Notorious

I have always been a fan of Biggie Smalls.  I love him, but I am more a Tupac girl if I had to pick.  Notorious RBG, well I didn't know much about her except that I liked her decisions, so reading Who Is Ruth Bader Ginsberg?  was a great idea and I like her even more!  May she stay on the bench for MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH longer!  Again I find these Who/What/Where/Is/Was books to be just excellent.  I am still hoping for a Judy one though!

Big Batch of Bios

My library recently purchased more Who Was/Is Bios on audio!  So I was very excited, having learned a lot from the batch I had listened to on CD.  This time around I read to the ones about Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Gandhi, Selena, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones , Bob Marley and Queen Victoria.
Random, I know.
These were very enjoyable.  I didn't know anything about the Rolling Stones or Queen Victoria, and I learned so much.  And even people I thought I knew, like Dolly Parton, were full of surprises.  As always I am impressed by the ways in which topics like the accusations against Michael Jackson, Dolly's support of gay marriage, Bruce Springsteen's first marriage, drug use among some members of the Rolling Stones, are addressed.

How I wish

this book were written a LITTLE later and included the words, "Hillary Clinton became the first woman to ever be elected President of the United State. Who is Hilary Clinton?  
This was a very well done book, I thought.  It didn't shy away from the issues that Clinton faced.  It ends Clinton being named the Democratic candidate for the 2016 Presidential election.  It didn't rip on Bernie Sanders, which was unfortunate, in my book!  But what can ya do. 

I had SUCH a crush on Wayne Gretsky as a kid.  But didn't know too much about him.  And Muhammaded Ali passed away what seems like very recently but was actually last year, so I wanted to read about him.  Roberto Clemenete was a super-nice guy and played for my hometown team, so it was interesting to read about him.  But I am not very sporty and so these, while they held more of my interest than the scientists, didn't hold my attention like the Black History and the Film and TV and Chocolate people did.  But that is just my personal likes and dislikes!  After learning more about Derek Jeter I feel even worse about not liking Baseball Genius.  Jeter seems like a first class amazing guy.  In fact, I just downloaded The Contract and I am going to give it a try!  Jesse Owens was an incredible man.  Wow.  This one was a great book.  But finally, What is the Super Bowl just didn't cut it for me.  There was no mention of Deflategate and that just bugged me.  I am glad I read these, but glad to have them behind me, too!  Just not a big sports person, I guess!  Still I can recommend them to people who are!

Film and TV and Chocolate

Shame on me for always getting Bruce Lee and Lenny Bruce confused.  While I still don't know anything about Lenny Bruce and I don't think the Who Was/Is people will do a book about him, I know very well who Bruce Lee is now and he sounds like one of the "good guys."  Great to read about him.
Lucille Ball is someone I have always enjoyed.  My favorite of her shows was The Lucy Show and I know that's weird, but I always liked Vivian Vance more than Lucy, being a fat kid and Lucy being David Levithan worthy and Viv not so much and Viv gets more time in this one.  Remember what Lucille Ball said about Judy!  "She was the funniest woman in show business."  So that is major points for her!
Jim Henson was also one of the good guys.
Alfred Hitchcock, not so much. I wonder if this book were rewritten now, with the MeToo thing going on, would the Tippi Hedren coverage in it be different? 
Back to the good we have Milton Hershey, who was a SUPER nice guy.  Who built a company town but made it a nice town.  Where people loved to live and work and it remains a lovely town to visit. 
Finally there is George Lucas.  My lower rating for this one is completely based on my "meh" feeling about Star Wars.  Still, it was really good to read read these books and learn more about people about whom I knew very little. 

Science

isn't something for which I have a passion, but I certainly appreciate those who do.  It was good to do something a little (lot) out of my element and read in the Who Was/Is series about Jane Goodall, Galileo, Ben Franklin, Neil Armstrong, Marie Curie and Steve Jobs.

