Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for May 2–8
History
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By Michael Doyle
'Nightmare' was bandleader Artie Shaw's musical theme used to open his shows. It described the experiences of the band he led during World War II on its South Pacific tour. A biography of Shaw highlighting his war years, this book tells the story of Navy Band 501 during WWII. A swing era king, Shaw was at the top of his form when he joined the Navy in 1942 and thus formed Navy Band 501. The book follows the band in the Pacific and England, including experiences under fire at Guadalcanal.
University of North Texas Press, 2025, 288 pages
Sports
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Related Stories
4/24/2025
4/17/2025
By Alan D. Gaff
In the same vein as his popular 'Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir,' Gaff has discovered a trove of material connected to one of baseball's greatest players. The author has unearthed the lost biography of Christy Mathewson, a member of the first class of Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. Gaff presents the world of baseball at the turn of the 20th century, as well as the golden age of journalism when sportswriters turned athletes into demigods. Baseball fans will surely read with glee and gratitude.
University of Nebraska Press, 2025, 248 pages
Nonfiction
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By Brad Meltzer
If you happen to be looking for a gift for your high school graduate or for a friend's commencement from college, try this slim book. In a real way, you're actually doubling up on that graduation, as this is the address Brad Meltzer delivered at his son's 2024 commencement ceremonies at the University of Michigan. Using magic tricks as his motif, the author aims to inspire his audience to seek an authentic life while unleashing kindness and gratitude on a world that is sorely in need of both.
William Morrow, 2025, 112 pages
Mystery
'Too Darn Hot'
By Sandra Scoppettone
Set in wartime New York City of 1943, female PI Faye Quick runs her boss's 'A Detective Agency' while he is off at war. When Private Charlie Ladd disappeared on leave in New York City, his fiancée hires Faye to find him. Faye starts at a hotel room Ladd rented. There, she finds a body hidden in the wardrobe. It is not Ladd, but it entangles Faye in a web of kidnapping, murder, and blackmail. The book conjures up 1940s New York City, a world of tawdry restaurants, walk-up flats, and cheap bars.
Ballantine Books, 2007, 291 pages
Classics
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By Peter Kreeft
Kreeft has taught philosophy for 60 years and has written many books on the subject. Here, he introduces philosophy to high schoolers, college students, and other interested readers. The early chapters cover the basics, then we shift to an encounter between Socrates and a contemporary student, Nat. A Socratic dialogue ensues, with questions, replies, and more questions as the two discuss various schools of philosophy. An entertaining and witty portable classroom for any budding philosopher.
Ignatius Press, 2024, 352 pages
For Kids
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By Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode
A grandmother recounts moments from her childhood growing up in the mountains, sharing dear memories like swimming in swimming holes, fetching water from a well for baths, and sitting on the porch swing with her grandparents. This sweet book highlights the magic of passing down family history and the delight of sharing stories across generations.
Dutton Books for Young Readers, 1982, 32 pages
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San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: Spy thriller ‘World Pacific' turns wartime intrigue into farce, folly and adventure
No one is to be trusted in the fantastic, fanciful and often extremely funny novel, 'World Pacific,' from San Francisco writer Peter Mann. Much like Mann's debut novel, 'The Torqued Man,' this second, equally farcical novel, revolves around real-world events that touch, at least tangentially, on World War II. But this time, the setting, to which the novel's title 'World Pacific' refers, leads several dubious and unreliable characters toward the 1940 World's Fair on Treasure Island. One of these characters, and perhaps the most dubious of them all, is Richard 'Dicky' Halifax, a self-proclaimed author-adventurer, very much in the spirit of the real-life Richard Halliburton, who disappeared in 1939 in the same manner as Dicky does in the first few pages of this novel, while on an ill-prepared sailing journey from Hong Kong to San Francisco on a Chinese junk. The excursion is, in part, funded by a subscription service for young readers. In Dicky's case this subscription service would be 'The Dicky Halifax Junior Adventurers Club,' a series of letters that not only weaves in many an inappropriate reference to Dicky's crotch, but also operates as Dicky's central voice within the novel. Written in a folksy devil-may-care style, these letters, presented as chapters within 'World Pacific,' highlight Dicky's escape from many a tight spot. Or as Dicky writes in an early chapter, leading to his current predicament of being lost at sea: 'Dear boys, This is where the story starts to get hairy. Of all the close scrapes I've had, all the times I've blundered into a hornets' nest or was caught taking pictures of military installations on Gibraltar or got dragged to a pretty lady's bed only to find I was flaccid as a gym sock, this one took the cake.' The writing, particularly in the Junior Adventurers Club chapters, feels wonderfully inventive, often playing with clichés of the period and then elevating them through Dicky's individual voice and upbeat, foolish optimism. But Dicky is certainly not alone in this novel. While the connection to a talented émigré painter of Jewish descent, Hildegard 'Hilde' Rauch, feels at first tenuous, it soon becomes clear from a letter addressed to Hilde from her comatose brother that the now-lost-at-sea and presumed dead Dicky, might just be the key to understanding his current state. Or, as the suicide note from her brother so eloquently puts it, 'I just can't bear to live in a world without Dick.' Besides what becomes a sizable number of euphemisms and allusions (one, by sheer absurdity, that kept me laughing for a good five minutes), there is a plot to this novel, and a very twisty one at that. For, even as Hilde searches for answers and Dicky stumbles from one madcap adventure to the next, another character — Simon Faulk, a British intelligence officer on the hunt for Nazi spies and who also harbors a serious grudge against author-adventurer Dicky Halifax — takes the stage. All of which confirms that, along with being a quixotic tale of adventure complete with truth-telling sidekicks and wild goose chases, 'World Pacific' is, like Mann's first novel, a spy thriller of ingenious quality.
