Review: The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City

The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City by Sharon E. Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up because it dealt with the history of Davenport, Iowa, the nearest metropolis to the small town I grew up in (assuming you disregard Iowa’s most exciting city, Bettendorf). I’ve been very lucky in local (to me) history books, choosing to read quite a few very good books. This was no exception. I found “The Freedom of the Streets” was a very interesting story of unintended consequences, driven by data and the conglomeration of many sources.

This is the kind of a history book that I really enjoy. As I read through, I found that the chapters built on each other to tell a complete story. The book begins with the stories of several women in Davenport who earned their own living, in the period roughly from 1870 through 1910. These women, beyond being suffragettes, also wanted women to not be held back by society in making their own money. To help, the created the “Lend a Hand Club”, sponsoring businesses and creating a club room in Downtown Davenport where women members could have lunch during their work day. They also decide to help reduce the scourge of prostitution by lobbying for, and eventually paying for and choosing, a prison matron. The matron shepherds female prisoners through the criminal system, focusing on showing the prisoner the error of her ways and hopefully rehabilitating her to society. Sounds reasonable, right? The following chapters show how this good deed turned bad. After the matron chosen by the town’s leading women works for a few years and moves on, a new matron is hired by the city. The new matron did not have the same loyalties as the previous, focusing on the needs of the mayor and police and not on the needs of the society women. At the same time, Davenport had grown into a men’s entertainment mecca, with over 100 taverns and open prostitution. Davenport’s 21 year old mayor comes up with a plan to license the prostitutes, enlisting the matron and town doctors to the scheme. The book continues to show how this plan ended up in play for decades, and the impacts on underage women. Along the way you are introduced to more than a dozen women, from doctors and tavern owners to prostitutes and juvenile “offenders”, and their stories are told in unexpected detail. (Tax records are a wonderful source.) Quite an interesting story.

I found that the history was very well compiled. There were times as I read a paragraph, I tried to think of how many different sources went into the data and analysis and was always amazed at how thorough this felt. I’d guess there are over 1000 references in the bibliography. The author mentions sources quite often, including written records from the prison matron over the decades, town censuses, and even maps showing the location of residences of people mentioned over time, including taverns and houses of prostitution. When I think about being a historian, this is the kind of writing I think illustrates the best of it.


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Review: Forego

Forego by Bill Heller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the “Forego” volume in the Thoroughbred Champions series, I have completed reading every one of the 24 books in the series over 14 years. I’d say two to four a year was about the correct rate. Why? These are all racehorse biographies, and there are only so many ways to tell a racehorse biography. You get to where you start wondering when the jockey would show up in the story, and how long the chapter on the breeding outcomes would be. This was one of the better ones, with some interesting writing and an owner that showed some concern for the horse (not all do). I will summarize the series by saying that these books will appeal to a wide audience. I read these along with my father, while he was alive, and my father-in-law. My fathers both grew up in the era where horseracing was America’s pastime, and by reading these books they filled a void in one of the hobbies they had during their boyhood. I enjoyed the history, and the view of how all sections of the country, from the usually rich owners to the usually not rich jockeys and grooms to the obsessed trainers. Horseracing required quite an amalgamation of people and classes, allowing for different angles in approaching these stories. Well done, Eclipse Press.

I have my complete set of these books for sale on eBay. I wrote up a long description of the books that may be of interest to those interested in reading them, reproduced for your entertainment:

The Thoroughbred Legends Series was published by Eclipse Press between 2000 and 2005. Running to 24 books, all books were published in hard cover, with a photo of the subject horse glued to the front cover, and with a fabric placeholder sewn into the binding. The publishers also released a subset of these volumes in paperback editions, but the paperbacks are not included in this set. The hardbacks were mostly sold with a cream colored dust cover, but not always. Given the number of second hand books in the series sold without a dustcover, I do not believe all were sold with a dustcover, at least not for their entire sales life. I recall some book closeout stores carried a few copies of these books sold as new, but without dustcovers. There are also varieties of dustcovers. Some had cutouts to allow the horse photo on the cover to be visible. Others had the horse photo printed on the dustcover. One dustcover was not cream-colored but a dark brown. Because the books hardcovers were well designed, with the photo, a gold embossed title, and a black embossed series name “Thoroughbred Legends”, these are pretty books with or without their jackets. The hardcovers are either green, blue, brown, or red with matching endpapers in a horseshoe pattern.