I learned a lot because I basically knew nothing about Armstrong and Goodall except the very, very basics.  I gave Galileo less stars because he caved to the Inquisition and renounced what he knew to be true scientifically.  I mean, I am not sure if he did this for faith reasons, not wanting to go against the Church, or if he did it just to save his earthly life.  I need to look into that more. The other reason I gave it a 3 was the whole explanation of the pendulum thing.  I mean, I know I am not a bright bulb, especially when it comes to science, but I STILL don't get it!  And as far as the recanting goes... I don't know...after looking around it seems like he did recant just to save his own skin.  Which makes really no sense if he was as devout as he claimed to have been.  I mean, the earthly body they may kill, right?
The Marie Curie book was interesting to me in that I had always called her Madame Curie and I guess I should have realized that Madame Curie means Mrs. Curie!  People didn't even use her first name!?!  She was just Mr. Curie's wife!
The Ben Franklin one was okay.  I was biased because I have zero interest in the American Revolutionary War.  Isn't that terrible?
I knew next to nothing about Jane Goodall, so this was a great introduction. 
My knowledge of Steve Jobs was limited to the movie and the fact that I have always insisted on Apple products since I started using the Mac Plus.  I loved my Mac Performa 460!
I would tell everyone, "They cost more but they are SO worth it."  Windows 95 is Mac 84!"
But these days, I can't say that same.  I know they last forever.  At least my laptop is still going strong, I bought it in 2009.  But the thing is, lately, the way that iPhones seem to fail right when a new one comes out (though I hear that can be solved if you don't update your software because older iPhones aren't really meant for the new software).  I just don't know, though.  But that is not to rip on Jobs.  He was obviously a brilliant man and wow, he did do so much.  Not necessary fun to work with or for, but not as mean as he came across in the movie?  I don't know.  I gotta read more about him.  So this book its job! 

Famous

I guess one way to tell if someone is REALLY famous is if they have a Who Was/Is book written about them!  This time I read about Laura Ingalls Wilder, which I didn't enjoy at all.  I didn't like the use of "Indian" and I also just find LIW to be so not my thing, so it was hard to get through this one.  I appreciate that the Little House books address the stories of Native Americans in the books on their website.  But man...I don't know.  Check out that link.  It's important.
I also read Who Is Bob Dylan?  Now I don't like Mr. Dylan that much at all.  I mean, after reading the book.  What I did like was that the author didn't hold back from the reader, you know?  We were told about the crappy way that Dylan treated people.  So I gave this book 5 stars, but the Wilder one only 1 star because it didn't mention the Native American component at all.  Does that make sense?  This happened after the Dylan book was published. The jerkery continues!
I then moved on to Frida Kahlo and I knew about her from my art history classes in college and also from the movie.  Fascinating and super talented woman.
Next was Claude Monet and I knew a lot about him and I am so impressed by this whole series at this point!  Except for the LIW stuff.  Picasso was next.  And I loved that the author didn't do what the LIW book's author did and sugar coat the darker side of Picasso.  Next was Maria Tallchief.  I knew her name and am embarrassed to say, I didn't know anything else.  The last artist Who Was I read was about Andy Warhol.  I really enjoyed this one, not just because he was from Pittsburgh, but just because he was an interesting man.

More of Who and What and When and Where and Why

Another binge, this time on Dr. Seuss, Walt Disney, Roald Dahl, Jeff Kinney, J. K. Rowling and Maurice Sendak.  It was so good to read about these authors.  I have a greater love and appreciation for Dr. Seuss, who seemed like a truly nice guy.  I didn't know that Maurice Sendak liked people with similar body parts but I found that the mention of this in a book for kids made me happy!

Who WAS that?!?

 The Who Was/Is, What Was/Is, books are REALLY popular and after listening to Who was Rosa Parks, Who was Jackie Robinson, Who was Fredrick Douglass, Who Was Harriet Beecher Stowe, Who Was Nelson Mandela and What Was the Underground Railroad, I can see why!