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.

North of the Danube

This travel book of a visit to Czechoslovakia in 1939 is one of three books Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White collaborated on. In this book she photographed and he wrote separately, and they combined their efforts although they did not attempt to match the text to the photos.

Czechoslovakia, which was formed in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War out of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, was 20 years old and about to be divided up in 1939 between Nazi Germany, Poland and Hungary. Maybe the authors gave a geographic title North Of The Danube to their book because of the uncertainty of the continued existence of the nation.

Bourke-White's cameras capture beautiful portraits of the local people, landscapes and architecture in their last year of peace before the war, including a couple of photos showing the new Nazi presence. Photos used in this book are dated from April 1937 through August 1938 on the Life Magazine website

While Erskine Caldwell is a great writer, his lack of knowledge about the region is obvious. His text is full of vivid descriptions with very little context. As travel book it is good, but it lacks the depth of analysis he was able to bring to You Have Seen Their Faces which he wrote with Bourke-White about tenant farmers in the southern states of the USA. What is evident as they move towards Germany in the eight chapters of this book is the increasing Nazi influence that troubles the Czechs and Slovaks they meet.

They traveled from east to west starting in Uzhgorod which is now the capital of the Zakarpatskaya oblast of Ukraine and end their visit in Prague and Bohemia. At Uzhgorod they hire a chauffeur to drive them to a remote mountain village called Uzhok where years ago the peasants supposedly ate their seed wheat and have no bread, living on oat meal mush. Then they take a train across Slovakia from Kosice to Zilina where Caldwell reports on badly behaving German travelers. They visit almost every corner of this young country and Bourke-White's photos are a snapshot of the country in the two years before the war.

It is not obvious from the book itself how completely their travels were since there is no map and place names are often small towns and villages, some whose names have changed over time. This inspired me to write a Map Review of the book using Google Maps. You can see the completed map review here: http://dld.bz/NotDanube.

You Have Seen Their Faces

You Have Seen Their Faces, by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White
In the early years of the Great Depression, the author Erskine Caldwell and the photographer Margaret Bourke-White spent 18 months in the American Southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee interviewing and photographing tenant farmers, commonly known as sharecroppers. This book, published in 1935 is the result of their work. Caldwell wrote about sharecroppers barely scraping a living from land drained of all fertility, the landlords who kept 10 million Southerners in economic slavery to produce cotton, and the politicians and ministers who supported the system rather than reform it. While he interviewed, Bourke-White sat quietly with camera ready to photograph them. It includes 75 mostly, full-page pictures taken by her that portray the destitute life of the tenant farming families. This is an amazing depiction of Southern poverty in words and pictures that I found very moving in spite of its age.

Blood Done Sign My Name

This book is based on a racially-motivated murder in Oxford, NC in May of 1970. A white man and his two sons beat and shot a black man because they claimed he talked disrespectfully to the white wife of one of the sons. Despite eye-witnesses, the men were not convicted. Timothy Tyson was a friend of the younger brother of the murderers and the 10-year old son of a liberal white Oxford Methodist minister at the time of the shooting. He is now a professor in African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He first told this story in his Duke University master's thesis: Burning for Freedom: White Terror and Plack Power in Oxford, North Carolina. This book is much more than the facts behind a murder. It lays out the events of the murder in two settings. The first is his one life as a son of a liberal minister growing up in North Carolina. The second is the context of race relations in the South since the beginning of slavery. White authors can only dimly understand the effects of racial prejudice on Black Southerners, but Dr. Tyson does a good job of laying out some of the events that created the segregated North Carolina that existed at the time of the Oxford murder. I found it a most profound statement of the effects of racism in North Carolina. One small incident stands out to me as a librarian in North Carolina. In researching his thesis and this book, Dr. Tyson sought out copies of the Oxford Public Ledger only to find the Oxford Public Library's microfilm copies for the era had mysteriously disappeared. The newspaper's own copies were also missing. He even claims that the North Carolina State Archives copies are missing and says: "Someone had gone to considerable lengths to destroy the paper trail" (Page 295).

