Copies in Seconds by David Owen

First sentence:

"We ourselves are copies."

Description:

"The first plain-paper office copier--which was introduced in 1960 and has been called the most successful product ever marketed in America--is unusual among major high-technology inventions in that its central process was conceived by a single person. David Owen's fascinating narrative tells the story of the machine nobody thought was needed but now we can't live without.

Chester Carlson grew up in unspeakable poverty, worked his way through junior college and the California Institute of Technology, and made his discovery in solitude in the depths of the Great Depression. He offered his big idea to two dozen major corporations -- among them IBM, RCA, and General Electric -- all of which turned him down. So persistent was this failure of capitalist vision that by the time the Xerox 914 was manufactured by an obscure photographic-supply company in Rochester, New York, Carlson's original patent had expired. Xerography was so unusual and nonintuitive that it conceivably could have been overlooked entirely. Scientists who visited the drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes doubted that Carlson's invention was even theoretically feasible.

Drawing on interviews, Xerox company archives, and the private papers of the Carlson family, David Owen has woven together a fascinating and instructive story about persistence, courage, and technological innovation -- a story that has never before been fully told." - from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I found this to be a fascinating read about the ways new ideas take hold in not only someone's mind but in our lives. Carlson's determination and drive plus the hard work from others, particularly the Haloid company executives and employees, brought this untested idea into life. I especially liked the part concerning the makeshift building of the first Xerox 914 copiers and how they expected the average use to be about two thousand copies per month and were surprised that it was at least four times that amount. Owen also clearly describes the history of writing, the printing press, and other forms of duplication.

Date read: 6/12/2026
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0743251172
ISBN-13: 9780743251174
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Year: 2004
# of pages: 306
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

 First sentence:

"There was an old Jew who lived at the site of the old synagogue up on Chicken Hill in the town of Pottstown, Pa., and when Pennsylvania State Troopers found the skeleton at the bottom of an old well of Hayes Street, the old Jew's house was the first place they went to."

Description:

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing development, the last thing they expected to uncover was a human skeleton. Who the skeleton was and how it got buried there were just two of the long-held secrets that had been kept for decades by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side, sharing ambitions and sorrows.

Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served he neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated he town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents--roused by Chona's kindness and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin--banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town's establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community--heaven and earth--that ultimately sustains us." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a very good book about community, compassion, strife and courage in facing adversity. I liked the characters - well most of them except for Doc and Gus Plizska. I especially liked Moshe and Chona and their relationship with Nate and Addie. I also liked how people worked together to help Dodo.

Date read: 4/26/2026
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5

ISBN-10: 0593422945
ISBN-13: 9780593422946
Imprint: Riverhead Books
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Year: 2023
# of pages: 381
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page