Review of "The Lies They Told: A Historical Novel" by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Many people may be unaware of the shameful eugenics program promulgated in the United States from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. Eugenics is defined as the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to control the frequency of various human characteristics by preventing reproduction by those considered inferior, and promoting fertility in those considered superior.

A 1930s exhibit by the Eugenics Society. Some of the signs read "Healthy and Unhealthy Families", "Heredity as the Basis of Efficiency", and "Marry Wisely".

In this harrowing novel, author Ellen Marie Wiseman highlights the eugenics movement in 20th century Virginia, which is horrific in and of itself. Worse yet, 'genetics' was used as an excuse to remove 'defective' Blue Ridge Mountain people from their homes to form the Shenandoah National Park.

*****

As the book opens, it's 1928, and a ship with European immigrants has just docked at Ellis Island. The steerage passengers have disembarked into a cavernous building, where they'll be processed and assessed.


Ellis Island


Immigrants disembarking on Ellis Island


Immigrants waiting to be processed on Ellis Island

Italian-German Magdalena (Lena) Conti, her toddler daughter Ella, her teenage brother Enzo, and their Mutti (mother) are waiting in the building with the other steerage passengers, and the hubbub is daunting.



After a preliminary examination, Lena and Ella are separated from Enzo and Mutti, and the pairs are sent to different lines for assessment.

While Lena and Ella are moving along to be examined by doctors, Lena overhears an administrator say, "Admitting mentally defective immigrants into the United States strikes at the very roots of the nation's existence. We must protect our country against this spreading poison. Especially the Jews, who are highly inbred and amoral, and we know their defects are almost entirely due to heredity. Every effort must be made to pick out those who look even remotely feebleminded or mentally backward....We have enough dirt, misery, crime, and death of our own without permitting more to be pushed on us."


Immigrants being examined on Ellis Island

Like the other passengers, Lena and Ella are given a thorough physical examination, and Lena - who can speak English - is asked questions and made to add numbers. Once Lena and Ella are deemed fit to enter the United Stares, they're fumigated, disinfected, and - stinking to high heaven from the chemicals - sent on their way.



Sadly, Enzo and Mutti aren't as fortunate. Enzo is found to be feebleminded because he can't answer questions in English, and Mutti is weak and ill after the difficult voyage. So Enzo and Mutti are told they'll be sent back to Germany on the next ship.

Lena is distraught, but knows she must stay in America for Ella, who was almost starving in Germany. Ella plans to work for her widowed relative, a Virginia farmer named Silas Wolfe, who sponsored the Contis trip to America.



Silas needs help with his house, farm, and school-age children, Jack Henry and Bonnie.





Lena and Ella meet Silas on the dock, and he's furious to be stuck with just a woman and a small child. However, Silas takes Lena and Ella to his Virginia home, and once the immigrants settle in, things seem to go smoothly.....for a while.



Unfortunately, there's big trouble on the horizon. The state of Virginia has passed laws meant to break up families, especially Blue Ridge Mountain families, so the government can take their land for the Shenandoah National Park.

Eugenicists believe Blue Ridge mountain people are inbred and genetically inferior, and government agents are PERMITTED to abduct children.



The 'normal' youngsters are placed in foster homes, and the 'defective' children are sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics. Troublesome women are also sent to the Virginia State Colony, and are released only after they agree to be sterilized.


Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics


Women on the grounds of the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics

As in any community, Blue Ridge Mountain families socialize, help each other, and share news, and everyone knows local children have gone missing.



Thus Silas makes his rifle accessible, and Jack Henry and Bonnie are taught to hide if they hear the sheriff or strangers approaching the property.



This works well.....for a while. Silas, who's bereft by the death of his wife and bad tempered, is in the eye of the eugenics advocates. To add to the problem, Lena and Silas are thought to be 'living in sin', thus demonstrating they're degenerates with inferior genes.



Heartbreaking events follow, based on actual history. This is an important story because history - in the form of the wanton mistreatment of immigrants and disadvantaged people- shouldn't repeat itself.

'The Lies They Told' is a good book for people interested in the eugenics movement and the history of the Blue Ridge Mountain residents of Virginia. Be sure to read the author's foreward, where she mentions her research for the novel.

I had access to both the digital book and the audiobook, narrated by Elizabeth Rodgers, who does a fine job.



Thanks to Netgalley, Ellen Marie Wiseman, Kensington Publishing, and RBmedia for copies of the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Silver Spire: A Nero Wolfe Mystery" by Robert Goldsborough

Nero Wolfe is a legendary fictional private investigator created by Rex Stout. When Stout died, the series was continued by Robert Goldsborough. This is the 6th Nero Wolfe book by Goldsborough, and - like the rest of the series - can be read as a standalone.

