Read Beat (...and repeat)

Steve Tarter

If you're like me, you like to know things but how much time to invest? That's the question. Here's the answer: Read Beat--Interviews with authors of new releases. These aren't book reviews but short (about 15-20 minutes on the average) chats with folks that usually have taken a lot of time to research a topic, enough to write a book about it. Hopefully, there's a topic or two that interests you. I try to come up with subjects that fascinate me or I need to know more about. Hopefully, listeners will agree. Most of the folks being interviewed have written non-fiction books. I'm Steve Tarter, former reporter for the Peoria Journal Star and now a contributor to WCBU-FM, Peoria Public Radio and Peoria Magazine. read less

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"The Mind of a Bee" by Lars Chittka

"The Mind of a Bee" by Lars Chittka

So how does this little insect navigate between distant flower patches and the nest? That’s just one of the questions that bee researcher Lars Chittka seeks to answer.Chittka’s book, The Mind of a Bee (Princeton University Press) not only covers bee navigation but explores research by himself and others that demonstrate that bees have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers, solve problems, and learn through observation. In short, bees are smart.The “simple” act of navigation alone is not a trivial challenge, said Chittka, outlining the hurdles faced as bees solve “the traveling salesman problem.” That’s referring to visiting multiple locations that may be well apart from one another in the most efficient manner possible. The bee’s complex array of senses including being able to see ultraviolet light (something humans can’t do), are part of what sets it apart, said the author.Research also indicates that bees may be able to use the Earth’s magnetic field to aid them in navigation or the location of a nest.There’s nothing new about this interest in bees. The ancient Egyptians studied bees while evidence of Mayan honey production in Mesoamerica is over 1,000 years old.Chittka details his own work as well as that done by other researchers, indicating that individuals are often stories in themselves.Martin Lindauer was injured while serving in the German army during World War II. As a result, he was sent home from the Russian front, a fact that probably saved his life since his entire company was virtually wiped out, stated Chittka. After attending a lecture by Karl von Frisch, the German scientist and Nobel Prize winner (for his work on bee communication through dance behavior), Lindauer caught the bee bug and went into research himself, carrying on even as Allied bombs fell.After the war, Lindauer conducted his own breakthrough experiments while starting a succession of bee researchers. Among those studying under him was Randolf Menzel, a scientist who became established in his own right. Among the graduate students that Menzel attracted was Lars Chittka, now having researched the subject for more than 40 years.Another bee researcher highlighted in The Mind of a Bee is Charles Turner, an African American born two years after the Civil War. By the age of 25, Turner had published articles in some of the most prestigious scientific journals of his day, said Chittka, noting that because of his ethnicity, Turner was never able to land a position at a college or university. Instead, Turner conducted his experiments as a science teacher at Sumner High School in St. Louis.“His research was remarkable in identifying individual differences among insects,” said Chittka. “Contrary to the beliefs of the day, Turner believed that animals could think. He was a century ahead of his time with his research.”The honeybees, the roving pollen gatherers, live only a few weeks while a queen bee may live up to seven years, Chittka said. He added that the managed honeybees, those maintained by beekeepers and used in agriculture are not endangered. Wild bees, however, face many obstacles. Like many other animals, bees are endangered through pesticide use and modern farming practices, said Chittka. Monoculture farming, the practice of growing the same crop in the same field year after year, reduces opportunities for bees who seek plant variety, he said.But people can help the situation by planting a bee-friendly garden or flower box, said Chittka. Goldenrod, Bee Balm, Black Eyed Susan, Foxglove, Hosta, Coneflower, Zinnia, Marigold, and Sunflower are just some of the flowers that draw bees.While bee research is hundreds of years old, Chittka feels that bee research is like a magic well. “After coming up with a conclusion, some new riddle always emerges,” he said, adding that the question of whether bees are conscious beings is likely to consume fu

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"The Mind of a Bee" by Lars Chittka

