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Forty Minutes of Hell

Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson

by Rus Bradburd
[cover name=fortyminutesofhell]

For those of you who haven’t heard of Nolan Richardson before, his teams play very hard and very fast, and his players are trained to be flexible. Playing against one of his teams has been described as “forty minutes of Hell.” As the coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team, Nolan Richardson won the 1995 NCAA championship, and he was fired from the University of Arkansas after a rather spectacular press conference seven years later. This book traces his life from his early childhood up to his firing and beyond.

I don’t usually read sports books, but Nolan Richardson and I have a few things in common, so I decided to give this book a try. Nolan and I were born in the same town, El Paso, Texas. We were at the same college, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, at the same time. We both won an NCAA championship. Okay, that last one isn’t true, but the first two are. I’m glad to say that I wasn’t disappointed by Forty Minutes of Hell. It isn’t perfect, but Nolan’s story is an inspiring one, and I really enjoyed reading it.

The Richardsons were the only black family in El Paso’s Hispanic “Segundo Barrio,” so Nolan grew up speaking both English and Spanish fluently. He excelled in sports – he was a good football, but he was actually planning to go to college on a baseball scholarship. However, a coach at a community college got him hooked on basketball, and he ended up going to college on a basketball scholarship.

Nolan started college in 1959. The Civil Rights movement had just begun, and Nolan Richards was a determined black man in the South. His journey from living in the Segundo Barrio to coaching of the Arkansas Razorback basketball team was a long one. When he was a kid e wasn’t allowed to swim in the El Paso community pool because of the color of his skin. In college, he wasn’t always allowed to stay in the same hotels as the white players on his team. When he was hired by Tulsa University, people said, “How can you hire that n***** coach?”

America has gotten better since 1959. The Civil Rights movement was successful. So as the coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team, living in a relatively liberal and well-educated part of Arkansas, the color of his skin no longer mattered, right? Not exactly. Arkansas is not the most liberal state in the Union, and you can find plenty of people who would like to pretend that Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. never happened. Unfortunately, some of those people were on the board of trustees at the University of Arkansas. One of them may have been Nolan Richardson’s boss, head coach Frank Broyles.

Eventually, Nolan Richardson spoke out against the way he was treated at Arkansas, and the University fired him. Was he right to speak out? Did the University fire him because he was causing trouble or because he was outspoken and black? The last half of Forty Minutes of Hell focuses on these questions, and in particular on the relationship between Broyles and Richardson. The author, Rus Bradbury, never actually says, “Frank Broyles was an old Southern racist,” but the facts that Bradbury shows don’t look too good for Broyles. How accurate are these facts? I was at the University of Arkansas from 1995 to 2000, but I wasn’t paying attention to sports. The only thing in this book that I can comment on is that, whatever Rus Bradbury thinks, University of Arkansas chancellor John White is not intelligent, sensitive, or caring.

Forty Minutes of Hell isn’t just Nolan Richardson’s story. With over forty years of coaching experience, Nolan has too many former players, bosses, assistant coaches, mentors, and other significant people to count, but pretty much every time the author introduces someone new, we get at least a page (sometimes much more) about this person before Nolan’s story continues. Since I’m not really familiar with basketball history, I thought this was kind of confusing. I often found myself asking, “Wait, who is this? How does this person relate to the story?” Sometimes I had to wait a while until I found out.

Quite a few of these mini-biographies are about really good players and coaches who should have been famous but weren’t, simply because of the color of their skin. Major-league sports in the 50s and 60s and 70s were white. The coaches were white and the players were white. Nolan Richardson and a few other people blazed a trail that future coaches and players would follow, and these mini-biographies show just how impressive his achievements are. They also honor the people who came before him, who tried and failed to do what he did.

Nolan Richardson has done some pretty impressive things, and his story reminds us that, while this country has made a lot of progress since the start of the Civil Rights movement, we still have a long way to go.

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Where to Find It

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[librarydate]

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned

by Michael J. Fox
[cover name=afunnythinghappenedonthewaytothefuture]

You might remember Michael J. Fox from the Back to the Future series and Spin City. Whenever he is asked to speak at a college graduation, he starts his speech with “What the hell were you people thinking? You are aware that I’m a high school dropout?” Dropping out of high school didn’t stop him from becoming a famous actor and traveling the world, and it didn’t stop him from getting a good education on his own, but it did make his life a lot more… interesting. In this book, Michael J. Fox describes some of his more unusual life experiences and shows what he learned from them. Did you know he once got busted by the immigration services at an airport? How about the time the IRS came after him for not paying taxes? Or the time he fell down a mountain in Bhutan?

