Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had, by Brad Cohen

When Brad Cohen was growing up in the 1980s, few people had even heard of Tourette Syndrome.  None of his family and friends, not even Brad himself, understood why he burst out with loud noises at inappropriate times, or jerked his neck suddenly, or felt an overwhelming urge to knock his knees against things.

School was especially hard for Brad.  His teachers had trouble understanding why he could not keep still and quiet.  The other kids mocked and mistreated him.  Even after he was finally diagnosed with the neurological disorder called Tourette Syndrome, it was an uphill battle to get people to accept him as he was.

With the help of a compassionate principal, Brad discovered that the key to helping people accept him was to educate them about Tourette’s.  Throughout the rest of his school days and years at college, he asked each new teacher to allow him a few minutes on the first day of class to introduce himself and explain about Tourette’s.  He always mentioned that he was open to talking about it and answering questions.  Many people did ask questions, and Brad’s natural friendliness and enthusiasm won them over quickly once they understood his situation.

Having seen the positive effects of educating people, Brad decided to become the teacher he had never had—one who meets his students where they are and gives them lots of acceptance and approval, no matter what their difficulties.

It was not easy; one principal after another turned him down, and the familiar heartache of rejection made him want to give up, but he kept going.  Finally, the twenty-fifth principal to interview him decided to look beyond the Tourette’s at the incredibly motivated and well-prepared person Brad was and is.

Mountain View Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia, was so impressed with their new teacher that they nominated him for a state-wide teachers’ competition, which he went on to win.  The kids loved him.  Once they got the idea that Brad could not stop his “barking” and muscle tics—it was like blinking or sneezing, he explained—they just accepted them as part of their fun-loving, energetic teacher.  Whether he was dancing on his desk when his kids got 100 stars on their chart or making a giant bubble big enough to sit in by using a fan and a huge piece of plastic, he was always coming up with creative ideas to keep their young minds engaged.

This story is an inspiration to all of us who have ever faced a problem, difficulty, or disability that stands in the way of our dreams.  Brad Cohen is living proof that we can find a way if we keep on trying.
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The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

Historian Alison Weir has written many biographies of Medieval and Tudor era Royalty. Her books are eminently readable, and The Princes in the Tower is no different.  The disappearance of the Princes, Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, sons of Edward IV and nephews of Richard III, is one of the most enduring mysteries of our time.   The recent discovery of Richard III’s skeleton, lost for over 500 years, will doubtless generate much interest in this topic.

The Princes in the Tower is a fine introduction to the mystery of the Princes.  Weir provides detailed historical background, and then describes the untimely death of their father, Edward IV and the efforts of his unpopular Queen to hurriedly coronate her son and solidify the power of the Woodville faction.  Richard III soon disinherits his nephews and ascends to the throne.  The Princes subsequently vanish from history.  Richard’s controversial reign, his death and defeat at the hands of Henry Tudor, and subsequent rebellions by men pretending to be one of the Princes are also discussed in the book.

The major premise of The Princes in the Tower seems to be that not only was Richard III guilty of murdering the two Princes, but that this was a premeditated act and Richard plotted to usurp the throne from the moment of his brother’s death.   Weir apparently seeks to demonstrate that Richard III was fully the tyrant and cold-hearted monster that Shakespeare portrays.  Much evidence does point to Richard’s guilt.  Yet Weir seems to automatically dismiss any evidence to the contrary, which I find worrisome.  As someone sympathetic to Richard III yet realistic, I have no issue with ultimately laying the responsibility for the Princes’ deaths at his door.  After all, he was King.  But proving that he personally ordered or committed the murders is another matter, and we will probably never find a “smoking gun”.

Her attempts to show that Richard III deliberately intended to depose his nephews and seize the throne from the beginning are on even shakier ground.    Richard did not even know of his death until days afterwards, when Hastings informed him of the Woodville’s hurried attempts to shut him out and seize control of the government.  Weir is very selective in her use of sources, intimating that anything favorable to Richard was mere propaganda, while anything negative “must” be genuine.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend The Princes in the Tower for everyone interested in Richard III and the disappearance of the Princes.  I may not agree with all of Weir’s conclusions, but she is undoubtedly a fine writer and one of the key historians in this fascinating debate.

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Pam W.’s Picks

I like to read from just about every section of the library, although I am especially partial to mysteries. I also tend to re-read books that I have enjoyed a lot. This list covers a little of everything and includes books I discovered for the first time this year as well as a few favorites I read for the second (or third) time. — Pam W.

