Category: Lust To Go

Sense of the World

gr4c5Leave a comment

Roberts, Jason. Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler. New York: Harper Collins, 2006.

Roberts, Jason. Sense of the World. Read by John Curless. Price Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 2007.

Reason read: James Holman was born in October.

Fourth-born Britain James Holman was destined for the clergy. Instead, he got bit by the travel bug. Like any decent explorer, James Holman bucked authority. After inexplicably going blind at the age of 25 he refused to stand still. When doctors wanted him to languish in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean for his health, Holman instead ignored their advice and set out for France by himself.  Naturally Holman didn’t stop there. He joined the Navy to continue his travels through far reaching places such as Siberia and Africa.
Despite Holman’s remarkable ability to perceive the world as though sighted he was mostly viewed as a novelty and when he passed away his fifteen minutes of fame were quickly up. Roberts decided to resurrect Holman’s biography because he simply couldn’t believe the world had forgotten about this remarkable, yet blind, traveler. He best describes Holman as such, “Alone, sightless, with no prior command of native languages and with only a wisp of fund, he had forged a path equivalent to wandering to the moon” (p 320). Pretty remarkable.

I must start of by saying I learned a great deal from reading this book. For starters, I was unaware that there was a point in history when you could buy your rank: for a gold star on your uniform it would cost you an average of 400 pounds. On that same note I must confess I didn’t know what a phaeton looked like so I had to look it up.

Quotes I liked, “What nature wishes us to guard with care, it wreathes abundantly in pain receptors” (p 56), and “It was time to learn how to be blind” (p 67).

Author fact: Jason Roberts was a journalist at the time of Sense of the World’s publication.

Narrator & audio trivia: I couldn’t get over the way John Curless pronounced the word ‘lieutenant’. Must be the accent.

Book trivia: There are some fabulous portraits of Holman in Sense of the World. The coolest thing is for every portrait Roberts describes there is a picture to refer to.

Nancy said: Nancy included Holman in her list of travelers but disagreed with Roberts on the subtitle, How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler saying it is “somewhat arguable” (p 84).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the simply chapter called “Explorers” (p 83).

Beautiful Children

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bock, Charles. Beautiful Children. Read by Mark Deakins. New York: Random House Audio, 2008.

Reason read: As some of you know, my cousin was homeless and lived under the neon in Las Vegas. In October of a certain year he was found dead. Beautiful Children was read in his honor, but now I have a new event to memorialize: the Las Vegas concert massacre earlier this month. October is a cruel, cruel month and Beautiful Children is a cruel, cruel book.

I don’t know how to review this book. I was not expecting to dislike every character, even the missing kid, Newell. I hated that I liked him least of all. The premise of the story is twelve year old Newell goes missing on the streets of Las Vegas. Vegas gives Bock a huge canvas to work with. Think about it: the seedy and spectacular people, the gritty and shiny atmosphere, the ever-lurking potential for danger around every corner. It’s Sin City, after all! Bock does take advantage of the expanse of his canvas but not in a good way. It’s almost like he had too much space so he overfilled it with garbage. Story lines are jumbled and discombobulated. Like marbles scattering in a hallway, Bock careens from one time and place to another. Yes, there are criminals, strippers, homeless kids, drug addicts, pawnshop owners, gamblers, sex addicts, comic book illustrators, beggars, liars, thieves…all of them sad and pitiful. The center of this story is supposed to be focused on a missing kid. Yes, the parents are grief stricken and the marriage suffers, but not enough attention is paid to the here and now of that intense drama. Instead, Bock delves into what intense sadness does to to a sex life. There are no FBI agents anxiously hovering over wire-tapped telephones while hand wringing, pale faced parents look on. There are no episodes of pounding the streets, littering them with Have You Seen Me? fliers. Instead, Bock focuses on the underbelly of the beast; a world where pedophiles and pornographers feel at home.

