November Booknotes

 

"I am a part of everything that I have read" – Theodore Roosevelt

Fiction: Historical Fiction

The Bomb by Theodore Taylor

The author, Theodore Taylor (1921 – 2006), was a merchant marine at Bikini for the bomb testing. He saw the island's inhabitants being evacuated. He knows what happened. The book is an apology for his part in our country's atrocity written when he was about 75 years old. He said, "This book was terribly hard to write." Yet, The Bomb went on to win the 1996 Scott O’Dell award for historical fiction.

Shortly after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, World War II came to and, and the terrible reality of the atomic age began . . .

In The Bomb, “Sixteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu has lived on the Bikini Atoll in the western Pacific all his life. Now the United States government wants to use his home as a site for atomic weapons tests. The islanders are told that they must leave the island in the interest of world peace but can return when the island is safe again after the atomic denotations. Sorry doesn't believe the government. He is sure that radioactive fallout will poison the warm blue waters and beautiful white sand beaches, and Bikini Atoll will be lost to its people forever. Sorry knows that he has no choice but to stop this disaster before it starts -- even if it means standing alone against the U.S. military and risking his own life to save his ancestral land.”

Bikini Atoll

The book is simply written; there are no sermons or pontificating speeches by the author. Instead, we see and understand as Sorry sees and understands. The uprooting of the Bikini islanders and the false promise to return to their island in two years is historical evidence of the racism, lying, and intimidation by large nations perpetrated on smaller ones in the 1950s. The Bomb is shamefully truthful.

Audiobook Fiction: Horror

Cumbrian Ghost Stories: Weird Tales from an Old Land by Tony Walker

In addition to being the author of Cumbrian Ghost Stories, the author is the narrator of “The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast,” has a YouTube channel, and is a superb narrator of this audiobook! (I borrowed it from my public library via Hoopla.)

Publisher’s Description: “Sixteen supernatural stories set in the county of Cumbria. The collection includes classic ghost stories such as A West Cumberland Coalmine, modern horror stories such as The Derwentwater Haunting and The Highest Inn in England, stories based on local legends such as The Mallerstang Boggle and The Little Man of Carlisle, and some folk-horror themed stories such as The Grizedale Forest Wedding.”

The stories set in the Lake District of England are short and vary in quality. They are not gory but rather creepy in a fun way. I listened to them before bedtime, enjoyed them, and still managed to get a good night's sleep.

International Nonfiction: Memoir

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

The first words: “Mum says, ‘don’t come creeping into our room at night.’ They sleep with loaded guns beside them on the bedside rugs. She says, ‘Don’t startle us when we’re sleeping.’

‘Why not?’

‘We might shoot you.’

“Oh.’

‘By mistake.’

‘Okay.’”

Thus begins the memoirs of the childhood of an English-born girl, Alexandra, raised on Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi farms in the 1970s and 1980s with her parents and sister, Vanessa. 

By the age of five, Alexandra knew how to handle a gun and shoot to kill. There are more examples of her family’s “rough-and-tumble” lifestyle throughout the book. For instance, her parents buy a mine-proofed Land Rover with a siren "to scare terrorists", but its only use is "to announce their arrival at parties.”  While describing her experience in an airport, Alexandra notes "officials wave their guns at me, casually hostile". Obviously, her family did not live a gilded, expatriate life. Her parents lost their farm in government-forced land distribution. This forced them to become itinerant farm managers who move where the work is, often to disease-ridden and war-torn areas. 

Her parents also have their own problems with bereavement and alcohol. There is a life-changing tragedy, for which Alexandra feels responsible and says that after the event, "My life is sliced in half and Mum and Dad's joyful careless embrace of life is sucked away, like water swirling down a drain." This memoir has it all, a family on the wrong side of history, a mother’s mental health issues, constant loss, death, and repeated relocations. 

