DWD's Reviews

Jack Arute (center)  joking with Tony Kanaan Jack Arute's first Indy 500 was in 1969 as an 18-year-old spectator. His family owns a track in the Northeast and racing is in his blood. His dad passed down a love for the Indy 500 in particular. In Jack Arute's Tales from Indy 500 , Arute only tells stories from 1969 to the present (2004 in the hardback version, 2005 in the paperback version). Nothing too complicated and a real fun read, especially if you want to re-live some of the more exciting, interesting and sad moments from the last 35 years or so. I'd recommend the paperback version over the hardback since it has been expanded to include the 2005 race - the race where Danica Patrick became a household name. This is a quick read - I finished it in just one evening, but to be fair, I did read into the wee hours of the morning because the stories were that much fun. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 

A must for Indy 500 fans Part of a series of DVDs produced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this collection reviews all of the races from 1970-1979, including A.J. Foyt's famed and unprecedented fourth win. The collection features original TV & radio commentary, sound and video and lots of interviews with the drivers. Some of the interviews are from the 1970s and some are from nowadays looking back. Janet Guthrie Indianapolis 500: (The 70's A decade Of Legends) Collectors Edition is more than mindless promotion of the race - the lowlights (1973) are exposed along with the controversy associated with the arrival of Janet Guthrie, the first female participant in the 500. Changes with racing technology is highlighted throughout. DVD features include collecting all of the bits and pieces of interviews with several drivers and some owners and adding a few bonus bits. Rick Mears and Roger Penske are especially strong interviews. Well done. 5 stars ou

A must for Indy 500 fans Part of a series of DVDs produced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this collection reviews all of the races from 1980-1989. The collection features original TV & radio commentary, sound and video and lots of interviews with the drivers and owners. Some of the interviews are from the 1980s and some are from nowadays looking back. 1988 Indy 500: all Penske front row (Mears, Sullivan, Big Al) Indianapolis 500: (The 80's) A decade for The Ages is more than mindless promotion of the race - the lowlights (1981 and the ridiculous court case that determined the winner) are exposed as well. Changes with racing technology is highlighted throughout. DVD features include collecting all of the bits and pieces of interviews with several drivers and some owners and adding a few bonus bits. Rick Mears, Roger Penske and Tom Sneva are especially strong interviews. Another nice feature is the inclusion of an uninterrupted highlight reel o

"There's nothing as mighty as this in the world." - Nigel Mansell, F1 champion, Indy 500 driver Part of a series of DVDs produced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis 500 (The 90's) Collector's Edition reviews all of the races from 1990-1999. The collection features original TV & radio commentary, sound and video and lots of interviews with the drivers. Some of the interviews are from the 1990s and some are from nowadays looking back. The video is more than mindless promotion of the race - the lowlights (poor officiating in several races, for example) are exposed along with the controversy associated with the infamous CART-IRL split. The DVD features include collecting all of the bits and pieces of interviews with several individual drivers and some owners that were in the feature and showing them in a longer format and adding a few bonus bits. The interviews highlighting many of the family connections are especially strong, a

While not aimed at someone my age... Bill Peet (1915-2002) I nevertheless found Bill Peet: An Autobiography quite fascinating and engrossing. Bill Peet is a self-professed reluctant student, especially of English classes, but he is nonetheless quite the good writer. Peet's illustrations add a lot to the pace and feel of the book and are a joy in their own right. His stories of life in Indianapolis before World War II will be interesting to any native Hoosier (as am I). However, the most interesting part details his jobs at Walt Disney studios. His descriptions of how they made movies in the old days as well as the insider's look at Walt Disney himself are fascinating. Peet worked on several Disney movies, including Pinocchio , Fantasia , Cinderella (he created the lovable mice) and the original 101 Dalmatians . Peet brushes over his life after he left Disney a little too quickly. Peet left Disney to write and illustrate more than 30  books for childr

For racing fans of any stripe and any color Published in 2007 by Indiana University Press Todd Gould has written a number of articles and books on Indiana business and history. With For Gold and Glory: Charlie Wiggins and the African-American Racing Car Circuit he has addressed a fascinating time in racing history and Indiana history as well. The main focus is Charlie Wiggins , an African-American auto mechanic originally from Evansville, Indiana who moved to Indianapolis in 1922 to take advantage of the bustling (yet segregated) cultural and business climate around Indiana Avenue. At the same time, several Indianapolis businessmen (both black and white) are looking into starting up the Colored Speedway Association (CSA), a racing division for Blacks that was to be modeled after Negro League Baseball. The hope was to demonstrate that African-Americans were fully capable of driving high-performance racecars and create a groundswell that would cause the American Automobi

