McWhinney's Jaunt

McWhinney's Jaunt is a travel adventure delightfully illustrated by the author Robert Lawson with pen and ink drawings. It tells of an absent-minded professor who develops a "hitherto unknown gas having tremendous lifting power" that he names Z-Gas and uses to fill the tires of his bicycle. He finds that the weight of his body counterbalances the buoyancy of the tires, and he can rise in the air by "leaning back in the saddle and peddling briskly." Since the university is on summer break and his wife had taken up needlepoint, he decides to ride his modified bicycle to Hollywood, where he feels it will "earn him an engagement in the motion pictures more remunerative" than his professorship.
Professor McWhinney sells some of his Z-Gas to a carnival ballon vendor for $50 to fund his trip. There is a drawing of the vendor holding on to about 3 dozen balloons and floating into the air over a grocery store "drifting slowly in a southeasterly direction." With his finances set and the baskets of his bike filled with a few necessities, he takes off the next morning down a well-known Connecticut parkway to cross the George Washington Bridge on the supporting cables of the suspension bridge.
Across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri he rides, earning more money in a bicycle race along the way. Travelling through the midwest and Oklahoma, he heads for the Grand Canyon where he earns some more money with his trick bicycle. His arrival in California is less than a success as the Hollywood producers are not impressed by his amazing bicycle. "In this realm of fantasy they could see nothing especially unusual about it."
On his way home, McWhinney visits the Boulder Dam and Yellowstone Park. Illustrations of McWhinney and his unusual bicycle set against national landmarks make up the heart of this book, but the character of this odd professor and his unusual approach toward life are what bring it to life.
Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr. tells a wonderful tale about this being the first illustrated book he remembers reading in his Illustrators website entry for Robert Lawson. I myself had a similar experience, and went through many years of my life wondering about the book, until I rediscovered it a few years ago. Originally published in 1951 with a paperback re-issue in 1979 by Little, Brown & Co., McWhinney's Jaunt is now again available in a hardcover edition from Oxford City Press. While I have not seen the new edition, I treasure my 1951 copy.

Fruitfulness by Emile Zola

Fruitfulness by Emile Zola

Emile Zola was a novelist as famous in France as his contemporary Charles Dickens was in the UK. He wrote novels about how social conditions, heredity, and environment were inescapable forces in shaping human character. He called this Naturalism, and his first major work, Thérèse Raquin, written in this style, was a major success. Encouraged, Zola launched into the major project of his life, the 20 volume Rougon-Macquart series, which traced members of a family through 4 generations and made him well-off and famous.

In 1898 Zola risked his literary career by defending a wrongly-accused Jewish military officer named Dreyfus in a famous essay ”J’accuse” that appeared on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper L’Aurore. The Dreyfus affair divided France deeply between the reactionary army and church and a liberal working class. Zola had to flee to England to avoid jail himself.

It is in England that Zola decided to write a new gospel for the modern world consisting of four novels:

Fruitfulness (1899) - a pro-birth statement about "the eternal battle which life wages against death."

Labour (1901) - a Socialist re-evaluation of work and capital

Truth (1903, published posthumously) - about Jewish scapegoating and anti-Semitism
Justice (unfinished)

He meant this utopian series to replace the original four gospels of a corrupt Christianity, and to be the natural conclusion to all his previous work. On September 29th, 1902, as the third book Truth was about to be serialized in L’Aurore, a Parisian roofer stuffed up Zola’s chimney pipe as he slept, and he was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. He kept his bedroom windows shut tight and the door locked because he had received many death threats. Although there were rumors that he was murdered, the coroner ruled it death by natural causes, and it was not until 1953 that the true story was told. The roofer's deathbed confession in 1927, stating that the chimney had deliberately blocked then unblocked the next day, went unreported for over 25 years. This final series is not well-known. Yet it appears to be the body of work that got him killed.

Fruitfulness was written while Zola was in exile in England, being hidden by his translator E. A. Vizetelly. In the Translator's Preface, Zola is quoted: "Fruitfulness creates the home. Thence springs the city. From the idea of citizenship comes the fatherland; and love of country, in minds fed by science, leads to the conception of a wider and vaster fatherland, comprising all the peoples of the earth. Of these three stages in the progress of mankind, the fourth still remains to be attained." It was written to address a problem of population stagnation confronting France at the time where the middle class was limiting themselves to one child, and the lower classes couldn't afford to raise children. Today this problem of fertility and birth has been taken up by religious conservatives and is as contentious as it was in Zola's time. He writes of Mathieu and Marianne Froment who, in the face of a society that frowns on large families, proceeds to have a dozen children. As the people around him limit themselves to one or, at most, two children, the Froments throw themselves exuberantly into the flow of Life. Others are sending their unwanted children to the country where they are neglected and die, or having abortions or hysterectomies to prevent further birth.

Beware in reading Vizetelly's translation that he felt that he could not write a publishable translation in England, and only agreed to the job after "recasting some portion of it and sacrificing those matters of form to which exception was taken." As a result we have a book where abortion is only hinted at, and the sexual act is absent. Mathieu and Marianne kiss often and fervently. The one part of fruitfulness that shines forth is the flowing milk of Marianne's breasts that nurture the 12 children who suck at them. This is contrasted with wet nurses who starve children sent to them for care.

This book's simplistic promotion of Fruitfulness and trust in Nature is based on Zola's conception of Science, and is difficult to fit into modern thoughts on this issue. I found it both disturbing and thought-provoking. The Turn of the Century was a time of male, political and racial bias. Even great writers like Zola are a product of their times and it is easy to point out the sexism, racism and colonialist biases of this book. However his underlying faith in Love and Nature is still inspirational.

ACTION PHILOSOPHERS: AYN RAND!

ACTION PHILOSOPHERS: AYN RAND! by Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey

Action Philosophers' short 8-page black and white comic does a good job of outlining the life of Ayn Rand and the major points of her thinking. This is typical of this series of comics that takes a light broad overview of the lives and thoughts of many of the world's major philosophers. Do not expect much detail in a 38-panel review of a major modern thinker. Yet all the major points are covered in an amusing style that makes good use of the combination of short texts and voice bubbles illustrated with comic drawings. This brief free edition is available on the Comixology Droid app which I use on my Kindle Fire.

