Tag Archives: Lisa Boss

On the shelf: ‘Things I’ve learned from dying: a book about life’ by David R. Dow 

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

Before counselor Dow sees a new client, he reads through the case carefully. Six years back, four young men went on a week-long crime spree that ended in the murder of an 84-year-old woman in her home. One of the gang shot Miss McClain in the head, and Dow’s client took the gun and shot her again, stating, “That’s how you smoke a bitch.”

 

Dow’s clients are all on death row in Texas. Many are not sympathetic types. Discussing his new case with his father-in-law, Peter asks him, “So, why do you want to save this man?”, and Dow answers that he doesn’t know yet.

 

There are a lot of surprises in this book, starting — but not ending — with Dow. Although he’s a professor, a death penalty lawyer and the founder of the Texas Innocence Network, he tells us that, “It’s important to understand that people who defend murderers aren’t necessarily opposed to killing.”

 

An avid shooter, known as “Grudge” at the range, due to his habit of pinning photos on his targets, Dow’s wife convinced him to give most of his guns to a friend after their son was born. 

 

“But I kept the shotgun. I’ve got a family to take care of. If anyone ever climbs our stairs at night and doesn’t turn and run when he hears the whoosh of the pump chambering a shell, I’ll know that if the dog doesn’t kill him I’m going to have to.”

 

OK, so he’s not a pacifist. We have to piece together his reasons for his strong commitment to his clients as the book goes along, but he isn’t shy about revealing the legal and political machinations that go into a death case, and his opinions on them.

 

“Anybody who tells you the criminal justice system is an even playing field has no idea what she’s talking about. Rich people can make it close to even. Poor people—which is to say, everyone on death row—don’t have a chance.”

 

It’s not all about death row though, and what sounds like a depressing treatise, Things I’ve Learned… reads more like a medical, legal and psychological thriller, shot through with dark humor and hope.

 

The book intertwines three lives and deaths as part of a whole, pulsing web of life, where each twitch ripples out to affect the immediate family, friends and finally the whole ecosystem of society. There are no “minor” characters in these true stories. The themes of mortality are deep as the wise friend, beloved dog, even the remorseful client, confront our oldest mystery.

 

It is, as the title promises, a book about life, and a strangely beautiful one.

 

On the shelf: ‘The best of James Herriot: favorite memories of a country vet’ by James Herriot

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.” (Cecil Alexander)

 

Great books are like musical pieces, with chords and leitmotifs that resonate in our hearts and help us to cope with a painful world. As such, new ones are not necessarily better than older ones, and personal favorites may bring the comfort and wisdom of time-tested friends. I re-visit a few of the Herriot books every so often, and feel the better for it. James Alfred Wight (1916-1995) — pen name, James Herriot — grew up in Scotland and graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College, going to work at a small rural practice when he was 23. A self-confessed “city boy”, he soon fell in love with the wild, spacious countryside of the Yorkshire Dales and its inhabitants.

 

The semi-fictionalized tales of his eccentric partner, Siegfried, with his devil-may-care brother, Tristan, and a larger cast of town characters, have been the bedrock of an enduring legacy. Memoirs of a time and place that don’t exist anymore; Britain between the great wars and on into the forties and fifties, when a great transition was taking place from tiny farms powered by draft animals to a more industrial form of agriculture.

 

To dip into these reminisces is to visit a quieter time, but not an easier one, for vets or their patients. A time before the “miracle” drugs were yet to appear, leading the author to remark, “Those old black magic days with their exotic, largely useless medicines reeking of witchcraft. They have gone for good and though as a veterinary surgeon I rejoice, as a writer I mourn their passing.”

 

Wight wanted to preserve that unique time, and when he started writing his memoirs in his fifties, he imagined a small book of humorous anecdotes, but the books soon grew into a whole world with all its joys and sorrows. Not just about animals, but more about how all the components of work, relationships, love and duty fit together to form healthy communities.

 

And like many compassionate people, the author himself did not always have an easy time of it. He endured a chronic physical ailment and could suffer bouts of depression (possibly from Brucellosis), which one might never guess from his books, except that there is much more depth and understanding of the human condition than a quick glance might reveal.

 

Loved for over 30 years, they are true modern classics.

On the shelf: ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ by Ken Follett

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

The year is 1123, England is full into the Middle Ages, and a routine event is occurring in the town square: a man is being hanged. There’s something odd about this particular execution though. The man is unknown to the people.  He sings in French before his death, and the crowd becomes uneasy, absorbing the unrest of the officials at hand. Suddenly, a young woman appears, cutting the throat of a cockerel as she utters a terrifying curse, and throws the blood spattering bird directly at the three men responsible for the stranger’s death. Shock momentarily paralyzes the populace, and she disappears into the forest.

