Non-Fiction

My Favorite Reads – The Wordy Shipmates

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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 Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell.

From the inside cover: To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Vowell investigates what that means — and what it should mean.  What was this great political enterprise all about?  Who were these people who are considered the philosophical, spiritual, and moral ancestors of our nation?  What Vowell discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoe-buckles-and-corn reputation might suggest.  The people she finds are highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty.  Their story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance.  Along the way she asks:

Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christ-like Christian, or conformity’s tyrannical enforcer?  Answer: Yes!

Was Rhode Island’s architect, Roger Williams, America’s founding freak or the father of the First Amendment?  Same difference.

What does it take to get that jezebel Anne Hutchinson to shut up? A hatchet.

What was the Puritan’s pet name for the Pope? The Great Whore of Babylon.

Sarah Vowell’s special brand of armchair history makes the bazaar and esoteric fascinatingly relevant and fun.  She takes us from the modern-day reenactments of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from the old-timey Puritan poetry, where “righteousness” is rhymed with “wildness,” to a Mayflower-themed waterslide.  Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America’s most celebrated voices.  Thou shalt enjoy it.

My thoughts: One caution about the book — if you’re looking for a purely historical read, you won’t find it here. A short book, only 254 pages, it reads more like a dissertation rather than an in-depth historical look at the time period. Her topic is well focused and she doesn’t divert from what she has set out to research — the letters of the men inhabiting the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Don’t get me wrong, what she does fill the page with are wonderful and witty insights that will make you laugh about the sheer silliness of history.

She talks about the sometimes trifling events that made America what it is today and includes a few road trips to examine some things first hand.  While she doesn’t provide much in terms of the history of the very early Puritans, her work is focused on the words of the men (let’s be honest, it was all about the men at the time), one is left with an odd but very insightful interpretation of the types of people who were setting out to found a new land.

Vowell has a few other books out, one in particular called Assassination Vacation that I want to read.  She has a great sense of humor and can make a topic like the Puritans seems like a comedy.

The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea

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The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea

By Philip Hoare

Ecco: Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 978-0-06-197621-6

4 stars

I’ve always been fascinated by whales — the size, intelligence, and grace of such large animals. As a child I wanted to be a marine biologist, a dream I’m sure that was prompted by a childhood trip to Sea World but that’s a story for another time.

Philip Hoare is an interesting writer. He’s clearly a man in love with his subject and that I can appreciate. He has the same childlike fascination I have with whales and that’s what drove me to this book. Hoare’s also a man obsessed with Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, something I am not. Following Ishmael’s footsteps — yes, the infamous “Call me Ishmael” character of the named book — he takes the reader on a journey to quench a lifelong interest and come to an understanding with an animal we humans only understand through their death.

Interweaving a lot of Melville throughout the first part of the book, it feels a bit like a literature lecture of sorts. While I found Melville’s relationship with Nathanial Hawthorne during his years of writing his famous tome to be somewhat relevant, I also felt like I wanted him to get on with the whale talk. Maybe I was expecting something more scientific but I can’t say that the first part intrigued me as much as the last.

He does get into whaling and what it meant for the world in general and I have to admit that I didn’t really know there were so many uses for a single whale. It’s so much more than just the oil and meat but the skins for shoes, intestines for laces, ambergris for perfume. If you don’t know what ambergris is, well, it’s whale poo. Anyway, I was somewhat aware of the enormous carnage whaling created but when put in terms of lighting Victorian England, the need for whale oil seemed so much more destructive. For a species with no natural enemies, man managed to become the death of these creatures.

I wanted to be blown away by this book and in many ways I was but it also felt like I was left wanting more. It’s a travelogue of sorts and you follow Hoare on his quest to find the meaning of the whale to him. While I found it interesting, I felt it didn’t do much for my quest.

There are some very good facts and he has done his research well casting himself far and wide to discover everything he can from early whaling to the modern day culling to the science of whales. At one point he even communes with a few trying to understand them better.

It’s a good book and a great look at creatures we know so little about. I’m glad to have read it. Hoare has an evocative style that makes you want to turn and ask him a question while reading. This style, even if you have no interest in whales, is enough reason to read this book.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Last Tuesday I slept late and missed the teasing so this week, it’s TWO teasers. And, since I’m reading a non-fiction book and I like the fiction teasers more, I thought I would do one from my current read and one from my next read.

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.

First up, The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare.

“Perhaps it is because I was nearly born underwater.

A day or so before my mother was due to give birth to me, she and my father visited Portsmouth’s naval dockyard, where they were taken on a tour of a submarine.” (1)

Next on the ever voluminous TBR, Kraken by China Miéville.

