Titanic: Disaster at Sea by Philip Wilkinson

Pub Date: February 1, 2012.

Author website.

Experience all the drama and tragedy of Titanic inside the pages of this richly illustrated narrative. With a pull-out poster and double gatefold diagram, Titanic: Disaster at Sea is brimming with facts, stories, and fascinating people. From the technological creativity of Titanic’s construction to unselfish sacrifice in the face of disaster, this comprehensive book will satisfy readers with its exciting, up-close look at this amazing true story of triumph and tragedy. (netgalley.com)

Seeing as how this book is really just an illustrated run-down of events surrounding the Titanic, there isn't all that much to review but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

The illustrations were, of course, the highlight of the book as they were the most pervasive. Richly colored and detailed it was hard not to stare at the visuals more than the words. I wouldn't recommend reading it in its digital form, though. I couldn't manage to zoom in on my Digital Editions and while I could in my eReader Library, I had to read the captions first and then zoom out to see the images it was set against. Kind of annoying but I lived with it. TITANIC is a book best viewed in hand. That much is clear. There's something to be said for being able to hold something in your head and stare at it and not have a glaring back-lit screen staring back. In my opinion anyway.

The only thing that kind of irked me about this title was that it presented the imprisonment of the third class passengers below decks during the sinking as fact. While it may have made for good drama by Stephen Spielberg, the likelihood of it actually having happened is pretty slim. As seen in Tim Maltin's 101 THINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT THE TITANIC . . . BUT DIDN'T! in the excerpted testimony from the crew no one was forcibly kept below decks during the sinking. Many opted not to come above and, of course, there was a language barrier with some. One must take into account, though, that the British did attempt to whitewash what happened and perjury isn't such a far-flung idea. But since there are accounts from others about helping the third class passengers into boats (although few, they still exist), it kind of debunks that myth. But again, it's still something that pulls at the heartstrings.

This would be an excellent picture book for any kid, from the cross section of the Titanic's floors to the drawings and photos littering the pages making the Titanic come alive again, it's a visual smorgasbord of Titanic awesomeness. Hell, you don't even need to be a kid to enjoy this one. Buy it for the illustrations alone. You don't even need to read most of the captions. The images tell their own story.

Ban Factor: Low - Seriously, there's nothing in here that would drive the banners insane. Unless they have some weird adverse reactions to ships.

101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic . . . But Didn't! by Tim Maltin

Published November 29, 2011.

Ever since that night, fact has merged with fiction about what really happened. Now, for the first time, Titanic expert and author Tim Maltin gathers together all the key elements surrounding the disaster and presents a fascinating, compulsive and accurate account of what really happened. Taking as his lead one hundred and one oft-quoted theories about the fateful night, Maltin uses eyewitness testimony to rigorously examine each one in chronological order, and in so doing tells the true story of the Titanic and the night she sank with the loss of 1,500 lives. (netgalley.com)

The sinking of the Titanic was one of the worst tragedies in modern history, evidenced by the fact that, as a whole, we're still salivating over it 100 years later. We're still eager for information about it, we want to know the people, we still want to learn things we didn't know, and for some god awful reason, we want 1996's Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet released in 3D. Apparently there isn't a god.

But that's besides the point. As a crazy Titanic enthusiast myself, having been reading about the ship since I was roughly eight, thus coming across new information is a pretty big rarity, it was refreshing reading 101 THINGS because it did shake some rumors and clear up some cloudy moments about the Titanic for me. Of course, and I say this not patting myself on the back but just as someone that's done a shit-ton of Titanic reading, I already knew a lot of the stuff presented in this book. But that's okay because I still got a kick out of it.

Really it's all in the presentation. Maltin pulled right from the source, relying heavily on the transcripts from the hearings after the Carpathia docked in New York, and also from the hearings in London. It's astounding to read words spoken by Lightoller about how sure he was that the Titanic didn't break in half before sinking. I mean, he was SO sure. Of course, we now know that to not be the truth. And one of the pieces of information I didn't know was that the Brits tried to whitewash the whole thing. Bad, Brits. Bad. Another piece of information I didn't know: even if there were enough lifeboats to fit everyone on board, there weren't enough able seamen to man them, thus rendering the boats useless. How's that for a paradox. Really, those people were screwed anyway.

