Bookish

February 08, 2010

The perfect tree for a lovers' heart

"Beech Tree" (c. 1936) by German photographer August Sander.

In a beautiful new book, Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History, Diana Wells offers mini biographies of dozens of familiar species.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, she notes that one tree in particular is a favorite for inscriptions.

For centuries, lovers have carved their initials in the smooth, silvery bark of the beech.

Why?

"The inscriptions, as the tree grows, get bigger with time," Wells writes.

Indeed, it's a perfect natural symbols for eternal love -- an ever-enlarging heart with ever-enlarging initials inside.

Beech bark, Wells tells us, is thin and somewhat elastic, which is why it works so well. Centuries ago, people even used it as paper, tying pieces together to make books.

Now, carving initials and hearts is all fine and good for lovers, but what about the trees?

Seventeeth-century poet Andrew Marvell felt sorry for trees marred by the knives of besotted young men.

Wells quotes a few lines from Marvell's poem, "The Garden," in her chapter on the beech tree:

Fond lovers, cruel as their flame, Cut in these trees their mistress' name. Little, alas, they know or heed, How far these beauties hers exceed!

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in New Books | Comments (2)
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February 07, 2010

Review: The Autobiography of an Execution

Reviewed by Steve Weinberg

A University of Houston law professor who doubles as litigation director for the Texas Defender Service wants everybody who helps send men and women to death row to sleep as poorly at night as he does when failing to prevent executions.

In The Autobiography of an Execution, David R. Dow suggests changes that will force jurors, judges, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles members and the governor to feel personal responsibility for an execution. Because Dow feels certain that seven death row inmates he represented were innocent of the crimes for which Texas executed them, his proposals carry special urgency.

"Our system of capital punishment survives because it is built on an evasion," Dow writes. "A juror is one of twelve, and therefore the decision is not hers. A judge who imposes a jury's sentence is implementing someone else's will, and therefore the decision is not his. A judge on the court of appeals is one of three, or one of nine, and professes to be constrained by the finder of fact, and therefore it is someone else's call. Federal judges say it is the state court's decision. The Supreme Court justices simply say nothing, content to permit the machinery of death to grind on with their tacit acquiescence."

Dow is especially harsh on the Pardons Board and the governor.

"The Board consists of seven feckless people who gave [the governor] a lot of money. The governor appoints them to six-year terms, and they do what they think he wants them to."

If the Board votes for execution, the governor is off the hook legally. At that stage, Dow says, the governor claims the inmate received a fair trial, the courts reviewed the verdict, the Board refused clemency, and that's that. Then the governor dines "at the Four Seasons and talks about bearing the weight of permitting someone to die."

Dow would change protocol, so that jurors and trial judges would be required to attend the execution, so that appellate judges would deliver their rulings in person to the death-row inmate. Dow finds letting go of his outrage difficult. Even if he "wins" -- which he defines as delaying the execution date for his client or occasionally seeing a death sentence reduced to life in prison -- he must immediately deal with the next client on death row. The stream looks endless because Texas death row is so heavily populated.

Dow is not the first anti-death penalty advocate to criticize the criminal justice system in print, and he probably will not be the last. But his book is especially worthy, whatever a reader's opinion about the morality of the death penalty. His candor seems so absolute that readers on both sides of the debate can gain real insight into the thought process of an experienced advocate.

The book is touching outside the prison walls, as Dow shares his family life, as well. Dow's wife, Katya, (a lawyer) and his son, Lincoln, (now age nine, but younger during the events described in the text) are loving and clever and wise.

Because I have studied and written about wrongful convictions over the decades, I find much of what might seem unbelievable to some readers credible and therefore upsetting. I -- unfortunately for the cause of justice -- have documented the same misbehaviors described by Dow.

The book is built primarily around the death sentence of a Dow client he calls "Henry Quaker," whose claim of actual innocence seemed credible before his execution. Dow is so serious about attorney-client privilege that he insists on disguising most names and most cases. As a result, it is impossible to identify the real-life Quaker. But because Dow and his publisher Jonathan Karp have sterling records for truthfulness -- to the best of my knowledge -- I am trusting them as a reviewer to avoid hiding behind changed names, dates, etc., to shade the truth in the service of a cause.

Steve Weinberg is a freelance investigative journalist who writes frequently about the criminal-justice system.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in Chronicle Book Reviews | Comments (1)
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Local Book Events: Feb. 7-13

Mike Derer/AP Amiri Baraka, who appears at the Rothko Chapel on Thursday, in a 2002 photo.

• Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools, appears in two Houston locations on Monday (Feb. 8). Mortenson appears at a luncheon to raise awareness and funds for his organization, Central Asia Institute, at 11:30 a.m., Hotel Intercontinental, 2222 West Loop. Single tickets start at $100. Information: 713-599-1271. Mortenson also appears 7 p.m at Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. Tickets range from $4.50-$55. Information: 866-468-7623.

• Laurie Clements Lambeth and Greg Oaks read their works as part of the Nano Fiction Reading Series, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 9) at Nano Books, 3116 Houston Ave. Information: nanofiction.org.

• Nutritionist Elizabeth Somer, author of Eat Your Way to Happiness, shares trick and tips on eating to elevate your mood from noon-1 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 11) at Central Market, 3815 Westheimer. Tickets: $45. Information: centralmarket.com.

• Poet, playwright and civil-rights activist Amiri Baraka speaks 7 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 11) at the Rothko Chapel, 1409 Sul Ross. Event is free; seating is first-come, first-serve. Information: 713-524-9839.

• Alex Berenson will sign and discuss his new CIA agent John Wells novel, The Midnight House, 6:30 p.m. Friday (Feb. 12) at Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet. Information: 713-524-8597.

• Poet Maureen McLane reads as part of the Rice Cherry Reading Series 7 p.m. Friday (Feb. 12) at Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet. Information: 713-523-0701.

• Grady Spears will sign Cooking the Cowboy Way: Recipes Inspired by Campfires, Chuck Wagons, and Ranch Kitchens, 1 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 13) at Leibman's Wine and Fine Foods, 14529 Memorial. Blue Willow Bookshop also sponsors the event. Information: 281-497-8675.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in Local Book Events | Comments (0)
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February 05, 2010

The rich and famous ... at 17

Charles Schultz's cartoons were rejected by his high school yearbook when he was 17. Good grief.

Eric Hanson's new paperback, A Book of Ages , is an eccentric collection of celebrity moments -- no more than a paragraph apiece -- organized by age.

Chapters range from infancy to 100.

So here's a sampling of stuff that well-known people did when they were 17.

It might make you feel better about those lost teenage years.

Or worse.

• Kurt Cobain leaves home and finds work as a hotel cleaner but is fired for sleeping in the rooms. (1984)

• Martha Kostyra, who later became Martha Stewart, graduates from Nutley High School in New Jersey. The motto in her senior yearbook: "I do what I please and I do it with ease." (1959)

• Jane Fonda goes swimming in the Mediterranean with Greta Garbo, who tells her she should become an actress. Miss Garbo, 50, is wearing a bathing cap but no bathing suit. (1955)

• Elizabeth Taylor dates Howard Hughes. (1949)

• Rural southern boy Truman Capote finds New York life disorienting, drops out of school, and gets a job at The New Yorker. Some days he arrives at the magazine wearing an opera cape. (1941)

• Charles Schultz's cartoons are rejected by his high school yearbook. (1940) In a related incident ten years later, Schultz's marriage proposal to a red-haired girl is also rejected.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in New Books | Comments (0)
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February 03, 2010

Where does your e-reader live?

Mark Lennihan/AP Jeff Bezos introduces the Kindle in 2007.

On your bedside table? In the kitchen? In the car?

The world already knows that Jeff Bezos brings his Kindle to the bathtub.

Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, told the New York Times :

"I take a one-gallon Ziploc bag, and I put my Kindle in my one-gallon Ziploc bag, and it works beautifully. It's much better than a physical book, because obviously if you put your physical book in a Ziploc bag you can't turn the pages. But with Kindle, you can just push the buttons."

Writers also seem to have close relationships with their e-readers.

Toni Morrison, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner, took her Kindle to France so she could read a stack of detective stories.

Local author Gwen Zepeda says she keeps her Kindle in her BIG bag, which should not be confused with her purse. The BIG bag -- a book bag, essentially -- comes with her 70 percent of the time. And her kids like the Kindle for long car trips.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray Love and Committed , keeps her e-reader near her suitcase. "I have a Kindle," she says. "It's in my luggage. It's with my toiletries bag. I consider it a travel item."

It doesn't matter what you have -- Kindle, Nook, Sony E-Reader, whatever -- I'd love to hear about where -- and how -- you use it.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 11:41 AM in E-Readers | Comments (8)
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February 02, 2010

Girls' night out with Elizabeth Gilbert

Jason Merritt/Getty Images Julia Roberts will play Elizabeth Gilbert in the film version of Eat, Pray, Love.

