In My TBR Stack:

The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
by Robert K. Wittman & David Kinney
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

An influential figure in Adolf Hitler’s early inner circle from the start, Alfred Rosenberg made his name spreading toxic ideas about the Jews throughout Germany. By the dawn of the Third Reich, he had published a bestselling masterwork that was a touchstone of Nazi thinking.

His diary was discovered hidden in a Bavarian castle at war’s end—five hundred pages providing a harrowing glimpse into the mind of a man whose ideas set the stage for the Holocaust. Prosecutors examined it during the Nuremberg war crimes trial, but after Rosenberg was convicted, sentenced, and executed, it mysteriously vanished.

New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Wittman, who as an FBI agent and then a private consultant specialized in recovering artifacts of historic significance, first learned of the diary in 2001, when the chief archivist for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum contacted him to say that someone was trying to sell it for upwards of a million dollars. The phone call sparked a decade-long hunt that took them on a twisting path involving a pair of octogenarian secretaries, an eccentric professor, and an opportunistic trash-picker. From the crusading Nuremberg prosecutor who smuggled the diary out of Germany to the man who finally turned it over, everyone had reasons for hiding the truth.

Drawing on Rosenberg’s entries about his role in the seizure of priceless artwork and the brutal occupation of the Soviet Union, his conversations with Hitler and his endless rivalries with Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler, The Devil’s Diary offers vital historical insight of unprecedented scope and intimacy into the innermost workings of the Nazi regime—and into the psyche of the man whose radical vision mutated into the Final Solution.

In My TBR Stack:

The Books that Changed My Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians, and Other Remarkable People
by Bethanne Patrick
Regan Arts
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Leading authors, politicians, CEOs, actors, and other notables share the books that changed their life, why they love them, and their passion with readers everywhere. Regan Arts has teamed up with the literary charity 826National, which will receive a portion of the book’s proceeds to provide students ages 6–18 with opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills.







Contributors include Al Roker, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Eggers, Emma Straub, Eric Idle, Fay Weldon, Fran Lebowitz, Gillian Flynn, Gregory Maguire, Jeff Kinney, Jim Shepard, Laura Lippmann, Lev Grossman, Liev Schreiber, Margaret Atwood, Mayim Bialik, Nelson DeMille, Rosanne Cash, Susan Orlean, Tim Gunn, and Tommy Hilfiger, among others.

BookSpin Review:

Lust & Wonder: A Memoir
by Augusten Burroughs
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover



"...Augusten Burroughs is known for his poignant and painfully honest autobiographical commentary..."




The above quote is ripped directly from the author's Facebook page and it states what I love most about his writing: the biting honesty of his willingness to share.


I believe it is human nature to keep many secrets from the world at large, and sometimes even from ourselves.  I don't know about you, but were I to write a memoir, there are dozens of stories  that I would want left out.  I would fight with the editors to keep many, many things from being published.


Burroughs has the opposite approach.  It is said that good writers open a vein and bleed upon the page.  If this is true, Augusten Burroughs' books are saturated red.


I read a lot of memoirs because I am interested in people's stories. I have kept up with Burroughs since his nonfiction debut. In Lust and Wonder, the subject is relationships and we tag along as he examines the differences and similarities of love and lust.


To further illustrate the point of the Facebook quote:  Reading Augusten Burroughs is like being at lunch with just the two of you and you get to listen to him catch you up on everything that's been happening in his life.  You don't care that you don't get a word in at all -- his storytelling is captivating.  There is just the right amount of humor, drama and self-deprecation to keep things real.


I recommend this book for anyone who enjoyed Running with Scissors.  It would do good to have the backstory.


I am eagerly looking forward to the next chapter, so to speak.

Review by BookDude

 

On My Radar:

The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones
by Rich Kienzle
Dey Street Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the vein of the classic Johnny Cash: The Life, this groundbreaking work explores the wild life and extraordinary musical career of “the definitive country singer of the last half century” (New York Times), who influenced, among others, Bob Dylan, Buck Owens, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks.

In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones’s life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon called “the Keith Richards of country.”

