“I suggest that if you must choose, it is better to be poor and free than to be snug and a slave. I suggest that if you must choose, it is better to live in peril, but with justice, than to live on a summit of material power, but unjustly. I suggest that if you must choose, it is better to stand up as a suffering man than to lie down as a satisfied animal.”
Barry Goldwater (in a speech written by Russell Kirk), via Russell Kirk: American Conservative by Bradley J. Birzer
The Lifters by Dave Eggers
I will confess that my family and I are regular browsers at Barnes and Noble. My kids love to hang out in the kids area (although to be fair my son mostly looks at Lego’s) and of course I enjoy browsing the latest releases and even checking out the bargain shelves while drinking some Starbucks (shocking for a book addict, I know). Despite having a membership and frequently buying books and toys, sometimes we do browse and then look to find it at the local library. Such was the case with The Lifters by Dave Eggers. I first noticed it at the bookstore but then found a cheap used copy at Half Price Books or the local library sale.
I still regularly check out young adult fiction (middle grade in this case) and this seemed an intriguing story with nice illustrations. When my brain was overstuffed with work and other heavy things this turned out to be a good palette cleanser.
When Gran and his family move to Carousel, he has no idea that the town is built atop a secret. Little does he suspect, as he walks his sister to school or casually eats a banana, that mysterious forces lurk mere inches beneath his feet, tearing up the earth like mini-hurricanes and causing the town to slowly but surely sink.
When Gran’s friend, the difficult-to-impress Catalina Catalan, presses a silver handle into a hillside and opens a doorway to underground, he knows that she is extraordinary and brave, and that he will have no choice but to follow wherever she leads. With luck on their side, and some discarded hockey sticks for good measure, Gran and Catalina might just find a way to lift their town–and the known world–out of danger.
What I liked:
– I enjoyed the relationship between Gran and Catalina and the way it was awkward and full of conflict. This seemed realistically ambiguous and fraught with emotions.
– I liked the way Gran’s mother was a character that just happened to need a wheelchair rather than an obvious character with a disability added simply for the sake of diversity. It felt natural within the story.
– I liked the overall sense of mystery and the fantastical without all of the why’s and how’s neatly explained. It added tension and drove the story forward.
Not so much:
It did seem a little preachy or didactic in parts with an obvious moral or message. But given the audience and the dire need for society to understand the importance of family, friends and community, it didn’t bother me too much
bottom line:
I enjoyed it even if it was a little heavy-handed in spots. Still a fun story with a good message about community, friendship, etc.
Adrift by Brian Murphy
Along with an airplane crashing, a ship sinking is one of my greatest fears. Brian Murphy writes about the sole survivor of a ship going down in the Atlantic entitled Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It.
Murphy combines great storytelling with a detailed explanation of Nineteenth Century ocean travel. Murphy includes conversations in the story between those who initially survived the sinking. These conversations are not direct quotes because it is unknown what was said, but by including them Murphy gives a good representation of how people would react. Their thoughts describe what it was like to be in a ship’s steerage section for days or weeks without seeing daylight and the panic and fear that settles in as everyone realizes the ship is going down.
Interspersed with the narrative of the fate of those who went in the life boats, Murphy writes about the officers and sailors who made a living on the ocean – either transporting people and products or hunting whales. Most officers and sailors had no illusions about the cruelties of the sea – shipwrecks, grievous injuries, starvation – but they chose their careers for the love of the sea and the freedom.
The best part of the book is the narrative about the survivors in the lifeboat. Nye took a leadership role when the boatswain shrunk from that responsibility. He tried to keep the peace among the 12 other survivors and keep them alive against the odds. Murphy captures the profound sadness of the situation as each person dies for various reasons. It also is a great look at how human’s behave under the most stressful situations – some withdraw, others become combative, and others think more clearly.
Murphy’s account is an excellent story of one of the many tragedies that befell many transatlantic travelers.