Chicago Tribune
14 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Abbott Kahler's ‘Eden Undone' tells the story of how a nightmare was created on a lonely island
The parrot's name is Dexter and he is 24 years old and he is punctuating the conversation I am having with his owner, the writer Abbott Kahler, who is on the phone from Long Island, where they spend some weekend time away from a small New York City apartment she shares with her husband and Dexter. I ask about another island, Floreana, which is roughly 2,000 miles from New York. 'It's hard to get to,' she says. 'It takes two full days. Planes, trains, automobiles, ferries, the whole thing. But to finally see it … To see where my characters walked and slept and lived. There's only about 150 people on Floreana today, and it's still difficult to live there. It gave me a real sense of what it was like almost 100 years ago.' Floreana is the setting for her latest book, a thrilling, captivating nonfiction 'Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II.' It is a mystery tale, a survival story and a lot more, focusing on a small group of people (some of them half nuts to begin with and others driven to madness during the book's 350-some pages) who came to the remote and lonely Galápagos island of Floreana seeking to make and live in a utopia, create new lives. With the Depression as a backdrop and the coming storm that will be World War II casting shadows, the events and intrigue, deprivation and death on the island provide shocks and surprises on every page. 'These people were fleeing the craziness of Europe but wound up creating a crazy world of their own,' Kahler says. They were an egomaniacal doctor and philosopher from Berlin who, among other weirdness, had his teeth removed and replaced with steel dentures, and his lover, a woman with multiple sclerosis; a World War I veteran with PTSD and his lover and sickly teenage son; and an Austrian baroness who left a husband in Paris to journey to the island with two young boyfriends with the intention of building, unlike the others, what Kahler calls, 'another Miami Beach,' a spot for American tourists. Her nickname was 'Crazy Panties.' Add to this crowd packs of wild animals and visiting millionaires, tourists and scientists, and you have a wild stew. And a great book, not Kahler's first but her best. As Karen Abbott, she made a big splash in literary circles and became a Chicago favorite in 2007 with her first book, 'Sin in the Second City,' the story of our city's most famous madams, the Everleigh Sisters. Her subsequent books were also polished and popular: 'American Rose,' about Gypsy Rose Lee; 'Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy,' which tells of four female spies during the Civil War; 'The Ghosts of Eden Park,' about one of the most successful, if ill-fated, Prohibition bootleggers. Toss in a fine and inventive 2024 novel, 'Where You End,' and you'll have an admirable bookshelf. In 2012, she became Abbott Kahler, because, as she says, 'A reader told me that Google had listed 'Karen Abbott' as having died back in 2010. That rather disturbing error prompted me to change my name legally.' She has been tied to what has become 'Eden Undone' for more than a decade. When she first pitched the story, she was greeted by a short-sighted publisher who said, 'No, you are only known for writing about Americans.' And so, as she worked on her other books, she also began to collect research materials for this book. Eventually, she found an interested publisher. 'COVID had arrived and it was perfect to really dig in and there was so much available,' she says. She benefitted from letters, hundreds of photographs, newspaper articles and the memoirs of some of the early settlers, many of which had to be translated from their original German, French, Spanish, Norwegian; the archives of such early island visitors as biologist Waldo Schmitt and millionaire and moviemaker George Allan Hancock, who had filmed some of the island's residents. She was likely the first person to consult the papers donated in 2020 to the University of Southern California by a fellow named Lorenzo DeStefano, a playwright who had hoped to write a screenplay in the 1970s. He had interviewed some of the earliest settlers. Kahler's ability to marshal all of this material into a propulsive narrative is a stunning accomplishment. Since being published last September, the book has gathered a mountain of praise, but I'll just give you this, from author Susan Orlean, who has called it a 'wild ride through an extraordinary true story … addictive and astonishing. It combines a forgotten piece of history with the urgency of a murder mystery in the most unlikely setting. It will captivate you.' Many have been grabbed by the characters and details of the story. Filmmaker Ron Howard was similarly bewitched, though Kahler is not quite sure how he came upon the relatively unknown story. 