So there's really something for all levels of Titanic interest in 101 THINGS. If I can find new information within these pages, then anyone can. And it's told in a manner like you'd hear a good teacher talking about it. It's not just information regurgitated back at you simply to get it out. It's evident in the tone of the information that Maltin has a great interest in the Titanic and he's enthusiastic about it. You can't fake that so when you're reading you, in turn, get enthusiastic about the information you're given. You won't be able to help it. It's infectious.

101 THINGS would be especially wonderful for those just coming across the Titanic and wanting to know more about it. It's the Cliff Notes version of what you can find scattered throughout the referential material floating out there. Definitely a good place to start. And it's a good book to have to round out your Titanic knowledge. I can almost guarantee that there'll be something in there that even the most interested Titanic aficionado might not know. So give it a whirl. You'll be able to envision it all as you read. In this case, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's vivid. That's for sure.

Ban Factor: Low - It's a book of Titanic facts. What's there to ban? Knowledge?

Lily Renee, Escape Artist by Trina Robbins

Published November 1, 2011.

In 1938, Lily Renée Wilheim is a 14-year-old Jewish girl living in Vienna. Her days are filled with art and ballet. Then the Nazis march into Austria, and Lily's life is shattered overnight. Suddenly, her own country is no longer safe for her or her family. To survive, Lily leaves her parents behind and travels alone to England. Escaping the Nazis is only the start of Lily's journey. She must escape many more times—from servitude, hardship, and danger. Will she find a way to have her own sort of revenge on the Nazis? Follow the story of a brave girl who becomes an artist of heroes and a true pioneer in comic books. (netgalley.com)

I'm always amazed by the survival stories that come out of occupied Europe, and Lily Renee's is no different. For such a young girl to have to leave home alone, travel to a foreign country where she barely knows the language and try to ride out the war, it's amazing adults were able to do it, let alone a girl that was barely a teenager. But she did it and it really puts the trials in one's life into perspective. Escaping from the Nazis, then from prejudiced English, traveling to America and then fighting adversity to become a pioneering name in comics kind of makes the daily grind of one's life pale in comparison.

But she did it without a thought about it. It was survival mode and Lily did what she had to do to make it. The story is a simple one, told in simple language but it doesn't need to be dressed up. The story itself is already grand. Flowery prose need not apply. Plus the illustrations to go along with it make it stand out all the more. As if you couldn't picture Lily's story in your head just from the words, the images were there to help. Rich and colorful and sometimes frightening, Robbins didn't hold the story back and Timmons and Oh were relentless with the illustrations. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Whereas something like MAUS, while amazing, is probably too graphic for a younger audience, LILY RENEE tells a realistic story without being gruesome so it makes it a little more easily digestible for a younger reader that might not be able to handle the images in like comics. It'll make them see without making them see too much and it does it without sugarcoating. I'd like to see LILY RENEE, ESCAPE ARTIST in all classrooms as a teaching tool, it's just that good. It's just one of many stories coming out of that time and I'm glad it did. It shows a fight of will and of character and I think everyone should be reading stories like this, just to see what real survival is.

Ban Factor: Low - It's a vanilla historical graphic novel free of swears and anything lewd. Unless banners are offended by the troubles of a young girl escaping Nazi-occupied Europe, they're going to keep their grubby hands off of this one.

The Little Black Dress and Zoot Suits by Alison Marie Behnke

Published October 1, 2011.

What would you have worn if you lived during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s? It depends on who you were! For 1930s high fashion, nothing beat Coco Chanel's women's suit—a slim, straight skirt with a matching boxy jacket. And for a classy evening, men donned black tuxedos and velvet smoking jackets. Read more about depression era and wartime fashions—from the form-fitting little black dress to polo shirts, stylish snoods, and chic chignons—in this fascinating book! (netgalley.com)

When this book popped up on NetGalley from Lerner, I was all over it. 40s fashion is usually how I like to dress when dressing fancy, simply because the styles were geared towards a more curvaceous body (which is what I have). Plus they had some awesome hair. So now there's a book that highlights all of the great moments in war time fashion? Yes, please!