The Age Of Revolution

The Age Of Revolution is volume seven of a ten volume series called The Illustrated History of the World which is based on Roberts' 1993 History of the World. The first volume covered the origins of the human race through the first civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The second volume in the series reviewed the early cultures of India and China and then moved on to discuss Greek civilization. The third volume covered the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, from 800 BCE to 600 CE. The fourth volume surveyed the rise of Islam, the Arab empires, the decline of the Byzantine Empire, and the beginnings of modern Europe. The fifth volume offered a first look at Japanese, African, and American cultures and also brings the stories of India, China, and Europe up to the 18th century. The sixth volume looked at the forces that formed the modern face of Europe and colonialism's effects on the whole world. This seventh volume is focused on Europe and North America. It starts with the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and Urbanization. Then it explores the French and American Revolutions, the Napoleonic reforms, and the nationalist revolutions of the mid-Nineteenth Century, and ends with the US Civil War and British political reform. Sadly, the rest of the world is left out, and no mention is given to the great struggle for women's rights. This is a book filled with beautiful color illustrations. Every page has at least one and most are photographs of artifacts, art works, or scenes. The text is well written and emphasizes brief summaries rather than scholarly examination. This makes it a good basic introduction and outline, but may be less useful to someone who wants to look at these subjects in greater depth. The lack of any bibliography of further readings is also a drawback for those wanting to seek more information. A two-page time chart of the period helps to put events in perspective. The chapter contents are confusingly placed at the end of the book, but they are well done and helpful for getting an overview of the author's approach. A two page listing of all the books in the series with their section and chapter titles helps to put the material into the broader view of all world history. All in all this is a great brief introduction to European and American 18th and 19th century history. However the emphasis is decidedly European and white male. The type face is large and the lines are amply spaced. Couple this with the copious illustrations and the book is actually a very quick read for its size and length. It is a few steps above the approach of Dorling Kindersley books that are predominately illustrations with supporting text. With Roberts, the text is the major part, but the illustrations are definitely more than an after thought. This is a good introduction for the general reader. It is not going to be a lasting reference book that you will turn to again and again.

The Lost Boy of Oz by Paul Dana

The Lost Boy of Oz is about a minor character named Button-Bright from L.Frank Baum's series of children's books on the land of Oz. He made his first appearance in Baum's fifth Oz book, The Road to Oz as a wandering boy with a penchant for getting lost. This story by Paul Dana is a sequel to his other book Time Travelers in Oz which is also available on the Internet.
In The Lost Boy of Oz, Button-Bright sets out to search for information about his family with surprising results. It will appeal to Ozophiles as it sticks to the established canon and extends it by providing the back story to this character in an amusing adventure. It can stand alone without first reading Time Travelers in Oz, but what fun is that?

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver writes of a one-year family project to eat only locally grown food and to grow a lot of it themselves. Starting in March, each chapter is a month's summary of the project. She and her family moved from Tucson Arizona to a farm in the mountains of Virginia and decided to explore deeply the locavore (eating locally produced food) life. In addition to a review of what life is like in rhythm with the growth cycle of the year, she, with contributions from her husband and older daughter, talk about the economics, community & environmental impact, and personal growth of such a food choice.
While her family values organic food, vegetarianism is not important. So while they oppose eating factory and feedlot raised animals, be prepared for chapters on raising & preparing your own food animals. Several side trips to others in the movement add variety and a loose approach keeps this from being too preachy. They drink fair trade coffee and eat flour from beyond the local area, but draw the line at bananas, even organic ones. If you have a vested interest in the food industry, you will find this book subversive. But both Kingsolver and her husband are biologists and you will find their positions well-reasoned.
If you are interested in being a locavore or in supporting community agriculture this is a book for you.

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit

Edith Nesbit is one of my favorite children's writers and this first novel from 1898 is one of three written about the six Bastable children. In this book their widowed father has lost all his money and the children, who are not in school for lack of tuition, seek to find a treasure to restore the family wealth. They are well-read and left on their own much of the day as they develop plans to find a fortune.