"The Mind of a Bee" by Lars Chittka

So how does this little insect navigate between distant flower patches and the nest? That’s just one of the questions that bee researcher Lars Chittka seeks to answer.Chittka’s book, The Mind of a Bee (Princeton University Press) not only covers bee navigation but explores research by himself and others that demonstrate that bees have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers, solve problems, and learn through observation. In short, bees are smart.The “simple” act of navigation alone is not a trivial challenge, said Chittka, outlining the hurdles faced as bees solve “the traveling salesman problem.” That’s referring to visiting multiple locations that may be well apart from one another in the most efficient manner possible. The bee’s complex array of senses including being able to see ultraviolet light (something humans can’t do), are part of what sets it apart, said the author.Research also indicates that bees may be able to use the Earth’s magnetic field to aid them in navigation or the location of a nest.There’s nothing new about this interest in bees. The ancient Egyptians studied bees while evidence of Mayan honey production in Mesoamerica is over 1,000 years old.Chittka details his own work as well as that done by other researchers, indicating that individuals are often stories in themselves.Martin Lindauer was injured while serving in the German army during World War II. As a result, he was sent home from the Russian front, a fact that probably saved his life since his entire company was virtually wiped out, stated Chittka. After attending a lecture by Karl von Frisch, the German scientist and Nobel Prize winner (for his work on bee communication through dance behavior), Lindauer caught the bee bug and went into research himself, carrying on even as Allied bombs fell.After the war, Lindauer conducted his own breakthrough experiments while starting a succession of bee researchers. Among those studying under him was Randolf Menzel, a scientist who became established in his own right. Among the graduate students that Menzel attracted was Lars Chittka, now having researched the subject for more than 40 years.Another bee researcher highlighted in The Mind of a Bee is Charles Turner, an African American born two years after the Civil War. By the age of 25, Turner had published articles in some of the most prestigious scientific journals of his day, said Chittka, noting that because of his ethnicity, Turner was never able to land a position at a college or university. Instead, Turner conducted his experiments as a science teacher at Sumner High School in St. Louis.“His research was remarkable in identifying individual differences among insects,” said Chittka. “Contrary to the beliefs of the day, Turner believed that animals could think. He was a century ahead of his time with his research.”The honeybees, the roving pollen gatherers, live only a few weeks while a queen bee may live up to seven years, Chittka said. He added that the managed honeybees, those maintained by beekeepers and used in agriculture are not endangered. Wild bees, however, face many obstacles. Like many other animals, bees are endangered through pesticide use and modern farming practices, said Chittka. Monoculture farming, the practice of growing the same crop in the same field year after year, reduces opportunities for bees who seek plant variety, he said.But people can help the situation by planting a bee-friendly garden or flower box, said Chittka. Goldenrod, Bee Balm, Black Eyed Susan, Foxglove, Hosta, Coneflower, Zinnia, Marigold, and Sunflower are just some of the flowers that draw bees.While bee research is hundreds of years old, Chittka feels that bee research is like a magic well. “After coming up with a conclusion, some new riddle always emerges,” he said, adding that the question of whether bees are conscious beings is likely to consume fu

"Westerns: A Women's History" by Victoria Lamont

"Westerns: A Women's History" by Victoria Lamont

Having been raised on TV westerns (my favorites were Cheyenne, Maverick, and the Rifleman), I never looked at rustlers as anything more than bad guys out to steal cattle.It took Victoria Lamont, an English professor at Waterloo College in Ontario, Canada, to open my eyes.Her book, Westerns: A Women’s History, spotlights accomplishments made by women who wrote about the Old West in an era when the Western frontier was recognized as officially closed (1880 to 1900). Yes, women wrote about cowboys, ranchers, romance, and rustlers.In doing so, Lamont must deal with the mythology that surrounds the Old West. We know a lot about that mythology since it’s been transferred to screens both large and small for 100 years. We know who wears the white hat and who doesn’t.“Mythology likes to be simple but these stories are complicated,” said Lamont.Comparing two books published in April 1902, Lamont notes that both covered the same subject, action based on a real-life rustling dispute in Johnson County, Wyo. in the late 19th century--with completely different results. Owen Wister’s The Virginian became a bestseller that’s generated six films and a long-running TV series. The Rustler by Frances McElrath, a woman whose lone novel was largely unknown until reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press in 2002.Wistler’s version supports cattle owners who resort to vigilante violence to deal with two men who were opposed to the cattle companies and identified as rustlers.McElrath tells a different story, a story of a class struggle in the Old West, said Lamont, pointing to a collision between rich and poor. The rich were the big cattle operations financed by wealthy individuals in the Eastern U.S. or Europe. Cowboys who wanted to get a piece of the action, themselves, by getting into the cattle business were discouraged by the large cattle companies from owning cattle.Unbranded cattle—mavericks—became a big issue. Cowboys who didn’t turn over these cattle to the large cattle companies would be accused of rustling, she said. If courts didn’t find those accused of rustling guilty, cattle owners felt justified in resorting to vigilante action, said Lamont.“In my opinion, Frances McElrath’s version of history is more accurate,” she said.Lamont’s next book focuses on another woman whose writing accomplishments have been overlooked, Bertha Bower, whose publisher decreed in 1920 that her books on the Old West were second in sales only to Zane Grey.

"D-Day Girls" by Sarah Rose

"D-Day Girls" by Sarah Rose

Sarah Rose's D-Day Girls not only lets you understand what life was like in occupied France for four long years during World War II but also lets us understand the contributions that women made to overthrow the Nazi menace.It's a true story, drawn from recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories, that follows the challenges women faced as French saboteurs. Trained in England, the one European country left to counter Hitler's plans for conquest, the women learned how to shoot and handle explosives while keeping a low profile to avoid capture--and probable torture. Rose explained that, while writing the book, she realized that the real end to her story arrived not with the end of the war in Europe but with D-Day, the successful Allied invasion that came 11 months earlier.French resistance workers, suffering under German rule for years, came alive with the invasion, actively blowing up train and power lines to thwart Nazi forces bent on repelling the invaders.But laying the groundwork for that resistance effort required a heroic effort by men--and women--whose every move was being scrutinized by a regime that Rose described as "a citadel of hate."Fourteen of the 39 women trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive, the secret agency that became known simply as the firm, died in the war. Others sustained horrific injuries but, despite so many problems, they succeeded.In her interview with Steve Tarter, Rose also talks about the role of the BBC during the war, not just providing information but conveying code words to spy operatives in Europe.

