Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 15: Pyhäjoki artichokey

Russia and Sweden fought a war in 1808 and 1809, an offshoot of the Napoleonic Wars that roiled Europe during the early part of the 19th century. The Battle of Pyhäjoki took place on April 16, 1808, though it was less of a battle and more of a contested retreat.

Sweden was not ready for war; apparently the only person who thought they were was their king, Gustav IV Adolf (though he was likely counting on support from Great Britain to keep the Russians at bay). In any event, Russia invaded in February 1808 and were able to defeat what defenses Sweden could put up.

Pyhäjoki is the place where Sweden chose to make a stand, but the leader of Swedish forces, Wilhelm Mauritz Klingspor, ordered the retreat to continue based on the agreed upon strategic plan. This proved difficult, as the practicalities of retreating meant that only one Swedish battalion could fight the Russians at a time. In the end, the Swedes lost a little under 200 men in that day's fighting.

The retreat was probablly the right move - once the harbors thawed out the British were able to get invovled, and Sweden was able to fight back more effectively - but in the end Sweden ceded all of Finland to Russia. Gustav IV Adolf wasn't on the throne to see that happen, as before the end of the war he was deposed by a coup (one of whose leaders was Klingspor). 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 14: Permanently on the level

Unless you are a particularly astute student of the history of Amsterdam, mathematics, or systems for measuring water levels, you've probably not heard of Johannes Hudde. A mayor of Amsterday in the late 17th century, his earlier study of mathematics led him to develop a couple of namesake rules about polynomial roots. He corresponded with several of the leading mathematicians of the day, and both Newton and Leibnitz referenced his work in their own development of calculus.

However, Hudde's most notable accomplishment came as part of his mayoral duties. He developed a system that would keep the water in Amsterdam's canals at a constant level, as denoted by marker stones placed near various canals. This system would be adopted in other countries, and would eventually lead to the system in use today by the EU. 

Hudde died on Holy Saturday, April 15, 1704.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 13: The Birth of Derwood the Second

Dick Sargent, born on April 19, 1930, is forever destined to be the answer (or part of the answer) to the trivia question about who played Darrin Stephens on Bewitched.  It's not his only role - his filmography boasts work from the mid 1950s up to the early 1990s - but it's easily his best-known.

What may not be remembered as well is his 1991 coming out, which he did to help highlight the elevated suicide rate among younger gay people. He was able to support a number of LGBT-focused organizations before he died in 1994 from prostate cancer.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 12: A major award

Margaret MacDonald grew up in Nova Scotia, but moved to New York to study nursing. After graduating in 1895, she went to Panama and cared for workers on the Panama Canal. She would become one of the first military nurses during the Spanish-American War, when she worked on a hospital ship caring for American soldiers. She would also serve as a nurse during the Boer War in South Africa.

Upon returning to Canada she was named the head nurse of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, where she insisted on implementing professional standards to military nursing. Her dedication to military nursing would pay off when, on April 11, 1914, she would be named Matron in Chief and became the first woman to rise to the rank of major in any military service related to the British empire.

Her service in World War I focused more on leadership than practical nursing, and in making military nursing a realistic career opportunity for women. She would return to Canada in 1919 and was involved in the reorganization of Canada's military medical service until her retirement the following year.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 11: No More Labouring

James Callaghan was a British politician, the prime minister before Margaret Thatcher and the last Labour prime minister until Tony Blair. He served in the office from 1976 to 1979, and is the only person to have held all four of what is known in the UK as the Great Offices of State (Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and Prime Minister).

Callaghan took office after the retirement of Harold Wilson, at a point where Labour's majority in the House of Commons was dwindling. He entered into a "confidence and supply" agreement with the Liberal Party, but economic turmoil led several smaller parties to support the Conservatives, which helped destabilize the deal with the Liberals. This led to a vote of no confidence in Callaghan in March of 1979, and a Labour loss in the ensuing general election.

Callaghan would hold on as Labour leader for another year, and stayed in Commons until 1987, at which point he was the longest-serving MP with 42 years service. That year he was also awarded the Order of the Garter and was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff.

Callaghan would pass away on March 26, 2005. At 92 years of age. he is the longest-living prime minister in British history. Sort of like the British version of Jimmy Carter.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 10: Thanks, John

On April 14, 1781, the Continental Congress of the United States voted a resolution thanking navy captain John Paul Jones for his service. Which leads to the question: why?

It's not that he wasn't due thanks, given his performance in the Revolutionary War. It's just the timing is weird, as the war was still on and you'd think he'd still be out there fighting the British. On the other hand, his record of battle seems to have dried up after his deafeat of the HMS Bonhomme Rirchard (which was two years before the thanking), so maybe Congress knew what was coming.

Jones would in fact struggle to get commissions, and wound up spending a fair amount of time in Europe, including two years as a rear admiral in the Russian navy. Jones died in 1792 and lay in relative obscurity in a Paris cemetary until he was repatriated in 1905. Today, Jones is at rest in the chapel crypt at the US Naval Academy.

 Book Log 2023 #11: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

Mike (not his real name) is an 18 year old, who as an 8 year old experienced a trauma so profound that it has left him mute. As he grows up, Mike discovers that he has two significant talents - art and lock picking.  Art leads him to a kindred spirit, but the lock picking threatens to take him away from her, so he has to devise a plan that will both free him of the criminal gang making use of his lock picking and allow him to return to the one person he loves.

I liked the book well enough, but not as much as reviewers or award committees, as it did quite well with those groups. I do see why it would win an Alex Award, given to adult fiction that also has a "special interest" for YA readers (I picked this book to satisfy a reading challenge involving Alex Award winners). But I really don't see how it won an Edgar Award for best novel over Faithful Place, part of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 9: Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

For centuries, Dubrovnik was the capital of the Republic of Ragusa, a political entity on the southern Dalmatian coast. It's nominal independence came with fealty to larger powers (like Venice or the Ottoman Empire), and despite calling itself a republic it was run by the aristocracy. None of this mattered when, on April 6, 1667, the city suffered what is estimated as a 6.4 magnitude earthquake.

The quake devastated the city, destroying upwards of three-quarters of all public buildings. The death toll was estimated as between 3000 and 5000 people. The casualties included a number of aristocrats and the city's leader, the rector Simone Ghetaldi. Not surprisingly, the city entered a period of lawlessness after the quake, though the majority of the crime was theft of building materials.

The quake did hasten the decline of the republic, which would eventually be conquered by Napoleon and made part of the Kingdom of Italy. Dubrovnik today is part of an independent Croatia, and is very popular with tourists, thanks in part to its distinctive architecture - which came as a a result of the rebuilding after the earthquake.

