Julie Klam

The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters by Julie Klam. The subtitle pretty much says it all, "A True Story of Family Fiction." Although the author is a novice at family research she does manage to discover that most of what she heard about the legendary Morris sisters was indeed fiction. The author tells an interesting story and points out an important lesson for all family researchers, both novice and experienced. It really is important to research everything you hear in family stories to dig down and discover the real truth behind them.… (mehr)

I bought this book because I too am researching my family and was interested in others’ experiences. The book overall was ok, although it became clear pretty quickly there really isn’t a lot of information on the Morris sisters. Another reviewer addresses this issue well, but the tone was very out of step with the subject matter. Glib comments about institutionalization and Communism in Romania didn’t land well for me. And while she addresses her deficiencies as a researcher, it was really frustrating reading about some of her naïveté.

What killed me though was page 227:
She got the wills of the sisters, threw them into a pile, and then wondered how to find the death certificates months later?!?!?!? I could not understand why you wouldn’t read over the wills in detail, especially when someone went out of their way to acquire them for you. So, so silly.

I don’t regret reading this book, though—I did come away with a couple new ideas for my genealogical research, and the chapters on her research trips to St Louis and Romania were the most interesting and vivid in detail. This book could’ve been better, though.… (mehr)

I didn't intend to read this one so soon on the heels of Dog Days: A Year with Olive & Mabel, but a hold at the library came in sooner than expected, so I needed to get on with it before it expired. Klam is a dog lover through and through, but I didn't quite connect with her story as much as I hoped I would. Perhaps because she lives on the Upper West Side of New York City, perhaps because her dog breed of choice is the Boston Terrier, one of those bulgy-eyed, snub-nosed dogs (see the book cover) that aren't my favorite canine type, and perhaps because her doggy relationships seemed quite a bit more chaotic and involved way more biting than I would personally tolerate.

Still, her stories of working with a rescue group for Boston Terriers was quite moving and she had some insightful things to say about letting the search for a perfect "furever" home gets in the way of finding a good fit between animal and human. Klam writes with a great deal of humor but can also deliver a straight line when the situation requires. Overall, a good book that fell short of the "drowning into a puddle of cuteness while reading" standard that I hold for all books about dogs.… (mehr)