Maybe it’s because I listened to this on audio. Maybe it’s because the sex scenes were practically pornographic. Maybe it’s because the story couldn’t stay linear for two minutes. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t find a character to love or even like. I suspect, if I look for the truth closer to home, I didn’t like Beautiful Children because, for all of his over the top, down and dirty descriptions of Las Vegas, when it came right down to it, he was describing my cousin’s last home. My cousin could have been that homeless kid on page 122.

Author fact: Charles Bock is a native of Las Vegas.

Narrator fact: Mark Deakins has appeared on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Never saw an episode.

Book trivia: Beautiful Children was Charles Bock’s first novel.

Nancy said: Nancy described the plot but also mentioned the sins in Beautiful Children are not the ones you would expect of Vegas.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple and obvious chapter called (drum roll) “Las Vegas” (p 129).

Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

gr4c5Leave a comment

Gilman, Dorothy. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970.

Reason read: to continue the series started in September in honor of Grandparents Day.

Once you get beyond Mrs. Pollifax’s naivete: her willingness to go anywhere on a moment’s notice, for example, you can’t help but fall in love with the retired widow. Never mind the fact that the last time she agreed to go somewhere (spur of the moment) on such an unknown trip she almost died several times over. When you catch up with Miss Emily Pollifax in The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax you learn she is now taking karate lessons. Small reveal (and big bummer for me), Mrs. Pollifax doesn’t use her newfound martial arts skills but she does fly a helicopter! See what I mean? Most of Mrs. Pollifax’s feats in Turkey are nothing short of incredible, but the overall story is fun. Can’t wait for the next one!

Confessional: there is a small part of me that thinks Gilman is poking fun at the CIA. More than once, the agency is two steps behind the enemy and seem more concerned with trivial things like how did Mrs. Pollifax lose her garden hat?

One of the best lines comes from Colin when he says, “…these men stole my uncle’s jeep, dumped a dead man in our garage and kidnapped your friend” as if it’s the most normal day in his young life (p 72).
Another funny quote, “But we must stay alive a little longer to annoy him, yes?” By all means, survive long enough to annoy someone!

Author fact: Gilman was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey same as her heroine, Mrs. Pollifax.

Book trivia: I am reading five of the Mrs. Pollifax series. There are fourteen total.

Nancy said: The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax is just the ticket if you are “looking for something a lot lighter in tone and mood that still gives you a sense of Turkish life and customs” (p 240).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Turkish Delights: Fiction” (p 239).

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run

gr4c5Leave a comment

Allison, Peter. Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide. Read by Antony Ferguson. Tantor Media, 2012.

Allison, Peter. Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2008.

Reason read: in honor of October being the death month of the first supposed for-hire safari leader, Major Sir William Wallis Cornwallis Harris (April 1807 – October 1948). Despite his young age and occupation, Harris did not die by wild animal attack. According to the interwebs, he died of a fever. What probably brought him down was the mini but mighty mosquito.

This is a super fast read. Only 245 pages long (and faster if you read at the same time as listen to the audio like I did), you’ll get through this in no time. Which is good because that will give you time to read it again and again. I know I wanted to! Allison can be hilarious but he can also be extremely poignant. What comes through the strongest, though, is his love for the wildlife in Botswana. Whether its wild cats or beautiful birds, Allison has a deep respect for all creatures he may take a tourist to see.

Two of my favorite quotes were close together, “No matter how many elephants I have stood up to, I am easily bullied by people” (p 173) and “I tend to give human characteristics to inanimate objects…” (p 176). I could relate to both of these statements. Some of you know the story of the Christmas cookies I couldn’t leave in a deserted parking lot.

Author fact: Allison was only supposed to stay in Africa for one year. He ended up staying more than a decade. Her may still be there for all I know. His bio at the time of publication said he split his time between Australia, Africa and the United States.
Extremely trivial trivia: according to the photographs in Whatever You Do… Allison is kinda good looking: boyish grin revealing big white teeth on a cute face…

Narrator fact: Antony Ferguson does a great job mimicking Allison’s Australian accent.