 Lentorma 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 8: End of the Road 

Henry Leland worked in machine shops in his early life, where he developed skills in precision manufacturing and engineering that he would apply to various fields, most notable automobiles. He built engines for Oldsmobile before moving on to found Cadillac, which he would sell to General Motors in 1909 but run until 1917. At Cadillac he was responsible for introducing the idea of interchangable parts, which cut down production costs, and an electric starter motor to replace the hand crank.

Leland left GM due to a dispute over making weapons during World War I (Leland was a pacifist who opposed the company making engines and vehicles for military use). He apparently got over his objections, as he founded the Lincoln Motor Company off of a major contract to build airplane engines for the US government. When World War I ended the company shifted to automobile production, but struggled to transition and went into receivership. Ford was the only bidder, and bought the company for below its appraised value, seen as revenge for Leland selling Cadillac to GM. 

Leland and his son assusmed they would be allowed to stay on to run the company, similar to what happened with Cadillac. Ford had other ideas, and forced both Lelands out of the company in 1922.

Leland spent the last ten years of his life dabbling in progressive political causes, and passed away on March 26, 1932.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 7: Continental Navy Blocked

The Continental Navy executed a raid on Nassau, Bahams in early April, 1776, capturing a couple of forts and seizing all of the military equipment and stores they could fit on their ships before withdrawing to head back to New England. The fleet split into two columns, comprised of Continental naval vessels and prize ships captured at Nassau and during the trip home.

One of the columns encountered the HMS Glasgow, a dipatch ship sailing from Newport, Rhode Island to Charleston, South Carolina, in the early hours of Saturday, April 6 off of Block Island. Three Continental ships engaged the Glasgow, but none were able to do so effectively. The Glasgow's more effective fire damaged the Continental ships, and allowed the Glasgow to retreat to Newport. The Continental fleet broke off the engagement, as it did not want to fight the British naval squadron headquartered there. 

The skirmish, known as the Battle of Block Island, was a win for the British, as the Glasgow only suffered four casualties, while the Continental ships counted 24. In the aftermath of the encounter, the commanders of the USS Columbus and USS Hazard were both accused of a variety of charges. A court martial cleared the commander of the Columbus, but the Hazard's commander was convicted and forced to surrender his commission.

Commodore Esek Hopkins, who was in charge of the Continental fleet, also came under scrutiny, both for disobeying orders (he was supposed to sail to Virginia and the Carolinas rather than Nassau) and for distributing prizes without consulting Congress. He would hang on for a couple of years, but was finally dismissed from the navy in 1778.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 6: One Moore player for England

Bobby Moore, who captained the England football team to the 1966 World Cup championship, was born on Holy Saturday, April 12, 1941. He joined West Ham United as a 15 year old, making his professional debut two years later against Manchester United. He would spend 16 seasons at West Ham before moving to Fulham for three seasons and ending his career with stints in the US and Denmark. 

But Moore is best known for his run with the English national team. He played in the 1962 World Cup, and became England's youngest captain the following year. His participation in the 1966 tournament was briefly in doubt due to issues with his West Ham contract, and there was some talk prior to the championship game of leaving Moore out of the lineup. In the end leaving him in paid off, as he assisted on two goals towards the Three Lions' 4-2 win over West Germany.

Moore captained England in the 1970 World Cup, where they lost 3-2 to West Germany in the quarterfinals. England failed to qualify for the 1974 tournament, making a 1973 friendly against Italy the 108th and final cap of Moore's international career. He retired as the most capped player in England history and with the most appearances as captain for the national team. 

Moore survived a bout with testicular cancer in the early 1960s, but was not so fortunate with a case of colorectal cancer that spread to his liver. Moore would be the first player from the 1966 team to pass away, dying in 1993 at the age of 51.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 5: To (not) live and die in (not) Dixie

Richard Taylor was the only son of President Zachary Taylor, and despite being born in what would become a border state (Kentucky) and educated in Union states (Massachusetts and Connecticut), he spent most of his adult life in the south and would become a general in the Confederate army during the US Civil War.

Taylor had no military experience prior to the war, but was a wealthy planter in Louisiana, where he built a fortune on the backs of the 200-plus slaves who grew and processed his sugar cane. He was chosen to be a commander of a Louisiana militia unit in the Civil War because his (then deceased) sister had been married to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Potential cronyism aside, Taylor proved to be an able commander, leading troops that played a pivotal role in the Shenandoah campaign. He would be sent back to Louisiana to raise troops and fight Union incursions into the state. He defeated Nathaniel Banks during the Red River campaign, was promoted to lieutenant general, and would wind up commanding both a Confederate military department and, briefly, the Army of Tennessee. 

After the war, his plantation ruined, he lived in New Orleans, but relocated to Winchester, Virginia after his wife died. From there he often visited friends in Washington and New York while staying active in Democratic Party politics. It was during a visit to New York that he died, on April 12, 1879.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 4: Assassination averted

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim grew up in Finland when it was still part of Russia, and rose in the ranks of the imperial Russian army to become a lieutenant general. Finland would declare itself independent after the Bolshevik revolution, but soon had its own civil war between the pro-Bolshevik "Reds" and the "Whites," who were anti-communist and backed the Finnish Senate. Mannerheim was made the leader of the White army, which was also supported by Germany troops.

The Whites won the civil war, raising Mannerheim's profile. He served as regent of Finland for a short time, and ran a losing campaign for president. By 1920 he had left politics but was still an active public figure as well as a war hero.

Which made him a ripe target for assassination by former Red officers. A group assembled in St. Petersburg to plan the attack, which was to take place during a White Guards parade in Tampere. A shooter and two backups were selected, and they went to the parade on Holy Saturday, April 3 1920, but were unable to complete their mission. The shooter got cold feet, and his backups, not able to see him, were not able to fire on Mannerheim themselves. A second attempt was made for April 6, which also failed, and resulted in the arrest of all three assailants.

This all worked out for Mannerheim, as he would go on to become the army's Commander in Chief during World War II, as well becoming Finland's sixth president.

 Book Log 2023 #10: If Then by Jill Lepore

As much as we are (rightly) concerned about the ways tech companies collect, use, and misuse our personal data, the concept of data mining, and using the results of mining to direct politics, business, and everything in between, is not new. The Simulatics Corporation was a pioneer in the field, and this book looks at how the company came about and the ways in which they influenced society in the 1960s.

There's much in common with how the company collected and used data to guide politicians and advertising, notably providing consulting services to the Kennedy campaign in 1960. Unlike today, the company always feels a little on the edge, possibly due to the limits of technology at the time, or perhaps due to the personalities of its founders (one a mid-level ad man, the other a bipolar mathematical genius). It's not all that surprising that the company shut down in 1970, as it never seemed to be that stable in terms of a business.

The book does provide plenty of opportunities to think about how Simulatics informs today's big data environment, while also demonstrating that many of the issues we're facing aren't exactly new, and that the past may have something to teach us about how to deal with the present.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 3: Prominent polymath passes

Arthur Aikin was born into a family of noted writers and scholars, including a father who was a doctor, historian, and biographer. He followed his father's footsteps into science, studying chemistry under Joseph Priestly and becoming a lecturer in the subject at Guy's Hospital in London for 32 years. He would be the first treasurer of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) and its second president.

Outside of chemistry, he was also a president of the British Mineralogical Society, a founder of the Geological Society of London, and was a member of the Society of the Arts, the Linnean Society, and the Institution of Civil Engineers. He also supported himself writing, translating, and lecturing to the public, and his writing often introduced foreign scientific news to the British public. He was even a Unitarian minister for a short time.

Aikin passed away on Holy Saturday, April 15, 1854.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 2: Pentecostalism revival arrival

Pentecostalism has roots prior to April 14, 1906, but it owes much of its worldwide reach to the revival that started that day at the Azusa Street mission founded by William J. Seymour. His church had been meeting elsewhere priot to that day, but after the group started speaking in tongues (and after the growing crowds caused the porch of their previous meeting space to collapse), Seymour moved to a new building on Azusa Street.

Worship services there were frequent, and pulled in hundreds. The crowd was notable for it racial and gender balance, which did not always sit well with others (notably Charles Parham, another of the founding figures of the Pentecostal movement). This would change, as segregated congregations would become the norm until the 1960s.

While the revival would wane after a few years, Seymour would preach at what became to be called the Apastolic Faith Mission for the rest of his life. Other preachers, who left Azusa Street to found their own churches, would grow Pentecostalism to the worldwide faith it is today. This timeline gives a good idea of where the Azusa Street revival fits in the history of the movement.

Another Lenten season is upon us, and I am totally doing what I said I was going to do at the end of last year's Lentorama:

Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Same basic idea as last year, you're getting 40 days' worth of historical events that happened on the day before (Western) Easter. Such as:

Day 1: So Long Sam Stephens 

Sam Stephens served as an Army broadcaster during the Korean War, and after the war became co-owner of KOJM radio in Harve, Montana. He went into politiccs in 1969, rising to the position of state senate president during his 16 years in that chamber.  

In 1988 he ran for governor, beating former governor Thomas Lee Judge to become the state's first elected Republican governor since 1964. Stephens served one term, the highlight of which seems to be overseeing the state's centennial celebration.

Hopefully the other 39 days are more interesting.

I was lucky enought to find this site that calculates church calendar dates for any year you put in. It will come in handy when we get to 2032 and I'm reduced to a Lentorama of "It Happened on the First Day of the Second Week of Lent."

 Book Log 2023 #9: The Odd Clauses by Jay Wexler

Some parts of the US Constitution are pretty well known (if occasionally misinterpreted), like the First Amendment's right to free speech. But then there are other parts that are less familiar, or seem less relevant in today's world. Why is there a whole amendment on not forcing people to put up soldiers in their homes? What exactly is a bill of attainder? And why does so lofty a document get into weights and measures? 

In this book, Wexler (who, full disclosure, I knew in high school and have occasional contact with over social media) examines these less familiar parts of the Constitution, and shows how they apply to the present day with regards to broader themes in the law (for example, the chapter on the Third Amendment gets related to privacy). 

The dense subject matter is leavened along the way with a fair amount of humor and personal observation. This isn't surprising given that Wexler once wrote a scholarly article about which justices generated the most laughter during argument (there's also a sequel).

If you're interested in the Constitution, or in the ways common law is able to connect the seemingly anachronistic to current day concerns, this is very much worth reading.

 Book Log 2023 #8: Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

I'd heard from time to time over the years that Hitler was on drugs during World War II, but this was always somewhere between a rumor to an assertion, with no real corroboration. In this book, Ohler presents the results of his research, and details not only Hitler's drug use (generally under a doctor's supervision), but the widespread use of drugs by the military and the German people in general.

In one respect, this isn't that surprising, between the history of now-illegal drugs being widely available in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the known use of drugs (usually stimulants) by troops in wartime to fend off fatigue. The scope of the drug use, as presented by Ohler, is what's surprising.

While several drugs are discussed, the main focus of the book is on a methamphetamine called Pervitin. The book paints a picture of a nation popping Pervitin regularly, from soldiers on the front lines to civilians back at home. Hitler's drug use saw him go from doctor-administered vitamin and hormone shots to a regimen that included Pervitin and Eukadol, which we would know better as oxycodone.

All of this drug use is seen as a key factor in Germany's early successes in the war, but also a significant factor in its eventual loss, as dependency led to mental and physical breakdown. 

The book is quite readable and eye-opening. Assuming you believe that Ohler is correct in his assumptions. Not everyone is convinced that his recounting is on the level, either based on contrary evidence or thoughts that Ohler, a novelist by trade, spiced things up a bit to improve the story (this review is particularly critical). The linked review also notes that the book serves as a bit of an apology for Nazi Germany and its atrocities, blaming it on the drugs.

As a book Blitzed is successful, as it's engaging and well-paced. Whether or not it's accurate... 

 Book Log 2023 #7: Dead Lions by Mick Herron

British spydom's Island of Misfit Toys is back, after a low-level spy that Jackson Lamb worked with in Berlin back in the day turns up dead on an Oxford bus. He looks into things, and comes to believe that the man knew about a Russian operation going on in London, and was killed to keep it quiet. While Lamb continues to investigate, two of the slow horses are assigned to protect a visiting Russian oligarch. This is not a coincidence.

I thought this was a solid follow-up to the first book, and appreciated that it wasn't another book primarily about machinations at MI-5 (not that I had a problem with the first book, just happy that this wasn't more of the same). I am curious to see if Slough House continues to be as dangerous a place to work as it's been in the first two books. They've got a pretty high body count going for a dead-end post.

 Book Log 2023 #6: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

It's odd that I'd never read this book before, given that I've read a lot of Bradbury's writing and that it's part of a trilogy that starts with Dandelion Wine, which might be my favorite book. It doesn't have any of the same characters as the first book, but is set in the same town (Green Town, a stand-in for Bradbury's hometown) and traffics in some of the same mystery and wonder of being a kid and growing up.

It's now late October in Green Town, and there's a sense among the people that something is coming. What that turns out to be is a carnival, to the delight of most. But there are a few who have a sense of foreboding, which turns out to be justified.  There is a supernatural power to the carnival and its leader, Mr. Dark, which threatens the town, and it's up to a pair of 13 year old boys and one of their fathers to save the day.

While there are thematic similarities between this book and Dandelion Wine, this book is darker, and leans more heavily into fantasy and horror. It's also much more cohesive as a story, as it was written as a novel (via a short story turned film treatment) rather than a series of linked stories. I still think Dandelion Wine is my favorite Bradbury work, but this may be second (I'll have to reread Fahrenheit 451 to be sure).

 Book Log 2023 #5: The Chosen by Chaim Potok

It's another book assigned in junior high, but this time one I actually finished and liked (helped, I would think, by being about two high school boys).

Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter meet during a baseball game which is as much a contest between two strains of Judaism - Reuven and his team are from an Orthodox school, while Danny and his team represent a nearby Hasidic school - as it is a game. The two schools are geographically close, but the kids don't really know each other that well.

When Reuven is injured by a ball hit by Danny, it leads (eventually) to a friendship. They confide in each other about family (Danny's father only talks to him when studying Talmud) and the future, where Danny wants to become a psychologist rather than follow his father as leader of their community. The relationships between the fathers and the sons is a major theme of the book, as is the role of tradition and faith in the modern world.

I, of course, missed a lot of this when I first read the book, having no real experience with Judaism or the expectations of living up to a specific tradition. I'm glad I revisited it.

 Book Log 2023 #4: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Frida is a new mom, who, like most new moms, finds tending to her child exhausting. When she leaves the child unattended for a couple of hours to see to herself, she is caught and sentenced to the titular school, where instructors (none of whom actually appear to be mothers themselves) will re-educate Frida so she doesn't make the same mistake twice.

This is the very basic outline Chan's debut novel, which in its satire of mommy culture and government/family dynamics also ventures into issues of gender (notably in interactions with the school for fathers) and race (not surprisingly, non-white mothers have a much harder time at the school and with the system in general). There is a distinct Handmaid's Tale vibe, though it's hard to say if the draconian nature of the school extends into other facets of the government.

I'm guessing I would have gotten more out of the book if I were a mother, or even a woman considering having children (which is where Chan was when she started writing). I don't think you have to be a mother to feel for the characters or understand the tensions in the story, but I have to think that being able to see yourself in Frida or one of the other mothers would open up another level of connection.

 Book Log 2023 #3: Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James

This is the fourth book in the Adam Dalgliesh series, where he investigates murder at a local nursing college. I think it's better than the books preceding it, but I'm still struggling to connect with the series. I think the main problem is that I still don't have much of a clue as to who Dalgliesh is. By comparison, four books into the Inspector Morse series I had a much better idea of who he was as a person and his approach to solving cases (even if we didn't know his first name).

I am likely to stick with the series, just not in any particular hurry to do so. 

 Book Log 2023 #2: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

For years, seventh grade world history classes at my junior high school read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Except for my class in my seventh grade year, when the teacher pulled an audible and assigned this book instead.  In retrospect the change makes some sense, as it's a shorter book and I don't think the class really spent much time on Africa. And it was in the middle of the Cold War, so some added insight into the Evil Empire couldn't hurt.

Except that the class, almost to a person, decided not to read the book. I myself barely got more than ten pages in when I decided to bail. I didn't find the book too difficult, it just didn't click for me (much like A Passage to India, which I was also supposed to read at some point and bailed on early).  You can imagine the talking to we got after taking the test on the book.

Anyway, I decided to give this another try for a reading challenge (read a book you bailed on in school), and found it much better going this time around (which I did not experience when I took my second pass at A Passage to India). I think younger me would have actually liked the book had he stuck with it. Its depiction of gulag life in the Stalin-era Soviet Union shows both the brutality and the mundanity of the system, and how one man finds ways to manipulate both so he can survive to the next day.

If you have any interest in the Soviet era, you should read this.

 Book Log 2023 #1: Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

A pair of aging Irish drug runners stake out a Spanish ferry terminal to find one of their daughters, who took off after the death of her mother and is now traveling with kindred spirits around Spain and north Africa. While they wait the pair reminisce about their criminal past and what may lie ahead as aging gangsters.

For all the talk of crime in this book, it's not a crime novel. It's more about the ways past choices come home to roost, and the ways in which friendship can endure and, in some cases, be the only thing one can count on. And as you might expect in a book about Irish hoods, there's a fair bit of dark humor over both the past and their current situation.

This book picked up a number of accolades, and rightfully so. It avoids the tropes and easy markers of crime fiction and gives a much more nuanced and soulful examination of lives not that well-lived. Barry has a knack for writing characters on the margin (notably in his debut novel, City of Bohane), and here uses it to maximum effect.

 Book Log 2022: The POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Once again, I'm looking to see how well the books I read in 2022 fit the prompts of the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, and as usual I am allowing books to satisfy multiple categories where applicable.

A book published in 2022 - The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk)

A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - 

A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society

A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title

A sapphic book - 1979 (Val McDermid)

A book by a Latinx author - In the Distance (Hernan Diaz)

A book with an onomatopoeia in its title

A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid

A book about a "found family" - here I'm going with St. Marks is Dead (Ada Calhoun), as there are numerous examples of how the people who lived there over the years developed familial bonds.

An Ansfield-Wolf Book Award winner

A #BookTok recommendation

A book about the afterlife

A book set in the 1980s - La place de la Concorde Suisse (John McPhee) was published in 1984, so I'm guessing the author's time with the Swiss military took place in that decade. 

A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title 

A book by a Pacific Islander author

A book about witches

A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - Slow Horses (Mick Herron)

A romance novel by a BIPOC author

A book that takes place during your favorite season - The September Society (Charles Finch), for fall (at least in the title, I don't recall if the book actually takes place in the fall)

A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - The 99% Invisible City (Roman Mars), read after Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan)

A book about a band or musical group - Running' with the Devil (Noel Monk)

A book with a character on the ace spectrum

A book with a recipe in it - Taste (Stanley Tucci) has several

A book you can read in one sitting - The Plough and the Stars (Sean O'Casey), though this might be cheating as it's a play

A book about a secret - Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)

A book with a misleading title - I'd say Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan) fits here, as I wouldn't consider him fat.

A Hugo Award winner

A book set during a holiday

A different book by an author you read in 2021 - The September Society (Charles Finch)

A book with the name of a board game in the title - The English Assassin (Daniel Silva)

A book featuring a man-made disaster - Termination Shock (Neal Stephenson)

A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page

A social-horror book

A book set in Victorian times - Gillespie and I (Jane Harris)

A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title

A book you know nothing about - The Stranger in My Genes (Bill Griffieth), which I pulled off the shelf more or less at random to fit a different reading challenge

A book about gender identity

A book featuring a party The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk) has a party for library donors

An #OwnVoices SFF book

A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Sex Cult Nun (Faith Jones). The prompt (a book set in multiple countries) may not be my favorite, but it lets me use the book with the most provocative title I read this year.

ADVANCED

A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title

A book that features two languages - Code Talker (Joseph Bruchac) is in English and talks about how Navajo words and concepts were used to convey military information during World War II.

A book with a palindromic title

A duology (two books)

A book about someone leading a double life -  The Kill Artist (Daniel Silva), whose protagonist is an Israeli spy whose cover is as an Italian art restorer

A book featuring a parallel reality 

A book with two POVs

Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (two books)

 Book Log 2022 #66: Grass by Sherri Tepper

Humanity has spread throughout the galaxy, but that spread is threatened by a plague that is taking root across all human settlements. The powers that be notice that one planet, Grass (named for its vast prairies), seems immune to the plague, and sends investigators to figure out why. The investigators ingratiate themselves into the aristocratic ruling class of the planet, who have adapted local fauna to engage in a form of fox hunting that's all the rage. The participation in these events, and a deeper look into the native life forms of the planet, lead to a conclusion about the plague and immunity that put Grass the the future of humanity in jeopardy.

The book is seen as a classic, and is noted for its use of feminist, ecological, and class themes. That being said, I found I disliked the book more as I went along. One review I read of the book suggested that it felt like two books put together to make one, with the second half marred by an unexpected romantic story line and a convoluted reveal as to why the planet is immune. I don't know that I feel exactly that way, but I do feel like there was a shift that significantly changed where the book was going.

This is the first book in a trilogy, though I don't think I'll pick up the other two. That's it for 2022!

 Book Log 2022 #65: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I'd seen this on any number of 100 best book lists, and thought it was time to check it out. I did like it quite a bit, maybe not as much as the people who put those lists together, but it's probably the most personal and moving book I've read about soldiers in Vietnam. I did find it a little confusing early on, as the line between memoir and fiction can get pretty thin, but it was more of me getting used to the structure of the book rather than a failing in writing.

 Book Log 2022 #64: Northern Spy by Flynn Berry

Tessa, new mom and BBC producer in Belfast, is confronted with video of her sister apparently participating in an IRA bank robbery, Tessa is loathe to believe this, thinking that her sister was somehow coerced into participating. When she learns the truth, she is faced with the difficulty of trying not only to save her sister, but to protect her family from potential IRA reprisal.

On the one hand, I did like the book quite a bit as a well-paced and plotted thriller, and for not being another IRA story where women are simply victims or bystanders. But I never quite bought into the IRA being as active as depicted in the book. I don't doubt that the IRA is still functioning in some fashion, but based on my own consumption of Irish news and media I don't get the sense that they're as present in Irish society as depicted here (though maybe I'm just not connected to the right stratum of Irish society).

 Book Log 2022 #63: Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

This book tells the story of a Navajo teen, Ned Begay, who serves in World War II as a code talker, who used their indigenous language as a basis for communication (either through a code developed from the language, or in the language itself). The book covers his training and eventually deployment, depicting his wartime experience as well as the difficulties a young Navajo would have in a largely white military.

I didn't particularly care for this while I was reading it, but I did not know that the book is aimed at a YA audience, so I'm pretty sure my expectations were off.

 Book Log 2022 #62: La Place de la Concorde Suisse by John McPhee

Included here for completeness, as I originally logged this in 2015. I've probably read this three or four times, and always find it fascinating.

 Book Log 2022 #61: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

After her generation-spanning debut Homegoing, Gyasi focuses in on the current immigrant experience in this follow-up. Gifty is the daughter of Ghanian immigrants, a PhD student at Stanford driven to neuroscience by a family tragedy. That tragedy puts further strain on a difficult relationship between Gifty and her mother, who suffers from depression and has attempted suicide.

Not that it was easier during Gifty's childhood in Alabama. Her mother worked long hours for low pay, having to pick up the slack after Gifty's father moves back to Ghana. Her brother, once seen as the gifted child, slides into a troubled adolescence as Gifty becomes a standout student. That gets her out of Alabama and to Stanford, but doesn't remove a feeling that she doesn't fit in.

As different as this book is from Homegoing, it's equally moving in its depiction of the difficulties of family, immigration (forced or otherwise), and personal trauma.

 Book Log 2022 #60: Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

Tucci's career has a theme of food running through it - from the film Big Night to writing two cookbooks to his CNN show Searching for Italy - so a food-themed memoir wasn't a huge surprise. I should also should not have been as surprised as I was at how much I liked the book. Tucci clearly has a knack for storytelling and a passion for telling stories involving food.

It helped that I didn't know that much about Tucci's personal history, so there was additional emotional impact from learning about things for the first time.  And while I haven't tried any of them, there are also recipes for many of the dishes mentioned (not all Italian - there's a recipe for his English wife's roasted potatoes). So not only is the book a feast for the reader, but it can be an actual feast if you're culinarily inclined. 

 Book Log 2022 #59: St. Mark's is Dead by Ada Calhoun

St. Mark's Place is a stretch of 8th Street in New York City's East Village, and has long been home to people on the fringe. This book goes all the way back - the first section lists a timeline of 10,000 BC to 1904 - to look at who lived there and how the neighborhood's continued changes over time belied the common refrain that the change meant that St. Mark's was dead.

Calhoun grew up in the neighborhood in the 1970s, and the people and places of her time on St. Mark's makes up the bulk of the book. She has clear affection for the neighborhood, warts and all, and does an excellent job of describing the vibrancy created by the cast of characters who lived, worked, and played there.  I'm not usually that interested in New York stories (having spent my entire life in the shadow of Boston), but I was drawn in from the start. It's a highly colorful and entertaining history and social commentary, which laments what's been lost but celebrates how the street rolled with the changes.

I picked up the book for a reading challenge (a book with your name in the title), and wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.

 Book Log 2022 #58: A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin

When his daughter Samantha calls to say that her husband has been missing for a couple of days, John Rebus sets out for their remote village so he can do what he does best: be a pain in the ass until he can figure out who done it. Which is exactly what he does, while tying in the history of a local World War 2 internment camp and a newly-founded commune whose leader caused a bit of a row between Sammy and her husband.

Back in Edinburgh, Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox investigate the murder of a Saudi student, who traveled in a group of rich young jet-setters. Their taste for high-end clubbing and property development pulls in a disgraced politician and old friend "Big Ger" Cafferty. As so often happens, the two cases are connected, though (spoiler alert) not as closely as in past novels.

I did like this book, and appreciated the different way in which he was brought into an investigation (he couldn't dig into cold cases forever). The ending of the book suggests a significant change for at least one of the characters mentioned above - though we won't know what it is (or even if it is) until the next book.

 Book Log 2022 #57: 1989 by Val McDirmid

Allie Burns, the protagonist of 1979, is still working in journalism, no longer as an investigative reporter  but as an editor for a thinly-veiled version of Robert Maxwell. Still, her instincts for a story lead her to look into why so many AIDS patients from Scotland are winding up in Manchester (where she now lives with her partner), a question that ultimately leads her to Berlin, where she's also doing some digging around for her boss, who has a sense of the coming post-Soviet era and wants to get in on the ground floor. And along the way she also covers the Hillsborough stadium collapse, providing an eyewitness account of the chaos surrounding that disaster.

Reviews for the book were mixed, mostly complaining about the pacing and lack of tension compared to the first book. I don't recall it being that slow. It could be that the book tries to cover too much ground, though it would be hard to write a book set in 1989 and not talk about the AIDS epidemic or Hillsborough. Maybe trying to shoehorn the Maxwell story into this was one story too many?

I like the book fine, and am interested in continuing on (it's apparently planned as a five book series). 

 Book Log 2022 #56: Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris Nashawaty

On one hand, this book is a film history, as it details what went on behind the scenes of filming Caddyshack, from the excesses of its stars to the all the ways it could have been a much different film (such as having Mickey Rourke play Danny Noonan, or keeping the original script's stronger focus on class issues).

On the other hand, it's a film criticism, as it discusses Caddyshack's place among period films, comedies in particular. There are the obvious comparisons to films like The Blues Brothers and Animal House, but also distinctions with more mainstream comedies (such as Any Which Way But Loose, where Clint Eastwood costars with an orangutan).

In both senses the book is largely successful, giving great detail as to how the film got made while also discussing how it's place in film contributed to not being an instant success at the box office. The book also spends a fair amount of time on the film's writer, Douglas Kenney, whose gift for comedy was often countered by episodes of depression. 

 Book Log 2022 #54: The Gilded Page by Mary Wellesley

This book examines the history of medieval manuscripts, from the people that created them, the subjects they covered, and the various ways they've survived into the present day. Wellesley goes into detail on specific manuscripts, detailing their history and what's unique about their subject matter and construction, while also taking a broader look at the contexts within which manuscripts were created.

It's there that I think the book lags a bit, as Wellesley spends a fair amount of time examining things through a feminist lens, not always with success. Part of me thinks this may have been better served with a separate book about the role of women in the production and ownership of manuscripts, but I also see where covering the topic in a more general work has merit.

Either way, if this is a subject that interests you it's probably worth checking this out. 

 Book Log 2022 #53: Slow Horses by Mick Herron

I first became aware of this series through the acclaimed series on Apple TV. I wanted to watch it, but didn't want to start until I'd started the books.

Set in the world of British intelligence, the term "slow horses" is given to those MI5 agents assigned to Slough House after committing some sort of grave offense in the line of duty. In the case of River Cartwright, it was training exercise that went very wrong in public. For others it's their personal habits, or just being up against the wrong person at the wrong time. Regardless of the reason, they're shunted off and given busywork in the hopes that the ongoing tedium will lead them to quit.

This tedium is interrupted when, in the course of investigating a fringe right-wing journalist, the agents get drawn into the kidnapping of a Pakistani student by a white nationalist group. As they get more involved, we learn more about why the agents have been sent to Slough House, and how there may be more to the kidnapping than first thought.

There's a fair bit of lore to go along with the main case, from River's relationship with his grandfather (himself a retired intelligence agent), the political machinations of MI5's leaders, and the mysterious death of a senior intelligence agent with connections to at least two of the slow horses. 

I really enjoyed the book, which uses liberal doses of humor to balance the more violent aspects of intelligence work. Looking forward to both the other books and the TV series.

 Book Log 2022 #52: Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Lea Ypi grew up in Albania in the 1990s, during the period after the death of communist dictator Enver Hoxha and the country's transition into an unstable multiparty democracy. In this memoir, she recounts the time from a personal perspective, documenting the social changes while highlighting how it impacted her schooling, friendships, and relations with her family.

It's the interactions with her family that are the most striking. Ypi learns that a former politician she'd been taught to hate in school was actually her great-grandfather, who was prime minister for a time during the country's monarchy. She also learns that her family was (or is?) Muslim. As the political climate changes in Albania, Ypi sees her parents become leading figures in the opposition, which brings its own set of challenges.

While there is plenty of reflection on the broader picture of Albania's transition to a liberal democracy (which dovetails nicely with Ypi's career as a professor of political theory and philosophy), it's the personal recollections that really make this book stand out.

 Book Log 2022 #51: The September Society by Charles Finch

Gentleman detective Charles Lenox is back on the case, this time looking into the disappearance of an Oxford student. An alumnus of Oxford himself, Lenox is happy to revisit his old stomping grounds, but less happy when the case evolves from missing persons to murder.

His investigation leads to the secret society of the title, which appears to have ties to soldiers who've served in India. While he works to uncover what role the society may have had in the student's death, Lenox looks to keep moving out of the friend zone with neighbor Lady Jane Grey. He also takes on an apprentice, another gentleman with an interest in detection, though one of of more profligate habits.

While I wouldn't call this a cozy mystery, the setting among England's Victorian elite does take the edge off a bit. It's hard to feel like Lenox or his colleagues are going to come to harm. But it's still an engaging mystery, and a successful follow-up to the debut novel of the series.

Book Log 2022 #50: Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach

I'm a little surprised that this is the first Mary Roach book I've read. Roach has written a number of highly accessible books about the intersection of science and human civilization, typically focused on a specific aspect (such as Bonk, about human sexuality, and Stiff, about the disposition of human bodies after death). These should all appeal to me, and on the face of it I do find all of them interesting.

I expect our family vacation, where we drove across much of the country visiting national parks, drew me to this book about the ways humans and animals interact. This includes examinations into animal behavior, people who manage interactions between people and specific animals (such as elephants), and how the encroachment into animal habitats by the built environment makes these interactions more frequent (and more dangerous).

For the most part I enjoyed this very much, but got a little bored with it by the end. Not sure if I'd hit my limit of stories about man versus animal or if the later parts of the book were just less interesting. I did find it entertaining enough that I'll read another of her books. Eventually.

 Book Log 2022 #49: A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva

The past crashes into the present in this installment of the Gabriel Allon series, when Gabriel is sent to Vienna to investigate the bombing of a Holocaust research office. A local Holocaust survivor tells Gabriel to look into a person, and is killed soon afterwards. The person he mentioned to Gabriel appears to be a former Nazi who was deeply involved in a project to erase evidence of the Holocaust. 