The Poniard’s Hilt by Eugene Sue

The Poniard’s Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan: A Tale of Bagauders and Vagres by Eugene Sue is the sixth book of Eugene Sue's 21 volume series The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Age. The series was created to be a European history that depicts the struggle between the ruling and the ruled classes. One family, the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, represent the oppressed and the descendants of a Frankish chief Neroweg, typifies the oppressors. Down through the ages the successive struggles between oppressors and oppressed are depicted as each generation of Joel's family writes the story of their lives and adds it to the collective story gathered so far. The Poniard's Hilt takes place in the 6th century CE just after the invasion of Gaul by Clovis and his Frankish tribes. Clovis embraces Christianity, but also uses intrigue and wars to build what we now know as the Merovingian dynasty. This combination of conquest, Christianity, and corruption lays waste to the lands and the people of Gaul. Local priests and lords pillage the land, stealing from the people and each other to amass their wealth and power. As a response to the crushing domination of this combination of church and state, small groups of Gallic peasants, gathering together in the forests in rebellious bands called Bagauders and Vagres, resort to guerrilla counterattacks. Karadeucq and his son Ronan are descendants of Joel, and this tale is told as if it were written down by Ronan, a brave and boastful brigand. Ronan's group of Vagres takes revenge on the local bishop by burning and looting his home and freeing his servants. Bishop Cautin seeks help from the local Frankish lord Count Neroweg and his troops who kill or capture the Vagres. Karadeucq, a Bagauder disguised as a travelling performer, comes to Neroweg's castle to free his son. The tale is written as if told by the youthful Ronan who glorifies the life of the forest rebel and vilifies the court life based on pillage and enslavement of the local Gauls. The modern reader can see Ronan as a French Robin Hood who takes from the rich plunderers and distributes it back to the oppressed. The poniard (also spelled poignard) of the title is a long thin knife used for thrusting that is passed on to Ronan by his brother that contains three words engraved in its hilt. Two are the Gallic words Friendship and Community, but the third was a Saxon word new to him - Ghilde. When Ronan asks the meaning, he is told that a Ghilde is an association of men owing solidarity to each other. It is through the forming of a community of workers that this story ends to be picked up in book seven of the series: The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles: A Tale of the First Communal Charter.

Flying Cars: The Extraordinary History of Cars Designed for Tomorrow's World

Flying Cars: The Extraordinary History of Cars Designed for Tomorrow's World by Patrick J. Gyger

Originally published in 2005 in France by a Swiss historian as Les voitures volantes, Souvenirs d'un futur rêvé, this 2010 English translation is a survey of the idea and the reality of flying cars over the past one hundred years. Gyger provides images and text related to flying cars in both fiction and the popular press to balance his history of the inventors and their machines. The text proceeds from the earliest attempts to build a transport that will work on both the ground and in the air to the latest thinking on how personal aerial vehicles (PAVs) might fit into modern transportation planning. The one fault of the book is that the latest attempt to build a true flying car, the Transition from Terrafugia, is barely covered since it started in 2006, just after the original book was written Gyer was director of Maison d'Ailleurs, a museum in Switzerland devoted to science fiction illustration, and this book contains an excellent collection of flying car art. The book is more a popular history than a technical one, with pictures on almost every page. The pictures and side panel commentary tells the story of the idea of the flying car in the popular imagination. Heavily illustrated with artistic fantasy from science fiction, futurist non-fiction, and movies, the book illustrates the grip that the flying car has had on the popular imagination. It is not a technical book, and engineering details, if mentioned at all, are passed over lightly.

Just Kids

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer who is known for his black and white portraits. Patti Smith is a singer/songwriter. In 1967 when they were both 21, they met on the streets of New York and became lovers and lifelong friends. They lived together and went from street kids to artists. Their paths led them apart but they never stopped caring for each other. In 1989 Robert's dying request was that Patti write their story. This is that story told lovingly by the one who survived. It is a very personal biography and a unique look at New York in the 1960s. Smith's memoir is strong and a compelling look at the early years of two of the late 20th century's greatest artists.

Santa Claus in Oz

Santa Claus in Oz: New Adventures in Oz (Volume 2) by Richard Capwell

Santa Claus in Oz is the second Oz book from Richard Capwell, and a delightful addition to the writings on the magical land of Oz first described in the books written over 100 years ago by L. Frank Baum. His first Oz book issued earlier this year was called The Red Gorilla of Oz. While this Santa Claus book takes place a little over a year after Red Gorilla ends, it can be read on its own.
The story starts with Santa Claus visiting Ozma's palace in the Emerald City. Santa tells Ozma that he is dying because the fairy-made Cloak of Immortality he wears is falling apart. He hopes that she, being a fairy, can help. The only clue they have is mysterious message and a magical compass devised by two long-gone manufacturers named Smith & Tinker, famous in the L. Frank Baum novels for creating the clockwork man Tik-Tok.
Santa asks Button Bright, another Baum character who is the perennial careless youth, to help him on a quest that takes them all over Oz. Meanwhile, the Wizard of Oz, assisted by the moonbeam fairy Iliana, is intrigued by a jar of keys left by Smith & Tinker in the Emerald City and starts to delve into Oz's ancient history.
Capwell has written another exciting adventure that skillfully weaves Oz's past lore into a marvelous new adventure. Glinda's secret past, hinted at in The Red Gorilla of Oz is revealed as the quests of Santa and the Wizard merge in a thrilling conclusion.
Illustrated with very simple line drawings by the author, this is a book that pleased me as an avid reader of Ozianic literature. I am not sure it will do well with those unfamiliar with Baum's writings.

The Red Gorilla of Oz

The Red Gorilla of Oz: Founded on and Continuing the Famous Oz Stories by L. Frank Baum by Richard Capwell

The Red Gorilla of Oz is one of many books that are, as its subtitle states, "founded on and continuing the famous Oz stories of L. Frank Baum." It is the first of two Oz books written in 2012 by Richard Capwell, who has also written Santa Claus in Oz. He doesn't claim to be a "Royal Historian of Oz" as Baum did in the later of his 14 books about adventures in Oz, but it is clear that he is, like Ruth Plumly Thompson, Sherwood Smith, and Eric Shanower, writing in the same tradition.
The Red Gorilla in Oz is a typical Oz book in that it builds on the previous stories in the series, adding a few new characters and revealing new information about older established characters like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman. This book is clearly aimed at the small group of readers like me who have read all or most of the L. Frank Baum books and maybe some others. It is not the best book to start reading about Oz, however it explains the history as it goes along and can be read alone. One small drawback is that, unlike most other Oz books, there is no illustrator, and Capwell relies on verbal description alone to explain the fantastic fairy world that Baum first created over 100 years ago.
The story is a typical adventure quest where three youths must prove themselves in overcoming some adversity and grow up and mature in the process. In Oz no one grows up unless they want to and people can stop aging when they like, so we end up with a coming of age story with characters hundreds or thousands of years old.
In The Red Gorilla of Oz someone is stealing all the magic from the land of Oz. Sebastian, the young prince of the Red Gorillas sets out from his secret mountain home to find Glinda the Good Witch of the South when the magic fire that protects his land goes out. He meets a young Kalidah named Priscilla who has gotten lost. Kalidahs are vicious predators with bodies like bears, heads like tigers, and sharp claws, but Priscilla is more of a rebellious child. The third "youth" is a fairy named Iliana, the youngest daughter of the Moon, who is bored with her life and is fascinated by Sebastian and his quest.
Capwell delves into the back story of Dr. Pipt, whose magic Powder of Life has animated more characters than was previously known. The story reveals the secrets of the loves of Nimmee Aimee, the beautiful Munchkin woman who was enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the East. Also readers learn the history of the Flying Monkeys who were forced to obey the wishes of the owner of the magical Golden Cap. As an Oz historian, he has done his research well, pointing out and explaining inconsistencies and the unrevealed past.
With all this attention to Ozianic details, he still tells a tightly scripted story that held my attention to the very end. It is a delightful tale for Oz-loving adults who have held on to a bit of their childlike fascination but may also appeal to a new generation of young people. I cannot wait to see how he treats one of L. Frank Baum's favorite character in Santa Claus in Oz.