“The sea is full of saints. You know that? You know that: you’re a big boy.” (10)

What are you teasing us with this week?

My Favorite Reads – The Fate of the Elephant

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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 Fate of the Elephant by Douglas H. Chadwick.

From Amazon.com: On assignment for National Geographic magazine, Chadwick spent most of two years observing elephants in American zoos and throughout Africa, India and southeast Asia. He also followed the ivory trade, visiting carvers and shops in Tokyo, Delhi, Hong Kong and Bangkok. His marvelous account depicts elephants at work and at play, profiles the people who work with them and sadly notes that their habitat is in decline. Chadwick’s description of his African adventures covers much of the same ground as Ian and Oria Douglas Hamilton’s Battle for the Elephants; his report on the Asian elephants is especially welcome, since their story has been generally neglected. Chadwick visits an elephant reserve and a training camp in India; an expert on white elephants takes him to see the King’s herd in Bangkok; in Malaysia, he watches a rescue team capture and relocate a wild elephant. In addition to telling many fascinating stories, Chadwick reminds us that the elephant’s future is bleak: too many people, too little land and unstable goverments all threaten the animal’s survival.

My thoughts: I have always had a thing for elephants. There is something so regal, commanding, and majestic about them. Each time I go to the zoo, I stand captivated by their size and, frankly, odd shape. When I finally stop being mesmerized, and finish memorizing the elephant facts board, I become sad. There are many programs going on to save the habitats of elephants. They are a vital part of the eco-system and a species that needs to find balance with its human neighbors. I know that I may only ever see an elephant in a zoo and that is especially disheartening. I would love to one day see an elephant in person in Africa but I know that may not happen, so while the zoo does not suffice, it is a place I can admire them and be awed.

ANYWAY, back to this amazing book. The way Chadwick depicted these animals you would have easily thought them human — the way they play, love, and socialize are just amazing. This book was published in 1993 and many of the facts are out of date but I think it is still a good read. It’s important to be reminded of the world we share.

My Favorite Reads – In the Heart of the Sea

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

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick.

From the inside cover: The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the Titanic disaster was in the twentieth. Nathaniel Philbrick now restores this epic story — which inspired the climactic scene in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick — to the rightful place in American history.

In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months tested just how far humans could go in their battle against the sea as, one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.

Nathaniel Philbrick brings as incredible story to life, from the intricacies of Nantucket’s whaling economy and the mechanics of sailing a square-rigger to the often mysterious behavior of whales. But it is his portrayal of the crew of the Essex that makes this a heart-rending book. These were not romantic adventurers, but young working men, some teenagers, just trying to earn a living in the only way they knew how. They were a varied lot: the ambitious first mate Owen Chase, whose impulsive nature failed at a critical moment, then drew him to a more dangerous course; the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, whose long-lost account of the ordeal, written at age seventy-one, provides new insights into the story; and Captain George Pollard, who was forced to take the most horrifying step if any of the men were to survive.

This is a timeless account of the human spirit under extreme duress, but it is also a story about community, and about the kind of men and women who lived in a foreboding, remote island like Nantucket — a pioneer story that explores how we became who we are, and our peculiar blend of spiritualism and violence. Its richness of detail, its eloquence, and its command of history make In the Heart of the Sea a vital book about America.

My thoughts: It’s been a very long time since I read this book but each time I see it on the shelf I remember how captivated I was by this story. It wasn’t just the survival aspect but also the lifestyle that the men who worked on whaleships lived. I don’t need to tell you just how difficult, dangerous, and disgusting the work is. They chase down a monstrous beast in tiny boats and then haul the slaughtered whale aside to dismantle it. The actual work is worse than I could have imagined.

There are some amazing personalities in this book as well that deserve mention. The accounts of their survival and the lengths they went to to survive are terrifying and horrifying. I was reviled by their actions yet couldn’t stop reading because I wanted to know what would be next. I won’t tell you more but if you think about several men living on a tiny boat floating in the Pacific with no food or water, I think you know where the story goes.

In the Heart of the Sea is not a book for the easily queasy. There are things in this book I wish I hadn’t read but, that aside, it was also one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. The information about whales, whaling, the community of Nantucket, and the economics of whaling and the impact on the community were facts not be forgotten.

My Favorite Reads – Warrior Women: An Archaeologist’s Search for History’s Hidden Heroines

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

Warrior Women: An Archaeologist’s Search for History’s Hidden Heroines by Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Ph.D. With Mona Behan.

