Howard County is named after John Eager Howard, yet how many of us know who he was? Thanks to John Beakes’ and Jim Piecuch’s meticulous examination of the archival and published record, John Eager Howard now has a well-deserved account of his life and significant military accomplishments. Though focusing on his war record, Beakes and Piecuch also provide an ample introduction to the young Baltimore native, and summarize his post-Revolution achievements, including his service as a U.S. senator, and Governor of the state of Maryland. In this scholarly work, the facts never overwhelm a great story, and the narrative brings John Eager Howard to life while recounting his skills as an officer and leader of Maryland’s Continental Army troops.

As a soldier Howard gained repute for his collected calm under enemy fire. He possessed the ability to visualize and seize upon tactical moments, when victory or defeat hung in the balance. Yet in 1776, at the opening of the Revolution, Howard was a newly commissioned major totally without military experience. He learned his trade quickly in the northern campaigns in New York and Pennsylvania, but was ultimately sent to fight in the southern theater, centered in North and South Carolina. Howard’s commander was General Nathanael Greene, and he fought with General Daniel Morgan, among others. These southern battles involved constant movement, ambush, and pursuit. A notable American victory at the Battle of the Cowpens was followed by tactical checks at Guilford Courthouse and Eutaw Springs that nonetheless worked to confound British military strategy. Fighting in the south was savage, pitting American citizen soldiers or militia mixed with Continental troops against the trained British professional. Some may be surprised when reading about the behavior of soldiers under fire, which makes the quality of their leaders all the more critical to the outcome of battle.

I highly recommend Cool Deliberate Courage to amateur military historians, serious students of the American Revolution, or anyone interested in learning about an outstanding Maryland soldier, praised by George Washington. The authors, having elevated John Eager Howard from obscurity, assert that this is the first of more books on military men who helped General George Washington earn victory in the American Revolution. Please, give us more!

Meet the author John Beakes at Central Library on Thursday, June 3 at 7:00 pm. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Register online, at your local branch, or by calling 410.313.7860.

Phillip Lord – Elkridge Branch

I am a big fan of Mr. David Simon. His first nonfiction work, Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets, as well as his most recent television series, The Wire, have been reviewed on this site by fellow bloggers. Simon’s Baltimore-centric work has been literary, entertaining, thought-provoking, and page-turning. His writings are dense, but his portraits are so honest that you can’t stop reading.

The Corner was created after Simon and co-writer Ed Burns hung out with a few citizens of one West Baltimore drug corner in 1993. We follow Fat Curt, a middle-aged, disfigured heroin addict, trying to make his "lonesome way down Monroe" and young RC, finding relief from dealing drugs though the simple rivalry of basketball. We also follow Miss Ella, striving to run the Recreation Center without losing her faith in her neighborhood. But most of all, we follow the McCulloughs, a family imprisoned by the Corner. Gary, a former financial guru turned heroin addict, plots "capers," schemes to make 10 or 20 dollars for one "blast" of dope or coke. Fran, a mother of two, struggles with getting clean while being a mother to her two sons. And DeAndre, all of 16 years old, makes his name on the Corner, selling drugs.

But there’s so much more to DeAndre than slinging vials – he’s smart, sensitive, and caring. Of his crew, DeAndre is the one who stands the best chance of finally escaping the violence and pain of the drug trade. Simon’s portrayals of addicts, dealers, thieves, con artists, and tax-paying citizens are so vibrant that you can’t help but love them. You want to cheer them on toward a better life and then cry with them when they fail. Simon’s dedication to authentic description and meticulous journalism transforms "the Drug Dealer" and "the Drug Addict" into real human beings. Along the way, Simon points out the fallacies of society’s treatment of the drug trade.

More than Homicide, The Corner seeks to erase the myths surrounding urban drug use and crime, making the case for a new, realistic treatment of drug prohibition. Because the Corner is out there as real as you or me and it cannot be ignored, lest we abandon our cities, causing fellow citizens to fall to a bottomless chasm of poverty and addiction.

Khaleel Gheba – Miller Branch

Terry Gilliam’s movie 12 Monkeys is the ultimate in time travel science-fiction, and tells the story of James Cole (Bruce Willis), a prisoner in an alternate near-future. Humanity has been decimated by a man-made plague, and Cole is sent through time to the 1990s in an effort to avert the disease’s release.

Gilliam puts a number of factors into play to keep us off balance. The future, of course, is a dystopian confusion of strange technology and abandoned cities. The past that Cole encounters during his time travels is not much easier to live with. He is institutionalized, socially isolated, and wanted by the police. The currents of time bring Cole into repeated contact with Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe) as he gathers information about the plague and relays it to the scientists in the future by means of voicemail. All is not what it seems, however, and the pitfalls associated with time travel become critical to the narrative.

