Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City Review

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Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City ReviewTom Keels has produced a treasure of a book. There are many compilations of photographs of old Philadelphia, but Keels supplies what others mostly lack -- a brief but rich history and context for each of the lost buildings he documents. Many of the photographs will be familiar to anyone interested in Philadelphia history, but this should not discourage you from buying the book. You will learn a great deal, thanks to Keels' perspicacious research. Moreover, his prose is graceful and witty, never stodgy.Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City Overview

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Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin Review

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Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin ReviewYale-trained historian Hampton Sides hails from Memphis. His father had worked on the MLK trial as a lawyer. So it's no wonder that this fascinating book feels like a personal memoir, an intimate story from the writer. This book is the story of all the characters involved in the murder of Martin Luther King, their characteristics, their habits, their quirks. And, so typical of Hampton Sides, this book is thoroughly researched, well-written, and well-organized.
I was just a child in my single digits when MLK was assassinated. I read this book to learn more about the story. And what a story this is. Sides spoke with every witness, every neighbor of all the people in the book. He traveled thousands of miles to relive the towns and travel routes of the people in this book. He didn't leave anything to the imagination.
And, typical of Sides, chapters are short and ideal for quick readings. Personalities switch often: starting with Eric Galt (James Early Ray) and his penchant for Mexican whores and cheap photographs, to nemisis J Edgar Hoover, President Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace and the man MLK himself (who lived quite a shameful life behind curtains), this book is laden with historical passages never before revealed.
Although we all know how the killing of MLK transpired, Sides does not take sides with anyone. No character in this book is herofied. What the reader experiences is the rising backfrop to the actual focus of this book: the hunt for James Earl Ray. Out of the 400 pages of this book, the first 164 take place before the MLK assassination.
We learn about the distrust J Edgar Hoover had toward MLK. We read about James Earl Ray's shyness, Johnson's rudeness and George Wallace's resoluteness. The reader finally finishes this book not completely wanting to take just one side anymore, but none.
I highly recommend this book for history fans, people fascinated with FBI history and its people, social history of the 1960s and admirers of MLK. It's a hard book to put down once you get started, so happy reading. Your mind will thank you for the intellectual insight.Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin Overview

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Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War Review

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Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War ReviewI have to admit to having a fascination with the Worlds Fairs in New York and worried this book would either be an overdramatic novelization or a dry as bone read. I was pleasantly surprised, instead, to find a well written and engrossing true-tale - created by using historical documents as the basis upon which to build the story of the Worlds Fair.
After only a few pages, you're hooked as you learn about the persons and personalities behind the 1939 Worlds Fair. Those who thought it up, organized it, worked it, and ultimately the celebrities that visited it. There are a lot of fascinating facts interwoven with the narrative and never once was I bored with the book. The author writes in such a way that you really get a 3-dimensional picture of the people - they are never caricatures or poorly fleshed out. Each feels like someone you might have known and that really makes the read that much more engrossing.
I think it is important to note that this is really about the people behind the fair and not the fair itself. You won't necessarily get a feel of what it was like to be there or experience it - that's for historical or coffee table books. Instead, you'll get a feel of what it was like to live at this time with all the factors that were going on behind the scenes of the build up and then end of the fair.
I was VERY glad to get this and I highly recommend it for history buffs or those who really like the whole idea behind the World Fairs. There is always so much going on behind the scenes and it is clear the author highly researched and really got into the mindset of the people at the time.Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War Overview

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The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating A Sense of Place Review

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The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating A Sense of Place ReviewThis is a wonderful book, and an important one, I think. It explains why some gardens touch us and how that sense of wonder is achieved in compelling gardens and maybe even in our own. It does not tell us what plants to plant or how deep to dig or what amendments to add to our soil. For me, it was a light bulb going on. Oh, so that's why I loved this or that on a garden visit! So that's why one thing or another seemed out of place or discordant. As the author describes and illustrates her five principles, it becomes clear what belongs in a garden and what doesn't and why it doesn't. She explains something about regional differences and indigenous materials and why some things just seem to fit in certain places. An additional bonus for me was that, as a resident of southeastern Pennsylvania, several of the public gardens and aboretums she uses as examples are familiar to me and allowed me to look beyond the photographs and into my own memory of the places she describes. The photos are, I should add, extremely well chosen and well placed within the text to illustrate her points. I have to admit that I borrowed this book from the library, but now I know I need to have it for my own.The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating A Sense of Place Overview

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American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are Review

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American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are ReviewWade Graham's "American Eden" has a wonderful premise: What our gardens tell us about who we are. The book is more a history of American gardens seen somewhat through that lens, but mostly seen through the lens of the upper class' residential landscapes and public spaces, where big money buys grandeur.
The book is decently written and (in it's final form) will be a valuable and colorful guide to anyone interested in the history of landscaping in this country. Note that I did not use the word "gardening" as most of the individuals noted in the book (Roosevelt, Mary Pickford, Vanderbilts, Edith Wharton, Thomas Jefferson, Martha Stewart, et al) did not actually sully their hands in the drudgery of setting up the landscape, so it's not gardening in the real sense of the word. When I say gardening, it means that I am the gardener, do the work and later get the firsthand pleasure of my efforts. Instead, Graham's lineup of who's-who skip the middle part and employ landscape design firms to flesh out their grand schemes. While this particular fact does not stain the premise of the book entirely, it also does not fulfill it. Trying to use Graham's yardstick to measure what my 1 acre yard's flora tells me about myself would be fruitless.
In any regard, the book is finely researched and not only are photographs shown of various gardens, but the actual plans in many cases are also rendered in order to help those who delve into such things. This paperback version's stock (a pulpy newsprint) is not the best and therefore many of the black and white details of the visuals were absorbed by it. Hopefully the final version will have a coated stock and color photos.
OK, so what was I really hoping for?
In today's gardening pantheon, every type of garden style is represented, from cottage-style flora explosions to formal, repressed squares. Therefore, every personality type is also represented by proxy. Something about our personalities explains why some choose a formal, restrictive gardening style and why some choose a much more loose method. But what? Can I truly use the above gilded list of personalities to help figure out these things? Graham presents a vast gardening history, yet cuts us off from gardening's present and gives us a limited pathway to discover and explain what these garden design traits actually tell us about ourselves. Can Edith Wharton's history of using an earlier style to suit her formal gardens at the Mount tell me why I choose a formal design for my back yard, but a looser style for my front yard? Doubtful. My one-story ranch is a far cry from her multi-room mansion and there's not much space for the Tulleries inside my privacy fence.
A better title would have been: "America's Eden: What famous landscape designs tell us about their original owners and designers".
American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are Overview

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