Are They Dead Yet?

 Ok I realize the title of this book could scare off some readers or make others question my reading interests, but Are They Dead Yet? written by Sam Roberts was actually an interesting and entertaining look at the history and importance of the newspaper obituary.

I have always been fascinated by the question who gets to have their obit mentioned in a major newspaper, especially the New York Times.  Obituaries are a part of a person's legacy. But which people are worth remembering? When you read the obituary of a famous person, you learn not only about how they died but also how lavishly they lived. 

Though it is the standard way to see if someone has passed, the obituary has become more than a death notice. It is a celebration of the person's life. It is a short biography of the person and their accomplishments during their lifetime, a way of memorializing a person. Looking at someone's life through ups and downs, with advantages or disadvantages, with opportunities or difficulties, and seeing how they applied those challenges to become their best selves. 

It has long been a joke that people would get up in the morning and read the obituaries first when reading the newspaper. This gallows humor is credited to Ben Franklin who is thought to have said, "I wake up every morning at nine and grab the morning paper.  Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up."  Franklin began publishing obituaries in the Pennsylvania Gazette, which he bought in 1729.  He was certain that a contemporary record of deaths would draw readers.

As a young Jewish boy growing up in Brownsville, New York, Roberts was six years old when he witnessed the hearse carrying Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's bodies from Sing Sing prison to the funeral home for their funeral. This event and the fact that his parents and many other adults in his neighborhood were survivors of the Holocaust had a major impact on the author and death haunted him throughout his childhood and even as an adult.

Over the decades, Roberts worked as a reporter, columnist, and editor at both the New York Daily News and the New York Times which has culminated in tenure now at the  New York Times working as an obituarist. In this book, Are They Dead Yet?, he gives examples of many obits written over the centuries.  Some are funny and some are surprising, but they are all fascinating. He also outlines the history around the world of the obituary. 

Roberts writes that people want to be remembered and the public is always curious about the lives well-known people have led. In small towns, local newspaper obituaries connect one generation to the next. They provide the biographical data of an individual. Obituaries provide the family connections linking generations, sharing the birthplace, a daughter's maiden name, and married name.  This will give researchers valuable tools for following family roots and genealogy.

Interestingly it is also supposed to be an honest accounting of their life. It should not sugarcoat their history or embellish any shortcomings. Though obituarists conform to the advice that "one can't defame the dead", Roberts reminds us of Volaire's saying, "to the living we owe respect, to the dead we owe the truth".

Roberts quotes Nigal Starck, author of Life After Death: The Life of the Obituary, who argues that obituaries provide a glue that bonds society not in grief but in aspirational reevaluation of our own lives. "There is nothing inherently gloomy about the newspaper obituary page", Starck writes. "Done well, it should capture life rather than wallow in death." 

The Last Mandarin

 The Last Mandarin is a collaboration between incredible mystery author Louise Penny and non fiction author and news correspondent, Mellissa Fung.

What a terrific combination that turns out to be.  Using the historical facts of the Titanium Square and the young people who were revolting against the new regime who were taking over China and changing the government. Starting with the iconic picture of the small thin boy, later named, Tank Man,  standing holding back the tanks at Titanium Square in 1989.  The protests ended in violence and a crackdown by the Peoples’ Liberation Army.  Many of the dissidents escaped through a program called Yellow Bird to Hong Kong and the US.  Many foreign intellect agencies were involved, including the CIA. 

Now imagine that 50 years later some of the teenagers involved in the original revolt have been secretly meeting underground all this time and planning their next uprising.  With all the new technology and innovations it is time to reveal themselves.  Using history and superstitions of Chinese emperors, Fung and Penny have created a fascinating storyline that brings the past to meet the present.  

It may even be a futuristic. In this scenerio all the countries are in conference trying to work together after a siren is sounded all around the world at the exact same moment.  Then days later another attack on the world happens that kills thousands.  Working hard to find out who is to blame and uncover the spies within the administration each world leader needs to figure out who they can trust and who they should fear.

Written with quick scene changes, between the government officials and switching to the group of citizens who with knowledge of the situation are racing to save the world before the next attack. 

The suspense is palpable, written so tightly that your heart rate is rising as you hope that the danger will not reach the worst case result.  You are running through tunnels with the hero's, and hoping the US President will understand the secret messages the Chinese Prime Minister is trying to convey and the  opposite way around also.  

A Deadly Episode

Author Anthony Horowitz has outdone himself again. In the 6th installment of the Horowitz Hawthorne mystery series .  This time in A Deadly Episode , Horowitz and Hawthorne meet up with a producer who wants to make the first book, The Word is Murder, into a film.  Horowitz plays himself and explains that though he is interested in writing the screenplay, the producer wants someone else to write it.  his manager agrees that he is too busy to write it.  So he and Hawthorne are on set to watch as actors play their characters and the story gets told not quite to Horowitz’s liking.

Anthony is coming to terms with all these issues including that he does not like their choice for the actor playing him, though no one seems to have wanted the role. Then there is an actual murder of one of the cast members and Hawthorne and Horowitz are once again working to uncover the murderer. 

