I Am Scout by Charles J. Shields

A perceptive newspaper reporter had remarked that To Kill a Mockingbird "is written out of Harper Lee's love for the South and Monroeville but it is also the story of a father's love for his children and the love they gave in return.

I don't remember what year in school I was assigned to read To Kill a Mockingbird, but I do remember it becoming an immediate favorite. For quite a few years, it held the ranking of my absolute favorite book and even now it continues to stand stall among many other books that have been claimed as favorites of mine. It definitely holds a special place in my heart.

So when I spotted I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee on display in my local Half-Price Books store, I was drawn to it. Of course I would want to read the biography of Harper Lee! Plus it had a typewriter on the cover, so there was no denying that I needed this book. Thankfully, my dad had already agreed to get me a book while we were there. You can rest assured that I was grinning from ear to ear as I walked out of the store clutching this book.

I wasn't disappointed. Before I read this book, I honestly knew next to nothing about the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, which is frankly unacceptable--at least in my book. I love knowing as much as I can about the authors I admire and I feel like that curiosity was sated by the reading of this lovely book.

Charles J. Shields does a spectacular job in answering all the questions a body could have about the much-loved author whose sole novel is a classic and continues to be read by thousands of students every year. I finished this volume feeling like every question I had was answered. Shields handled his material perfectly and with such an interesting and much-loved character as Nelle Harper Lee, that was absolutely necessary.

I have so much admiration for Nelle Lee and truly enjoyed the experience of finding out more about her and her creative processes, as well as the events and occurrences that shaped her into the woman she became. In many ways, I see her as a role model. She is the type of person who is exactly who she wants to be and is entirely unapologetic when it comes to being who she is.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very well-written and put together. If you enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird or just want to know more about Harper Lee, you should definitely pick up this book. It's certainly worth a good read.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Poking out from the branches was a white envelope addressed "Nelle." Inside was a note: "Dear Nelle, You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas."
"What does this mean?" she asked.
"What it says." They told her to total up what it would cost for a year to stay home and write full-time. The sum was their gift.
Several seconds passed before she found her voice. "It's a fantastic gamble. It's such a great risk."
Michael smiled. "No, honey. It's not a risk. It's a sure thing."

Once Upon a Time by Max Lüthi

The fairy tale takes its heroes from the remotest branches of society: the prince and the young swine herd, the despised youngest son or the clumsy boy; and the girl who watches the hearth or tends the geese and the princess. The fairy tale is also fond of other extremes and contrasts: dreadful punishments and splendid rewards, giants and dwarfs, mangy skull and golden hair, good and evil, handsome and ugly, black and white. Thus the fairy tale portrays a clearly and neatly fashioned world.

I went up to Texas Tech to visit my brother this weekend and one of the first places we stopped was the library (of course). Texas Tech has a rather large library, which was quite exciting for me. I immediately grabbed about six books off the shelves, but this was the one I begged my brother to check out for me. He did and I managed to finish it before the end of the weekend.

Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales was quite an interesting read. Published in the early seventies, it is a lovely text concerning what constitutes a fairy tale and why they are so important to us now.

Each chapter takes aside one or more fairy tales with similar thematic content and analyzes what sets it apart from other stories, such as local legend and saints' stories. This book covered everything from Sleeping Beauty to Repunzel, including plenty of stories I hadn't heard of before and even uncovering alternate versions that surfaces before the Grimm brothers or others like them.

I found every bit of this book fascinating. I will definitely be adding my brother's collection of Grimm fairy tales to my list of books to read and can hardly wait to get my hands on it. Fairy tales are timeless and classic. I would suggest this book to anyone who would like to see a little bit more into the creation of a fairy tale and the lessons we can learn through these stories.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But what, one may ask, does a child learn from being told such fairy tales? Should one really fill their minds with stories about witches? Yes, indeed, one must. The witches, devils, and villains of fairy tales are for children symbols of evil, and the child experiences through them the danger of evil but also learns that evil can be conquered or perhaps even transformed.

