Speaking of the Titanic, my partner and I went to a Titanic exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. When we entered the exhibit hall, we were each handed a card that contained the name of a Titanic passenger and a bit of information about them–gender, age, and who they were travelling with. What the card didn’t say was whether the passenger survived. My card was about a middle-aged woman travelling with her entire family–her husband and all of her children.

When we reached the end of the exhibit, there was a large display board that listed all the passenger’s names in alphabetical order, and whether they lived or died. My passenger and her entire family perished. It really brought home the magnitude of the tragedy. Here was a family that had probably sold everything it owned to start a new life in North America. Instead, it was snuffed out. Not a single survivor.

I’ll think of that woman and her family on April 15th, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking.

Based on the book blurb, I expected to read engaging stories about the obstacles Lansky faced, the people who helped him rescue the books, and those who donated their books. I wasn’t disappointed. Lansky is a wonderful storyteller—you’ll laugh, you’ll be humbled, you’ll feel uplifted, and you’ll want to weep.

I gained a greater appreciation for books as important historical objects that are sometimes the only surviving record of a culture. So many Yiddish books were destroyed during the Second World War that it’s amazing (some would say divine intervention) that any survived. Apparently four caches of Yiddish books were buried to hide them from the Nazis, but only three of those caches have been found.

As I read the stories and about how important the Yiddish books were to their owners—how they worried about what would happen to them after they died; how well-thumbed the books were; how sometimes they were the only surviving words of someone murdered by the Nazis, or the only surviving witnesses to atrocities committed during the war—I couldn’t help but think about eBooks and how intangible they are. Most of the eBooks around today probably won’t be readable in 10 years. Sure, they can be converted from format to format, but they’ll be so easy to wipe out, should any power ever decide to do that.

Amazon has already demonstrated its ability to remove books from Kindles, but that’s trivial when compared to the possibility that a movement like the Nazis could destroy an entire category of books because it’s offended by them. Wipe key servers and confiscate eReaders and you’re done–just like that. The books are gone forever. Can you bury a cache of eBooks that people can recover and read 50 years later? I can’t even read the floppy disks I have lying around. My computers haven’t had floppy disk drives for several years now.

My concern about eBooks may sound paranoid, but given human history, it really isn’t. I’m not knocking eBooks or suggesting that they’re inferior to print books. But if eBooks had been prominent during the Second World War, it’s likely that all those Yiddish books would have been lost forever, as if the communities and cultures had never existed, and the horrors some of the books describe had never happened.

If you appreciate literature and books in any way, shape, or form, Outwitting History is a great read.

Bonus for Canadians: Lansky was studying at McGill University when he answered “the call” to save Yiddish books, so some of his stories take place in Montreal.

Barring any unforeseen problems, I’ll release the novel in November. The eBook versions might be available in October.

Anyway, head on over to The Salbine Sisters and check it out. Spread the news! Share the excerpt!

(The September Rymellan story will be available tomorrow or Thursday.)

Tracy Borman’s Elizabeth’s Women

I finished reading Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen. If you’re interested in Elizabeth I or the Tudor period, definitely pick it up. It focuses on the women around Elizabeth, so even if you’ve read several books about Elizabeth herself, this one offers a new perspective. I learned more about Ann Boleyn and the other women in Elizabeth’s life than I have from other books.

Next up: Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky. This one looks like a fun read.

Rymellan

As I’ve said on the WIP page, my editor has the September story. I need some time with it when she’s done, to deal with her feedback and format it for the web. She plans to start it as soon as she’s finished with the fantasy, so I’m hoping to post it around mid-September.

Fantasy Novel

I spoke to my editor yesterday, and she may come back on the fantasy as early as next week, which would be great. She said she’s enjoying the novel, which I’ll take as a positive sign.

Patty Henderson and I spent most of last weekend working on the front cover. Patty has come up with a wonderful design. I hope to share it soon.

Enjoy your weekend!

The book is a hefty 445 pages (not counting the front and back matter) and covers Oprah’s life up to Obama’s election win. Kelley’s style made for a good read. My eyes didn’t glaze over once, which is quite amazing for such a long biography.

The media implied that Kelley would be hard on Oprah, and it’s not acceptable to criticize Oprah in some circles. Given the rather shrill advance press, I opened the book expecting all sorts of unsubstantiated gossip and mud-slinging, but Kelley’s book is well researched. She cites 50 pages of sources, including Oprah’s relatives; in fact, the book contains several photos of Kelley with Oprah’s father and aunt.

Most of her assertions are based on articles and TV appearances that anyone can obtain and view, so she’s not making stuff up. Rather than doing a hatchet job on Oprah, Kelley’s book came across as, “Here’s what Oprah has said and done. Draw your own conclusions.”

After reading the book, the worst conclusion I can draw about Oprah is that her fame and money has apparently led to a loss of perspective and a bit of a messiah complex. Otherwise she sounds like a human being filled with contradictions. Nothing remarkable there. She can be generous and selfish, kind and bitchy. If you’re in her good books, she’ll shower you with gifts, but one perceived snub and she’ll ruthlessly cut you out of her life.

Sadly, she seems incapable of trusting more than a few people, so she obsessively controls her image and demands that everyone sign overly-restrictive confidentiality agreements. But in this day and age, who can blame her? People are willing to say anything about anyone for their five minutes of fame, even when whatever they’re dishing reflects badly on them.

If you’re curious about how Oprah behaves when the cameras are turned off, you’ll find Kelley’s book an interesting read.