American Vampire by Scott Snyder

If you're of the school of thought that vampires should be neither sparkly nor mushy-hearted toward humans — that they should be depicted, instead, as stone-cold killers with moral compasses of dubious quality, then Scott Snyder's American Vampire graphic novel series may be right up your blood-stained alley.

Volume 1, which is in our fiction section, follows two separate storylines linked by one Skinner Sweet, a rabble rousing, blood drinking, candy chomping member of Vampire Version 2.0. Skinner belongs to a new breed of vampire forged in the crucible of American history. Unlike his European predecessors, he can walk in the sun without fear of self-combustion. Not surprisingly, old-school vampires are not pleased by this development.

It is this revelation that arises in the first of the two stories: A young woman named Pearl goes to Hollywood in the search of fame and fortune in 1925. Her innocence, however, attracts the wrong kind of attention from a pack of literal blood-suckers who leave her for dead. But Skinner Sweet has other ideas, rousing her from death so Pearl can have a second chance at life. Not to mention revenge.

"Just picture it in automotive terms. Bloch and his kind, they're like old, broken down European clunkers, okay? But you and me, Dolly? We're like shiny new 1926 Fords. Top of the line, just rolled out onto the showroom floor.

"See sometimes, when the blood hits sometime new, from somewhere new it makes something new. With a whole new bag of tricks, get it?"

The other story follows Skinner Sweet during his outlaw days in the Old West. Having robbed a prosperous businessman (who also happens to be an Old World vampire), Sweet finds himself captured. But you and I both know it's just a temporary detour for the wayward hellion.

Skinner Sweet makes for a fascinating character because he has no soft spots to him. He's all sly smiling ferocity who does what he wants, no matter the rules and what's right. He kills without seeming conscience. He holds a grudge like nobody's business. He's wily, unpredictable, and a whole lot of fun.

Pearl is no shrinking violet either, particularly once her fangs come in. Because she's newly turned, through her eyes we get to see her confusion and fear as she realizes what's become of her, and how easily her predatory instincts click in. Yet she retains her humanity through her relationship with Henry, a romantic interest from before her change who chooses to remain by her side afterward.

American Vampire earned the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in 2011 for Best New Series, which should give you some idea of how well-regarded it is by the comic book world. Volume 1, which Snyder co-wrote with bestselling author Stephen King, is lavishly illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque.

If you've not yet tried graphic novels or are looking for a different kind of vampire, I recommend you give this book a try.

The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped The American Economy / by Hardy Green

From Lowell, Massachussetts to Hershey, Pennsylvania and from Gary, Indiana to The Dalles, Oregon where Google houses several processing installations and server farms, company towns are and have been as much a part of America as organized labor. Seen by some as models of American capitalism and by others as the mechanism behind socio-economic control and stagnated prosperity, the company town has been pivotal in the evolution of the American economy just as much as ingenuity has propelled labor and industry. Author Hardy Green, an Associate Editor of Business Week, tells the story of numerous visionary capitalists who foresaw a common ground where political freedom and powerful private ownership could pave the way for a utopian ideal.

While the greatest number of the economical luminaries who 'capitalized' on the idea rose to prominence during the industrial revolution, many siezed their opportunities during the war years in the earyl-to-mid twentieth century. People like shipbuilder and construction magnate Henry J. Kaiser used ebbs and flows in the American economy, in this case the onset of WWII, to create industrial communities that could do things like build cargo ships in the deepwater port town of Richmond, CA, simultaneously improving worker productivity, family stability and further progress. The dream was even a reality for Kaiser and his business partner W.A. Bechtel who maximized the fledgling Bay Area town's potential all through the war and into the post-war boom only to witness the frightening decline and fall of the utopia a generation afterwards (Richmond is now routinely high on CQ Press's list of America's most dangerous cities). While the book talks up the towns made famous by industrious men and companies, it rather diminishes the plight of the workers themselves, the great many of them who experienced the inevitable break in loyalty and whose lives and legacies still remain just that--broken. It's certainly not a book which goes in depth as much as you'd like concerning the continually remorphed relationship between capitalism and welfare. (307.7670973 GREEN)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Published in 2009, this book centers on an issue raised by the development of medical science and the progress of medical research. Researchers tried for a long time to find cells that would never stop growing, cells that would not die. A 31 year old African-American woman contracted cervical cancer which was diagnosed at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in February of 1951. She was treated with radium, the latest development in cancer treatment, which seemed to get rid of her tumor. However, she had pains again by June. At first the doctors found nothing, but after some weeks had passed, they discovered more tumors. She was given radiation to no avail and died in October, 1951. Her name was Henrietta Lacks. A researcher at the hospital was given some of her cells from the original tumor. Her doctor did not need permission to do this, and even today consent would not be required by law. All blood and other tissue material taken for diagnostic purposes by the medical profession are not considered the property of the patient that undergoes the tests or procedures or operations.