The Last Child by John Hart
Johnny Merrimon was only 13 when his twin sister went missing. He has never given up the belief that she was alive somewhere but no one seems to be looking for her anymore, so Johnny decides to find her himself. What Johnny doesn’t know is that the officer in charge of the investigation has also never given up on Alyssa. He is keeping an eye on Johnny as well to make sure nothing happens to him. When another child disappears, Johnny and Detective Clyde Hunt find themselves mixed up with the worst elements of their town. This was an absolutely riveting book and the best one by Hart so far.

Magic Time by Doug Marlette
Marlette tells two stories in this book, one set in the racially charged days of 1964, and one set in the present day. Carter Ransom has gone back to his hometown in Mississippi after suffering a break down, only to find an event from his past has come back to haunt him. In 1964 several civil rights workers were killed in when a church was burned down. Carter’s girlfriend at the time was one of those killed. To complicate matters, Carter’s father was the presiding judge in the trial of the man accused of this crime. The trial took place in the 1980’s and the man was not convicted, but the trial is now being reexamined. Bringing up the past is painful, and possible dangerous, for everyone who was involved.

When I Married My Mother: A Daughter’s Search for What Really Matters-and How She Found It Caring for Mama Jo by Jo Maeder
Jo Maeder had lived in New York City for years when she found out that her mother was ill. The two had not been in contact for a number of years and Maeder was appalled when she found out the horrible living conditions her mother had been reduced to. Her mother was suffering from dementia and had been hoarding so much stuff you could barely walk in her house. Maeder did not know how they would get along living together, she only knew that she had to take care of her, so she left her job and moved in with her mother down south in the Bible belt. Her “marriage” to her mother truly changed her life. Maeder’s story is not new, but her story is told with humor and true compassion. I found it very compelling and not depressing at all.

Faithful Place by Tana French
French’s series about the Dublin murder squad is different than many mystery series’. Instead of following one detective through a number of different investigations, French switches focus in each book. Faithful Place, the third book in the series, is my favorite. It follows Detective Frank Mackey as he investigates a body found in an old building in the neighborhood he grew up in. When he was a young man, his girlfriend disappeared on the night they were going to run away together and Frank always thought she left without him. Now, he finds out she was murdered, and he is determined to find out who did it. This is fascinating look at family dynamics and loyalties.

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
Fans of All Creatures Great and Small or Maeve Binchy’s books will love this book set in Northern Ireland in the 1960’s. Barry Laverty has just finished medical school and has taken a job in the small town of Ballybucklebo, which is so small it barely shows up on the maps. He is not sure what to make of his new boss, who seems very gruff and old fashioned. He also finds the locals eccentric and difficult to understand. Gradually, Barry starts to fit in and learn how closely everyone in the town cares for one another. This is a heartwarming story told with lots of humor.

Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Dan B.’s Picks

Now that we’ve shared some of our favorite new books from 2012, we’ll also tell you about some of our favorite “New to Us” (older) books that we each discovered this year. Again, different library staff will take turns blogging about 5 of our favorite “New to Us” books from this year. Here are mine:

Somewhere in Heaven by Christopher Andersen
This is the fascinating story of Christopher and Dana Reeve’s lives in front of, and away from, the cameras. Chris, a graduate of Julliard and a huge star after Superman, returned to Williamstown, MA  each summer for their theater festival, and it was there that he met Dana, a singer and actress, who became the love of his life. The story continues with their touching courtship, eventual marriage, blending families, and Chris’ horrible paralyzing accident. Through it all, Dana’s devotion to Chris never wavered for an instant, and she helped him with his physical therapy, their profuse charity work, and raising their son. Read my full review.

Dauntless by Jack Campbell
John Geary was a soldier in the first battle of a war that has been raging for the last century. He’s also the sole survivor who held off the Syndicate forces and escaped into a hibernation pod that was just now rescued from oblivion by the flagship of the Alliance fleet. Now “Black Jack” Geary, a man returned from the dead who became a legendary hero, must find a way to lead the Alliance after they lost the latest battle very badly. He must also deal with the culture shock of being thrown a century into the future. Read my full review.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Eighteen year old Wade Watts escapes his life in this dystopian future by plugging into the OASIS, a virtual world where anyone can be anything – given enough credits. The reclusive inventor of OASIS, James Halliday, has died and left a video will in which he states that whoever can solve his 1980’s themed riddles to find three keys and unlock three hidden gates to find his “easter egg” will gain his fortune and control of OASIS. Wade is one of millions of hunters looking for the egg, including several friends, but so is the evil mega-corporation IOI – and they’re using every cheat code they can. Read my full review.