Nero Wolfe is an eccentric, obese private detective who lives and works in a brownstone in New York City. Wolfe almost never leaves his house; spends four hours a day tending his orchids; has a chef who prepares delicious gourmet meals; loves beer; and would rather read books than take new cases.



Wolfe employs Archie Goodwin as his assistant, legman, and gadfly - a smartmouth who prods Wolfe to 'go to work' when the bank account is running low.



Stout's original Nero Wolfe books are set in the 1930s but this story is updated by several decades. Thus Archie has a personal computer to keep up with the orchid germination records and he uses the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to drive to Staten Island.

In this mystery, Nero and Archie investigate the murder of a televangelist's associate pastor.

*****

Reverend Barnabas Bay is head of the 'Tabernacle of the Silver Spire' megachurch in Staten Island and is a also a popular televangelist.



For the past six Sundays, though, someone has been leaving disturbing notes in the offering pouch. The messages read:

REV. BAY: MISFORTUNE PURSUES THE SINNER (PROVERBS 13:21)

REV. BAY: TAKE YOUR EVIL DEEDS OUT OF MY SIGHT (ISAIAH 1:16)

REVEREND BAY: THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN (I CORINTHIANS 15:56)

REV. BAY: DEATH IS THE DESTINY OF EVERY MAN (ECCLESIASTES 7:2)

REVER. BAY: YOU DESERVE TO DIE (I KINGS: 2:26)

REV. BAY: THE TIME IS NEAR (REVELATION 1:13)

Bay and his wife scoff at the missives, believing them to be from a disgruntled tourist who'll soon be leaving town.



Other church functionaries are worried, though, and the Silver Spire's financial officer, Lloyd Morgan, wants Nero Wolfe to investigate.



Wolfe is not a fan of organized religion and he refuses to take the case. Archie, who's worried about the detective agency's dwindling bank account, cajoles and prods Wolfe to no avail.



The upshot is that Archie suggests Morgan hire Fred Durkin, a freelance operative Wolfe uses on occasion. Fred isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he's honest and reliable.



After Fred is on the job for a couple of weeks, he suggests the notes are an inside job. Soon afterwards, the Silver Spire's senior associate pastor, Royal Meade, is killed.



Unfortunately for Fred, his gun - with his fingerprints - is the murder weapon. Fred is promptly arrested, and Wolfe's nemesis, Police Inspector Cramer, expects a speedy conviction.



Wolfe and Archie KNOW Fred is innocent, and Archie is dispatched to the Silver Spire to investigate. Archie interviews Reverend Bay's employees and colleagues, and learns the victim, Royal Meade, was abrasive and disliked.



Archie reports back to Wolfe, but the case is murky. As a result, Wolfe has one of his 'relapses', during which he remains in his room, reads books, and refuses to work.



Then Archie happens upon a vital clue, Wolfe gets a light bulb moment, and the killer is revealed in the usual 'gathering of the suspects' fashion.



Like many light mystery series, these books are formulaic but fun. It's always entertaining to visit with Wolfe and Archie, partly to observe their scrumptious meals, like shad with sorrel sauce and sweetbreads in patty shells.


Shad with Sorrel Sauce


Sweetbreads in Patty Shells

This isn't among the best books in the series, largely because Wolfe doesn't have the parade of suspects visit his office as usual. Still, fans of the novels would probably enjoy spending a little time with characters they like.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass" by Dave Barry

Dave Barry (b. 1947) is a prize-winning American writer and journalist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. Barry has also penned books of humor and satire as well as comic novels and children's novels.


Dave Barry

In this memoir, Barry takes us from his childhood to the present, giving us a glimpse of his home life, education, employment, hobbies, and more. This is a fun book suffused with laughs.

Barry grew up in Armonk, New York, which at that time was a village of about 2,000 people. Dave's father was a beloved Presbyterian minister whom people trusted, confided in, and counted on; and Dave's mother was a busy suburban housewife raising four children. Both Dave's parents liked to laugh and have a good time, but Dave's wit comes from his mom, who had a wicked sense of humor.


Dave Barry with his mom

Barry had a happy childhood in a typical suburban atmosphere where his parents hosted or attended cocktail parties every weekend. Later on, Barry's father developed a serious alcohol problem and his mother - who suffered from depression - committed suicide. Dave tried to help both his parents, and is open about his efforts and regrets.

Harking back to his youth, Barry writes about attending Wampus Elementary School in the 1950s, during the nuclear arms race.


Dave Barry in the second grade

Dave recalls assembling a survival kit with, among other things two Hershey bars. He writes, "I apparently thought [the chocolate bars] would provide me with vital sustenance in the radioactive hellscape that Armonk would be reduced to following an exchange of nuclear missiles with the Russians."



Writing about his youth, Dave includes anecdotes about the Davy Crockett fad; the first polio vaccines; Sputnik starting the space race; his awkward first date, with his mom driving; the Twist craze; attending the 1963 March on Washington and seeing Martin Luther King; being elected 'Class Clown' in high school and much more.