In following James Cole’s time-bending quest, Gilliam creates a comprehensive fictional world within which he explores issues of science and technology, philosophy, and morality from a unique perspective. Keep one eye open for the Army of the 12 Monkeys. 

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Denise Younger, a single 35-year-old federal government administrator, is off to New Orleans to attend a two-week job-related conference. Arriving a few days early, she decides to check out the local sights. Denise finds herself attracted to the Nightie-Night, an upscale lingerie boutique located in an elegant building in the St. Charles area. While purchasing a luxurious nightie, Denise encounters Tariq, the 24-year-old drop-dead-gorgeous store manager.

Whew! Where is my fan? Two Weeks Until the Rest of My Life is a titillating, racy jaunt of a novel. This is a fun read, full of melodrama — a decent debut for novelist Harold Fisher (writing under the name of RoseFogg), local news anchor of The Daily Drum on WHUR-FM radio in Washington, DC.

Can a man write a sensual romance? Yes. Can a male write convincingly from a woman’s point of view? I’ll let you be the judge. Join us at Central Library on Tuesday, March 2 at 7:00 pm as Harold Fisher discusses his very provocative novel and answers your questions. Books available for purchase and signing.

Register online or call 410.313.7860.

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a captivating and challenging combination of science textbook, social history, and biography. The book explores the extraordinary events surrounding the life and death of Henrietta Lacks, and the subsequent repercussions of those events. Rebecca Skloot discusses her book at Howard County Library’s East Columbia Branch on Saturday, February 20 at 1:00 pm. Register to attend the event.

In 1951 Henrietta Lacks was treated for an aggressive form of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD. Before she passed away, samples of her tissues were harvested for research purposes, and cells from one of her cancerous tumors were sustained artificially in a laboratory. This line of cells (called HeLa from the first two letters of her first and last name) grew and divided, becoming the first self-sustaining line of cells grown in a laboratory. They were shared by the lab’s director, George Gey, with his colleagues throughout the U.S. and around the world. HeLa cells subsequently played a role in the development of the Polio vaccine, were sent into space, and were subjected to nuclear radiation in the name of science. That, however, is only half of the story, since the cells were harvested from Henrietta Lacks without her consent, and without her family’s knowledge.

What is celebrated by scientists as a remarkable new frontier is something else for the family of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks’ experience in hospital and the harvesting of her tissues were part of the social fabric of a segregated Maryland in the 1950s, where the public wards of Johns Hopkins hospital were one of the limited treatment options available to African American patients. Lacks’ descendants understandably have different opinions about their mother’s immortality than the scientists who celebrate her cells. 

Explaining her efforts to access the family’s opinions, author Rebecca Skloot includes herself in the narrative, first as a college student encountering Henrietta Lacks in a footnote, and later as a researcher, author, and supporter of the family. Skloot ably discusses both the personal impact of these events on the Lacks family, and the global significance of the HeLa cell line, telling equally revelatory scientific and family stories.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

On January 26, from 7:00-9:00pm, come to the Glenwood Branch for From Jazz to Hip Hop and learn about the jazz influences upon modern hip hop and rap music. Vivian Fisher, head of the African American Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, will explore various jazz greats and how their work affected a new generation of musicians.

Trumpeter Miles Davis was a pioneer of modern jazz, whose album Kind of Blue sold four million copies. Many of his band members also went on to success, including legendary saxophone player John Coltrane. Coltrane helped to pioneer modal jazz, in which soloists use modes instead of chords to frame their solo. His album Giant Steps is a good example of his complex solos. Coltrane knew he wanted to be a jazz musician after seeing Charlie Parker perform the saxophone. Parker was a pioneer in bebop, played the blues, and also incorporated jazz into classical and Latin genres. His album, Charlie Parker With Strings, blends jazz with orchestral music.

Louis Armstrong, famous for his solo trumpet/coronet improvisations, was also a gifted singer — particularly scat singing. Some of his early music was part of the Hot Five and Hot Seven groups.

Pianist Duke Ellington conducted a big band and wrote music in different genres from blues, classical, gospel, and even movie soundtracks. In 1956, after having performed for over 20 years, Ellington made a comeback at the Newport Jazz Festival. His performances are captured on Ellington at Newport 1956.

Billie Holiday’s voice had a lasting influence on future generations — her style of singing was similar to jazz instrumentalists. Also known as Lady Day, she wrote her own songs and sang those written by others. Her 1956 song Lady Sings the Blues would later become the title of her autobiography and a movie about her life.