Among Others by Jo Walton
I usually need a lot of action in a story to get me hooked and to really enjoy it. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate character development and ideas. But, that’s why I’ve had a hard time trying to describe this Hugo & Nebula Award winning novel and explain why I really liked it. It’s about Mori Phelps, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from her insane mother in Wales and is now in boarding school in England thanks to her estranged father’s family. There’s also magic, faeries, libraries, and books – oh so many wonderful science fiction & fantasy books!

Blackout & All Clear by Connie Willis
These two novels form one award winning story from Willis. Time traveling historians from Oxford suddenly have their schedules altered and trips to the past cancelled for no known reason. Three such travelers, Michael, Polly and Merope, mysteriously become trapped in the past while observing the events of World War II. Willis does a fabulous job of putting the reader in the midst of history and letting us know what daily life was really like for Londoners during the Blitz, or the Dover area fishermen during the Battle of Dunkirk. A wonderful mix of time travel and history with plenty of suspense.

Best New Books of 2012: Heidi B.’s Picks

I read lots of best sellers, suspense/thrillers, biographies, and women’s fiction. My picks for 5 of the best new books this year kept me turning their pages, and I hope they’ll do the same for you.  — Heidi B.

Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
Ray is a gentle paranoid schizophrenic obsessed with conspiracies and maps, obsessed with the computer program Whirl360 (think: Google Earth) that allows him to traverse the cities of the world. But what is that image in the window of a New York apartment building that he sees? It sure looks like a woman being smothered by a plastic bag over her head… Ray and his caretaker brother Thomas are thrown head-first in to a web of crimes and murders that leave the reader on the edge of the seat.

The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain
Travis Brown is single parent struggling in a bad economy to make end’s meet and care for his daughter baby daughter, Bella. He is offered what sounds like a great job in Raleigh, only to discover that the job actually is the offer to commit a crime, with the offer of a lot of money.  How far will Travis go to keep his daughter? Chamberlain is a master storyteller  who combines the elements of family issues and suspense in this highly readable, tug-at-the-heartstrings novel set in North Carolina.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Five years of marriage is turned upside down when Nick’s wife Amy vanishes from home. This dark, character-driven novel is told from the point of view of Nick and Amy, a young couple who are both untrustworthy and full of their own secrets. Did Nick kill Amy? The police think so, as the damning evidence mounts against him in this roller-coaster ride of a story. This is a dark, rich thriller, with a complicated plot full of twists and turns. Anyone who enjoys a story full of head games will enjoy this one.

Defending Jacob by William Landay
How far will you go to protect your child? Andy Barber is an assistant district attorney with twenty years on the job in a rural Massachusetts county.  Then the unthinkable happens; his teen son Jacob is accused of murdering a classmate and charged with the crime. Landay’s plot line and twists and turns harken back to the early writings of John Grisham. I tell everyone to whom I recommend this book, “I’ll give you $10 if you can guess the ending.” So far, no one has collected.

Elizabeth the Queen: the Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith
One of the best biographies I have read – ever – of anyone. This exhaustively researched biography reads like a novel and is based on hundreds of interviews to tell the story of the woman who has ruled Britannica for 60 years. Bedell Smith has chronicled other royals as well as the Kennedys and has a knack for retelling stories that really give reader insight into the personality of the Queen. A must for any Anglophile! Grab a cup of tea and a scone and dig into this lengthy book.

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg

Are you interested in the lives and deaths of major historical figures? Did you used to be a big fan of MAD Magazine? If you answered “yes” to both these questions, then How They Croaked is the book for you.

Each person discussed in the book, from King Tut through Albert Einstein, either died in some horrific way, or their bodies were treated in some horrific way—sometimes both.  For instance, Beethoven had dropsy, a disease that caused his body to become bloated with rotting fluid. Doctors treated it by drilling a hole in his stomach to drain the fluid. They used this hole to drain fluid four times and each time plugged the hole with a piece of cloth afterwards. (There were no stitches back then, no anesthesia, and no pain killers.) Of course, the hole became infected. And that was just the beginning.  After the poor guy finally died, an autopsy was performed and pieces of his skull were stolen. His body has been dug up multiple times over the years in order to try to figure out what killed him. (It was lead poisoning.)

