WORKING: RESEARCHING, INTERVIEWING, WRITING by Robert A. Caro

As a librarian, I enjoy matching books with people. People I know often receive books for birthday or holiday gifts, and library patrons often get recommendations from behind the reference desk. When I saw this book reviewed months ago I thought it was a good match for me. I knew I'd be fascinated bay Robert Caro's writing and research habits, but I doubted I would recommend the book to anyone other than my nonfiction writing friends. The truth is, the scope of the book is much wider than one man's research habits. He has written two Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographies, and the reader gets to learn about those subjects by way of reading about Caro's research and interviewing practices. I suspect curious readers other than my nonfiction crowd would enjoy this well-written book.

I didn't know Robert Moses's name, but I sure know his work: he was behind many of the bridges, expressways, and other projects in the New York area. Learning about him was fascinating, and learning about his use/abuse of power was disturbing! The fact is, though, that his projects are his legacy and we use them now without even thinking of how they came to be or what might have been on that land where a highway or bridge approach is now. Who had to lose their homes? Why does a particular highway have that strange curve in it? Robert Caro describes the meticulous research he engaged in for this book along with the many interviews he conducted. His wife, Ina, researched along with him, and in some cases smoothed the way into interviews with Moses's contacts and and those of the second prize-winning biography, Lyndon B. Johnson.

In order to write the book on LBJ, Robert Caro announced to his wife that they would be moving to LBJ's part of Texas to see what it felt like to live there. They got to know the land and interviewed many people who knew LBJ when he was younger. Lots of secrets came out that hadn't been in other Johnson biographies, making Caro's multi-volume work unique. I often encourage college students to dive deeper into their research for assignments (and I'm picturing an Olympic regulation swimming pool when I say that), but Caro here dove into the deepest, darkest, coldest ocean for his research!

I was captivated by this book, even more than I predicted I would be. I gleaned some ideas for my own writing, such as "dressing for work" when I sit down to a day of writing. It is work in the sense that writers need to shut out distractions for optimal productivity, but it is not grudge work. I might try "dressing for work" when I carve out writing days. Caro writes in longhand as I do, at least for research and interview notes and first drafts. I like knowing that. But the item I liked best from his description of his process is that each chapter of his books has its own notebook. I think Caro and I would have lots to talk about.

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Summer is a time for reading. Although I have a list of books waiting for me that would stretch from Trenton to Belmar, NJ, sometimes I hear about something and just have to pick it up and devour it. Such was the case with How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, (Penguin, 2018), or, as I've been calling it, "The LSD Book." Michael Pollan is one of my favorite nonfiction writers, and as I'm working on an essay which might or might not tangentally mention psychedelic influences on music and art, I thought this book would provide me with a good background. It did that, and so much more.

I don't want to give away the whole book, but you can see by the subtitle I just mentioned that Pollan will be discussing how LSD and other similar drugs could be used to treat depression, anxiety, and addiction among other situations. Some folks claim it even helped them come to terms with their inevitable death (existential distress). All of that is fascinating. And well documented by Pollan, of course. We're not talking about LSD and psilocybin as party drugs here, mostly; psychedelics didn't get their illicit reputation until research money dried up in the 1960s and the drugs and the study of them went underground. For those interested in the brain science, it's here too, and it is clear enough for this Humanities person to understand.

What is especially fascinating in this book is that Pollan himself experiments with LSD, magic mushrooms, something called "The Toad," and other psychedelics, usually under the supervision of

an experienced ("sober") guide, and after conducting his usual meticulous research. (If someone said to him, "Michael, how can you make this story unique to you?" He nailed it.) As I, personally, have no desire to experiment with such substances (they are not without risk), my knowledge feels enhanced by Pollan's compelling, detailed, honest explanations of his trips. I can't imagine that he has left anything out. He details how he decides which substance to try, how much of a dose, and how he decides on the perfect guide. Surprising to me is how important the location of the trip will be. Novices are encouraged to bring items of their own into the environment and to choose music. (This is where the 'transcendence' of the subtitle comes in.) The process is fascinating before we even learn about how one becomes "one" with music or art or nature. That this kind of experience is being studied as a treatment for anxiety, depression, addiction, and other problems gives the drugs some credibility. You decide--don't believe me.