War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell’s series on the unification of England continues with the eleventh installment in the Saxon Tales series – War of the Wolf. It is as gripping and hard to put down as the previous ten books.
As I have written in previous reviews of Cornwell’s books, he is a master storyteller that is hard to beat. Cornwell’s plots flow easily from one event to the next. The writing is superb. The character development is excellent even with new characters being introduced with each book.
Cornwell always seems to find a more vile villain with each passing book. Each one has tried to take something from Uhtred or prevent him from achieving some goal – all have failed. Uhtred’s latest foe Skoll is set on becoming the new King of Northumbria. Skoll is assisted by a cleric and a band of wolf-warriors, men high on hallucinogens in battle.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is Cornwell’s graceful aging of Uhtred. Uhtred is leaning more on his experience and wisdom than on his brute strength. Although he is still strong, he is aging and it is harder to go into battle. Cornwell is showing more of Uhtred’s physical weaknesses – he is getting wounded more frequently and more easily. It is a refreshing look at a beloved character getting older.
War of the Wolf is another great book in the Saxon Tales series.
A Fierce Glory by Justin Martin
Almost every angle imaginable on the Civil War has been studied and yet authors continue to bring forth different perspectives. This is the case with Justin Martin’s A Fierce: Antietam-The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery.
I have read many accounts of the Battle of Antietam – most focus solely on either side or give a balanced view of the battle. Martin gives a balanced account of the battle, but he adds a new element by looking at Abraham Lincoln during the battle. Lincoln was waiting to hear about the results of the battle before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln was anxious to issue it, but he did not want to issue it after a loss – better effect if it was issued after a victory.
Martin’s descriptions of the fighting are not too detailed, but they are enough to give the reader a decent picture of how the battle unfolded and why it ended the way it did. Its greatest strength is not in the battle descriptions, but in explaining the relationship between the battle and Lincoln’s decision to issue the Proclamation. Martin discusses Lincoln’s thought process in coming to the conclusion for issuing the Proclamation rather than choosing another course like the federal government paying for the freedom of the slaves and sending them back to Africa.
Another part I enjoyed was Martin’s discussion on the unique relationship between Lincoln and Union general George McClellan. They were polar opposites in many ways: Lincoln was humble, McClellan was a braggart; Lincoln was aggressive in wanting the Union to attack, McClellan was cautious to a fault; Lincoln was a Republican, McClellan was a Democrat who eventually ran for President against Lincoln. Throughout the battle, Lincoln was desperate for news and McClellan knew it and yet he refused to inform Lincoln on the battle except in the vaguest of terms.
Finally, it includes several pages of photographs from the battlefield and major characters covered in the book. It also includes three good maps of the Battle and of Lincoln’s daily commute to work.
Excellent book that looks at the Battle of Antietam from a different angle.
September Mourn by Alann Schmidt and Terry Barkley
The Dunker Church at Antietam is one of the most famous battlefield church’s in history. Alann Schmidt and Terry Barkley have written a history of the church in September Mourn: The Dunker Church of Antietam Battlefield.
Although I am not normally drawn to histories of churches or buildings, Schmidt and Barkley write in a manner that keeps the reader interested in it. They not only write about the church, but also about the history of the Church of the Brethren (Dunkers) in America. The authors center the history around the pivotal days in September when the Union thwarted the efforts of Lee and the Confederates in their invasion of the North.
Antietam (and almost every battle in the Civil War) has been analyzed and written about ad nauseam. The authors find another angle to look at the Union victory that led to the release of the Emancipation Proclamation. This angle is thought-provoking by looking at the costs of the battle not only on the combat troops that fought, but also on the civilians who were left to pick up the pieces of their shattered homes and lives. The authors pay due respects to the hardy men and women of the Church who cared for the wounded while piecing their lives back together.
The book is an excellent history of the Dunkers and the church that they called home at the Battle of Antietam.