The Reader's Shelf: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

It doesn't take fame and fortune to make a life story worth telling. Instead, it requires a storyteller's gift to highlight the unusual and the extraordinary in such a way as to engage the reader from start to finish.

Small-town bachelor and volunteer firefighter/EMT Michael Perry introduces us to New Auburn, WI, in POPULATION, 485: MEETING YOUR NEIGHBORS ONE SIREN AT A TIME (HarperCollins. 2002. ISBN 0-06-019852-4. $24.95; pap. HarperPerennial. 2003. ISBN 0-06-095807-3. $13.95). Taking the reader through numerous emergency calls, ranging from heart attacks to car accidents to a passed-out goose, he tells it like it is, with more vomit than blood. Humorous goofs and interesting characters help to intertwine the emergency calls with the town's heartbeat. In New Auburn, emergencies happen at intersections, and disparate lives intersect.

When she was nine years old, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer; the chemotherapy and surgery that followed resulted in the removal of half her jaw. Grealy's award-winning AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE (HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. 2003. ISBN 0-06-056966-2. pap. $12.95) describes how her physical deformity haunted her potential happiness from age nine to 30 and beyond. The author, who recently committed suicide, eloquently describes the emotional pain of a child and young adult seeking acceptance, normalcy, and the desire to be perceived as attractive.

Marya Hornbacher recalls another type of psychological and physical pain in her deeply personal and moving WASTED: A MEMOIR OF ANOREXIA AND BULIMIA (HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. 1999. ISBN 0-06-093093-4. pap. $13). She closely examines the childhood and social cues that led to a relationship with food so destructive she barely survived and criticizes the medical establishment for the way patients are categorized and inefficiently "cured."

In Joel Turnipseed's BAGHDAD EXPRESS: A GULF WAR MEMOIR (Borealis: Minnesota Historical Soc. 2003. ISBN 0-87351-450-5. $22.95; pap. Penguin. 2003. ISBN 0-14-200153-8. $13), the author relates how a philosophy student turned indifferent Marine reservist became an active participant in the first Gulf War. Brian Kelly's cartoons poignantly illustrate the dichotomy of this literary college student in the desert wearing a military uniform.

War-torn Kosovo could be one of the dreariest places in the world to spend eight months as a representative of a privileged culture, but, as recounted in THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO (Tarcher: Putnam. 2003. ISBN 1-58542-211-8. $22.95; pap. 2004. ISBN 1-58542-293-2. $13.95), Paula Huntley turned her tenure there into a cultural and educational exchange that enriched many lives. Teaching English to 17 Albanian students, Huntley provided photocopies of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and thus was born a book club and lifelong friendship. Students found that the old man's quest paralleled their postwar challenges such as finding a way to gain an education in order to contribute to Kosovo's rebirth.

High school English teacher Richard Glaubman records the simple but long and happy life of George Dawson in the inspiring LIFE IS SO GOOD (Penguin. 2001. ISBN 0-14-100168-2. pap. $14). Dawson joined an adult basic education class at age 98 with the goal of learning how to read. His determination and success inspired other students and reached the national media. Glaubman, living 2000 miles away from Dawson's home in Dallas, decided the story of the determined centenarian's life should be told. Taking us through 100 years of personal and American history, Dawson and Glaubman frequently remind readers of the difficulty of illiteracy, poverty, and race. Witness to a lynching when he was very young, Dawson brushed aside bitterness and fear, choosing to go through life with a positive outlook and "no-worries" demeanor.

Do psychologists or police witness the most unusual human behavior? Gina Gallo, a psychologist who reluctantly became a police officer and served for 16 years, would probably say it is the latter. As she describes in ARMED AND DANGEROUS: MEMOIRS OF A CHICAGO POLICEWOMAN (Forge: Tor. 2001. ISBN 0-312-87035-3. $24.95; pap. 2002. ISBN 0-312-87890-7. $14.95), there was the military-like, sexist police academy where humiliation and brutality were part of the curriculum, and Gallo's own trainer, an incompetent officer driven by fear and poor work ethics. There are also stories of domestic disturbances, child abuse, gang violence, and a really odd and gory chapter on animals.

THE EGG AND I (HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. 1987. ISBN 0-06-091428-9. pap. $13), Betty MacDonald's outrageously funny memoir about life as the young bride of a chicken farmer in the Pacific Northwest, has kept readers laughing since 1945. The book, which inspired the Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert film and later the popular Ma and Pa Kettle series, did bestow fame and good fortune on the MacDonald family. Although a bit dated, it still delights readers with its humorous portraits of farm life and teaches us the meaning of a good day's work.

This column was contributed by Karen Bronshteyn, Director, Rasmussen College Library, Mankato, MN