Aethelflaed: the Lady of the Mercians, by Tim Clarkson

 

Aethelflaed is the oldest daughter of Alfred the Great, but the most important near-contemporary history of that time, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, doesn't devote much attention to her. Tim Clarkson, an independent scholar of the Anglo-Saxon period, uses other sources to flesh out Aethelflaed's life, including many Anglo-Saxon charters, the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, and the Mercian Register. Even with these (and other) additional sources, there is a lot of speculation about Aethelflaed's life; however, this book provides a rich and well-written history of the early 10th century period in what eventually becomes England. In addition to eight pages of photographs, I really appreciated the many maps throughout the book along with the many drawings of the layouts of various towns and burhs that Aethelflaed founded or built up; many of them show the original Roman walls and streets as well as the newer Anglo-Saxon defenses added in the 10th century. The overarching theme is of Aethelflaed and Edward the Elder building burhs and other defenses against both the Danes in the north and east and the Welsh in the west, and ultimately expanding the borders of the Mercian and Wessex territories into East Anglia and Northumbria, slowly growing their lands to become the England that we're familiar with today, although that doesn't happen until later.

The burnout challenge: managing people's relationships with their jobs, by Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter

 

Psychologists Maslach and Leiter follow up their book The Truth About Burnout with this guide to the causes of burnout and how organizations and employees can make changes to prevent it. The reality is that only a mere 20 percent of workers are fully engaged with their jobs, and the COVID pandemic has only exacerbated this problem. Organizational pressures such as cutting costs, downsizing, and overwork lead to burnout, defined as a combination of exhaustion, cynicism, and a feeling of ineffectiveness. Many view burnout as a problem with the individual, or even a mental health issue; the authors point out, however, that in 2019, the World Health Organization defined burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical one. The authors propose that the way to prevent or ameliorate burnout is by addressing the mismatches between the workplace and the worker, which can fall into six areas: work overload, lack of control, insufficient rewards, breakdown of community, absence of fairness, and value conflicts. They apply their research alongside real-life examples to provide insightful strategies for both individuals and organizations to avoid burnout. VERDICT This book proposes a thoughtful approach to tackling a common and serious workplace problem.

This review was previously published in Library Journal 147:10 (2022): 148-149.

The hidden public: the story of the Book-of-the-Month Club, by Charles Lee

On a recent trip to Bennington, VT, we stopped off at the Dog Ears Book Store, where my favorite section is the books about books category, and where I found this interesting history of the Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC) from its founding in 1926 through 1958, when it was published. The BOMC filled a significant niche in the literary marketplace because much of the US population did not live within a reasonable drive to a bookstore. Mail order book businesses allowed them to learn about new authors and buy contemporary fiction and non-fiction. Dozens of similar book clubs popped up, many of which were unsuccessful, but others of which continued for many years. Booksellers were outraged by the book club model, protesting the prices, premiums, and dividends offered to members, but industry analyses showed that the book clubs did not take away from book store purchases, and in fact, books and authors selected for the book club had skyrocketing sales in book stores as well due to the publicity offered by the book clubs.

I have my own history with book clubs, having been a member of one or more for decades starting in high school. I began subscribing to Organic Gardening in high school since I'd been gardening for years. Back then I really liked getting mail, and I would sign up for every catalog I could by filling out the postcards inside the magazine, as long as it had the stamp "no postage necessary." This way I got on tons of mailing lists, and I enjoyed reviewing all the catalogs that came my way, including the ones for the Troy-Bilt Roto-tiller, which my Dad continued receiving for decades, long after I moved out. Anyway, one of the mailings that I received was invitation to join a book club that focused on gardening and related pursuits. I decided to join, and my first three books covered many of my interests: a book about gardening, a book about how to become a vegetarian, and a book about raising small livestock. But the books kept coming, and I didn't have any way to pay for them, and I just hid them in my dresser drawer, until my Dad finally noticed all the mail and asked me if I'd joined a book club. I had to come clean. He paid the bills, and I let him read the books, too. My next book club was the Quality Paperback Book Club (QPBC), which I joined in the mid 1980s. I managed that book club better, and by that time I had my own checking account, so I could pay the bills. I belonged to the QPBC for decades, and have it to thank for opening my eyes to a lot of great literature. Some of the books that I remember getting from them in the early days included Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Toni Morrison's first five books, Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet, John Edgar Wideman's The Homewood Trilogy, and Richard Wright's Native Son and Black Boy (in one volume). I got a lot of nonfiction from QPBC as well, such as a biography of Mahatma Ghandi and collected articles by Ernie Pyle. It really expanded my horizons. Over the years I joined other book clubs: The Literary Guild, BOMC, History Book Club, and the Cooking and Crafts Book Club, but the QPBC will always be my favorite (with the History Book Club a close second).
 

