Indiana University Press blog

Staff pick: Sightings by B.J. Hollars

Reviewed by Michelle Sybert, manuscript editor

Coming of age novels and stories have reverberated with authors and writers for so long that a fresh telling is a rare creature indeed. In Sightings, B.J. Hollars manages to capture not one, but ten fresh tales of growing up and coping with loss in Indiana. Though the Indiana that Hollars describes is a mystical land populated with 21st century pioneers, clowns, Confederate soldiers, and robots, their experiences perfectly capture our own, passed along in the sage, but fanciful voice of a child.

In one story, a child describes his creation of Brady, a vacuum cleaner robot named for his dead brother, while in another, a benchwarmer helps Sasquatch prepare for a hot prom date. Though each of these stories can stand alone as an enjoyable read, Hollars weaves subtle connections between the stories, drawing the reader into this unbelievable world, populated with characters who have experiences reminiscent of our own, allowing us to reconnect with childhood, with the absurdity that we survived.

Though we have not all lost a brother at a young age and have not all suffered through an Oregon Trail re-enactment, complete with apple cider, venison, and no cell phones, we have all lost. We have all been thrust into the awkward and foreign world of adulthood, yet somehow we made it. Though we couldn't laugh about it then, Hollars ensures that we can now. And more importantly, by pulling us from our known adult world back into the alien and the absurd, he offers us the chance to reconnect with our past and to capture glimpses of insights we missed while we were caught up in the excitement and the terror of growing up and losing things and people we held dear—family, friends, childhood itself.

The truly rare quality of Sightings is that in addition to the opportunity presented for reflection and reconnecting with our past and our loss, this is the funniest book you will read all summer.

Staff pick: Shrubs Large and Small by Moya L. Andrews and Gillian Harris

Reviewed by Kathryn Caras, Director of Electronic and Serials Publishing

I own a solace shut within my heart,
A garden full of many a quaint delight
And warm with drowsy, poppied sunshine; bright,
Flaming with lilies out of whose cups dart
Shining things
With powdered wings.

—Amy Lowell, "Behind a Wall"

There is no better time for a gardener than spring with its promise of regeneration and renewal. As Rachel Carson said, "There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—that assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." And what better herald for spring this year than the publication of Shrubs Large and Small: Natives and Ornamentals for Midwest Gardens, the latest offering from the team of Moya L. Andrews and Gillian Harris? 

Shrubs Large and Small is filled with practical advice on what shrubs to plant among your perennials and how to choose woody shrubs to help determine your garden’s architecture, to achieve blooming throughout the season, and to add interest to the winter garden. Also included are sections on selecting shrubs; shrubs that attract wildlife, especially birds; and bringing flowers indoors, focusing on, among other topics, forcing branches, the characteristics of American arrangements, and a monthly sequence of materials provided by the shrub garden for arrangements.

The volume showcases 20 of the authors' favorite shrubs and describes other garden-worthy varieties. Many, referred to as "natives," occur naturally east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio rivers and from Minnesota to Arkansas. Others are imports from temperate regions around the world. All are ideal for growing in the Midwest. Included are viburnum, syringa, paeonia, ilex, cornus, and witch-hazel, among others.

Shrubs Large and Small is beautifully illustrated by Gillian Harris, a natural science illustrator and an Indiana Master Naturalist. Her botanically correct, four-color drawings are scattered throughout the book, and illustrations of the 20 "favorite" native and native deciduous shrubs are included in a section entitled "Gallery." All are true works of art and make this not just a useful and essential book for the gardener, but a book that can be treasured for its beauty alone.

Shrubs Large and Small complements Andrews's and Harris's previous book Perennials Short and Tall: A Seasonal Progression of Plants for Your Garden, which offers advice on keeping your garden in bloom, chapters on each of the three growing seasons, and profiles of 25 varieties of flowers, together with color illustrations. As a set or individually, these books make a wonderful gift for you and the gardeners in your life.

Staff pick: Butterflies of Indiana by Jeffrey E. Belth

Reviewed by Laura Baich, electronic marketing manager

Every spring I anxiously wait to see if my daughter will outgrow her fear of flying insects. Will 2013 be the year? I certainly hope so because this spring I really want to enjoy the warm days outside instead of (futilely) attempting to convince a shrieking child that a butterfly is silent, so no, it can’t possibly “buzz” in your ear!