Kienzle chronicles Jones’s impoverished East Texas childhood as the youngest son of a deeply religious mother and alcoholic, often-abusive father. He examines his three troubled marriages including his union with superstar Tammy Wynette and looks unsparingly at Jones’s demons. Alcohol and later cocaine nearly killed him until fourth wife Nancy helped him learn to love himself. Kienzle also details Jones’s remarkable musical journey from singing in violent Texas honky tonks to Grand Ole Opry star, hitmaker and master vocalist whose raw, emotionally powerful delivery remains the Gold Standard for country singers.

The George Jones of this heartfelt biography lived hard before finding contentment until he died at eighty-one—a story filled with whiskey, women and drugs but always the saving grace of music.

Illustrated with eight pages of photos.

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Guest Post

Dave Griffin on Running
 (The Carroll County Times – Sunday, September 14, 201)

I have a lot of readers who are not runners, something I’m grateful for because it expands my audience. 


Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of these readers and in the course of the conversations, I often hear this phrase, “I can’t run because…” 


One of the more common expressions is, “I can’t run because I’m too busy.” I’ll usually empathize with them about how hectic life is, never doubting that they have a busy schedule. Then I’ll point out that their admission may be half false. 


It’s probably more correct to say, “I don’t run because I’m too busy.” 


The word 'can’t' is dangerous. Using it denote helplessness. 


The truth is, with a little self-confidence, people can do a lot of things they may not think they can do,

including run. 


A growing percentage of people need more physical activity. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one-third of American adults, over 78 million, are obese. And it’s likely to get worst in the next generation; 17 percent of our kids are already included in the obesity statistic. The health and cost implications are staggering. 

IN THE DISTANCE - Dave Griffin

I’ve spoken to a number of people about the obesity problem. Usually they want to know about my running program and how people can successfully lead an active lifestyle. We talk about all the health benefits and how physical activity is just as important as diet when it comes to losing weight. 


Then I tell them something most haven’t thought about before. Improved health simply doesn’t offer enough motivation for most people to get active. If it did, obesity rates would already be on the decline. 


Emotional health issues are growing, too. Clinical depression rates are climbing in adults and children. Basically, that means people are less happy than they once were. 


Obese people are more likely to be depressed. And while obesity can lead to unhappiness, the reverse is also true; teenagers with symptoms of depression are more likely to become obese within the next year. 


If weight loss and long-term health won’t provide enough motivation for someone to become active, maybe becoming happier will. 


Personally, I’ve never finished a run feeling emotionally worse than I did when I started. That was true when I was in my best running years, it was true in years when I was running very little and it’s true now. 


There are medical reasons why running promotes emotional health. The brain releases feel-good chemicals when the body’s active. Routine exercise leads to improvement in the immune system and the increase in body temperature during running has a calming effect. 


Running has psychological benefits as well. It leads to an increase in confidence, takes the mind away from wasteful worry and helps people cope in a healthy way. 


None of this means everyone should run. There are good reasons to be a non-runner, not the least of which is a personal distaste for running. 


But everyone should believe this—if you chose to run, you can. You are strong enough, brave enough and you can find the time. 


And if becoming healthy isn’t reason enough, do it because you’ll become happier. 


Isn’t that what we want, regardless of all the things we have and don’t have? What we really want is to enjoy living. 


So go outside, breath fresh air and move often. Then, everything else may take care of itself. 




Dave Griffin is the Times’ running writer and coordinator of the Flying Feet Running Programs. His column appears every other Sunday. Email him at dpgflyingfeet@aol.com

 His latest book, pictured above, is IN THE DISTANCE, published by Flying Feet Running Programs. I would like to thank Rachel Taylor from Smith Publicity for her help organizing this guest post.

On My Radar:

Dimestore
by Lee Smith
Algonquin Books

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For forty-five years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story.

Set deep in the mountains of Virginia, the Grundy of Lee Smith’s youth was a place of coal miners, tent revivals, mountain music, drive-in theaters, and her daddy’s dimestore. It was in that dimestore — listening to customers and inventing adventures for the store’s dolls — that she became a storyteller. Even when she was sent off to college to earn some “culture,” she understood that perhaps the richest culture she might ever know was the one she was driving away from — and it’s a place that she never left behind.