Book trivia: I’m pretty sure Whatever You Do, Don’t Run is Peter’s first published book. The print version has great color photos of Allison’s world.

Nancy said: Nancy called Whatever You Do… “awfully funny collection of essays about trying to herd human animals to safe viewing of herds of nonhuman animals” (p 43).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very straightforward chapter simply called “Botswana” (p 42).

O Jerusalem!

gr4c5Leave a comment

Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre. O Jerusalem! New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.

Reason read: Read in honor of Collins’s birth month being in September.

Critics have called O Jerusalem! “massive” and “epic” in regards to its number of pages, but the scope of its topic O Jerusalem is singular: the year 1948. The year in which British rule ceased in Jerusalem and Arabs and Jews picked up their generations-long battle over the region. Written in four parts beginning with November 29th, 1947 to December 20th, 1947, O Jerusalem opens with the General Assembly of the United Nations voting in favor of partitioning Palestine. Joy and dismay alike reverberate through the ancient land. For this is a fate Jewish Jerusalem had prayed for for over two thousand years. That fact alone is staggering. Think of how many generations have lived through this struggle! Their joy reminded me of the Red Sox winning the pennant after 84 years, “Uri Cohen, a biology student at Hebrew University, happily kissed his way from his home to the city center” (p 42).
This reads like a adventure novel. You get to know people (Uri Cohen will come back again, not as happily).  As a reader, you will crawl into their lives and almost get inside their heads. This may be massive and epic but you’ll hang on every word.

Author fact: Larry Collins was born and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut – just down the road from where I work.
Author fact: Dominique Lapierre was friends with Collins before they coauthored Is Paris Burning?

Book trivia: O Jerusalem! includes a section of photographs.

Nancy said: O Jerusalem! is included in a list of books Nancy says are all “certain to broaden your knowledge, increase your understanding of this part of the world, and be enjoyable (if sometimes uncomfortable) reads” (p 143).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “A Mention of the Middle East” (p 142).

Burton and Speke

gr4c5Leave a comment

Harrison, William. Burton and Speke. New York: St. Martin’s, 1982.

Reason read: September is National Curiosity Month. What better way to satisfy curiosity than to go exploring the source of the Nile?

Richard Francis Burton was a legendary adventurer who also had a reputation for being a great lover. John Hanning Speke also had a reputation for being an adventurer and a lover, albeit of a different kind. When they first met, Speke needed Burton in order to get to Africa. Luckily, Burton was already going that way. Burton’s mission in Somaliland was in four parts:

  1. Discourage slavery
  2. Establish a camp for later use
  3. Search for gold
  4. “Examine” the women to study their sexual practices

As with any expedition into the unknown, Burton and Speke encounter many trials and tribulations. More often than not, their equipment and supplies were either being broken or getting lost. Crews and guides were constantly deserting them. It didn’t help that Burton and Speke couldn’t be more different from one another when it came down to leading the expeditions. Burton prided himself on his intellect, especially when it came to native languages across the regions. (He would go on to translate Arabian Nights and  The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.) He had an understanding of the necessity of breaking down language barriers. Instead of brains, Speke valued his brawn, his hunting capabilities and his sheer physical strength. While Burton sought the company of many different beautiful women, Speke wouldn’t turn away a pretty boy. Their differences soon drove them apart and made them fierce rivals. In the end, it was Speke who discovered the source of the Nile but because he lacked the scientific evidence to explain how this came to be he was ridiculed and almost discredited. Richard Burton became faithful to one woman and became an anthropologist.

As an aside, I liked manservant End of Time’s name. That’s it – End of Time.
A cringe worthy moment – when the beetle crawled deep inside Speke’s ear and he went mad trying to dig it out with a knife.

Quote I liked, “Aloofness was a bore – especially when practiced amidst life’s frailties” (p 133).

