Finished Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough, his biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Excellent, as he always is. Rather than covering his entire life, it focuses on the 17 years from 1869-86, or from just before his 11th birthday to age 28. McCullough shows how the sickly child became the rugged “rough rider,” in no small part thanks to his time in the Bad Lands of the Dakota Territory from 1884-86. (He went there after his wife and mother died on the same day in 1884, and on Valentine’s Day no less, although not sure if that was the special day it is today back then. His mother died of typhoid fever, his wife of kidney disease two days after the birth of their daughter.) The idea was to show how the man that we all know was made.
I thought I found a mistake when McCullough mentioned in passing that President Arthur installed the first elevator in the White House. I’d always thought that was Garfield. But looking it up, I see Garfield ordered it, but it wasn’t actually installed until Arthur succeeded him after the assassination.
Next up is The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, his novel about the Civil War battle of Gettysburg.
That’s actually by the late Michael Shaara’s son Jeff, who has followed in his father’s footsteps writing American military-history novels.
I’m on the home stretch of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which has big, interesting ideas about ecology and geopolitics, but sometimes laughable writing and a bit too much woo-woo spiritualism for my tastes.
Just started The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, nonfiction about which I’ve heard good things.
Finished Victory of Eagles, the fifth book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Outstanding, as usual. I judge how good a book is by how often I want to read a quote from it to my husband, but he’s two books behind in that series.
Started Life Itself: My Autobiography, by Roger Ebert.
Finished Some Kind of Magic by R. Cooper. The plot was good and the suspense and pacing well done, but the overall was pretty flat. For the first book in a series, there was very little world building and I had that uncomfortable walked-in-in-the-middle-of-a-conversation feel for most of the book.
That’s from ** 1776 and all that** by Leonard Wibberley, an incredibly short book that I picked up for free at Boskone this weekend. It seems altogether appropriate today.
I’d never heard of the book before. Wibberley , of course, I knew from his classic The Mouse that Roared, which I’d read, and which our high school performed as a play (and which got turned into another of those movies where Peter Sellers plays multiple parts). I also read the sequels The Mouse on the Moon (which got turned into a terrible movie) and The Mouse on Wall Street (not filmed, thank Og. There were two other “Mouse” books that I haven’t read). I’d stumbled across another of his books, but never read it. From the title, I’d expect a comic history, like the classic 1066 and all that, but it’s nothing of the sort. It’s a weird fantasy about Washington, Jefferson, George III, and Voltaire taking a holiday from heaven to attend an inaugural ball in Washington DC to see how well the American experiment worked out. It’s worth it mainly to see Voltaire’s reaction to modern America. An interesting, but quick, read.
From his name and subject matter, I’d assumed that Wibberley was a tweedy little Englishman, but the bio on the jacket says he lived in California. Worse, he looks like a lumberjack, wearing a plaid flannel shirt and with a full beard. Turns out he was born in Ireland, but lived a long time in the US. Another image dashed.
I finshed The Lost City of the Monkey God, a surprising amount of which turned out to be about the tropical infestation, Leishmaniasis that several of the expedition were infected with and which some still suffer from. It’s a parasitic infection, spread by sand flies, and it can be harrowing. Not only are the results potentially lethal AND scary as hell (Google it at your peril, and be aware that those pictures are not of outrageously unlikely pathological cases), but the treatment is pretty harrowing and not a guaranteed success. Granted, Preeston and company had a particularly nasty case, but the disease is incredibly widespread, and well-established in India, or instance. The disease predates the breakup of the continents, so it occurs everywhere, but has been kept at bay in part by cold temperatures. But global warning has allowed it to creep northward. There have been cases reported in Texas and even Oklahoma. Projections suggest that it could reach all parts of the US within 30 years, if current trends continue. Just another way that Global Warming doesn’t lead to the Paradise some CongressCritters suggest.
So in audio books it’s on to Scott Miller’s The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Beginning of the American Century
I’m still chugging away at N.S. Dokart’s fantasy Silent Hall and I’ve made pretty good progress through Leslie Klinger’s New Annotated Frankenstein. I finished the Chumbley book.
I meant to spend this long holiday weekend cleaning out closets aka cupboards, cupboards aka cabinets and general mucking out corners where detritus has accumulated like high tide on the beach (To wit, move the boxes I’m saving to the basement) however, I rashly downloaded another K.J. Charles book…and y’all know the rest.
I finished The Magpie Lord and immediately downloaded the sequel A Case of Posssesion…Kindle app thou art EVIL! EVIL, I tells ya!
I need to move my Stephen King books to a new bookshelf because I filled up the old one and he’s cranking out a few more this year. So I’ll have to go through all the books that are currently on the larger shelf, and I just know if I go in there and start handling the books I’ll be in there for hours and the job will be no closer to done.
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara W. Tuchman. LOVED this. It’s been a while since I’ve read anything about this period, though I am a fan. This was my first Tuchman book. I will read more from her. Death Wears a Mask (Amory Ames #2), by Ashley Weaver. Second in a cozy mystery series set in England between the wars. I like the setting, writing, and characters, though the plots are not always stellar. The protagonist’s husband is irritating me.
I finished this last night. I liked it more than I expected to! Well-written, and the main character didn’t annoy me nearly as much as I thought she would. Hardly at all, actually. If I remember, I’ll read the next book in this series (due for release in February 2019).
The single ecosystem that is the North American Great Lakes is one of the world’s natural wonders, and human beings have really screwed it up.
One issue is invasive species - the Saint Lawrence seaway allowed the infamous zebrea and quagga mussel from the Caspian sea to come in in the holds of ships. They now number in the quadrillions. And the Asian carp have been making their way up from the South.
And then there are the algal blooms caused by over fertilization, poisoning the water of Toledo. And climate change may be drying the lakes out.
The book does end on a hopeful note - fish seem to be evolving to handle invaders, for example. But it’s pretty grim.
The book is admirably well written and the thorough research covers history, biology, and politics. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in environmental issues.
I finished The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly last night. Loved it.
I was amused to read reviews that were offended because it dealt with evolution and those newfangled Darwinian ideas! And Calpurnia was negative about having no choices but “motherhood”!
I’m starting to wonder about some people. Just starting, mind you!
Welcome to jungle, mate.
I finished Flight of Magpies book s of ACharm of Magpies by K.J. Charles. It was a pageturner, or since it was on my tablet a page swiper. The whole series was great fun, good action, kinky male/male sex, magic and plenty of tension as well.
I got well stuck into Donald Ray Pollock’s The Heavenly Table this morning, which was silly of me because it’s more than overdue at the library. I’m going to let it go back, in part because I’m not up for a heavy dose of darkness right now, but I did enjoy it as far as I read. Elendil’s Heir, isn’t he your neighbor?
I’m currently reading Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner. It’s a sequel to Missing, Presumed. Both books are well written, a cut above the usual police procedural. Persons Unknown seems to rely too much on coincidence so far, but it’s compelling enough that I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Curious to see how everything turns out.
Oh God, that’s my Nightmare on Elm Street right there!
EDIT: My mystery shelf appears to have zeroed out… ugh, that’s probably the largest shelf I have! * in real time it covers one wall of my dining room.*