While Gabriel travels the world to confirm that this man is indeed the Nazi fugitive, he also has to keep dodging an assassin hired to kill him. He also has to determine how his mother may have known the fugitive, as someone who looks very much like him appears in a painting she did of the Death Marches, forced evacuations where Holocaust victims had to walk to other camps to avoid the oncoming Allies.

It's another solid outing the series, strengthened by getting a deeper look into Allon's family and their past.

 Book Log 2022 #48: The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

Liesl Weiss works behind the scenes in the rare book department of a large university's library. She's put front and center when her boss has a stroke and she has to run the department, which would be fine except she makes a discovery pretty early on that would cause scandal and potentially see someone go to jail.

Liesl has to balance what's best for the department with what will keep the donors giving money to the school, all while trying to solve the mystery she's uncovered (as well as a second mystery that is coincidental to be unrelated).

As someone who's made a career in higher education - including a stint in a school library - the subject matter was very appealing. The author, herself a librarian, brings a lot of that experience to bear, and there was a lot of familiarity to the college politics and the personalities involved. I liked the book well enough but had a non-specific feeling of it not being 100 percent what it could be. I don't have a good explanation of where that feeling came from, honestly. It's definitely worth giving a try if you like campus novels.

 Book Log 2022 #47: Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

This book, expanded from the New Yorker article "The Family that Built an Empire of Pain," tells the story of the Sackler family, whose fortune and later downfall came via their company Purdue Pharma and the drug oxycodone, which fueled the opioid epidemic. The book shows in great detail how the family continued to market the drug even when it was clear it was being prescribed in a way to invite abuse, and the ways in which they tried to avoid liability. It also follows the people who saw the problem and their fight to bring the family, and the company, to justice.

This is a tremendous book, long but well worth the investment of time. The focus on the family is especially helpful, as it puts names and faces to actors who, in the vast majority of coverage, got to hide behind the family and company names. While the subjects are different, I think of this book as a companion piece to Bad Blood in how both displayed how greed and ego can be used to dupe the public and, if unchecked, can cause great harm.

 Book Log 2022 #46: Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville

Jack Lennon is looking forward to a quiet Christmas with his daughter, while trying to overcome his grief and guilt at the events of Collusion. That doesn't come to pass, as violence ramps up with one of the local gangs, related to the killing of one of their own by a woman who was trafficked into Northern Ireland for prostitution. Her escape has its own repercussions, as her supposed savior isn't what he appears to be.

I liked this book more than the first two in the series. It's the first book not to be focused on the Troubles and related issues, which allows the plot to develop outside of the boundaries of that conflict. I feel like the writing style changed a bit as well.  I'm more likely to continue with the series now, though still not fully drawn in.

 Book Log 2022 #45: The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

In this book - the third in a loose trilogy looking at how man shapes the natural world - Macfarlane travels ancient paths (mostly on land, but also at sea) to understand what they meant to the people that shaped them and what they mean to us today. He pulls in a variety of natural, geographic, and literary references to put these trails into context, with the help of traveling partners and strangers he meets along the way.

I liked the book, I feel like it's a spiritual cousin to John McPhee's nature writing. The styles aren't the same, but there's some communion between their work as far as trying to come to a deeper understanding of natural history and the natural world within a current context. I found some of the travels more interesting than others, but felt positive about the whole.

 Book Log 2022 #44: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

A girl grows up alone in the marshes of North Carolina, learning how to fend for herself while becoming familiar with the rhythms of life in the wild. Shunned by townsfolk and bullied out of school after one day, she lives alone but eventually falls into the orbits of two local boys, one a friend of her brother, the other the high school's star quarterback. A love triangle ensues, until one of the boys turns up dead - with the girl as the main (and only) suspect.

I liked this more than expected, at least up until the end, which felt a little forced and not particularly surprising. There's an additional twist at the end unrelated to the murder which is a little more surprising, though it didn't really change my overall opinion of the book. 

 Book Log 2022 #43: The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt

I wound up reading this to fulfill the reading challenge of a book mentioned in another book, though at this point I couldn't tell you what the other book was.  I wound up choosing it based on having played the villain in a grade school play adapted from the book. It was the apex of my theatrical career, as I had the most lines, got to wear a purple velour cape as part of my costume, had a song, and (spoiler alert) a death scene. 

Oh, right, the book. The prime minister of a kingdom is trying to write a dictionary, and gets stuck when trying to define 'delicious.' The king and queen object to his definition ("Delicious is fried fish"), so the prime minister sends his stepson out to ask everyone in the kingdom how they'd define the word. 

At some point there's an uprising in the kingdom, with the villain taking control of the water supply (though in my memory of the play, the villain acts to get his own definition of delicious - the taste of walnuts - chosen for the dictionary). Various mystical creatures are involved in the story and its resolution.

It was fun to read the book and compare it to my memories of the play (which are likely not as accurate as I'd like them to be). This was an early work for Babbitt, who may be best remembered for Tuck Everlasting, which I remember as being hugely popular at the time we did the play. 

 Book Log 2022 #42: In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

Brothers Håkan and Linus Söderström are sent away from their Swedish home by their father, a struggling farmer, in the hopes that they'll find a better life. Joining the growing wave of immigrants to the US, they are separated, and Håkan winds up in California. Believing that Linus is still in New York City, Håkan sets out on an epic trek eastward to rejoin him. The story of that trip, the people Håkan meets, and how he deals with being alone in a new and foreboding country, is told in this novel.

To be honest, I was looking to read Diaz's most recent book, Trust, but the waiting time for my hold was months long, so I turned to his earlier novel instead. I did like it, but it did bump against my general disinterest in Westerns. Not that it's a traditional Western. But it's still a genre I'm not that interested in. To put it in context of other Westerns I've read recently, I think I liked The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu more, but liked this much, much more than The Last Kind Words Saloon.

 Book Log 2022 #41: The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin

This is a short story collection by the author of The Three Body Problem and is named for its first story, in which mankind works to move the Earth out of the way of the sun when it goes supernova. Not all of the stories are hard sci-fi, and some have a fairly light or humorous tone. I thought they were all well-written and inventive, though there were a couple I liked less than the others, which I expect is pretty common given the mixed nature of the collection.

 Book Log 2022 #40: The Stranger in my Genes by Bill Griffeth

As part of his interest in genealogy, financial journalist Griffeth took a DNA test to get more information to help fill out his family tree. The results gave him not just a new branch to consider, but possibly an entirely new tree. This memoir documents his work to uncover the truth about his past and the pasts of his parents, biological and otherwise.

