Non-Fiction

Review: TALES OF A JAILHOUSE LIBRARIAN by Marybeth Zeman

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I recently received a copy of TALES OF A JAILHOUSE LIBRARIAN from my friends at Meryl  Zegarek Publicists (just a note: anything I’ve ever gotten from MZPR I’ve loved!). This is a mini-memoir of one woman’s experience working as a library cart librarian and transition counselor in the juvenile section of a large prison in New York. For Marybeth Zeman, her relationship with the boys in this facility is centered around her library cart and the books and stories she brings to them each week. Reading, for these boys, is a sanctioned escape, a chance for the future, a little bit of freedom in their everyday life.

Told in short vignettes, Marybeth has captured numerous tales of different boys: how they came to be in prison, what their daily life is like, how bright or bleak their futures are. Their stories are touching, painful, and honest, and one is left with the knowledge that these boys are just a small percentage of the thousands of young men incarcerated in our country each year. Marybeth’s story highlights the workings of the justice system and shows where improvements could occur, especially in helping the boys to have the skills they need in order to not become repeat offenders. Most poignant of all, though, are the voices of the boys that stay with you long after reading this book.

I was so touched by this book that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Marybeth Zeman while I was in NY at BEA. We connected through her publicist and spent about 90 minutes together just chatting and talking about her work, the juvenile justice system, her experiences, etc. There was no formal interview, or a “how did you come to write this book” type of Q&A. Instead we were just two educators and readers, come together to discuss our concerns and feelings about these boys and our hopes for the future.

Marybeth’s story is one that deserves to be told. Readable, touching, and unforgettable, her TALES OF A JAILHOUSE LIBRARIAN reveals an intimate portrait of what life is like for many of our nation’s young citizens. And Marybeth is a spunky narrator, both in the book and in real life! I can’t believe I’ve heard the last from this woman — she is going places and, as her subtitle suggests, she is “challenging the juvenile justice system one book at a time”.

Here is a picture of Marybeth from our time together:

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Quick Review: ON MOUTAINEERING by Radford C. West

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My friends at Smith Publicity sent me this small volume to read and review. ON MOUNTAINEERING is part memoir, part travel guide, part tips and suggestions all related to mountain climbing. Radford West started mountain climbing after returning from duty in Vietnam in the early 1970’s. He covers seven different climbs, complete with pictures and his personal journal entries from the times he climbed them. Since they read almost like individual vignettes, you can easily pick up this book for a short time and revisit it later without losing the flow. The entire volume is only a bit over 100 pages.

Inspiring, interesting, and informative, ON MOUNTAINEERING is a fine read for those interested in mountain climbing – both in real life and through armchair travel!

Thank you, Kendell at Smith Publicity, for my copy.

REVIEW: DEFIANT by Alvin Townley

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Last month, my friends at St. Martin’s sent me a copy of Alvin Townley’s DEFIANT, which is subtitled The POWs Who Survived Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison, the Women Who Fought for Them, and the One Who Never Returned.  All I can say is – WOW.

I was a little kid when the Vietnam War was happening. I remember it used to be on the news at night and I was terrified, so I would go up to my parents’ room and watch “I Love Lucy” on their black and white instead. My cousin had an ID bracelet she wore with the name of a young man on it – a POW. I was in second grade and I remember being both fascinated and scared by this. How could someone be “missing”? Were they dead or not? What must that be like for their family? For years I’d ask her when I saw her if they had found that young man. They never did.

In DEFIANT Alvin Townley tells the store of the “Alcatraz 11” – eleven men held, tortured, and survivors of the most notorious and harsh captivity recorded during the Vietnam War. Held at the Alcatraz block at the Hanoi Hilton, these men were separated out due to their leadership ability, their strong mental toughness, and their will to survive. They endured an amazing amount of torture and horrific conditions, and after years, returned home to America. Sadly, one additional soldier in their group died in captivity. DEFIANT tells the story of these men and their experiences, but it also tells of their wives and families at home and the battle they waged to keep their husband’s stories front and center, to keep them in the public eye, and to fight with the government to get them home safely.