Even though she’s still not sold on the fact that butterflies can’t buzz, the one thing we both agree on is that butterflies are beautiful. As long as they don’t move, she enjoys looking at the butterflies that flock to the lavender in our backyard (unfortunately, the bees like the lavender too, and they really do buzz, which cuts short the butterfly observation time). Her favorite question to ask is, “What kind of butterfly is that?” If it’s not a monarch, then I’m stuck. Luckily, I have Jeffery E. Belth to help me out this year. His new field guide, Butterflies of Indiana, covers all 149 species of butterflies and their close relatives, the skippers (which, as NUVO points out, is “not a friend of Barbie”).

The guide includes more than 500 color photos and a handy key for telling the difference between a butterfly, skipper, or moth (another creature feared by my daughter, so we won’t go looking for those). In addition to providing a detailed identification guide for each butterfly and skipper, the book also includes useful information on where to look for butterflies, the best times of day to see them, and how to look for them (silently, without sudden movements, which will be hard for a 5-year-old). There are also good sections on the life cycle of a butterfly and butterfly behavior, and the best way to photograph butterflies. As a butterfly novice, I found the information in the book very easy to interpret, but it’s also very thorough, which more experienced lepidopterophiles will appreciate.

Everything you ever wanted to know about butterflies (and more!) is included in this compact guide. Get your copy today before the butterflies start “buzzing” around!

Our favorite books of 2012

Tis the season for "best of the year" lists, so here are the IU Press staff's favorite books of 2012. Great reading for the holiday break!

1. Searching for Hope

Reviewed by Mandy Clarke, trade marketing and publicity manager

Easy to read, yet not so easy to digest, Searching for Hope reads like fiction—but sadly is not. Highly recommended for general readers, book clubs, and those interested in education and educational policy alike, Searching for Hope will evoke a strong reaction from its readers.

Read review

2. Earth Works

Reviewed by Laura Baich, electronic marketing manager 

The pleasure in reading the essays comes not so much from discovering his answer to a perennial question of life, but more from learning about the journey [Sanders] took to get there.

Read review

3. What This River Keeps

Reviewed by Linda Bannister, journals marketing manager 

This book reminded me of the unique value of my Indiana home, both in its natural beauty and the beauty of family and community. Although I plan to give it as a gift to several Hoosiers I know, the experience it reflects goes well beyond Indiana.

Read review

4. A Guide to Caves and Karst of Indiana

Reviewed by Laura Hohman, production assistant 

A Guide to Caves and Karst of Indiana by Samuel S. Frushour gives the reader an excellent overview in a convenient to carry field guide sized book.

Read review

5. A Girl of the Limberlost

Reviewed by Kate Matthen, sales and marketing coordinator 

The story was one of transformation, beauty, majesty, and simplicity. Stratton-Porter was a naturalist and brilliant storyteller, with an ability to weave an engaging plot into vivid and colorful descriptions of northern Indiana wetlands. 

Read review

6. On Railways Far Away

Reviewed by Nancy Lightfoot, project manager 

It is a book that is nostalgic and romantic on many levels, and tucked into the lush photos of trains are a thousand details that show what a curious and attentive and delighted traveler Bill Middleton was.

Read review

7. Conversations with Great Teachers

Reviewed by Mollie Ables, marketing services coordinator 

Conversations with Great Teachers is a book that can be rifled through for inspiration or satisfying a curiosity. It’s definitely useful whether or not you’re a teacher, as it is often more about sharing information and connecting with people than strictly teaching.

Read review

8. Medals and Plaquettes in the Ulrich Middeldorf Collection at the Indiana University Art Museum

Reviewed by June Bertrand Silay, editor/project manager 

If you’ve ever wanted to tour the museums of Europe to experience the history of artistic expression of ages past, this collaboration between IU Press and the Indiana University Art Museum is your passport and Arne R. Flaten is your tour guide. 

Read review

9. Yearning for the New Age

Reviewed by Marvin Keenan, manuscript editor 

Yearning for the New Age by Diane Sasson gives us a fascinating look into the life of this independent woman who struggled to find her spiritual path among British Theosophists and later, American Shakers.

Read review

10. Rural Free

Reviewed by Jennifer Witzke, marketing designer

Rachel Peden wrote with quiet joy and deep reverence for her home and her life on the farm. She had a unique voice and wonderful talent for describing the mundane aspects of everyday life in a way that made them shine.

Read review

11. Earth before the Dinosaurs

Reviewed by Laura Hohman, production assistant

The dinosaurs are certainly the superstars of the prehistoric past, but Earth before the Dinosaurs gives us a glimpse of the amazing creatures that came before. These animals are no less fascinating and certainly deserve the excellent treatment they get in this book.

