Texas City Reads 2012

This year's Texas City Reads book is Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts.

Although In the Garden of Beasts is nonfiction, it reads like fiction: suspense, scandalous love affairs, political intrigue and heartbreak.

It depicts the story of the American ambassador and his family who were stationed in Berlin in the years just before WWII, just as Hitler was gaining his power in Germany. The ambassador, William E. Dodd, was a fairly tame personality, but he had one of the hardest jobs around trying to represent American interests in Germany as Hitler gained political ground.

Dodd's daughter Mary, however, made up in spades for her father's conventionality. She was an inveterate flirt and a very opinionated young woman; later in life she became an author and then ended up fleeing the United States after being accused of spying for the Russians.

Larson does not try to hide the Dodds’ shortcomings or prejudices — for example, they didn't seem to be too bothered by the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Germany when they first arrived — but he also portrays their strengths, such as Dodd's admirable refusal to kowtow to the future Fuhrer.

You may recognize Larson's name; he wrote Isaac's Storm, about the 1900 hurricane that struck Galveston — the greatest natural disaster to ever strike the United States. In the Garden of Beasts has received excellent reviews and appeared on many best books lists of 2011.

Intrigued yet? Here are a few reviews of the book:

New York Times
L.A. Times
Brevity magazine, an online journal
We Heart Reading book blog
NPR

The library will have multiple copies available for check-out at the Circulation Desk. We have In the Garden of Beasts in book, large print and audiobook form. We will host discussions of the book in the Holland Meeting Room of the library in September. All are welcome at the discussions.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) / a film by Alexander MacKendrick; w/ script by Ernest Lehman & Clifford Odette; starring Burt Lancaster & Tony Curtis

"Uh - by the way, I got nothing against women thinking with their hips. That's their nature. Just like it's a man's nature to go out and hustle and get the things he wants."

J.J. Hunsecker may be the most powerful man in New York City. A gossip columnist based on Broadway in the mid-1950's, his words disseminate to the masses in a daily binge of critical essay, scathing reviews and subtle innuendo, carrying not only the up-to-the-minute analysis on plays and featured acts, but quite often some very, very private information on the city's most stalwart figures. He's known (and feared) for his ability to make or break people with little more than an offhand gesture of recommendation or an indirect defamation of character, naming no names of course but hinting with enough casual aplomb to get the message across. It's not as if people aren't wise to the dubious scruples of Hunsecker. The magnate and the celebrity that he is, J.J.'s got lots of enemies, ranging from those who think little of his petty tactics to those who believe he's a "national disgrace." But there are as many allies in his line of work, people like press agent Sidney Falco, a scheming underworld figure who feeds J.J. private bits of information (called "items") about those individuals fortunate or unfortunate enough to conspicuously engender themselves into the public sphere of Manhattan's "cafe society," or worse, make enemies with the man himself through some personal indiscretion. Sidney's willing to do (pretty much) anything to please his boss, as demonstrated by the callous way he treats people in general and the even more sinister, often exploitative way he uses them for his own purposes. He's done some pretty nasty things, turned some brutally vicious tricks to curry J.J.'s favor in order to someday rise to his same ivory-tower level of "success." But things are at a crossroads currently as Sidney's been tasked with the job of breaking up a romance between a jazz musician and Hunsecker's sister, the newsman's only family and an individual who's affection he simply can't abide losing to someone else. It's now make or break time for Sidney who needs to work fast, against the clock and in shrewd fashion, to do his master's bidding if he is to succeed in another shady ploy of manipulation and scheming.

One thing which makes really good stories even better is authentic context, truth backing up the fiction in other words. Walter Winchell was just that to this story. In the mid-twentieth century, Winchell was New York City's most popular gossip columnist and himself a major celebrity, dishing out information on the major movers and shakers in a daily news feed which the public simply devoured in a manner that would make many of today's more salacious talking heads envious. His power coupled with his rather odd, some say unnatural love for his daughter formed the basis for this far and away superior film. Made at a time when big studio pictures were dying off and private production companies were sprouting, Sweet Smell of Success is obviously an independent film (it could never have been made otherwise), budgeted and sponsored by both Lancaster's and Curtis' own individually-funded labels which succeeded in luring a noteworthy director in McKendrick and a master cinematographer, James Wong Howe, away from the bigger projects. To say the movie is more liberalized in its approach and less censured in its portrayal of blatant moral corruption would be an understatement. It's grotesque in a way few works of art can portray. And while nothing so malodorous as the on-screen products of today, it still hits home in away few major movies have since been able to do. Judging from the cover and a casual interpretation, it may seem like another cloak-and-dagger/shady-villains piece. But film noir it's really not though to say it carries similar tones and themes would be truthful; shadowy lighting, urban street scenes at night and men in hats and overcoats are very visible. It's more of a character study, a moral a fable even, equivalent to Faust or something Shakespearean--Curtis' Sydney Falco was actually based upon the Mephistophelian-like character of Mosca from Ben Johnson's Renaissance-era play, Volpone.

