Category: Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Charles Lindbergh, the famed aviator who was the first person to cross the Atlantic in an airplane in 1927, is often considered an American hero. Biographer Candace Fleming delves into his questionable and contradictory character, revealing a single-minded loner who, despite his bravery and mechanical genius, often found himself on the wrong side of history because of his outlier politics.

A self taught pilot and engineer, Lindbergh rose to fame after he successfully flew from New York to Paris in a single engine, canvas and wood constructed airplane called The Spirit of St. Louis (so named because the nine investors who provided the money for the plane were St. Louis- based businessmen.) That flight turned him into a huge celebrity. Along with the cash prizes and lucrative consulting contacts, it also set Lindbergh up for life financially. His fame and money were what undoubtedly led to his first child being kidnapped and held for ransom, a sad and shocking chapter of his life that ended in tragedy. As he aged, Lindbergh became enthralled by and involved in movements that are now seen as dangerous and deeply wrong, including eugenics and Nazism. His less extreme but still polarizing anti-immigrant rhetoric and “America First” beliefs are shared by many mainstream political organizations today. Although Lindbergh became a staunch environmentalist towards the end of his life, helping to save endangered species and eco-systems, he never quite admitted that many of his earlier stances were elitist and inhumane. Fleming saves the most shocking revelations of Lindberg’s life for last, telling a story of family secrets so melodramatic, it almost seems made up.

Fleming’s account is balanced, based on piles of research and Lindbergh and his wife Anne’s own diaries. She makes no judgements but just shares the facts, written in her clean, approachable prose and organized into short, fast paced chapters. I didn’t particularly like Lindbergh while I was reading about him, but I was fascinated by the larger-than-life events that shaped him. Though his politics were very problematic, there is no denying his life was unusual enough to grab any biographer’s interest. I’m just glad it snagged Candace Fleming’s! Coming to a library or bookstore near you February 2020.

Vincent and Theo, Theo and Vincent. More than friends, more than brothers, these steadfast siblings kept each other alive through their devotion to art and to each other. Theo was the prosperous younger brother, becoming a profitable art dealer at a young age due to his savvy business sense and sharp eye. Vincent was the tempestuous older brother, moody and unpredictable, discarding a number of odd jobs before settling on painting as a profession. Then as now, pursuing a career in the arts wasn’t the most lucrative pursuit, but Vincent was able to perfect his signature impasto technique because of his brother’s steady financial support. Theo longed for romantic love, while Vincent craved commercial success so he could repay Theo, but neither brother ever put anything before their relationship with each other. While most people have heard of famous painter Vincent Van Gogh, few understand how completely vital Theo’s support was to Vincent’s success. In this intimate biography, rich with direct quotes from the brothers’ letters, author Deb Heiligman chronicles the ups and downs of the siblings as they navigated success, failure, loss of friends and family, love and marriage. My favorite passage concerns a parcel that Vincent was determined to carry himself. How Heiligman uses that story as a metaphor and weaves it through the entire biography as way of illustrating the brothers’ relationship is beautifully and subtly done, and provides readers with an insight as to which brother was emotionally carrying the other at different points in their lives. Coming to a library, bookstore or e-reader near you April 2017.

Never heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Welcome to the club. Luckily for those of us not in the know, National Book Award finalist Patty McCormick has penned a fascinating biography of the little known German Lutheran minister who was a big part of an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was a traditionally trained and educated theologian, philosopher and pastor who came of age just as Germany was gearing up for WWII. After his beloved brother was killed during WWI, Bonhoeffer dedicated his life to God and the pursuit of peace. He traveled around the world, including the United States, where his beliefs were challenged and influenced by other religious cultural practices. He read and was inspired by the writings of Gandhi and by Frank Fisher, a contemporay of Martin Luther King, and soon become convinced that “the church wasn’t a historical institution; it was a living community that could transcend national, ethnic, class and even religious boundaries. The ‘church’ was not a building or an organization; it was a force for good, alive all around the world.” As Hitler rose to power in Bonhoeffer’s native Germany, and Bonhoeffer’s Jewish friends began to suffer, Bonhoeffer knew that despite his avowed pacifism, he had to do everything in his power to bring about the end of this evil man. So he joined together with his brother-in-laws in a secret conspiracy to rid Germany of the Fuhrer. Bonhoeffer’s part was to sneak damning evidence of Nazi atrocities out of Germany to other European nations to convince them to overthrow the dictator. In fact, Bonhoeffer was the first person to send documented proof from Germany to Geneva, Switzerland about Hitler’s plan to exterminate the German Jews. How successful was Bonhoeffer in his efforts and how close did the men come to realizing Hitler’s murder? That is the compelling, page turning true story McCormick tells in this slim volume that you could probably finish in a weekend (like I did!).

Sometimes you come across a book on your bookshelf that you read so much ABOUT that you’re convinced you also READ the book. I read so many reviews and accolades for Deborah Heiligman’s award-winning book about the life and marriage of Charles and Emma Darwin (first published in 2009) that somehow I believed I had also read the book itself. But in looking over it again, I realized I had never actually cracked the spine, which I rectified immediately and was delirious with delight when I did. You might think that the story of a 1800’s marriage between a full on science nerd and his whip smart brainiac cousin might be a little, well, boring. YOU WOULD BE WRONG. Charles and Emma’s relationship, while a loving one, was replete with comedy, tragedy and the on-going debate that fueled their marital discourse their whole lives: science vs. religion. Charles was the famous scientist who wrote Origin of Species, while Emma was a renowned novel reader who steadfastly believed in a Christian afterlife. How these two found common ground is the basis for this intriguing biography, which provides readers with an intimate portrait of a couple that on paper (Charles even made a pro/con list for marriage) shouldn’t have worked but did, and did so marvelously. That didn’t mean that there weren’t hardships along the way. They suffered through the deaths of more than one child, and Charles worried constantly about how his controversial theory was going to be received by a largely God-fearing public. But through it all they sustained each other, and their marriage is one of the greatest love stories you never even heard of. So don’t be like me! Get this fascinating non-fic post-haste from your nearest library, bookstore, or e-reader.

Most of us have heard of or read the story of the last royal family to rule Russia, about their immense wealth, sheltered lives and horrific end. But Candace Fleming tells the familiar history in a compulsively readable way, by including parallel narratives of real peasants and revolutionaries whose brutally poor lives provide a stark contrast to the opulence of the royal Romanovs. While the difference between the imperial family and the people they ruled seems cruel and extreme to us today, Fleming does an thorough job of showing that the Romanovs were products of their time period, who truly believed that the peasants were happy farmers who lived robust country lives. But this convenient belief couldn’t be “…further from the truth. Most peasants had never slept in a proper bed, owned a pair of leather shoes, eaten off of a china plate, or been examined by a doctor.” In fact, Fleming notes, “Many peasants were so poor, even the cockroaches abandoned their huts.” But Nicholas Romanov was willfully ignorant of the fate of his people because he had been raised to understand that his family had been divinely chosen to rule, an understanding that eventually led to the fall of czar-ruled Russia. I was surprisingly riveted by a story where the end is never in doubt. But Fleming’s detailed descriptions of the royal children (son Alexie was a holy terror in the school room, daughter Anastasia was nicknamed “dumpling”) and their luxurious surroundings juxtaposed against the rise of the disenfranchised revolutionaries made for obsessive reading. You also won’t want to miss the fascinating portrait of one of the most radical rock stars of history, the famous charlatan Rasputin, who wormed his way into the royal family and almost refused to die.  I finished the entire book in two days, and I bet you will too when you nab your own copy from the nearest library, bookstore or e-reader.