AMERICAN ROSE : A NATION LAID BARE : THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GYPSY ROSE LEE
by Karen Abbott

She was born with the name Ellen June but then when her sister was born, a few years later, the names were switched. When Mama Rose laid eyes on her newest child with those big, beautiful blue eyes and curls in abundance, she named her June (she would always be a baby in her mother's eyes). The eldest daughter would be named Rose Louise.
The two girls spent their childhood performing on the stage doing vaudeville. Baby June could do everything: sing, dance, act. Louise was the complete opposite. (She was creative, though, and made all of the costumes.)
Rose wanted everything for her children. She worked them to the bone (mostly June). Her tantrums with directors, producers and the like became legendary. With her daughters, she could either be loving or a raving lunatic. Eventually, June had a nervous breakdown (at the age of twelve) and two years later, she left the act and eloped.
Attention is now drawn to Louise. She didn't have any talent, wasn't terribly attractive, was overweight, but she did have long legs and the gift of gab. All Rose cared about was making money so she scouted around for someplace that would make her daughter a star. Vaudeville was pretty much dead and the only other option was burlesque. Enter "Gypsy Rose Lee."
What an amazing story! It took author Karen Abbott three years to write (one of her interviews was with Louise's sister June Havoc two years before she died).
All I ever knew about Gypsy Rose Lee was the musical that I saw as a child with Ethel Merman playing the mother's role. (The show was based on Gypsy's memoir and most of that stuff was invented.) A young girl with no talent reinvented herself to become the biggest star that America had ever seen. She hid behind this persona and it totally enveloped her.
The book captures the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, vaudeville, the Great Depression, the seedier side of life, and a whole cast of characters: Fanny Brice, Jimmy Walker, Fiorello LaGuardia, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, et al.
Running parallel to this cultural history, Abbott delves into the four Minsky brothers who brought burlesque to the people.
Spectacular pictures are scattered throughout the book and takes you back to that era.
It was quite a life and the writing transports you there. Meticulous research and nuanced details makes for an exciting read.
Highly recommended.

THE MEMORY PALACE : A MEMOIR
by Mira Bartok

Norma Herr was destined for Carnegie Hall. She was a child prodigy of the piano. By the age of nineteen, she was struck with schizophrenia and Chopin was erased by madness. Norma loved her two daughters but her mental state made her, more and more, impossible to be around (she had a fear of them being raped, kidnapped, or murdered and would incessantly say that to them). No father was around (he had left when the children were quite young).
When the girls went to college, their mother's badgering did not cease. Norma would call at any time, show up at their residences or jobs and threaten sucide if they did not return home to her.
Finally, when it all became just too unbearable, Mira and her sister Rachel severed contact with their mother and changed their names to harbor their safety. (Mira's first name had been Myra and Rachel became Natalia.)
Seventeen years later, the daughters reconcile with their mother who is dying.
What a magnificent story! Mira Bartok writes in such lyrical prose. It's absolutely gorgeous. She is an artist and at the beginning of each chapter, Mira has painted an object that has to do with some aspect of the text. From Chapter 3 to the end are diary entries written by her mother. You see the brilliance with lucid moments and you also see the craziness.
Through art, writing, travel (Italy, Norway, Israel), the harrowing memories of living with insanity are revealed.
The book is honest, powerful and disturbing. Don't miss it.
Very highly recommended.

THE DISCOVERY OF JEANNE BARET : A STORY OF SCIENCE, THE HIGH SEAS, AND THE FIRST WOMAN TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE
by Glynis Ridley

Herb women, through the centuries, have possessed an infinite knowledge of the curative powers of plants. Many educated men were unwilling to learn from them (call it pride) even though male botanists, druggists, and physicians relied on the supply of herbs to keep them in business. One botanist, the eminent Philibert Commerson would intentionally seek out local herb women due to his endless passion of flora. (He would acquire a medical degree but then would leave the profession and immerse himself totally in the field of plants much to his father's distress.)
In 1765, Commerson was asked to join an expedition which would be known as the first French circumnavigation of the world. As he would be collecting a vast array of resources, he would need an assistant.
Jeanne Baret, a twenty-six-year-old herb woman who had met Commerson, worked and lived with him (she became his mistress), wanted to join the voyage. Women were not allowed so she disguised herself as a young teenage boy and joined the crew of 330 men.
How a poor working-class woman survived amongst suspicious crewmates (a pistol always at her side) with some real interesting characters aboard the ship makes for one hell of a story. She, more than Commerson, would contribute more to botany than he would even though, as a woman, those findings would be dismissed or written out of history. A newly discovered notebook written in Baret's own handwriting has proven that she was a scientist in her own right. (One of her discoveries would be the bougainvillea which was named after the commander of the ship.)
Through scrupulous research author Glynis Ridley has pulled a virtual unknown botanist from the original journals of French naval officers and published works to the forefront.
Truly the first woman to sail around the world, Baret had an incredible amount of courage, strength and stamina to persevere through all kinds of trials.
A great read.
Recommended.

THE SECRET OF CHANEL NO. 5 : THE INTIMATE HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS PERFUME
by Tilar J. Mazzeo

Within the fragance industry, it's known as le monstre: the monster. For ninety-one years, this particular perfume has had a life of its own. Considered to be the world's most seductive scent and bought by millions, Chanel No. 5 is known as the most famous and successful perfume ever created. The brilliant, flawed woman who created it would be unbelievably wealthy until the end of her life.
Gabrielle Chanel grew up as an orphan (her mother had died of tuberculosis) in a convent for girls. It was not a happy time for her, but it would define her future. Here, in Aubazine, France is where she learned to sew, where her keen scent took root (smells of cleanliness and flowers abounded), and where numbers were mystical to her (numerology was embedded in the ancient architecture).
At the age of eighteen, Gabrielle left the small village for the big city of Moulins (near Paris) and began work as a shopgirl and seamstress. She started meeting men who took her out to the cabarets which were pretty provocative. Gabrielle loved the shows so much that she decided to make a career of it herself. Her famous nickname, Coco, would be coined at this time. Soon enough, Coco Chanel would meet the first of many lovers (most supported her financially) who let her open up her own shop making hats and ten years later this less than astute businesswoman would launch Chanel No. 5.
What a terrific story! It's hard to believe that a perfume could be so interesting, but in Mazzeo's deft writing, you can't stop reading. Why the number five was used, how the scent was determined, where the specific elements were to be found, who made the formula and several pages discussing the chemistry of fragrance molecules called aldehydes keeps your eyes fixated on the pages.
While the perfume was exemplary, Coco Chanel was embroiled in controversies. During WWII, she had a Nazi lover and was accused of being a collaborator (Coco was a virulent anti-Semite). How ironic that she would sign away her rights to two Jewish brothers (Les Parfums Chanel) so that the perfume could be marketed in America and elsewhere.
A great tale that is not to be missed.
Highly recommended.

NOTHING LEFT TO BURN : A MEMOIR
by Jay Varner

Denton Varner was a volunteer fire chief in McVeytown, Pennsylvania. Everyone in the community knew him. He was thought of as a hero. His dedication to the fire department was extraordinary. Before his family, that came first. Denton's priorities were screwed up. When his pager sounded, off he went whether he had been eating dinner, working or sleeping. His family thought that he was obsessed by fire and took incredible risks. Consequently, his son, Jay, never had a father that he could do things with. Fire had some kind of allure for him just as it had for Lucky, Jay's grandfather. Whenever he showed up, Jay always felt uneasy and was afraid of him. He had reason to. Lucky was a serial arsonist.
What a legacy.
Nothing Left to Burn is a powerful memoir. It's both honest and painful. The writing is beautiful. A fast read (only took me two days) because you cannot put this book down. I loved it.
Very highly recommended.

THE INVISIBLE HARRY GOLD : THE MAN WHO GAVE THE SOVIETS THE ATOM BOMB
by Allen M. Hornblum

The qualifications to be a Soviet spy are: above-average intelligence, very good memory, detail-oriented, extremely motivated and a large capacity to lie. All of these attributes encompassed Harry Gold who spent fifteen years as an espionage agent supplying the Soviet Union with both industrial and military secrets. Physicist Klaus Fuchs, who worked on the atom bomb, gave Gold the plans which were then handed over to the Russians.
Gold was arrested in 1950 and spilled the beans. His testimony and confession were huge. Forty-nine people were named and brought to justice. His knowledge of all the Americans who had spied for the USSR during the 1930s and 1940s was a godsend to the FBI. For all of Gold's willingness to comply with the government, coming clean and telling everything he knew, his sentencing was severe.
How and why an innocuous, mild-mannered, shy, introverted, chemist became a master spy is finally brought to light in The Invisible Harry Gold. Scrupulous research from archives, congressional hearings, articles, books (sixty-one pages of Notes) plus interviews and a comprehensive Index shows that this is a serious portrait of a gullible man who went down the wrong path so that he could help out his family in a time of need.
An important read that is a real eye-opener. There has been no other book ever written on Harry Gold before. If you're nuts about spies, you won't be disappointed.
Recommended.

MY READING LIFE
by Pat Conroy

His mother turned him on to books at a very early age. She could tell stories like nobody else and was a voracious reader. At the age of five, she read him Gone with the Wind (it was this book that made him become a "Southern" novelist). Her voice mesmerized him by the way she spoke the words with her Georgian inflection. He then became so enthralled with the English language that he began to keep notebooks of words taken from other books that so entranced him.
Reading saved Pat Conroy's hellish life. Writing took him to another level.
My Reading Life is about who and what influenced him to become such a passionate storyteller.
Each chapter has a different theme. His English teacher, in high school, was truly an incredible man (loved by so many) who introduced Conroy to great literature and was more of a father to him than his own; the Old New York Book Shop in Atlanta where he learned how to be a collector of antiquarian books from the owner; taking a modern poetry course taught by James Dickey (he wrote Deliverance) because a book of his poems brought Conroy to his knees.
He talks about how he came to write his own books and the stories behind them. Conroy lists authors that have swept him away, such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. (He could easily write another whole book just on his favorite writers.)
I have never read any of Pat Conroy's books before and this one blew me away. It is unflinchingly honest and extremely personal. His writing is gorgeous. One of the last chapters in the book "Why I Write" is absolutely fabulous. How he puts words together is awe-inspiring.
He can be very funny, also, and obviously has a great sense of humor.
So, either get this book from your local library or go out and buy it. Even though the size is small, it's definitely worth the price. Superb.
Very highly recommended.