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight has a unique perspective that made me consider how varied our life experiences can be. In addition to her familial perspective, Alexandra’s descriptions of the African landscape are vivid. A deep love of the rich flora and fauna of her adopted homeland are evident throughout.

Nonfiction: Archeology, History

The Great Pyramids of St. Louis: 2024 Update Edition by Mark W. Leach

Approximately 1000 years ago, the St. Louis area was the very epicenter of an extraordinary explosion of culture, population, and civic construction. Seemingly out of nowhere, a highly complex civilization developed, drawing thousands of people from across the mid-continent. In nearly a blink of an eye (historically speaking), a massive city of earthen pyramids, causeways, roads, plazas, neighborhoods, and temples was stretching from present day St. Louis, across the Mississippi River to East St. Louis, and onward to Collinsville, Illinois, site of the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. 

Monks' Mound, Cahokia Mounds - National Geographic

The Great Pyramids of St. Louis is an introductory book to Cahokia and the Mississippian world. It includes photographs and artist’s depictions of the mounds, photographs of numerous rock art sites, new archeoastronomy research, and findings from excavations deep below Cahokia. All reveal new insights into Mississippian culture in Illinois and Missouri.

Ancient Cahokia - Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

The author is clearly knowledgeable and has had an up-close and personal history with the mounds. He is actively involved in archaeological digs, mound restorations, and protection of the sites. 

An archaeology “nerd” (like me) and visitors to Cahokia Mounds, should find this book fascinating.

Nonfiction: History, Science, Geography, Ecology

The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi by Boyce Upholt

Publisher’s Description: “A sweeping history of the Mississippi River―and the centuries of human meddling that have transformed both it and America. Over thousands of years, the Mississippi watershed was home to millions of Indigenous people who regarded “the great river” with awe and respect, adorning its banks with astonishing spiritual earthworks. But European settlers and American pioneers had a different the river was a foe to conquer. In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of human attempts to own and contain the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jefferson’s expansionist land hunger through today’s era of environmental concern. He reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineering―government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams―has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems, but may not work much longer, and explores how scientists are scrambling to restore what’s been lost. Rich and powerful, The Great River delivers a startling account of what happens when we try to fight against nature instead of acknowledging and embracing its power.”

The Great River’s narrative loops like the river’s oxbows, folding back on itself sometimes creating confusing chronology. But such is the complexity of the Mississippi River. The river that once was will never be again, its course altered both by nature and man. It is swinging more frequently between drought and flood as our world warms.

This book raises many excellent, thought-provoking questions. How should we move forward?  Break down all the barriers and let the river run free again along the sinewy paths depicted in Fisk’s 1940s map, which is on the cover of The Great River? Should we pursue green infrastructure or deny it? Whom or what to prioritize - farmers or cypress or shrimpers? Commerce or communities?

Even if we can regenerate our relationship with the river, what we may not be able to choose is the path of the river itself. Water finds its way. Can we?

Audiobook Fiction: Mystery

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson, translator Victoria Cribb (from Icelandic)

Elin S Jónsdóttir, a best-selling crime writer, has disappeared. Famed for writing a series of ten best-selling crime novels, there seems to be no apparent reason for her to vanish. Detective Helgi must find the writer before the news of her disappearance appears in the media.

As Helgi, who prefers the company of books, especially golden age mysteries, looks deeper into Elin’s life, he realizes that Elin’s life was far less straightforward than anyone expected.  Unfortunately, his own personal issues threaten to distract him from finding the truth. Will he find her alive or …?

Other plot lines in this mystery involve an abusive former partner, a bank robbery gone wrong in the past, and one of the first female detectives in Iceland. There is a lot to keep track of in this mystery! 

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer starts as a slow burn, gradually gains momentum, and ends suddenly with a resolution to the case and a massive cliffhanger. I didn’t realize this is book two in the Helgi Trilogy. But I managed to follow the storyline without reading book one. I will probably read book three, when it is published, just to see how the cliffhanger is resolved.