Top Ten Tuesday: Thought Provoking Books

Over at The Broke and the Bookish, they have this thing called Top Ten Tuesday. Each Tuesday they give other bloggers a chance to participate in making a top ten list with them. This week's topic is thought provoking books! I only chose seven this time around, though I'm sure there are plenty more I could add. Here are the ones I decided to highlight:

1) Paper Towns by John Green
Paper Towns is a personal favorite of mine for many good reasons, but one of the most important of those reasons is the fact that this book really makes you look at the way you perceive others. Throughout this book, the main character (Quentin) realizes that we tend to romanticize our friends and most especially the people we admire and look at them through those rose colored glasses instead of seeing them for who they really are. This is a discredit both to them and to ourselves. I loved that this book challenged me in the way I view others and encouraged me to accept them for who they are instead of who I want them to be.

2)The Cold Awakening Trilogy by Robin Wasserman
I think the Cold Awakening Trilogy easily qualifies for this list. The trilogy's main question permeates each of the books and begs the question: "What constitutes humanity?" Each of the books explores this question and really makes you stop and consider what it means while bringing up multiple other deep questions of morality along the way. 

3) My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
The PostSecret books are essentially collections of secrets that were sent in to Frank Warren anonymously, first as an art project and now as a worldwide community. Each of the books hold a plethora of secrets that allow you to see into the lives and hearts of people all around the world. It reminds you that everyone has a secret and that everyone's hurting.

4) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
In hearing the story of a girl who underwent a major traumatic experience in the middle her most impressionable formative years, this book lets the reader see into her head and her heart. It allows them to see how earth-shattering that traumatization can be for its victims and causes the reader to reevaluate how they treat others, because it reminds us that you can't always see what's hurting someone but that doesn't mean they aren't in need of rescuing.

5) The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
One of the things that makes the Harry Potter series so memorable and life-changing to its readers is the plethora of questions it asks its readers. As we read these books, we walk alongside Harry and his friends as they discover that the world isn't as lovely or fair a place as we perceive it at first. We see what drives them as they choose how far they are willing to go to reach an end and what means justify those ends. We are given the chance to see them fight for what they believe and lobby for the rights of those who are beaten down by others who are stronger and more outspoken. Rowling invites the reader to make these decisions along with Harry and therefore analyze the way we think and the decisions we make.

6) The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I think that nowadays it is easy to downplay the offensiveness and overall nastiness of racism, especially for those who haven't personally experienced racism or that type of stigmatism. It's also easy to believe that the issue of racism is outdated and no longer applicable to our time. Both of these assumptions are very, very wrong. This book reminds us that racism was beyond rampant less than fifty years ago. In fact, it was a household prejudice and widely considered acceptable. The Help reminds those of us who might have forgotten that this is still an evil to be fought against and one we ought to stomp out entirely.


5) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I am almost to the end of this book (the actual review ought to be up by the end of the week) and I am definitely loving it. One of the reasons I love it so much is the fact that it reevaluates the meaning of childhood and adulthood, as well as deciphering where the line is between being a good person and a monster. 

My Secret: A Postsecret Book by Frank Warren

"Let me tread my own path. Don't worry, I will be fine." 


PostSecret started out as an online art project by Frank Warren. He asked people to send in their secrets on artfully made postcards anonymously and he posted many of them online for others. It wasn't long before he was receiving more postcards than he knew what to do with. He still receives hundreds of postcards a day!

Since this project started, Warren still runs his website, which is updated every Sunday with new secrets, and has published multiple books with these secrets as the content. I've been wanted to read one for a while and finally bought My Secret on Amazon.

Wow! This compilation of secrets was just as good as I expected. There's something inherently soothing about reading other peoples' secrets and being able to identify with some or wonder about others; just as its soothing to send in a secret anonymously and know that someone else knows your secret, you don't have to bear it alone--you aren't the only one who's been through that.

This book is addicting and it won't take you long to finish. You'll want to keep flipping through, reading each new secret, until you reach the end. I have no doubt that I'll still be flipping through these pages, reading particular ones over and over again in the future. And maybe I'll send in a secret of my own.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"I lied to fit in and now feel more alone than ever before."

Nerds by David Anderegg, Ph.D.

One of the things that makes kids kids is their lack of self-consciousness, and one of the things that most distinguishes nerdy kids from non nerdy kids is exactly this quality, as we shall see later on.


Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them was written by David Anderegg, Ph.D., a child psychologist who was upset by the marginalization of "nerdy" kids and chose to do a study on what constitutes a nerd and why there is such a stigmatism associated with that particular stereotype.

