In February, Paris audiences are stunned by a recital by 10-year American violin prodigy, Yehudi Menuhin.
On October 6, 1927, the New York premiere of the first “talkie”(feature length talking movie), The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, causes audiences to stand up and cheer.
In December, jazz composer and pianist Duke Ellington opens at The Cotton Club, a famous Harlem nightclub.
January-December, 1927. Civil war continues in China as General Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist army attempt to consolidate power over all of China and drive out the warlords who control various parts of the country. In March, Chiang Kai-shek’s army takes the important port city of Shanghai, but Communists in Hankow and in Shanghai refuse to cooperate with the Nationalist government and declare their own revolution. In December General Kai-shek crushes a Communist uprising in the city of Canton.
January 7 1927. The first transatlantic telephone call is made from New York City to London.
January 31, 1927. Britain orders 12.000 soldiers to proceed immediately to Shanghai to protect British citizens and British interests in the city. The United States orders Navy ships and Marines to the city on a similar mission.
February, 1927. An attempted rebellion against the military dictatorship of President Antonio Carmona in Portugal is crushed in Lisbon. Carmona named himself president in July, 1926. Carmona will be president of Portugal for the next 24 years until his death in 1951.
April 30, 1927. The Mississippi River floods destroying many communities in several states. Over 200,000 people lose their homes.
May 21, 1927. Charles Lindbergh, in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis, becomes the first person to fly alone non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris. He immediately becomes an international celebrity.
July 10, 1927. Kevin O’Higgins, vice-president of the Irish Free State (Ireland), is assassinated while on his way to Mass by three members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The killing fuels fears of further civil war and unrest in Ireland.
July 15, 1927. WWI veterans and striking workers occupy the University of Vienna in Austria and they seize the Palace of Justice and set it on fire. Socialists are calling for the resignation of Austrian Chancellor Ignaz Seipel’s government; the socialist leaders are accusing Seipel of tolerating the illegal activities of the rioters.
October 23, 1927. Josef Stalin expels political rivals Leon Trotsky and Grigori Zinoviev from the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
December 2, 1927. Sales begin of the new Model A Ford, a replacement for the Model T. The new Model A is available in four standard colors, but not in black.
Publishing history is made when in 1927 Random House, book publishers, is founded in New York City by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer.
1927 Newbery Medal Winner: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
Published in 1927:
God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson. One of my very favorite books of poetry.
“The Creation” from God’s Trombones.
“Go Down, Death” from God’s Trombones.
“The Prodigal Son” from God’s Trombones
The Big Four by Agatha Christie. In December of 1926, Agatha Christie, already famous as a mystery novelist, produced her own mystery when she disappeared for ten days. She was found living at a Yorkshire health spa under an assumed name. She probably had what was then called a “nervous breakdown.” But she still managed to publish a new mystery novel in January 1927, The Big Four. It’s not her best,but it satisfied her fans and kept them on board waiting for the next novel. Agatha Christie later wrote her agent saying:
I have been, once, in a position where I wanted to write just for the sake of money coming in and when I felt I couldn’t—it is a nerve wracking feeling. If I had had one MS ‘up my sleeve’ it would have made a big difference. That was the time I had to produce that rotten book The Big Four and had to force myself in The Mystery of the Blue Train.
Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers, the third mystery novel featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. To get a flavor of the 1920’s in England, read these and the early Agatha Christie novels featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. I read this book a long time ago, and I remember thinking that it was quite profound in its treatment of foreknowledge and God’s providence. I’m wondering if I would still think so now, thirty or forty years later.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Eldest Daughter recommends Virginia Woolf, this book in particular, but I’m afraid that I wouldn’t “get it.” Just as I don’t “get” James Joyce.
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis. I’ve heard of this novel, but I’ve never actually read this story of a crooked evangelist. Elmer Gantry is the prototype for the stereotypical character that appears to this day in novels and movies and TV dramas.
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. Reviewed by Carrie K. at Books and Movies.
The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon, the first book published in the Hardy Boys series of mystery adventure stories for boys. This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate by author Leslie McFarlane, the original man behind the pseudonym Franklin Dixon. The story begins with Frank and Joe Hardy barely avoiding being hit by a speeding driver with bright red hair, and it goes on from there as the brothers follow the trail of disguises and robbery and hidden loot.