Lay Down Your Arms

Lay down your arms, the autobiography of Martha von Tilling 2d revised edition by Bertha von Suttner; authorized translation by T. Holmes. Published 1914 by Longmans, Green in New York.

In 1905 Bertha Von Suttner was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It was given to her for this novel, Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!) originally published in 1889, and for her work in organizing an international peace movement. As our nation is about to enter its 10th year of foreign wars, and politicians are clamoring for another, I felt a needed to read this book.
Leo Tolstoy compared the effect Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin had on the abolition of slavery to the effect Lay Down Your Arms was having towards the abolition of war. Martin Gregor-Dellin in 1988 wrote "Bertha von Suttner belongs without doubt along with George Sand, Cosima Wagner, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, and the Duse, to the great women of a century which still made it difficult for women to be great." Suttner died only weeks before the outbreak of World War I which she struggled so hard to prevent.
This popular novel introduced thousands of readers of her time to the arguments of pacifism. Written in an autobiographic style this book tells the story of a woman raised in a military family who becomes opposed to war and sets out to document rational arguments against the patriotic reasons nations put forward to justify their wars. Set in the second half of the 19th century, the story begins when she is a young woman in Austria who falls in love with a young officer in the army.
Suttner uses the actual European conflicts of the time as a backdrop for her heroine's disillusionment and growing arguments against war. As the politicians of Austria, Prussia and France lead them into one senseless war after another, she relates the horrors suffered by the the people of Europe. The main drawback of the book is that few today will have much knowledge of the political problems and figures she writes about.
However, the arguments used to start wars in 19th century Europe sound just like those used by modern politicians to justify invasions like those of Iraq and Afghanistan. Listening to her hope for find a rational way to end armed conflict, especially when we have the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, is so inspiring. Could it be that all the people have to do is "Lay Down Your Arms?"

Heaven's Bride

Heaven's Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman by Leigh Eric Schmidt

Ida Craddock was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison 110 years ago in 1902 for violation of the Comstock Act of 1873 that made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. Craddock was a sexologist who wrote and distributed through the mails several pamphlets on how married couples could achieve mutual satisfaction in their sexual relations. Rather than serve her prison sentence, she committed suicide. Outrage over her death marked the beginning of a Free Speech Movement that eventually overturned the Comstock Act.
But Ida Craddock was so much more, and Leigh Schmidt does an admirable job of writing a biography from the supressed documents by and about her. She was a brilliant woman who passed the entrance exams for the University of Pennsylvania"very satisfactorily," but was denied admission by the board of trustees because of her sex. She then became the secretary of the American Secular Union, one of the most important liberal organizations of the 19th century. She stood alone as the only woman researcher in the 19th century investigation of the phallic roots of Christianity. Craddock formed her own Church of Yoga to preach her mix of American Spiritualism, Quaker mysticism, Unitarian free thought, and Tantric Yoga. As a practicing sexologist Craddock suggested that the gyrations of the belly dance, along with male orgasmic restraint, could result in female gratification in the marital bed.
Craddock was hounded during her life by a mother who wanted to commit her to an asylum and Anthony Comstock who wanted to send her to jail. After her death her papers, which she tried to save from destruction by her mother, fell into the hands of Theodore Schroeder, an amateur psychologist. When her personal files were opened, her "marriage" to Soph, the spirit of a dead suitor from her youth, is revealed. As an American Spiritualist, her relationship with Soph was a natural outcome of her research into the spirit world. Schroeder, a lawyer turned psychologist, obtained her personal papers after her death and used her writings on "Heavenly Bridegrooms" to prove Craddock was a "sexual and religious maniac." He tried to show that her repressed sexuality expressed itself by taking on a spirit lover.
Craddock was a bold and gifted woman. Her efforts at reform in Turn of the Century America as revealed in this biography shine a light on the pressures women faced in the last decades before they obtained the right to vote. The terrible price she paid and her quiet resolve to pay it make her what the famous anarchist Emma Goldman called "one of the bravest champions of women's emancipation."
Leigh Schmidt is the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He got his BA from University of California, Riverside and his MA and PhD from Princeton University. His other books include: Practicing Protestants: Histories of the Christian Life in America, Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality, The Religious History of America, Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern Period, and, Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays.

Wonderful Tonight

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me by Pattie Boyd & Penny Junor

Pattie Boyd was a successful London model when she met George Harrison on the set of A Hard Day's Night, but most people today remember her for being George's wife, and later, Eric Clapton's. Her memories as a fashion model in the 1960s and with the Beatles provide a unique perspective and the core of this book. Her life with Eric Clapton and his struggle with alcoholism is an exciting but downward spiral which ends with her leaving and his eventual recovery. She lived with two of the most famous musicians of her time and her brush with romance and fame may be the big draw of the book. However, ultimately it is her own life that makes this book a success. She is not famous, but she has survived and developed a life of her own.

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Dr Miklos Nyiszli

Originally published in Hungarian in 1947, this is one of the early first person narratives to depict the mass murders at Auschwitz, one of many German concentration camps of World War II. Miklós Nyiszli was a Romanian Jew sent to the death camp with his wife and 15 year old daughter in May 1944. As they got out of their box cars they were sorted by gender, "for a bath and to be disinfected" the good-natured guards said. He did not know if he would ever see his family again.

From the remaining men Dr. Mengele, the chief medical officer of the camp, ordered all doctors to step forward and asked if there was a pathologist with a knowledge of forensic medicine. Nyiszli answered and, after questioning, was singled out from the others. Thus began his one year as Dr. Mengele's assistant, performing autopsies and other medical tasks for Mengele's research on twins and congenital deformities.

Nyiszli lived in and had his lab in one of the four crematoriums and witnessed first-hand much of the mass murders and incinerations of the last year of the camp. His life with the Jews who worked the gas chambers and crematoriums, the Sonderkommandos, makes up another major part of his story.

The author writes in his Declaration at the beginning of the book that he is not trying to be a reporter or to write literature; he is a doctor, writing as a doctor would write. His story was made into a play and later a movie called The Grey Zone by Tim Nelson.

Wetlands

Wetlands by Charlotte Roche

This first person narrative starts out like a novelization of Paul Spinrad's The Re/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids. A young woman is alone in a hospital bed recovering from anal surgery, and keeps herself from feeling alone by recalling her fascination with bodily fluids. She is also trying to come to terms with her parents' divorce, the influence these two very different people have had on her, and unrevealed family secrets.

Helen, the main character, is both brash and vulnerable at the same time. The author develops the plot well through Helen's narrative which leads the reader deeper and deeper into her life. She hopes to resolve her conflicts by reuniting her parents.

However, when she starts to open up to a young male nurse who seems to care, a new opportunity for happiness becomes possible in this coming of age story. While the book starts out gross, Helen's inner insecurities and feelings slowly reveal themselves and those who stick it out may find a novel worth reading.