"A Question of Value" by Robert Brunk

"A Question of Value" by Robert Brunk

An experienced auctioneer is in a good position to shed light on the human condition. After all, they're up there in front of a crowd, dealing with both buyers and sellers, as well as spending a lot of time evaluating the bric a brac we all love to collect.So it is with Bob Brunk who spent 35 years as an auctioneer in Asheville, N.C. Brunk's collection of essays, A Question of Value, shares some of his experiences auctioning off everything from glass eyeballs to telescopes.Some of the characters in the collection include the 90-year-old woman who was divesting herself of her earthly possessions, some going to family members, other things going to auction. "I just want to come out even," she tells Brunk.There's Robert Young, the fiery little auctioneer who negotiated only one way--his way. Brunk recalls being in Young's shop when a woman offered Young $1,800 for an item that was priced at $2,200. He informed her that the price was as marked but if she asked again, the cost would be $3,500. "Naturally, she hurried out of the store," said Brunk, whose own auctioneering approach was less confrontational."I went to auction school where they teach you the chant but I found that what worked best for me was to be clear about what the bid was and what I was asking," he said.Like everything else, the auction business and the selling of antiques has seen plenty of change over the years, said Brunk."When I started here in Asheville in the 1980s there were 14 or 15 antique stores. Now there's just one," he said. The number of auctioneers has also dwindled, noted Brunk, pointing out that some of the things that people collected in the past--such as pewter dinnerware, Hummels, and pressed glass--don't have the same value today. Just because something gets older doesn't always make it more valuable, he added.The internet has also brought change to the business of buying and selling items, said Brunk, recalling a regular buyer who told him he was no longer going to come to auctions because the internet opened the field to "the whole world." When that same individual had a collection to sell, however, he asked Brunk if he was still involved with "that internet thing."

"Mike Donlin" by Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz

"Mike Donlin" by Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz

Deciding on “the best player you've never heard of” is a baseball pastime sure to involve arguments just as fruitless as those demanding a particular batter or pitcher be included in baseball’s Hall of Fame.But Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz, baseball historians whose previous publications have delved deeply into baseball’s early days, the so-called Dead Ball Era, make a convincing case for Mike Donlin, “a rough and rowdy” baseball player who became an idol in New York before Babe Ruth arrived on the scene.Their book, Mike Donlin, covers the career of the man Damon Runyon said was the most colorful player he ever saw as well as Donlin’s second career, on the stage and in the movies.Born in Peoria, Donlin is now all but forgotten but played with some of the greats, players like Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Tris Speaker, and John McGraw. In 12 seasons, Donlin batted over .330, earning a reputation both as a dynamic hitter and one of baseball’s bad boys, tormenting umpires and managers alike.A heavy drinker, Donlin got into scrapes more serious than the occasional bar fight or on-field skirmish. He did prison time and was suspended from pro ball for a year after being found guilty of assaulting a woman in 1902. But he was back playing baseball for the Cincinnati Reds in 1903, a year when he batted .351, second only to Honus Wagner’s .355.Steinberg said that Donlin’s celebrity status blossomed as a member of the New York Giants, one of several teams he played for. Managed by McGraw, the Giants won the World Series in 1905. But the Donlin book also has a romantic side, offering a portion of the article James Hopper wrote for Collier’s magazine in 1908: “Two years ago Big Mike Donlin was a reckless, violent, husky-voiced, swaggering brawler. Then he met Mabel Hite, who, discerning a chance for that redemption which woman so dearly loves, gently led him to the altar. Mike Donlin now is a …lithe, clean-hewed, supple athlete; his features made firm through physical and moral health, have regained lines almost classical.” As the most prominent vaudeville actress in the country at the time, Mabel Hite was just what the doctor needed when it came to taming the wild Donlin. The team of Hite and Donlin was a vaudeville hit with crowds and critics alike, said Steinberg. “If you miss him (Donlin), you do yourself an injustice,” said a reviewer at Variety magazine. But the marriage and her theatrical career were cut short when Hite died of cancer in 1912 at the age of 29. Trained by his wife, Donlin gravitated to the stage. His last baseball season ended in an unsuccessful comeback attempt in 1914 but he married actress Rita Ross and moved to Hollywood where he became a drinking buddy of actors John Barrymore and Buster Keaton. Among the 100 movies he appeared in, mostly in small parts, was the role of a Union general in Keaton’s The General, considered one of the comedian’s greatest films.Donlin died in 1933, remembered more as a likable actor than the brawling ballplayer “He was something of a headache but more often a joy to me, and player…a fighter, the kind that used to make for winning teams in the days I played the game,” said former manager McGraw who also recalled humorist Will Rogers telling him of his fondness for Donlin.