 

This is the heart of the mystery that pulses at the center of the numerous plot lines: who was this man and why was he killed?

 

The Pillars of the Earth is a riveting, epic work, with a cast of real, engaging characters, living in times that will definitely take your mind off your 401K.  Written in 1989, it has always enjoyed a place on “great reads” lists, and was chosen as an Oprah Book Club pick in 2007. Like all epics, the author celebrates the continuous struggle of Good against Evil in this work, and how human nature can be so easily inclined either way. I loved (or hated) the characters. Listening to it on audio, I found that I was constantly making excuses to drive somewhere to find out what was going to happen. I was hooked after the first few minutes, actually sobbing out loud as one early drama (probably very commonplace back then) unfolded. So, there’s plenty of emotional connection to the characters, and the plot is filled with unexpected twists and turns.

 

Follett begins his tale with a brief reference to a great historical disaster for the English Crown that occurred in 1120: the wreck of the White Ship. King Henry I, (1068-1135), who was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, had one son. On a fatal night in November 1120, the White Ship set out from France to England, carrying this son of Henry; but it foundered on the rocks, and all aboard perished in the sea, save one man.

 

The end result of this disaster was the lack of an obvious inheritor to the throne. Henry arranged for his daughter, Matilda (Maude) to succeed him, but his nephew, Stephen, also had factions supporting him, and civil war broke out. Later known as “the time of anarchy”, chaos and lawlessness broke out, lasting almost 20 years until another undisputed king was crowned.

 

During this time, wars are fought, political alliances are formed and betrayed, bishops are created, men and women live and die, and life in Kingsbridge increases and wanes, according to the whims of the larger forces that seek power, and the fierce spirit of human creativity and growth.

 

Follett was well-known for writing intricate, popular thrillers before this work. He said that Pillars of the Earth grew out of his fascination with the history and architecture of the great cathedrals. He began to imagine the men that built them, the mathematical discoveries that informed their advance into new building forms, resulting in the creations that would inspire and awe for generations to come. If you’ve ever walked into an old cathedral, you’ll appreciate this book all the more. Follett said that he wanted to tell their story, but in a way that would convey everything that was put into them and going on around them. If you’re looking for a long, absorbing historical novel that’s also a total thriller, this is for you!

On the shelf: ‘Push’ by Sapphire

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

“Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, “Grow, grow.” ~ The Talmud

 

Push is a beautiful, strong novel that reads like raw poetry. The narrator, Claireece Precious Jones, speaks right to our heart, in an original, spare, untouched way. Physically, mentally and sexually abused by both of her loathsome parents, she has “slipped through the cracks” of myriad social welfare systems and finds herself pregnant with her father’s second baby at age 16. Illiterate, obese, friendless and despairing; half crazed from her torturous home situation, Precious experiences times of fading into and out of awareness.

 

One incident is going to bring about seismic changes in her life though —

 

This author grabs us by the neck and makes us think and makes us mad.  When did incest, child abuse, institutional failure and depraved people lose the power to shock us? The saddest part is that it’s one more look into the “banality of evil” and our fascination with it. As one of the girls from Precious’s new alternate school, “Each One Teach One” says, “Everybody likes to hear that story. Tell us more tell us more more MORE about being a dope addict and a whore!” But there’s a lot more to the story than that, and the end is well worth the beginning. If it seems a little gritty at times, remember that former First Lady Barbara Bush highly recommends it.

 

Sapphire reminded me of Charles Dickens, writing about the deplorable conditions of his time in Victorian England. Both authors want to move us to action with their unforgettable characters and fast-paced plot. This isn’t a book anyone will put down midway.

 

We may not want to see what Sapphire shows us in her mirror, but we look anyway. It’s good that we do, because everyone will take away something different and something valuable from this short volume.

 

On the shelf: ‘My Cross to Bear’ by Gregg Allman

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By Lisa Boss

Grand Rapids Public Library

 

Born in 1947, Allman looks back on a long life, having beaten the odds, so to speak. In a career field where sex and drugs are ubiquitous, he stood out with six ruined marriages and decades of heroin, coke and alcohol addictions. In 1995, after an embarrassing speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gregg went into his last rehab. In 2010 his liver had deteriorated so badly from the Hepatitis C that he received a transplant. But wait, it’s not all bad news!

 

His memoir is a fascinating chronicle of the twists and turns of the Allman Brothers band, forging a new sound back in the sixties — “southern rock”, a mix of blues, rock and country. It’s also an honest, revealing look at a man remembering a life filled with triumphs and failures. Some of the material about his mom and brother Duane is just kind of heartbreaking, and the photos underscore the sense of love and loss.

