Review: Lithuanian Chicago by Justin G. Riskus

Lithuanian Chicago by Justin G. Riskus

Link to buy Lithuanian Chicago (Images of America)

Story Rating: 5 out of 5

Blurb:

Today, there are more than 100,000 Lithuanians in Chicago, making the city home to the greatest concentration of Lithuanians outside of the country itself. Their presence in Chicago began in 1834 and drastically increased during the 20th century as immigrants and their descendants sought work in the stockyards and other industries. Lithuanians in Chicago were dedicated to celebrating and preserving their unique culture, evident in its churches, schools, museums, and community centers in neighborhoods such as Bridgeport and Marquette Park. They also maintained ties to the homeland and played an important role in Lithuanias struggles for independence throughout the 20th century. Many prominent Lithuanian Americans are from the City of the Big Shoulders, including football great Dick Butkus, actor John C. Reilly, and director Robert Zemeckis. The former president of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, was a resident of Chicagoland for nearly 50 years.

Review:

As a Lithuanian living in Chicago I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. There were so many topics in this book that I was familiar with while growing up in the Marquette Park area. The photos were a complete blast from the past and I even recognized people I knew as a teenager in high school in some of the dance photos. I found the history of the Sisters of Saint Casimir very interesting since I myself  am a graduate of Maria High School. I was thrilled to see Racine Bakery making it into the book since I think it is fantastic bakery that I visit often. So, all in all I was impressed with the history and culture that was presented in this book and I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in getting a look at Lithuanians in Chicago.

Reviewed by Annmarie

Review: Toasts: The Perfect Words to Celebrate Every Occasion by Nancy Tupper Ling and June Cotner

Toasts: The Perfect Words to Celebrate Every Occasion by Nancy Tupper Ling and June Cotner

Link to buy Toasts: The Perfect Words to Celebrate Every Occasion

Story Rating: 5 out of 5

Review:

            Over the teeth and through the gums,

            look out stomach,

            here it comes!

Toasts have come a long way since that classic was written. It might still work fine for a frat party – if you're living in 1955 – but if you're living in 2015 and your social activities extend beyond standing around a keg with a bunch of guys in bedsheets-turned-togas, you might need a more refined sentiment. In which case, June Cotner and Nancy Tupper Ling, the authors of Toasts: The Perfect Words to Celebrate Every Occasion, have got you covered.

This book is full of toast ideas for every conceivable occasion. They include weddings, embarking on adventures, celebrating holidays, mourning losses, and everything in between. It's important to note that there's a fine line between toasts and prayers in this book, and certainly some offerings cross into prayer territory. Prayers are the appropriate choice for some occasions, like baptisms and Christmas celebrations, though, so it makes sense that they're available.

This book's toasts come from a variety of sources. Some are sentiments taken from the works of well-known authors like William Faulkner and Mark Twain, while others are original material presumably written for this book. Each of the two authors makes at least one contribution. What this all means is that you can find a well-known piece or something brand new, depending on your preference. If there's one particular author you don't like, then there are literally dozens of others to pick from instead.

The toasts offered here come in a variety of lengths and tones, which means there's literally something for every occasion and taste. For instance, in the Business Events section on page 45, this short, tongue-in-cheek toast is offered from Mary Lenore Quigley:

            At our meeting's end,

            May we still be friends!

Meanwhile, in the Graduations section on page 114, a lengthy toast from Joan Stephen is far weightier and offers a host of advice to new graduates.

In addition to the toasts themselves, this book offers a little etiquette lesson in its opening pages. For instance, before offering a toast to the person being honored at an event, the toaster (Can that be correct? Would he/she really be called a toaster?) is supposed to publically thank the host of the event for holding it.

Overall, this is an excellent resource for finding appropriate toasts for every occasion. The "toaster" (giggle) doesn't necessarily have to memorize the selected sentiment, but can find something that fits the occasion and modify it at will. If you're going to be best man at a wedding and don't know where to look for the right toast, start here. If you're going to be a godfather or godmother and wish to toast the baby at a baptism, here's a solution to your problem. If you're anyone who has to offer a toast of any sort at any event, but you're afraid of putting your foot in your mouth, then please do yourself and all the people at the event a favor and let this book give you some much-needed help. The cost of this volume is a small price to pay to avoid alienating your family and friends by saying the wrong thing in front of them all.

Cheers!