Probably the best travel book about Indiana. West Baden Springs at Christmastime. Photo by DWD. The Indiana Historical Society's My Indiana: 101 Places to See is a colorful, informative guide to touring the state of Indiana. Every one of the 101 sites gets two pages, including at least two color photos (some have as many as four), a multi-paragraph, well-written description of the place and a section called "If You Go" that includes direction, phone numbers, websites, hours of operation and fees. The choices are all solid and are spaced throughout the state. But, I could easily come up with 101 more places to go and see so hopefully the author is considering another volume. (Update: The author has created a book called My Indiana: 101 More Places to See ) Two notes of correction: 1) the entry for West Baden Springs (pp. 200-1) is out of date (thankfully). What was just an abandoned hulk of a ruined hotel (impressive even with pealing paint and no

One of James Alexander Thom's first published books - shows his potential and rookie problems. James Alexander Thom James Alexander Thom is one of my favorite authors. In my classroom I have had two of his books on my shelves and kids come to me looking for something to read I recommend those books first due to the power of the storytelling. Those that accept my recommendations concerning his books are never disappointed. Great stuff! While most of his books concern the frontier days of America's old Northwest Territory (Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, etc.), Spectator Sport concerns itself with the rain-shortened and deadly 1973 Indy 500. The race took part over the course of 3 days and was finally called after a little more than 300 miles due to rain and the fact that only 9 of the 33 starters were still on the track. Thom was at the race and the events inspired him to write this book and explore the motivations of race fans, violence on television and the

Originally Published in 2010 by Lulu Press. As the month of May is coming close, this Indianapolis resident and attender of 25 straight Indy 500 races and all of the Brickyard 400s (17, I think) knows what it means to be in love with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So, I picked up this book in order to see what another gigantic fan had to say about this experience. Charles West, unlike me, did not grow up visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (my mother's parents lived just a few blocks from the main gate and I clearly remember attending several qualification days and hearing Tom Carnegie's sweet velvet baritone call out, "It's a neeeew traaaaack recoooord!")  Instead, West grew up in Texas and most of his memories were radio broadcasts and delayed TV broadcasts. He also clearly remembers seeing Johnny Rutherford's yellow Pennzoil Chaparral on display as a little boy - that hooked him. For me, it was hearing that distinctive whine of the engines in the

The works of a brilliant essayist are a joy to read. Originally published in 1988. I admit, I was attracted to Thank God for the Atom Bomb because of the title. Our library had it featured on its web page with some excerpts and I was intrigued. I was not disappointed. The title essay is simply brilliant. It is also caustic, blunt and nuanced. I'll refer to it before the next time I teach about World War II. There are two more essays on World War II. I found the two essays on George Orwell to be most interesting. His commentary on the differences between tourism and travel reminded me of the Twain essays I've been reading lately. "Taking It All Off in the Balkans" is the account of his visit to a nudist resort in the former Yugoslavia - very funny and (I've got to say it) revealing. Paul Fussell Two essays were just not interesting to me, being mainly about poetry and I find myself unable to muster the interest to read poetry, let alone rea

Excellent, for what it is Published in 2004 by Arcadia Publishing. The "Images of Sports" series is intended to be a scrapbook history of a team, or in this case of an event. The Indy 500: 1956-1965 is a 127 page book mostly comprised of photographs taken by Ben Lawrence, a photographer for the now-defunct Indianapolis Times from 1956-1965. This book is not a comprehensive history of the Indy 500, but rather a photographic scrapbook, a yearbook, if you will. In a way, it was also a Golden Era for the Speedway with the new (also now defunct) scoring tower and the arrival of mainstays such as A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones and the Unsers. There are captions for all pictures and a few introductory paragraphs for each new section. Not only does the reader get pictures from the race but also from the first 500 Festival parades, shots of the fans, candid shots of the drivers, track workers and even celebrities (the Jayne Mansfield shot is something else!). The race is more tha