This book was incredibly interesting. I love doing research on the topic of nerd stereotypes and especially enjoy the fact that researching nerd stereotypes is a quintessentially nerdy thing to do. Anderegg covers everything from the treatment of those considered nerds in elementary school vs. nerds in high school to  the tendency of the overzealous to incorrectly diagnose nerds with Aspergers without knowing what it actually means.

I didn't agree with everything Aderegg had to say, but most of it was both insightful and made you really take a step back and think about the way we condition our children through media and careless comments that we honestly ought to know better than to do. I know I was convicted about the way I use "nerd" as an insult at times, even though I mean it as a joke. I don't personally consider it an insult, but by using it as such, I perpetuate the negative connotation associated with the word and that's really not okay.

Overall, this was a wonderful book and I will very likely be reading it again in the next few years. I really enjoyed it and everything Anderegg had to say on the matter. I would suggest this to nearly everyone, but particularly parents of all types. Whether your kid is naturally popular or starting to operate under the label of nerd, you probably need to hear what this book has to say.

Lastly, no matter who you are--don't forget to own your nerdiness! Don't let anyone tell you who to be. You are amazing just the way you are. Nerds are awesome and we need more of them!

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As we have seen, the nerd/geek stereotype is not immediately comprehensible to our kids, and they need a fair amount of indoctrination to get it at all. But when they begin to be indoctrinated, they get messages that are awfully confusing. 

Conversations on Writing Fiction by Alexander Neubauer

"I think we can begin from the assumption that storytelling is vital to human health. It gives us workable metaphors for our lives." -Clarence Major


In Conversations On Writing Fiction, Alexander Neubauer gives us thirteen interviews he conducted with thirteen fiction writers that also happen to teach fiction writing. The result is an anthology of teachers who know what they're doing, spilling their tactics on how to encourage those who are trying to do something or achieve more with their writing. Each of these teachers comes from a different background, touts a different writing/teaching style, and comes at the writing of fiction from a completely different angle.

I had a little trouble getting through this book, but not because the material was particular disinteresting or difficult. For the most part, I really enjoyed it. I simply tend to have trouble following through with collections of separate works. For some reason, they always take me much longer than other types of books.

Even still, I feel like this book had a lot to offer on the front of improving my writing. I always enjoy learning from a new perspective, particularly when it comes to a subject I love as much as writing. The different perspectives were extremely helpful and gives the reader the opportunity to see each part of the idea of fiction in a new light.

I would suggest this book to anyone who wants to be a writer/teach writing, particularly anyone who might be thinking about taking classes or workshops in that area of study. It covers different methods of teaching that would be beneficial for particular students and is a good place to start when considering what one must do to improve their own work.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥


"Writing is like working out; you have to build up to your capacity and then go beyond that. And you have to keep doing that, again and again." -John Irving

This Year You Will Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley

Poets know that poems are songs, but few of us realize that novels are too.


This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley bears a tittle that is pretty self-explanatory. At the time of publication, the author had written twenty-seven books and decided it was about time he put out a guide to writing a novel in one year. So that is exactly what he did.

This book is very much like How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (which is to be expected, seeing as they have somewhat similar premises), only it was about general fiction and was actually shorter than Card's book.

Still, I found This Year You Write Your Novel to be largely informational and quite helpful. Mosley gives clear advice on things like creating character development as well as setting up routines that will help the writer develop his craft as best he can. His narrative is quick and to the point. He doesn't beat around the bush, but rather fleshes out exactly what it is every novel needs and every author ought to pay attention to.

I am very happy to have read this book and will definitely be trying out many of his tactics for keeping focused and determined in the near future. I would recommend it to anyone who is even thinking of writing a novel, whether their dream is to be a published author or it's just an idea. Some NaNoWriMo writers may want to skim this for a few good tips when November rolls around as well. *wink*

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥


In order to be a writer, you have to set up a daily routine. Put aside an amount of time (not less than an hour and a half) to sit with your computer or notebook.

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

The second thing you should learn from my example is that ideas come from everywhere, provided that you're thinking about everything that happens to you as a potential story.

