In Stacks
In honor of Velma Wallis' upcoming program, "Writing Your Own Story," this week's column is devoted to new biographies and autobiographies!
• "Raising Ourselves," by Velma Wallis. Wallis writes humorously and sympathetically about growing up in Fort Yukon in the sixties and seventies. She shared a two-room cabin with her parents and thirteen siblings, made toys out of whatever was at hand, and enjoyed each season as it came. But there were hardships, too. Though both her parents were loving and tried hard to provide for their children, they also could be mean drinkers, and though Fort Yukon was a multi-cultural town, that didn't mean things were easy between Athabascans, whites and Eskimos.
• "Meyebela: My Bengali Childhood," by Taslima Nasrin. Nasrin writes about growing up in Bangladesh with a philandering father and a deeply depressed and religious mother. A very bright and inquisitive child, her childhood in such a restrictive environment as East Pakistan wasn't easy, and perhaps because of that, Nasrin has become a renowned Bengali dissident.
• "Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters," edited by Carla Kaplan. A wonderful biography, heavily spiced with Hurston's letters to friends, family and professional contacts. Her letters show obliquely how hard it must have been for a black woman to maintain her dignity (she reports insults and slights from whites and blacks alike) while the text gives a context for her life and achievements.
• "The Pact," by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt. Three boys in Newark, New Jersey, made a pact: They vowed to work together and encourage each other in their mutual goal, to become doctors. Now, twenty years later, they are all practicing physicians in various fields, living and working in the neighborhood they grew up in, inspiring countless others to set goals, work together, and achieve.
• "The Adventurous Chef," by Ann Arnold. A children's book about a chef? Ah, but this isn't an ordinary chef - Alexis Soyer, born in 1809, started life as a mischievous boy destined for the priesthood until a practical joke got him expelled. Taken in by his brother, a chef, Alexis discovered he liked creating sumptuous meals, and soon left France for England, where his rakish costumes and delicious food earned him fame. By the time of his death in 1858, he had invented many kitchen items still in use today such as the pivoting pot support used in ship's galleys, the percolating coffee pot, and the first kitchen timer. In addition, he set up soup kitchens during the Irish potato famine that fed thousands, written cookbooks for housewives and for army cooks, and reformed the British army kitchens during the Crimean war (again, saving thousands by giving them food worth eating!). (juvenile)
• "Ten Kings," by Milton Meltzer. A worthy companion to Meltzer's earlier "Ten Queens," this collection of short biographies presents well-known kings such as Alexander the Great side by side with their lesser-known counterparts such as Mansa Musa. Each king's biography contains a portrait, a map of the area they ruled, and truly interesting and readable information on the time in which he lived, his childhood, great battles, and family (or, in some cases, families).
• "Across a Dark and Wild Sea," by Don Brown. This delightfully illustrated book tells the story of the life of Columcille (also called Columba), a monk who lived in Ireland in the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome in Europe. Columcille was a scribe who loved books perhaps too much; he raised an army to go to war after a book he'd copied was taken away from him! Afterwards, he felt so ashamed of what he'd done that he exiled himself to a small island in Scotland where he eventually built a library of books that he allowed anyone to copy. (juvenile)
• "Curious Bones: Mary Anning and the Birth of Paleontology," by Thomas W. Goodhue. Readers who enjoyed "Stone Girl, Bone Girl," a picture book about Mary Anning, will want to pick up this longer biography of the fossil hunter who shaped the way scientists thought of fossils. Some things she discovered: coprolites, or fossilized dung (their discovery helped scientists understand the process of fossilization), ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and dimorphodons. Many photos and drawings, glossary, index, bibliography, and web sites for further information round out this great book. (juvenile)
Come to the downtown library to hear Velma Wallis talk about memoir writing and her latest book, "Raising Ourselves," on Thursday, December 5th, at 7 p.m.