This isn't a book with a plot; it's just something that's nice and informational about the clothing and general style of the era. From the hair to the clothes, accessories and shoes, for both men and women, LITTLE BLACK DRESS does a great job of highlighting the best parts of the fashion. Not to mention I got introduced to some awesome designers whose designs I might just have to take to a seamstress because, well, I want some of these dresses, quite frankly.

I only had a couple of complaints. One, I wish Behnke would have mentioned Betty Page, whose style had a huge influence on the culture of the time, along with the hair style known as the victory roll. It was a very popular wartime style that takes some practice to manage. I didn't see either of these mentioned and I felt the book could have even better if they'd been added.

Also, someone got a little liberal with some of the photos and using Photoshop. I liked most of the photography. Looking at old pictures always draws me in but some of them were wildly colored with backgrounds that weren't flattering to the part of the image that they were trying to make pop. I think a more subtle background with a simple 3D effect in the foreground would have been more than enough to highlight the fashion in those particular photos. (This is in the NetGalley digital advanced copy edition.)

Other than that, loved it and I want to buy it for my collection. It's a good book to have for reference (for costumes, for instance, or, if you're like me, for actual dressing) and it's just something nice to look at. It'd make a great coffee table book. One thing LITTLE BLACK DRESS really proved is that the styles that emerged in these three decades really made a lasting impression on culture as a whole. There's a level of class there that isn't seen too much today and now so many designs fall back on those older ones for inspiration, although they take it to levels now that demean the original class of the style. In a world where trash is class and the less you wear means the sexier you are, it's wonderful seeing images in a time where glamour really shown. Where sex appeal wasn't just in the type of body you had but in how you held yourself, in a time where clothes were made for bodies, not the other way around.

Seriously, I loved this book and if you're into the same kind of fashion I am, you'll love it too.

Ban Factor: Low - It's a book about dresses and suits. How horrible can it possibly be?

Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

Published November 1, 2010.

Her palace shimmered with onyx and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world.

She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, two of the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a son with Caesar and - after his murder - three more with his protege. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.

Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way the supple personality has been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order a generation before the birth of Christ. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life. (book flap blurb)

First and foremost this is a history book. The plot is taken from real time 2,000 years ago. It hasn't been bloated with fantastical elements or intense drama. In fact, if you were reading this book as you would a work of fiction, you'll find yourself sadly lacking that same kind of connection to Cleopatra as you would to a main character in a novel. Why? Because Cleopatra is nearly unknowable. And she's not a fictional character. She's spoken of from a distance, seen more through the eyes of men around her than through her own lenses. If you're not interested in Caesarian Roman or Ptolemaic Egyptian history, you might not get much out of this book. But if you are, and you want to know more about the elusive Cleopatra, not the Elizabeth Taylor or Shakespeare version but the real person garnered from first hand accounts and a few words out of her own mouth, you'll guzzle this book up as if it were your life force.

The person of Cleopatra is the center of this book's universe with which all other events orbit. Unfortunately, the only way we can truly get to know Cleopatra now is by analyzing the events happening around her through the eyes of the people she's come in contact with. As I said above, this creates a sort of distance from her but it allows for a more objective look into her life. With these elements Schiff allows you to dissect her life and get a better hint of who Cleopatra was as a person, what her personality really was like and whether something of those scandalizing rumors really were true. Augustus Caesar did a good job of striking her from the history books. But not good enough. Here she remains to this day and Schiff did an excellent job of digging up the truth behind this woman we know next to nothing about. We barely even know what she looks like save for some sanctioned Ptolemaic coinage with her bust stamped onto it.

