Review of Remembrances of Times Past, A Nostalgic Collection of Stories and Photos Recalling the Way Life Was in the 20th Century (Paperback)

This is about the 20th century in America, at home, around the radio, in front of the TV, at the dinner table, in the garage, behind the wheel, in the kitchen.It's about what we ate and what we listened to and watched.What we bought, what we wore, how we behaved and what we did for a living.Marta Hiatt does an amazing job of weaving nostalgic black white photos of people, places and things with her own beguiling narrative interspersed with quotes from ordinary people who lived during these times.The result is book that I literally could not put down.In fact I put aside some other books to read it.

Remember doing the dishes with soap that wouldn't make suds in hard water? I do.The grease wouldn't get emulsified.It just got moved around.It took 10-year-old me hours to do the dishes from a big meal.Remember the washboard and the wringer that you were warned about getting your fingers caught in?Remember margarine, white like lard in a clear plastic bag, but with a little red ball that you broke and kneaded into the margarine to make it yellow?Remember corsets and garter belts and stockings that got runs in them?Leopold and Loeb, Al Capone, Patty Hearst, and Charlie Manson?Manual typewriters and the milk man?Or when the iceman did cometh and you put a square sign in the window with a chosen side up showing how much ice you needed?Popeye and spinach?Walking a mile for a Camel, and this ad on page 239: "No curative power is claimed for Philip Morris but--...An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure!...Call for Philip Morris"?The ad is from 1934.It is interesting how the tobacco companies projected their fears and revealed that even then they knew that cigarettes may cause disease.

Hiatt remembers all this and a lot more.You will find yourself turning the pages--which is to be expected since photos of those old ads, movie posters, people in quaint clothing, etc. are just so much fun to see; but what surprised me is just how readable the prose is.Hiatt's direct, unpretentious style and her knack for picking people to quote who are also straightforward make this one irresistible read.If there is any single theme that stands out, it would be the liberation of women, or truthfully, the partial liberation of women that has taken place most profoundly in the twentieth century. Hiatt does an excellent job of chronicling this momentous development and she points to some of the changes it has brought about.

The book is organized into chapters concentrating on various aspects of our lives, beginning with "Lifestyle," followed by "Sex and Social Mores," to "Household," through "That's Entertainment," "Fashion," and "Science and Technology," ending with Chapter Twelve, "A Potpourri of Changes."

Reading this is a bit like seeing the changes that have taken place in our lifetimes as in a newsreel (remember them?) sped up and vivid, perhaps like our lives passing before us...Irresistible book.

Product Description
A nostalgic journey back to a time of Model-T Fords, stay-at-home-moms, vinyl long-playing records, telegrams, radio days, strict rules of etiquette and manual typewriters. Here are the personal memories of the enormous changes that occurred in the twentieth century; a trip down memory lane for the older generation and, perhaps some surprising insights into the way life was, for those who are younger.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Remembrances of Times Past, A Nostalgic Collection of Stories and Photos Recalling the Way Life Was in the 20th Century (Paperback)

Review of The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War (Paperback)

I had ordered this book after hearing the author interviewed last month on the KFOG "Morning Show" with Dave Morey here in the SF Bay Area, hearing him talk deeply and thoughtfully about his childhood living in Vietnam and post-traumatic stress that he was only able to heal through a year of solitary confinement in a Vietnamese reeducation camp. When I read the book, I felt as as though he were telling me his story in his own voice: he delivers an excellent narration and does write as he talks.

From a very self-effacing point of view, the author is remarkable in how he is at once delivering his personal life experience from the very naive, and immature attitude of a teenager making the break from home in 1983, who as it would happen has a number of lucky events occur meeting a journalism mentor and invited on the treasure hunt, much in the spirit of what Joseph Campbell called "following your bliss". At the same time speaking from the point of view of the adult author he is now, looking back at the young and impetuous person he was. A rich mix!

The author's manner in which he delivers the historical background of each place (part one is Thailand, and part two is Vietnam) as the young teenager he was grows from naive idealist to mature and responsible adult is in no way intrusive and makes "The Bamboo Chest" a solid piece of work.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has wondered "what if?": "What if I took that life path, and not this one?" If you are interested in the history and culture of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam from a very non-politically correct, honest, and accurate depiction of Southeast Asia, then this book and "Shadows and Wind" by Rober Templar are for you.

If you prefer to get a more politically correct and inaccurate depiction of modern Vietnam, benefiting only American coporations and those benefitting from cheap labor, then get David Lamb's book. For a round eye, Mr. Graham spins a very lucid rendition of Southeast Asia.

Product Description
Finally, the whole, uplifting and extraordinary story can be be told: $20 Million in Captain Kidd's treasure on an island off the coast of Vietnam;an eighteen-year-old photojournalist from California, haunted by the VietnamWar. Travel with Frederick "Cork" Graham in The BambooChestfrom San Francisco to Thailand and a Socialist Republic of Vietnam political prison on anamazingly healing adventure that will capturethe world's imagination for years!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War (Paperback)

Review of Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres (Images of Baseball: California) (Paperback)

No pun intended, this is a diamond in the rough of sport's books.It is original research, not a second-hand, garden variety, cut-and-paste cookie-cutter.Bill Swank has been consumed by the history of the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League ever since his retirement as a Probation Officer with the County of San Diego.His beautifully written first book, "Echoes from Lane Field", captured the history of the Padres from 1936 to 1958 through first-person interviews with many of the players of that era.For "Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres," Bill had to dig into San Diego's historical archives and talk with the few remaining players from the 1920s and 1930s.The rest of the early ballists went to the dugout in the sky a long time ago. "Plaza" precedes "Echoes", covering the period from 1871 to 1936.In this before-radio era, baseball was more than a metaphor for life. It was the center of life in sunny San Diego for the better part of the year. Swank mined San Diego's rough diamonds and created a gem of a history book.Go San Diegos. Go Bears. Go Pickwicks.