A sad, engrossing read I hated the first 20 pages of Stitches: A Memoir . It seemed like another self-pitying artistic look at a pseudo-dysfunctional family and I'm just a little tired of that right now. But... the story develops a bit more and pretty soon I was totally absorbed. I read it in two sittings for a total time of less than an hour, despite its 300+ page length. The story pulls you in. I was amazed at the literal insanity of Small's maternal family. It is also the autobiographical struggle of David Small dealing with his own struggles with mental instability. The stitches referred to in the title are stitches that David Small has to have after a radical surgery on his neck. He had suffered from a growth in his neck for years before his parents decided to have it investigated, an inexcusable act considering that his father worked at a hospital as a radiologist. Small's artwork catches and defines the mood so well. There are many pages with no text at a

A Heartwarming remembrance and tribute to Barney the beagle If you lived in Central Indiana from the mid-90s to 2003 you probably saw Barney - Dick Wolfsie's canine sidekick and faithful companion for literally thousands of segments of the WISH-TV morning show. He wasn't a prop or a gag (he was too poorly trained for that) - he was his own man (!) on the show. He was goodwill ambassador and class clown and all beagle. Barney: The Stray Beagle Who Became a TV Star and Stole Our Hearts is a light-hearted book - full of Wolfsie's wonderful memories - the good and the bad. Really, it's a fluff piece - but this piece of fluff caused my eyes to tear up more than once as he spoke of the day his beloved Barney died and the immediate outpouring of love and concern that central Indiana expressed. Truly a wonderful little book - be prepared to laugh (my wife and I read parts of it to each other and enjoyed it all the more) but also have the tissues handy! I rate this bo

A fun, fascinating read Cafeterias. "They're about as state-of-the-art as a brontosaurus. And almost as rare. Unless you live in Indiana." (p. 6) Indiana, with its love of tradition (or is it fear of change?) has somehow kept the traditional cafeterias open and thriving, especially in central Indiana. In Tray Chic: Celebrating Indiana's Cafeteria Culture , Sam Stall explores the history of cafeterias in general and then explores the particular restaurants that have survived from those days of the dinosaur until today, including the recently closed "Laughner's"(the granddaddy of them all), MCL (the biggest chain), Gray Brothers (probably the best), Poe's (located just a stone's throw from Gray's - it gets a lot of their overflow business) and Jonathan Byrd's (with the biggest cafeteria line in the world). Add to that a cafeteria in Oolitic and Shapiro's, a cafeteria that disguises itself as a deli, throw in a discussion conc

Not a complete history of the city, but an interesting one. Published in 2002 by Arcadia Publishing. Lost Indianapolis is part of the very large Images of America series of books that feature historical photos of landmarks of a city or group of people and tell part of the history as well. From time to time "then and now" photos are included as well so that the reader can see how things have changed. The author has written several local histories about Indiana and Indianapolis and maintains a webpage at http://www.lostindiana.net/Lost_Indiana/Lost_Indiana.html . Lost Indianapolis is a great book for those with an interest in Indianapolis for two reasons: 1) The photographs. They are interesting and very well-chosen to add to the text. I have seen books of this sort that seem to have random pictures tossed in with the text. 2) The text. McDonald has chosen several interesting topics to tell some of the story of the city. This is not a complete history by any means,

Indiana Avenue: Black Entertainment Boulevard is an important study into a mostly ignored part of Indianapolis history - the African-American cultural heart of Indianapolis in the first half of the 20th century. It was originally a Master's thesis for a community planning degree, but was re-worked a bit for this self-published effort. There are two kinds of history books. There are the narrative histories, made famous by authors such as David McCollough. A second type of book is the ones that are more research-intensive, mostly facts and they really don't attempt to tell a cohesive narrative. Both are important. The narratives depend on the research books. The research books depend on the narrative books to tell the story to everyone. That simple (and ugly) description is part of a roundabout way of noting that this book is a research book, not a narrative. Bolden does a pretty thorough job of describing the origins of Indiana Avenue and its growth and eventual decline.

A Short, Solid History Published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. Muslims in America is the "first single-author history of Muslims in America from colonial times to the present", which is what the back cover proclaims. I have no reason to doubt that this sad statement is true and for that reason this book is a welcome addition to the shelf of any serious student of American history. That being said, this book is not perfect. Since it tries to cover the entire spread of American history the first pages are about isolated Muslim individuals that were brought over as slaves, continued to follow their faith and were noted for doing so. It turns out that only a few people fit all those criteria so we end up with extended biographies of these people. This is not bad, per se, but it does make the last half of the book seemed rushed in comparison. The slow, extended style is put aside for a quicker, less detailed style. That less detailed style in the latter half of the