"Skies of Thunder" by Caroline Alexander

"Skies of Thunder" by Caroline Alexander

World War II may have ended nearly 80 years ago but it lives on as a subject endlessly reviewed with fresh insight and information supplied on an ongoing basis. Movies and books haven’t stopped rehashing the great war since its conclusion, witness last year’s Oppenheimer and, now playing in your local metroplex, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.Meanwhile, WWII offers an ongoing avalanche of literary material, exemplified by recent titles like Churchill’s Shadow Raiders: The Race to Develop Radar, WWII’s Invisible Secret Weapon, Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler, and Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence.WWII was so vast and so involving, that it may be another 80 years before we stop writing books about it. There are always aspects to explore, examining the men and women who put their bodies on the line, sometimes in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Who isn’t interested in tales of that kind of heroism? Caroline Alexander’s Skies of Thunder (Viking Press) examines the WWII heroes who flew transport planes in the China-Burma-India theater. During these times of rising tensions between China and the U.S., it’s worth noting that the two countries were allies in WWII.Japan had attacked China years before Pearl Harbor and, by 1942, had all but sealed China off from the world. Alexander notes that the official line at the time was that America wanted to keep China in the war. The U.S. military didn’t want Japanese troops engaged in China to be diverted elsewhere in the Pacific.Alexander said that Franklin D. Roosevelt was also thinking about global politics after the war. Assisting the most populous country in the world—that wouldn’t declare an allegiance to Communism until 1949--could only bolster U.S. prospects.Once Japan closed Chinese ports and gained control of the Burma Road, the only way to get supplies into China was by air. There was only one little problem: the air route required flying over the foothills of the Himalayas. As if navigating through the tallest mountain range in the world wasn’t daunting enough, pilots had to deal with frequent, intense storms over those mountains, the result of warm air from the Bay of Bengal colliding with cold winds from Siberia, said Alexander.Storms proved to pose an even greater danger than enemy planes at a time when the existence of a weather phenomenon known as the jet stream wasn’t even known, said Alexander. “Pilots sometimes reported being shot up thousands of feet in a minute as they endeavored to fly by instruments,” she said. Flights were scheduled around the clock regardless of the weather. The stormy weather proved to be a major obstacle, claiming 600 planes and 1,700 lives. Little wonder that flying the Hump also became known as traversing the Aluminum Trail. Alexander said she first became aware of the airlift while undertaking an assignment for National Geographic on the large tiger refuge in Myanmar (Burma’s present name). After noticing that strange, jagged pieces of metal fencing of villagers’ gardens were made from pieces of fuselage from old WWII planes, she learned that the lush jungle was hiding a graveyard of crashed cargo planes.Alexander also includes information on how Americans supported China on the ground, carving out the Ledo Road, a route between India and China that required “a Herculean engineering project in challenging terrain and climate,” noted Matthew Delmont in Half American, a book about the contributions African Americans made during WWII.The Ledo Road stood as a remarkable achievement, involving 15,000 American troops, almost two-thirds of them African American, along with 35,000 local Indian, Burmese, and Chinese civilian workers. It took a lot of heavy equipment to

"Code to Joy" by Michael Littman

"Code to Joy" by Michael Littman

"If you keep up with the headlines, you know computers are taking our jobs. Spying on us. Controlling what we buy and who we vote for. Even discriminating against us. When they're done beating us at our own pastimes, maybe they'll rise up and kill us. Our relationship with these machines has become, not to put a fine point on it, dysfunctional."That's how Michael Littman starts Code to Joy, his book that suggests everybody should learn a little about programming.People don't need to learn how to be coders but we'd benefit if we found out a few things in order to let the computer work for us, he said.Littman said artificial intelligence can aid in the simplification of computer programming. It's a good match, regardless, he said. "We come prewired to teach. Computers come prewired to learn."Littman, a computer science professor at Brown University, would like to see us go from a world where only professionals program to one where nearly everyone programs.Littman sees positive results already. "Customizable questionnaires, web pages, and video games are out there now that allow people to write small amounts of code and get large benefits in terms of tailoring the computer's behavior to their goals," he noted."Word processors and spreadsheets provide scripting languages and macros that let you streamline your workflow. Entities like Google and Amazon are privately talking about giving people more control over how recommendations are made on their behalf, making it less about the machine reading our passive intentions and more about you asserting your will," stated Littman.