Author fact: Harrison has written a bunch of other works, but this is the only one I am reading.

Book trivia: Confessional: I thought this was a nonfiction before I received the book.
It’s actually a historical novel.

Nancy said: Burton and Speke tries to solve an age-old debate of who found the source of the Nile.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explorers” (p 85). Pretty straightforward.

Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

gr4c5Leave a comment

Gilman, Dorothy. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. New York: Fawcett Books, 1966.

Reason read: September 10th is National Grandparents Day. In an odd twist of ironies, I am connected to someone who just killed his grandparents this weekend. I am in a state of shock.

Mrs. Pollifax is a bored, retired widow looking for excitement. So, what does she do? She takes a trip to Washington D.C. and inserts herself as a spy for the CIA. It’s really quite simple. They need an unassuming, nondescript individual to pick up a package in Mexico City and Mrs. Pollifax has nothing better to do but volunteer. What starts off as an innocent vacation turns dramatic when the package isn’t there and Mrs. Pollifax goes missing. It’s a hard-to-believe tale but one thing is for sure, Mrs. Pollifax is definitely unexpected. You will fall in love with her immediately.

Author fact: Gilman died on my birthday at the age of 88 years old.

Book trivia: Each installment of the The Mrs. Pollifax series takes place in a different foreign country. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax takes place in Mexico City, Mexico and an unknown location in Albania.

Nancy said: if you are planning a trip to Albania the perfect accompaniment for the trip is The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (p 12).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the ever so simple chapter called, what else? “Albania” (p 12).

Miami

gr4c5Leave a comment

Didion, Joan. Miami. New York: Vintage International, 1998.

Reason read: Here’s the whole train: Miami has an extremely strong Cuban culture. Fidel Castro was Cuban. Fidel Castro also had a birthday in August. Reading Miami to acknowledge the connection.

It took me some time to navigate Didion’s true focus for Miami. I was expecting an overarching, historical portrait of a city in Florida which is rich in culture and diversity today and yesterday. Instead, Miami started out as a tirade about how Cubans in Miami are often ignored (when they aren’t being misunderstood). Cuban ethnicity is left out of the equation when Anglos describe Miami. The naive gringos err on the side of stereotypes or misconception when trying to describe or name something that is uniquely Cuban. I wasn’t expecting this us against them narrative. It is more accurate to say Didion’s Miami is about the Cuban Exile Community, past and present. Didion moves the reader directly into the eye of a political hurricane which is in a nutshell government conspiracies and corruptions, the underbelly of wheeling and dealing like failed and successful assassinations. Organized crime and car bombs that go boom in the night. Bay of Pigs. Watergate. Ronald Reagan. Nightmares in the light of day. Sunny Miami.

I am distracted easily. Put in front of me a sentence that is too long winded and my mind starts to wander and my eyes jump all over the page, forgetting what I just tried to read. Miami is full of crazy long (in my mind run-on) sentences that drove me to distraction. Case in point: “On the morning of the anniversary ground was being broken for the renovation of the bungalow, an occasion for Claud Pepper, fresh from the continuing debate in the House of Representatives over aid to the Nicaraguan contras, to characterize the landing at Giron as “one of the most heroic events in the history of the world” and for many of those present to voice what had become by that spring the most urgent concern of the exile community, the very concern which now lends the occasion its retrospective charge, the “the freedom fighters of the eighties” not be treated by the Reagan administration as the men of the 2506 has been treated, or believed that they had been treated, by the Kennedy administration” (p 16).

Here is a short quote I liked, “To spend time in Miami is to acquire a certain fluency in cognitive dissonance” (p 99).

Author fact: At the time of Miami’s publication Didion had published a combined ten books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Book trivia: I was hoping for some good photographs of historic Miami but none were included.

Nancy said: Pearl said Miami had gorgeous writing (p 146).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the incredibly obvious chapter called “Miami and Environs” (p 145).