Twinkle and Chubbins

Twinkle and Chubbins: Their Astonishing Adventures in Nature-Fairyland, Written by Laura Bancroft (pseudonym of L. Frank Baum) Illustrated by Maginal Wright Enright (1911)

L. Frank Baum, using the name Laura Bancroft, wrote these six stories in 1905 as separate booklets which were later published together in 1911 as this book. The color illustrations are by Frank Lloyd Wright's younger sister Maginel Wright Enright.
In this collection of short stories Twinkle is a girl living on the North Dakota prairie whose magical adventures concerning the animals she meets there are brought on by her tendency towards narcolepsy and vivid dreaming. Baum uses the animals' behaviors to create amusing fables for his young readers.

I am reading the online edition available through The Literature Network that includes each chapter as a separate web site. The Readability app's Send to Kindle feature helped me load the HTML pages onto my Kindle.

Mr. Woodchuck - Twinkle's father decides to put a steel trap outside the entrance to a woodchuck's home because it is eating his clover. That afternoon Twinkle goes out to see if the woodchuck is caught. Laying in the warm sun near the trap, she dozes off and dreams that Mr. Woodchuck all dressed in evening clothes catches her. He and his family explain how cruel humans are, always trying to kill them, and decide to punish her.

Bandit Jim Crow - Twinkle's dad gives her a wild crow with a broken wing that she calls Jim and nurtures back to health. When he is healthy, Jim kills a bunch of baby chicks and flies off seeking a new home. He finds a forest with many birds and settles into a vacant nest. Rather than being a good neighbor, he starts eating the eggs and chicks from unguarded nests. Led by policeman Blue Jay, the other birds punish Jim, but their kind and gentle natures won't let him die.

Prairie-Dog Town - Twinkle and her friend Chubbins visit a prairie-dog town, get shrunk by a magic prairie-dog, and are entertained at a luncheon at the town mayor's home.

Prince Mud-Turtle - Twinkle finds a turtle that can speak only on Saturdays because he is a fairy prince who has been transformed by an evil Corrugated Giant.

Twinkle's Enchantment - Twinkle goes picking blueberries and crosses a line of enchantment into a land of talking idiomatic creatures like the Rolling Stone, Birds of a Feather, a Dancing Bear and more.

Sugar-Loaf Mountain - Twinkle and Chubbins go hiking on Sugar-Loaf Mountain and find a secret passage to a vast underground kingdom inhabited by people made entirely of sugar.

This online edition does not have the Introduction by Katherine M. Rogers that is included in the 2005 International Wizard of Oz Club print edition.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Ana is college English major about to graduate with no prior sexual experience when she interviews Christian Grey, a young rich businessman, for her college newspaper. It is a case of mutual love at first sight, but Mr. Grey wants Ana to become his submissive in a Dominant/submissive relationship. This is a good erotic romance novel that handles character development well, and provides a decent look into a kinky relationship for general audiences. The sexual encounters are somewhat idealized, but that is expected in the romance genre. This is the first of three volumes so don't expect a typical happily ever after romance ending to volume one.

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

I have tried unsuccessfully to read the bible cover-to-cover many times, often starting with a hotel room's Gideon bible. Genesis is very difficult for me to read and I have never before gotten through it. So it was with some hesitation I spent almost $30 on this edition.

Robert Crumb illustrations are excellent throughout. His approach is straightforward with "no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes." He uses the King James Version and a recent Robert Alter translation as his sources, did a lot of research and consulted scholars to make sure his illustrations and words were faithfully rendered. He does not attempt to sanctify the book either. One strength of this book is its neutrality. Another is how Crumb has captured our collective unconscious in his images for this book. Peter Poplaski and Roger Katan provide him with visual imagery from Hollywood epics, the Middle East, and other sources.

While never straying from the text, Crumb has a commentary on each chapter at the end of the book revealing his own research on the text that inspired and informed his artwork. To get background for the chapters on Sarah and Rebekah he used Savina Teubal's book Sarah The Priestess (1984). Crumb also looked at the writings of neighboring Sumer to find parallel stories to those he was illustrating.

What comes clear to me in this first successful reading of Genesis is that it is a compilation of stories that had been written by diverse hands over a long period of time. Crumb says that Genesis was put together from pre-existing documents by Israelite priests in the 6th century B.C.E. This is a very good attempt to look at this ancient text and worth a read by any open minded person interested in the story.

The Casque's Lark by Eugene Sue

The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, The Mother Of The Camps: A Tale Of The Frankish Invasion Of Gaul is the fifth book of Eugene Sue's 21 volume series The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Age. The series was created to be a European history that depicts the struggle between the ruling and the ruled classes. One family, the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, represent the oppressed and the descendants of a Frankish chief Neroweg, typifies the oppressors. Down through the ages the successive struggles between oppressors and oppressed are depicted in a series of stories that culminate in the European Revolutions of 1848. The first four titles in the series served as an introduction to the Gallic people and tells of their situation in Europe from Julius Ceasar's conquest of Gaul to the death of Jesus.

In this volume, set in the third century AD, we first meet Frankish invader Neroweg as he tries to cross the Rhine River to conquer the Gauls, steal their land and rape their women. He is opposed in this effort by Victoria, the wife and daughter of great generals, and her son Victorin, the newly elected leader of the troops. Joel's family is represented by Schanvock, the adopted brother of Victoria who aids Victorin in battle. While Victorin battles Neroweg, Victoria faces a much more insidious threat from her cousin Tetrik, a Governor of a Gallic province, whose ambitions threaten Gaul from within.

As the Roman Empire fades and its hold on Gaul loosens, the threat on the people and the land now come from the Frankish tribes of the north and alliances between Tetrik and the new Christian bishops of Rome.

The lark of this story is the insignia of a Roman troop defeated by a Gallic force. They portrayed their victory by displaying on their shields a Gallic Rooster holding the Roman lark in its talons. This symbol was cast in bronze as a crest on Victoria's war helmet, or casque.

The Silver Cross by Eugene Sue

The Silver Cross is the fourth book of the 19 volume series The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Age. The first three books show how a proud Gallic family is reduced to slavery due to the Roman conquest of Gaul. In the first book Joel, the leader of the clan, directs his children to write and pass on their story as a reminder to their descendants to never forgive their oppressors.

This fourth volume tells the story of Genevieve, a 23 year old Gallic slave, who is the personal attendant to Aurelia, a Roman matron. They have just arrived in Judea with Aurelia's husband, a relative of the local procurator, Pontius Pilate. He has come to take the position of tax collector. At a dinner at Pilate's house Aurelia and Genevieve meet and become friends with Jane, the wife of the steward to Herod, the local governor. All the positions of power and authority are represented at the dinner: government administrators, a lawyer/senator, a Pharisee, and a banker. These men of power talk about the troublemaker Jesus. While Pilate tends to minimize the threat, the others see Jesus as a menace to their wealth and power and want him destroyed.