"The Octopus in the Parking Garage" by Rob Verchick

"The Octopus in the Parking Garage" by Rob Verchick

Climate change needs no introduction for most of us. Or does it? How do we confront it without being overwhelmed by the prospects of a planet in disarray?In his book, The Octopus in the Parking Garage, Rob Verchick seeks to tamp down the fear and loathing that goes with the subject and build up a plan of action, a call for climate resilience."The world we inhabit is getting hotter, drier, wetter, and weirder," notes Verchick. "Our coastlands are sinking. Forests are bursting into flame. Droughts and heat waves are getting worse," he adds."On top of this comes another dose of hard reality: As a matter of physics, global warming cannot be reversed very quickly," Verchick stated.So what's to be done? "Today climate action takes two distinct priorities: curbing greenhouse gases to fend off worst-case consequences and boosting community resilience to cope with the impacts already mounting," he said.Getting real is what's being called for. "I believe that climate resilience is the gateway discussion toward broader climate action, including eliminating fossil fuels," noted Verchick, who hosts his own podcast, Connect the Dots, talked to Steve Tarter about a woman he interviewed in Octopus who seeks to improve worker safety in Nevada where presently there are few protections for those working outside, often in 100-degree heat.While that may not seem like working on climate change, it's a start, he said.In his Read Beat interview, Verchick discusses an approach for the average citizen in this overheated world while exploring the problems of Joshua Trees, coral reefs and those discarded refrigerators that were left behind after Hurricane Katrina.

"Indian Burial Ground" by Nick Medina

"Indian Burial Ground" by Nick Medina

Nick Medina’s Indian Burial Ground is a horror novel that combines stirring storytelling with an exploration of historical racial injustices in America – in this case, the epidemic of alcoholism, suicide, and mental health disorders on Indigenous reservations.Medina’s sophomore novel again sheds light on issues affecting Native communities, while also delivering a genuinely terrifying and engaging read.Already at work on a third book in the same horror/Native American vein, Medina told Steve Tarter that his hope is to enlighten readers who might not comprehend some of the problems modern Native Americans face. Medina, an admitted true-crime TV fan, made his debut in 2023 with Sisters of the Lost Nation, a book which addressed the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Burial Ground is centered around a woman and her uncle as they are haunted by a string of deaths—decades apart—in their Louisiana reservation.

"1898" Edited by Taina Caragol and Kate Clarke Lemay

"1898" Edited by Taina Caragol and Kate Clarke Lemay

William McKinley was assassinated before completing his first term of office as U.S. president in 1901 "after leading the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War," noted the White House Historical Association.That's the war perhaps best known for the slogan, "Remember the Maine," the U.S. war cry over the battleship sunk in Cuba, an incident that reportedly set off the conflict. But Taina Caragol wants you to know that there's a lot more to the story.In 1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Caragol and co-editor Kate Clarke Lemay outline changes that took place that year as the U.S. claimed sovereignity over Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam and temporarily occupied Cuba. That was also the year that the United States annexed Hawaii as a territory.The 1898 book also serves as a catalog for an exhibition-- held at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for 10 months through February 2024.That exhibition added pictures and text to what happened in those countries beyond what the gallery already had in place: the lauding of Theodore Roosevelt and George Dewey as war heroes. Caragol told Steve Tarter that noted historians Kristin Hoganson, Healoha Johnston, Jorge Duany, Theodore Gonzalves, Neil Weare and Paul Kramer all contributed to 1898.What you get in 1898, along with graphics you might expect from a display at the National Portrait Gallery, is a picture of U.S. empire-building, taking over Spanish colonies and asserting their own needs ahead of the people living in Cuba and the Philippines, countries that had been fighting their own wars of independence for years. In the case of Hawaii, five years before formally annexing the island nation, the United States helped overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy that ruled the country. Such U.S. involvement in the affairs of other countries drew criticism from Americans like W.E. B. Du Bois, Jane Addams and Mark Twain, the book noted."This isn't who we are (as a nation)," Twain complained at the time, said Caragol.

"The Rural Voter" by Nicholas Jacobs and Daniel Shea

"The Rural Voter" by Nicholas Jacobs and Daniel Shea

In a presidential election year, eyes turn toward the many distinct groups that make up the electorate. So what's up with the rural voter? It's a group that voted Republican by a margin of 70 to 80 percent over their Democratic rivals in many rural communities, noted Nick Jacobs and Dan Shea, the authors of The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America.While the GOP advantage among rural voters may have been 60 percent several decades ago, a steep divide between city and country voters began as far back as 1980, said Shea.Along with studying voting patterns over the years, the two professors at Colby College in Maine conducted what they consider the largest single study of the rural voter, surveying 10,000 rural voters across the country, said Jacobs.Rural voters tend to think that place is important, he said. What pushes so many away from the Democrats is the feeling that rural values have been neglected by that party.Another point that Jacobs and Shea make in their book is the problem that rural residents now face in getting information, particularly about local politics. The demise of so many small-town newspapers in recent years means less local rural news. That means more get their news from television where the focus is on national issues.Jacobs and Shea don't think major media outlets have done a very good job in portraying rural America, often succumbing to "rural rabble-rousers," focusing on outgoing individuals who want to be interviewed, thereby diverting attention from more mainstream rural attitudes.That leads to a widening in the gulf between urban and rural, said Shea. When the media focus is on the rabble-rouser, the urban viewer/reader is likely to think "They're all lunatics out there" (in rural America), he said.Survey results also pointed to a misconception that rural residents are stuck where they are, that they've struggled to leave but failed. "These are not the wastelands of alienation that people want to leave. They don't want to move. They want to stay where they are," said Shea.