Titles

1. Man O' War by Edward L Bowen, green hardcover
2. Dr. Fager by Steve Haskin, blue hardcover
3. Citation by Pauhla Smith, red hardcover
4. Go for Wand by Bill Heller, brown hardcover
5. Seattle Slew by Dan Mearns, green hardcover
6. Forego by Bill Heller, blue hardcover
7. Native Dancer by Eva Jolene Boyd, red hardcover
8. Nashua by Edward L Bowen, brown hardcover
9. Spectacular Bid by Timothy T. Capps, green hardcover
10. John Henry by Steve Haskin, blue hardcover
11. Personal Ensign by Bill Heller, red hardcover
12. Sunday Silence by Ray Paulick, brown hardcover
13. Ruffian by Milton C. Toby, green hardcover
14. Swaps: The California Comet by Barry Irwin, blue hardcover
15. Affirmed and Alydar by Timothy T. Capps, red hardcover
16. Round Table by John McEvoy, brown hardcover
17. War Admiral by Edward L Bowen, green hardcover
18. Exterminator by Eva Jolene Boyd, blue hardcover
19. Secretariat: Racing's Greatest Triple Crown Winner by Timothy T. Capps, red hardcover
20. Genuine Risk by Hallie McEvoy, brown hardcover
21. Kelso by Steve Haskin, green hardcover
22. Damascus by Lucy Heckman, blue hardcover
23. Assault by Eva Jolene Boyd, red hardcover
24. Bold Ruler by Edward L Bowen, brown hardcover

Those two types of dust jackets were ones with a photo and ones with a cut-out dust jacket, or perhaps peek-a-boo dust jacket would be more descriptive. These dust jackets had a square cut out that allows the photo affixed to the hardcover to be viewed. Eclipse Press/Blood Horse obviously put a lot of effort into this set of books, and it shows.

I began reading this series when I won my first volume from a Blood-Horse Magazine online contest in 2006. I put this collection together over the next 14 years. These books have been read by my father-in-law and me, and some bought used were probably read by others. This series is very readable. The books are short, averaging around 150 pages, and include pictures illustrating key points in the horse’s life as well as the people involved. These books can be read by young and old, and all take a common formula and provides some interesting anecdotes to set each horse apart. This would be a great addition to your personal library if you want to share the enjoyment of horses, racing, and history with younger and older generations. Older readers will be reminded of the horses popular in their youth, while younger readers will learn how racing and horse-keeping has changed over the years. I liked the mix of people involved. You are introduced to wealthy owners (and a couple of cowboy owners), as well as the many working men (mostly men) that run horse farms and training facilities. You get the unexpected and the expected wins, but also the surprising losses. And you get to see the work that goes into raising champions. A nice series of books.

Referenced in most books: Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, Breeders Cup, Triple Crown, breeding, training, owners, races, progeny, ancestry


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Review: Infinite Spaces

Infinite Spaces by Joe Earle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this short ebook in hopes of understanding how Japanese gardens are designed, and hoping to see some interesting illustrative photos. This didn't really hit the mark. The text was mostly snippets of ancient texts, I guess, about how to design gardens, mostly by feel. One piece of advice I recall is that if you use rock that has fallen from a mountain that has landed wrong side up, keep using it wrong side up. There are dozens of seemingly flip suggestions here like that. I was also disappointed in the photos. I would expect to see multiple photos illustrating the sections of the book, which were divided by features (rock, water flow, trees, etc.). However, the photos didn't seem to illustrate the features being described, nor the advice being offered. And the gardens shown were typically one photo, where an idea of how the features look from different perspectives would have been quite valuable. Another issue was that the pictures in the ebook version were dull and grainy. Not my favorite.

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Review: Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life

Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life by Donald J. Trump
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Trump comes across as a gruff, New Yorker, businessman version of Dale Carnegie, providing business and life advice much like you'd expect in a self-help book. The advice was pretty common for these types of books, of which I've read dozens. I liked that this was a collection of short writeups, like newspaper columns, that held together loosely, often based on something that happened on 'The Apprentice' or in business. You got the feel of the author here, and it's not how the "news" portrays him. The first essay was unexpectedly very positive toward Obama, for instance. Overall, a nice motivational read from a larger-than-life personality, written in the middle of his run on 'The Apprentice'.