Related from the point of view of one of the children, the narrative explores the way children see the world and try to solve problems through games, fantasy and role play. So what could be a sad tale of neglect and poverty, if looked at objectively, becomes an adventure story where each chapter finds the characters digging for buried treasure, becoming highwaymen, seeking to marry a princess, trying to save a rich man, going into business, and devising other schemes designed to get rich quick.

Nesbit wrote over 60 books for children and The Story of the Treasure Seekers is one of her most influential and famous. It is populated by good-hearted people so no real danger threatens as the children confront a hard world with imagination and creativity.

Oz: Ozma of Oz

This is a graphic novelization of the 1907 book by L. Frank Baum. Eric Shanower sticks close to the original story and does a great job of turning it into comic format. What is brilliant about this and the other books in this Marvel series is the artwork of Skottie Young, who brings a fresh look to characters that are over 100 years old. His Ozma has range of emotions never before seen in her, and his Tik-Tok rises to new levels of Artificial Intelligence.

If you love the story, this will be a great way to revisit it. If it is new to you, then you are in for a treat as Dorothy returns to Oz in a convoluted manner that places most of the story outside the fairy land. Instead she is cast ashore in Ev, a neighboring land to Oz, when she falls overboard from a ship bound for Australia. There she meets Ozma for the first time. Ozma has raised an army and come to Ev to free the Evian royal family from the Nome King who has enslaved them in his underground kingdom. At first young Ozma and her top-heavy army (26 officers & 1 private) seem no match for the cunning nome king, but poultry power carries the day.

Time Travelers of Oz, by Paul Dana

Time Travelers of Oz is a book about some minor characters of the land of Oz and an adventure they take traveling back in time. The Munchkin boy Ojo and his friend Button Bright stumble across a grey dove who is the transformed Ugu the Shoemaker of L. Frank Baum's The Lost Princess of Oz.

Ugu has been looking for for the Ring of Time which would allow him to go back in time to persuade himself not to do evil. Out loud Button Bright wishes he could find it so he can go back to the day when the fairy queen Lurline turned Oz into a magical land, and then he disappears. He was sitting on the Ring of Time when he made his wish! So Ojo and Ugu wish to go back to that day also to find Button Bright and Ugu's former self.

Paul Dana creates a story of the first day of the magical land of Oz that is engaging and interesting to any loyal Oz fan. In addition to young Ugu and Lurline, he brings us to Mrs. Yoop's Yookahoo wedding. The adventure continues in a sequel called The Lost Boy of Oz.

Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross

Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, by L. Frank Baum writing as Edith Van Dyne

Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, first published in 1915, is the 10th and final volume of this series written by L. Frank Baum under the pseudonym of Edith Van Dyne. In this volume Uncle John and his two nieces Beth and Patsy are at home in New York when they are visited by two of their California friends A. Jones and Maud Stanton. Jones has just sailed his ship through the new Panama Canal and Maud is preparing to go to Europe to become a nurse to help wounded troops in World War I. Beth and Patsy want to help Maud and soon wealthy Uncle John and Mr. Jones, who is called Ajo, have converted Ajo's vessel into a hospital ship, hired a surgeon and outfitted two ambulances.

This is the most daring plot of the series, which usually has the cousins solving minor mysteries as they engage in some new project like running an election campaign or a newspaper, or vacationing in Italy, California, or upstate New York. Baum plunges his characters into the battle zone on the border of France and Belgium, and has them dodging shells as they scoop up wounded soldiers to treat on their boat. The book explores the true horrors of war in a book written for teenage girls at a time when women didn't yet have the right to vote.

Written before US involvement in the war, the book portrays the problems of a neutral hospital ship on the front line of battle. Both sides are suspicious of their intentions and they have a hard time staying impartial. The ship leaves abruptly after only three months, feeling that they are unable to fulfill their mission. The book portrays well the feelings of US citizens watching the European war. They want to help but are stymied on all sides by their neutrality. Baum revised the book after the US entered the war in 1917, rewriting the ending to show the group actively supporting the Allies and staying much longer.