I was engrossed by this book from start to finish, and I'm pretty sure I told all the friends I encountered during my reading about it, eagerly. I read a lot, and I talk to people (lots of people), and I thought I knew a thing or two. But once I started talking about this book and psychedelics I learned so much more and had some intriguing conversations. You should read this book. If you've read any Michael Pollan before (The Omnivore's Dilemma or The Botany of Desire among others), you know that his prose sails smoothly through sparkling waters and you'll enjoy the trip (no pun intended).

Pollan is showing up all over the media and there are many interviews by reputable outlets on YouTube. Here's a short interview from CBS This Morning:

The Pine Barrens by John McPhee

I was never a scientist. I was only briefly a science student because it was required. Nonetheless, one of the most critical life-changing events of my teenage life happened because of a research paper assigned by a high school Biology teacher. All of the students in the class were required to write a research paper about the Pine Barrens region of our home state of New Jersey. My friend and I did not know how to approach this, so upon arriving at the Hamilton Public Library we mustered up courage to ask the reference librarian. Of course we expected her to be mean, aren't all librarians? We were so young. That librarian took the time to show us how to look up newspaper articles in the New York Times Index (big red books) and The Reader's Guide to Periodic Literature (fat green books). I had no idea that the library saved old issues of magazines and newspapers and could retrieve them if you asked for them with the titles, dates, and volume numbers listed in the big red and green books. This was huge. "Not all of the newspapers and magazines will be in print," she probably said, and I can make an educated guess about this because I've been teaching library patrons about these mysteries of knowledge for 25+ years now. "The newspapers and magazines we don't have in print will likely be on microfilm, like The New York Times which we have back to its beginning." I remember being stunned. We looked up the Pine Barrens, found the dates and pages we needed, and the librarian taught us how to use the giant microfilm readers similar to the one Brick added to his family's living room decor on the TV show, "The Middle."

The librarian had helped other students with the Pine Barrens topic, so she was able to recommend a compelling read about the region by author John McPhee. The Pine Barrens (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968) was the first nonfiction book that wowed me to the point of wanting to be a nonfiction

writer myself someday. First I had to study Music Theory and Library Science, and then I finally got around to advanced study in Creative Writing. (I received my MFA in July.) But anyway, THAT BOOK is so compelling that I bought my own copy with my allowance and savored it. McPhee told us about a certain treefrog that only lives in the Pine Barrens, and how the cranberries grow there in bogs where they are harvested by local residents called Pineys. Pineys work "the cycle" which is a string of jobs relating to the Pine Barrens environment including cranberry harvests, blueberry harvests, and sphagnum moss collecting. (Both berries grow well in the sandy soil of that region.) It was fascinating then and it is still fascinating now. The book might be somewhat dated, but it is still in print which should tell you something. McPhee's writing style includes interviews with experts on whatever topic, and I can imagine him asking at the conclusion of an interview, "Who should I talk to next?"

Read the book. I wouldn't steer you wrong, would I?

The reason The Pine Barrens is on my mind is that John McPhee, a Princeton native, has just released a book called Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process, (also Farrar, Straus and Giroux) in which he writes about writing. I love reading writing about writing. I'm savoring each essay, reading slow. Slow reading. Savoring. The second essay included, to my delight and fascination, a story about McPhee when he was preparing to write The Pine Barrens, and I hadn't formulated my nonfiction research organizing strategy yet, but oh how I wish we could have collaborated on that book!

that Pine Barrens book, and he didn't know how to go about it. There was so much information, coming from research, interviews, and observations, that he put himself flat on his back on a backyard picnic table and just thought about organization and about all that research. After a few days he figured out a strategy to mold all that information into a logical story, and he got up off the picnic table and went to his typewriter to write it. (Yes, he did leave the table to eat and sleep he assures us.) This fascinates me because it is a story about how a favorite author wrote one of my all-time favorite books. It delights me because I'm teaching an actual 3-credit nonfiction writing course next semester on how to organize research for nonfiction prose into a coherent story. I was 5 when McPhee was writing The Pine Barrens, and I hadn't formulated my strategy for organizing research for nonfiction yet. What an interesting conversation we would have had!