Emily’s Quest by L.M. Montgomery, the last of the Emily trilogy. Eldest Daughter likes these books as well as or better than the Anne of Green Gables series.
The Midnight Folk by John Masefield. I put this one on the list because I plan to find a copy and read it someday. Classic British children’s fantasy.
Set in 1927:
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin. Nonfiction. The story of Henry Ford’s experiment in utopian rubber production in the Brazilian rain forest (begun in 1927).
River Rising by Athol Dickson. River Rising is set in southern Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, just before and during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927.
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith, author of the classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Fourteen year old Annie and twenty year old Carl marry and go together to live at the university campus where Carl is a student.
Can a thriller be literary? by Adam LeBor from the London Financial Times.
“So what exactly is a thriller, and how does the genre differ from ordinary novels? The key word is conflict. The protagonist will confront a series of threats before the plot builds up to a climax, which is often violent. The hero will confront his inner demons along the way and be forced to make an impossible choice. All this should unfold in vivid scene-setting that takes the reader into a new and unknown world.”
What a great idea! Little (20 book) public lending libraries. I want one.
Little Free Library.
Literature-inspired sneakers and iPhone cases. I would want some of these if my favorite books were included. Maybe The Three Musketeers would be worth showing off.
I spent my TV watching time for the past couple of weeks with the first (and only) season of the program Commander in Chief, starring Geena Davis as the vice-president of the United States who is unexpectedly thrown into the job of president after the sudden death of the sitting president. It was a good series, 18 episodes about an independent woman acting as a credibly authoritative president. Unfortunately, the writers or somebody associated with the show couldn’t sustain the “political independent” part of the equation. The “bad guy” in the show is, of course, a nasty old Republican, played wonderfully by Donald Sutherland, and President Mackenzie Allen is supposed be an independent, neither fish nor fowl, neither Democrat or Republican, neither liberal nor conservative. So she supports an airline strike instead of ending it by presidential fiat, sends the FBI into Maryland to solve some crime without authorization, defends gay marriage, and finally, in fit of liberalism that can’t be denied, she resurrects the ERA and tries to get it ratified by three more states so that women can finally have the equal rights that have been so long denied to them. You may or may not agree with all of those policy decisions, but liberal Democrat is the only label that can be used meaningfully to describe a person who pursues those policies and others on the show.
And, yet, it was a well-acted, engaging TV show, and I’m not sure why it was cancelled after only one season. Wikipedia cites “declining ratings.”
I’ll be reading a lot more INSPY-nominated books, Cybils-nominated easy readers and early chapter books, twentieth century history, and anything else that takes my fancy. So expect review of those genres and books, coming up for your reading pleasure.
What are you reading, watching, and enjoying these days?
“For me, book reading is not a chore, it’s more like a necessity of life, like breathing. I start feeling panicky and lost when I’m between books.†~Phyllis at Life on Windy Ridge
If you’re not familiar with and linking to and perusing the Saturday Review of Books here at Semicolon, you’re missing out. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
Nominated for 2011 Cybil Awards, Young Adult Fiction category. Nominated by Teacher.Mother.Reader.
Berlin, 1935-1938. Fourteen year old Karl Stern doesn’t look Jewish, and he doesn’t feel Jewish. His family has never been religious, and Karl’s name doesn’t give him away either. However, Germany is slowly but surely becoming a place where it doesn’t matter what you think or believe or feel: being Jewish is like being a rotten apple. And, according to Nazi propaganda, the rot will come out and become apparent for all to see.
So, Karl is one of those “self-loathing” Jews who denies his heritage and just wants to fit in. He wishes he could join the Hitler Youth like all of the other boys in his school. He wishes he weren’t Jewish. The problem with reading these Holocaust and pre-Holocaust novels is that one knows the ending. Karl won’t be able to hide from his Jewish background for long. His family isn’t safe in Germany no matter how much his father thinks that Nazism is a passing political phase. The Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht and Dachau and the entire Holocaust itself are coming, impending doom hanging over the events of any novel set in pre-war Germany, especially any novel involving a Jewish protagonist.