Personally, I could not put DEFIANT down. I started reading it and suddenly it was 2 am and I was still reading. I read the whole book in one night (which I don’t really recommend because it’s over 400 pages) and I cried so hard at the end when the men came home that my sobbing woke up my husband.

My friends at St. Martin’s recommended this book to me since I really enjoyed The Astronaut Wives’ Club by Lily Koppel. I would recommend to those who enjoyed that book, or who enjoy reading non-fiction about the Vietnam War.

Quick Review: ELIZABETH OF YORK by Alison Weir

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Alison Weir is an amazing historian, having written non-fiction books on a variety of British history subjects, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. I’ve read most of her work and while it is dense, it is fascinating.

I received ELIZABETH OF YORK from Net Galley. To be honest, I had no idea who she was (except that with that name, she was British). The subtitle of this book is “A Tudor Queen and Her World”. Elizabeth was Henry VIII’s mother. Her brothers were the little princes in the Tower (who disappeared). Elizabeth lived in a somewhat chaotic and violent time in British history in the late 1400’s. After a variety of ups and downs, she became a beloved and reigning queen, and the grandmother of Elizabeth I.

While I love reading these type of books, it is dense reading! It was also quite long. I read a Kindle version, but Amazon says over 600 pages. It is filled with facts that I would have been better served to write down into a genealogy. (I also struggle with the fact that a LOT of British queens/ladies shared the same three names: Elizabeth, Anne, or Jane, with an occasional Margaret thrown in).

If you don’t know much about Elizabeth of York and enjoy historical biography of the Tudors, then this is one for you!

Thanks, Net Galley and Ballantine Books, for my copy!

Review: Walking with Mary by Edward Sri

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Through Blogging for Books I received WALKING WITH MARY: A BIBLICAL JOURNEY FROM NAZARETH TO THE CROSS, a short (less than 200 pages) but interesting overview of the Virgin Mary’s life, based on historical fact and biblical analysis. Edward Sri has created a very readable and accessible work here, where he explains Mary’s background and life (for that time/area) and couples it with biblical quotes and passages, analyzing them and explaining them so that the reader comes to a better understanding of Mary as both a person and a saint, and thus a deeper understanding of the Catholic Church’s teachings on Mary.

Very readable and highly recommended!

Thank you, Blogging for Books, for my copy!


YA Review: MAUS by Art Spiegelman

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I recently was subbing in a nearby middle school and the students were reading MAUS by Art Spiegelman. I had never seen this book (though it won a Pulitzer and is widely known). After my day teaching, I found the book, THE COMPLETE MAUS, in the library so that I could continue the story. Maus is an early graphic novel (originally published in 1991). It is told entirely in comic strip form. The first part is “A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History” and leads up to Spiegelman’s parents being sent to Auschwitz, while the second part, “And Here My Troubles Began”, focuses on his father’s experience in the concentration camp and after the war for his parents.

MAUS depicts the story of Spiegelman’s father’s survival of the Holocaust in Europe, as he relays it to his son. A Polish Jew, Vladek Spiegelman marries his wife Anja and they are wealthy and successful business owners. WWII is creeping across Europe, however, and antisemitism is on the rise. Vladek relays when they first see a Nazi flag, when their first friends lose their businesses, when people begin to disappear. Slowly you see their world deteriorating, yet through it all, Vladek’s resiliency and resourcefulness shine through. He protects his wife first and foremost, and tries to save her parents as well. They have their young son go to live with friends so that he will be safe (he ends up dying though). Their main goal becomes to survive and make it through to the other side of WWII. The stories become more and more disturbing as the war progresses, and are made all the more disturbing as you know this is a true story.

I know I’m a little late to the party here as this book has been around for a while, but I am so thankful that I came across it and read it. Spiegelman’s depictions of the Nazi’s as cats and the Jews as mice is very clever (the Americans are dogs), and this book can be a great teaching tool in the classroom, particularly with older students. The graphic novel form makes it both easy to read and yet disturbing. Peppered throughout is Spiegelman’s own relationship with his father, especially in the second volume. You can see him trying to come to grips with their relationship, his father’s seemingly eccentric ways, and his father’s failing health, along with his mother’s death several years earlier. This was a touching and brilliant depiction of a Holocaust survivor which stayed with me long afterwards.