Jane attempts to defend Jesus and says the men misunderstand his message of hope and love for the desolate and downtrodden. The men do not want to hear this, but Aurelia and Genevieve are interested in learning more about the gentle carpenter. A few days later when their husbands are away on business, Jane and Aurelia, disguised as men and accompanied by Genevieve, seek out the Wild Ass Tavern where Jesus is known to speak. They are inspired by his parables and stories and his gentle and giving manner.

This series was written to be a European history depicting the struggle between the ruling and the ruled classes. This is the last of the four introductory volumes of the series. In it we see Jesus as the first Christian communist speaking out against the ruling authority of church, state and money. The slave Genevieve observes in him a great leader for justice and equality. She documents how the bankers, priests and lawmakers orchestrate the persecution and murder of Jesus to remove the threat to their privileged lives. While the story has the feeling of a Socialist morality play and the characters are stereotypical, in reading this book we get to see the Passion of Jesus in a working class perspective as seen from the eyes of a slave wishing to be free.

Considered classics of Marxist/Socialist thought, these books are mostly forgotten today, and the English-language editions published at the beginning of the 20th Century have only recently become available through large-scale digitization projects of Public Domain books. Daniel DeLeon, leader of the Socialist Labor Party of America and translator of this series into English, writes a Preface to each volume as an introduction.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
Of the series of nineteen historic novels that comprise Eugene Sue's work entitled The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages, the first four may be called the overture to the historic drama that really starts with the fifth—The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, when the two distinct streams of the typically oppressed and typical oppressor meet—and closes with the nineteenth—The Galley Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn, bringing history down to the year 1848. The introductory period closes with this, the fourth story, The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth. While the first of the introductory stories—The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen—portrays the Gallic people, pure, brave, industrious but unorganized; while the second—The Brass Bell; or, The Chariot of Death—narrates the enslavement of this people, as the inevitable consequence of their unorganized condition, which not all their virtues could parry; while the third—The Iron Collar; or, Faustina and Syomara—describes Roman society with an eye especially to the brutality that the slave was subjected to, and the brutalizing effect thereof upon the slaveholder himself;— while these three stories unfold the gradual breakdown of society under the Roman sway, this, the fourth, summarizes the preceding ones in the grand climax of the political upheaval which the Tragedy of Calvary, though expected to, was not able to burke.
Although Sue's Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family is a "work of fiction," yet it is the best universal history extant; better than any work, avowedly on history, it graphically traces the special features of the several systems of class-rule as they have succeeded each other from epoch to epoch, together with the nature of the struggle between the contending classes. The "Law," "Order," "Patriotism," "Religion," etc., etc., that each successive tyrant class, despite its change of form, hysterically sought refuge in to justify its criminal existence whenever threatened; the varying economic causes of the oppression of the toilers; the mistakes incurred by these in their struggles for redress; the varying fortunes of the conflict;—all these social dramas are therein reproduced in a majestic series of "historic novels," covering leading and successive episodes in the history of the race. The present story—The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth—is a marvellous presentation of one of the world's leading events in a garb without which that event is stripped of its beauty and significance. As the narrative rushes onward thrillingly from start to catastrophe, it delineates one after another the leading features of the oppressors' class—their unity of action, despite hostile politico-material interests and clashing creed tenets; the hypocrisy that typifies them all; the oneness of fundamental purpose that animates pulpit, professional chair, or public office in possession of a plundering class. Page after page holds the mirror up to the modern ruling class—its orators, pulpiteers, politicians, lawyers, together with its long train of menials of high and low degree— and, by the reflection cast, enlightens and warns.
Daniel De Leon
Milford, Conn., May, 1909.

The Sheik

The Sheik, by E. M. Hull

A beautiful rich British 18-year old virgin decides to hire a guide to take her across the Algerian desert. She is abducted by a equally rich and handsome horse-breeding sheik who wants to rape her and tame her like his wild horses. It is the early 20th century and the French control of Algeria is limited to the major cities and the coast, so the sheik is the absolute ruler of his tribe and his land. This is a rape and submission fantasy novel told from the woman's point of view. Overpowered, isolated and helpless we watch her mind shift from an attitude of upper-class privilege to submissive love in the lonely space of the sheik's two room tent. Both are damaged emotionally at the start and come to find love in each other's arms.
I found this book to be well-written in its focus. What is not said looms large, and the reader's thoughts will either complete the story or reject it.

The Iron Collar: or, Faustina and Syomara, A Tale of Slavery Under the Romans

The Iron Collar: or, Faustina and Syomara, A Tale of Slavery Under the Romans is the third book in a series of 19 novels called The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages that was written from 1849-1857 by the French author Eugene Sue. It was translated into English in 1909 by Daniel De Leon, Marxist theoretician and leader of the Socialist Labor Party, who published the series in his New York Labor News Press. Sue created the series to be a European history depicting the struggle between the ruling and the ruled classes. These books were at one time considered classics of Marxist/Socialist thought. The English-language editions published at the beginning of the 20th Century have only recently become available through large-scale digitization projects of Public Domain books. The Iron Collar is available as an ebook through Google Books under the title The Mysteries of the People: The iron collar.

The descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, represent the oppressed who write and pass on their stories as a reminder to their descendants to never forgive their oppressors. In a letter to his readers Sue describes the first two books of the series, The Gold Sickle and The Brass Bell. The family of a proud Gallic tribe leader named Joel fights a "holy war" against Julius Caesar's invading armies to defend "their nation, their liberty, their soil, their hearths, their families and their gods." They are either killed, sold into slavery, or commit suicide to avoid what Sue calls "frightful servitude." Joel's son Guilhern and his two children Sylvest and Syomara survive the battles only to be sold into slavery.

As a child Sylvest and his father were sold to a Roman officer who had been given their home as a spoil of war. His sister Syomara was taken off to Rome by a lecherous and lascivious old man. Guilhern was made to work what had been his land by the threat that any disobedience would be rewarded with punishment of his son. Sylvest was kept in a cage as a hostage and used to break the will of the strong farmer.

The story begins with Sylvest, now an adult living in the city of Orange as the personal servant of a cruel and rich Roman. The iron collar around his neck is inscribed with the words SERVUS SUM, "I am a slave," and the name of his owner Diavolus. He is returning from a secret meeting of a group of rebellious slaves called The Sons of the Mistletoe, and sneaks onto the estate of Faustina, a Roman lady of great wealth and cruelty, to meet his secret wife Loyse who is pregnant with their child and works for Faustina as a weaver. Instead of Loyse, he sees Faustina and hides from her. As she awaits a sorceress fortune teller. Faustina amusing herself by torturing a slave girl. Faustina is in love with a famous gladiator who, in turn, is smitten with a Gallic courtesan who has recently moved to Orange from Rome. She asks the sorceress for a way to turn the gladiator's heart and have revenge on the courtesan whose name is Syomara!

