Builders of Ohio

Van Tine, Warren and Michael Pierce. Builders of Ohio: A Biographical History. Columbus, Ohio; The Ohio State University Press, 2003. As the subtitle says, Builders of Ohio is a history of Ohio told through short biographies of 25 Ohioans from early settlers to Dave Thomas.  As the editors state in the introduction, “history is not [...]

Guided by Voices

Greer, James. Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-one Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll.  New York; Black Cat, 2005. “They are just making music I would make, if I could make music” – Steven Sodenbergh, from “In Lieu of an Actual Introduction”   One of the best bands to [...]

Under Glass

Hirt, Jen. Under Glass: The Girl with a Thousand Christmas Trees. Akron, Ohio: Ringtaw Books, 2010. Stongsville is a rapidly growing western suburb of Cleveland; a town of less than 10,000 residents in 1960 and now a city of over 44,000.  I have driven through Stongsville on several occasions and it feels much more like [...]

The Golden Lamb

Compton, Fred. The Golden Lamb: Tales from the Innside. Wilmington, Ohio; Orange Frazer Press, 2009. Located in Lebanon, the Golden Lamb is known as Ohio’s oldest continuously operating (and oldest) hotel.  Because it was a one day pre-car journey from Cincinnati for those heading East (via the National Road), it has a rich history of [...]

Ghetto Celebrity

Alexander, Donnell. Ghetto Celebrity: Searching for my Father in Me. New York; Crown Publishers, 2003. Looking at the blurbs on the back of Ghetto Celebrity, you know Alexander’s biography made the rounds at the office of McSweeney’s around the turn of the century.   With praise from Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, and Neal Pollack and a [...]

You Can’t Be Mexican

Mendez, Frank S.  You Can’t Be Mexican: You Talk Just Like Me. Kent, Ohio; The Kent State University Press, 2005. Kent State University Press began the Voices of Diversity series with Mendez’s memoir You Can’t Be Mexican.  One of the purposes of this series is to make available new and previously published memoirs of the [...]

Invisible Giants

Harwood, Herbert H. Jr., Invisible Giants: The Empires of Cleveland’s Van Sweringen Brothers. Bloomington, Indiana; Indiana University Press, 2003. I walked into Invisible Giants knowing very little about the Van Sweringens (Oris Paxton and Mantis James). I picked up this book because I wanted to learn about the history of Shaker Heights. Little did I [...]

Grand Eccentrics: Turning the Century : Dayton and the Inventing of America

Bernstein, Mark. Grand Eccentrics: Turning the Century : Dayton and the Inventing of America. Wilmington, Ohio: Orange Frazer Press, 1996. Bernstein’s Grand Eccentrics is five biographies in one: the Wright brothers (together as one), Charles Kettering, John Patterson, Arthur Morgan, and James Cox. Dayton. 1905. The Wright brothers have been to Kitty Hawk and are [...]