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AROUND AMERICA

Name: AROUND AMERICA
Author: Walter Cronkite
ISBN: 0-393-04083-6

A TOUR OF OUR MAGNIFICENT COASTLINE

by Walter Cronkite ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2001

The pattern makes for an enjoyable, but ultimately predictable, read. Sailing buffs, history buffs, and Cronkite buffs,...

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An easy-reading travelogue of the East, West, and Gulf Coasts, as seen from the deck of Cronkite’s own sailboat.

TV news veteran Cronkite divides his narrative into the sailing trips he’s taken over the years—from New York to Maine, for example, or from the Florida Everglades to Corpus Christi, Texas. Along the way he displays an impressive amount of knowledge one might not assign to America’s favorite newsman. First of all, he is an accomplished sailor. He knows well the dangerous, intricate tides of Hell Gate (the straits where the East River meets the Harlem River in New York City), and he admonishes West Coast sailors to begin their journeys south from Puget Sound after the spring rains but in time to reach Conception, California, before the storms hit in the fall. Second, he is quite a good armchair historian. He can roll off facts about every section of US coastline. Many know of Hilton Head, South Carolina, as a tourist destination: Cronkite’s Hilton Head was the site of “history’s greatest amphibious landing up until World War II,” when during the Civil War, Union troops took a Confederate fort there and turned it into the headquarters of the federal Department of the South. Passing by the redwoods forests of northern California, he details the founding of Eureka in 1850, linking its lumber industry to the gold rush and the construction of ingenious docks on the sides of the Pacific Coast Mountains. Cronkite’s account has a rhythm that will entrance some, lull others to sleep, and cause some arch-stylists to cringe. Each page averages about five paragraphs, most of them comprised of a single sentence. The reader therefore hops from one chunk of an idea to another, digesting each separately without the benefit of varying breaths.

The pattern makes for an enjoyable, but ultimately predictable, read. Sailing buffs, history buffs, and Cronkite buffs, however, will find plenty to admire.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-393-04083-6

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.