest Button "may have come close to starting a war with North Korea in 2018."  Woodward continues, "The public never learned the full story of the risks that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took as they engaged in a public battle of words."  Real power is fear.  

On the next page, Woodward repeats a tweet from Colin Kahl, former deputy assistant secretary of defense under President Obama:

Folks aren't freaking out about a literal button.  They are freaking out about the mental instability of a man who can kill millions without permission from anybody.

Throughout the book, Woodward matter of factly reports certain actions the White House staff took to prevent Trump from causing  harm to our country.   And Woodward repeats their opinions of what they think of Trump, from calling him an idiot, to having the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader.

Woodward ends the book with Trump's lawyer John Dowd still believing that Trump did not collude with the Russians or obstruct justice, but resigning because Trump would not follow his legal advice about talking to Mueller.  The last paragraph of Woodward's book is worth repeating:

But in the man and his presidency Dowd had seen the tragic flaw.  In the political back-and-forth, the evasions, the denials, the tweeting, the obscuring, crying "Fake News," the indignation, Trump had one overriding problem that Dowd knew  but could not bring himself to say to the president:  "You're a fucking liar."

                                  ________________________

Yes, real power is fear.  And I am afraid.
                        Jerry Morris

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger is the second of three books about Donald Trump that I have acquired this year.  It is a hard read in that the author is methodical in investigating and tracing forty years of Donald Trump's business relationships with the Russians, many of whom are members of the Russian Mafia.

Unger's book begins with a congratulatory announcement that Deputy Vyacheslev Nikonov, Molotov's grandson, made to the Russian State Duma, the equivalent of our House of Representatives, on election day, November 9, 2016:

"Dear friends, respected colleagues!" Nikonov said.  "Three minutes ago Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America and I congratulate you on this."

If that isn't an acknowledgement of Russian interference in our elections, I don't know what is.

Ten days before his inauguration, Donald Trump tweeted, "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me.  I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!"

In the first few pages of his book, Unger declared that Trump had everything to do with Russia.  Unger promised that his book would show:

     That Trump allowed his Trump-branded real estate to be used  by the Russians for money laundering.

     That Trump was $4 billion in debt when Russian money bailed him out, revived his business career, and helped launch his venture into politics.

     That Trump provided a home in Trump Tower for members of the Russian Mafia and that they worked out of Trump Tower.

     That Trump was the subject of one or more Soviet intelligence operations that likely produced kompromat (compromising material) regarding his sexual activities.

     That in James Clapper's words, Trump is a "Russian asset" serving Vladimir Putin.

Trump has repeatedly said that he has had nothing to do with Russia.  But at the end of his book, Unger identifies fifty-nine Trump connections to Russia. And Unger details the actions of these Russian connections throughout the book.

After reading this book, and reviewing the sources and documentation cited, I  have to wonder why Trump was never charged with anything in his forty years of doing business with the Russians––money laundering for sure; a likely reason why he refuses to release his tax returns.  I am astounded by Trump's brazenness: that he believes anything he does or has done is above the law.  I am confident, however, that all will be revealed when Mueller completes his investigation, and Donald Trump will finally pay the piper.

                                     --------------------------------

Here's my review of the first of the three books about Trump that I acquired this year,  Fire and Fury:  Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff.

I am currently reading Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward.  It was no accident that Fear was published on the anniversary of 9/11.  Americans do need to be afraid.

The Day the Dane Banished Shakespeare From the Dining Room

Here's a picture of marital harmony:  my Shakespeare Collection on my side of the dining room, and my wife's Danish Plate Collection on her side of the dining room.  I snapped this picture six and one-half years ago.  And I included it in my April 2012  My Sentimental Library blog post,  Around the Dining Room Table:  A View of My Shakespeare Collection.

As I mentioned in the post, I brought some of these Shakespeare books back with me from England when I retired from the United States Air Force in 1989.  These books, and their brothers and sisters that I have since added, have travelled all over the Morris house since 1989.  They have moved from the living room, to the master bedroom, to the spare bedroom (converted into a library), to the hallway outside of the library, and then to the dining room, where Hamlet and Romeo and all the other Shakespeare characters rested peacefully for six and one-half years.

But not anymore.

In the last six and one-half years, I have added hundreds of books to my library, many of which I acquired when we went toodling on Fridays to antique stores, and thrift stores, and libraries, and bookstores.  And in the last six and one-half years, my wife has added at least a hundred Bing and Grondahl plates and figurines.  And she even started collecting Royal Copenhagen plates and figurines as well.

Soon, the cabinet on her side of the dining room was overcrowded with Danish dinnerware and vases and figurines.  She really really needed another cabinet for her expanded collection.

And then one day last month she found the perfect cabinet!  But unfortunately for Shakespeare, the perfect place to put this cabinet was on my side of the dining room!

Yes.  On that very day, the Dane banished Shakespeare from the dining room!

I had to empty the bookcase that was on my side of the dining room––or what used to be my side of the dining room––and I spread all the Shakespeare books in piles and piles on the dining room table.  I swear Shakespeare gave me one them stern what-the-hell-are-you-doing looks.