Yet, The Berlin Boxing Club held several surprises and revelations for me. I didn’t know much about German heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling who stars in this novel as Karl’s mentor. As Karl learns to box from the champ, he “comes of age”, and he learns to respect his own father, an intellectual and an art dealer with his own secret past. Over the course of the novel, Max Schmeling, the hero of Aryan racial superiority, has two fights with black American heavyweight champion, Joe Louis. I had a vague memory of the matches, but I didn’t remember who won.
I learned about Schmelling, about the culture and atmosphere of pre-war Berlin, about the art scene in Berlin at that time, about boxing, and most of all, about how complicated people can be. Schmeling hobnobs with the Nazi elite, including Hitler himself, and yet Schmeling’s manager is Jewish.
Karl feels the contradictions and conflicts of the time within himself. He’s an artist and a fighter. He loves his intellectual father, but he identifies with the more physical men at the Berlin Boxing Club. He despises and fears homosexuals, but it is a homosexual friend who rescues him and his sister on Kristallnacht. He admires and is grateful to Max Schmeling, but he doesn’t know if he can really trust him.
I would recommend this book for older teens. Some of the scenes and characters are too mature for younger readers. As I think about it, the book would make a good movie, but it would definitely be rated at least PG-13, probably R.
Cybils nominee: Easy Readers. Nominated by Maria Ciccone at The Serpentine Library.
Cynthia Rylant has published twenty Mr. Putter & Tabby books with this latest adventure, Mr. Putter & Tabby Ring the Bell. If I were a first grade teacher or librarian at an elementary school, I’d buy all twenty, line them up on an accessible shelf and watch the books fly off the shelf. And I’d watch the smiles and the laughter. And the soaring reading abilities and enjoyment.
In Mr. Putter & Tabby Ring the Bell the fall weather reminds Mr. Putter of school, and Mr Putter waxes nostalgic for the sight of erasers and pencils and globes and schoolrooms. Mr. Putter then has an idea: why not take Tabby and go to school for show-and-tell? Of course, Mr. Putter’s neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry and her pet, Zeke, a rather disreputable-looking dog, tag along. But what ae they to do when the first grade teacher expects Tabby and Zeke to do tricks for the first graders?
My favorite character in this story was Zeke the dog. Zeke is the kind of dog who wears a half of a stolen cake on his head. Then he eats it. He loves banana cake. He also eats a whole tray of cupcakes. Zeke’s tongue hangs out a lot, and he probably drools. And he learns a new trick—all in the course of a forty-four page easy reader.
If you already know and love Mr. Putter and Taby (and Zeke), this book is a worthy addition to the canon. If not, Mr. Putter and Tabby Ring the Bell would be a great introduction to a great series.
Z-baby: “Mr Putter wants to go to school even though he’s really old. I don’t know why.”
*This book is nominated for a Cybils Award, and I am a judge for the first round thereof. However, no one paid me any money, and nobody knows which books will get to be finalists or which ones will get the awards. In other words, this review reflects my opinion and Z-baby’s and nothing else.
Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Nominated by Jennifer Glidden, Capstone Press.
Kylie Jean, who lives with her family in Jacksonville, Texas, has a lifelong dream: she wants to be a beauty queen. I’ve never heard of Jacksonville, but it’s a real town in East Texas, Cherokee County, and it has a population of 13,868 (2000 census). Jacksonville is “the Tomato Capital of the World”, but it’s blueberries that play the starring role in Kylie Jean’s journey to becoming a beauty queen.
In the story the big festival in Jacksonville every year is not Tomato Fest, but rather the Blueberry Festival. Kylie Jean wants to be Blueberry Festival Queen, and since Kylie Jean is not only pretty, inside and out, but also determined, she enlists some help and sets out to realize her dream.
I’m not much on beauty pageants, but I liked Kylie Jean. She talks and acts “Texas” through and through with her “right pretty” and her “hollering” and her “yes, m’am” and “no, m’am.” I liked the way Kylie Jean makes a list of the things she needs to do to enter the beauty pageant, and she goes right down the list, checking each thing off as she gets it done. And I learned a few things you might not know (I didn’t):
“Shouting is not ladylike.” Beauty queens don’t shout.
