Good evening and welcome to another episode of Inside the Cover I am Ted Ayres and I look forward to yet another opportunity to visit with our PBS Kansas audience about books and reading an opportunity to lead your virtual book club here in South Central Kansas.

Tonight's book is The Boo of Charlie by David Von Drehle.

It is now time to go inside the cover.

David Von Drehle is an opinion columnis for The Washington Post, a prize winning magazine write and the author of several books.

He lives in suburban Kansas City and I'm guessing Johnson County with his wife, journalist Karen Ball.

The couple have four children, and Von Drehle tells us in the first chapter that he decide to write “a book for my children that would unlock the secrets of life.” He wanted to give his children the tools for resilience and equanimity and provide them with the means to thrive and find happiness while experiencing the disruption, dislocation and uncertainty of life in the 21st century.

But he was surprised to realize that the wellspring of such a book lived right across the street.

Charles Herbert “Charlie” White.

I found Von Drehle to be an engaging writer with a gift for words and an ability to incorporate an immense amount of factual and historical information into the book, while nevertheless weaving a very personal and touching story.

You can look at this photograph and see how many pages are marked as potential sources of information, personal stories, discovery and human drama that I wanted to share with you tonight.

Dr. Charlie White truly had an amazing life.

He arrived in Kansas City in the early 1900s, and one of his early memories was watching the construction of Kansas City's new Union Station.

Shortly after the family's arrival, Charlie lost his father to a tragic and gruesome accident.

He graduated from high school two years early, and he graduated from th University of Missouri in 1927.

After an initial rejection, Charlie convinced the dean of the medical school at Northwestern University to admit him.

He became a doctor practicing in Kansas City during the Depression.

He served in the military during World War II and became one of medicine's first anesthesiologists, after a three month immersion course at the Mayo Clinic.

Charlie had three wives and a foxy girlfriend at age 102.

There is so much about this magical life that Von Drehle shares.

Here is a sample from page 115.

“It's not right to say tha Charlie was finally on his own.

He had been on his own a long time when he drove halfway across the country on rutted roads and surfed freight trains home at 16 when he made himself a musician by listening to the radio and turned that little career into a college education and a voyage halfway around the world.

When he delivered babies and watched patients die and pumped his own blood into a Chicago gangster.

Von Drehle certainly succeeded with his goal of writing an important book for his children and doing so has provided an inspirational book for all of us, a book about lif and the importance of outlook.

In summary from Charlie himself.

Here are some of the keys to living a successful and meaningful life.

A lif much longer than the statistics say is possible: Think freely.

Practice patience, smile often.

Savor special moments.

Feel deeply, observe miracles and make them happen.

Be soft sometimes.

Cry when you need to.

Make some mistakes.

Learn from them.

And as Charlie told Von Drehle... Be lucky.

Tonight's book has been The Book of Charlie by David Von Drehle.

It's a wonderful and inspirational book that I hope you will rea and share with those you love.

Goodnight.