An hour before Elizabeth Gilbert was set to read from Committed at the Alley Theatre, Mingalone Italian Bar & Grill across the street was buzzing with the same crowd that would soon cram the 800-seat Alley.

Women in groups of 2, 3, 4 and 5. Glasses and second glasses of wine at every table. Loud talk and laughter. A girls' night out.

Girls, in this case, being women between 25 and 95.

Plain and simple, all kinds of women read and adored Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert's insanely successful memoir. (Gilbert herself said that the book has taken on a life of its own. She compared it to a parade marching by her kitchen window as she washes the dishes. She looks up, amazed to find an elephant in the procession...)

Gilbert fans came to the Alley on Feb. 1 to hear round two, Committed, Gilbert's second memoir about being "sentenced to wed" her Brazilian-born, Australian-passport-carrying love, so they could live in the U.S. without hassles from the Department of Homeland Security.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images Javier Bardem stars as "Felipe" in the film version of Eat, Pray, Love.

Gilbert proved to be a warm and polished speaker, with a strong sense of her audience. When she took the stage, she looked out into the crowd and said something to the effect of: "Oh look! There's a man here!"

799 women laughed.

The event benefited the UCross Foundation, a nonprofit that runs a retreat for writers, artists and composers in northern Wyoming. Twice, UCross gave Gilbert the time and space to write.

In a Q&A after the reading, Gilbert was asked about the upcoming film, Eat, Pray Love.

She said she's had nothing to do with the movie, which stars Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem. She was approached about the film during her 10-month exile with her now-husband, when they were hanging around southeast Asia and getting his papers in order so they could return to the U.S. and get married. It was a "vulnerable" time, Gilbert said, and she made the decision not to be involved in the film.

But she seemed fine with that decision. She also said the filmmakers spent a lot of time interviewing fans of the book, who urged them them not to dumb down the movie. A very good sign.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 05:00 PM in Author Appearances | Comments (0)
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Top 10 pickup tips for guys

The master, in Never Say Never Again.

1. Get in the habit of starting conversations just for practice. Be relaxed.

2. Between approaches, always remember to smile while mingling.

3. Lean back and relax when you initiate conversations. Don't lean in.

4. Be chatty and convey a strong sense of fascination. Enthusiasm is contagious.

5. Don't say anything to try to impress her, such as bragging about your job, girls or friends...if she can tell that you are trying to impress her, she will perceive you as lower value.

6. Be fun and playful... Act the same way you would act with your eight-year-old niece.

7. As you hang out with her, and she has an opportunity to win you over, then show her your increasing interest.

8. Balance indicators of interest with indicators of disinterest.

9. Wear one accessory that gives other people an excuse to initiate a conversation with you, such as a hat, or a certain ring or necklace. Have a good story prepared for when this happens.

10. Have a life...Throw parties. Put effort into your social circle. A girl should imagine herself being a part of your cool life.

Source: The Pickup Artist: The New and Improved Art of Seduction. On sale now!

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:00 AM in Advice | Comments (13)
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February 01, 2010

Lilliputians, e-books and Amazon

Paul Sakuma/AP Steve Jobs presents the iPad.

Is it me, or does this photo look like a casually dressed Lilliputian with an extra-big iPhone?

Just a first impression, but one I can't shake. And if it occurred to me, I'm sure it occurred to scads of other people, too. Can't be good. But time will tell with the iPad ...

I'll admit that I have e-reader envy. I still read books the old-fashioned way. But a deep wave of covetousness washes over me at airports when I see people getting cozy with their Kindles. It's just a matter of time until I get one of my own.

But I already have regrets about the e-reader I will eventually buy. I love to scan the crowds at airports to see what people are reading, but e-readers are messing with my hobby.

And now the Kindle is temporarily off my e-reader list because of what happened between Amazon (which supplies all the titles available on the Kindle) and Macmillan Publishers.

Amazon has temporarily dropped all Macmillan titles -- the publisher's imprints include Farrar, Straus & Giroux, St. Martins Press and Henry Holt -- because of a pricing dispute. At the moment, Macmillan titles are only available on Amazon.com through a third party.

Long story short, Macmillan wants Amazon to raise the prices of e-books. Selling e-books for $9.99, rather than $15.99, devalues the price of books, the publisher argues. (Read the full NYTimes story here.)

This is a problem that smells familiar. Years ago, newspapers started giving away content for free -- or for next to nothing. And now look where we are.

Posted by Maggie Galehouse at 12:14 PM in e-books | Comments (0)
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