Highly recommended for this genre/time period! I got mine at the library.

Blog Tour Review: The Reality of ESP by Russell Targ

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The Reality of ESP by Russell Targ (2)

Today I am happy to be part of the blog tour for THE REALITY OF ESP – which is subtitled: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities – by Russell Targ.

First let me say that I have always been fascinated with the concept of ESP – extra sensory perception. It’s the type of things that logic tells me I should not believe in, but intuition tells me there is reason to believe (at least to some extent). In his book, Targ, a laser physicist who worked for Lockheed, examines the evidence for a variety of ESP phenomena, including case studies of psychics, remote viewing experiments, NASA and CIA work in the area, precognition, and even how he and a group of colleagues predicted the silver market and made a lot of money in the 1980’s.

As I read this book I was reminded of a class I took as an undergraduate at the University of California: Altered States of Consciousness. Not surprisingly, my professor from that class, Charles Tart, is cited on the back of the book!

THE REALITY OF ESP is an interesting look into parapsychology and the unexplained. Using case studies, his own experience, and information from research studies, Targ presents a case for ESP where, even if you can’t wholly believe in it, you really can’t NOT believe in it! Of all the topics, I think the one I found most intriguing was the story of Pat Price, the psychic policeman. Pat had the uncanny ability to “see” crimes as they were happening, so he was a very effective policeman. He could accurately visualize places and things he had never seen before – anywhere in the world. He was instrumental in the solving of the Patty Hearst kidnapping as he visualized the getaway car and where it was at the moment (they located it) and even named one of the kidnappers and selected him from mug shots. Truly, he had some remarkable abilities.

I challenge readers to remain skeptical after reading this book!

Here’s some info from the publicist on the book and Mr. Targ:

The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities
Nobel laureate physicist Brian Josephson says, “This book should make those who deny the existence of [psychic] phenomena think again.” In The Reality of ESP, Targ presents evidence from the $20 million research program he co-founded at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the 1970s. The amazing feats of psychic ability he details include: While remote viewing for the CIA, SRI psychics found a downed Russian bomber in Africa, reported on the health of American hostages in Iran, and described Soviet weapons factories in Siberia. When San Francisco heiress Patricia Hearst was abducted from her home in Berkeley, a psychic with the SRI team identified the kidnapper and then accurately described and located the kidnapppers’ car. After leaving SRI, Targ’s group made $120,000 by psychically forecasting for nine weeks in a row the direction and amount of changes in the silver commodity futures market – without error! Targ also describes a plan for developing your own psychic abilities.

About Russell Targ 

Russell Targ Author and Physicist (2)

Physicist Russell Targ was the co-founder of a 20 year $25 million research program  investigating psychic abilities for the CIA, Army Intelligence and many other agencies at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). This previously SECRET research and applications program is now declassified. Targ has written a comprehensive book describing the remarkable accomplishments of this program.

To learn more about Russell Targ’s work as the co-founder of a 20 year $25 million research program investigating psychic abilities for the CIA, Army Intelligence and many other agencies at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), get your own copy at http://www.amazon.com/Reality-ESP-Physicists-Psychic-Abilities/dp/0835608840.

You can find more information from the virtual book tour for The Reality of ESP at http://bookpromotionservices.com/2013/09/03/reality-esp-tour/

Russell Targ’s Website – http://www.espresearch.com/

One thing I found really fun in this book was mention of a free iPhone app – ESP Trainer – which I downloaded. I am currently developing my own powers of perception!

Thanks, Nikki, for my copy and having me be part of the tour!