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Review: Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth--And How You Can Too

Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth--And How You Can Too by Chris Hogan


The book is touted as an update to the classic "The Millionaire Next Door", with a bigger and more recent sampling of millionaires in the US, to determine how they got to their million(s), and other related topics. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, but I can't say I got anything new out of it. If you have heard Chris Hogan on the Dave Ramsey show on the radio, you know exactly what this is about. You get a few more details, and a few more personal anecdotes from the author, and a few illustrative anecdotes from millionaires about their path. But this is very similar to many other wealth-building books out there. I still recommend "The Millionaire Next Door" as a great glimpse into the mindset of those prodigious generators of wealth that are out there. One specific nit about this book - at one point it says none of their 10,000 interviewed millionaires mentioned individual stocks as a top 3 factor contributing to their wealth. I don't believe this, given company stock purchase plans and huge gains on some popular stocks. None? No Silicon Valley millionaires in their survey? This just doesn't pass the sniff test. Either the survey wasn't built very well or the interpretation and data analysis was flakey. When you see bits like this that seem to defy logic, you wonder what else has been oddly interpreted to create a narrative. As I read these for motivation, I find the anecdotes often most interesting, and that was the case here.

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Review: The Hearts of Men

The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Bugler is a social outcast. He's also the one to bugle the summer Boy Scout campers awake during their stay in the woods in Wisconsin. But the Bugler performs an act of sheer ... not bravery, more self-debasement, and it sets his personality and his life path on a new direction. Butler then fast forwards a few decades as the Bugler has become Camp Master, and deals with the campers that have drastically changed over the years. It was quite situationally funny at times, quite dramatic and melancholy at times. I enjoyed the writing, and I enjoyed the story and characters.

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Review: You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future

You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future by Jonathan Keats
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice retrospective of Fuller and, mainly, his ideas and how they fit into the world when he was expounding on them, and updated to today. He comes across as a crackpot at times, as an innovator most all the time. Interesting and odd. The topics of the book and the person.

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Review: Coach Wooden's Forgotten Teams: Stories and Lessons from John Wooden's Summer Basketball Camps

Coach Wooden's Forgotten Teams: Stories and Lessons from John Wooden's Summer Basketball Camps by Pat Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I grew up tall but clumsy, a poor basketball player who once attended a basketball camp when I was in junior high. I remember getting the "most improved" award, a basketball. I still remember some of the things that our high school coach pointed out about my play (while, I suspect, stifling his own laughter). Despite never playing organized basketball, I can see how a camp can make an impact. This book is about how the summer camps run by arguably the best college basketball coach in history worked. The author shares some of the lessons Coach Wooden shared throughout his many camps. These started with how to wear socks and shoes (a focus on the basics) which he started every camp teaching. Then he went on to teach his life philosophy, mixed in with basketball fundamentals and play. The author gives these two aspect an even share of the story here, perhaps leaning more on the philosophy side. He realized that most of his camp attendees would not play ball professionally, so used the camps as a way to influence the kids to live a kind and giving life. I loved the stories behind the scenes of the camp, including the stories of camp counsellors assigned to drive Wooden around. That was real pressure for these young drivers. Good for uplifting stories, and stories of the running of summer sports camps, but not as much basketball action as you might think.

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Review: The Sleeper and the Spindle

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's always interesting to listen to an audiobook of a book that appears from the online description to be mainly a showcase for artwork. Can the audio make up for the missing visual aspects of the package? In this case, having not seen the artwork, I think the audio can stand on it's own feet. The production was excellent, just like you'd expect from a short fairy tale, with a number of narrators/voice actors, music, and mood. The story was entertaining. I found myself listening for how Gaiman would create a new fairy tale, and this one started as a mash up of a couple of familiar fairy tales, with some role reversal thrown in to make things more interesting. Nicely done.

