Non-Fiction: Forgotten People in History, Best Food Writing of 2011, Secret Places, The Onion Looks at Love, and The Trail of Tears
by Larry Cox on Jan. 06, 2012, under UncategorizedThe Man Who Shot the Man Who Shot Lincoln and 44 Other Forgotten Figures From History by Graeme Donald (Lyons Press, $13.95)
This is a fascinating book that reveals some of the larger-than-life characters who didn’t quite make it into the history books. For example, Thomas Boston Corbett, the man who shot John Wilkes Booth and instead of achieving fame later went insane. Also featured are Lee Duncan, the serviceman who rescued a puppy from the trenches of World War I, a canine that became famous as Rin Tin Tin, the brother of Hermann Goering who used the power of his name to rescue countless Jews, the man who betrayed Anne Frank and her family, and Hedy Lamarr, the screen actress who slept with both Hitler and Mussolini and later patented radio-guided torpedo technology that helped the Allies win the war.
Graeme Donald is based in the United Kingdom and the author of “Loose Cannons: 101 Myths, Mishaps, and Misadventures of Military History,” also published by Lyons Press.
Best Food Writing 2011 edited by Holly Hughes (Da Capo, $16)
This tasty anthology serves up some of the best food writing of this past year by such contributors as Colman Andrews, Gabrielle Hamilton, Pete Wells, Chang-Rae Lee, and John Thorne.
Selected from books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters and web sites, this is a literary feast. Jessica B. Harris describes how “soul food” expanded and helped globalized African American culture in her “We Shall Not Be Moved,” Kevin Pang shares his thoughts on tater tots, and from the Phoenix New Times, Laura Hahnefeld, who blogs under the name Fry Girl, writes about her “Year of Eating Dangerously.”
Food writing is more than just documenting how to whip up the perfect soufflé, it is also about preparing a meal after a grueling day at the office and even discovering a new appreciate for such simple pleasures as a plate of toast.
From a Texas State Fair deep-fry champion to a Los Angeles bread baker, this collection has something to please the tastes of almost every reader.
The Onion Presents Love, Sex and Other Natural Disasters: Relationship Reporting from America’s Finest News Source edited by the staff of The Onion (Quirk Books, $12.95)
The more than one hundred stories in this laugh-out-loud book features zany stories of high school sweethearts, college hook-ups, dating disasters, sexual fantasies, and even a news briefs such as the one titled “Area Panties in a Bunch.”
Some of the standouts include “news reports” about a gay couple having banal sex, a cute couple on the same antidepressant, our nation sickened by sight of happy young couple, sex officials adding a new base between second and third, and attractive woman, wealthy man somehow making it work.
This is satire at its best and the little gems in this collection are guaranteed to have readers giggling with abandon.
Keep Out! Top Secret Places Governments Don’t Want You to Know About by Nick Redfern (New Page Books, $15.99)
We all know about Area 51 but have you heard or read about HAARP in Alaska, Hangar 18, and other highly classified installations in the United States, Australia, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, areas that our leaders prefer that we, the general public, remain steadfastly ignorant about.
Nick Redfern, who has written extensively about such subjects as Big Foot, UFOs, and the paranormal, focuses on secret facilities. His research included secret, classified installations under the ocean, far below the ground, and in remote locations, where he claims that clandestine research and other activities have been conducted for years. He adds that these supersecret places are guarded with a near-paranoid zeal by those in power who wish to keep their secrets buried and locked far away from prying eyes.
Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert by Michael Krondl (Chicago Review Press, $24.95)
Michael Krondl, an award-winning cooking instructor, chef and food writer, examines the lost culinary traditions of India, Italy, France, Austria, the Middle East, and North America, capturing stories of dessert makers from the ancient past to the present.
Each chapter of this tasty little book begins with a short culinary travelogue and concludes with a time-honored recipe. This is part cookbook and part travel guide. Sidebars offer tidbits — appetizers, if you will — of popular dessert traditions such as doughnuts, Zuppa Inglese and Tiramisu, gingerbread, and even the use of sugar versus honey.
Combining the best elements of travel memoir, social history, and food literature, Krondl’s “Sweet Invention” is a delicious read that succeeds on many levels.
Driven West: Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears to the Civil War by A.J. Langguth (Simon & Schuster, $16)
Driving the Cherokees from their ancestral lands in Georgia during the 1830s is one of the most disgraceful events in American history. Even after a passage of more than 180 years, the pain it caused still reverberates through the reality of our national consciousness.
After the discovery of gold in Georgia in 1828, white settlers began pouring into the region. Demands to remove the Indians from their land increased to a fever pitch, coming to head when General Winfield Scott was given the terrible task of driving the Native Americas west at bayonet point, an action which become known as the “Trail of Tears.”
A.J. Langguth, professor emeritus in the Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California, has written a riveting account that calls out the culprits and places blame where it belongs for this shameful resettlement.
What makes this such an important work is that in addition to the official public record, the removal is also told from the perspective of the Cherokees including full-bodied portraits of the courageous tribal leaders who protested their expulsion and eventually surrendered to the inevitable with varying degrees of reluctance.
This is one of the most important books written about this traumatic episode. It is a shocking story that is vividly recounted through exception research, the author’s keen eye for detail, and a lively narrative. This is historical reporting at its very best and will certainly be a definitive if not THE definitive work about this shocking, disgraceful chapter in our nation’s history.