The Bezos blueprint: communication secrets of the world's greatest salesman, by Carmine Gallo

 

Communications coach Gallo (Talk Like TED) teaches successful speaking and writing by breaking down the communication style of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Intended for professionals in a business setting, the book draws lessons from real excerpts of speeches and shareholder memos that Bezos has delivered over the past 20- plus years. Gallo also mines the records of other successful entrepreneurs for examples of effective writing. Among the book's basic communication strategies are to write at an eighth-grade level (using words with only one or two syllables, in sentences of varying lengths) and to deploy metaphors and analogies to add interest. Some of the techniques come from screenwriting, such as formulating a logline and developing "three-act" presentations. Key Bezos tactics include replacing PowerPoint presentations with narrative memos in management meetings, working backwards to get ahead (i.e., writing a product's press release at the beginning of the design stage), and treating every day as "day one." Additional examples reveal insights on communication at companies such as Apple, Canva, and Airbnb. VERDICT An insightful guide to improving communication skills.

Review published originally in Library Journal 147:9 (2022): 148.

A man of the world: My life at National Geographic, by Gilbert M. Grosvenor

 

I picked up this book at the ALA conference in Washington, D.C. in June. It tells the story of author Gilbert M. Governor's life growing up within the National Geographic Society. Following his family's generations-long involvement with founding, working for, and leading the Society, Grosvenor was immersed in geography, adventure, travel, photography, and writing from a young age. After college he went to work for the magazine as a photographer, and spent the next 40+ years working for them in a series of roles of increasing responsibility. He served as editor for a decade in his forties, following that with service as chairman for many years after. Even after he stepped down as chairman, he continued to serve on the board, contributing in many ways to National Geographic Society projects. His most ambitious project was to incorporate geography education into K-12 schools across the U.S. This is a captivating inside look into one of the most ubiquitous institutions in the country. While I'm thrilled to have picked this up at ALA, it's an advance reader's edition and lacks the photographs. When it comes out in September, I'm going to have to get my hands on a copy to check out the images.

Lady in the lake, by Laura Lippman

 

I really enjoyed this mystery set in the 1960s. Maddie Schwartz has left her husband and is trying to make it on her own. She begins an affair with an younger, Black police officer, and befriends a young woman who is using her to get out from under her parents' overprotective sight. When they find a missing young girl's body, Maddie uses that to break into the news business, first writing a short piece, and then working as an office assistant. She decides to investigate another missing woman, and her research leads to another body. Maddie won't drop the story, though, and her investigations upend a lot of lives in the process. Each chapter is told from a rotating set of viewpoints, with Maddie's being the most prominent. I liked this way of framing the story; it kept it moving, but also allowed each character's story to be told.

I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki, by Baek Sehee

 

Author Baek Sehee is a successful professional in the publishing industry who grew up with an abusive father and a hypercritical mother. Internalizing the criticism, as a young woman she questioned and criticized herself to the point of depression and severe anxiety. The depression is disruptive, but not so debilitating that she does not still want her favorite foods, such as tteokbokki. After initiating therapy with a psychiatrist, Baek began to record her sessions, and the bulk of this book consists of transcriptions of discussions in which they talk about her depression and pervasive self-criticism. Baek is cringingly honest and authentic throughout. While many of Baek’s anxieties may seem trite or petty (e.g., “Is she prettier than I am?”), they interfere with her ability to live a full life. She begins each chapter with a brief essay that introduces a topic she wants to discuss with the psychiatrist and concludes each one with an essay reflecting on what she learned from the session. Chapters address topics such as honesty, self-surveillance, self-esteem, medication, physical attractiveness, and more. VERDICT This is a sincere attempt at self-discovery that will resonate with young people who suffer from similar forms of depression and anxiety. 

This review was previously published in Library Journal 147:8 (2022):106.

The magicians: Alice's story, by Lev Grossman, Lilah Sturges, Pius Bak

 

This graphic novel tells the story of Alice, one of the main characters in The Magicians, a fantasy novel about a group of students who learn that their favorite fantasy series as children turns out to be true (think something along the lines of Narnia). The artwork is very good, with engaging color, and expressive characters. The only thing that I don't like about this book and the original novel is that the main characters are always bickering and angry, which I found a little tiresome.

Dreams of departure, by Naguib Mahfouz

 

It's been 26 years since I read Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, which I enjoyed as much for the writing as for learning about modern Egyptian culture. Not long after writing those books, Mahfouz was attacked, stabbed by someone inspired by a fatwa placed on him because of another of his books, Children of the Alley. Mahfouz, born in 1911, didn't write very much after that attack, which damaged his nerves and affected his ability to write. However, he did manage to write several collections of dreams. Dreams of Departure is the second of these volumes collecting short narratives that were inspired by actual dreams, on which he expanded with additional fictional details. They are very short; in many cases, they're only a few sentences. Many of them evoke sexual encounters with beautiful women. Others clearly refer to political violence, arrests, detentions, and revolutions. Read as a stand-alone volume, these are slight and generally unsatisfying. However, according to the translator, Raymond Stock, who is a scholar of Mahfouz and is currently writing a biography of him, details in these short dreams provide many clues and references to things that took place in Mahfouz's real life as well as in his fiction, so this book might be more interesting to someone who is more steeped in his other writing.
 