Despite the rampant incest (holy god, we're talking about a family stump here, ew) and homicidal tendencies, Cleopatra's ability to rule a kingdom was astonishing compared to any ruler, let alone a woman living, quite literally, in a man's world. That's not to say her reign was full of smooth sailing, but she knew how to talk, walk and act in order to get what she needed for her country. She put her country first above all else (except maybe her children). Just like the accounts of this book orbit around Cleopatra, every piece of minutiae of Cleopatra's life orbited around the success of her kingdom. It's hard to determine if she did something genuinely out of love or if it was show, but it was all for Egypt, ultimately. Even when she tried negotiating with the immovable Augustus after she swindled Antony into his own suicide, it was all political. It was Antony's only way to die on his terms and Cleopatra's last hope of saving her country.

Despite the distance I say this book creates between the reader and Cleopatra, it does an excellent job of forming a more accurate image of her in your mind's eye. That Elizabeth Taylor hussy image gets pushed aside as all of these missing pieces replace it, forming this real live person that feels more a part of history itself than just Hollywood. While the puzzle isn't complete, and probably never will be, Schiff does an fantastic job of digging up absolutely everything she can on this amazing woman and giving it to us as straight as can be. She doesn't hide what Cleopatra is, or what she potentially was. No secret is safe, nor even skewed. I felt like I was back during her reign, sitting on a cloud with the gods and watching all of these events unfold. Some of the images were blurry but they were clear enough to determine just what was going on.

While it took a little while for me to get through, this book is an excellent historical read. A must read for anyone interested in the life and times of Cleopatra without the fabrications of storytelling and millennia of innuendo. It's raw, it's unforgiving and you will come away from it being more knowledgeable about such a shadowy figure in history. And then you'll want to read it again to be sure you picked up all of the historical tidbits you may have missed.

If you want a good piece of fiction to follow this book with, you should pick up Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran. It picks up almost right where Cleopatra ends and Moran sticks pretty closely to the facts Schiff writes about. Honestly, I don't think you'll be able to stop at the end of Cleopatra. She's just far too interesting of a person.

Strange But True America: Weird Tales from All 50 States by John Hafnor + Contest!

Pub date - August, 2009

US president skinny-dips in the Potomac - every day!

America's real headless horseman

Oops - Student cuts down world's oldest tree

Mosquito bite secures statehood for Florida

US presidents killed by their own physicians

What a quirky and awesome book. This is one of those books you gift to people for birthdays or holidays and it'll be a sure bet that they'll like it, the stories are that entertaining.

They're edited in AP format so as to mimic a newspaper article, as if blood-letting is breaking news! The stories are short, sweet and to the point and you're sure to rocket right through this book with certain tales that just won't leave your head.

One of them for me is how the Democratic party got the mule/donkey as a mascot. And it has nothing to do with it being a "working" animal! Another one that made me laugh out loud was a Vermont story and Ethan Allen visiting some post-Revolutionary war British friends who had hung a picture of George Washington in the bathroom, presumably as an insult to him. Allen then retorted, "It is most appropriately hung. There is nothing that will make an Englishman shit so quick as the sight of General Washington." That's freakin' hilarious!

I can't help but wonder how deep Hafnor had to dig to find some of these stories. This is an excellent bit of eccentric history-telling, right here and it's told in short bursts and accompanied by wonderful illustrations from Dale Crawford. I mean, how often does anyone over the age of six get to guiltlessly enjoy books with pictures in it?

If you want to know something quirky about your state, or any state, definitely pick up this book. You know, I didn't know Connecticut, my home state and current residence, was home to the real first president of the Unites States! How awesome is that! And while Sleepy Hollow, New York might have the famous headless horseman, Texas has a true version. Dun dun dun!

Definitely an awesome read!

Contest Time!

You want a copy? You got it. I'll make it simple this time. Just post a comment with your email address to win an ARC of this awesome book. I only have one for grabs so you all are going to have to fight for it!

UPDATE!

John Hafnor was awesome enough to offer up another book for my contest so now there'll be two winners! Yay!

Open to US residents only and the contest will end on July 28th.