Read review

Staff pick: Earth before the Dinosaurs by Sébastien Steyer

Reviewed by production assistant, Laura Hohman

The dinosaurs are certainly the superstars of the prehistoric past, but Earth before the Dinosaurs gives us a glimpse of the amazing creatures that came before. These animals are no less fascinating and certainly deserve the excellent treatment they get in this book.

The book covers the evolution of vertebrates—limbs, other adaptations for terrestrial life, early adaptations for flight (gliding), and the ancestors of mammals. Photographs of fossils accompany incredible illustrations of what these animals and their habitats possibly looked like. I would personally love full-sized versions of several of these illustrations to frame and hang on my wall, but I’ll content myself with enjoying them in book form.

Technical and scientific information is accompanied by a welcome sense of humor. I laughed at loud while reading about “The ‘Precious’ of Lesotho:”

The piece came back to one of its discoverers, Léonard Ginsburg, who published on it with a colleague and then hid his “precious” away from prying eyes at the back of a drawer. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. Years went by. The specimen passed out of all knowledge. History became legend. Legend became myth—that of the only temnospondyl from Lesotho. For nearly thirty years no one talked of the capitosaur from Lesotho until, when the chance came, the fossil ensnared another bearer, a paleontologist called Philippe Janvier. For years, lurking in the unlit interior of a drawer, it occupied his mind. Darkness crept back into the Jardin des Plantes. Rumors grew of a shadow—whispers of a nameless fear. The Lesotho fossil knew its time had come. But then something happened the fossil did not expect. Philippe gave me the fossil and said, “Léonard’s fossil . . . He’s left to work on mammals. I’ve kept it all these years and now it’s yours. Re-examine it carefully and, above all, keep it safe. I have a few matters I must attend to."

The comparison made by the author to a mythical ring may not be too far off the mark. The inclusion of humans in the vertebrate “glider’s club,” complete with illustration, also merited a chuckle.

If you love reading about dinosaurs, expand your reading a bit and give this book a try!

Staff pick: Rural Free by Rachel Peden

Reviewed by Jennifer Witzke, marketing designer

As I read Rural Free by Rachel Peden, I am reminded of the words to a song by singer/song writer John Denver: “Take me home, country roads, to a place I belong...”

For Rachel Peden, the country roads led to a farm on Maple Grove Road outside of Bloomington, IN. She grew up on a Monroe County orchard farm, and later attended Indiana University, where she earned a degree in sociology. She married Richard Peden in 1929, and after more than 10 years of marriage, the couple decided to buy a farm. Being a farmwife was not what Rachel had planned for her career, but she learned to love being on the farm. She wrote frequent letters to her sister, Nina, about her life on the farm, and these letters later became the basis for her regular newspaper column in the Indianapolis Star, a column that appeared four times a week. She wrote about her family, her neighbors, her garden, animals, both wild and domesticated, and also the changing rural landscape. She also wrote three books, Rural Free, The Land the People, and Speak to the Earth, which were published by Knopf, and reissued by IU Press.

Rachel Peden wrote with quiet joy and deep reverence for her home and her life on the farm. She had a unique voice and wonderful talent for describing the mundane aspects of everyday life in a way that made them shine. Even in our modern, high-tech world there is joy to be found in the simpler pleasures of life: home-baked bread and pies, a warm fire on a cold night, the way that frost makes the grass sparkle like it’s been dusted with glitter.

The book is organized by months and seasons, of which Rachel wrote there are “at least nine ... in an average year.” I love to pick this book up and read the chapters corresponding to the season outside my own window. This week I skipped ahead a bit and read:

As Christmas draws near the days become spinningly more crowded with the activities of preparation: shopping, wrapping gifts, writing cards, decorating house and church and school, delivering Christmas baskets, the gaiety of parties, cookie-bakings, church and school programs, homecomings of big families.

Finally the days become so full and commercialized that there is no room in the inn for any more thinking or straightening out of one’s personal beliefs.

Then comes Christmas Eve.

Everything has been done that there will be time to do. Now we leave the world to Christmas.

When finally the last carols have floated away into the starry darkness, the last good night has been said, the last wrapped package laid under a shining tree, there comes a small, quiet enclosure of time for every person to be alone with Christmas.

Why did we hurry so? Why did we worry about anything? What need we fear in the year that is about to begin?

A good reminder to myself to slow down and enjoy this time of year.