Although Henrietta died, her cancer cells did not. As the author of the book explains to us, although the cells taken were cancerous, they still behaved like cells in many ways and could be used in research. They were the first cells to regenerate infinitely. Eventually HeLa cells, as they were called, were used to find a vaccine for polio, and have been used all over the world to help treat leukemia, influenza, herpes, Parkinson’s disease and to work on cures for cancer and many other illnesses.

Since Henrietta’s cancer cells have been used so extensively, their existence represents millions of dollars paid for their use in research, as well as the profits reaped from the drugs that they helped to make. Rebecca Skloot’s book presents in detail not only the development of the HeLa cells, but how Henrietta’s surviving family was impacted: first by her death, and then by their slow realization of how powerful this legacy was that she inadvertently left to the world.

The author, Ms. Skloot, is a key player in that realization process, describing how over a 10-year span she slowly got to know Henrietta’s family, trying to convince them that she wanted to tell the world about Henrietta, not just her cells. They are a family in tough circumstances, struggling to get by, not being able to afford any health insurance – an ironic note, considering what their mother’s cells have done for modern medicine.

In the end, this is a book to read for the story of the family, and how for all our advances, so many people live lives untouched by the benefits of those advances. The issue of proprietary rights regarding our bodies is addressed in the book, but to no real conclusion. Science and pharmacology wants a free hand in using these parts of us, and the Lacks family has no desire to restrict research and to impede the fight against disease. What they desire is recognition and acknowledgment that it was the malignancy which she personally suffered and died from that became a milestone for the rest of the human race.

U.S.A. Trilogy / by John Dos Passos

Born in Chicago in 1896, John Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of his father John Dos Passos Sr., a prominent attorney of Portuguese ancestry. Following the death of John Sr.'s wife in 1910, he married John Jr's mother Agnes and acknowledged the younger Dos Passos as his biological son. Despite his somewhat irregular family situation, Dos Passos received a first rate education, boarding first at the Choate School then Harvard and ultimately studying abroad at the Sorbonne institute. Traveling extensively over the next few years, he met up and mingled with people all over the world including several widely-known American ex-pat writers living in Europe. His 1938 novel U.S.A., a trilogy describing the three decades between 1900 and 1930, is by far his most famous work and one of the most endearing descriptions of American history to be put into fictional form.

A new century dawns on the United States of America and with it a conflux of new people with new ideas, better machines and bigger buildings, different dynamics and deeper conflicts that are all configured together inside this "slice of a continent". For people like Fainy "Mac" McCreary, the first generation American son of Irish immigrants, it's a chance to get out and see the country apart from the east coast. For J. Ward Morehouse, the new century brings a wave of new business opportunities and the promise of prosperity. Excitement also finds Charlie Anderson of Fargo, North Dakota as he hops the rail and begins a nomadic life toward anywhere and everywhere, seeking for a job where he can work with his hands and a woman who'll love him. All the while, as individual lives come and go, America steadily creeps toward its destiny.

U.S.A. is unique among American novels, both for it's length, three full-size novels in all; its subject, three decades of history; and its depth of personal encounter where individual lives are illuminated to the reader. The novels which make up the trilogy--The 42nd Parallel, 1919 & The Big Money--create an unforgettable depiction of a still young country. Represented through a collective experience which spans all places, races, classes and backgrounds is a story about a place and a people who form a nation. Crucial to the plot are events, small and large, indirectly affecting the central characters (a cast of about 12 individuals in all) like the lingering presence World War I, job shortages and unionization as well as, in some cases like that of J.Ward Morehouse, the overwhelming surplus of opportunity and enterprise.

But one shouldn't think that because of its length and range of characters that U.S.A. requires a deep investment. Dos Passos masterpiece isn't a prudently serious novel; nor is it a conventional work where a diluted backstory must be trudged through to realize the plot. It's a funny book with sardonic humor and intermediary "updates" never far from the central narrative. The author uses several startlingly clever literary devices to capture the aura of early twentieth century life. With his "newsreels", he broadcasts the headlines and impressions upon the public conscience; in his "camera eye", he subtly incorporates a vague autobiographical soliloquy inside a stream-of-consciousness arrangement. Within the sweeping scope of the story are major historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Ford and Dale Carnegie as well as lesser known names now all but forgotten. To be sure there's a lot to the book. And it may take a reader some time to get through. But the point is never to vigilantly keep track of every detail. For as Dos Passos himself summarized, the book is "many things . . . but mostly U.S.A. is the speech of the people". (FIC DOSPASSO)

A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror / by Joseph Schweikart and Michael Allen