Their relationship is as usual fraught with disagreements and difference of opinion. It is so entertaining to watch how Anthony Horowitz writes himself into the story using real life information about himself, his wife and his career to interact with a fictional character. Hawthorne is the private detective who has been fired from the police department. Horowitz is the follower who writes the story after the murder is solved. He is the Watson to Hawthorne’s Holmes. 

The Foursome

 The Foursome is a story you could not have imagined.  Author Christine Baker Kline has scoured through the archives, letters and history of the legendary Siamese twins, Ing and Chang to tell their story.

What an amazing book.  I read a preview copy and I am blown away.  The writing is terrific by author Christine Baker Kline, but I knew that from reading her previous novels. This story is so unbelievable in and of itself, and Kline retells it and embellished beautifully.

You will not be able to put down the book as you move in with Eng and Chang the famous Siamese twins who lived their lives attached at the hip to each other.  They married and each had a family with many children. They lived remarkable lives as did their wives and children.

A compelling story.

Atmosphere

 Atmosphere is on of those books that I would have let slip by.  It was talked about on every show and on every best book list.  But again I ahd to read it for my book discussion group so I bit the bullet and dove in.

So glad I did.  It turned out to be a very entertaining and interesting story.  Looking back at a time when women were still not given equal rights with men.  They were not paid the same rate that men were.  They were still expected to be the houseewife and mother.  They were not really supposed to want a career especially one that wold get in the way of taking care of the home and being there to welcome your husband home from work.

Joan Goodwin wants to break all those barriers.  She has always been in love with the stars and fascinated with the planets and the sky.  She is not interested in the life her parents and sister think she should lead.  She goes to flight school and becomes an astronaut.  She is thrilled to actually be flying and practicing for a space mission. She is also very good, calm and level headed in the control room.  

Until there is a catastrophe and her best closest friend is in danger up in space with her crew. Joan finds out how important relationships and friendships can be. She also finds out how important family is .

It was a very compelling story and also there were many facts about space and the space program.

Everyone in This Bank is a Thief

Everyone in This Bank is a Thief  is the latest in Benjamin Stevenson's list of titles.  In each of his tongue in cheek mystery novels, his amateur detective , Ernest Cunningham is always, through a series of mistakes and missteps, finds the answer to the crime, solving the mystery.

Ernest's special power is that he promises the reader that he is sharing the facts of the mystery without leaving out key pieces, not bringing in any clues at the end.  He tries to suggest that the reader has as much information as Ernest has and could solve the murder just as the ending is being presented.

The books in the series are starting to become a little repetitive.  The theme is clever but each book though very different from each other, are becoming in general very similar.  

Interestingly the entire book is told as Ernest is writing the story after everything has occurred.  He is now locked in the vault, thinking it is the end of his life, and he leaving the story for others to find when they finally open the vault.

As he explains the beginning of the story, time he walks into a bank with his fiancée looking for a bank loan to start a private detective agency.  Then there is a bank robbery in progress and Ernest and his fiancée are taken hostage along with eight others.  Now Ernest is charged with trying to find out what happened to the bank manager's brother who is missing.  

The bank vault is locked and the combination to the lock is missing. As the plot progresses, Ernest tries to figure out the combination and is also searching for the missing brother.  He also is trying to figure out the mindset of the bank robber.

Bringing all these various plot points are, in the end, brought together to tie the story up wrapping up the murder, robbery and missing brother into a neat package.

The Cloak from Bagdad

 Cartoonist, Carol Isaacs, uses the medium she knows best, the graphic novel, to tell the story of her family’s history.  She is the author of several books that share stories about growing up in London as the child of Iraqi Jews. This middle grade story was taken from Carol Isaacs original graphic novel The Wolf of Bagdad, a more detailed graphic novel version of the story for adults.

In The Cloak From Bagdad we meet Louise who was born in London and her parents who have immigrated from Bagdad, Iraq.  At home Louise and her family speak Arabic and eat Middle Eastern foods. Louise stands out in her London classroom with her dark curly hair and Middle Eastern features. Though Louise has asked about the family history her parents are reluctant to talk about why they left Bagdad. 

When Louise finds a box of old family photographs her grandmother tells her the story about why the family had to leave Bagdad.  Traveling back in time, Louise, under an invisibility cloak, the abaya, is able to see her mother as a young girl living in Iraq. She secretly follows her mother around. Louise can see the family celebrating Shabbat, then Purim and as they prepare for Passover.  She follows her young mother and uncle as they walk through the Jewish quarter to school. 

Louise witnesses as the anti-semitism grows in Iraq. Then as World War II escalates Hitler invades Iraq and the Jewish people there are in danger. Louise, hidden by her cloak, watches as the family with the help of a friendly neighbor escapes their home as the neighborhood is being attacked. 

Back at home in London, Louise understands the details of her family history, she feels more secure with her differences.  Now she is proud to share her family’s story. Louise tells the story of her family’s escape from Iraq for a school presentation. This gives the other students the opportunity to ask her questions and share some of their favorite family foods and experiences.  She learns that other kids at school have their own family customs and some of them are similar to hers.

This story is illustrated in comic book style with muted colors. With pen and ink drawings of her family, she is able to share the customs and clothing of the Iraqi Jews.  Isaacs draws the neighborhoods of Jewish Bagdad, Iraq, to illustrate how it may have looked in the 1920’s before it was destroyed and the Jewish people were pushed out.