Staff pick: Yearning for the New Age by Diane Sasson

Reviewed by manuscript editor Marvin Keenan

Today, few have likely ever heard of Laura Holloway-Langford, born Laura O. Carter in 1843 in Nashville, but at a time when spirituality is still of great interest and concern to a wide segment of the population, her story is sure to resonate with many readers. Yearning for the New Age by Diane Sasson gives us a fascinating look into the life of this independent woman who struggled to find her spiritual path among British Theosophists and later, American Shakers.

The New Age that Laura longed for is to a great extent the one we now find ourselves living in. She sought the liberation of women not through political reform such as suffrage, but rather believed in the individual's capacity to achieve freedom through spiritual development. From a circle of ultraliberal Protestants she encountered in New York City after her family had left the South at the conclusion of the Civil War Laura developed her freethinking ideas that led to her involvement with Theosophy, a doctrine that held that ancient truths were accessible to moderns who could get in touch with the Masters, or Adept Brotherhood, via psychic means. These Adepts were believed to live in remote places, having extended their earthly existence beyond the normal life span, and to hold the world's greatest knowledge.

Laura had experienced clairvoyance and entered the Theosophical Society as a novice intent on becoming a disciple, or chela. Her encounter with the society's leaders, A. P. Sinnett and Helena Blavatsky, led to her becoming enmeshed in controversy over her gender in a male-dominated world where occult knowledge was received from the Masters by disciples most often in the form of letters, often handwritten in blue pencil. In a deep trance while serving as a medium for Sinnett in his London home she created a "gender-bending" controversy by taking on the persona of one Mahatma himself, Koot Hoomi, speaking in his voice in the first person.

The relationship of sexuality to spirituality is a strong current throughout the book and Laura's life. Convinced that marriage kept women subservient, Laura also believed that abstinence was essential for spiritual attainment. This view accorded with the beliefs of the Shakers with whom she became associated later in her life. Blavatsky had regarded sexual abstinence "as the distinguishing mark of the perfected life," and Laura sought to transmute her own libidinal energies into higher spiritual achievements.

Another belief she shared with the Shakers was their vegetarian diet. The way to spiritual growth was by purifying the activities of the physical body. These ideas were influenced by both Buddhist and Hindu doctrine, with which Theosophy had close connections. Meat consumption was associated with excessive sexual desire, and impeded humanity's astral progress. It also filled the blood with harmful substances that led to disease, and brutalized the lives of those in the slaughtering business. A Shaker elder had commended the Buddhists for making the first article of their religious creed "Thou shalt not kill," assuming that the killing of animals led to murder, war, and the killing of human beings.

Langford-Holloway managed to stay within the orbit of Christianity through the course of her life, while experimenting with many interesting variations in the quest for spiritual growth. Her searching coincided with the great interest in combining the lessons of all the world's religions as expressed by Swami Vivekananda's opening address at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, that as the various streams all lead to the sea, so the different religions when followed to their conclusion lead to the same Divine presence.

Staff pick: Medals and Plaquettes in the Ulrich Middeldorf Collection at the Indiana University Art Museum by Arne R. Flaten

June pays homage to the
medal on the front cover

Reviewed by editor/project manager June Bertrand Silay

If you’ve ever wanted to tour the museums of Europe to experience the history of artistic expression of ages past, this recent collaboration between IU Press and the Indiana University Art Museum is your passport and Arne R. Flaten is your tour guide. The itinerary was mapped out by the late Ulrich Middeldorf, preeminent scholar of art history and specialist of the Italian Renaissance. Rather than viewing grand-scale paintings or towering statues, this tour is on a more personal and tangible level. Yet all the characteristics and broad strokes of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism through Art Deco and beyond are recognizable in the palm of your hand. Through the medium of more than 300 commemorative medals and plaquettes that make up the Ulrich Middeldorf Collection, you'll embark on a sumptuous and intimate tour of art history and evolving aesthetic styles across Europe over the course of 600 years, through Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, England, and Spain, with echoes stretching across the ocean to the United States.

You won't be traveling light on this grand tour! The collection, brought together by Ulrich Middeldorf and donated to the IU Art Museum, is beautifully represented in this lavishly illustrated and meticulously documented catalogue through life-size color photographs that bring all the fine, minute details of the objects right to your fingertips. The curious may turn the pages quickly and still appreciate the survey of this gallery of greats, but aficionados and lovers of art will want to settle into a comfortable chair before a wide desk to savor the details of what will be more like a semester abroad without ever leaving. Arne Flaten provides an informative overview of the history and functions of portrait medals and plaquettes and of their specific production methods over time. Throughout the catalogue, he brings these items to life with details about the individuals and events depicted, as well as valuable information about the more obscure artists who crafted these tokens meant to stand the test of time.