 

An interesting twist for me was that when I had finished the book, I checked out the library’s collection of Allman Brothers music, and found that I really liked the CD, Low Country Blues — that Allman recorded at the age of 63 — best. He went back to the blues roots that he loved, and the tracks have that haunting, powerful sound. So, maybe getting clean and finding religion was the best thing he ever did musically…

 

On the shelf: ‘In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War’ by Tobias Wolff

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library

 

After reading Jon Krakauer’s new book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, (which is an excellent book!), I remembered that Tobias Wolff had also been in the Special Forces during the Vietnam era, and that both Tillman and Wolff were unusually honest in their thoughts about the military.  While Krakauer’s work about Tillman’s life trajectory from childhood to pro-football to Afghanistan is contemporary, Wolff needed a lot more time to distill the essence of his experience.

 

He begins his memoir at the wheel of his armor-plated truck, rolling along towards a chaotic street scene. He honks a warning — another one — and then, since the villagers do not get their bicycles out of the road, Wolff runs right over them.

 

“Seven months back, at the beginning of my tour, when I was still calling them people instead of peasants, I wouldn’t have run over their bikes. I would have slowed down or even stopped until they decided to move their argument to the side of the road, if it was a real argument and not a setup.    

 

“But I didn’t stop anymore. Neither did Sergeant Benet. Nobody did, as these peasants — these people — should have known.”

 

The parallels between then and now are thought-provoking, because while Wolff’s slim volume was written almost 30 years after his military experience of 1967-68, one wonders if it could be yesterday in Iraq or Afghanistan.

 

Wolff’s ultimate take on the Vietnam war was, “Here were pharaoh’s chariots engulfed; his horsemen confused; and all his magnificence dismayed.”  By contrast, Krakauer, an excellent writer and journalist, leaves us to draw our own conclusions, as to where we are headed in Afghanistan.

 

On the shelf: ‘Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Meth Addiction’ by David Sheff

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By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

 

“Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied repeatedly, stole money from his eight-year-old brother, and lived on the streets.”  (Book jacket)

 

What’s different about Meth? Why is it worse than, say, cocaine or heroin? Why did all the drug recovery experts sigh so deeply when they heard that the “drug of choice” was Meth?  David Sheff found his answers to these and many other questions concerning one of the latest drug scourges to reappear.  Like a medical thriller, the story weaves many plot and research lines into a complex tapestry.  And like a horror story, the drug takes on a persona:  a vampire feeding on its willing victim, who seeks out the source that is draining them of life.

 

Drug addiction of any kind can bring families to their knees, leaving wreckage far beyond the principal player.  Al-Anon has their 3 C’s: You didn’t cause it, you can’t control it, and you can’t cure it.   The author, resistant at first, finds the family support groups an unbelievable source of comfort.  Who else will understand when a parent says that they are happy that their child is in jail?

 

Sheff’s work grew out of a piece that he wrote for the New York Times Magazine, “My Addicted Son”,  which won the American Psychological Association’s award for “Outstanding Contribution to Advancing the Understanding of Addiction”.

 

To tell the truth, I didn’t know if I’d like it so much — it sounded like a real downer. Once I started, though, I found it an extremely compelling book. It’s not just about one family’s tragedy, but it connects to every aspect of our own lives. Sheff constantly involves all of us in his Dantesque journey — seeming to ask, without putting it so bluntly, “so you think this does not, will not, ever touch you?”

 

As an example, while the author is staying at yet another hotel, waiting for yet another rehab visit with his son, he begins reading the epigraph from Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster, “Every little trifle, for some reason, does seem incalculably important and when you say of a thing that ‘nothing hangs on it’ it sounds like blasphemy. There’s never any knowing–how am I to put it–which of our actions, which of our idlenesses won’t have things hanging on it for ever.”

 

The author ponders this late at night, “I read it and read it again…. I am almost shaking. I think, ‘How innocent we are of our mistakes and how responsible we are for them.’”  

 

The narrative alternates with his research into every aspect of drug addiction: the rehab industry, support groups, crime statistics, environmental damage and the neuroscience of the brain physiology.  And the history — Meth was synthesized from amphetamine in 1919 by a Japanese pharmacologist. It was commercially available and marketed as a bronchodilator for asthma or an appetite suppressant, among other things. Ads featured slogans like, “Never again feel dreary or suffer the blues.”  Used by the military in World War II, mild formulations were still sold over the counter until 1951, when it was finally upgraded to a controlled substance.  Well, who knew…?