Pacific Lady

gr4c5Leave a comment

Adams, Sharon Sites and Karen J Coates. Pacific Lady: the First Woman to Sail Solo across the World’s Largest Ocean. University of Nebraska Press, 2008. Outdoor Lives. EBSCOhost.

Reason read: July is one of the best months to be on the water. Also, it is the month Ida B. Wells was born (7/16/1862). Ida embodied the spirit of empowerment for women.

In 1965 Sharon Adams became the first woman to sail from California to Hawaii in a 25′ Folkboat called the Sea Sharp. [Moment of honesty: I was unfamiliar with the term folkboat and had to look it up.] Adams had just learned to sail the year before at age thirty-four. Recently widowed she needed something to do; somewhere to channel her grief. Dentistry just didn’t cut it. What better place than the ocean? And then. Then, after that, she decided she needed to do more. Why not be the first woman to sail the entire Pacific ocean? Delivering a boat from Japan to San Diego, California in just under four months, Adams not only learned more about the natural environment around her but about herself as well.
Here’s the thing you need to know about Sharon Adams. She was just an ordinary woman looking for a hobby. she did something extraordinary not because she wanted fame but because she could. what I don’t think she realized is that she can write just as well as she sailed. Even though she had help from Karen Coates, every other sentence was begging to be a quote in my review.

Some of my favorite lines (and there were many). Here are two about loneliness: “Experience does not deaden the sting of loneliness at sea” (p 1) and “Some sailors simply couldn’t endure their own minds” (p 3).

Author fact: Adams was 78 when she published her memoir about her sailing adventures. I love her writing so much I wish she had written more.

Book trivia: the foreword was written by Randall Reeves and the preface was written by Karen Coates.

Nancy said: nothing special about Pacific Lady. It’s just in a list of books about the ocean. too bad Nancy didn’t have a chapter called “Women Doing Amazing Things!”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the obvious chapter called “See the Sea” (p 202).

A Moment of War

gr4c5Leave a comment

Lee, Laurie. A Moment of War. New York: The New Press, 1991.

Reason read: I started the Lee series in April in honor of the Madrid Festival. This concludes the series.

As a impressionable young man Lee wanted to fight alongside the Spanish as a volunteer during their civil war in 1937. He made the trek across the Pyrenees expecting Spain to welcome him to the conflict with arms wide open. Much to his surprise he was immediately arrested as a spy. So begins Lee’s memoir of a naive coming of age in wartime Spain. Throughout this short little memoir Lee’s disillusionment becomes stronger and stronger until when he is finally sent home he has this last parting shot: “Here were the names of the dead heroes, piled into little cardboard boxes, never to be inscribed later in official Halls of Remembrance” (p 174). Sad.

Favorite quotes, “We were young and had expected a welcome of girls and kisses, even the prospect of bloodless glory; not till the Commander had pointed it out to us, I believe, had we seriously considered that we might die” (p 59).

Book trivia: A Moment of War is really short, only 176 pages. I read this in a weekend.

Author fact: Laurie Lee had a love affair with poetry.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Spain” (p 220).

Provence

gr4c5Leave a comment

Ford, Madox Ford. Provence: From Minstrels to the Machine. New York: Ecco Press, 1979.

Reason read: Ford died in the month of June in 1939.

Provence should be considered a travel book which follows the Great Trade Route “from China…to the Scilly Isles.” Aside from that, Provence is Ford’s love letter to the region. He and his travel companion will introduce you to the way to find good food in the south of France…even a good haircut.
In truth, I found Provence a bit on the didactic side. Short of being downright boring I thought it was a slow read. In the end, I ended up not finishing it.

Line that got to me the most, “But when the period of depression has been long and anxieties seem to be becoming too much for me, I make a bolt for Provence” (p 40). I get that. I’m like that about Monhegan.

Author fact: Ford had an interesting point of view concerning repeating material in different books. He felt you should have all new content in each book. So, the story he told in a previous book should not be repeated in consideration of “commercial morality” (p 14). A more trivial author fact is that Ford changed his name. That was a disappointment to learn. I liked the symmetry of Ford Madox Ford.

