Sunday, May 06, 2007
What I'm reading.
22. The Justice Story. True Crime stories from the new york Post.
23. Out of the Furrow, Autobiography of Kalamazoo's first Pediatrician, H. Sidney Heersma. Amazon.
The justice story was a column in the New York Post, which is a tabloid paper, designed to be read on the subway - it doesn't try to be the New York Times.
A recent, if now late, colomnist colected some of these stories, mostly his own but others from the paper's archives. Mostly unknowns, but the book also covers famous crime figures, Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Black Dahlia, the Lindbergh baby.
Lite reading, fun, has a handful of still unsolved murders.
Out of the Furrow is one of those books that has a narrow audience. It's not bad, not great. I happen to be in Kalamazoo for a couple of weeks working at a hospital where the author worked, so a copy of his book is lying around, so I'm reading it.
Born in 1909, he grew up on a farm in what is now Chicago, not far from Joliet.
He's Dutch-American, as are many in this part of Michigan. "So Big" is a movie I saw recently from an Edna Ferber novel about one of these Chicagoland Dutch farming families. So far I've gotten through the chapters on med school. He'll go on to be a doctor,and have a boring but fine life. On the one hand, it's the story of a guy you don't know and don't much care about - I wouldn't be surprised if this was a vanity press thing; I doubt this was a big seller except locally. On the other hand, it's the kind of book you wish you had had someone in your family write. It tells a story of the transition between a nation of small farmers, and people working in big modern institutions. It's well enough told. Few gunshots and explosions than the Justice Story, but in many ways a better book.
22. The Justice Story. True Crime stories from the new york Post.
23. Out of the Furrow, Autobiography of Kalamazoo's first Pediatrician, H. Sidney Heersma. Amazon.
The justice story was a column in the New York Post, which is a tabloid paper, designed to be read on the subway - it doesn't try to be the New York Times.
A recent, if now late, colomnist colected some of these stories, mostly his own but others from the paper's archives. Mostly unknowns, but the book also covers famous crime figures, Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Black Dahlia, the Lindbergh baby.
Lite reading, fun, has a handful of still unsolved murders.
Out of the Furrow is one of those books that has a narrow audience. It's not bad, not great. I happen to be in Kalamazoo for a couple of weeks working at a hospital where the author worked, so a copy of his book is lying around, so I'm reading it.
Born in 1909, he grew up on a farm in what is now Chicago, not far from Joliet.
He's Dutch-American, as are many in this part of Michigan. "So Big" is a movie I saw recently from an Edna Ferber novel about one of these Chicagoland Dutch farming families. So far I've gotten through the chapters on med school. He'll go on to be a doctor,and have a boring but fine life. On the one hand, it's the story of a guy you don't know and don't much care about - I wouldn't be surprised if this was a vanity press thing; I doubt this was a big seller except locally. On the other hand, it's the kind of book you wish you had had someone in your family write. It tells a story of the transition between a nation of small farmers, and people working in big modern institutions. It's well enough told. Few gunshots and explosions than the Justice Story, but in many ways a better book.
Comments:
Post a Comment
