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REVIEW: Ringlingville USA by Jerry Apps

Posted by Anastasia on August 8, 2011 8 Responses »

Aug 082011

78. Ringlingville USA: The Stupendous Story of Seven Siblings and Their Stunning Circus Success by Jerry Apps
Publication: Wisconsin Historical Society Press (October 6, 2004), Paperback, 280pp / ISBN 087020355X
Genre: Non-fiction, History

Read: July 22, 2011
Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

The Ringling Brothers began their business under the most modest of circumstances and through hard work, business savvy, and some luck created the largest, most famous circus in the world. They became wealthy men, one 50 cent admission ticket at a time.

Ringlingville USA chronicles the brothers’ journey from immigrant poverty to enduring glory as the kings of the circus world. The Ringlings and their circus were last studied in depth over four decades ago. Now, for the first time, the brothers’ detailed financial records and personal correspondence are available to researchers. Jerry Apps weaves together that information with newspaper accounts, oral histories, colorful anecdotes, and stunning circus ephemera and photos, many never before been published, to illuminate the importance of the Ringlings’ accomplishments. He describes how the Ringling Brothers confronted the challenges of taxation, war, economic pressure, changing technology, and personal sorrows to find their place in history. The brothers emerge as complex characters whose ambition, imagination, and pure hucksterism fueled the phenomenon that was the Ringling Brothers’ Circus.

Review

Look, clowns are scary, right? But clowns aren’t the only part of a circus and I LOVE the circus, even if I haven’t been to one since I was 10 or 12 or something. That last circus? That last circus was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, and it was AWESOME. I love books about circuses, real or imagined, and so by all rights this book, which is about the history of the Ringling Bros. circus, should have been at least as awesome as the circus itself was.

Well, it wasn’t. Continue reading »

Review: Inventing George Washington by Edward G. Lengel

Posted by Anastasia on January 11, 2011 4 Responses »

Jan 112011

01. Inventing George Washington by Edward G. Lengel
Publication: Harper (January 18, 2011), ARC, 214pp / ISBN 0061662585
Genre: Non-fiction, (Social) History
Rating: Buy it
Read: January 1-3, 2011
Source: Publisher
Summary from Amazon:

In Inventing George Washington, historian Edward G. Lengel shows how the late president and war hero continued to serve his nation on two distinct levels. The public Washington evolved into an eternal symbol as Father of His Country, while the private man remained at the periphery of the national vision—always just out of reach—for successive generations yearning to know him as never before.

Both images, public and private, were vital to perceptions Americans had of their nation and themselves. Yet over time, as Lengel shows, the contrasting and simultaneous urges to deify Washington and to understand him as a man have produced tensions that have played out in every generation. As some exalted him, others sought to bring him down to earth, creating a series of competing mythologies that depicted Washington as every sort of human being imaginable. Inventing George Washington explores these representations, shedding new light on this national emblem, our nation itself, and who we are.

Review

I had a lot of fun reading Inventing George Washington! I hadn’t realized that some of the things I thought I knew about George Washington were actually false– I suppose I had more faith in my history teachers, that they wouldn’t propagate false stories or lies (although, really, ALL history books have issues with telling the truth). I do remember talking about the cherry tree myth and how it was false, but I don’t remember doing anything else. And poor Martha Washington was completely thrown under the bus in my history classes! (I really need to read a M. Washington biography now, for real.) Anyway, it was a real eye-opener.

My favorite thing about Mr Lengel’s book is how he traces political and ideological changes throughout society, and how those changes affected how people viewed Washington. I found it especially interesting how various politicians and the like twist Washington’s character to push their own agenda. For instance: people that want to legalize pot say that Washington grew and smoked marijuana himself (he did not), people that want to push religion even more into government say that Washington was a Christian (no evidence for that), etc.

It actually makes me feel kinda bad for Washington, especially since he tends to be viewed as a block of stone instead of as a person. It’s very difficult to sympathise with a block of stone, which is probably why people have such an easy time shoving him into their pigeon-holes. Are any of the other “founding fathers” in the same predicament? I don’t think they are– but then, that’s because most of them left a large paper trail that’s still relatively intact. Washington (and Martha) got rid of a lot of his papers, and his stupid relatives got rid of a lot more, so we have less to go on regarding his character, personality, etc. Hence: block of stone.