Book trivia: According to Ecco Press Provence in one of the neglected books of the 20th century. Another piece of trivia: illustrations in Provence were credited to someone named “Biala.” “Biala” is Mrs. Janice “Biala” Brustlein who, according to Nancy Pearl, was Ford’s lover…as they were both married to other people.

Nancy said: Nancy called Provence a “lovingly written account” (p 186).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Provence and the South of France” (p 186).

Under the Gypsy Moon

gr4c5Leave a comment

Thornton, Lawrence. Under the Gypsy Moon. New York: Doubleday, 1990.

Reason read: Federico Garcia Lorca was born in June (1898).

Despite being a little over 210 pages long, Under the Gypsy Moon packs a powerful punch. Magical realism flows in and out of historical events creating a spellbinding and dramatic love story. Joaquin Wolf becomes a politically motivated writer after the Spanish Civil War. He meets and begins a relationship with narrator, Ursula Krieger, who carries her own demons of war. Together they struggle against fascism using Federico Garcia Lorca as a their guide. His poetry is the symbol of courage they embrace, allowing them to rise above the despair.

Line I liked, “Poverty gnaws at the body before it feasts on the mind” (p 54).

Author fact: Thornton also wrote Imagining Argentina, also on my list.

Book trivia: Under the Gypsy Moon is short, barely over 200 pages. I read it in a weekend.

Nancy said: Under the Gypsy Moon is one of two fictions in which Guernica plays a part.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called simply “Guernica” (p 89).

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

gr4c5Leave a comment

Lee, Laurie. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. New York: Atheneum, 1969.

Reason read: the Madrid Festival in Spain (obviously) happens in May.

Confessional: Once again I am reading books out of order! Dammit, dammit, dammit. When I planned to read As I Walked Out I had no idea Cider with Rosie was the first book in a trilogy memoir. No clue! Pearl does not make mention of the connection even though Moment of War (the third and final book of the memoir) is also included in Book Lust To Go. As an aside, Cider is listed in the index of More Book Lust. Again, I did not make the connection.

Laurie Lee left home in England to find, at the very least, fame and fortune as a musician. With mixed emotions he found he could make a dime on street corners but had to supplement his income with other vocations like construction work before moving on to his next adventure. At the heart of his journey was discovery; as he put it, “I felt it was for this I had come: to wake at dawn on a hillside and look out on a world for which I had no words, to start at the beginning, speechless and without a plan, in a place that still had no memories for me” (p 54). Most of his discovery takes place in Spain. As an aside, I loved his description of Madrid as an old lion with broken teeth and bad breath. As I Walked Out… ends with Lee being escorted out of Spain by a British destroyer and yet by summer he was fixated on getting back to Spain to join the war.

Quotes that gave me pause, “I was affronted by freedom” (p 6), “Such a narrow gap between consent and dispute” (p 45) and “Halfway up, in a recess, a small pale child sat carving a potato into the shape of all doll, and as we approached, she turned, gave us a quick look of panic, and bit off its little head” (p 93). What’s that all about? One last quote, “Fear lay panting in the street like a dog” (p 219).

Author fact: Lee was the youngest of twelve in his family. But probably the most fascinating fact about LL is that he met his wife when she was five years old and neither could understand the other’s language (she French, he English).

Book trivia: As I Walked Out… was illustrated by Leonard Rosoman. One of my favorite illustrations is on page 50.

Nancy said: As I Walked Out… is included in a list of books about Spain Nancy said should be tried (p 220).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Spain” (p 218).

Lusitania

gr4c5Leave a comment

Preston, Diana. Lusitania: an Epic Tragedy. New York: Walker & Company, 2002.

Reason read: on May 7th, 1915 the Lusitania was torpedoed on her 101th journey from New York to Liverpool, England. This reading is in honor of that horrific anniversary, 102 years later.

