Great Reads for Grown-Ups

Ten titles to transform your life, challenge your beliefs, and teach you the art of French cooking

By Barbara A. Genco, Photograph by William Whitehurst -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2005

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The selections on this year’s list of recommended books for adults are not for the fainthearted. Take Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad Is Good for You. The title, as movie mavens know, comes from Woody Allen’s Sleeper, in which a 20th-century nebbish wakes up in 2173 to learn that scientists have discovered everything thought to be harmful (such as eating hot fudge sundaes) is actually nutritious. Johnson, likewise, challenges our basic assumptions about what makes kids smart—and offers some startling observations. J. R. Moehringer’s poignant memoir, The Tender Bar, also stands conventional (child-rearing) wisdom on its head. For those considering a lifestyle change, Francine Prose’s Caravaggio paints an indelible portrait of the artist as a very bad boy, and Julie Powell, the author of Julie and Julia, shows how Julia Child (and scores of high-caloric recipes) can save your marriage, revolutionize your life, and teach you how to make a mean chocolate mousse. Of course, not every title on this list is likely to tilt your world. But taken together, they will inform, inspire, and bring you much joy in the coming year.

Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity.
Bodanis, David. Crown. $24. ISBN 1-4000-4550-9.

Reading David Bodanis’s latest book (he’s also the author of E=mc², a brilliant exploration of the world’s most famous equation) is like attending a lively lecture by an incredibly smart prof. Bodanis has a knack for uncovering astonishing, little known details about his subjects, and Electric Universe is chock-full of alluring stories about the scientists who studied electricity, including Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone; Guglielmo Marconi, the father of the modern radio; and André-Marie Ampère, who discovered the amp, a standard unit for measuring the strength of an electric current. Not all of what the author reveals is flattering: Thomas Edison, remembered as a tireless innovator, was actually a greedy techie who worked for entrepreneurs who stole other inventors’ patents. Then there was Samuel Morse, a delusional demagogue who is often credited with inventing the telegraph. The device was actually created by Joseph Henry, who refused to patent his breakthrough. Of course, not all of science’s pioneers were quacks and creeps—and Electric Universe presents a fascinating look into their complex lives and lasting contributions.

Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter.
Johnson, Steven. Riverhead. $23.95. ISBN 1-57322-307-7.

Americans are getting smarter, says cultural critic Steven Johnson. IQ scores are rising, and our culture has gotten “more intellectually demanding, not less.” Why are we becoming so brainy? Johnson’s explanation may shock you. It turns out that “the most debased forms of mass diversion—video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms… [are] nutritional after all.”

Johnson insists that the increasing complexity of video games, such as the controversial Grand Theft Auto, and the sophisticated narratives of TV series like The Sopranos are placing greater intellectual demands on fans of electronic games and the boob tube. As a result, says Johnson, they’ve developed enhanced skills in “systems analysis, probability theory, pattern recognition, and—amazingly enough—old-fashioned patience.”

Are kids actually better off watching an episode of The Simpsons than reading The Iliad? Don’t bet against it, argues the author. Still, bibliophiles can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Despite the growing popularity of electronic forms of entertainment and information, Johnson says books are here to stay. After all, they’re the only vehicle that enables us to “enter the author’s mind and peer out at the world through their eyes.”

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.
Louv, Richard. Algonquin. $24.95. ISBN 1-56512-391-3.

Why is there a disturbing increase in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder, and depression among our nation’s kids? Part of the reason, says Richard Louv, is that most children have never experienced the natural world. “A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rainforest—but not about the last time he explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move,” writes Louv.

Today’s kids live in an insulated, homework-heavy, test-driven culture, adds the author. And with the ever-increasing reports of natural disasters and deadly diseases, such as avian flu, children think the world outside is sinister and menacing. Louv, a founder of Connect for Kids, a child-advocacy Web site, is out to change that popular misconception. In fact, he thinks that by integrating environmental education into schools’ curriculums, educators can improve students’ creativity and test scores, and boost their problem-solving, decision-making, and critical-thinking skills. A growing body of research supports his position.

There’s also a lesson here for librarians. To “heal the bond between our young and nature,” we need to make sure that nature has an ample place in our collections, programs, and physical spaces. Anything less is a disservice to the kids we serve.

Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917.
Mac Donald, Laura M. Walker. $26. ISBN 0-8027-1458-7.

On the morning of December 6, 1917, a deadly explosion nearly leveled the town of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sixteen hundred people were killed, another 6,000 were injured, and more than 12,000 buildings were damaged. “To this day it remains the biggest conventional explosion to detonate in the midst of a civilian population,” writes Laura M. MacDonald, who grew up across from Halifax harbor.

What brought about this tragic event? It began when a Belgium relief vessel, the Imo, collided with a munitions ship in the tricky-to-navigate Narrows of Halifax harbor. Within minutes, the Mont Blanc, which was loaded with potent explosives and on its way to the war in Europe, was aground and in flames. At first, the damage to both vessels appeared relatively minor. Then suddenly, a fierce explosion obliterated the haul of the 3,121-ton cargo ship, destroying much of the waterfront and hurling a lethal mixture of glass, wood, metal, and masonry almost 2,000 feet into the air.

That night, as the Red Cross rushed to organize an international rescue effort, the local temperature plunged below freezing and gale-force winds dumped 16 inches of heavy, damp snow on the few remaining survivors and the many dead. MacDonald’s meticulous, dramatic, and almost hour-by-hour account is utterly compelling.

The Tender Bar: A Memoir.
Moehringer, J. R. Hyperion. $23.95. ISBN 1-4013-0064-2.

“Everyone has a holy place, a refuge, where their heart is purer, their mind clearer, where they feel closer to God or love or truth or whatever it is they happen to worship,” writes J. R. Moehringer. “For better or worse my holy place was Steve’s bar.”

In this beautifully written narrative, Moehringer, a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, tells how he came of age during the 1970s and ’80s in the unlikeliest of places, a tavern in his hometown of Manhasset, Long Island, a hard-drinking community 18 miles east of New York City.

After his father left, Moehringer and his mother were forced to live in J. R.’s grandparent’s filthy, overcrowded house, a stone’s throw from Dickens (later called the Publican), a popular local watering hole. Moehringer’s Uncle Charlie (a lovable raconteur with Humphrey Bogart–like looks) was hired as a bartender, and J. R., craving the companionship of men, eventually tagged along. What he found there, among the camaraderie of blue-collar workers, Wall Street brokers, bookies, brawlers, cops, and crooks, was a surrogate father-by-committee. “Had I grown up beside a river or an ocean, some natural avenue of self-discovery and escape,” says Moehringer, “I might have mythologized it. Instead I grew up 142 steps from a glorious old American tavern, and that has made all the difference.”

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living.
Powell, Julie. Little, Brown. $23.95. ISBN 0-316-10969-X.

Three years ago, Julie Powell was a frustrated office temp. The Texas native had moved to New York City to pursue an acting career, but never even landed an audition. Instead, she settled into a series of low-paying jobs that left her feeling sad and worthless.

Powell, then 29, realized her life needed an extreme makeover. A talented home cook, she decided to prepare all 524 recipes in the original 1961 version of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 in a single year. What attracted her to America’s queen of French cuisine? “Julia wants you to remember that you are human, and as such are entitled to that most basic of human rights,” writes Powell, “the right to eat well and enjoy life.”

Powell’s husband, Eric, encouraged his wife to post her culinary adventures on a blog—and in August 2002, “The Julie/Julia Project” was launched. More than 300 recipes later, Powell’s exploits caught the attention of the producers of the CBS Evening News, which aired a four-minute segment on her. Soon, reporters from Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and other media powerhouses were beating a path to her cramped Queens kitchen. As CBS’s Dan Rather quipped of Powell’s cholesterol-laden quest, “Only in America.”

Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles
Prose, Francine. HarperCollins. $21.95. ISBN 0-06-057560-3.

Writer Francine Prose offers a perceptive look at the life and work of one of the world’s greatest painters—the Italian artist Caravaggio. Caravaggio definitely had a gift for getting into trouble. “He had been sued for libel, arrested for carrying a weapon without a license, prosecuted for tossing a plate of artichokes in a waiter’s face, jailed repeatedly,” writes Prose. He was also wanted for murder. Yet by the time of his death in 1610, at age 39, Caravaggio had “simultaneously disregarded and redefined” the artistic conventions of his time and was among Rome’s “most sought after and highly paid painters.”

Caravaggio’s canvasses are exceptional because they are “honest about the nature of suffering and divinity, about the way in which a painting is created, about human nature and the nature of art itself,” says Prose. But the artist’s true genius wasn’t fully appreciated until the 1950s, when Abstract Expressionists flooded their immense canvasses with bold, intense feelings—a hallmark of Caravaggio’s style. Why the long wait for recognition? “Caravaggio was a preternaturally modern artist who was obliged to wait for the world to become as modern as he was,” explains Prose.

Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.
Rehak, Melanie. Harcourt. $25. ISBN 0-15-101041-2.

Long before Elvis, the Beatles, and a certain young wizard captured our hearts, there was Nancy Drew. She is “as much a part of American girlhood as slumber parties, homework and bubble gum,” says critic and poet Melanie Rehak.

Nancy was the brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer, a shrewd entrepreneur who created her in 1930. By paying writers a paltry flat fee for the stories and having the last word on editorial decisions, Stratemeyer hoped to turn the teenage sleuth into a cash cow. But Stratemeyer, who also invented the Hardy Boys, didn’t live long enough to see Nancy’s success. Instead, he died later that same year, and two young women took charge of Nancy’s life. Harriet Adams, Stratemeyer’s Wellesley College–educated daughter, became the company’s CEO, and Mildred Wirt Benson, a resourceful, hardboiled reporter, wrote 23 of the first 25 stories under the pen name Carolyn Keene. They “both envisioned Nancy as a girl who could do what she wanted in a world that was largely the province of men, just as each of them had done,” says Rehak.

This fascinating cultural history offers insights into the early days of mass-market publishing and reveals the secret of Nancy’s long-lasting popularity. “A role model for millions of girls,” says Rehak, “she has always been that most elusive, most essential thing as well: a trusted companion.”

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.
Roach, Mary. Norton. $24.95. ISBN 0-393-05962-6.

“What happens when we die?” asks writer Mary Roach. “Does the light just go out and that’s that—the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness, persist?” Roach, the author of the surprise 2003 best-seller Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, is adept at exploring offbeat topics and creating lively, irreverent, and sometimes downright hilarious essays. This time she undertakes a yearlong survey of scientific attempts to prove that there is life after death.

Roach travels to India, where she spends a week with Kirti S. Rawart, director of the International Centre for Survival and Reincarnation Researches, who introduces her to a young boy who remembers having lived a previous life. Later, among other things, Roach enrolls in an English school for mediums; investigates a number of attempts to weigh the souls of mice, leeches, and human beings; and visits an operating room at the University of Virginia Hospital, where a professor in the university’s Department of Psychiatric Medicine uses sophisticated technology to study near-death experiences. The entertaining author’s conclusion? “I guess I believe that not everything we humans encounter in our lives can be neatly and convincingly tucked away inside the orderly cabinet of science,” says Roach. “Certainly most things can… but not all. I believe in the possibility of something more—rather than in any existing something more (reincarnation, say, or dead folks who communicate through mediums). It’s not much, but it’s more than I believed a year ago.”

A History of the World in 6 Glasses.
Standage, Tom. Walker. $25. ISBN 0-8027-1447-1.

“Drinks have had a closer connection to the flow of history than is generally acknowledged and a greater influence on its course,” writes Tom Standage, the technology editor of the Economist magazine. Even so, who could have imagined that humankind’s history could be neatly distilled into six epochs, from the Stone Age to the present, each with its own signature beverage? But that’s exactly what Standage has accomplished, tying technology, economics, and global politics to the fates of six supreme drinks: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola.

Standage’s intoxicating survey is filled with fascinating facts and observations. Did you know that the workers who built the Egyptian pyramids were paid in beer? Or that centuries before iced caramel macchiatos became the rage, coffee fueled the birth of the Age of Reason? Or that an unquenchable thirst for tea contributed to the rise and fall of the British Empire, the first global superpower? If you’re searching for a holiday gift that has wide appeal, A History of the World in 6 Glasses may be the perfect present for both the thinkers and drinkers on your list.

Author Information

Barbara A. Genco is director of collection development for the Brooklyn Public Library in New York.

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