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Martha, let me know if I can contribute to the shelf. Would you like to read the children's book about Dr. Mike Wilson, the man who killed Pluto and why he deserved to die (Pluto, not the man)?

Kathy

Thanks, but no. Half a shelf is 30 or so books and when it gets down to below ten, my B&N wish list is cose to the limit of 25.

I liked James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, but for me, like all nonfiction, it read like homework. I did learn things. I had never known Woodrow Wilson was an out-and-out racist, friends with the author of The Clansman, reviewed here several months ago and the novel upon which Birth of a Nation was based. I never knew that Helen Keller, after grasping the concept of w-a-t-e-r, grew up to become an avowed socialist who praised the USSR. Her image is on the Alabama quarter, and I doubt the people who came up with its design had any idea. That amuses me.

Blacks, Indians and all peoples of color are dismissed or ignored in American history texts. I knew that—but not the extent to which they are.

Fascinating tidbit (IMHO): Well over a year ago, I read and reviewed Uncle Tom's Cabin. The character of Uncle Tom blew me away. He was an all-out hero, standing up to the white man and finally giving his life rather than doing something he believed was wrong. How, I wondered at the time, did this character turn into the Uncle Tom we know today. Lies told me. "Theatrical productions of Uncle Tom's Cabin played through the nadir (a term coined by a Rayford Logan for the worst period of racism in the US, from 1890 through the 1940s), but since the novel's indictment of slavery was no longer congenial to an increasingly racist white society, rewrites changed Uncle Tom from a martyr who gave his life to protect his people into a sentimental dope who was loyal to kindly masters." (page 164) To me, learning that alone made the book worth reading.

Loewen stresses the impact American history texts have on any non-affluent children, white youngsters included. The emphasis of these texts is on America, the land of opportunity where anyone can be whatever he wants. So what about the child in a poor family that can never get a break? Loewen believes knowledge of the roadblocks society creates could make that child feel better. I agree.

He also makes the claim that history texts don't present the past in terms of how it affects the present. Lies does so. I liked that.

Recommend? I dunno. I did like it but sense readers of this thread have either read it or will decide it's not their cup of tea. I heard about it in one of Ag's postings, was intrigued, and overall am glad I read it.

Bottom line on The Night Gardner by George Pelecanos is I've waited too long to review it. I remember liking it. The setting is DC; substantial segments deal with race, minorities of various types, and teenagers, all of which capture my interest. I had read a Pelecanos before and wasn't impressed. Night Gardner makes me want to read more, but I sure wish I could remember the title of the mediocre one.

And why am I late with the review? Well, there's the writing. And the local theatre stuff. But the main thing is I'm almost halfway through Pillars of the Earth, and whatever did happen in Night Gardner can't hold a candle to what's happening in the twelfth century.

I think I read a romance novel entitled "Night Gardening." I don't suppose it was the same book.

"Pillars of the Earth" ranks up there in one of the best books I have ever read. Seems by those that make lists, others think the same thing.

Kathy

Wow! Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth runs 972 pages, and not once did I think it was too long. The man is a story-teller. Something called The Third Twin—cool title IMHO—is already on my shelf of un-reads.

Miss Picky only showed up a few times and her complaints didn't hold up too well, but here they are:

1) I questioned Follett's use of the f-word because I'd heard it came about during the Victorian era. I was wrong. The dictionary I consulted said it had been in use prior to the 15th century and was always regarded as vulgar. Follett has it being used by a low-life, its use and the character completely in line with what the dictionary said.

2) In an absolutely wonderful play called On the Verge, written by Eric Overmeyer—a name probably familiar to fans of the TV series Homicide—one character asks another why evil exists. "To thicken the plot" is the response. Many things in the play are then labeled as plot-thickeners, even Richard Nixon. I'll add to the purpose of evil by saying that in addition to thickening the plot, it also provides interest. And what does all this have to do with Pillars? On page 817 we learn that William, the lowest of the lowlifes, is building a church and dedicating it "to the memory of his vicious, half-mad mother." I read those words and realized I would have liked to have seen more of her. Even in a book already close to one thousand pages! She and her son, William, were plot-thickeners of the highest caliber possible.

3) Related to the above, an English major might quibble that the characters were a tad too two-dimensional. But what the heck? It happens with melodrama—the term used descriptively not derogatorily—when an author has a huge canvas and lots and lots of people. BTW, contrasting to a complaint I've had about other large-scope stories, never once did I have trouble keeping Follett's characters straight. I really find him to be a remarkable writer.

I'll mention one other thing I noticed because its very happening bothered me and I'm still not sure why. Fairly early in the story William, mentioned above, commits a horrible and graphically presented rape. I read it, thinking "yuck, how awful" all the while I was reading. Several pages later William and his friends begin a game called "Stone the Cat" where they trap a cat in a room and … I'll stop there. And, in fact, that's where in the scene I stopped reading and skipped a descriptive paragraph or two. Then it started bothering me that the rape of a sympathetic character, a likable young lady, I could read but a scene where a cat is tortured I couldn't. What does that say about me? Beyond that, what does it say about us as a society? Are we so used to mistreatment of people that it's no longer even off-putting? Were the aliens in some science fiction movie—the title of which I can't remember—better than us because their reaction to Gillian's Island was "Oh, those poor people"? Granted, an extreme example but I'm just mulling.

Finally, as with any book I enjoy, "way leads on to way," and now I'm going to have to re-watch the movies Beckett and The Lion in Winter and reread T. S. Elliott's Murder in the Cathedral for other "takes" on the Henry II and Becket conflict. The lists of to-be-watched and to-be-read just keep growing.