“Beauty queens always wear a slip because it is classy.”
“Pretty is as pretty does . . . means being nice to the old folks, taking care of little animals, and respecting [my] momma and daddy.”
I’ll just bet at least one of those pieces of information is new to you, too. Consider it a part of your free education in Texas culture.
Z-Baby: “I think all of the books about Kylie Jean look good: Rodeo Queen, Hoop Queen, and Drama Queen.”
*This book is nominated for a Cybils Award, and I am a judge for the first round thereof. However, no one paid me any money, and nobody knows which books will get to be finalists or which ones will get the awards. In other words, this review reflects my opinion and Z-baby’s and nothing else.
January 27, 1926. Scottish inventor M. John Baird demonstrates his new machine capable of the wireless transmission of moving pictures using a cathode ray tube. The invention is called by its inventor, television.
February 25, 1926. Francisco Franco becomes the youngest general in the Spanish army.
March 16, 1926. Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel (gasoline and liquid oxygen) rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
April 7, 1926. An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails. Italian Fascist Party member march in the streets and vow their loyalty to Mussolini. The Pope says that Mussolini is obviously being protected by God.
May 3-12, 1926. General Strike in Britain. A coal miners’ strike begins on the 1st of May, and on the 3rd a general strike in support of the coal miners is called. The general strike causes the shutdown of mines, transportation, iron and steel works and other industries and paralyzes the country for 10 days. The general strike ends when public opinion goes against the striking workers, but one million coal miners are still on strike.
June 13, 1926. Marshall Joseph Pilsudski takes dictatorial power in Poland. Many Poles believe that the Polish army will under Pilsudski’s command will soon attack SOviet Russia.
September, 1926. Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang troops under General Chiang Kai-shek capture hang-kow and begin the unification of China. China has been suffering for the past several years, since 1916, under the fighting of warlords in various regions who refuse to answer to a central government.
October 23, 1926. Leon Trotsky is removed from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Josef Stalin is becoming more and more powerful.
December 25, 1926. Japan gains a new emperor after the death of Emperor Yoshihito who had ruled Japan for the past 14 years. Twenty-five year old Emperor Hirohito, who has been regent for his ailing father for the past five years, will now become Japanese head of state on his own.
Notable deaths in 1925: Harry Houdini, Rudolph Valentino, Eugene Debs, Annie Oakley, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet.
Nominated and shortlisted for the INSPY Awards, Mystery/Thriller category.
Brandilyn Collins is a popular and award-winning writer of faith-driven suspense novels. Her books have sold well, and she’s written a lot of them. She’s also a survivor of chronic Lyme disease. Unfortunately, by the time I read a third of the way through Over the Edge, I was fairly sure that:
a) the author had battled Lyme disease herself or with someone in her own family, and
b) the author had an ax to grind and a lesson to teach.
I have a friend who received a very delayed diagnosis of Lyme disease. She has dealt with devastating illness and much pain. I do understand that Lyme disease and its diagnosis are controversial subjects with much suffering and pain involved. I understand the temptation to use fiction as a teaching tool to make people aware of the difficulties facing those who have Lyme disease. But maybe nonfiction would be a better way to go.
In this story, Janessa McNeil, married to research doctor Brock McNeil, becomes infected with Lyme disease. Her husband, whose life research is invested in the idea the chronic Lyme disease doesn’t exist and that Lyme can be cured by a simple, short course of antibiotics, doesn’t believe that Janessa is really sick. Nor does he believe that an evil intruder infected Janessa on purpose–to get Dr. McNeil’s attention.
Yeah, it’s kind of far-fetched, and I’d have a hard time believing it, too. In fact, despite the fact that Brock, the husband, is an adulterer and and a liar, I had a sneaking sympathy for him throughout most of the book. That’s because I don’t like being preached at and emotionally manipulated in my suspense novels. It makes me cranky.
If you’re looking for a fictional tract on the trial and tribulations of chronic Lyme disease sufferers, Over the Edge is your book. If you read Over the Edge and want “the other side of the story” about the so-called “Lyme Wars”, you might try this page from the CDC. I’m not taking sides, just reporting the facts, m’am.