Review: ON HEAVEN AND EARTH by Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and Abraham Skorka

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Through Blogging for Books, I received a review copy of ON HEAVEN AND EARTH, which is subtitled Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the 21st Century. This is a bit of a misnomer since the entire book is a conversation between Pope Francis (before he was Pope and was an Archbishop in Argentina) and Argentinian Rabbi Abraham Skorka. The book is divided into short chapters which cover their conversations about a wide variety of topics and how they are viewed in the Catholic and Jewish faiths: God, family, sexuality, world issues, euthanasia, etc. It is easy to read and a great book to pick up if you only have a short time to read, as you can cover a chapter or two easily. I felt like I was sitting in a room, listening to these two men discuss the issues. Their conversations were insightful and intellectual, yet respectful and open.

Highly recommended if you enjoy reading and learning about religion or, if you are Catholic or Jewish, want to better understand your own faith!

Quick YA Review: SURVIVING THE ANGEL OF DEATH by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri

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This YA read is subtitled The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz. Jewish twins, Eva Mozes and her sister Miriam, along with their parents and sisters, are sent to Auschwitz in 1944 from their home in Romania. While their family is sent to the gas chambers, Eva and Miriam are selected to be part of Mengele’s study group of twins. While their treatment is considered better than the regular prisoners (but don’t kid yourself- this is a concentration camp and no one is treated well!), Eva’s determination to protect Miriam and survive the war gives her an incredible resiliency and strength to carry on.

This was a very short read for me – less than 200 pages – and it follows Eva and Miriam’s story from being taken to the camps, to their experience there, to their survival after the war. Aimed for a middle to high school audience, the book is less graphic than other Holocaust stories, but it is understandably still highly disturbing. The inclusion of pictures from before and after the war are a nice touch. Written as a memoir, we get Eva’s voice throughout. Particularly touching in this book is how Eva found forgiveness in her heart years after her war experience was over.

Thank you, Net Galley and Tanglewood Press, for my review copy.

See this book on Amazon where I am an Associate:

Review: SECRET STORMS by Kathy Hatfield and Julie Mannix von Zerneck

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I was recently contacted by Rachel, the publicist for SECRET STORMS, to see if I’d like to read and review this novel. It sounded interesting — a mother and daughter reunited 43 years after the young mother had given her baby up for adoption. It was a true story, too, and I said yes.

Once I started SECRET STORMS I could not put it down! I read 300 pages the first afternoon and finished it the next day. SECRET STORMS (which is subtitled: A Mother and Daughter: Lost then Found) starts in 1963 with teenage, Philadelphia debutante Julie Mannix being admitted into a psychiatric hospital. She is nineteen and pregnant. Her parents feel that hospitalizing her for the extent of her pregnancy is for her own safety and well-being, and they really want her to have an abortion, but she refuses. So Julie experiences her pregnancy while living with some interesting characters who are suffering from various psychiatric illnesses, oddly reminiscent of Girl, Interrupted. Upon having her baby girl, the baby is taken away for adoption and Julie goes home and tries to return to a “normal” life (though her family life is far from normal). Julie continues with acting and has a growing career as a stage and screen actress. She marries the father of her child and they start a life together. However, she never is able to forget her first baby, or truly forgive herself.

Meanwhile, baby “Aimee” grows up as “Kathy”, in a loving family with two brothers. Sadly, her adoptive mother dies from cancer when the three children are all less than ten years old. This is a devastating loss for the family and one from which they never truly recover. Her father tries to keep it together, with first his parents living with them and then by remarrying the beautiful but unpredictable and abusive Gloria. I felt for this family so much. This poor man lost his wife, then had a disastrous marriage, then lost his job and his house and a lot of his income. The kids were amazingly resilient, but it was a sad story.

Eventually, though, Julie and Kathy’s paths cross, and they finally build a life together as mother and daughter.

This was one of those books that I just couldn’t put down. I felt so much for little Kathy growing up and all the hardships she faced. I was also fascinated with the unique childhood that Julie had with her somewhat eccentric parents and their lifestyle. It seemed incredible to me that, with a little luck, Kathy was able to find her mother in about 15 minutes using the Internet. If this wasn’t a true story I would have said that was unbelievable!

I highly recommend this story for those who enjoy this type of family drama and memoir.