There is something about the choice of this medium that brings you across time into direct contact with the individual depicted. To strike or caste a person's image in metal conveys an inherent importance and power—or, at least, the desire for them—and expresses the longing for longevity. Small enough to be held in one’s hand, to be worn as a personal token of allegiance, to be displayed as a symbol of one's ties to the great and powerful, or to be attached to an object of importance (a sword, a shield, a book, an inkwell), there is an intimacy in these objects that immediately connects, on the personal level, the individual depicted and the viewer. Among the powerful patricians, popes, and princes, the Medicis, the various kings called Louis, the Ferdinands, Maximillians, and Napoleons, you meet Dante (catalogue object 146) and Bembo (cat. obj. 37), Galileo (cat. obj. 125) and the striking Violenta Brasavola Pigna (cat. obj. 35), or (one of my favorites) the famous Florentine bibliophile Antonio Magliabecchi (cat. obj. 133): wild and wrinkled in appearance but endowed with a prodigious memory and an unquenchable thirst for books and learning, his library of 25,000 manuscripts and 29,000 books forms the core of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence.

Many medals commemorate specific architectural endeavors, which themselves were the tangible evidence on a much larger scale of the power and prominence of the individuals that funded their construction (such as cat. obj. 6, 13, and 16). These medals provide snapshots of the centers of artistic activity and document the changing trends in art and architecture over time. It was common to embed these medals into the foundations of the structure being built. One such medal (cat. obj. 239, reverse) depicts a structure that actually never was built: construction was begun on the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) in Rouen, France, in 1758, but was abandoned in 1765 when funds dried up.

Plaquettes, developed in imitation of classical gems, intaglios, or cameos, were one-sided compositions, often rectangular rather than round, designed to be affixed to an object. These mini reliefs depicted Greco-Roman mythological figures or religious scenes. Less personal in their subject matter, the diminutive size of the pieces does not diminish the degree of detail and the richness of expression and emotion. Fewer in number among Middeldorf's collection, they round out the journey, perhaps fittingly, as sober reminders of the folly of human indulgence. The pleasures of this volume should not leave you feeling guilty, though, for you will have learned so much along the way.

Staff pick: Conversations with Great Teachers by Bill Smoot

Reviewed by marketing services coordinator, Mollie Ables

Conversations with Great Teachers is a collection of 51 interviews with different educators and mentors. The subjects and individuals taught by these teachers are incredibly diverse though, as Bill Smoot explains, one of the main objectives of the book is to tease out universals in education. All of the teachers interviewed make up a third of what Smoot calls the “Education Triad,” which is composed of a teacher, a student, and that which passes between them. The interviewees all seem to have similar attitudes toward this triad, which comprises their profession, their students, and the subject that they teach. Great teachers share the attitude that theirs is not a “job,” but rather a calling. They also share humility in knowing that they serve a larger purpose than themselves. This is related to the passion they have for their subject, which they realize is far more important than their own ego or accomplishments.

How the information is passed between student and teacher varies drastically, though great teachers seem to recognize their students as individuals, and understand the different ways in which different students learn. No matter what the subject, as Smoot explains, “every act of learning involves a change in the learner.” Whether the student is acquiring a piece of information or a skill set, they must allow themselves to be taught and, by extension, change.

Often, teachers are not so much imparting information as teaching ways of thinking, habits, and modes of awareness. This requires a certain amount of trust between teachers and students, as well as what Smoot calls a teacher’s “authentic presence.” Smoot explains that “teaching is never reducible to technique,” and that great teachers must be faithful to their own style and principles, rather than what may be pedagogically trendy. This relates to the teachers’ belief in the larger purpose of teaching, which is, arguably, to elevate our level of humanity. Smoot poses: “We ask what makes us human: That we grow our food? Build our shelter? Make art? Wage war? Practice religion? Whatever it is, it gets taught.”

The interviews are divided into sections, some with more concrete distinctions like venue (“Teaching in the School Room,” “Teaching in the College Classroom), or content of curriculum (“Teaching the Athletes,” “Teaching the Healers,” “Teaching the Fixers and Makers”), but also more abstract notions of contributions to society. (“Teaching at the Bottom and on the Edge,” “Growing Body and Spirit”). The teachers interviewed include an elementary school teacher and college professors, but also coaches, a drill instructor, yoga and zen teachers, an exotic dance instructor, an internationally-renowned pastry chef, and MANY others demonstrating just how broadly certain pedagogical principles can apply.