It’s time to point out that How They Croaked was written for young people. Thus, the emphasis on gore and the snarky style of writing. Here’s a sample from the chapter on Edgar Allen Poe:

Poe attended a lot of funerals. When he wasn’t going to funerals, he wrote stories about dead people (or soon-to-be-dead people) living in torture chambers, haunted houses, and other creepy locales with zero chance of escape. His stories start out with lines like “I was sick—sick unto death with that long agony,” and that’s the cheery part. Misery, loneliness, and death are the grim themes of this work … and of his life. Lots of bad stuff happened to him, and then he died.

I have to admit I was highly entertained. I listened to the audio of this book and the narrator, L.J. Ganser, injected even more snark into the narrative.  Maybe this means my sense of humor never matured past the MAD Magazine stage. That’s okay. What, me worry?

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Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson

In 1935, a child of some friends of Ernest Hemingway died, and the author wrote: “we are all on a boat now together, a good boat still, that we have made but that we know now will never reach port […] because we know now that there will be no landfall we must keep the boat up very well and be very good to each other. We are fortunate we have good people on the boat.”
Ernest Hemingway owned a boat that he named Pilar, and Hemingway’s Boat is indeed about the author and his relationship to this (waterline) thirty-eight footer that he bought in Brooklyn, New York in 1934, and kept till his death in 1961. Pilar is still around. She can be found in Havana, Cuba, where she sits “up on concrete blocks, like some old and gasping browned-out whale.” However, this book, which is a curious and effective blend of detail-obsessed accuracy and speculative nonfiction, is also about Pilar as a metaphor for her captain’s life and for life in general. It is probably true that Pilar in Cuba is Hemingway’s boat, although a profoundly alternated version of her, but it can’t be known for certain – like Hemingway, “she resists knowing,” and, Paul Hendrickson says, this “makes Pilar a better metaphor and storytelling vehicle than I ever bargained for.”
Near the end of his life, Life magazine asked Hemingway to write an article on bullfighting. It seemed a manageable task but the assignment tormented the author. Eventually, he got underway, but the text – “numbingly repetitious” – swelled to about 120,000 words – easily a book, not an article. Help arrived from New York City. Eight cuts were suggested in the first hundred pages. Hemingway rejected them all. Shortly thereafter, the author was clobbered by a heavy writer’s block. He was mentally and physically unwell, and he could not write anything. But while he was hospitalized, he heard that a friend’s son had taken ill, and – amazingly – he managed to lift himself out of his valley of darkness and write the boy. The letter can be found in Hemingway’s Boat, and it may be Hemingway’s most heroic piece of writing.

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The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn

I vividly remember reading this book. I was home sick and read it from cover to cover in about 3 days, even though the book is over 600 pages. I absolutely could not put it down, despite not feeling well at all. The book begins with Mendelsohn describing how his elderly relatives would cry when he entered a room. They would tell him how much he looked like his Great Uncle, Schmiel. No one would ever say anything more about Schmiel, his wife, or his four daughters, other than they were “killed by the Nazis”. Later, as an adult, he found a set of letters from Schmiel, asking for help to leave Poland. Mendelsohn decided to search for more information, and to see if it would be possible to find out exactly what had happened to them.

Mendelsohn’s research uncovers as much information about the small town of Bolechow as it does about his family. He travels to meet the survivors of the town who are now living in Israel, Australia, and many other places. His goal is to get as many descriptions as possible of the life they lived and what happened during the war. The stories he hears are like many stories from other towns of Eastern Europe: how the local population were often worse in their persecution of the Jewish population, but also how brave people helped or hid some of the Jewish people. In addition, he learns the complicated history of this town which had belonged to several different countries over time, including Poland and Ukraine.

The book is a combination of a personal journal, a mystery story, and a historical quest. Mendelsohn succeeds because he learns not just about his family’s deaths, but also about their lives. They become real people to him with personalities, likes and dislikes, and complicated lives before they died. They are no longer just six names listed among the six million who died.

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Greatest Hits: Exile on Main Street: a Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield

*Note: All Wake County Public Libraries are closed today for the Independence Day holiday. In the mean time, enjoy this book review:

This week we’re featuring some of our “greatest hits” – the most popular Book-a-Day blog posts since we started this almost three years ago. Today’s is Exile on Main Street: a Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield, reviewed by Erik S.