Sylvest and Syomara, separated as children and raised as slaves, are now together in the same city, but separated by their status. She is free, rich and desired by the local men, including Sylvest's master Diavolus. He is a domestic slave and struggles to reunite with her. Sorcery, torture, debauchery, gladiatorial combat and the wild beasts of the circus combine to make this a strong tale of the horrors of Roman slavery. Eugene Sue carefully footnotes this novel to show that he is recreating what historians know to be the facts of the Roman occupation of Gaul. This story of foreign invasion and a subjugated people fighting for their self-respect and self determination was written by Sue for the French common people, but it has relevance in understanding all people who struggle to throw off their oppressors and live free.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. The Iron Collar; or, Faustina and Syomara is the third of the series of historic novels published by Eugene Sue under the title The Mysteries of the People; or. History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages. The story deals with the fate of the two children of Guilhern, the central character in the story that precedes it—The Brass Bell; or, The Chariot of Death.
Slavery among the Romans was an institution such as the world had never seen before, and has never seen since. It has been a subject of vast historic research, and often have novelists sought to reproduce at least some of its leading features by placing the theater of their story in the days of so-called Roman grandeur. Bulwer Lytton tried his hand at it; one of the boldest attempts in that field is Sienkiewicz's "Quo Vadis." The most favorable criticism that these efforts deserve is that they are imperfect. It was left for the genius of Sue to reproduce, in this story, that remarkable epoch in the annals of man with a truth of coloring and a width of sweep that present the era in all its vividness. The story told in this volume is one of Sue's greatest achievements. The brilliant garb of fiction, in which history is here presented, cleaves so closely to the grand historic mold that the entrancing story develops with all the majesty of a Greek drama. The vast stores of Sue's erudition, upon which the author drew, coupled with the enthusiasm that he brought to bear upon this at once instructive and entertaining series of historic novels, produced this story with the full consciousness, as indicated by him, in his prefatory words, of the deep significance of the period that he here describes, and which culminates with the period of the following story—The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth.
There is no better treatise on the age that ushered in Christianity than this novel; nor is there extant any historic work of fiction, with its theater located in Antiquity, at all comparable with this.
Daniel De Leon.
New York, October, 1908.

Camille by Alexandre Dumas

Camille by Alexandre Dumas

This Heritage Press edition is clothbound with a leather label on the spine. Illustrations by Bernard Lamotte accompany most of the 26 chapters. The translation is by Edmund Gosse and there is an Introduction by Andre Maurois, a Prefatory Letter by the author, and A Memoir of Marie Duplessis by Jules Janin. Tucked into my copy was a 4-page Heritage Club Sandglass which further describes the book, its background, and this edition.
Andre Maurois' Introduction tells the true story of how the young Alexandre Dumas met and fell in love with Alphonsine Plessis, known in Paris as Marie Duplessis. Their true story is the basis for this first novel. Since his mother was a kept woman, Dumas had a special understanding for the life Alphonsine was living, and tried, without success, to save her with his love.
This introduction is followed by a short letter from the author to the publisher of an illustrated edition that tells the story of how he wrote this book about Marie Duplessis in three weeks when his "thoughts reverted to her" while staying at a country inn that they used to visit together. Then comes a Memoir of Marie Duplessis written by the Parisian author Jules Janin who, while he only saw her three times, like everyone in Paris, knew her story.
The novel itself is a shifting of voices. In the first three chapters the narrator tells of stumbling on an auction at what turns out to be the apartment of the recently deceased Marguerite Gautier, the name Dumas gives to Marie Duplessis in the novel. He takes a fancy to a copy of the novel Manon Lescaut with "something written on the first page" and places the highest bid. When he gets the book the inscription turns out to be "Manon to Marguerite. Humility. Armand Duval."
In the fourth chapter he gets a call from Armand Duval who has been out of the country and returned when he heard of Marguerite's deathly illness, but arrived too late to see her. He has come seeking the book and the narrator is more than happy to return it. A bond is formed between these two men. They meet several more times, always talking of Marguerite. Then in chapters seven through twenty four the point of view shifts and Armand tells the narrator of his tragic love affair with Marguerite.
All through the novel Marguerite is portrayed as a kept woman plagued with consumption who relies on her patrons for the money she needs to live in luxury. The narrator claims he is "not the apostle of vice," but is instead "the echo of noble sorrow." It is this ability to portray a fallen woman as a romantic ideal to a young man in a realistic way that makes the work the classic it is. Marguerite and Armand are young lovers who can make no claims to innocence or virtue, and yet their love is deep and true.

The Brass Bell

The Brass Bell: Or, The Chariot of Death, a Tale of Caesar's Gallic Invasion by Eugène Sue
The Brass Bell is the second of a series of 19 novels called The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages that was written from 1849-1857. It was translated 1n 1907 by Solon De Leon the son of Daniel De Leon, Marxist theoretician and leader of the Socialist Labor Party who published the series in his New York Labor News Press. Sue created the series to be a European history depicting the struggle between the ruling and the ruled classes.
One family, the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, represent the oppressed who write and pass on the story as a reminder to their descendants to never forgive their oppressors. The Brass Bell, written down by Joel's son Guilhern, tells the story of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul at the Battle of Vannes in Brittany from the Gallic point of view. The first 5 chapters tell of Guilhern's brother Albinik the mariner and his wife Meroë as they seek to destroy the Roman fleet. This is followed by Guilhern's account of the land battle and his capture. The book ends with the aftermath of the battle as Guilhern is sold into slavery.
Gallic virtues and Roman decadence are the theme of this book. The good farmers tilling their soil and the professional soldiers who attack them are contrasted sharply. Sue has provided a thoughtful alternative to Caesar's own writings on The Gallic Wars.

The Gold Sickle

The Gold Sickle, or Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen: A Tale of Druid Gaul by Eugene Sue

The Gold Sickle is the 1st volume in a series called The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages that was written from 1849-1857. The author, once called "the king of the popular novel," created this series to be a European history that depicted the struggle between the ruling and the ruled classes. One family, the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, represent the oppressed and the descendants of a Frankish chief Neroweg, typifies the oppressors. Down through the ages the successive struggles between oppressors and oppressed are depicted in a series of stories that culminate in the European Revolutions of 1848.

Considered classics of Marxist/Socialist thought, these books are mostly forgotten today, and the English-language editions published at the beginning of the 20th Century have only recently become available through large-scale digitization projects of Public Domain books. Daniel DeLeon, leader of the Socialist Labor Party of America and translator of this series into English, writes in his Preface to The Gold Sickle that it was owning class influence that kept English translations of this series from being available for over 50 years. A 2004 article entitled "Eugene Sue : Champion of the Oppressed" in The People, written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the English translations, says the following about the series:
"It is by far the best work ever written for giving the working class reader an intimate picture of society as it evolved in France from the days of Gaul, before the Roman conquest, to the middle of the 19th century. It is especially valuable for the picture that it provides of the various phases of feudal society, and the growth of infant capitalism within the feudal womb."