I picked up How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy because I thought it would be a good book for writing advice and give me a little more insight into what it takes to write that genre. I'm mostly interested in fantasy, though I do like a good sci-fi novel, and I know my writing often sways in that direction as much as YA fiction.

This book covered all of it's bases. Card is very thorough in his teaching, going over everything from the difference between science fiction and fantasy to the technicalities of creating an entire world and the boundaries that must be decided and set for each one. There is an overwhelming amount of information concerning the audience an author in either of these genres would be catering to and how to navigate through the publishing of a book that isn't in one of the most common categories of writing.

Not only does this cover a great deal of information concerning science fiction and fantasy, but there was also a great deal of advice that could easily translate over to any other type of writing. Card coaches the reader concerning what drives your plot and how to make sure you're staying consistent with the story throughout the writing of it. He teaches how to be a better writer in general and even gives advice from one author to another on how to make sure you're keeping your life balanced in the meantime.

I really enjoyed this book and eagerly devoured its contents. It will definitely be one I'll want to leaf through quite often for tips and suggestions. Card really knows what he's talking about and is able to share it in a way that is relatable and in no way overbearing.

Any author/aspiring author who even has the slightest inclination toward science fiction and fantasy should consider reading this book. It was very informative and incredibly useful. I learned so much more than I could have expected.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The novelty and freshness you'll bring to the field won't come from the new ideas you think up. Truly new ideas are rare, and usually turn out to be variations on old themes anyway. No, your freshness will come from the way you think, from the person you are, it will inevitably show up in your writing, provided you don't mask it with heavy-handed formulas or clichés.

American Nerd by Benjamin Nugent

As of this morning, Wikipedia states that "nerd, as a stereotypical or archetypal designation, refers to somebody who pursues intellectual interests at the expense of skills that are useful in a social setting such as communication, fashion, or physical fitness." That sounds about right, but it's wrong.


I didn't expect to love this book as much as I actually did.

Being a nerd myself (both self-proclaimed and generally well-recognized as such), I burst out laughing when I saw the title. American Nerd: The Story of My People, it's a great title and one that had me hooked from the get-go.

From the moment I started reading this book, I haven't been able to stop talking about it. Every one of my friends has already heard a comprehensive synopsis, so this will likely be one of the most easily written book reviews I've ever typed up.

American Nerd is a quintessentially nerdy book in and of itself. It is, in essence, a comprehensive study of the American nerd, covering everything from the psychology behind typically nerdy people, the history of the "nerd", and even the racism inherently involved in the classification of nerds (most tend to be Jewish or Asian and described as being "hyperwhite" in personality).

This is definitely one of those books that makes you feel like you are basically soaking your brain in information, amassing knowledge like a sponge dipped in a glass of water. This is a feeling I have come to love and thus my experience in reading this book was even better because of it.

Nugent, a nerd himself, litters the narrative with real-life examples of those generally considered nerds -- from childhood friends to Renaissance CosPlayers, including the life experiences that lead them to making the choices they did and becoming the sorts of people that attend anime conventions and conduct meetings of sci-fi enthusiasts.

All in all, this was an extremely informative book that had me enthralled from beginning to end. This was so much more than I had expected and Nugent's take on different aspects of nerd culture were both eye-opening and intriguing. I would definitely recommend it.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


Jack Jenkins and Zack Malitz found in their debate community a way to rebel against what they considered an overly regimented high-school existence. Their nerdy activity was a way out of a cage of false certainties.
Then there are other nerds for whom order is not a cage, but a bright, clean Radisson in the snake-infested wilderness that is their daily life. For them, being a nerd is not a flight from an overly ordered existence; it's a flight from a life of fear and confusion into order.

Those Amazing Ringlings and their Circus by Gene Plowden

"Sure, it's a gamble," John admitted, "but so's everything else. You'll never get ahead if you don't take a chance. Help yourself or you'll never get helped. We're smart and we can do it."


I picked up Those Amazing Ringlings and their Circus because I was interested in learning more about circus life after reading about the tattooed men and women often displayed in circuses via Vintage Tattoos by Carol Clerk.

Those Amazing Ringlings and their Circus is an extensive biography of the Ringling brothers, how their circus started, and a retelling of it's fight to keep going until the very end. It was incredibly informative and I found it quite interesting.