This book is really short – you can finish it in an afternoon – but it’s also pretty interesting. Michael J. Fox is obviously a sharp guy, and he’s a very funny writer. In addition to being funny, though, he’s trying to get across a couple of good points. One is that being smart and being well-educated aren’t the same thing, so you shouldn’t judge people on how far they made it in school. Another is that, whatever happens in life, you should try to learn from it and end up a better person. Each chapter also has its own message, too, and I don’t want to spoil them all.

ABC News has the first chapter and an interview with Michael J. Fox.

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Where to Find It

[librarylist]

[librarydate]

Icarus at the Edge of Time

Icarus at the Edge of Time

by Brian Greene
[cover name=icarusattheedgeoftime]

This is an unusual book. It’s a retelling of the Greek Icarus myth, about a young man who uses wings made of wax to fly. Unfortunately, he flies too high, his wings melt, and he falls to his death. Fortunately, this version isn’t so depressing. Icarus at the Edge of Time is set on a spaceship in the future, and this Icarus is a teenage genius who flies too close to a black hole. He survives, but things don’t work out quite the way he expected.

Icarus at the Edge of Time looks like a book for kids – it’s a board book with only 44 pages, and there are only a few sentences per page. Mostly, it’s illustrated with photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The story isn’t particularly complex, either. However, it’s a neat little story, and it does involve actual physics. It might be a good book to read with your children, if you want to get them talking about science, but I think it’s neat enough that you can enjoy it as an adult, too. I did.

The author, Brian Greene, has written a couple of big books about physics. If you are expecting more of the same, except for kids, you’ll be disappointed. If you are looking for a serious sci-fi version of the Icarus story, you’ll be disappointed. It’s somewhere in between the two. It uses the Icarus story to introduce a little science and have some fun along the way.

I linked to Brian Greene’s official college website at the top of this review, but the book itself has another site at icarusattheedgeoftime.com.

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Where to Find It

[librarylist]

[librarydate]

Unholy Sacrifice

Unholy Sacrifice

by Robert Scott
[cover name=unholysacrifice]

Students get bonus points in my classes for reviewing books, and sometimes they give me permission to share them on this website. I don’t do much to edit what my students turn in. Sometimes I fix a little error or typo, but basically, what you see is what they wrote. This is the first one I’ve posted.

This book is a true account of five murders that occurred in the Bay Area. The five people were killed by two brothers, Justin & Glenn Helzer, and were accompanied by a third, Dawn Godman. Their scheme to extort money from two of the people was the original motive. The plan eventually ended up taking the lives of three more victims.

I liked this book. It was extremely interesting to me. The lives that these three suspects led were so twisted, and they inevitably included the lives of five victims, unfortunately. It details the horror that the poor people had to go through. It really made me sympathetic towards them.

This is a good book if you’re interested in this particular type of reading. if not, it will seem somewhat harsh. I’m extremely into forensics & investigations, just to try & figure things out. I love the challenge!

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Where to Find It

[librarylist]
[librarydate]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

by Mark Haddon
[cover name=thecuriousincidentofthedoginthenighttime]

Christopher is 15 years old, and he tells us he has “Behavioral Problems.” He carries a knife with a saw-blade that (he thinks) would be good for cutting off somebody’s fingers. He wouldn’t mind if everyone else in the world just vanished one day. He likes math. However, he’s not a serial killer or anything even remotely like that.

Christopher’s brain works in a different way. He has trouble understanding feelings or interpreting facial expressions. He pays attention to everything, so crowds or some kinds of noises or lots of signs or even looking out the window while he’s on a train overwhelm him. He really hates being touched. That’s part of why he doesn’t like people.

The story is told entirely from Christopher’s point of view. It begins when he discovers that his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, has been murdered. Since Christopher loves Sherlock Holmes, and since he really liked Wellington, he decides to investigate the murder and bring the killer to justice. The murder is solved about half way through the book, but it leaves Christopher in the middle of an even bigger problem, and he spends the rest of the story dealing with it.

People seem to either love or hate this book. I think one reason some people hate it is the writing style, which I can kind of understand. Since Christopher is telling the story, he tells it his way. However, this didn’t bother me. I actually thought it was pretty easy to read. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of people feel cheated because they thought it was a very different kind off book than it really is. Let me try to clear up some of the most common myths I’ve seen about this book.

Myth 1: This is a murder mystery. Well, that’s what Christopher says, but he’s wrong. This is a novel about Christopher, his life, and his family. In fact, Christopher spends every other chapter writing about his daily life, his hopes and dreams, and his hobbies. He is very fond of mathematics and physics, and he talks about math a lot.

Myth 2: This book is for kids. Actually, the author got tired of writing books for kids, so he wrote this one for adults. His agent decided that it would be good for kids, too, so one edition was published for adults and one edition was published for children. Just so you know, there’s a lot of swearing in it, and bodily functions appear more than a few times.*

Myth 3: This is an accurate, scientific portrayal of autism. It isn’t. In fact, the author never says that Christopher is on the autism spectrum. He never claims that Christopher has Asperger syndrome. The author used to work with people who had autism, and he says he basically combined various traits of people he knew to create Christopher. He didn’t go out and do any research. You might want to check out this interesting article about the book written by a man with Asperger syndrome.

If you want to give the book a try, you can read an excerpt of it at the publisher’s website or Google Books.

*: One way to get a book marked as “Literature” is to kill an animal, talk about bodily functions, and make the main characters people you wouldn’t want to hang out with all the time. Having the main character talk about academic topics also helps.
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Where to Find It

[librarylist]
[librarydate]

The House of the Vampire

The House of the Vampire

by George Sylvester Viereck

So you’ve read all the popular vampire series and you still want more? Do you consider yourself a fairly good reader, who doesn’t mind slightly old-fashioned writing? Are you interested in seeing the origins of today’s vampire novels? If so, you might want to check out this old-school vampire story.

The House of the Vampire is probably the first psychic vampire novel. Psychic vampires don’t drink blood. Instead, they take energy or life force or spirit or something like that from their victims. In The House of the Vampire is about a group of artists – writers, sculptors, and painters, whose creativity and spirit are being sucked away by a psychic vampire.

Reginald Clarke is a master writer, a man who can use words like nobody else. He also happens to have fantastic taste in all other forms of art, and he tends to take in and nurture less successful artists.

Reginald’s current protege is Ernest Fielding, another writer. Ernest is currently living with Reginald and trying to write the great American novel.

Jack is Ernest’s college friend, former roommate, and best friend in the whole world. Jack is away at school during much of the story, but he plays an important role.

Ethel Brandenbourg is, or was, a painter. She and Reginald were also briefly a couple. She hasn’t really painted in years, though.

Most of the story is about nervous artists being nervous artists. They make such good victims for a psychic vampire because it’s so hard to tell when they are being drained of their energy. They’re artists, after all. Are they just being overly sensitive? Are they having (absolutely natural) trouble coming up with the next great novel or painting? Are they having their life essence stolen by a vampire? Of course, evidence starts to pile up. Ethel and Ernest think they have it figured out, but nobody else believes them.

So how does The House of the Vampire compare with the Hollywood vampire stereotype?

  • Drinking Blood [xmark] The vampire sucks the creative energy out of our artists.
  • Has Fangs [xmark]
  • Vampires Spread by Biting [xmark] According to the vampire, it just happens. It’s how you are born.
  • Amazingly Strong [xmark]
  • Unkillable [xmark] As far as we know, vampires are physically pretty ordinary people. It’s all in the mind.
  • Weak Against Wooden Stakes [xmark] Well, no weaker than a normal person.
  • Weak Against Sunlight [xmark] Not even a little bit.
  • Must be Invited In [xmark]
  • Weak Against Flowing Water [xmark]
  • Weak Against Holy Symbols [xmark]
  • Weak Against Garlic [xmark]
  • Get Confused at Crossroads [xmark]
  • No Reflection in Mirrors [xmark]
  • No Heartbeat/Breath/Blood/Temperature/Other Signs of Life [xmark]
  • Pale, Corpse-like Appearance [xmark]
  • Doesn’t Age [xmark]
  • Changes Shape [xmark]
  • Flight [xmark]
  • Wall Crawling [xmark]
  • Hypnotic Powers [checkmark] Psychic powers and a ton of charisma! What a combination.
  • Sleeps in a Coffin [xmark]
  • Wealthy [checkmark] Not insanely wealthy, but certainly very well off.

How about some of the more modern trends?

  • Sophisticated and Elegant [checkmark] Everybody likes this vampire, and he certainly has style. Not capes and things like that, but a really good sense of normal human style..
  • Angsty [xmark] This vampire doesn’t feel the least bit bad about sucking people’s energy or even killing them. In fact, he sees it as his duty.
  • Dark and Brooding [xmark] A little nutty, yes, but far to arrogant and cheerful to be dark or brooding.
  • Really Just Misunderstood [xmark]
  • A Sucker for Love [xmark]
  • Looks Young and Sexy [checkmark] [xmark] I’m not sure about young, but this vampire has the charm. Women pay attention to him. So do men.
  • Fluid Sexuality [checkmark] [xmark]Well, maybe. The House of the Vampire has been called the first gay vampire novel, but I’m not familiar with the cultural norm of the early 1900s. We never see the vampire get it on with another guy, but you might infer that he isn’t altogether 100% heterosexual. You might not. It’s all in how you read it.

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Where to Find It

You can read copies online through Project Gutenberg, Google Books, HorrorMasters.com, or Wikisource.

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[librarydate]

The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn

by Peter S. Beagle
[cover name=thelastunicorn]

When I was a kid, I saw a really amazing animated movie called The Last Unicorn. Later, I found the book it was based on. While the movie is really good, the book is even better.

Unicorns live forever, and they tend to stay in one place and not travel. Places where they choose to live become special – the animals learn a little bit of magic, and winter never comes. One day a group of hunters visit a unicorn’s forest but cannot find anything to hunt. They eventually realize that something is wrong, and as they leave, the warn the unicorn that all the others are gone, and that she is alone in the world.

The unicorn had never minded being alone before that, but she is disturbed by the thought that there were no other unicorns left. She isn’t sure what to do, or even whether to believe the men, but she decides to leave her forest and find some answers.

She soon learns that humans can no longer see unicorns. When they look at her, they see a fine horse, but not a magical unicorn. Eventually she meets a butterfly, who appears to be a little bit crazy, but he also seems to know about unicorns. He claims that something called the Red Bull chased all the other unicorns, but that she can save them if she is brave. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell how much of that is serious and how much of that is the butterfly just saying random things.

The unicorn is taken prisoner by Mommy Fortuna, a witch who runs The Midnight Circus, a pathetic collection of animals that she has enchanted to appear magical. While in the Circus, the unicorn meets Schmendrick the Magician. Schmendrick is a real magician, by which I mean he can actually do magical stuff. However, he isn’t a skilled magician, by which I mean he can’t really control what happens when he does magical stuff. However, he does recognize a unicorn when he sees one, and he is able to help her escape.

Schmendrick and the unicorn meet up with Molly Grue, the wife of a second-rate bandit king. Molly knows a unicorn when she sees one, too – she has always believed in them, and she has always dreamed of seeing one. Together these three head toward the castle of King Haggard, who owns the Red Bull.

They eventually meet the Red Bull, but it proves to be too strong for them to deal with. Schmendrick works his most powerful spell yet, and that’s when things take a sudden left turn. Eventually, our misfit heroes triumph, and unicorns and wonder are returned to the land, but the ending is kind of bittersweet. Unicorns are unicorns, and people are people, and the two don’t really mix. It will make sense when you read it.

One of the things that I really like about this book is that none of the villains are really evil. They’re bad people, but they aren’t evil in the same insane way that a lot of fantasy villains are. They’re people, and you kind of feel sorry for them. Mommy Fortuna is a sad old woman running a sad old monster show. Captain Cully is a two-bit bandit lord who has to write heroic folk songs about himself, because nobody else will. King Haggard rules a vast country and his son is a great hero, but he can find no joy in life. Actually, I think pretty much all the characters are more complex than you usually find in stories.

[starratingmulti id=”1″]

Where to Find It

[librarylist]
[librarydate]

True Notebooks

True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall

by Mark Salzman
[cover name=truenotebooks]

Mark Salzman is writing a novel, and he wants to make one of his characters more lifelike. The character is supposed to be a young criminal, but all the personality Salzman can give him is tattoos and a shaved head. What do you expect, since Salzman had never actually met or talked to anybody like that. Then one of his friends, Duane, convinces him to attend a writing workshop he runs in juvenile hall. Salzman isn’t thrilled by this, but he gives it a try.

Salzman has two major objections to going to a writing workshop in juvenile hall. First, he doesn’t really want to hang out with criminals. Second, he really hates writing classes. He taught one before, and he hated it. However, when he actually shows up and pays attention to what the 17-year-old murderers write, he is amazed. After one hour with the class, he said, “if my college students had made this kind of effort, I might still be teaching.” Naturally, he ends up running his own writing class for high-risk offenders, or teenagers who are facing life without parole.

The writing class is good for his students. It gives them a chance to express themselves, explore complex ideas, and be creative, and they’re pretty good at it. Through their writing, we get to see what kind of people they are. Obviously, they’ve got their problems. Most of them are in for murder or something similar. They’ve made some pretty bad choices and done some pretty bad things, and they probably won’t ever get out of jail. However, they aren’t the kind of human waste that a lot of people think they are. If they hadn’t been screwed over by life, they could have done some impressive things. For that matter, some of them may even be able to do impressive things from within jail.

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Where to Find It

[librarylist]
[librarydate]

Carmilla (short story)

Carmilla

by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

What do you do if you have read all the popular vampire books and still want more? You might want to check these lists from Reading Rants or The Monster Librarian. However, if you consider yourself a fairly good reader, you don’t mind old-fashioned writing (like from the 1800s), and you want to learn more about the history of vampire literature, you might want to give an old-school vampire story a try.

Carmilla was written in 1872, making it 25 years older than Dracula. I can think of three reasons to recommend it. First, unlike Varney the Vampyre, it seems to be reasonably well written. In some parts, the writing is even beautiful. Second, it features a vampire who isn’t super obvious about being a vampire. The vampire actually tries to blend in, and she does a reasonably good job of it. Third, it’s historically significant because it is the first story about a lesbian vampire. It’s not at all graphic – there’s a little bit of kissing and hugging and talk of loving someone forever, but that’s all. It seems very PG these days, but I’m sure it was sensational when it was written.

Laura lives with her father and a few servants in a castle out in the middle of nowhere in Styria, a region of Austria. Her closest neighbors live at least 15 miles away, so she doesn’t get to spend much time with anybody her own age. Then one day a carriage has an accident on the road near her castle, and one of the people in it, a girl of about Laura’s age, is injured. This is Carmilla, and her mother is in some kind of trouble. Mom needs to travel fast, but she doesn’t think Carmilla is well enough to sit in a speeding carriage all day. Laura’s father offers to take care of Carmilla until the mother returns, and Laura is thrilled. Laura and Carmilla appear to form a bond almost instantly, and Carmilla appears to be quite fond of Laura.

Some time later, Laura and Carmilla hear about a disease that is killing the peasants in the area. The victims are fine one day, but at night they often feel as though something is trying to strangle or smother them. The next day they grow weaker, and then they die. Carmilla is frightened by this, so she and Laura buy charms to ward off the disease. It’s just in time, too, since they both have a similar experience one night. Laura left her charm somewhere, but Carmilla kept hers under her pillow, so while Carmilla isn’t too bothered by her experience, Laura is is more upset. After that, they both have trouble sleeping and seem to feel unwell, although Laura seems to be suffering far more.

Nobody really seems to know what is going on until the end of the story, when several people arrive, unmask the vampire, and kill her. The problem with the ending, other than one character just coming out of nowhere to solve the problem, is that only part of the problem is solve – I’m pretty sure the vampire they killed was only one out of a group, and most of the peasants who died should also have become vampires. We can assume the peasant vampires were taken care of, but we never do find out what happened to the others.

So how does Carmilla compare with the Hollywood vampire stereotype?

  • Drinking Blood [checkmark] Yeah, although apparently this vampire also sleeps in blood.
  • Has Fangs [checkmark] They’re hard to notice, but yes, there are fangs and puncture marks on the neck.
  • Vampires Spread by Biting [checkmark] Yes. Vampires can also be created through suicide sometimes.
  • Amazingly Strong [checkmark] It’s more than just physical strength – the touch of a vampire can make you weak.
  • Unkillable [checkmark] Pretty much. Apparently you need to stake, decapitate, and burn the vampire, and then maybe scatter its ashes.
  • Weak Against Wooden Stakes [checkmark] That’s just one step of the process.
  • Weak Against Sunlight [xmark] Not even a little bit.
  • Must be Invited In [xmark]
  • Weak Against Flowing Water [xmark]
  • Weak Against Holy Symbols [checkmark] The story never mentions crosses, but vampires do not like certain religious things, and priests seem to be some kind of protection against them.
  • Weak Against Garlic [xmark]
  • Get Confused at Crossroads [xmark]
  • No Reflection in Mirrors [xmark]
  • No Heartbeat/Breath/Blood/Temperature/Other Signs of Life [xmark] In fact, before they kill the vampire, our heroes have a doctor make sure she is still breathing and has a pulse. She also bleeds a lot.
  • Pale, Corpse-like Appearance [xmark]
  • Doesn’t Age [checkmark] The vampire that dies is about 150 years old and still looks fairly young.
  • Changes Shape [checkmark] This one turns into some kind of cat when it feeds.
  • Flight [xmark]
  • Wall Crawling [xmark]
  • Hypnotic Powers [xmark] Charisma yes, hypnotism no.
  • Sleeps in a Coffin [checkmark] In a coffin full of blood under rock and dirt. Nobody knows how she gets in or out without disturbing the dirt, but our heroes do wonder.
  • Wealthy [xmark] [checkmark] At least one of the vampires was, but we really don’t know much about the others.

How about some of the more modern trends?

  • Sophisticated and Elegant [checkmark] These vampires seem to be able to move in high society.
  • Angsty [xmark]
  • Dark and Brooding [xmark]
  • Really Just Misunderstood [xmark]
  • A Sucker for Love [xmark] At the end of the story, we find out that vampires sometimes become obsessed with somebody and they act like they are in love, but that’s all just part of the feeding process.
  • Looks Young and Sexy [checkmark] [xmark] At least one is, and there might be one who isn’t. We never find out if that person is a vampire or not, though.
  • Fluid Sexuality [checkmark] We’ve got a female vampire who only feeds on women and seems to be very interested in a few of them. At the end of the novel, we find out that it’s not really romantic interest. It’s just lunch.

[starratingmulti id=”1″]

Where to Find It

[librarylist showtitles=true]

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Make sure you don’t request Carmilla: A Vampire Tale unless you want to get the libretto for a chamber opera.
[librarydate]

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

William Kamkwamba grew up in Malawi, a fairly poor country in southeast Africa. His family’s house didn’t have electricity. He had never seen a working computer. People in his village often went hungry. He wasn’t well educated – his family couldn’t afford $80 per year to keep him in school. Then he found a couple of books about physics and engineering in the local library. He studied them carefully – he had trouble reading English, so he looked at the diagrams and used them to help figure out the words. When he got to the one about windmills, he decided to build one of his own.

Building a windmill in rural Malawi wasn’t easy, since he didn’t have a local hardware store. People said he was crazy, but it worked. He figured out how it should work mostly by looking at pictures and he built it out of wood, scrap metal, an old bicycle, and PVC pipe, and it worked. People came from miles around to see it. What did the windmill do, other than turn? It powered a single light bulb. Pretty soon, though, he ran a wire into his house and had an electric light in his room. Eventually, he built a circuit breaker and switches and wired his whole house.

Quite a few people in his village had cell phones, but charging them was not easy. William decided he could do something about this. Again based mostly on pictures and working with spare parts, he built a step-up transformer so that the windmill could charge cell phones.

In my book, that’s amazing stuff from a homemade windmill. What really blows me away, though, was that William was only 14 when he built the windmill.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is William’s inspiring autobiography. I try not to say “inspiring” unless I really mean it, but there aren’t that many other words I can use. This book reminds you that there really are amazing people in the world, and they can do great things.

The book starts with the day William’s got his first windmill working, but then it jumps back to cover some of his earlier life, parts of which were pretty rough. It also describes many of the events that came after that windmill – news spread around Malawi, and at some point it hit the Internet (which William had never seen), and his story made it around the world. William has spoken at two TED conferences and MIT, and he has been on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. At the first TED conference, he got funding to build more windmills so he could use the electricity to irrigate the crops in his village. He didn’t stop there, though. William has also co-founded a non-profit organization, Moving Windmills, which promotes economic development and creates educational opportunities for the people of Malawi.

Check out William’s first TED conference presentation. He talks about this in the book. This was his first trip away from his home, so within 24 hours, he flew on his first airplane, saw his first laptop (and made a PowerPoint presentation), got his first e-mail account, and gave his first formal talk. He was fantastically nervous, but he managed to get his point across, and the audience really supported him.

Here is his second TED conference presentation. He’s a lot more relaxed.

Here he is on The Daily Show, where he explains how he built the circuit breaker for his house.

One week later he and Bryan Mealer give a talk at MIT. It’s about an hour long. The first few minutes are all other people talking, but then we get to the good stuff.

Finally, here is the short film Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story. William’s non-profit group has prepared a feature-length documentary based on this.

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Where to Find It

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