While Sue's anti-Catholic works The Wandering Jew and The Mysteries of Paris are still known, this Socialist series of 19 novels in 21 volumes has suffered, and I only find one listing of them on the Internet in the Eugène Sue entry in The Authors' Calendar

The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Age series
1. The Gold Sickle or Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen: A Tale of Druid Gaul
2. The Brass Bell; or, The Chariot of Death: A Tale of Caesar's Gallic Invasion
3. The Iron Collar; Or, Faustina and Syomara: A Tale of Slavery Under the Romans
4. The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth: A Tale of Jerusalem
5. The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, The Mother Of The Camps: A Tale Of The Frankish Invasion Of Gaul
6. The Poniard’s Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan: A Tale of Bagauders and Vagres
7. The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles: A Tale of the First Communal Charter
8. The Abbatial Crosier; or, Bonaik and Septimine: A Tale of a Medieval Abbess
9. The Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne: A Tale of the Ninth Century
10. The Iron Arrow Head; or, The Buckler Maiden: A Tale of the Northman Invasion
11. The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World: A Tale of the Millennium
12. The Pilgrim's Shell; or, Fergan the Quarryman: A Tale from the Feudal Times
13. The Iron Pincers; or, Mylio and Karvel: A Tale of the Albigensian Crusades
14. The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion: A Tale of the Jacquerie
15. The Executioner’s Knife; or, Joan of Arc: A Tale of the Inquisition
16. The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century (2 volumes)
17. The Blacksmith’s Hammer; or, The Peasant Code: A Tale of the Grand Monarch
18:1. The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic: A Tale of the French Revolution
18:2. The Sword of Honor: Part II - The Bourgeois Revolution: A Tale of the French Revolution
19. The Galley Slave’s Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn: A Tale of the French Revolution of 1848

Having already enjoyed Sue's The Wandering Jew, I looked forward to starting a work which will unite my interest in serial novels, historic fiction, and Class Warfare. Fortunately, the whole series seems to be available free to anyone who has Kindle or epub software on their reading device.

This first volume is a prelude, setting the scene for the grand drama the author planned. Set in 58 BC, we are at the home of Joel on the coast of Brittany as he and his large extended family are preparing to celebrate the 18th birthday of his daughter Hena. While returning home the night before the party, Joel meets a stranger riding toward the sea whom he coerces into spending the night at his table. Hospitality to strangers is how isolated families like Joel's received news. In exchange for dinner and a warm bed, visitors were expected to tell stories of their travels and what is going on in other parts of the land. This traveller tells that the Romans, who have long occupied southern Gaul, are now, under Julius Caesar, beginning to move their armies north. His mission is to unite the families of the north to fight back and drive out the invaders.

The book is short and related from the point of view of Joel. In this manner we the readers get into the Gallic mindset, so different than that of the Roman invaders whose culture we know. We learn of their spiritual beliefs, customs and daily life as their routine is interrupted by the call to war.

A Round-Heeled Woman

A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance by Jane Juska

Jane Juska wrote this sex-positive autobiography when she was 67 years old. While it promotes itself as "late-life adventures in sex and romance," most of the book is a review of her life prior to placing an ad at age 66 saying she would "like to have a lot of sex with a man" before she turns 67. Keeping with the theme of the title, her biographical writings do focus on how sexuality fit into her rather mundane white middle-class upbringing in the midwest and her 30 years of celibacy following her divorce. It is refreshing to read a fairly straightforward look at physical love from someone making such a strong change in her life.

The Shanghai Gesture: A Play by John Colton

The Shanghai Gesture: A Play by John Colton

I became interested in this play after watching the 1941 movie of the same name that was adapted from it. To get the movie past the Hollywood censors many changes had to be made to the story and I wanted to see what the original 1918 play was about. Fortunately my local university library has a copy.

Here are some excerpts from a review of a 2009 production of this play.

"Written in 1918 and last produced in New York on Broadway in l926 The Shanghai Gesture is a 100-year-old historic American play that has always been controversial for its bold confrontation of still-relevant issues."

"The Shanghai Gesture confronts issues of women's rights, the sex trade, child abuse/slavery, and what happens when one country imposes its culture upon another."

"It takes place in China in the roaring twenties when Shanghai was a truly cosmopolitan city filled with Russian refugees, its people exploited by opium traders and adventurers from all over Europe and Great Britain, and visited by American entrepreneurs. Mother Goddam is a Manchu princess shamed and discarded by an aristocratic English merchant and sold into sex slavery who can never return to her home. A survivor, she has risen to great power and reputation within a complex society where she runs an elegant brothel frequented by governors, mandarins, and princes who chose amongst women who are beautiful and tastefully dressed. Tonight there is great excitement, for she is having a dinner party - and society folk, the British and other European aristocrats and their wives are coming to dinner. What transpires during the dinner is hypnotic, humorous, erotic, terrifying, shocking, surprising, sad, and utterly fascinating. Many secrets - those of each guest - are revealed, and the ultimate secrets - those of Sir Guy Charteris - literally change lives. Even Mother Goddam must face an unanticipated revelation of a secret of her own. Unlike Madame Butterfly, Mother Goddam chooses not to view herself as a victim. Instead she outwits and punishes her male oppressors. This single fact made this play (produced so soon after women had gotten the vote) a great favorite with female audiences as well and it was taken up as a popular feminist tract. It played the Martin Beck (now the Hirschfeld) for an extraordinary 210 performances and then moved to the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers) where it continued to play for many months more."

To read the whole review go to http://dld.bz/ShanghaiGesture

There is not a lot to add to a review like that. In the book's introduction, John D. Williams talks about the significance of the title. The verb "shanghai" as in "to be shanghaied" originally meant to kidnap or force someone to work on a ship by drugging them. It is not much used these days but it came to take on the more general meaning of being coerced into doing something against your will.

From this comes the gesture that some know as the Shanghai Gesture. We all have seen it at one time or another. In the UK they call it "cocking a snook." Williams describes how it is made. "Place the fingers of your right hand extended. Distend the thumb of your right hand until it touches your nose. The little finger of your right hand is stretched venomously toward the world. You say nothing but you think much, and that is that." He goes on to say: "When the world puts its heel on a derelict, when life is just a little too hard, when a man is marooned, by parents or otherwise, before he has a chance to plead, he is wont to accept his condition -- if there is no way out -- but he only accepts his fate after making the Shanghai Gesture." It has a long history. The gesture can be seen in The Festival of Fools, a print made in 1560 by artist Pieter Bruegel (the elder). This may explain why a fool is pictured on the cover of Gary Indiana's 2009 novel The Shanghai Gesture.

Rembrandt's Mother: Myth and Reality

Rembrandt's Mother: Myth and Reality by Christiaan Vogelaar & Gerbrand Korevaar is a book published in conjunction with a 2006 exhibit of the same name. It is in two parts with the first half being four scholarly articles, and the second half a catalog of art works. The articles talk about Rembrandt in his home town, the history of the identification of the old woman in his work as his mother, and the symbolism of old age in his paintings. They are scholarly, full of historic detail, and not written for a popular audience.

The second half of the book is a catalog of works by Rembrandt and other Leiden artists that feature his mother, father, sister and brother. Each is described with a history of its ownership, and a bibliography is included. There are about 60 pages each devoted to paintings of his mother and father, about 10 pages to works portraying his brother, and 5 pages to works of his sister.

The book succeeds at what it aims to be. I was drawn to it because I have developed a fondness for the way he paints his mother. She is most often portrayed reading books.