Dimestore’s fifteen essays are crushingly honest, wise and perceptive, and superbly entertaining. Smith has created both a moving personal portrait and a testament to embracing one’s heritage. It’s also an inspiring story of the birth of a writer and a poignant look at a way of life that has all but vanished.

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New Fiction:

No One Knows
by J.T. Ellison
Gallery Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In an obsessive mystery as thrilling as The Girl on the Train and The Husband’s Secret, New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison will make you question every twist in her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters you should trust.

The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back. It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness, solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly haunting her new life?
In No One Knows, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.

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On My Radar:

The Imitation Game: Alan  Turing Decoded (graphic novel)
by Jim Ottaviani 
Illustrator: Leland Purvis
Abrams Books

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

English mathematician and scientist Alan Turing (1912–1954) is credited with many of the foundational principles of contemporary computer science. The Imitation Game presents a historically accurate graphic novel biography of Turing’s life, including his groundbreaking work on the fundamentals of cryptography and artificial intelligence. His code breaking efforts led to the cracking of the German Enigma during World War II, work that saved countless lives and accelerated the Allied defeat of the Nazis. While Turing’s achievements remain relevant decades after his death, the story of his life in post-war Europe continues to fascinate audiences today. 

Award-winning duo Jim Ottaviani (the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Feynman and Primates) and artist Leland Purvis (an Eisner and Ignatz Award nominee and occasional reviewer for the Comics Journal) present a factually detailed account of Turing’s life and groundbreaking research—as an unconventional genius who was arrested, tried, convicted, and punished for being openly gay, and whose innovative work still fuels the computing and communication systems that define our modern world. Computer science buffs, comics fans, and history aficionados will be captivated by this riveting and tragic story of one of the 20th century’s most unsung heroes.

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In My TBR Stack:

The Mindfulness Edge: How to Rewire Your Brain for Leadership and Personal Excellence Without Adding to Your Schedule
by Matt Tenney and Tim Gard
John Wiley & Sons
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

There is a simple practice that can improve nearly every component of leadership excellence and it doesn't require adding anything to your busy schedule. In The Mindfulness Edge, you'll discover how a subtle inner shift, called mindfulness, can transform things that you already do every day into opportunities to become a better leader. Author Matt Tenney has trained leaders around the world in the practice of mindfulness. In this book, he partners with neuroscientist Tim Gard, PhD, to offer step-by-step, practical guidance for quickly and seamlessly integrating mindfulness training into your daily life—rewiring your brain in ways that improve both the ‘hard' and ‘soft' skills of leadership.

In this book, you'll learn how mindfulness training helps you:

• Quickly improve business acumen and your impact on the bottom line
• Become more innovative and attract/retain innovative team members
• Develop the emotional intelligence essential for creating and sustaining a winning culture
• Realize the extraordinary leadership presence that inspires greatness in others

The authors make a compelling case for why mindfulness training may be the 'ultimate success habit.' In addition to helping you improve the most essential elements of highly effective leadership, mindfulness training can help you discover unconditional happiness and realize incredible meaning—professionally and personally.

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On My Radar:

Heart of Glass: A Memoir
by Wendy Lawless
Gallery Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In this edgy and romantic follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut memoir, Chanel Bonfire, Wendy Lawless chronicles her misguided twenties—a darkly funny story of a girl without a roadmap for life who flees her disastrous past to find herself in the gritty heart of 1980s New York City.

Before downtown Manhattan was scrubbed clean, gentrified and overrun with designer boutiques and trendy eateries and bars, it was the center of a burgeoning art scene—both exciting and dangerous. Running from the shipwreck of her glamorous and unstable childhood with a volatile mother, Wendy Lawless landed in the center of it all. With an open heart and a thrift store wardrobe, Wendy navigated this demi-monde of jaded punk rockers, desperate actors, pulsing parties, and unexpected run-ins with her own past as she made every mistake of youth, looked for love in all the wrong places, and eventually learned how to grow up on her own.