I went off on a tangent there, I think! But, yes: I enjoyed this book a lot! It covered the Washington myth succinctly and, I assume, accurately. My only complaint is that it didn’t have much in the way of what Washington actually thought or did, it’s just what he didn’t think or didn’t do. Jenny said something about how that might be because Mr Lengel wrote a biography on Washington already, which makes me wonder if this book is sort of like a supplement to that one. Either way, this book has firmly cemented my interest in American Revolution history, which means I’ll probably be tracking down more books on the subject soon!

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Other reviews: Jenny’s Books

Review: The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester

Posted by Anastasia on September 1, 2010 No Responses »

Sep 012010

179. The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
Publication: Oxford University Press (October 2, 2003), Hardcover, 256pp / ISBN 0198607024
Genre: Non-fiction, History
Rating:
Read: August 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:

From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary. Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language–’so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy’–and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from ‘the irredeemably famous’ Samuel Johnson to the ‘short, pale, smug and boastful’ schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries. In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition. Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making–how unexpectedly tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient that anticipated–and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press. We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium–the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it–and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W. C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption. The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester’s supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project–a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world’s unrivalled uber-dictionary.

Review

I’ve heard some really great things about Simon Winchester’s books but I’ve never actually read them, mostly because I couldn’t decide which to start with. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883? A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906? Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire?! But then I got The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary for a good price around, oh, a year ago– and yeah, it took me a while to get to it but the point is that I DID get to it, and furthermore I really enjoyed it!
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Review: Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Posted by Anastasia on August 26, 2010 6 Responses »

Aug 262010

172. Countdown by Deborah Wiles
Publication: Scholastic Press (May 1, 2010), Hardcover, 400pp / ISBN 0545106052
Genre: Historical Fiction, Documentary Novel, MG
Rating:
Read: August 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

It’s 1962, and it seems everyone is living in fear. Twelve-year-old Franny Chapman lives with her family in Washington, DC, during the days surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Amidst the pervasive threat of nuclear war, Franny must face the tension between herself and her younger brother, figure out where she fits in with her family, and look beyond outward appearances. For Franny, as for all Americans, it’s going to be a formative year.

Review

I found this on the new book shelf at the library where I work and was immediately attracted by a) the cover and b) the numerous photos and documents reproduced inside. You may be wondering what a “documentary novel” is– well, that’s a phrase the author coined herself, and basically it means a historical fiction novel with actual stuff from that historical time period mixed in for visuals.

So alongside a chapter about kids practicing ducking and covering, for instance, is images of the propaganda depicting just that. It’s very interesting stuff, and I think it actually makes the novel more effective. Reading about Franny’s experiences during the 60′s is one thing; she’s a fictional character, and that automatically puts a distance between the actual events and what’s being presented in the book. The addition of photos, movie stills, maps, etc. closes that distance and brings the whole thing more into the realm of reality.

Countdown is furthermore brought into reality by the fact that Deborah Wiles went through almost exactly what Franny went through in the book. She lived where Franny lived, she went to a version of the school Franny went to, and Franny’s friends were a version of Ms Wiles’ friends. The story is told with an authority that you tend to get with people writing autobiographical fiction books, and I really enjoyed that.

There’s lots of interesting details in Countdown. It essentially takes place in a middle class white person bubble, but there are hints to what’s going on in the rest of the world– protests, marches, etc– and I hope that’s explored more in the next book. There’s also big themes of friendship and family and just plain ol’ kid-growing-up, which was nice because it kept the book grounded in real life– I know I keep saying that– and made it about the PEOPLE who lived through the 60′s rather than just what was going on in the 60′s era.

So, Countdown: a really excellent book! And I’m looking forward to reading the next two in the series whenever they come out.

And

Watch the trailer:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2djqcv91GU]

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Other reviews: The Reading Zone | Semicolon | Reading and Rooibos | GalleySmith | The Happy Nappy Bookseller

If you like this book you might also like Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn, a YA book set during WWII that deals with a lot of the same feelings and situations that Countdown deals with like friendships, being loyal to your country and what that means when individuals get involved, and the terror of living during an unsteady time. Or you might like Spying on Miss Muller by Eve Bunting, another WWII era YA book set in a girls’ boarding school that deals with friendship, peer pressure, acceptance and tolerance, and boys.