Product Description
Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres, takes the reader on a seven-decade journey from Horton Plaza, the site of San Diego's first base ball game in 1871, to lower Broadway and the future home of Lane Field. Before the Pacific Coast League, San Diego had three Class D teams. One was the Bears, whose frustrated owner Dick Cooley complained, I don't believe they'll make baseball pay here in a thousand years. With America's finest year-round climate, barnstorming and black baseball were popular attractions. Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants practically lived in San Diego in the winter of 1913. All the while, there were constant struggles between the forces of amateur and professional baseball for players, diamonds, and sports coverage.

About the Author
Bill Swank has been called San Diego's preeminent baseball historian for his extensive work on the San Diego Padres. Aided by over 150 rare photographs primarily from the San Diego Historical Society, this book is the perfect complement to his previous Arcadia title, Baseball in San Diego: From the Padres to Petco.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Baseball in San Diego: From the Plaza to the Padres (Images of Baseball: California) (Paperback)

Review of Carolina Crimes: Case Files of a Forensic Photographer (Paperback)

I read CAROLINA CRIMES in one sitting.The subject had a morbid fascination, but the presentation was intelligent, compassionate and real.Schuler's unique perspective, from the criminal investigator's side, gave the stories in her book a humanity and hope that is usually missing from the newspaper accounts.I think Rita Schuler inspires the crime fighter in all of us.

Product Description
In this intense insider's study of murder in South Carolina, Lt. Rita Y. Shuler leads us through the dark twists and turns of twelve homicide cases that gripped the state during her career as a forensic photographer with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Shuler's fascination with the criminal mind began with her exposure as a young girl to a 1953 double-homicide that shocked South Carolina. When she came face to face with the original case records twenty-four years later on her first day of work as a forensic photographer she was immediately hooked on a profession that took her deep into the investigation of hundreds of cases. Shuler's firsthand experience with forensic evidence of crime scenes and the court system gives her a unique perspective on murder and its horrifying effects on public and private lives. By combining analysis of court transcripts and official statements and confessions from murderers with her own personal interactions with the key players in some of these tragic dramas, Shuler allows the reader to see into the criminal minds of notorious killers like Pee Wee Gaskins, Rudolph Tyner, Ronald "Rusty" Woomer and Larry Gene Bell. Shuler's study is a must for everyone fascinated by the criminal mind and by the most famous murder cases in South Carolina's recent past.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Carolina Crimes: Case Files of a Forensic Photographer (Paperback)

Review of Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of Carnival Midway (Paperback)

Carnival fans and amusement park historians alike will delight in the many beautiful images of a dying breed - the small travelling carnival and family owned amusement parks.Mr. Brouws takes us up close and behind the scenes, and the many nighttime photos of the midway's dazzling lights are worth the price of admission alone.Mr. Caron's colorful commentary is definitely not your usually tepid "guided tours" that so many other amusement industry books offer, with wild insights and historic tidbits that are sure to amuse.Many never before seen photos appear from other photographers personal archives, bringing a rich sense of tradition to the subject at hand.
The final chapter is dedicated to San Francisco's Playland.Mr. Brouws takes a look back at the Playland of his childhood, echoing sentiments from any of us who have spent their afternoons strolling along those tawdry but always fascinating midways of yesterday.We see the peeling paint, the crooked games with cheap prizes, the worn out rides and run-down fun house.But we also realize why these places captivated us, the simple, carefree fun these places held for us for just a few days each summer.The few photos he did take (with his first camera) before the park disappeared combine with his childhood tales to add the perfect epilogue to this colorful story.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of Carnival Midway (Paperback)

Review of Blood Brothers: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57 (Paperback)

With great insight and compassion, Michael Weisskopf brings us the stories of the amputees of this generation's wars.Weisskopf himself lost his dominant hand while embedded with soldiers in Iraq in preparation for Time's 2003 Person of the Year edition. He picked up a grenade that landed in his vehicle and awoke to a whole new life: Ward 57 of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

But while Weisskopf weaves himself throughout Blood Brothers, describing his his own healing and attempts to regain his journalistic "objectivity," he is not the central figure. Instead, he vividly paints the portraits of three fellow-travelers in Ward 57, soldiers who must come to terms with the physical and psychological impacts of losing a limb. In powerful but matter-of-fact, news-like prose, the reader is introduced to Before and After, and taken along for the gut-wrenching journey in between as wounded warriors (along with their loved ones and care-givers) tackle the mountain that is physical and psychological recovery from amputation.

Blood Brothers is the kind of book that will put you through the emotional wringer, but you won't want to put down. You'll laugh when the wounded-but-fiery Army sergeant and the Marine physical therapist get into a verbal pissing match, and cry when you read of heroic medics or the pain of the residents of Ward 57; other times you'll want to throw something against the wall as you see a need that isn't addressed or stand up and cheer when a physical milestone is reached.

It's all there: the horror and the beauty, the heights and the depths, the illusory achievements and the real milestones. Due to a reportorial style that essentially allows them to speak for themselves, the soldiers in Blood Brothers stand on the page in all their glory and humility, strength and weakness. The reader sees the darkest days and the moments of hope, the times when the path of healing is clear, and the times there seems no possible future.

"Blood Brothers" is heart-wrenching and beautiful book, a must-read for every severely-injured warfighter and family, every volunteer and employee serving in a military hospital, or any other person who wants to better understand the challenges and recovery process of those who go to war but are not lucky enough to come back in one piece.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Blood Brothers: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57 (Paperback)