1915 – the year when everyone was in competition to see who could build the biggest, the fastest, the safest, the most stylish luxury ocean liner on the Atlantic. In the meantime, war was underway so another group was trying to build the fastest, the safest, the most stealthy and deadly underwater vessel called a U-boat. On May 7th, 1915 these two ocean vehicles would come together and make controversial history and spark one of World War I’s biggest mysteries. In 1915 the British vessel the Lusitania was the fastest passenger liner on the ocean. It was rumored to be able to outrun any U-boat enemy. However, what is fascinating about Diana Preston’s version of events is the amount of suspense she builds in the telling. I found myself questioning what I would do if I was set to board a British passenger ship, knowing full well its country was at war and the enemy had just issued a warning to passengers (to me!) stating they would attack my mode of transportation. In addition, I had options. There were neutral American boats going the same way.
I enjoyed Preston’s Lusitania so much I sought out documentaries about the May 7th, 1915 sinking to learn more.

Cache of worthless information:

  • Admiral Lord John Arbuthnot “Jackie” Fisher would have been a solid contender on Dancing with the Stars.
  • Admiral Lord Charles Beresford had a hunting scene tattoo across his buttocks “with the fox disappearing into the cleft” (p 19). Thank you for that image, Ms. Preston!
  • Businessman Elbert Hubbard’s wife’s preoccupation with potted plants got on his nerves.

Quote to quote, “A disaster always seemed necessary to bring about safety improvements (p 59). Isn’t that always the case?
Here’s another interesting quote, “A group of bellboys had spent the night before sailing electrocuting rats…” (p 133).
But, the most devastating quote to me is, “The German government regretted that the American passengers had relied on British promises rather than heeding German warnings” (p 334).

As an aside, I enjoy when a book educates me further on things I wasn’t aware I needed to know. Reading Lusitania prompted me to look up Leonardo Da Vinci’s underwater suit. I wanted to know more about Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. His portrayed him as a dashing man.

Author fact: There is a saying out there, “stick to what you know” and Preston certainly subscribes to that point of view. She has written four other books about the sinking of the Lusitania. None of these, nor any other Preston books, are on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: at first glance Lusitania: an epic tragedy is a hardy 438 pages long. In reality, its text is more like 380 pages once you remove all the awesome photographs, maps and diagrams. There are 80 photographs, 5 maps, 7 illustrations and 5 diagrams in total.

Nancy said: Nancy called Preston’s account “fittingly moving” (p 76).

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Dewey Deconstructed: 900s” (p 76).

Coming into the Country

gr4c5Leave a comment

McPhee, John. Coming into the Country. New York: The Noonday Press, 1977.

Reason read: in four months I will be visiting Alaska. I thought I would start reading about it now.

There is a little bit of all things Alaskan in Coming into the Country. To name a few: the trials and tribulations of traveling rivers via kayak, the must-know laws of sport fishing (for example, fishermen are prohibited from catching fish by anything but mouth. Who knew?), Juneau is two time zones away from Anchorage. There’s more: McPhee details the nature of Grizzly bears, the techniques of placer mining, the bickering over the new location of the state capital, marriage and survival, and my favorite, the people of Alaska (transplant and not). The people you meet in Coming into the Country are phenomenal.

As an aside, Pearl may have called Coming into the Country a “classic” but in a timely twist, the boom of oil in Alaska is anything but old news.

Quotes I liked, “The best and worst part of catching that fish was deciding to let it go” (p 77) and “On days when the mail plane does not come, the human atmosphere is notably calmer than it is now” (p 199).

Author fact: I already told you McPhee has a huge list of books he has written. And I already told you I have six of them on my Challenge list. I already reviewed “Crossing the Craton” a few years ago.

Book trivia: There are no photographs in Coming into the Country but there are several different helpful maps.

Nancy said: Nancy called Coming into the Country a “classic” (p 15).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “All Set For Alaska” (p 15).