If you’re like me, you’ve seen The Wizard of OZ movie many times. But have you ever stopped to wonder how it came to be? It turns out that The Wizard of OZ has quite the backstory and history! I don’t remember now why I decided to read Finding Dorothy. My to-be-read pile is quite…
Chicken Sisters, Chicken Wars, and Harvey Girls… What on earth could these three things have in common? I recently read Chicken Sisters by Kj Dell’antonia. In the prologue to the story, two sisters who had started out as Harvey Girls left the Harvey House restaurant to start their own restaurants, both serving fried chicken. Three…
So by now you probably know that I like to go all-in when I’m researching a new idea to write about here. When I read 80 Days to Elsewhere by KC Dyer it reminded me of a podcast I had listened to a year or so ago about two women who were racing around the…
Is life more extraordinary than we might realize at the time? Two friends, Gene Weingarten and Tom Schroder, came up with the idea for this book when Gene asked Tom, “I wonder what happened on May 17, 1957.” And so began the journey that ends with One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24…
The Marvelous Thing That Came From a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation This book, written and illustrated by Gilbert Ford, is a delightful telling of how Richard James was inspired to create the Slinky toy. A mechanical engineer tasked with finding a way to cushion delicate machines aboard…
“Magetsi a mphepo,” he whispered. I will build electric wind. I live a life of comfort in my upper middle class American home. I don’t worry about things like famines or poor sanitation. When I’m hungry I go to the store to buy whatever I want from the thousands of options. I eat,…
Ali Pasha, the war hero, lived a life of quiet anonymity for 50 years. But in 1968, he was discovered and in 1986, his fame grew even more widespread. The headline read, “A Great War Survivor of Shot and Shell.” Who is Ali Pasha, you may be wondering. Well, to learn Ali’s story, we must…
When I wrote about the Goodbye Christopher Robin movie and the story behind A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books, I found out that the books were inspired by a real bear. Winnipeg was an American black bear who traveled from Canada to England and ended up living in the London Zoo. Recently I found a few books…
Have you heard the legend of the ravens at the Tower of London? If the ravens ever leave, the tower will crumble to dust and great tragedy will befall the people of England. What is a raven? Basically, a raven is a large black bird. They are in the same class as crows (the Corvus…
Beverly Cleary is a well-known, prolific author of books for children. Her career spanned more than 50 years and her books have been loved by generations upon generations of kids. But have you ever wondered what Beverly Cleary’s own childhood was like? Thankfully Beverly penned two memoirs about her life prior to her publishing success…
I will never be a student of battle tactics, never really interested in the nitty gritty details of exactly which way a battle had unfolded, minute by minute, decision by decision. I am, however, very interested in the experiences and stories of the individual people who were there. The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at…
Are there any other thesaurus lovers out there? I have been using thesauruses (thesauri is the preferred plural of the author but thesauruses is definitely more fun to say!) for many, many years. When I’m writing something, I want to use the perfect word to get my meaning across. Or sometimes I just need to…