In addition to marking turning point in the way films were made as well as a liberalizing of production code standards, the film carved out new roles for leading men Curtis and Lancaster, actors heretofore typecast as heroic, honorable protagonists each popular with housewives and teenage girls. Each are the portrait of pure villainy in 'Sweet Smell', utter swine in their abilities to sink progressively further into a morass of greed and contempt. Without conscience in the way they deal with people, especially the ones with integrity, they're willing to push every limit, scheme every angle to get what they want. It's not just their surface acts but their strikingly profane mannerisms and public demeanor, not a vulgar protrusion but an icily cool presence, which turns their cherubic countenances, Curtis especially, into truly revolting figures of near-demonic depravity. There's little wonder, then, that the film did so poorly upon its opening--at a theater in New York City, no less, to an audience for which Winchell and his underlings brainwashed from the get-go. It's gotten its due credit, however, in succeeding years. Winchell, who would devolve more and more into McCarthy-esque tactics of calling out his critics, ultimately faded in popularity within New York gossip circles, eventually losing a pseudo battle of the media personalities to Ed Sullivan. (DVD SWEET)

The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis / by Michael W. Hudson

When the Lehman Brothers holding corporation declared a Chapter 11 on September 15, 2008, it caused more than just a blip on the radar. With the abrupt implosion of this company and, soon afterwards, other subprime mortgage lenders along with the bankruptcy of several other well-known Wall Street firms, the world witnessed a financial disaster rarely glimpsed in history. The crisis cost over $20 trillion in government fiscal aid, caused millions of people to lose their jobs, millions more to lose their homes and nearly incited an all out financial collapse of US and International markets. It's after effects would linger for two years and its reverberations are still being felt. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with financial insiders, politicians, academics and even former Wall Street "hitmen", veteran financial reporter Michael Hudson reveals the story of the rise and fall of the subprime mortgage business by chronicling the plight of its two most powerful conglomerates: Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers.
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The situation was as preventable as it was lamentable. As the biggest subprime lenders, Ameriquest and Lehman had the most control and the most power; and, subsequently, the most to lose. It was these two companies which, more than any other institutions, instigated the cesspool of corruption by cultivating a toxically unethical environment involving predatory lending policies, high risk home loans and shady backdoor banking practices, to say nothing of the hard-living, vice-loving expensive after hours habits of many employees. Risky home loans created high-profile housing markets but also made for an escalating insecure lending system between investment banks, mortgage companies and credit rating bureaus. Soon this housing bubble led to a destabilized banking structure which taxed its parent holding companies to the point of liquidation and eventually took its toll on the US economy, which ultimately had to be rescued by a hefty government bailout in 2008. Though a complex problem with complicated aspects, the book is an entertaining read highlighted by a thoroughly putrid cast of characters of which many victims of the crisis have come to loathe. Provocative and gripping, The Monster is a searing exposé of the fraud, corruption and greed that fueled the financial collapse of which the country and the world is only now climbing its way out of. (332.63 HUDSON)

The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards' Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal that Brought Him Down / by Andrew Young

By the year 2000, John Edwards meteoric rise from trial lawyer to North Carolina senator had been well documented and more than a few political pundits prognosticated an unlimited future for the homegrown Democrat who preached family values, equal housing opportunities and "college for everyone". He became a household name during the 2004 presidential campaign when he was selected as running mate to then presidential hopeful John Kerry. Their subsequent defeat prompted Edwards' own ambitions for the highest office in the land and his campaign for the 2008 democratic nomination began in earnest in 2005. But in 2007, a scandal broke about an extramarital affair between Edwards and staffer Rielle Hunter, the latter claiming Edwards had fathered her child. Though denied by Edwards initially, the relationship and ultimately the parentage were finally acknowledged after months of abnegation. The presidential hopeful's dreams came to an end as his political career and life began spiraling downward.
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Author and former political consultant Andrew Young recounts his time as not only an inside man with tactical access to the senator, but, candidly and with remorse, as a primary player in the scandal--Young was induced by Edwards to initially claim (falsely) that he had fathered Rielle Hunter's child. Young chronicles his time with Edwards'--John and his family--from beginning to end: first as a volunteer in the campaign for the initial gubernatorial seat, becoming more intimate as the Democratic party eagerly adopted and promoted Edwards, and finally as the senator's right-hand man in his bid for the presidency. With time Young was drawn more and more into a series of comprimising assignments that culminated with Edwards asking him to help conceal the Senator's adultery and ultimately lie about the parentage of his own illegitmate child. More than a few sordid moments are encountered throughout the text as the reader is drawn closer in to this epic, personally wrenching scandal.

'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.