Also: I’m actually taking a class on the 1960′s in America this semester! It’s super interesting so far, and we’re reading really good books (and watching a few movies).

Review: The Pirate Queen by Barbara Sjoholm

Posted by Anastasia on August 11, 2010 No Responses »

Aug 112010

131. The Pirate Queen by Barbara Sjoholm
Publication: Seal Press (June 1, 2004), Hardcover, 288pp / ISBN 158005109X
Genre: History, Memoir, Travel
Rating:
Read: June 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

The Pirate Queen begins in Ireland with the notorious Grace O’Malley, a scourge to the most powerful fleets of sixteenth-century Europe. This Irish clan chieftain and pirate queen was a contemporary of Elizabeth I, and a figure whose life is the stuff of myth. Regularly raiding English ships caught off Ireland’s west coast, O’Malley purportedly fought off fierce Algerian pirates just hours after giving birth to her son. She commanded two hundred men (and a couple of husbands), and acquired lands and castles that still dot the Irish coastline today. But O’Malley was not alone, especially in the waters of the North Atlantic where author Barbara Sjoholm traveled through coastal communities and seafaring ports to collect these little-known stories. Since ancient times, women have rowed and sailed, commanded and fished, built boats and owned fleets. Yet their incredible contributions have been nearly erased from the history books, as have the myths of seal women, Finn wives, and storm witches. In The Pirate Queen, Sjoholm brings some of these extraordinary stories back to life, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey in this meticulously researched, colorfully written, and truly original work. Illustrations and maps add to these intriguing swashbuckling tales.

Review

I got this from the library after reading one of Ms Sjoholm’s short stories in Go Your Own Way: Women Travel the World Solo . Though I enjoyed it (The Pirate Queen), it’s already been surpassed by another of her books (Incognito Street), so writing this review will be difficult because I’ll have to disassociate the second book from this book, and that’s hard to me to do. Because the second book is so. good. This one is good. But it’s not as good. You know?

The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O’Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea is about Ms Sjoholm’s researching of ancient tales about seafaring women. She physically went searching for them, actually going to the places where seafaring women lived and worked, and that right there is something that blows my mind. Because how often do people actually do physical research, off of their computers, today? Even if you need an article from a library in another country, you can just ask to have it scanned and emailed to you. You can join newsgroups to find descendants of whatever. Heck, you could even ask on Twitter “does anyone know anything about seafaring women from ancient times?” and probably get a ton of responses. I suppose researching is harder with more obscure topics, like the one Ms Sjoholm was researching, but still. It’s pretty mind-boggling to me how far we’ve come since Ms Sjoholm wrote this book. How much easier it is to find out what we want to know– but maybe less fun. I know that I’d rather go on a sea voyage down the side of Norway than sit around on my computer for hours at a time.

Anyway, she goes on this long trip searching for women of the sea. She starts with the most well-known, Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen from Ireland. I knew a little bit about her from reading The Gift of the Pirate Queen, but I knew nothing of what Ms Sjoholm turned up: that she was a warrior, a pirate, a wily old woman who knew what she wanted and got it. She supposedly gave birth to a son and then immediately afterward fought off invading Algerian corsairs — she was awesome, and I’d love to read a book that goes more in depth about her life.

Even more interesting than Grace O’Malley, though, were the fisherwomen of Iceland and Norway. There’s this whole sequence in the book where Ms Sjoholm is trying to dig up info about the women who went out fishing and all she runs into is stodgy old men who insist that there was never any female fishers. “What about Skipper Thuridur,” Ms Sjoholm said (I’m paraphrasing, here). “Oh, her. Well, maybe she fished, but no other women did,” the Stodgy Old Dudes said (again, I’m paraphrasing). Ms Sjoholm knew there were fisherwomen, though, from talking with the FEMALE descendants, and it all makes for an entertaining, if slightly frustrating, story.

The Pirate Queen isn’t just about women of the sea, however. It’s also about Barbara Sjoholm herself. She wasn’t just searching for women who defied the norm, she was searching for her true name as well. And, I suppose, she was looking for validation on wanting to travel and explore– but you’ll have to read the book yourself to get more info on that.