 

If you ever buy “Sudefed” for allergies, you’ve experienced how diligent the selling, signing for, and tracking of, this product has become — due to its main ingredient, pseudoephedrine. Here’s a real surprise though. According to the author, while he is laying out how the mom and pop labs have been essentially preempted by international drug cartels, operating their own “super labs”:  “Only nine factories manufacture the bulk of the world’s supply of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, but pharmaceutical companies — and legislators influenced by them — have stopped every move that would have effectively controlled the distribution of the chemical so they could not be diverted to meth super labs.”

 

Meth seems to be a particularly unfortunate drug, since while all the drugs of abuse affect the dopamine reward circuit; Meth quickly causes more serious harm to the brain. The dopamine system becomes so ravaged that it takes months for partial recovery, and a full two years for an almost normal brain PET scan. In the meantime, in the first weeks of recovery attempts, when a Meth user is without the drug, the areas of the brain that light up are the ones that are active when people experience intense pain.

 

At one completely chilling point in the story (and there are many of these) another parent tells him that the only thing that will get him through is God; and the author says he’d like to believe, but he’s just never been able to. “Before this is over,” they reply to him softly, “you will.”

 

The cover quote by Anne Lamott says, “This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts.”

 

If any book could discourage a person from trying drugs, this would do it.

 

 

On the shelf: ‘America’s Boy: A Memoir’ by Wade Rouse

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By Lisa Boss, GRPL Main
And heeeeeere’s “Miss Sugar Creek”!!

Summers in the late ’60s, with the extended family at the idyllic log cabin on Sugar Creek in the Missouri Ozarks, always include a special 4th of July beauty pageant. Wade, now age 5, has always been a judge, when what he really wants to be is a contestant. So, taking matters into his own young hands, when his family comes back from fishing he announces in all his finery, “I am Miss Sugar Creek!” He’s decked himself out in his grandma’s red heels, his mom’s bikini (fitted with duct tape), jewelry, and has a tin foil crown, sash and scepter.

“The moment my family comes in, I wave my scepter and graciously thank them for their decision. They stare at me, blinking in slow motion, trying to act like nothing is wrong, like it is perfectly natural for me to be standing there in a bikini and heels, like a tiny boy Phyllis George.”
 

Eventually, his adored older brother, springs into action:

“Todd, a true country boy, moves toward me, shaking his head, grabbing the scepter from my hands and motioning with it for me to walk the length of the cabin.

“There he is, Miss Sugar Creek,” he sings off-key.”

I liked Rouse’s memoir so much that I read it twice in one week. It’s a short book, telling the story of one of those families that are both ordinary and extraordinary.

You might be fooled into thinking it’s just a humorous book at first, because Rouse is just rib-achingly funny, but, much like Bill Bryson’s Thunderbolt Kid, it’s an extremely well-written look at another time in America, involving three generations and their interactions within their changing culture. I hate to say trite things like, “I laughed, I cried”, but that’s exactly what I did. A must read!

On the shelf: ‘Agent 6’ by Tom Rob Smith

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By Lisa Boss, GRPL-Main
The final novel of Tom Rob Smith’s Soviet trilogy (Child 44, The Secret Speech), Agent 6 spans the time from the Cold War through the Soviet Union’s disastrous invasion of Afghanistan. Smith’s combination of a lightning plot and a cautionary tale, added to the history and psychology, create an engrossing read.
Leo Demidou, former KGB agent, has tried to put past regrets behind him, and now lives for his wife and daughters. When they take part in a goodwill trip to the U.S. and his wife is the victim of a terrible incident, Leo vows to find out the truth. His attempts to get to the bottom of this deep-rooted scheme entwine throughout the rest of the book, although he has been banished to Afghanistan.
The complicated plot races along, with Leo reminiscent of a Camus or Kafka anti-hero struggling in his bleak universe. The irony of Leo’s Afghan assignment is that he is to help create a secret police force for them when he has come to believe in the malignant harm it does to a society. He sees his younger self in the idealistic young woman who is his chief aide, and believes fully in the destruction needed to create a new order.

‘An Unquiet Mind’ by Kay Redfield Jamison

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an-unquiet-mindBy Lisa Boss, GR Main Library
A beautiful, compelling memoir about an exceptional life and a relentless disease, Jamison’s fast-paced story of her struggle and triumph over manic depression opens a window onto a mysterious and ever increasing diagnosis. If you have ever wondered why someone with a serious mental disorder won’t take their medication, Jamison hits this issue full-on, as she weighs the euphoric seductions of the hypomanias against the sometimes punitive and toxic effects of the drugs.