A waiter in Paris: adventures in the dark heart of the city, by Edward Chisholm

 

Unable to find work after graduating from a London university, Chisholm followed his girlfriend to Paris looking for any type of work that he could find. After months with no success, and his relationship with his girlfriend souring, he found himself alone in Paris with an apartment that he could not afford. A frantic search for work followed, with Chisholm determined to find a job as a waiter. Successfully landing a job at a respectable restaurant, he is hazed by the other waiters until he finally catches on to the cutthroat culture that exists among them. His descriptions of the behind-the-scenes antics at the restaurant are highly entertaining. He brings the restaurant world

to life as he relates the stress, pressure, and anxiety felt by all the workers. The long hours, the competition among the waiters, the petty grudges, and the poor treatment by supervisors are all exposed. Most poignant are his coworkers’ stories: they share their hopes and dreams with him. With this book, Chisholm has achieved his own dream to become a writer. VERDICT An absorbing and moving inside look at a Parisian restaurant.

Review published originally in Library Journal 147:7 (2022): 71-72.

The family Chao, by Lan Samantha Chang

This is meant to be an update on The Brothers Karamazov, but since I haven't read that book yet, it didn't shed any light on this book for me. I enjoyed the story, which centers around an odious father, Leo Chao, who treats his employees, children, and wife terribly. His wife left him to enter a convent, his oldest son hates him, and his middle son left as soon as he could to make his fortune in New York. James, the youngest son, is the only one who still loves Leo, who is murdered on Christmas Eve about halfway through the book. Suspicion falls on Dagou, the oldest son, and rightfully so, given that he has expressed many times that he wished his father were dead. But he claims his innocence, so the other brothers have to figure out who the murderer is. The writing is good, although the dialog is stilted, with main characters making long speeches throughout that just don't seem natural. The middle son, Ming, despises Chinese culture, and other passages stereotype American tastes and habits. This was a book club pick for May; it got mixed reviews.
 

Bad kid: a memoir, by David Crabb

 

I enjoyed this heartfelt memoir by actor David Crabb. Growing up gay and goth in rural Texas was not easy; throw in drug abuse and a fractured family, and it's even more difficult. I enjoyed the author's reminiscing about music from the 1980s and 1990s, and appreciated his attempts to find love when he felt so awkward. I found his accounts of long, drug-filled nights out with friends to be a little more than I needed to know, but you can speed read those parts.

The maximum security book club, by Mikita Brottman

 

Writer and psychologist Mikita Brottman shares her experiences running a weekly book club in a Maryland prison for two years. The club consisted of nine hand-picked prisoners, although the composition changed a bit over the two years as prisoners were paroled or transferred. I enjoyed this book, which is well-written and reads like a novel. It was interesting to see how Brottman approached the book club and to read about their discussions, but I was not impressed with her book selections, which were challenging and boring for the men. As Brottman was a psychologist on sabbatical at the time, I wondered if this were a way for her to explore her own psychological interests or research. Her book selections included Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Burrough's Confessions of a junkie, Nabokov's Lolita, and other classics. All of the authors were white men, although her book club members were a diverse group. She made no effort to find books that were more relevant or modern, or more diverting for them. She recounts some discussions with them that seem inappropriate; she criticizes the corrections officers for giving her a hard time about following rules and dress code; she meets up with prisoners after they're released; and she bemoans the fact that the two prisoners she met up with after they were released were not interested in continuing a book club or reading outside of prison. Maybe she would have created life-long readers if she had picked books more suited to them? Nevertheless, in spite of her personal flaws and her bad judgment, this is an interesting and very readable book.

In the lion's den: the Penn State scandal and a rush to judgment, by Graham Spanier

 

With this riveting memoir, former Penn State President Graham Spanier recounts his experiences surrounding his resignation from the presidency in November 2011 as the Jerry Sandusky scandal unfolded. After Sandusky was indicted on dozens of counts related to child sexual abuse, the attention of the Pennsylvania attorney general and governor turned to accusations of a coverup by Penn State administrators following a 2001 incident that they claimed allowed Sandusky to continue abusing children for years after. Spanier thoroughly recounts developments following his resignation, including the firing of long-time and beloved football coach Joe Paterno, grand jury testimony of Spanier and two high-ranking Penn State administrators, and charges brought against them. Spanier completely refutes the highly-disputed report prepared by former FBI director Louis Freeh, which was influential in leading Penn State to accept extraordinary NCAA sanctions in 2012. Using evidence obtained through freedom of information laws and other sources, Spanier documents how many of those who accused him have since been discredited and makes a convincing case of his innocence. Full disclosure: this reviewer worked at Penn State while Graham Spanier was president. VERDICT This is a compulsively readable memoir about one of the most inflammatory recent scandals in higher education.

This review was previously published in Library Journal 147:8 (2022):107.