Young Dave Barry


People dancing The Twist

After high school, Barry went to Haverford College in Philadelphia, where he majored in English and played in a rock band. Barry writes a good deal about the band's gigs, noting, "Frat parties were the trickiest, especially when the brothers decided they wanted to grab our microphones and sing, or worse, play our instruments. More than once I found myself wrestling some drunk bro mid-song for possession of my guitar."


Haverford College

At Haverford College Barry learned a smattering of literature, wrote the occasional humor column for the student newspaper, and got experience in real journalism as an intern at the 'Congressional Quarterly' in Washington, DC.

After college Barry became a reporter for a Philadelphia paper called the 'Daily Local News', and writes, "I never knew for sure what I'd be doing when I got to work, where I'd be sent that day - maybe to a fire, and maybe to a speech by John Kenneth Galbraith. I covered shootings, parades, charity canoe races, a smokestack demolition, the grand opening of a regional sewage treatment facility, and a campaign stop by presidential candidate George McGovern."


George McGovern

Barry goes on to say, "The Daily Local News is where I learned journalism....and where I started regularly doing the thing that eventually changed my life: writing humor columns." In a funny piece about surviving in the wilderness, Barry wrote, "If you or one of your companions gets bit by a snake, don't panic. Take a razor blade and make a cut shaped like an 'X,' then suck out all the blood. Snakes just hate this, and after you've done it to them one or two times, they stop biting people altogether."



From the 'Daily Local News' Barry went on to various other jobs, one of which was teaching effective writing to businesspeople. For this tough crowd, Barry used a lot of humor: jokes about dangling participles and jokes mocking the stilted language people use in business correspondence ('Enclosed please find the enclosed enclosure.')

During this time Barry also wrote freelance humor columns, which eventually landed him a job with the Miami Herald's Sunday Magazine, 'Tropic', where he worked for over two decades.



Barry includes numerous excerpts from his freelance columns. Here are two passages:

"Let's look at the positive side of nuclear war. One big plus is that the Postal Service says it has a plan to deliver mail after the war, which is considerably more than it is doing now."



"My family had a system for car travel. My father would drive; my mother would periodically offer to drive, knowing my father would not let her drive unless he went blind in both eyes and lapsed into a coma."



Barry spent decades with the Miami Herald and tells lots of tales about those times. Dave has high praise for his editors Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder, who would give the 'go ahead' to any topic, no matter whom it offended.


Left to right: Dave Barry, Tom Shroder, and Gene Weingarten

Dave writes, "So Tropic was not a well-oiled machine. It was more like the laboratory of a mad scientist in an old black-and-white movie, with strange contraptions spewing sparks and smoke, and in the middle of it all a wild-haired lunatic as he prepares to throw a giant switch and launch an experiment that will, if it goes according to plan, produce some wondrous benefit to humanity, but there's a chance that it will go catastrophically wrong and unleash some unspeakable horror. That was Tropic philosophy: What the hell, let's try it."


This photo of Dave Barry with a basketball outraged many people

Barry includes examples of humor that garnered tons of reader mail, such as his critique of Neil Diamond's song 'I Am....I Said'; North Dakota debating a name change to Dakota; Indiana's nickname 'the Hoosier State'; and more. Fans also sent Barry innumerable newspaper pieces meant to inspire him, including an ad sent by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens about exploding cows and anti-flatulence medicine.



For Barry, no topic is off-limits if it will get a laugh, including politics, screenplays, book tours, the worst songs of all time, band names, harmonica safety, football coaches, basketball rivalries, and anything else you might think of.



Chatting about celebrity occupations, Barry lists the Top Thirty Celebrity Occupations. Some of these, from the top down, are:

Taylor Swift
Musical superstar other than Taylor Swift
Whoever is currently dating Taylor Swift
Stephen King
Person doing some idiot thing in a viral video
The Pope
Whoever was previously dating Taylor Swift
Nobel Prize Winner
Author other than Stephen King
Member of Congress


Taylor Swift

Outside of writing, Barry engages in recreational activities, and he's a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders band - composed of authors with no musical talent;


Stephen King and Dave Barry playing with the Rock Bottom Remainders Band

and the World Famous Lawn Rangers - a marching unit that performs maneuvers with lawnmowers and brooms.


World Famous Lawn Rangers

Barry doesn't write much about his personal life, though he mentions being divorced twice before he met his current spouse. Thus the memoir is more about Dave's professional life than his private life.


Dave Barry with his wife Michelle Kaufman

I laughed and laughed while reading this book, and recommend it to anyone who needs a chuckle, especially Dave Barry fans.


A Dave Barry author event

Thanks to Netgalley, Dave Barry, and Simon and Schuster for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars