The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America

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The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America

By Lorri Glover and Daniel Blake Smith

Henry Holt and Company

ISBN: 978-0-8050-8654-6

4.75 stars

My original review of this book was very long and detailed.  Unfortunately, the file was corrupted and the book is back at the library so I don’t have it here as a reference while re-writing this review.  I like to write my own re-caps but I’m going to do something I normally don’t do — link to Amazon.  It has a bit of information about the book and I’ll supplement below from what I remember and add a few thoughts.

My history of the Jamestown colony is sparse, at least what I remember from grade/middle school, and I’ll admit that it’s mostly dates and names.  The drama of what Jamestown was about wasn’t covered in those far away history lessons.  Here, the story isn’t so much about the dates and times but the drama of Jamestown.  The Virginia Company, indebted to the King of England, was so worried about forfeiting their claim that they went out and recruited individuals that had no business being part of a settlement.  These were people looking for a way to escape the poverty and grief of London and the Virginia Company promised clothes, food, and shelter if they signed up.  Of course people signed up for the chance at a new life where they would have no worries and want for nothing.  Unfortunately, the Virginia Company forgot the simple things, like signing up people who could build houses, plant crops, dig wells, and hunt.  They were doomed.

The first group of settlers fared badly, fought with the Powhatan Native Americans, and ended up being starved out by them and then turning to cannibalism.  When the second wave of settlers arrived, they didn’t find any milk and honey, what they did find were open graves and starving, mad people.  When reports got back to England, the great public relations machine that was the Virginia Company kicked into high gear to mitigate the rumors and lies as they called them.  They even went so far as to stop the publication of a memoir of one of the survivors so they could go on recruiting.

Now, the Sea Venture was a ship in the second wave of settlers.  Unfortunately, it was caught up in a hurricane and crashed on Bermuda.  There the settlers found a land full of promise and riches.  There were birds, turtles, pigs, fruit and vegetables, and a land that was rich for farming.  They didn’t want to leave.  The leaders knew that their allegiance was to the Virginia Company and built two new ships to get them the short distance from Bermuda to Jamestown.  They arrived to a land of horror.  However, they were in a way, the saving grace of the colony.  Shortly after the arrival of the shipwrecked passengers, new ships arrived with provisions and people were, in a way, saved and the settlement preserved.

The interesting part of the story for me was the founding of Bermuda.  As it turns out, some of the travelers that landed on the island, which has been known as the Devil’s Island, told the leaders of the Virginia Company what a wonderfully fruitful place it was and the Company sent new ships to the island which was settled quickly and bountifully.  In a strange twist of fate, the Virginia Company which was losing money in the pit that was Jamestown made its money back in the first settlement of Bermuda due to the richness of the land.  So the Sea Venture not only gets credit for reviving Jamestown, but also for the settlement of Bermuda.

Since I’ve been feeling historically deficient this was one of the books that I picked up with the intent of fixing that need.  This one came through for me.  It doesn’t read like a dry history book but is filled with fascinating and wonderful facts that only made me want to read more about Jamestown and the Powhatan tribe.  There was not much discussion of the Powhatan other than their fighting with the first settlement and ultimate starvation of the settlers but the history there interested me and now I have a new subject to follow up on.

If you’re looking for something to fix a history craving, I recommend this one.

The Sunday Salon – Looking Back on DNFs

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In October, I gave up on two books.  That’s odd for me considering I try not to toss books in the DNF pile so easily.  Looking over my list, I was happy to see that up to this point in the year, I had only stopped reading three books.  Now, I’ve ended up at five, still not a large number but a slightly higher one than last year.  Here’s the list:

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch

The Clouds Beneath the Sun by Mackenzie Ford

Fire in the East by Harry Sidebottom

I had trouble with the stream of conscience type writing in White is for Witching.  I read some great reviews of this one and was sure I was going to love it but the writing didn’t appeal; I’ve never enjoyed this particular writing style.  I won’t be going back to this one.

The Greenlanders was dense.  The descriptions were lengthy, the names crazy, and I felt I should have been taking notes to figure out which Sven was being talked about.  I adore Viking stories, and while this one was different than I expected it to be, I plan to go back to it at some point.

While browsing the new arrivals shelf at the library, I came across Kings of the Earth.  It looked interesting — a death, family drama — but after the first chapter, I couldn’t go on.  It was too depressing, some of the characters were creepy, and I didn’t want any of them to spend time in my head.  I won’t be going back.

The Clouds Beneath the Sun. I talked about this book in this post if you’re interested.

Finally, Fire in the East.  I picked this up yesterday afternoon and was excited because ancient Rome is always a setting I love.  What stopped me?  The language.  I wasn’t expecting, “Halt, who goes there?” type of stuff but this was so far off that I started to get annoyed in the prologue.  Now, I have nothing against cursing.  You should hear me when I drive in the city, I could make a sailor blush, but the use of a particular four letter word that rhymes with duck at least once on every page in the prologue floored me.  Not because of the word itself but because I don’t think it was in wide use in 238 AD.  I didn’t google that so I could be wrong but it was so out of place that I began skimming to see where and how it was being used.  I put the book down and picked up another.

On another topic, I had a good week of reading last week.  I finished A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer, Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen, caught up with The Historian read along, and picked up The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis.

Enjoy your Sunday.  I’m off to do some reading.

Mockingjay

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Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press

ISBN: 978-0-439-02351-1

4 stars

I didn’t think I would be reviewing this book this soon.  When I put it on hold at the library, I was 48th in line and wasn’t expecting to even read this book before next year.  I was surprised when my hold came in much earlier than expected.  I also surprised myself by showing a tad bit of restraint by waiting until I finished my current read before starting this one.

When this book came out, I read all the reviews, even the ones with spoilers because I like spoilers.  I read the last few pages of this book before I was 20 pages in and knew how it ended which made reading the book much easier for me.  If I can’t figure out where something is going, I read ahead, but if I know even basically how it will end, I will stick to the process of turning each page in order.  I wanted to be able to read this book without being annoyed at not knowing so I took a few liberties at the beginning.  So what did I actually think of this book?

In the interest of not giving too much away and providing spoilers (I know not everyone loves them as much as I do.), I’m going to do a very brief overview and then move onto my thoughts.  With books in a series, I always find it hard not to give too much away since so much of the story depends on the endings of the previous books.

Katniss Everdeen, survivor of two Hunger Games, is now the symbol of the revolution against the Capitol.  She’s hurt physically and mentally and barely surviving day-to-day let alone a revolution.  Reluctantly, she agrees to become the Mockingjay for the revolution as long as she gets a few things: they rescue Peeta and the other Hunger Games participants that can be found, grant them immunity, and she gets to kill President Snow.

Great parts of this book left me annoyed and some of it left me underwhelmed.  The tension that built up in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire felt lost here much the same way Katniss was.  I wanted more than bombing raids and body counts and I wanted less of Katniss being in a daze hiding in closets afraid of the world beyond the walls she doesn’t even feel safe behind.  Once again, the story is told by Katniss but when she’s too busy twirling the bracelet that labels her mentally unstable to tell it to you, it suffers.  And, yes, the Team Gale/Team Peeta thing…I was so annoyed by this whole love triangle thing.  Kiss Gale one day, kiss Peeta the next day.  It was awkward and annoying and in the end she basically waited it out until one of them made the decision for her.  She became incapable of making any decisions or understanding her own feelings.

Now, that last paragraph doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book because I did.  The politics of the revolution are interesting, they have to be as the story pretty much runs on them, and seeing some of the old characters return was a nice touch.  It also moves fast, really fast.  It was an emotional ride and once it had you, kept you there wondering what would happen next.  I can’t in anyway say it was a bad read.  I was riveted to this book and thought about it for days after so obviously it had some affect on me.  Katniss is meant to infuriate and annoy and she played the role perfectly here.  Being the last book in the trilogy though, I think I was hoping for more, unfortunately I don’t really know what that more is.

If you’ve read the previous books in this series, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, you’ll most likely not want to miss this one.

 

My Favorite Reads – The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

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Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and this week my pick is…

The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe.

Description: The leather bound version that is my book does not have a description on the back or inside cover.  It’s a collection of short stories by the author, 61 stories in fact, and includes a number of his well-known pieces that many are probably familiar with such as: Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado among many others.

If you would like more information on Edgar Allan Poe, the Wikipedia page has a lot of information about his life and work, the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore allows one to read his stories, and Poestrories.com lists several as well.

My thoughts: Being that it is the month of October, I thought this book of short stories would be an interesting one to highlight.  At some point, we’ve all probably read a Poe tale or two, most likely in high school/college English classes.   When I’m craving a good, creepy story and one that will leave me wondering hours later, I pick this one off the shelf.  Earlier this year I re-read Ligeia and The Fall of the House of Usher both of which were originally read in high school.  I believe I also wrote a paper on Ligeia in college for an English class.

Each time I re-read these stories I find something new to appreciate — the use of language, the stillness of the stories, and the gothic nature.  I don’t think these stories are for everyone but for me they scream Halloween (yes, pun intended).

There is a Poe House and Museum in Baltimore that I have yet to get to but someday I plan to make the short drive up and visit.  He’s a writer that always seems to fascinate and give me the creeps.

DNF — The Clouds Beneath the Sun

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The Clouds Beneath the Sun

By Mackenzie Ford

Doubleday

ISBN: 978-0-385-52911-2

DNF

I began reading The Clouds Beneath the Sun by Mackenzie Ford and was very hopeful I would enjoy the book.  It was set in Kenya in the 1960s on an archeological dig.  The main character, Natalie Nelson, is a woman trying to escape her life in England, the suspicious death of her mother, a father who is blaming her for her mother’s death, and a failed love affair with a married man.  She lands in Kenya and is instantly taken in by a discovery in the gorge where the dig is taking place.  Shortly after the discovery, a colleague is murdered in the camp. Being the only person to see anything that night, Natalie gives testimony that will put her life, and the lives of her colleagues, in danger.  She also risks closing down the dig when tensions flare with the neighboring Maasai tribe who have granted permission for the dig to take place on their land.

The story began a bit slow but found its footing, and then somewhere between a new find and a love triangle, it faltered again.  I kept trying to find something of interest but it seemed as if I was watching the story take place in my peripheral vision instead of being invested in it.  I would pick up the book and after a few pages put it down again.  This went on for several days and then I began to realize that I was starting to write a DNF post in my head each time I looked at the book and that was when I decided it wasn’t going to work out.

Am I giving up entirely?  No, I’m not.  I think it was just the wrong time for this book.  It will go back to the library, but I plan to re-visit it in a few months and see how I feel about it then.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

This week, my teaser comes from Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen.

“But Eve had her own life, her own priorities.  She didn’t even know if she could help Catherine.  Should she become involved in trying to—” (47)

What are you teasing us with this week?

The Sunday Salon – Great Books

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I didn’t finish one book last week (more on that later) so why did I title this post great books?  Well, I get an email newsletter from the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) and all last week they sponsored Great Books Week.  I didn’t get a chance to participate but I thought it might be fun to take a look at the questions and answer a few.

Day 1: What book has had the greatest impact on your life? In what way?

This is a tough question and I don’t think I can answer this with one single book.  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was astounding.  I read it in high school and cried through a good portion of the book.  It made me scared and made me laugh.  I wanted to start it all over as soon as I finished.  It made me love reading.  Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott may seem like an odd choice but I have a soft spot for knights and ladies.  Also, I loved the way everything — and I mean EVERYTHING — was described in this book.  It can be extremely tedious at times but the description of Rowena’s dress as she walked in to a room (the green color and the way it moved as she walked) has stuck with me all these years.

Day 2: What makes a book great?

For me, characters make a great book.  I want to care about the people, laugh with them, cry with them, and get frustrated with their actions.  I want to feel their pain, understand their fears, and take a journey with them.  If I don’t, I have trouble with the book.  Yes, a book can be great for many other reasons — setting, plot, foreshadowing, language, etc. — but for me is has to be the characters.

Day 3: What childhood book captured your imagination?

This is an easy one — Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I loved the setting and at one point in my very early life I thought being a pioneer would be fun.  That was until I learned the pioneer life included a lot of camping.  Camping is not something I do.  I changed my mind quickly about wanting to be a pioneer but the stories stuck with me.

For Christmas one year my parents bought me the entire collection.  I remember reading them all over Christmas break.  When I finished, I told my mother that we needed to go to the bookstore and she asked me why.  I told her that I finished my Little House on the Prairie books and needed to get more.  I remember this next part very distinctly.  She was standing at the sink in the kitchen, she stopped what she was doing, looked at me and said, “Well, read them again.”  I was about eight years old and it had not occurred to me at this point in my life that you would re-read a book and I was totally fascinated with the idea.  And, being the little dork I was, yes, I did run off and start the books all over again.

Day 4: What book or books do you read over and over?

I’ve read Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen several times.  There’s something very lovely about both stories and each make me happy in their own way.  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is another that I’ve taken off the shelf more than once.

Day 5: If you were stranded alone on a deserted island, what five books would you want?

I don’t like narrowing books so I’m going to cheat, slightly, on this question.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  There are seven books in this series and each clock in around 700+ pages so they are perfect if a stranding were to occur when you have all seven in your suitcase.  Besides, a Scottish man in a kilt would be great company on a deserted island.

The Complete Works of Jane Austen.  This one is not really cheating as it is a collection of her stories all contained in one book.  I haven’t read all of her books yet but I know they would be great reading.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I never get tired of this story and know I could easily turn to it and be taken away.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I re-read these books this year and fell in love with them all over again.  I never get tired of this story.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The language is so wonderful that when I first read it I kept going back to re-read passages.  I took me forever to finish but was so very worth it.

Anything to add to the list/questions above?

Usually at this point I do a wrap-up of my week’s reading.  I don’t have anything to wrap-up since I didn’t finish one book last week.  It was a fairly hectic week for me and I didn’t have much time to spend reading.  I gave up on one book — The Clouds Beneath the Sun by Mackenzie Ford — and still haven’t finished A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer.  I’m enjoying it and I hope to finish it today at some point.  I also have to catch up on The Historian read-along since I fell behind this week.

Since I have a full day planned, I’m stopping here.  Have a good Sunday.

My Favorite Reads – I Am Legend

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Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and this week my pick is…

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

From the back cover: Robert Neville the last living man on Earth…but he is not alone.  Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood.

By day, he is a hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization.  By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

My thoughts: I know what you’re thinking…not another vampire book.  Recently, I featured The Historian, and yep, I seem to be feeling a theme.  OK readers, it is October, let’s all have a bit o’ creepy fun.  🙂  I know we’re all sick of the vampire thing but humor me — these are the GOOD ones.

I Am Legend is not your typical vampire book.  In fact, it’s more like science fiction.  (As a side note, this book was written in the 50s but takes place in the mid-70s.)  The world that Robert Neville lives in has been decimated by a disease and that disease has turned the world’s population into bloody thirsty fiends.  He spends his days alone trying not to descend into the darkness that inhabits his mind and of course vampire proofing his house and trawling empty grocery and hardware stores for supplies.  In many ways, it’s worse than actually facing the vampire hordes because all of what he experiences is more than possible without the vampire threat looming in the background.  The depression that comes from loneliness, the vampire-imposed confinement, and the vampire taunts that lull him to sleep each night only add to the tension.  In addition to being a vampire book, it’s also a psychological study into how much we as humans can take mentally.

The ending, and no I won’t be revealing too much here, is a strange bit of irony in that Robert Neville becomes the hunted.  I won’t say it’s a twist on the vampire tale but it makes for a much more exciting ending, at least for me.

Will Smith stared in the movie that came out in 2007.  Here’s the I Am Legend IMDB page if you’re interested.  I liked the movie but much was changed, and while it was good, I preferred the book.  Did you expect me to say anything else?!  🙂