"Galloping Gourmet" by Steve Friesen

"Galloping Gourmet" by Steve Friesen

Buffalo Bill Cody is one of the iconic figures of the Old West but did you know his Wild West show often involved a cast of 1,500 people who had to be fed and transported from town to town? Or that Cody dined with presidents and royalty?Those are just some of the things you learn in Steve Friesen's book, Galloping Gourmet: Eating and Drinking with Buffalo Bill.Yes, Cody was an accomplished scout and hunter who lived in the era when the West was still relatively wild. Friesen describes Cody's Civil War experience as generally undistinguished but during the conflict, he did meet up with Wild Bill Hickok then serving as a Union spy.After the war, Cody served as a scout and earned his name as a buffalo hunter at a time when herds were still abundant, Friesen points out.The 1870s was the era of the dime novel and Western characters like Cody found fame with their rifles and buckskin. When Cody went east he was urged to to take the Buffalo Bill persona to the stage. One thing led to another, Friesen told Steve Tarter, and Cody got the show biz bug.Those shows got bigger and bigger with Cody insisting on authenticity. "Even as the West he knew disappeared, he would live it on a daily basis," noted Friesen.One of the main features of the book is exploring the fact that Cody liked to eat and eat well. While the author notes how much Buffalo Bill enjoyed New York's Delmonico's, Nashville's Maxwell House (before they started serving coffee there) or the DeWitt Hotel in Lewiston, Me., he didn't dine alone.Cody and a team that included ace promoter Arizona John Burke made sure that the cast of Native Americans (primarily members of the Lakota nation), cowboys, and stagehands ate well when they were on the road. It didn't matter if it was a one-night stand or a six-month stint such as the fabulously successful run in 1893 at Chicago's Columbian Exposition where Cody and his troops entertained 20,000 people twice a day every day for six months while crowds flooded to see White City. "When people got off the train in Chicago, they could go left to the exposition or right to the Wild West show," said Friesen.The Chicago engagement made a millionaire out of Cody who ran his Wild West shows all over the world for 30 years, said Friesen. Buffalo Bill not only had an impact on how we view the West in this country but in Europe where the Wild West show toured for years, he said.

"Sleepless: Unleashing the Subversive Power of the Night Self" by Annabel Abbs-Streets

"Sleepless: Unleashing the Subversive Power of the Night Self" by Annabel Abbs-Streets

Annabel Abbs-Streets discovered she didn't have to suffer at night when insomnia struck. She discovered something else: her night self."The night self is a version of ourselves you experience when you wake up in the middle of the night and you're all alone. Most of us start to ruminate or be worried," she said. Abbs-Streets said she learned that if you can dial down that voice, there's another version, an alter ego that can provide solace. She was so impressed with her discovery that she wrote a book about it: Sleepless, a work that also details the lives of accomplished artists who allowed their creativity to shine at night.New research notes that the brain can rewire itself at night, she said. "Things happen in the brain at night that make us think differently than we do during the day, said Abbs-Streets.Instead of rushing out to get sleeping pills, those who find themselves waking up at night should try to unleash the power of the night brain, suggests the London-based writer. Abbs-Streets has produced both works of fiction and non-fiction including 52 Ways to Walk (a previous Read Beat interview). When she wakes up now in the middle of the night, she tells Steve Tarter "I light my candle and get my notebook out and start scribbling away. I find that after that I go back to sleep."

"The Mathematical Radio" by Paul Nahin

"The Mathematical Radio" by Paul Nahin

If you don't understand math, you can still enjoy Paul Nahin.Don't get blinded by the 24 books the professor of electric engineering has written or that he's busily at work on book 25.The longtime University of New Hampshire faculty member has just published The Mathematical Radio, a book complete with equations and diagrams.One needs only the familiarity of advanced high-school-level math to follow along. But don't be deterred. Nahin isn't just involved with electromagnetic fields and frequencies. He loves radio."Radio is perhaps the single most important electronic invention of all, surpassing even the computer in its societal impact (the telephone doesn't depend on electronics for its operation, and television is the natural extension of radio)," he writes."Radio changed everything," said Nahin, quoting Reginald Victor Jones, the British intelligence operative credited by Winston Churchill for breaking "the bloody (radio) beam" used by the Germans during WWII's Battle of Britain."There has never been anything comparable in any other period of history to the impact of radio on the ordinary individual in the 1920s," wrote Jones in Most Secret War, his memoir published in 1978."It was the product of some of the most imaginative developments that have ever occurred in physics, and it was as near magic as anyone could conceive, in that with a few mainly home-made components simply connected together one could conjure speech and music out of the air," noted Jones.Nahin isn't just a math whiz, however. He's also written about time travel and, in Holy Sci-Fi, writes about the connection between religion and science fiction.It shouldn't surprise you but the 83-year-old Nahin also expresses a love for video games.

"The Chaos Agent" by Mark Greaney

"The Chaos Agent" by Mark Greaney

You know you've made it in the book world when the author's name is bigger than the title. That's where Mark Greaney finds himself with the publication of The Chaos Agent, the 13th in the Gray Man spy thriller series.This time around Court Gentry is battling a diabolical plot to wipe out the world's leading experts on robotics. Greaney said he deliberately focused on AI's dark side in researching the new book."Lethal autonomous weapons, otherwise known as killer robots, make up a field that's really advancing," said Greaney, concerned that once wars are fought at "machine speed," the world will face enormous problems. He likened the development of new weapons to the invention of the Gatling gun, the forerunner of the machine gun developed in the 1860s.The Chaos Agent, like Greaney's other Gray Man novels does a lot of globe-hopping with most of the action taking place in Mexico and Guatemala, countries that Greaney visited to soak up local color.Greaney figures he's now visited some 36 countries in pursuit of exotic locales for his books.After collaborating with Tom Clancy on several books, Greaney carried on with several Jack Ryan stories following Clancy's death before establishing his own spy characters.A native of Memphis, Greaney told Steve Tarter that interest in world events comes easily having learned about the news of the day as a kid at the dinner table each night. His father, Ed Greaney, served as managing editor of WMC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Memphis.

"Living With Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know" by Ruth Aylett and Patricia Vargas

"Living With Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know" by Ruth Aylett and Patricia Vargas

Put aside your fears about a robotic uprising, says Ruth Aylett, a computer science professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, and a robotics researcher for 30 years. Talking with Steve Tarter, she emphasized that robots, whatever you may have heard to the contrary, are machines, made and controlled by man."Forget the hype and the unrealistic speculations about so-called new species or superhuman abilities, and let's work together as roboticists and as citizens to apply this fascinating and challenging technology where it will do some good," she notes.The book jacket suggests we look at robots as human-made artifacts rather than placeholders for our anxieties, something that Aylett said comes easily to the general public."Human beings are wired to react to things that look as if they have some degree of autonomy as if they were social beings. If something with movement looks even vaguely humanoid, people will assume it has human capabilities," she said.Aylett puts robots alongside cars, planes and washing machines as tools that people merely use in daily life.The fact is that the task of fashioning a robot to walk upright is difficult, she said. Designing a robotic arm to do just a few of the things a human arm can do is a huge challenge, said Aylett.Youngsters engaged in making robots for competitions get a clear understanding of the difficulty involved in getting robots to do what you want, she said. As for the science fiction side of the equation, Aylett said she enjoys reading sci-fi. But when it comes to movies, she points to the fact that, through three generations of filmmaking, "no film has ever used a real robot."First, actors wore costumes to play robots like R2D2, said Aylett. A second generation of films like Short Circuit relied on puppeteers while the third generation, which we're in now, involves post-production wizardry, she said.

"Beaverland" by Leila Philip

"Beaverland" by Leila Philip

Beavers have a long and illustrious history. There were beavers as big as bears for millions of years until some 10,000 years ago. Since then the beaver has dutifully carried out the work of an environmental engineer, creating dams and managing water flow, helping both wildlife and plants prosper."Beavers are the only animals apart from man that radically transform their environment," states Leila Philip in Beaverland. European fur traders nearly wiped out the North American beaver when the demand for beaver pelts reached a fever pitch after the French and English set up shop on the American continent. .Tycoon John Jacob Astor created a trade empire on the backs of beavers, she noted. The fur of the beaver and other animals lined hats, coats and blankets around the world.Estimates are that 60 to 400 million beaver were living in North America prior to 1600. Three hundred years of trapping later, the number of surviving beavers was so low, said Philip, that it took a major effort in the 20th century to restore the animal to a fraction of its former presence (less than 1 percent of the pre-1600 population).But Philip maintains that the beaver's story is a positive one. There's hope now as efforts are taken to insure that the beaver's role as a wetlands creator and water diverter is protected."We're bringing beavers back. California is leading the country in free-thinking beaver policy, moving beavers where they can help in watershed restoration," she said."People are waking up to the economic value of beavers," said Philip, a professor at Holy Cross College near Boston."It's really important to be hopeful and take action. We need to take a look in our own backyard. I discovered beavers by accident (near her home in Connecticut). They're extraordinary and it left me thinking what else is out there," she said.