Nonfiction: History, Politics, Food

Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman

Food is a source of nourishment and joy for a lot of people but in Ruin their Crops on the Ground, Freeman also tracks how the U.S. government has used food policy as a form of control and oppression. 

The title is adapted from the words of George Washington when he sought to subjugate Native American nations, in this case the Iroquois. Freeman says, “Food destruction was so central to settlers’ treatment of Indigenous people that in 1779 George Washington ordered that his troops ‘destroy their crops now in the ground’” in a way that prevented them from returning and starting all over again. And there are more historical events that support Freeman’s urgent message about food politics.

A chapter titled, “Weapons of Health Destruction” tells the story of “frybread,” a deep-fried concoction of sugar, lard, and government-dispensed flour that became a staple of forcefully relocated Native Americans’ diet, and led directly to obesity, diabetes, and other health issues. In “Survival Pending Revolution,” the history of the enslaved people who are brutally over-worked on starvation rations is recounted. And despite the Emancipation Proclamation, the practice of “sharecropping” meant that formerly enslaved people were no better off in terms of food availability. “Black sharecroppers who worked for white landowners largely returned to the restricted diets they ate during enslavement.”

Freeman also describes the double-edged sword of School Lunch Programs: free lunch to those who cannot afford it, which comes with the built-in social stigma for recipients. Inevitably, food options in school lunches are highly processed and unhealthy. Who is making these food choices? Politicians, lobbyists, and powerful corporations! 

“Corporations do not feel compassion. Sickness and loss do not move them. Appealing to their humanity is not an effective political strategy.”

There are more than 40 pages of notes and bibliographic references which can direct readers to more research. I only wish Freeman would have included charts and graphs instead of including statistics in the narrative.

“Attaching work requirements to government benefits reflects a belief that social assistance is not a right of citizenship but a gift that its recipients must earn. It insists that poverty is not an accident of birth and social circumstances but a reflection of individuals’ bad choices or capabilities.”

As I read this book, I was unable to suppress a growing sense of emotional urgency regarding food and the feeding of America’s population across all socioeconomic classes! Ruin Their Crops on the Ground is certainly thought-provoking and motivates me to continue volunteering in our community food pantry. 

Graphic Nonfiction: History, Mental Health

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Brad Ricca (Adapter), Courtney Sieh (Illustrator), Nellie Bly

"I said I could and I would. And I did." – Nellie Bly

Publisher’s Description: “While working for Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper in 1887, Nellie Bly began an undercover investigation into the local Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell Island. Intent on seeing what life was like on the inside, Bly fooled trained physicians into thinking she was insane—a task too easily achieved—and had herself committed. In her ten days at the asylum, Bly witnessed horrifying conditions: the food was inedible, the women were forced into labor for the staff, the nurses and doctors were cruel or indifferent, and many of the women held there had no mental disorder of any kind.”

Bly recounted the shameful abuse, neglect, and hazardous conditions to be found in the Asylum. After her story was published, a grand jury was convened to investigate her “allegations.”  The Asylum staff did the classic switcheroo of inviting tours after cleaning everything up and hiding those patients who were in the worst shape. Critics didn't buy it. While the grand jury made no charges against the Asylum, Nellie Bly’s reporting eventually resulted in sweeping changes in the care and oversight of vulnerable patients.

This fascinating true account is hard to believe at times, and, yet, difficult to stop reading! Bly’s experience in Ten Days in a Mad-House also became the standard for so many future fictional accounts of hospital wards like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. With this graphic adaptation, I think the main events are presented logically while the illustrations add a visual context for the time, particularly the women’s hairdos and clothing. This was a quick but informative read.

“I answered the summons of the grand jury with pleasure, because I longed to help those of God's most unfortunate children whom I had left prisoners behind me. If I could not bring them that boon of all boons, liberty, I hoped at least to influence others to make life more bearable for them.” – Nellie Bly