It was the summer of 1981. There was a little boy named Erik who played little league for a team called the “Green Yankees.” As an outfielder, Erik was more prone to birdwatching than catching pop-flies. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before both Erik, and his parents, decided it was time for him to end his baseball pursuits.

Fast forward 20 years. It is the summer of 2001, and Erik is visiting his parents and going through some of the old childhood artifacts they have saved. He comes across an old Green Yankees roster with little mini bios for each of the team’s young players.  Most of the kids’ bios had details about their playing positions and their power plays throughout the season.  For Erik, it simply said, “Erik likes rock and roll.  His favorite band is Kiss.”  Point of the story, this kid was not born to play sports.  He was born to rock, (and read )  And with a book like Exile on Main Street : a Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones, you can certainly do both.  You will find yourselves intrigued and shocked with all of the carnal, cutthroat excess that occurs in this book; and more than likely, you’ll want to bust out of all of your Stones records and turn ‘em on up.

It was the summer of 1971 in the South of France; “a sunny place for shady people,” as described by the book’s author, Robert Greenfield.  The Rolling Stones had rented the lavish Villa Nellcote on the French Riviera to record their latest masterpiece, a double record called Exile on Main Street.  The Stones, surprisingly, were broke and had to leave England to avoid paying British income tax, (hence the “Exile” status for the record’s title).  What occurred during the time of this masterpiece’s making was a hodge-podge of sex, drugs, crime, and ultimately, untimely deaths for many of the party-goers during that very debauched summer.  Everyone wanted to party with the Rolling Stones.  They were kings; loved and worshiped by nearly everyone, impervious to the long arm of the law, and more or less untouchable.  If one could be remotely in the presence of these young British kings, it was truly a gift.  Therefore, the cast of characters at Nellcote that summer ranged from actors, rock stars, daughters and wives of royalty, and other grandiose hangers-on.  What this meant for the Rolling Stones was that they were granted the opportunity to live like emperors of ancient Rome.

The stories within this outstanding book range from orgiastic celebrating, to life-threatening drug habits, back-stabbing friends, affairs gone awry, close encounters with the law, and sadly, the inevitable deaths as a result of all the reckless abandon.  Some of the women, who at one time were high society debutantes who could simply snap their fingers and get anything they desired, ended up dead in back alley streets less than a year later; reduced to nothing more than anonymous, homeless junkies.  The book is a baffling one because it greatly romanticizes rock mythology, (which is hard not to do when discussing a group as decadent as the Rolling Stones), but as the title suggests, it does not shy away from the hell that surrounded this extravagant era.  Exile on Main Street is still considered one of the best rock and roll albums of all time.  Needless to say, you will never listen to it in the same manner ever again.  All of the love, death, and celebration that went into it’s creation are now a permanent testimony to one of the most mythical and dangerous times in the history of rock and roll.

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Sybil Exposed: the Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case by Debbie Nathan

I’m of the wrong era to have been obsessed with Sybil and her multiple personalities, and have never read the book or seen the movies, but I always have an interest in reading books about mental health, and this one was recommended highly to me.

I think we all know the basic premise of Sybil: a young woman, while under psychiatric care, manifests some 16 personalities, ranging from Ruthie (a baby) to Peggy Lou (assertive and angry) to The Blonde (an optimistic teen.) The book was released in 1973 and helped popularize the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (then called multiple personality disorder.)

Author Debbie Nathan re-examines the famous case under a new lens, and posits that not only was the diagnosis a hoax but that Sybil’s psychoanalyst, Dr. Connie Wilbur, had been searching for a patient with multiple personalities to make her famous. Shirley Ardell Mason (referred to as Sybil in the resulting book and movie in order to protect her identity) was in her 20s when she began seeing Dr. Wilbur, and her condition quickly declined. Although Mason had always had some amount of psychological issues, the 16 personalities that developed over time came about only while under psychological supervision.

Nathan’s research into Mason’s story is extensive, and, although Dr. Wilbur’s case files are sealed, documents from the archives and library of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice are used to support Nathan’s theory. The resulting book tells an alternate history of the still famous story and discredits aspects of the field of psychology, especially as relating to multiple personality disorder. I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and now have plans to go back and read the original book Sybil and then watch the 1976 version of the movie starring Sally Fields.

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