Warrior Women

From the back cover: After raising six children and working as a nurse and a cattle rancher, Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball became fascinated with the ancient legend of the Amazons. Traveling to remote Kazakhstan, a region halfway between Moscow and Mongolia, she went in search of history’s most powerful women. Now she describes her exciting, dangerous odyssey and what she found on the trail of the real-life female warriors, heroines, and leaders left out of the history books…until now. Pursing the truth from Asia to Ireland, Dr. Davis-Kimball discovered:

  • A troop of riding, sword-wielding women who were real, not a myth
  • The origins of the Irish warrior queens whose sepulchers remain on the fields of Eire.
  • The real identity of the fabulous “Gold Man” of Saka
  • The secret of China’s mysterious, mummified, auburn-haired priestesses

I read this book many years ago but the memory is still very vivid. Let me tell you a tale of a plane ride home from Las Vegas. I was on my way home from a business trip to Las Vegas and this was my flight home read. I had saved it specifically for the trip home because I knew it was going to be good. I settled myself in for the long ride and began reading. Two college boys on the way home from Spring Break took up the seats next to me. The poor guy who lost the battle for the isle grudgingly took the middle seat and ordered a drink as soon as possible from the flight attendant. A short while later he took note of my book and we struck up a conversation about it. He was reading it for a class and thought that it was one of the best books he read in years. I was only a few chapters in but had to agree — it was fascinating. Not only are the artifacts and the ancient cultures she uncovers interesting but the stories about the women are just amazing. She also intersperses the book with short excerpts about her travels which makes it read like an adventure.

I just noticed something odd about my favorites reads posts — all three have been non-fiction picks. I don’t think that I read enough non-fiction but obviously I have in the past. Who would have thought…

Got a favorite read to share this week?

My Favorite Reads – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

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Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and this week my pick is based on a recent trip.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

From the back cover: Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands’ suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight. A morose inventor who owns a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in town. A prominent antiques dealer who hangs a Nazi flag from his window to disrupt the shooting of a movie. And a redneck gigolo whose conquests describe him as a walking “streak of sex.”

I spent last weekend in Savannah, GA. Let me re-phrase that — I spent about 48 hours in Savannah, GA last week. It was a work trip and because of other commitments, I didn’t get to spend more time but luckily this wasn’t my first trip. Let me tell you, the city is a charmer. It’s a beautiful place in the spring. This year the flowers are a few weeks behind and everyone seemed to be waiting — some patiently, some not — for the azaleas to bloom. I didn’t have my usual chance to wander the city, explore the squares, and take in the flowers in the gardens but there’s something about Savannah that always makes me happy.

Anyway, my short trip made me think about this book and that’s how I ended up deciding to feature it this week. It’s a non-fiction, true crime travelogue which may sound like a very odd way to describe a book but that’s what it is. The writer goes to Savannah to write about a murder but ends up meeting and getting involved with some of the city’s most peculiar residents. It’s perverse, funny, and addicting.

As a bonus, if you ever visit Savannah, you can tour all the sites where the movie was filmed. (It’s featured on a tour and I know this because the tour was going by while I was walking and this is how I learned this fact without having to take the tour.) I wish I could find my old photos to share but no luck this morning. You’ll just have to visit the city itself, read the book, or watch the movie.

My Favorite Reads – A Fish Caught In Time

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Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and I thought it would be fun to share a favorite read of mine this week.

A Fish Caught In Time: The Search for the Coelacanth by Samantha Weinberg is my pick this week.

A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth

From the inside flap: In 1938, a young curator of a small South American museum spots a strange looking fish on a boat desk. It’s five feet long with blue scales and luminescent eyes. Determined to preserve her find, she tries for days to save it but only ends up with skin, bones, and a few sketches. Eventually, the fish is recognized by an amateur ichthyologist as a coelacanth, a fish known from 400 year old fossils and thought to have died out with the dinosaurs. A great search ensues, nations fight over the fish, and million dollar expeditions are launched to find it.

I don’t know why, but I have always been fascinated by this fish. It’s a fish, but it can walk on its fins. It’s a fossil, but it’s alive. The Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC has a specimen and, living in this city, I’ve had the chance to visit it several times. I’m always fascinated and baffled by it. It is just the strangest thing ever.

I picked this book up about 10 years ago and it has made the cut many times to remain on my shelf. It’s been a few years since I’ve read it and, now that I think about it, it might be time for another look soon.

If you want to know more about coelacanths, Wikipedia has a short entry, but I would recommend picking up the book instead.  Oh, come on, you had to see that coming.  🙂

Have a favorite book you want to share?