The authors of this book feel that too many high school and college history texts are so motivated by political correctness that they disproportionately focus on the bad of shameful events in American history as a way of placating the public. From slavery to the fate of the Native Americans to the stock market crash, McCarthyism, Vietnam and so on, these negative events receive more attention than the more honorable, or patriotic subject matter. Schweikart and Allen attempt to set the record straight by re-examining our nation's historical elements through a patriotic perspective, explaining, in an enlightened manner though without unsubstantiating the relevant topics, why certain events occurred as they did and discussing the actual events in the context of the principles the nation strove to demonstrate. America, was and still is the beacon of freedom for all nations, the authors say, and was not only effective in establishing these self-evident truths in its own land, but also in persevering them in other countries by working to eradicate social abuse and oppression throughout the world. (973 SCHWEIKA)

A Mercy / Toni Morrison

As one of the the United States' most repected living writers, Toni Morrison's books are always highly anticipated. Her newest weighs in at a very slim 167 pages and visits some familiar territory (slavery, motherhood, love lost, broken families, gender relations), but her elegant, lyrical prose continues to amaze.

This novel is set in the late 1600's on a farm in what will become the United States. The characters take turns telling their story in the first person, a bit reminiscent of a Greek chorus. They are all caught up in the web of slavery as is the entire nascent culture in which they live. The farm owner, Jacob Vaark, owns two slaves, one black, one Native American, uses the services of two white indentured servants, and also has one other young foundling of indeterminate race with servant status in the household. Through these characters, Morrison explores the full range of forced servitude in an era before slavery was limited to people of African heritage.

Vaark is a so-called benevolent slaveowner, who likes to feel that he is above the flesh-trade. Vaark and his wife Rebekka have lost all of their children to accident or disease, and so treat their subordinates as quasi-family, having none of their own. They work side-by-side and strive together to keep the farm running in a difficult natural environment.The group lives, if not in happiness, at least in peace until Vaark falls ill with smallpox and dies. Then the little world they've carved out for themselves in the wilderness quickly crumbles. Without the master of the house, neither wife nor slave nor servant has any status in the outside world. Perhaps more troubling, they no longer have the security of hanging together as a unit. Each is an orphan in a dangerous world, and the mechanisms of bondage have stripped their ability to connect to each other on the most basic of human levels.

Morrison uses language in a really beautiful way in this novel. Each character has a distinct voice and way of relating to the world around her. The author does not feel the need to fully explain everything that happens in the book -- some things she leaves to the reader to figure out, others she explains later through the voices of other characters. The plot is slight, but the characters are complex and their relationships to each other and to the world are even more complicated. Underpinning all of this is the knowledge that Morrison is describing the very beginnings of our American culture. This is the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished reading.

'SCANDALICIOUS' AMERICAN HISTORY

Puppet Master: the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
by Michael Hack
A figure of enormous scrutiny both before and after his death, J. Edgar Hoover held the office of FBI Chief from its inception in the 1930’s (himself the founder) until his death in 1972. Often deemed the most powerful lawman in America by enemies and contemporaries alike, his career spanned 6 presidential administrations and five decades. His legacy, however, has been continuously flogged by rumors concerning his somewhat bizarre private life.

The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island
by Mike Gray
At a Nuclear Plant in Eastern Pennsylvania in 1979, several overlooked mechanical failures caused a reactor meltdown resulting in a severe radiation fallout. While the accident was, in actuality, only a near fatal catastrophe (the meltdown was stopped in time to prevent widespread damage) not equal to Russia’s Chernobyl disaster, the incident created a panic throughout the country and within the core of American industrial bureaucracy. How safe was nuclear power and to what extent were security measures side-stepped in place of higher production levels? A fascinating look at nuclear power and its potential for destruction.

The Great Monkey Trial
by L. Sprague De Camp
At the time it was the trial of the century. The Scopes Monkey Trial of Tennessee in the 1920’s pitted evolution against the religious right after a school teacher, John Scopes, was fired for teaching the theory of evolution contrary to overwhelming local convictions of Biblical creationism. Lawyer, statesman, and one-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan was selected as part of the litigation team while the case engaged a huge media frenzy that soon became popularized in book form. Later it formed the plot for the movie Inherit the Wind starring Gene Kelley and Spencer Tracy.

Teapot Dome: Oil and Politics In the 1920’s
by Burl Noggle
The secret sale of government owned oil-reserves in Wyoming by members of the Harding administration in the 1920’s created one of the largest political scandals of the day. Noggle’s book goes in depth to uncover the background and hidden secrets behind these covert operations even investigating as to whether Harding himself, who died in office prior to the scandal, had any direct knowledge about the sale.

The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal: More Than 450 Infamous Incidents from the 1600s to the Present [REF] / George Kohn, ed.

A great resource for anyone wanting to know about the infamous and underhanded events throughout American history. From the Salem Witch Trials to Benedict Arnold and all through the twentieth century with McCarthyism and OJ. Simpson. This is a great resource for anyone wanting to know what the Teapot-Dome Scandal or the man who really was Jimmy Hoffa. Recommended for anyone wanting to investigate the darker side of our nation's heritage...and for further reading ask the reference desk about other books involving scandals and conspiracy.