Read Beat (...and repeat)

A noted British historian whose previous books includes volumes on Churchill and Napoleon now turns to the "The Last King of America," his book, published in 2021, about George III.
Often dismissed as a buffoon--a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities--George deserves better, notes Roberts.
The best-known modern interpretation of him is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting, and pompous take in "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway hit. But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of eighteenth-century revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, says Roberts.
The rebels needed to make the king appear evil to achieve their own political aims, Roberts told Steve Tarter.
George III was in fact a wise, humane, and even enlightened monarch who was beset by talented enemies, debilitating mental illness, incompetent ministers, and disastrous luck, stated the historian.

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Any given day brings a never-ending list of things to do. And if you're Madeleine Dore, you're putting that list of tasks on paper.

Looking to get organized? There’s the work thing, the catch-up thing, the laundry thing, the creative thing, the exercise thing, the family thing, the thing we don’t want to do, and the thing we’ve been putting off, despite it being the most important thing. 

Even on days when we get a lot done, the thing left undone can leave us feeling guilty, anxious, or disappointed. Is that you? Then it might help to listen to Dore, author of "I Didn't Do the Thing Today."

After five years of searching for some secret to productivity, Dore finally discovered there isn’t one. Instead, she came to the conclusion that we’re being set up to fail. She talks to Steve Tarter about taking productivity off its pedestal.

Want to catch a break from your self? Stop beating yourself up for what you haven't accomplished and embrace the joyful messiness and unpredictability of life. That's Madeleine's message.

China is one of the world’s most powerful nations but just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few.  In "Kingdom of Characters," Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.

Her book follows the innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao’s phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. 

Without their efforts, China might never have become the dominating force we know today, noted Jing Tsu.

One has to consider history when looking at the Chinese language since the country's written characters date back 5,000 years, she told Steve Tarter.

Ken Zurski’s new book, “Unremembered 2,” continues the author’s fascination with once-famous individuals who no longer find themselves in the limelight.

This collection focuses on “artists, actors, actresses and influencers,” he said.

It's the fourth book for Zurski, who's been offering up traffic reports on Peoria radio since 2003. When he's not checking the activity on central Illinois highways and bridges, Zurski's doing research and writing. 

His previous books include “The Wreck of the Columbia” (2012), “Peoria Stories” (2014) and “Unremembered,” the first volume of once-famous people now all but forgotten by time that was published in 2018.

In "Unremembered 2," Zurski offers portraits of a wide variety of people who performed in the late 19th and early 20th century. Among the characters encountered: Felix Nadar, the Frenchman who took flight in a balloon to pursue aerial photography; Isadora Duncan, the dancer who was described by a New York newspaper as "some will call her blessed, others will call her names," and Sada Yacco whose Japanese troupe performed 369 performances in 123 days at the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

Zurski said he’s already at work on “Unremembered 3,” another volume of stories he hopes will blow the dust off past accomplishment, allowing a new generation to take note.

Paulina Porizkova found fame as a supermodel, gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1984.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Porizkova married Ric Ocasek, leader of the Cars rock group.
Her book, "No Filter," reveals what she went through growing up, achieving success (she was the face of Estee Lauder in 1989) as well as her long marriage to Ocasek that ended in divorce--and, after Ocasek's death, betrayal.
She told Steve Tarter that being famous was like being in a soap bubble. "You see out but you can't join in," she said.
"What people don't realize is that fame makes you unbelievably isolated. If you're someone who doesn't mind being isolated, that's fine but if you're a person like me that likes to be with people, it can be terribly confining," said Porizkova.

Bob McChesney, professor emeritus of communication at the University of Illinois, and Wisconsin journalist John Nichols collaborated to write "People Get Ready" in 2016, a book that talked about the consequences of the technological revolution.
To follow that up, McChesney and Nichols wrote a piece last year for the Columbia Journalism Review on a dramatic proposal, the Local Journalism Initiative.
McChesney spoke with Steve Tarter about the latest proposal, an idea he feels is so important that the very future of democracy in the United States hangs in the balance.
"The tsunami of misinformation, and the extent to which it now permeates our politics, results from a much larger problem," said McChesney. "It's the collapse of local journalism as a viable institution in cities, villages and towns across the nation."
"Unless the collapse of local journalism is addressed directly and successfully, it is impossible to see how the threat of a more authoritarian, even fascistic, future can be subdued--or put another way, how functional self-government and the rule of law can survive," he stated.
McChesney proposes an initiative that will establish well-funded, competitive, independent, locally based and uncensored nonprofit news media in every town, city and county in the United States.
He expands on that idea in this interview. For more information on the initiative:
https://www.freepress.net/sites/default/files/2022-03/to_protect_democracy_recreate_local_news_media_final.pdf

Most of us have heard about Bob Welch, the charismatic CEO of General Electric, the American company that embodied innovation and industrial power throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

What most of us didn’t know until William Cohan wrote Power Failure,” is that Welch who, for 20 years, masterminded the firm that once claimed to “bring good things to life,” enjoyed many successes but he may have made his biggest mistake in the selection of his successor.