These musicians and more will be discussed at From Jazz to Hip Hop. Sign up online or call 410-313-5577.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

During a year’s sabbatical from The Baltimore Sun, then-reporter David Simon spent a career-changing year as an intern with Baltimore City Homicide Detectives. The result is the breathtaking Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Simon’s book deals with universal themes of humanity, morality and justice, and doesn’t necessarily focus on the details of the crime scenes. Instead we’re treated to a series of consistently moving and effective chronological essays, following three of the homicide unit’s six squads throughout an entire year. If you’re a fan of true crime, or are interested in Baltimore, this is the book for you.

By focusing on the detectives and their relationships to the cases, Simon finds meaning among chaos. Each detective is characterized in a particular way. Garvey is enjoying the perfect year, Worden is the wise old-school detective of the shift, and Edgerton is the studious and somewhat anti-social loner. As the detectives investigate their cases, we follow along and are encouraged to go beyond the details of the scene to consider the larger impact of events. Simon calls the murder case pursued by Detective Tom Pellegrini “the spine of the book." Pellegrini’s prolonged efforts to identify and successfully charge a suspect in the murder of Latonya Wallace ground and balance everything else that occurs. With this traumatic case as a counterweight, all of the unit’s other triumphs and successes are seen as secondary.

As the book concludes, Simon previews his later work, broadening his scope away from the unit and putting us on the streets with a wounded suspect whose story is quickly unraveling. This foreshadows The Corner, Simon’s attempt to mirror his experience with the city’s detectives by observing events from the sidewalk instead of an unmarked Chevrolet.

Since the publication of these works, David Simon has moved into television, writing and producing multiple landmark series including Homicide, The Corner, The Wire, and Generation Kill. He’s now working alongside former cast members and colleagues, developing Treme, an HBO series about a neighborhood in post-Katrina New Orleans. To explore the roots of these exemplary community stories, check out Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Charm City is a recent title from Crown Journeys, a great series of nonfiction books in which expert authors reflect on a place they know well as they take a walk. In this volume Madison Smartt Bell, author and Professor of Creative Writing at Goucher College, meets up with his friends to tour Baltimore on foot, offering insights into the city along the way.

Bell’s travels take him down Greenmount Avenue to the Harbor with his Goucher colleague Eric Singer, around Dickeyville with Laura Lippman, through Fells Point with Glenn Moomau, and returning north on Charles Street with Jack Heyrman. Each walk gives us an intimate look at a distinctive slice of Baltimore, bringing details, forgotten historical nuggets and personal reminiscences into focus. His north-bound walk on Charles Street through Mount Vernon is particularly fascinating.

By moving at four miles per hour instead of forty, Bell, an engaging tour guide, has a series of “deep” encounters with his home city, and presents the reader with a vivid perspective of Baltimore’s memorable neighborhoods. Read Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore to experience the charm of Baltimore close-up.

Other outstanding works in the Crown Journeys series include Tim Cahill’s Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park, and James M. McPherson’s Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Ta-Nehisi Coates

In his powerful childhood memoir The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates skillfully details life in a very unconventional household on Baltimore City’s turbulent west side during the 1980s. His father Paul Coates fathered seven children by four different women – two of whom he married. Coates, a Vietnam veteran and former Black Panther leader, was an indomitable, larger-than-life icon, especially in the eyes of his sixth child.

Reading and research played a pivotal role in young Ta-Nehisi’s life as he watched his father finish college, complete graduate studies in library science, and build Black Classic Press, a successful publishing company — while raising seven children with their respective mothers. The reader also "travels" with Ta-Nehisi as he navigates the often brutal, misguided world of middle school boys from rough-and-tumble neighborhoods. At the beginning of the book, there is a handy family tree and picturesque map of west Baltimore.

The author effortlessly captures the essence of his father, including his attributes and character flaws. His prose is so lyrical that the words quite literally dance off the pages of this book. This is a gem of a memoir that delivers a walloping psychological punch.

Click here to learn what the author has to say about his life and his book.

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates and publisher Paul Coates will discuss The Beautiful Struggle. Join us as we welcome this gifted young writer and his father. Books are available for purchase and signing. Register online for this event.

Father and Son:  Publisher and Author
Wednesday, February 11; 7:00 pm
Howard County Central Library
10375 Little Patuxent Parkway
Columbia, MD 21044

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Mark R. Millikin, author of The Glory of the 1966 Orioles and Baltimore, recreates the excitement and drama of Baltimore’s first World Series championship. He recounts fan memories, Frank Robinson’s signing, and news from local sports commentators of the era. Reading this engaging account brought back memories of attending ball games with my family at the “old” Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

Elaine Johnson – Central Library