And my bookcase, which looked so happy when it was full...

Now looked sad and forlorn––naked, it was! Completely naked!


Yes, a sad day it was:  the day the Dane banished Shakespeare from the dining room!

But I have to admit that her Danish Collection looks pretty cool in the Dining Room.

And she even has cups and plates on the walls in the kitchen:

Now I am not a poor player––nor am I a fool!  Tomorrow is another day.  So I moved––or I should say, my daughter Anita and my grandson Dylan moved–– my bookcase around the corner into the living room.

The bookcase that used to be on this wall we moved to the other side of the living room next to the front door.

My wife's Obama Collection and her oversized books are located on the other wall:

And in the middle of the living room, on the coffee table, are recent books we have acquired:

No.  I can't complain!  And I don't think Shakespeare  and his characters can complain either!

Hope Never Dies

 If you are a Democrat, and you never got enough of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, you will want to read this book.

Joe Biden is the narrator.  And he is investigating the untimely death of his favorite Amtrak conductor.  And Amtrak Joe's helpful sidekick is none other than Barack Obama!  As for the author, judging by the gibes in the book about Republicans and the current administration, he almost certainly has to be a Democrat.

A fun read! Moi recommends!

.

How Paul Fussell and Samuel Johnson Helped Me Write a Review of Michael Wolff's Book, Fire and Fury

When I review a book, the words sometimes seem to flow onto the page directly from my mind.  That was not the case with Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury:  Inside the Trump White House.  The words for my review of this book literally came to me from the writings of Paul Fussell and Samuel Johnson.

The original idea of Michael Wolff's book was to provide an account of the first one hundred days of the Trump Presidency, as seen through the eyes of the people closest to Trump.  And Wolff had open access to the White House––in his words, "something quite close to a fly on the wall."  The events Wolff describes are based on conversations he reportedly had with members of Trump's family and his White House staff.  Wolff himself readily admits that some of the accounts of what happened in the Trump White House are in conflict with each other.  But Wolff reasoned that he would let the readers judge for themselves.

When I finished reading Wolff's book, I sat in front of my computer, and contemplated what to say in my review about the book.  Believe me, I believed every word that was written!  But, at the moment, I was at a temporary loss of words to emphasize that the dastardly things "he said-she said" really could have happened in the White House of the United States of America.  So I put Fire and Fury aside for the time being.

A few days later, I was researching the web on some unrelated matter and came across Paul Fussell's January 1982 Harper's Magazine article, My War:  How I got irony in the infantry –– I will wait here if you want to read his article now; or you can read it later...

After reading his article, I wanted to read more by Paul Fussell.  So I went to Abebooks.  And that's when I discovered that Paul Fussell wrote a book about Samuel Johnson:  Samuel Johnson and the Life of Writing.  Being a Samuel Johnson collector, I immediately ordered a copy of Fussell's book.

And when I received it, and got to page 12 of the book, the idea of the review of Michael Wolff's book, Fire and Fury, was staring at me smack in the face.  Fussell was talking about Johnson's writing and was referring to Samuel Johnson's Preface to Father Jerome Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia, first published in 1735.  Johnson translated this book from the French.  But both Fussell and Johnson could have been talking about Michael Wolff's book, Fire and Fury:  Inside the Trump White House.

That first marked sentence is all the more relevant and powerful when it is written in its entirety––as it was first written by Samuel Johnson in 1735:

The Portuguese traveler, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his readers with no romantic absurdities or incredible fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability has a right to demand that they believe him who cannot contradict him.

Judging by the leaks that came out almost daily from the White House,  Micheal Wolff's account of what went on in the White House is all the more believable....

My Best and My Worst Posts of 2017

You, my readers, have determined which of my posts are the best and the worst of the lot for the year 2017.

My Sentimental Library is still my most popular blog.  And the best three posts of that blog are:

 A Conglomeration of Cookbooks Collected by a Man Who Doesn't Cook

About Elliot Stock, Henry B. Wheatley, and The Book Lover's Library Series

Tom and Jerry:  Friends and Aiders

The "worst" three, or least popular posts are:

The Bewicks and Their Bookplates: Number Six of the Twelve Blog Posts For Christmas

Passages From Lambians in My Library;  Large and Small

The Sentimental Airman

Some of my older posts have found new readers.  Since April, over 200 people have read My Autograph Letter Collection (Sep 2011) and My Many Lives of Samuel Johnson (May 2011).  And over 100 people have read seven other older posts.

With 4,491 pageviews, Mary Hyde and the Unending Pursuit (Nov 2008), on my Bibliophiles in My Library Blog, is still my most popular post of all time, and has gained 341 new readers since April.

Which post is your favorite? You can view all my posts and their updated pageviews on My Blog Browser.

Surprisingly,  most of my readers go directly to the individual blogs than to My Blog Browser.  Maybe I should change that domain name to "My Book Blog Browser."

Here's to a Happy New Year!
Jerry Morris