The Ringling brothers started off with a dream that they could create a circus to rival those big names like Barnum & Bailey. To those around them, it seemed like a goal too far away to ever be accomplished, but those people were wrong. The Ringling brothers, as you probably are well aware, are still considered somewhat of a household name, though their circus went out of business decades ago. The Ringling brothers themselves had a hand in many different enterprises during their lifetimes. John, in particular, opened a museum, created portions of the national railroad, and helped discover oil in Texas.

Overall, it's quite an interesting journey of how one family affected our nation and also, how greed makes a person become something of a villain. John Ringling may be admired for his drive and business prowess, but he was a sad, bitter old man who died with few friends still at his side. It's rather sad, in all honesty.

This book is not for everyone. It's pretty straightforward in being presented as a comprehensive history of events surrounding the rise and fall of the Ringling Circus. It took me a while to get through, though the writing is easy to read and the history intriguing. I would suggest it to anyone who really has an interest in circus history and doesn't mind a longer read.


Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥


Since the early days, circus life had had no appeal for [John]; he was a front man all the way, who liked luxury and high living. Perhaps it was more than mere coincidence that he did not show up for business conferences until the fag end of the day. By that time most men had done a day's work and were tired, thinking of getting home to wives and childen.

Book by Book by Michael Dirda

At any age, but especially in childhood, books can transform lives . . . And what children behold, they become.


Yet again I've stumbled upon a book from the library that I literally have to buy as soon as I have the funds to do so. Barring Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable (which I am still currently in the process of reading), this is the book I have written out the most notes for in my book journal. It spans quite a few pages.

I'm a big fan of books that tout the importance of reading. I clearly love to read and I want to be a published author in the near future. Therefore, it follows that I very much enjoy examining this fascination I have for books and the way they really can change lives. Stop What You're Doing And Read This! was just that sort of book and I knew Book by Book would be quite similar.

It was even better.

Michael Dirda is a masterful critic and wordsmith in his own right. He begins by explaining his own passion for books and learning, how it was fostered at an early age and has continued to grow every day of his life. He explains that this book is, in essence, a collection of advice and life lessons gleaned from the pages of books and their authors, mostly concerning reading but also expanding to general advice for life in and of itself.

Everything about Book by Book was wonderful. Dirda has a poetic touch to his words and has become the type of teacher he touts as the best -- they type whose passion for what they teach inspires that passion in others. I may already have such a passion, yet even still, my passion seemed to feed off of his, giving me even more excitement for the topic at hand.

I would suggest this book for anyone who loves to read or is just curious as to why reading is so important. I assuredly benefited from the information I found in this small volume and I hope you will do the same. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm poring through this book a second time.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 


But it is impossible to read serious novels, poetry, essays, and biographies without also growing convinced that they gradually enlarge our minds, refine our spirits, make us more sensitive and understanding. In this way, the humanities encourage the development of our own humanity.

Patterning Works

I'm currently in the midst of reading Book by Book by Michael Dirda, basically a book written about the importance of reading and how books and learning change our lives. Look forward to the review of it soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share a particularly interesting passage at the beginning of Dirda's book. It is essentially a list of books one ought to read in order to have a good grasp of world literature and a firm foundation in one's reading.

I have already read some of these, but there are plenty here that I haven't arrived at just yet. Rest assured, they are now being taken into consideration when it comes to books I need to read in the near future.

Anyway, here's the passage. You may do with it what you will:

What should a person know of the world's literature? It has always seemed obvious to me that the great patterning works ought to lie at the heart of any structured reading program. By "patterning works" I mean those that later authors regularly build on, allude to, work against. There aren't that many of these key books, and they aren't all obvious classics. Here's a roughly chronological short list of those that the diligent might read through in a year or two. For such famous works you can hardly go wrong with any good modern editions, though for the Bible the Authorized, or King James, Version is the one that has most influenced the diction and imagery of English Prose.

The Bible (Old and New Testament)

Bulfinch's Mythology (or any other accounts of the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths)

 Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey

Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans

Dante, Inferno

The Arabian Nights

Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur (tales of King Arthur and his knights)

Shakespeare's major plays, especially Hamlet, Henry IV, Part One, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest

Cervantes, Don Quixote

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen

Any substantial collection of the world's major folktales

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 

Mobsters and Gangsters by LIFE

The Golden Age of the Gangster coincided precisely with Prohibition, then faded as the syndicate--the American Mafia and attendant or affiliated organizations--said emphatically: You're in or you're out. If you were out, you were butting in, and therefore you didn't exist, at least not for long.