I really enjoyed The Pirate Queen. Sometimes the switching from the retelling of a historical woman’s life to Ms Sjoholm’s life was a little rough, and the beginning was a little bit boring. By the end of the book, however, all I wanted to do was read more about Ms Sjoholm’s travels, about the women she dug up from obscurity, and about sea journeys in general. If you’re interested in travel books, in history, in women who did what they wanted and didn’t apologize for it, then I think you’d like reading this book. It’s a lot of fun, and look! I guess I didn’t have such a hard time writing about it, after all.

And

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Other reviews: Have you reviewed this book? Let me know and I’ll link to it here!

Review: Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures by Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol

Posted by Anastasia on January 8, 2010 2 Responses »

Jan 082010

3. Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures by Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol
Publication: Flash Point (September 1, 2009), Hardcover, 216pp / ISBN 1596435461
Genre: Biography
Rating:
Read: January 4, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

On a summer day in 1942, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding from the Nazis. Until the day they arrested her, more than two years later, she kept a diary. ANNE FRANK is the indispensible visual guide to her tragic, but inspiring story. Produced in association with The Anne Frank House and filled with never-before-published snapshots, school pictures, and photos of the diary and the Secret Annex, this elegantly designed album is both a stand-alone introduction to Anne’s life and a photographic companion to a classic of Holocaust literature.

Review

I didn’t sleep well Sunday night, and my eyes weren’t wanting to focus on the book I had brought with me to work (the type! so tiny!). So I grabbed this off the shelf and hoped for the best– and it was the best.

I first read Anne Frank’s diary in elementary school, I think, and while I haven’t read it in a while I do remember the basics. I also remember really enjoying it (I tend to like diaries-as-books, anyway, but Anne Frank’s is particularly well-written). This book, Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures, is sort of like a supplement to her diary. It has lots of pictures of Anne Frank, her family, her friends, the annex where they hid for nearly two years, plus photos of her actual diary. I had never seen these photos before, so I really appreciated being able to look through them and into Anne Frank’s life.

As well as the photos, there’s a sort of biography of Anne Frank and her family’s life from the time she was born to the time she died. It doesn’t go into a whole lot of detail, but it’s a good outline and one that’s sensitively written. I appreciated that it didn’t go into sensationalism or frivolity; it kept itself to the known facts, with few speculations and no hyperbole from what I could see.

I’m actually feeling really emotional after finishing this book. I was reading it on the bus ride home and I definitely teared up so much I nearly missed my stop. I think being able to see Anne as well as reading her words and the words about her life is so touching, and poignant, and wonderful, that can’t recommend this book enough. I think it works for everyone, both young and old, for anyone who is interested in history and human life.

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon.

Other reviews: Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers

Review: The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Posted by Anastasia on November 26, 2009 No Responses »

Nov 262009

236. The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Publication: Doubleday (February 24, 2009), Hardback, 352pp / ISBN 0385513534

Genre: Non-Fiction, Adventure

Rating:

Challenges: 2009 Pub Challenge (#9)

Read: November 22-24, 2009

Source: Library

Summary from Amazon:

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve “the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century:” What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world’s largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions helped inspire Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization–which he dubbed “Z”–existed. Then he and his expedition vanished.

Fawcett’s fate–and the tantalizing clues he left behind about “Z”–became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett’s party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett’s quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle’s “green hell.” His quest for the truth and his stunning discoveries about Fawcett’s fate and “Z” form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative.

Review

I immediately noticed that it was one of those books that tended to the more sensationalist side of things. That’s entertaining, but also off-putting because I’m not sure I can trust the information. It was interfering with my enjoyment of the book to keep thinking of it like it was actively tricking me into believing something false, so I tried to put it out of my mind. I tried to think of it more like a fictional book than a non-fictional one (or maybe like a fictional book with non-fictional leanings), and that worked pretty well. It let me be less hostile towards The Lost City of Z, and I actually ended up enjoying it a lot.

Stories of adventurers and explorers always excite me, and this one is particularly exciting. I don’t want to ever wander around the Amazon jungles myself– the bugs and deadly plants and killer animals are just too overwhelming– but I do enjoy reading about other people doing it. With ice and desert landscapes you get the psychological aspects of having to survive in a bald landscape under horrific temperatures, but the jungle is quite psychologically damaging as well. The Lost City of Z mentions quite a few times when the constant attack of gnats, flies, ticks, maggots, ants, termites and other bugs caused explorers to basically go mad, and I can understand why. I hate just even thinking of bugs crawling over me; no way I could survive them actually doing so!
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