SoMinn THE BOOKWORM SEZ

Dead Lines: Slices of Life from the Obit Beat

by George Hesselberg

c.2021, Wisconsin Historical Society Press $20.00 / higher in Canada 200 pages And that’s the nal word. Just a few lines, a handful of dates and names, an accomplishment or two, and then that’s it. You’ll be done, dead, end of story – or is it? Will you be remembered only by a few lines in a newspaper or online? Or as in the new book “Dead Lines” by George Hesselberg, have you left small footprints on a lot of hearts? Whenever a celebrity dies, we know it almost instantly. It’s on the news, online, passed by word of mouth along with reminders of their work or their lineage. We can tend to forget, then, that ordinary people accomplished things, too, but as “general assignment reporter, a crime reporter, and a columnist” for the Wisconsin State Journal, George Hesselberg remembered those folks. In fact, he wrote a lot of their obituaries. There was Sister Pat, an “alley-haunting, parking ramp-camping” one-woman missionary who never met a piece of paper she didn’t like. Harry Specht was a meticulous man who laid all his paperwork in a row before shutting his garage doors and starting his car... There was Kenny Stout, whose mother died of hypothermia, though he’d cared for her “the best he could.” Bill Matheson’s claim to fame was that he’d taped and archived twenty- ve years’ worth of radio programs from his local station. Willie Chatman left hundreds of people who’ll always remember his kindness. A man named Thomas outlived an incorrect obituary for more than a decade. He thought about correcting it, but he didn’t. Vivian Husting left a legacy of professional work as a volunteer. And Angel Babcock Burns Richardson left questions and a couple of twisty puzzles. Hesselberg wrote about an unidenti ed skeleton found in a chimney. He wrote about parents whose daughter died, and then saved lives. He wrote of love in a nursing home, a community looking for a dead man, a soldier’s bravery, “an accomplished ham-boner,” a circus heiress and a circus-lover, and of the miracle of a child in the cold... Here we are, all of us walking around with stories to tell. You’ll hear some of them as time passes; others, you’ll read in “Dead Lines.” There’s something irresistible about the tiny tales you’ll nd inside this book; no kidding, they’re kind of like potato chips, in that you can’t enjoy just one. From 1977 to 2017, author George Hesselberg lauded each person well, making ordinary lives seem like important bits of history and letting readers imagine each subject as they went about their days, quietly hiding who they were before they fell on hard times or disappeared or went out in style – and that, in a wonderful number of tales, is just what happened. Some of these obits will make you snort, while others will give you pause. At least one will baf e you like no mystery could. Some will sadden you, and they’ll all make you pay attention to the invisible people among us. And for that, you’ll love “Dead Lines” until its very last word.

Playing with Words and Ideas

by books by various authors

c.2021, 2022, various publishers $16.99 - $25.00 various page counts That makes no sense! And yet, there it is: a fact that seems kind of silly but it’s a hundred percent all true. Those kinds of things-toknow are also a hundred percent fun, especially when you’re the smarty-pants who gets to tell them. Trivia, tidbits, word-play, whatever you call it, these great books are calling for the nerd inside everybody... How many words do you think there are in the English language? Well more than a million, if you can imagine that, and about a hundred more are added to our vocabulary every year. So would you believe that the average person uses only about twenty-thousand of them? Yeah, and that’s why you need “Absurd Words” by Tara Lazar (Sourcebooks Kids, $16.99): so you can start expanding your vocabulary. When you have something to say but you can’t quite nd the right way to say it, “Absurd Words” is the book to read. Its mishmash of entries will take overused cliches out of your sentences so your audience will know you’re not a poltroon. Rejigger your writing! Boggle those who say you don’t speak well. Speak, orate, postulate, the whole shebang! Become an abecedarian in almost no time at all and have fun doing it, with this book. It’s perfect for kids ages 8-and-up, and for adults who love wordplay. Once you have a humongous vocabulary, you can then know everything worth knowing by reading “An Answer for Everything” by Rob Orchard, Christian Tate, and Marcus Webb (Bloomsbury, $25.00). Where, for instance, has James Bond been in the world? How many chickens are there? And what’s so great about Meryl Streep, anyhow? These, and other burning questions are yours for the knowing with this book. Is it possible to nd another planet exactly like ours? How many people (give or take) have been to space? Is it ever too late to do something awesome? Is it ever to late to know that? This book is one of those you want to leave in that place where you always seem to have time to spare, because every page is browse-able. Just dip in here, tuck in over there, and read any one of the page-or-two entries. Not interested in a subject? Then ip the pages or check the index or pop around and look for a new and fascinating interest. And before you think it’s all play, get this: at rst glance, the articles inside “An Answer for Everything” might seem uffy or frivolous, but a second look will show you that more than just a few consist of serious information. There’s learning going on here but for sure, whatever you read in this book is fun stuff to know for anyone ages 10 to adult. If these books reading don’t quite t your criteria for light reading, be sure to ask your favorite bookseller or librarian for help. They’re superheroes at this kind of thing; they’ll know exactly what you want to read next and asking them for help, well, it just makes sense.