'A friend in England sent me a newspaper clipping about Ron Howard being in Australia with Jude Law filming a movie called 'Eden,' based on some of the same people and events in my book,' Kahler says. Now, it is every writer's dream to have their work associated with a high-profile Hollywood movie and its attendant publicity. She unsuccessfully attempted to contact Howard, who directed the film and co-wrote the script with Noah Pink. Knowing that the film would be screened at the Toronto Film Festival in September last year, Kahler's publisher pushed up her hardcover publication date. But the film's release was delayed by distribution challenges. It opens Friday. 'Of course I plan to see the movie,' says Kahler, telling me that Jude Law plays the man with the steel teeth, which he may or may not have in the film, and that Ana de Armas plays the Baroness, with Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby and Daniel Brühl also in the cast. 'I love this story so much. I 'know' these people.' Kahler has been busy with promotional duties for 'Eden Undone,' which will include a Sept. 6 appearance at the Printers Row Lit Fest. She has yet to find the topic for her next nonfiction book, but is working on a second novel and is especially excited by an upcoming article for Vanity Fair, saying, 'This is a story I have wanted to tell for 25 years.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Prince Harry Shares Quiet Tribute to ‘Humility' of His Grandfather Prince Philip at Wartime Anniversary
The Duke of Sussex asked a friend to leave the tribute on the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, on August 15 NEED TO KNOW Prince Harry asked a friend to lay a wreath and leave a message at the official commemoration of VJ Day on August 15 The Duke of Sussex's friend waited until King Charles and Queen Camilla had departed before leaving the tribute on a wreath of poppies The letter included warm words about his late grandfather, Prince Philip, who died in 2021 Prince Harry has quietly paid tribute to fallen veterans and his late grandfather Prince Philip who fought in the Second World War. The Duke of Sussex had a wreath and a letter placed at the official commemoration to those who served in the Asia-Pacific region 80 years ago. The tribute was placed at the Burma Star Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum, in Staffordshire, England on Aug. 15, after his father, King Charles, had led the tributes earlier in the day. Harry, 40, who himself was an army officer and served two tours of Afghanistan, had asked a friend to place the memorial when the dignitaries, led by Charles, 76, and Queen Camilla, 78, and members of the media covering the event had departed, PEOPLE has confirmed. GB News was the first to report the news. Harry wrote in his message — carried on his own letterhead with his 'H' cypher — of his praise for the service members of the 'Forgotten Army" whose "courage and endurance in the Far East campaign were anything but forgettable." He wrote that their service "in the jungles and marked by grit, unity and sacrifice." Then, he added a poignant, personal tribute to his late grandfather Philip, who died in 2021, aged 99. 'For me, this anniversary carries an added layer of meaning. My late grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, served in the pacific campaign. He spoke with quiet humility about those years, but I know how deeply he respected all who stood beside him in that theatre of war. Today, as I think of him, I think also of each of you, of the shared hardships, the bonds forge4d, and the legacy you leave." Philip was a war hero who joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and was praised for his role in his action during the Battle of Cape Matapan in the Mediterranean Sea in 1941. his service in the Pacific was as first lieutenant on the destroyer Whelp, and was on board ship in Tokyo Bay when the surrender of Japan was signed in Sept. 1945. The memorial tribute was especially significant as Harry was denied a request to leave a wreath at the official memorial on Remembrance Sunday, November 2020. Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, had stepped down as senior royals earlier that year, and a source close to him said that though "he understands that he doesn't have the same formal role in the family as he used to, he was said to be "saddened and disappointed" to have his request turned down Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! On VJ Day, Prince William and Princess Kate made their own public tribute, writing on social media, "Today, on the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, we remember the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of all who served. Today we especially think of those British and Commonwealth troops who fought in the Asia-Pacific,' Kate and William, both 43, wrote. 'We owe an enduring debt to the generation who gave so much, and to whom we will always be grateful.' Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