One conversation that immediately captured my attention was in the “Teaching the Athletes” section. Smoot interviews Mike Hileman, an alligator wrestler trainer at Gatorland in Orlando. Hileman has trained alligator wrestlers for the park’s shows for over 16 years. Alligator wrestling may be an unconventional subject, but the parallels with more conventional classroom teaching were immediately apparent. Like all great teachers, Hileman has tremendous passion for the subject he teaches. He has a comprehensive knowledge of his subject, but still recognizes that, even after 16 years, he can still be surprised. (Granted, these “surprises” can be more terrifying with alligators than, say, English Romantic verse.) His relationships with his students are similar to those of most great teachers; he is able to identify their strengths, recognize their potential, and understands that all students learn in different ways and at different paces. Also like other great teachers, Hileman demands that his students have a healthy respect for the subject (and the alligator). At the same time, he makes the subject accessible to allow his students to combat their (quite reasonable) fears.

There are potential hazards constantly looming in every profession. In alligator wrestling, the obvious hazard is a painful or lethal bite. Hileman explains, “One of the first things I tell [my students] is that if you’re going to handle animals—it doesn’t matter if it’s a dog or a cat—the law of averages is going to catch up with you and you will get bit eventually. It might take two months or it might take six years, but if enough time passes, you will make a mistake because we’re human.” Words of wisdom that anyone can apply to their own field.

Conversations with Great Teachers is a book that can be rifled through for inspiration or satisfying a curiosity. It’s definitely useful whether or not you’re a teacher, as it is often more about sharing information and connecting with people than strictly teaching. These connections are important, as everyone has their own alligators to wrestle in life.

Staff pick: On Railways Far Away by William D. Middleton

Reviewed by project manager Nancy Lightfoot

This recommendation of William D. Middleton's beautiful last book On Railways Far Away is probably not news to railfans and rail historians, who already know enough about Bill Middleton to know that they will want to own it. This is a spectacular book about trains, and prominent railroad authors will have quite a bit to say about that (one reviewer kept writing "Wow!" in the margins). But as much as this is a book about trains, it is a photographic fairy tale about people and places and times far away, and I hope it finds a wider audience than even our many fine railroad books. It is a book that is nostalgic and romantic on many levels, and tucked into the lush photos of trains are a thousand details that show what a curious and attentive and delighted traveler Bill Middleton was.

So as much as this is a book about trains, it is also a book about history—about the matter-of-fact steps people took to deal with the danger and violence in their everyday lives during the Vietnam War, and the amazing feats it took to build bridges deep into and high above great rivers and to tunnel through miles of stone in remote mountains, and to open the last wild places to the world and industry. And it is also a book about travel—about tropical rainforests in the mountains of China and sun-bleached beaches along the Adriatic coast and misty waterfalls in black forests in the mountains of Norway. It is certainly a book about beautiful photography.

But what speaks to me more than anything else about this book is that it is also a book about people and it is full of stories. The last chapter is entirely about people and railroads, but there are pictures of people throughout the book that would have done any glossy spread in Life magazine proud. Children ice skate on Christmas day on a frozen river below a railroad bridge in China, full of the excitement of being a child on a snowy day. A little girl in a straw hat, white socks, and black patent leather shoes sits all alone on the platform in Tokyo, on a purse half as big as she is, lost in a book as she waits for the train. What is she reading and where is she going, all dressed up and all by herself? A caption reads, "A tower man handles the crossing at the Hilal Tower where two lines cross over in Izmir, Turkey, May 1962," but it's not clear whether he practices more precision in his job, or in shining his spectacular shoes and ironing the pleats in his pants. Where is he going all dressed up like that? A stylish woman straightens a man's tie before the Tokyo bullet train whisks them away . . . to where?

It is the last picture in the book that I have thought about most often, though, because I have been so surprised by my own feelings of wonder about trains (as you might be). Two tiny children are looking up in awe at a giant railway car, and the caption reads, "Even in the midst of war, small children come to see the railway. This is the daily departure north from Da Nang to Hue, Vietnam, January 1966." What a world Bill Middleton saw, and what an amazing gift he had for sharing what was important . . . about railways and worlds far away. I told Bill while I was working on the book how much it made me want to pack up and take to the road. He laughed and said gently, "Those places aren't there anymore." I'm thankful I got to see them through Bill's eyes. They are well worth the trip.