A lively, pleasant look at some obscure nuggets of knowledge.
A debut collection delivers an eclectic assortment of facts.
Although readers never learn all that much about perky Mr. J B Fact Finder, he has a lot to offer. In a series of short chapters written in the form of friendly letters, Mr. Fact Finder provides trivia about topics ranging from the Olympics (the rings of the Olympic flag symbolize the “five significant continents”) to the Empire State Building (the landmark did not turn a profit until 1950) and the origins of different breakfast cereals (C.W. Post once invented a wheat shredding machine). There are also portions on kooky laws in different states (for example, in Georgia, it is illegal to “change the clothes on a storefront mannequin unless you draw the shades first”) and even a few personal flourishes. A chapter devoted to dogs includes a story about a loyal pet named Ubu. Throughout the book, a folksy, Paul Harvey–esque humor (without the politics) prevails. Referring to the many injuries incurred by actors during the filming of The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Fact Finder jokes that the “movie was a workman’s comp nightmare.” After he presents some aspects of the celebrated thoroughbred Secretariat’s life, he confesses: “I’m in love with a horse.” The information provided is certainly entertaining. And there are surprises even for trivia buffs. That 5,000 trees spell out the word STUDEBAKERin Indiana is a true American oddity. Who knew that Beethoven “really loved to cook”? Some attempts at humor do fall flat. For instance, in a “Crazy Laws” chapter, readers are told that in Colorado “tags may be ripped off of pillows and mattresses.” Mr. Fact Finder chimes in with a “Hallelujah we are now safe from the mattress police.” Both the law and the accompanying comic relief feel dated. Despite the overall buoyant tone, some passages take on darker subjects. There are a few mentions of famous people who chose suicide. While a bulleted point about a plane that flew into the Empire State Building in 1945 and killed 14 people may be memorable, it does not resonate with the same playfulness as, say, the history of Hershey Chocolate. Nevertheless, Boyd’s Mr. Fact Finder is always eager to share tidbits in his own upbeat way.
A lively, pleasant look at some obscure nuggets of knowledge.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1953904898
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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