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Review: Louis L'Amour's Desert Tales: Desert Death Song and Law of the Desert

Louis L'Amour's Desert Tales: Desert Death Song and Law of the Desert by Louis L'Amour
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to this short audiobook of two L'Amour stories while driving on I-80 through the center of Illinois. These stories had in common that the hero in each story is being pursued into the desert by a group of men that are, shall we say unfriendly. One of the hallmarks of Westerns is the thorough description of the land, and with the desert here you feel the overwhelming vastness and emptiness and underlying danger. Kind of like I-80 during construction season. The heroes here are smart and resourceful, like most Western heroes I've read, and they face death and their pursuers and prevail in the end, in no small part because of their intelligence and knowledge of the land. A good set of stories. These were narrated, instead of having a full cast production, but as there were long stretches of story with only one character present, this worked fine. And I also noticed the excellent production of the audio, including music. Well done.

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Review: The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth

The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this autobiography of the second richest man in the world from a bit over a hundred years ago. Carnegie's book, while written around the turn of the century, feels much more modern. At times, I had the feel I got when reading Sloan's "My Years with General Motors", which was written 40 years later or so. Carnegie delves into his childhood quite extensively, as well as his early working life. Least covered was his middle years, while he grew his company. His stories of those times seemed of two parts - dealing with technical issues in the steel making process, and working on finances and negotiation. You can tell Carnegie relished the technical aspects of steel-making and being involved on the cutting edge of technology. His negotiation and finance stories seemed there more to show he was a common-sense leader. By the last third of his book, Carnegie focuses on giving away his fortune and working with governments. He really enjoyed this phase of his life, and seems to be into name-dropping the leaders of the times. He really got around. I can easily picture him as the host of "The Apprentice" or a shark on "Shark Tank" had he been around today. He seems to have that personality, a bit star-struck, while also quite full of himself. Overall, I liked Carnegie's stories and how he explains his thoughts. He made being fabulously wealthy sound pretty good.

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Review: When Changing Nothing Changes Everything: The Power of Reframing Your Life

When Changing Nothing Changes Everything: The Power of Reframing Your Life by Laurie Polich Short
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the topics I like to learn more about is persuasion, and I read and listen to podcasts about this topic quite often. One of my favorite podcasts often discusses reframing of issues or questions or facts in such a way that one gets unexpected new insights into the source. This book provides ways to reframe the issues or questions or facts of one's own life in order to get that different perspective and to possibly get that aha moment when you gain new understanding. The author suggests 4 different "lenses" with which to approach your subject. A couple relate to changing your time perspective. I found the concepts familiar from other books that I've read, but I found this to be more specific on the types of reframing to attempt. I appreciated how the book organized (or framed) the way to think of this process. It's not perfectly clear and concise, but you can find enough along the way to make this a worthwhile read if you want some help in rethinking about your life.

The author did use a number of personal stories, and these were hit and miss for me. Many had a Christian life perspective that didn't add to the value of the content, but generally didn't detract from it either. I probably would have liked more stories and examples that I could identify with, but for many I expect the author will connect.

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Review: Never be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth in Five Minutes or Less in Any Conversation or Situation

Never be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth in Five Minutes or Less in Any Conversation or Situation by David J. Lieberman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to the audo version of this book. It wasn't the best way to understand the information presented. The author presents ways to tell if someone is lying, through observation and recognizing patterns of speech and actions. Much of the book describes using interactions with the possible liar to ensnare or cajole the person into admitting their lies. Interesting, but practical? Not so much. There are quite a few methods, and the author suggests in places to try them in order until you have an understanding or a confession. On audio, it is just too difficult to remember this list and the order. I can see reading the book, and referring to it when looking for "tells", but the audio isn't much help for that. Overall, though, I liked the concept of having a way to tell if someone is lying. I've read other books on the topic, and this seems more packed with details and examples. However, many of the methods described involve verbal trickery to come up with an answer, so may involve some morally questionable tactics. So I wasn't satisfied. What I'd like is a foolproof method you could learn in 5 minutes or less, and we aren't there yet.

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Review: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this a nice, light read with a main character who is a bit of a wacky introvert, meaning you get to listen in to her odd thoughts. She's put in a situation, she finds she has a large family she never knew existed, along with a possible inheritance, and has to cope. I found myself thinking if I would have responded to these events in the same way, so I did get sucked in to this one. But I have to admit, a week after finishing reading this, I don't recall much beyond those good feelings. This was a good change of pace for me, and I would consider more by this author.

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