Her memoir is especially fascinating because she has a dual perspective; having studied and become an academic expert in Bipolar Illness and Mood Disorder, while experiencing the devastating effects of it in her own life. Oliver Sacks says about An Unquiet Mind, that “It stands alone in the literature of manic-depression for its bravery, brilliance and beauty.”

On the shelf: ‘The Alzheimer’s Family: Helping Caregivers Cope’ by Robert B. Santulli

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alzheimers-familyBy Lisa Boss, Main Library 
Many of us are close to a friend or relative with Alzheimer’s these days, and over the years, as my relative’s spouse has gone from “mild cognitive impairment”, to a more drastic descent through the middle stages of AD, I’ve become more concerned and worried. What exactly is happening, and why?

I liked the tone and the way Dr. Santulli presented the information in this book. It fel like a compassionate, wise friend/expert was there to help chart a course in frightening waters. A geriatric psychiatrist, and Director of the Dartmouth Memory Clinic, he’s distilled over 20 years of specialization in treating Alzheimer’s patients into his guide. He explains how the different symptoms are tied to physical pathology, and thus certain strategies will be more effective in each case.

The Forgetting: Alzheimer’s: Portrait of an Epidemic by David Shenk is another book I found helpful, as was The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s by John Thorndyke. Olivia Hoblitzelle’s memoir, Ten Thousand Joys and Ten Thousand Sorrows: A Couple’s Journey Tlast-of-his-mindhrough Alzheimer’s is one not to be missed, applying a culturally different understanding of illness, through Tibetan Buddhism. Each loved one, their support system and disease manifestation, will be unique, so it’s natural that some writers will resonate more, and a wide choice of knowledgeable authors is preferable.

ten-thousand-joys-sorrows-book-coverAs I often read, “when you’ve met one person with Alzheimer’s, you’ve met one person with Alzheimer’s”, and that is probably true for most medical and mental health conditions. With Grand Rapids Public Library’s large and in-depth medical and caregiver collections, there will be sure to be ones that speak to you, if or when needed.

On the shelf: ‘No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels’, by Jay Dobyns

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no-angelOn the Shelf Book Review
 
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms decided to infiltrate the Arizona Hells Angels and clean house they knew it wouldn’t be an easy job. Lengthy, complicated and expensive (think tax dollars), this sting holds one’s attention, as we wait to see what will ultimately be revealed when the nets are pulled up.

The most interesting part for me was the state of mind of the author/agent, as he descends into a violent, criminal culture that he finds increasingly attractive. We follow the transformation of Jay Dobyns, ATF undercover agent, into Bird, aspiring Hells Angel, over a 2-year period.

It raises the questions that police, military and even psychologists face, when they are trying to infiltrate or befriend “the enemy”. How much of our personality and our values are reflections of the culture we are in, rather than uniquely “us”? Where do the criminals stop and we begin… Dobyns invokes the lure of the free, macho brotherhood at first, but as time passes he shows us that it doesn’t really age so well.

Some of it was unintentionally funny. Who knew that there is a very strict, fussy code to get into the Hells Angels, and that their charters are filled with rules and “do’s and don’ts”. One crazy scene involves an impromptu opportunity for ATF, when the Hells Angels stay at a swanky Vegas hotel, supposedly arranged by Bird’s mysterious boss. ATF then needs an out-of-town police operative to play this “Mr Big”, and at the last minute they have to get a substitute, with surprising results.

Things are not as they would seem on the surface, but then, they never are.

On the Shelf Book Review: ‘When You Are Engulfed in Flames’, by David Sedaris

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when-you-are-engulfed-in-flamesOn the Shelf Book Review
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

When David Sedaris, the famous humorist, was in Grand Rapids last spring, the Grand Rapids Press reviewer summed up his type of comedy as “NPR funny”— an excellent term, which perfectly describes an addictive style that touches on the poignant absurdity of life.

Along the lines of Woody Allen and James Thurber, with a bit of Jack Benny and Phillip Roth thrown in, Sedaris takes the melancholy and self-absorbed male to new heights. He’s honed an intense, but not mean-spirited voice over the years, and it is quite unique.

With a self-depreciating eye, he looks over topics like his childhood, family life, a checkered career path, being obsessive, being gay, travel, and his long-term relationship with his partner, Hugh, among others. If the topics seem a little mundane, it’s really about what he does with them.

If you haven’t discovered Sedaris yet, try a couple of his more recent works. One of my favorites is Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy, which has the small chapter, The End of the Affair, where David and Hugh take in a movie. It becomes clear to Sedaris that watching romantic movies is just plain dangerous, for reasons that may not have ever occurred to you. These four pages alone are worth the price of the book, and of course his works are available in print or audio at the library for free.