One of the articles, written by Anouk Janssen, that I particularly enjoyed has to do with how artists of the time portrayed old age, which for them was 40-60 years old. Old people were praiseworthy if they read the Bible or engaged in domestic chores; they were portrayed as blameworthy if they were miserly, lazy, or sensual. So while I see a woman who enjoyed reading a lot, Rembrandt was trying to show his mother as a pious person getting her spiritual life in order at the end of her life.

Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid

Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid

Painful Questions was one of the first of the 9/11 conspiracy books. While it asks questions rather than provide answers, it is well illustrated and outlines the main themes of the conspiracy. These are that the collapse of World Trade Center buildings 1, 2 and 7 were controlled demolitions and that the Pentagon was hit with a missile rather than a jet liner. The book goes on to say that the only people who could have done this is the government itself and places the blame on the CIA and FBI, what he calls "The Axis Of Good" in opposition to President Bush's "Axis of Evil" representation of North Korea, Iraq and Iran.

After 110 pages of text and illustrations on the events of 9/11, the author spends the last third of the book rehashing the John F. Kennedy murder conspiracy and a few other events he claims are government cover-ups. While he may do this to show that the government is capable of such actions, it makes him look even more untrustworthy and paranoid.

This is not a good book for information on the conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks. Published only a year after, it's main value is in showing the early development of the conspiracy ideas. It also is highly illustrated providing many photographs and illustrations to support his beliefs.

She Comes First by Ian Kerner

She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman by Ian Kerner

She Comes First is a manual for men on how to provide sexual pleasure to a woman. The premise of the book is the fact that female orgasms are clitoral orgasms. He goes on to say that the best clitoral orgasms are achieved with cunnilingus and that, because of differences in male and female sexual response, it is best for heterosexual couples if the female orgasm precedes the male orgasm.

The author has a Ph.D. from the American Academy of Clinical Sexologists. Being an English major from Brandeis University, he has chosen to use the structure of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style to organize the information presented. The first section, "The Elements of Sexual Style," outlines female sexual anatomy and response. To make his case for the clitoral orgasm, he argues that the clitoris is much more than the glans, or love button, and that it has 18 parts, most of which are internal and not visible. Line dawings by Naomi Pitcairn are helpful throughout the text in illustrating anatomy and positions.

In the second section, "Rules of Usage," Kerner outlines the basic steps of cunnilingus from foreplay, through "coreplay" to "moreplay." This is basically an instruction manual on how to perform cunnilingus, broken into short chapters with a Let's Review section at the end of each.

The third and last section is called "Putting It All Together" and it provides routines, from beginner to advanced that the student can use. There is even a blank Routine Template you can photocopy and fill in with your own variations. The image of a young playboy keeping completed templates with women's names at the top, filed alphabetically in a ring binder came to mind when I saw this.

While I liked this book I felt that the format actually detracted from the presentation. Strunk and White's book may have been a revelation to some young college freshmen learning to write, but their methodology, does not always translate well to other disciplines. what saves the book is the author's enthusiasm for his subject and the knowledge he brings to it. If you have a clueless man in your life, this book may help him discover one of the greatest joys in life.

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution by Larry Gonick

Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1 is divided into five volumes or chapters. It picks up where his 3 volume Cartoon History of the Universe (from the Big Band to the Renaissance) leaves off. For a humorous and popular account, Gonick's Cartoon Histories can not be beat. While telling the big story, his comic book style finds the quirky humor in the personalities of history.

Volume 1, War of the Worlds, starts with Native American Pre-Columbian history and tells the story of early Spanish conquest by Columbus and Cortes of what we now know as the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Volume 2, What Goes Around, looks at the rivalry between Spain and Portugal as they send ships out to explore and colonize the world. In Volume 3, Good Works, Gonick returns to Europe and takes on the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic response. Here the focus is on King Carlos V of Spain who ruled much of Europe in the 16th Century. With Volume 4, The United ___ of ___, Gonick looks at The Age of Enlightenment and the birth of Netherlands (aka the United Provinces of the Netherlands) with its non-royal governing and religious tolerance as a precursor of the USA. The final chapter, Volume 5 "Let's Be Reasonable", shows how the Age of Enlightenment and the conquest of North America develops into the beginning of the USA. He ends the book with a 5 page Index and a 4 page listing of Books, Sites, Etc. with notes on recommended further reading.

Vlad the Impaler

Vlad the Impaler
by Sid Jacobson, Ernie Colon (Illustrator)

This is a graphic novel that is not for the squeamish. In telling the story of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, the authors created 64 panels of carnage, 15 are visuals of impalements. Of course, people who read the life of Vlad Dracul are expecting bloodshed. He was a violent man in violent times. The book portrays the historical events and gives the reader some insight into the forces that shaped Vlad's personality. Battle in the 15th Century was bloody and brutal. Hand-to-hand combat with swords, axes and pikes was the method of battle, and cruelty like impaling was meant to deter opposition through fear. Surrounded by enemies, Vlad attempted to maintain control of his lands by instilling fear in his neighbors and enemies through liberal use of this method of torture. He was not a vampire but his name was chosen by Bram Stoker for the main character of his novel Dracula.

Through an American Lens, Hungary, 1938: Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White

Through an American Lens, Hungary, 1938: Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White edited by Katalin Kadar Lynn
Katalin Kadar Lynn edited and wrote the introductory essays of this collection of photographs from Margaret Bourke-White's 1938 visit to Hungary. Many of the photos are of the leaders of the country, while others are landscapes and common people.
Each full page black and white photo is accompanied by a one-page essay written by Karoly Szerences whom Dr. Kádár Lynn describes as "a man of baroque sensibilities and deep erudition." She goes on to say that "in his essays Professor Szerences takes on the guise of Margaret Bourke-White's personal guide into the essence, the Hungarian essence, of each of her photographs. Steeped in the long, turbulent history of his country, his stream-of-consciousness narrative reflects the soul and conscience of the nation. Looking at the photos of Hungary's long-dead leaders, would-be leaders and citizens, he seems almost to channel each person's spirit swhile situating that person within the framework of Hungary's history. Some of the quotations in these essays may seem to the modern-day reader like flights of fancy, tailored to support the 'story'; each is, however, historically accurate and verifiable."
These essays are quite astonishingly descriptive. He starts by referring to post-Trianon Hungary as Potato Land and Budapest as Chameleon City. He calls Hungary's Parliament "crazy." One Prime Minister he calls a pirate and another a gambler. The Minister of Defense he calls a clown. They seem to be written to the cognoscenti and presume a lot of the reader. At the end of the book each picture has a "brief history of the places and people" written by Peter Strausz "to orient readers unfamiliar with twentieth century Hungarian history." I have found reading these histories along with the essay and viewing the pictures is the best way to get through the book, even though it means flipping back and forth.
Dr. Kádár Lynn has done a marvelous job of bringing these never-before published photos to the public eye. Bourke-White's portraiture of the leaders of the country is amazing and the large format (10"x12") pages show them in a wonderful way. However, they are a specialized treat for those who have an interest in 20th Century Central European history.