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Book Reviews: Hardcover Non-Fiction
Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott is a story of moving at the age of seven to Botswana with her adventure-seeking parents is described by Alexander McCall Smith as "beautifully written" and "acutely observed." The Scotts are truly one of the most unusual families you are likely to meet. Robyn's father is a flying doctor who always wanted to be a vet. Her mother believes in holistic medicine and homeschooling. Both are deeply eccentric, and under their affectionate but relaxed guidance, life for the children is a daily adventure of the kind usually confined to storybooks. When the family moves to a game farm bordering South Africa, the children become more aware of the darker undercurrents of life in Africa. Here the apartheid mind-set lives on in many of their white South African neighbors. And when at fourteen Robyn begins conventional school in neighboring Zimbabwe, she sees more of the racism initially only glimpsed in Botswana. AIDS also rears its head. Long witnessed by Robyn's father at his village clinics, the existence of the disease is acknowledged by the government too late-only as death, on an unprecedented scale, begins to devastate this peaceful and prosperous African country. Robyn Scott is an extraordinarily gifted writer and storyteller. Like the witch doctors who compete with her father for patients, she weaves a spell from the start. Her funny, moving memoir, told with clear-eyed unsentimental affection, is about an idyllic childhood and a family's enthusiasm for each other and the world around them, with the essence of Africa-both beautiful and challenging- infusing every page.
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David Sedaris, king of the poignantly absurd, triumphs in this sixth essay collection When You Are Engulfed In Flames. There is less focus here on the Sedaris clan as a whole, though the various members make memorable and often hilarious appearances. In The Understudy, the Sedaris siblings band together to battle the odious babysitter Mrs. Peacock, while in Town and Country, Sedaris and sister Amy discuss what their father would be most offended to find on his daughter's coffee-table (hint: "The Joy of Sex" comes in a distant second). Leaving America behind, Sedaris also regales readers with his experiences around the globe, from sitting in a Parisian doctor's office wearing only his underwear in In the Waiting Room to warding off birds in the French countryside with record albums in Aerial. In the collection's longest essay, The Smoking Section, Sedaris recounts his three-month stay in Tokyo, where he successfully quits smoking and unsuccessfully attempts to learn Japanese. He records in Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie? his more glaring mistakes in life, but he should be satisfied with the knowledge that this latest endeavor is anything but.
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Bill Moyers, best known for his show on PBS, is also a skilled orator who has for decades been sharing his thoughts on democracy with diverse audiences. Moyers on Democracy offers a conscientious, passionate examination of those principles and ideals that rightly provoke pride in America and the shortcomings that should evoke shame, as Moyers points to assaults on the U.S. Constitution, a growing divide between the rich and the poor, and weakening of press independence. This collection of speeches reflects Moyers understanding of the importance of getting things right not just the facts, but the tone and tenor of the time and the sensibilities of the people. The collection also reflects his understanding of the importance of setting things right. He recalls a boyhood spent in a loving and religious small Texas town, where he was oblivious to the mistreatment of black citizens. He offers moving tributes to giants who upheld the highest ideals of democracy and simple human decency, including William Sloane Coffin, Hubert H. Humphrey, Lady Bird Johnson, and Barbara Jordan. He begins each essay with the context of time then and now in the continuum of an examination of American ideals in separate sections devoted to public service, history, politics, the media, and religion.
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In this entertaining installment, British journalist Stephen Clarke sets his acerbic sights on America in Merde Happens. Paul, an ex-pat Brit running a tearoom in Paris, commits a grievous crime when he presents English menus at his tearoom. The Ministry of Culture slaps him with a massive fine, and a broke Paul returns to London and accepts a position with Visitor Resources: Britain to represent his home country in a global tourism contest. So, with his Parisian girlfriend in tow, Paul heads for America, picks up an embarrassingly decorated Mini Cooper in New York and heads to Boston, Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Los Angeles in an effort to win the prize. Trouble follows, of course, and what makes the transcontinental romp so much fun is Clarke's sarcastic sendup of each city, embellishing the traditional stereotypes of each with a dry, jaded Brit wit.
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One of the most recognizable album-cover images of the 1960s shows a young man, underdressed for the winter in a light suede jacket, leaning into a young woman. Suze Rotolo was that young woman, and in this fascinating book A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, she tells the story behind that photo and her love for Bob Dylan. In informal, conversational style, Rotolo recalls those who made that scene, many of them famous but none more so than the complicated Dylan.
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