“A City on Mars” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

“A City on Mars” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Race into space? Not so fast, say Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, the husband-and-wife team whose book, A City on Mars, lays out some of the challenges that face space settlements on the Moon, Mars or wherever man (and woman) might be heading in the future.Space may look more promising with all the problems on Earth but while there may not be pollution on Mars, there are plenty of issues to face before relocating to space. Kelly’s a biologist while Zach’s an artist who provided the many cartoons and illustrations in the book. The two admitted to spending four years researching the subject of space settlements.They went into the project excited about the possibilities but came away skeptical, said Kelly Weinersmith. “The more research we did, the more problems we came across,” she said. “We’re definitely not anti-space settlement but we are pro-a thoughtful, slow approach.”Among the issues raised in the book are the problems of living in space, the effects of low gravity or space radiation on the human body, the transport of materials into space, and the laws that would define what resources one could use on the Moon or Mars and the altercations that could break out if there’s a difference of opinion between countries on the use of those resources. “Space is beautiful but it’s also deeply political,” said Kelly Weinersmith. Countries tend to look at space exploration as a way of saying, “Look how advanced we are,” she said.Robotics will play a big role in space exploration, Kelly Weinersmith conceded but only if robots can perform all the tasks needed to allow humans to live in space. That involves technology yet to be developed, she said.“We don’t know how to do it yet, but we still believe that someday, with enough knowledge, we can have Mars…But we must earn it, both by gaining in knowledge and be becoming a more responsible, more peaceful species. Going to the stars will not make us wise. We have to become wise if we want to go to the stars,” she said.

"Godzilla" and "Godzilla Raids Again" by Shigeru Kayama and translated by Jeffrey Angles

"Godzilla" and "Godzilla Raids Again" by Shigeru Kayama and translated by Jeffrey Angles

Godzilla is one of the great movie franchises of our time. But how many people know about the 1955 novella written by Shigeru Kayama, the Japanese science fiction writer who produced the original Godzilla screenplay?Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again are works translated by Jeffrey Angles, a professor of Japanese literature at Western Michigan University, that were published in 2023 by the University of Minnesota Press.The stories include an extensive afterword written by Angles who details how the Godzilla story came to be. Angles noted that Tomoyuki Tanaka, the producer at Toho Studios in Japan, learned that Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, the 1953 film about a dinosaur revived by an atomic test, was a hit in the United States. "Tanaka realized that if he were to create a film about an ancient monster awakened by a nuclear blast, he might capitalize on the tremendous fears and concerns surrounding nuclear weapons and radioactivity in Japan--the same country that had suffered the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than a decade before," stated Angles.Kayama's original screenplay made several pointed references to nuclear bombs and nuclear testing that the U.S. military was carrying out in the Pacific in the 1950s but Tanaka toned down the anti-nuke sentiment.Kayama's strident message about the danger of nuclear weapons was included in an 11-part radio series on Godzilla that aired in Japan before the film's release in 1954.Godzilla opened in November 1954 and was a huge hit in Japan. The following year, an American studio bought the rights and inserted Raymond Burr (who completed his part for the film in one day of shooting) into a U.S. version of the film. The rest is history.Dozens of Godzilla movies have followed over the years including Godzilla Minus One, a 2023 Japanese production (also from Toho Studios).Angles applauds the new production, comparing it favorably with the somber original.In 2024, the 70th anniversary year for Godzilla, another Godzilla vs. King Kong film is slated to be released.

"Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" by Bethany Brookshire

"Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" by Bethany Brookshire

If you're one of those people who has shuddered at the thought of spiders, snakes, or other creepy crawlies invading your space, you might get new insight from Bethany Brookshire, whose book about pests makes the point that animals are just being animals."We believe we're in charge, entitled to space only for us," said Brookshire. "What we really hate about the pests is their success. They're where we don't want them," she said.Brookshire divides her book into chapters devoted to different pests such as the pigeon (once favored but no longer wanted), mice, wolves, and elephants, to choose just a few."Pigeons are one of the oldest domesticated birds and may have been domesticated more than 5,000 years ago," the author noted. "They were used to carry messages, ...and they were considered delicious. Every pigeon on the streets today is the descendant of a domesticated bird," she said.Brookshire sheds light on wolves and coyotes, animals that, as she told Steve Tarter, receive mixed reviews. Urban residents tend to honor the wolf while rural residents, particularly ranchers, call them pests.Of the 41,000 cattle that died due to predation in 2015 in the United States, less than 5 percent were killed by wolves, said Brookshire. As for the adventurous coyote, the animal has been sighted in New York's Central Park and Downtown Chicago, she said.Pests is not a natural history of the animals we hate but a book about us. It’s about what calling an animal a pest says about people, how we live, and what we want. It’s a story about human nature, and how we categorize the animals in our midst.Brookshire's research brought her in contact with indigenous people from around the world. While different cultures had different approaches, live and let live seemed to be the commonality, she said.Brookshire told the story of a town in Canada besieged by bears (there was a salmon cannery there) that found the government approach to their problem (they shot the bears) unacceptable. So adjustments were made (the cannery was moved and garbage contained) and the town learned to live with the wildlife.