Dark Hearts:

The World’s Most Famous Horror Writers

by Jim Gigliotti, foreword by Danielle Vega

c.2021, Penguin Workshop $14.99 / $19.99 Canada 140 pages The scratch against your window made you jump, didn’t it? The shivers down your spine are real, caused by the terrors in the book you’re reading. Yes, the frightening creatures that surround you are just words, but they’re making you feel unsettled. Try to relax, though. They’re only stories and in “Dark Hearts” by Jim Gigliotti, you’ll meet the minds that created those monsters. When people tell Jim Gigliotti that they “aren’t a fan of horror,” he has a hard time believing it. Scary stories, he says, seem to be what “makes us human,” they were “some of the rst stories human beings ever told.” Lucky for you, they never stopped being shared. Take, for instance, young Mary Shelley. She didn’t have a lot of “formal schooling” but she was an avid reader and a friend of many famous people in her day. One of them was a man who said that “galvanism,” a sort of electrical stimulation, could bring back the dead. Mary thought about that, and created a novel about a mad scientist named Frankenstein. Edgar Allen Poe used real stories to create horror but he really didn’t have to look far: many of the people Poe loved died early, and it led to a bit of a morbid fascination with death. Bram Stoker was a sickly child whose mother told him scary stories while he was abed, recuperating. Daphne du Maurier wrote her most famous novel, Rebecca, as a sort of revenge aimed at her husband’s rst girlfriend. Shirley Jackson told people jokingly (or maybe not) that she was a witch. Anne Rice’s real name was Howard; she was named after her father, and she hated the name. R.L. Stine grew up very poor in Ohio. When he was four years old, Stephen King witnessed the gruesome death of a playmate. And you’ll never guess who inspired author Joe Hill... All their lives, you’ve taught your child to be safe. Look both ways before crossing the street. Don’t do anything that would break a limb or a skull. So why not steer them in a direction of safe danger by handing them “Dark Hearts”? Wild, edgy actions aren’t the only things to make a heart pound; a good, scary book will do the trick and in this one, there’s plenty of insight on the people who’ve penned the tales your teen loves. Now, granted, your kid may not recognize some of the authors in this book and some may be a far reach, but author Jim Gigliotti does a great job in presenting reasons for their inclusion: reading these biographies gives horror-novel lovers of any age a chance to truly know where the scares are coming from. They’ll also nd new books to devour and inspiration for turning their own experiences into a scream-fest. If your reader is old enough to understand Clive Barker, Daphne du Maurier, or Stephen King, they’re old enough to read this book, too. “Dark Hearts” is, in fact, a book anyone ages 15-and-up will jump on.

Song for Jimi: The Story of

Guitar Legend Jimi Hendrix

by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Edel Rodriguez

c.2021, Neal Porter Books, Holiday House $22.99 56 pages Sometimes, when you’re feeling just a little bit sad, humming a song can help. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy; it doesn’t even have to have words. Just a little bit of song, quietly to yourself, can make things seem better. Maybe one certain tune always makes you smile or, as in the new book “Song for Jimi” by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Edel Rodriguez, it can be an entire riff on a “git-tar.” It was the fall of 1942, and Johnny Allen Hendrix had just made his debut. Johnny was his name at rst, anyway, until his Daddy changed it to “James” when the boy was three years old. By then, “Jimmy” was used to the way things were at home: his parents drank too much and fought even more. Jimmy kept to himself and rarely spoke. When his mother nally had enough of it, she left and that was even worse. “Jimmy lived the blues,” so he taught himself to strum an old broom like it was a real “git-tar.” Eventually, he found a “worn-out, beat-up” ukulele and though he was “born lefty,” he learned to play it, left handed and right-handed. Finally, at age sixteen, Jimmy got his rst real guitar, and it made him very happy! Still, it wasn’t enough: Jimmy wasn’t very good in school and a teacher told him to “give up on his dream” and buckle down. He didn’t listen; instead, he worked and practiced and worked harder, until local bands began to hire him and everybody knew his name. They knew his sound, too. Jimmy’s guitar was loud and it screamed with a sound like none other. He kept that sound when he went into the Army. He kept it while in the military. He made his guitar speak “like a bird learning to tweet.” And one day, after he’d changed his name and changed it again, Jimi Hendrix reached his dream: he was invited to play in a place called Monterey, where he “showed the world how to kiss the sky.” Here’s a bit of advice: before you read “Song for Jimi” aloud, look at it rst. The story jangles with a kind of jerky beat that feels like a loose-limbed dude walking down a summer sidewalk. It’s a poem, but not quite; a song, but not entirely; a biography, but more. And it’s longer than your usual picture book, word-wise. These are all things that adults will enjoy because author Charles R. Smith Jr. tells a good story and artist Edel Rodriguez adds literal color to the tale. But will kids like it? Meh. The length is one issue; the relevance is another, since most picture-book audiences (in this case, 7-to-12year-olds) are likely too young for Jimi Hendrix. In the end, any enjoyment may depend not on the tale itself, but how it’s read aloud. Give it a try once before you give it to your child. Jangle with the story properly, and “Song for Jimi” may make your child sing.