This "book" came in a magazine-like form that I happened to notice a few months ago in Tom Thumb. I picked it up, leafed through it, and decided I had to get it. When the cashier gave me a skeptical look and questioned me as to why I was buying a magazine about mobsters and gangsters, my best friend was quick to inform her that it was research for a book I was writing. (This was true, but I've sense put that story on hold.)

It was about time for me to read Mobsters and Gangsters and I'm glad I did. This book (or magazine, depending on your perspective) is packed with biographies on America's most notorious gangsters and mobsters -- Legs Diamond, Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, and many others. Filled with fascinating details about the lifestyles and peculiarities of the gangsters that have made their way into legend.

This is an easy, quick read and insanely informational. The narrative was very personable and filled with detail. I learned a great deal about the gangs and mobs of old and how they transformed from loose memberships to full-blown syndicates in a little over a century. I would suggest this to anyone who is interested in the topic and wants to know a bit more. I was highly satisfied by the end, and I'm definitely eager to learn more.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Mobsters and gangsters go about their work--and play--with a certain sense of style. They celebrate themselves via their homes, their cars, their pinkie rings, their silk suits and, yes, their graves.

Vintage Tattoos by Carol Clerk

The tattooed lady and the illustrated man, long immortalized in songs and films, were staple 'freak' attractions at the circus and fairground sideshows that began touring their native lands in the 1800s.


Vintage Tattoos by Carol Clerk is a comprehensive history of tattooing in America. Filled to the brim with pictures and an abundance of information on the subject, it was quite an interesting read and much more informative than Tattoo (which I read last month).


Tattooing first started being showcased in the seventeenth century in the form of full-bodied tattoos on persons who were displayed in circuses. Both men and women participated in the practice by covering themselves in tattooed illustrations of all varieties. In other words, it was "Go big or go home."

As time passed, tattoos moved from beyond the realm of circus "freaks" to military men, sailors, and other hardcore types. These were often on a much lesser scale and were not done for the mere sake of illustration. These tattoos often held a meaning for the bearer or a reminder of something they ought to cherish.

In this way, the art of tattooing slowly became more and more accepted, morphing and changing into everything that it is today. This book explains exactly how these changes came to pass and the artists who became catalysts in that process.

Being somewhat of a tattoo enthusiast, I was eager to read this book and I was not disappointed. The pages of the text are filled to the brim with information and pictorial examples of the evolution of tattooing. I learned so much more than I expected, not having expected that much information to be crammed within its pages. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the art of tattooing and its history.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


". . . and I'd see a tattoo and it was hot stuff, and so tattoos meant adventure and travel and excitement, and that was my attraction to tattooing."

Tattoo by Dale Rio & Eva Bianchini

The urge to assert oneself goes hand in hand with a desire to challenge social norms and values, and to advocate different ways of experiencing feeling, and displaying one's body.


I picked up Tattoo from one of my library shelves because I'm a huge fan of tattooing. Art has always been fascinating to me and I have wanted a tattoo since I was a kid.  The idea of expressing oneself through permanent body art has a distinct appeal to me.

Tattoo is a collaboration by Dale Rio and Eva Bianchini about, you guessed it, tattoos. It is essentially a history of the art form, revealing the origins of the tattoo and what it meant to each culture it came in contact with.

The book goes on to explain and give examples of each of the most popular tattoo styles (such as blackwork and new school tattooing), how it's done, and finishes off with some helpful reminders for those considering getting a tattoo.

All in all, it was a light and easy read filled with pictures of some pretty fantastic tattoo work. I would definitely suggest this to anyone who is intending to acquire a tattoo, or to anyone who is simply curious about the art and how it originated and became to successful industry it is today.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥


It is significant to note that most early examples of tattooing are on women, which shows a distinct mind-shift through history, as until recently tattooing had become associated with men. In short, tattooing may once have been the sole preserve of females. The women of today who are being tattooed with as much confidence as men are simply reclaiming their heritage.