Reviewed by Amanda

How I Celebrated Earth Day

How I Celebrated Earth Day with Baking Soda 

by Peter

A few months ago, I reviewed a book called All You Need is Less: The Eco-Friendly Guide to Guilt-Free Green Living and Stress-Free Simplicity by Madeleine Somerville. It's a good book that offers ideas for greening every aspect of your life, from personal care products to cat litter to cleaning solutions. At the time, I tried some of the tips. Some worked for me, while others didn't.

I put the book away after finishing the review, but frequently thought about some of the ideas. Finally, in honor of Earth Day this year, I decided to try another idea from the book that I hadn't used before. It was time to go wild and try baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair. The fear of having a head that smells like vinaigrette dressing had been a turnoff before. However, if we're not willing to smell like a salad bar in order to help out the earth, then what kind of people are we?

So I mixed up the concoction of baking soda in water and rubbed it into my scalp for a few minutes before rinsing. Then I combined more water with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and poured it over my head. And promptly screeched when some of it ran into my eyes. The recipe should have carried a warning label. After my hair dried, it was nice and silky and tangle-free. It didn't even smell like vinegar, just as the book promised. Under normal circumstances, this recipe would have made it into my regular shower regime since it's cheap and worked great. But fear of pouring vinegar in my eyes changed my mind. Use at your own risk. Maybe wear swim goggles.

Then I decided to branch out in the deodorant realm. Some natural health gurus, like Dr. Mercola for instance, claim that commercial antiperspirants are bad for us because they contain lots of potentially harmful chemicals, including aluminum, that might contribute to breast cancer risk. They're also often tested on animals.

I bought a stick of natural deodorant (not antiperspirant) that doesn't have aluminum in it. The natural stuff smells good and it's not tested on animals (bonus!) but nothing in it prevents wetness. So I combined equal parts of corn starch, which absorbs moisture, with baking soda, which prevents odor, and put them into one of those shakers that they use for parmesan cheese at Italian restaurants. The holes were too big, though, and powder spilled everywhere. Feeling like MacGyver, I stuck a piece of packing tape over the top and poked small holes in it with a needle. That offered far better control when shaking the powder under my arms.

This combo, together with the natural deodorant seems to be working well. People don't tell me I smell – and I ask them. I've told friends and family about this experiment to get away from antiperspirants and instructed them to tell me if I start to stink. The other day, I went to my chiropractor – who's a natural deodorant hippie herself – and she asked how my antiperspirant experiment was going. I said, "You tell me. Do I smell?" She assured me I didn't. I'm not sweating through my shirts, either, but it's not July in the heart of Georgia yet, either. That will be the true test.

The next experiment will be natural cleaning products. This weekend I plan to scrub my shower with baking soda and vinegar. There might be some castile soap in my future. Maybe I'll work up a sweat while cleaning and it will also be a test of the natural deodorant. 

Review: The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV by Pete Crooks

The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV by Pete Crooks

Link to buy The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV

Story Rating: 2 out of 5

Review:

This book has a long title that sounds like it is going to be full of all sorts of action, but I found this was not the case. In fact, this book moved so slowly I found myself putting it down for a while before I could continue on with the story. The people in this book were not the most likeable and it was difficult to find any redeeming qualities in them.

The best part about this book is the introduction written by Joe Kenda. I found myself wishing he had written the rest of the book as well. Mr Crooks has a rough writing style that was too bad because I was interested in the book and really wanted to like it more than I did.

Reviewed by Joseph

Review: Behind the Iron Curtain: My Years Hidden As A Boy by Irene Kucholick

Behind the Iron Curtain: My Years Hidden As A Boy by Irene Kucholick

Link to buy: Behind the Iron Curtain: My Years Hidden as a Boy (Iron Curtain Memoirs) (Volume 2)

Story Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review:

You know the old saying "To the victor go the spoils"? Well, that's what happened to Germany after it was defeated in World War II. The country was split between the nations that had sacrificed so much to end Germany's reign of terror across Europe. The poor souls who ended up in the Russian-controlled communist portion of Germany experienced hunger, oppression, and all manner of abuse. Other Germans living in other parts of the country came under the control of France, England, and the United States, and they enjoyed greater freedom and prosperity.

This is the sequel to a book that ended when Germany lost World War II. It recounts the life of a teenage German girl who survived the war only to end up trapped under the thumb of the conquering Russians. This is an interesting, educational look at the daily struggles of the author, her family, and friends in the years following the war. It offers a glimpse into circumstances that most people will hopefully never have to endure.