With the same “biting humor” (People) that made her “powerful” (USA TODAY) and “illuminating and inspiring” (Reader’s Digest) New York Times bestseller Chanel Bonfire so captivating, Wendy turns her brutally honest and often hilarious spotlight on herself, recounting her tumultuous and giddy twenties trying to make it in the creative underbelly of New York City, all the while searching for love, a paying job, and occasionally, a free meal.

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On My Radar:

Alligator Candy: A Memoir
by David Kushner
Simon and Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

From award-winning journalist David Kushner, a regular contributor to Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other premier magazines, Alligator Candy is a reported memoir about family, survival, and the unwavering power of love.

David Kushner grew up in the early 1970s in the Florida suburbs. It was when kids still ran free, riding bikes and disappearing into the nearby woods for hours at a time. One morning in 1973, however, everything changed. David’s older brother Jon biked through the forest to the convenience store for candy, and never returned.








Every life has a defining moment, a single act that charts the course we take and determines who we become. For Kushner, it was Jon’s disappearance—a tragedy that shocked his family and the community at large. Decades later, now a grown man with kids of his own, Kushner found himself unsatisfied with his own memories and decided to revisit the episode a different way: through the eyes of a reporter. His investigation brought him back to the places and people he once knew and slowly made him realize just how much his past had affected his present. After sifting through hundreds of documents and reports, conducting dozens of interviews, and poring over numerous firsthand accounts, he has produced a powerful and inspiring story of loss, perseverance, and memory. Alligator Candy is searing and unforgettable.

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On My Radar:

I Swear I'll Make It Up to You: A Life on the Low Road
by Mishka Shubaly
Public Affairs Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

An odyssey of family, heartbreak, violence, punk rock, brokenness, broke-ness, sex, love, loss, drinking, drinking, drinking, and an unlikely savior: distance running.

A misfit kid at the best of times, Mishka Shubaly had his world shattered when, in a twenty-four-hour span in 1992, he survived a mass shooting on his school’s campus, then learned that his parents were getting divorced. His father, a prominent rocket scientist, abandoned the family and their home was lost to foreclosure. Shubaly swore to avenge the wrongs against his mother, but instead plunged into a magnificently toxic love affair with alcohol.

 Almost two decades later, Shubaly’s life changed again when a fateful five-mile run after a bar fight inspired him to clean up his life. And when he finally reconnected with his estranged father, he discovered the story of his childhood was radically different from what he thought he knew.

In this fiercely honest, emotional, and self-laceratingly witty book, Shubaly relives his mistakes, misfortunes, and infrequent good decisions: the disastrous events that fractured his life; his incendiary romances; his hot-and-cold career as a rock musician; meeting his newborn nephew while out of his gourd on cough syrup. I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You is an apology for choices Shubaly never thought he’d live long enough to regret, a journey so far down the low road that it took him years of running to claw his way back.

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Now in Paperback:

The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
by Jan Jarboe Russell
Scribner
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

The New York Times bestselling dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II: “A must-read….The Train to Crystal City is compelling, thought-provoking, and impossible to put down” (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis).

During World War II, trains delivered thousands of civilians from the United States and Latin America to Crystal City, Texas. The trains carried Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants and their American-born children. The only family internment camp during the war, Crystal City was the center of a government prisoner exchange program called “quiet passage.” Hundreds of prisoners in Crystal City were exchanged for other more ostensibly important Americans—diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, and missionaries—behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.
“In this quietly moving book” (The Boston Globe), Jan Jarboe Russell focuses on two American-born teenage girls, uncovering the details of their years spent in the camp; the struggles of their fathers; their families’ subsequent journeys to war-devastated Germany and Japan; and their years-long attempt to survive and return to the United States, transformed from incarcerated enemies to American loyalists. Their stories of day-to-day life at the camp, from the ten-foot high security fence to the armed guards, daily roll call, and censored mail, have never been told.
Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history, The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR’s tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and above all, “is about identity, allegiance, and home, and the difficulty of determining the loyalties that lie in individual human hearts” (Texas Observer).

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