“CEOs make a difference,” Cohan told Steve Tarter. In his book, Cohan not only covers Welch's rise to power at the company and follows the many deals he pulled off but involves the reader in the selection process of the person to fill his shoes, profiling the three major candidates in exacting detail.

Jeff Immelt, Welch’s handpicked successor, ran into difficulties immediately because no sooner was he in the CEO chair than 9-11 happened, an event that cost General Electric dearly. 

Along with having two GE employees killed in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, Immelt canceled all scheduled commercials on GE-owned NBC for three days, costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. GE had also insured 7 World Trade Center and all four airplanes used in the attacks.

That was just the beginning of a downturn for GE. 

Immelt lasted 17 years before he was fired. General Electric, after a 129-year run, was broken up into three separately traded public companies in November 2021. What happened to  an institution often viewed as the corporate superstar of American business? 

Cohan spent three years researching the book, talking to executives and individuals close to the company to tell that story.

Astrologer Nadine Jane said the 750-page guide  she recently published combines astrology with the tarot and numerology.

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done," she told Steve Tarter, noting that the book took a year-and-a-half to complete.

Weaving together astrology, tarot and numerology into a one-page summary for each day of the year was difficult enough, let alone making the information "accessible to the novice or skeptic," she said.

Nadine Jane, who often provides custom astrological readings for celebrities, said she wanted to provide a guide for the average person with "Magic Days."
 
It's not just a book for the astrology fan but for the novice looking for a first introduction to spiritual practices or lost soul seeking some direction in life, she said.

 

He didn't write a professional word until he was 40. Jerry Saltz  turned to driving a truck after a failed career as an artist (his CB handle was the Jewish Cowboy). When he turned to writing, Saltz did it with a vengeance. In 2018, he received the Pulitzer Prize for criticism.
Saltz's new book, "Art is Life," is a showcase of why he received that prize, a compilation of columns written over the past 22 years, a perfect (and accidental) reflection of the 21st century.
It's a collection where Saltz calls Robert Rauschenberg the American Picasso, that Philip Guston reinvented the sublime and recalls Beauford Delaney, a great black artist in his day who's now all but forgotten.
As one of fewer than a dozen paid art critics (Saltz's own calculation) left in the U.S. in the era that's seen the dramatic decline of print, Saltz is senior art critic for New York magazine. He covers the ever-changing New York art scene with flair and abandon.
But, as he told Steve Tarter, he's a creature of the Midwest, growing up in suburban Chicago. In his book, Saltz relates being a teen drawn to the protests during the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention held in Chicago. When folks saw Chicago police clubbing white kids rather than people of color that's when "my right-wing stepmother and all her friends turned against the war," he wrote.
Art is like a movie, Saltz told Tarter. "There's no right way to look at a movie or art. There's no way to prove that Leonardo Da Vinci is better than the calendar art you have in your house," he said.
"The story that art is telling you (is something ) you already know," said Saltz.
Undeterred by changes in print media, Saltz encouraged people to view his Instagram account where he regularly posts pictures, "weird politics and naughty things, as much as I can."  
 

Minda Harts has addressed the matter of racial equality before. Her previous books include ”The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table” as well as “Right Within: How to Heal from Racial Trauma in the Workplace.”

Her new book, “You Are More Than Magic,” is addressed specifically to teenage women of color. Harts relates her own experience growing up to make the point that women of color need to be advocates for themselves. 

Harts, an assistant professor of public service of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, is the founder of The Memo LLC, a career development company for women of color. She also has a weekly podcast for women of color, “Secure the Seat.”

“We can’t control anything but ourselves,” Harts told Steve Tarter in an interview where she emphasized that she wants to bolster the confidence of young people as they get out in the world. “Say what you mean without saying it mean,” Harts suggested. 

She takes on the imposter syndrome, that nagging feeling we sometimes have that we don’t belong. One needs to see oneself as an asset in order to push back negativity, said Harts.

She found her voice on prom night years ago, describing an incident where she and her date waited for an hour for a meal at the restaurant only to have the meal served cold. When presented the bill, she came to a conclusion: “I thought I work too hard for my money at Dairy Queen,” she said and complained about the situation to the manager. As a result, they didn’t have to pay. “I think we both were surprised but that’s when we realized one has power in certain situations,” she said.

Harts said make sure that what you’re advocating is something that really matters to you and not just a passing interest. She also makes a point of mentioning the need for courage. “That’s fear that’s said its prayers,” she noted.