The biggest problem with this book is how depressing it is. If the author's goal was to strike fear into every reader's heart at the thought that their comfy lives could at any moment be ripped away because of evil, corrupt, and self-serving governments, then mission accomplished! Because that's exactly what this book did for me. The people depicted in this book weren't responsible for Hitler's atrocities, yet they were the ones paying the price at the hands of Russian soldiers who clearly felt justified in abusing the German people.

The title refers to the fact that the main character begins dressing like a boy in order to avoid being repeatedly raped by Russian soldiers. German women and girls were frequently abducted from their homes and dragged to the barracks for the soldiers' entertainment, but boys were safer. Yes, they'd get beaten – and the main character certainly did get her share of beatings – but at least she avoided being raped. See what I mean about how the book is depressing?

When the Russian soldiers weren't raping the locals, they were stealing everything they could from them. The Germans were starving, so they resorted to any means necessary to find food for themselves and their families, including stealing and travelling to cities to become (illegal) street performers. Everyone knew that if the Russian soldiers got their hands on anything of value that the Germans had, it would be confiscated. The author's accordion was taken at one point, which was tragic because she had been using it to earn money to buy food.

Finally, be aware that this book is written in a simplistic style that could be the result of an author for whom English is a second language. That makes sense if the author was living in Germany following WWII, but an editor could have smoothed out these rough spots. 

Reviewed by Peter

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Do You Know Where Your Carbon Is?

It's 10 o'clock. Do You Know Where Your Carbon Is? 

The global climate change movement howls about the evils of carbon in the atmosphere, but most ignore how important carbon is to the soil. It's vital to the health of plants and, in turn, to the health of everyone and everything that eats those plants. In other words, it's vital to us all. But humans have spent thousands of years taking lousy care of the soil, and we've only gotten worse as the centuries have passed. As a result, the carbon content of our soils has been severely depleted. So what to do? Read books, of course! This is a book review site, after all.

Organic is so last year. Sustainable isn't enough. We need to take action that regenerates the planet. That's a substantial part of the message in Kristin Ohlson's book The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet. Yes, organic and sustainable are good, and they're certainly way better than factory farming and pesticides, but there's more to it than that. We need to heal the soil by replenishing carbon, which will help heal the environment. The idea is that when carbon leaves the soil, it must go somewhere, which means it ends up in the atmosphere. Ohlson points out that even without burning fossil fuels, the carbon build-up in the atmosphere will persist if we don't change our damaging farming and land use practices. We need to put that carbon back in the soil where it can help us instead of kill us.

Want more fuel for your carbon fire? Try Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey through Carbon Country by Courtney White. For the animal lovers among us, pick up a copy of Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth by Judith D. Schwartz. An advantage of these books and others like them is that they leave readers feeling hopeful. We're not at the mercy of polluting mega-corporations or factory farms or genetic engineers. Individuals can take meaningful action in their own backyards and at their local grocery stores.

Start planning your spring regenerative gardens now and be optimistic about our planet's future!

Review: Screw the Valley by Timothy Sprinkle

Screw the Valley by Timothy Sprinkle

Link to buy Screw the Valley: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of America’s New Tech Startup Culture: New York, Boulder, Austin, Raleigh, Detroit, Las Vegas, Kansas City

Story Rating: 4 out of 5

Review:

Timothy Sprinkle's "Screw the Valley, a Coast-to-Coast Tour of America's Startup Culture" will be of particular interest to entrepreneurs and venture-capitalists. As a general business guy, occasional investor, and sometime follower of financial news, I can attest to the more-general appeal to others interested in learning more about the challenges and opportunities innovators and startups face. The tone is conversational and relatable to a general audience, and a reader won't need a degree in
Finance to compare the pros and cons of launching a startup in Austin, Texas versus Boulder, Colorado.

Mr. Sprinkle has been reporting on this topic for a variety of magazines and websites for 15 years and has an expert, insider's knowledge of the topic. Through personal anecdotes, as well as quotes and interviews with experts in each of the regions covered, he does an excellent job highlighting the cultural and business environments of New York, Boulder, Austin, Raleigh, Detroit, Las Vegas, and Kansas City. He also explains the support and roadblocks startups can expect to receive from the various local governments and business groups. He makes an excellent case that Silicon Valley is not
the only, or even the best, place to launch a new business or locate willing, expert business partners.

The advance review copy I read had a number of grammatical errors, especially in the Introduction (which I would advise readers to skip.) Hopefully they will be corrected before final publication. Other than this quibble, a reader interested in the topic will learn much about how these deals get made, and how many vibrant startup hubs there are in the U.S. outside of where we might typically look.

Reviewed by Trevor