Radio Ink by Patricia Sammon, a Christmas present, is a collection of essays from public radio. The language is highfalutin and pretty. The subject matter, IMHO, is precocious. I got bored and quit reading after 75 pages.

Just finished The Best American Mystery Stories 2007. Enjoyed many; detested a few. Best, IMHO, was "Take the Man's Pay" by a Robert Knightly. A Japanese businessman is arrested for murder while in NYC. It presents an interesting comparison between the American and Japanese culture and ends with a clever twist that explains everything that has happened in the story. O'Henry would be proud.

I also got wind of what I guess is a new magazine trend. The volume had stories from a Washington Noir, a Brooklyn Noir and a Miami Noir. I'm assuming someone has come up with the Noir idea and is marketing it in different cities. Not a bad idea, but how far will it go? DC, Brooklyn and Miami I'll buy. But Crawford Noir? Huntsville Noir? Even Buffalo Noir. They just don't have the same zing.

The End of America is Naomi Wolf's call to arms. I'm pretty sure there's not anything in the book that hasn't been said on some thread in ReaderRant, but she runs through the steps of democracy sliding into fascism clearly and bases her concerns on events about which Americans today need to be aware.

She tackles our complacency and contrasts our belief that democracy will win out with the founders' overriding fear that leaders—even American leaders yet to come—will create monarchies if the checks and balances do not work. Thinking of the Bush administration shredding the constitution while reading that section was more than a bit scary, particularly when she stressed that in her opinion our time to halt the progression is rapidly running out.

She discusses the steps a democracy moves through as it becomes fascism.

1) An outside enemy is necessary to help people unite. We have one of those. Our outside enemy, as the Bush administration so often points out, is "Islamofascism." (page 36.) That's why we're fighting the war on "terra."

2) Freedom of speech is being restricted. She refers to an op-ed piece in The New York Times that holds "professors who introduce partisan ideas in their lectures deserve to be fired. Academic freedom … does not include the right to express such ideas in the classroom." (page 108) I read the academic freedom sentence and laughed. Briefly.

3) One branch of government controls more and more power. "Signing statements" are discussed here, and Wolf believes that if people really understood how the statements are used, they'd be appalled. I think she's optimistic.

4) She also makes some very good points about how lying erodes truth, a happening greatly needed for fascism to take hold. Her point is that when there are enough lies, no one believes anything, and truth, then, is diminished. She never mentions the creationism/evolution battle, but it seems to be a darn good illustration. They're both theories; they're both therefore equal. But what about scientific proof behind evolution? Does it prove evolution completely? Not completely, but there's—. Not completely? Then they're both theories. And equal. And American education fails.

All in all, The End of America is a short, sad and scary read. I wish the people who'd never read it would. We might be better off.

I have a multi-media treat to announce. Weeks ago I purchased "Bringing Down the House" for my husband. It was such an old book that I think I bought an old-old copy on Amazon for $.01. He thoughly enjoyed the book.

A few nights ago, he came charging upstairs to tell me that (I believe it was The History Channel) was broadcasting a documentary called, "Breaking Vegas." GREAT DOCUMENTARY. I learned that probably the best collective information of the three media events I have now experienced was from this documentary. I hope any of you with any interest in math, human physchology, history, the mob, now corporate run caseno's, or just pure fun will try to see a re-run of "Breaking Vegas."

Today Mr. BamaMama and I saw "Twenty-one" at the cinema complex. Martha will have a field day if she reads the book first, seeing the documentary and then watches the movie; because the movie does take license with the facts.

I was, at first, off-put when I saw the movie veering from the facts. After the movie ended, however, I forgave all.

I am more drawn to the subject of gambling, card counting, and MIT than many because I married into a family who carries the "card" gene. All of my husband's siblings and he carry this uncanny "card" gene. Thank heavens, only one of the four might have a slight gambling problem and he has a wife who keeps that under control most of the time. This b-i-l has risked things on stocks, inventions, time-share dealing. You name it - he has tried it -- BUT I DISGRESS.

My husband is the brightest of the bunch so added to his card gene is his mathematical ability to count cards. Then, he is also a graduate of MIT. MIT is the school that recruits the teams that still to this day are organizing to try to "break Vegas."

The movie is a romp. Kevin Spacey does his usual bang-up job. I loved living the high life vicarously throught the MIT kids. Some things I would NEVER EVER do in real life, but media gives me almost that life experience.

My husband actually saw a glimpse of where his Fraternity House stood. With real estate as high as it is, I don't know of DU is still in the same place in 2008 as it was in 1965. He could point out the Boston Commons and other sites, so that was fun for him.

The main character of the book in an interview says that he has a 4.0 as a senior at MIT. Mr. BamaMama said perhaps the school is now on a 4-point scale but when he was in school a 4.0 would have only been a "B" average. I don't know if this wasn't researched, if the grading scale has changed, or if it were a mistake if it were intentional because most people recognize a 4.0 as an "A" average, which was the message that the movie wanted the viewer to receive.

I've got to go watch Ebert and Roeper which I have recorded to see what kind of review this movie received from them. For me it was an A+.

If you want to have some fun, do all three -- read the book first, see the documentary, and then catch the flick. -- In that order.

Mr. BamaMama said he can now reveal where he was on all those trips when I thought he was going to LA. I asked him, "Then why was I the one who was always getting "beat up" by life?"

Respectfully,

Kathy Albers