This book came out in 2016, when DNA testing was just becoming popular and surprise results were often (at least locally) newsworthy. Reading the book in 2022, when these sorts of results have become more commonplace, does threaten to lessen the impact of the story. But Griffeth uses his journalistic skills to tell a story in an engaging way without being overly dramatic. 

 Book Log 2022 #39: The Confessor by Daniel Silva

So I didn't intend to dip back into the Gabriel Allon series quite so quickly, but I needed a book and figured I could stand to catch up a bit on the series. In this outing, a Holocaust scholar is murdered in his Munich home, and Allon is tasked to find out who did it. In the course of his investigation he learns about a secret society within the Catholic church that acts to defend its reputation and power - both of which were under threat from the scholar's work. When that group sees the current pope as a threat, Allon must act to not only avenge the death of the scholar, but to prevent an assassination that could have worldwide ramifications.

Like the previous book, Silva selects an historical basis for the plot that is worthy of greater public examination. It's fair to say that the Vatican did not cover itself in glory in its response to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. On the other hand, a secret society within the Vatican is a pretty tired trope. Still liked the book, just hope it doesn't indicate the series heading off in a Dan Brown-type direction.

 Book Log 2022 #38: We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole

A combination memoir and social history, O'Toole uses the coincidence of his birth and the passing of legislation to open up the Irish economy being in the same year to use his life experiences as a lens to examine the changes in Irish society. His journey from being a kid in working class Dublin to going to university to becoming a journalist and critic echo Ireland's change from being insular and church-dominated to being one of the most open societies in Europe.

In some instances the book is quite touching, especially as O'Toole shares memories of his parents and growing up in the 1960s. In others, he is searingly critical of the power structures that allowed violence and abuse to run free, from the overt violence of the Troubles to the personal violence of abusive parents, teachers, and priests that went undiscussed and unchecked. 

The book takes its title from an Irish saying, "Sure, we don't know ourselves," which typically refers to things improving to a point where you don't recognize who you are now based on where you were. What O'Toole successfully demonstrates is that there was (and probably still is, in some fashion) a cognitive dissonance in Irish society between the things that are publicly known and things that are collectively privately known but allowed to fester. This book take a fascinating and highly readable step towards synthesis.

 Book Log 2022 #37: You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero

So another genre I don't normally read that I've had to dip into for reading challenges is self-help. I wound up picking this for the most recent challenge as the title was amusing. I found the book less so. Some of it is motivational, but then there's a lot about manifesting things and becoming a life coach. I suppose there are people for whom this is the right book to get their life jump started. I'm not one of them.

I don't know if my reaction is specific to this book or to the genre as a whole. I suppose I might find out the next time I'm forced to read a self-help book.

 Book Log 2022 #36: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

When oil was discovered in Oklahoma, it turned out that quite a lot of it was sitting under land owned by the Osage nation. The Osage quickly became rich, and looked to be headed towards long-term security.

Except that the Osage started to die. Some mysteriously, others more obviously murdered. The killings often targeted families, with the inheritances eventually winding up with a sole survivor. This sole survivor was, more often than not, a white man who married into the family.

Officials took up investigations into the killings. Many of the investigators were themselves killed.  The nascent FBI took up the cases, struggling until J. Edgar Hoover assigned a former Texas Ranger, Tom White, to lead things. This book largely tells the story of White and how he was able to unravel the conspiracy against the Osage.

While the book does an excellent job of detailing the crimes and their eventual solution, what stood out to me was how it set the crimes into a larger context of American history and colonization. These were not isolated events, but part of a greater conflict over race and class. Recommended.

 Book Log 2022 #35: The English Assassin by Daniel Silva

Art restorer and Israeli spy Gabriel Allon is in Switzerland for his former job, only to find that the owner of the Raphael he's restoring has been killed - and left at the foot of the painting. An investigation uncovers that the owner also held a collection of looted Impressionist paintings, which are now gone. Allon is tasked by his service to track down the killer (who appears to be someone Allon trained) and recover the art so it can be returned to its rightful owners.

This book has all the hallmarks of the spy thriller - twisty plot, gunplay, clandestine meetings, etc. - while throwing some light on how Switzerland became a repository for treasure stolen by Nazi Germany. I enjoyed the book quite a bit and will likely stick with this series.

 Book Log 2022 #34: The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand

One of the challenges of doing a reading challenge is when you get a category that falls into a topic or genre you don't really like. This kind of happened to me with this book, which I read to satisfy a requirement for a "beach read." And while the person running the challenges was very flexible about the category, I felt like I had to respect the spirit of the thing and go with a summery romance-type novel.

The set up here is that a writer is blocked, and with bills looming is desperate for inspiration. She finds it when her best friend decides to revamp her garden, and hires a "ruggedly handsome" landscape architect to get the work done. While the friend seems attracted to the architect, the writer works this into the sort of "woman hires gardener to trim her hedges, if you know what I mean" story you'd expect, and both have to work to counter a rumor mill that already has the friend and her lawn guy laying sod together. If you know what I mean.

Without any real background in the genre it's hard for me to say if this is a good representation. Objectively, it's not a book I would recommend. Ever. One thing it did do for me was confirm my prejudices against Nantucket, which were developed early on thanks to an unlikely football rivalry. So if you're looking to find something to justify thinking that people from Nantucket are jerks, this may fit the bill.

 Book Log 2022 #33: The 99% Invisible City by Kurt Kohlstedt and Roman Mars 

The 99% Invisible podcast focuses on the aspects of architecture and design that typically go unnoticed. This book combines topics from the pod with additional information and helpful illustrations to explain details in the built environment that we often see but usually don't understand (for example, what the symbols and colors spraypainted on pavement before digging mean).

While I found much of this book fascinating, the one drawback is that if you are a regular listener to the pod you may find that you're familiar with a lot of what's covered. This is probably a common hazard for books based on other media - I had a similar issue with For the Love of Europe by Rick Steves - but in this case there was enough new material to keep me going.

 Book Log 2022 #32: Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

Gaffigan reflects on being a parent in this collection of essays and stories, mostly centered around the challenges of having younger kids (his musings on diaper changes and organizing family trips to the park will feel familiar if you've had kids) and the problems of being outnumbered (he and his wife have five kids). 

As someone who can safely look at parenting young kids in the rear view, I did recognize a lot of what Gaffigan writes about, and appreciated how he applied his particular brand of humor. Not all of the stories worked for me, but I expect that the success of the stories are more dependent on the experiences of the reader than usual. 

 Book Log 2022 #31: Atonement by Ian McEwan

The combination of an interest in writing and an active imagination is typically a good thing - how would we get books otherwise? - but in the personage of Briony Tallis, they prove damaging on a generational scale.  Her interpretation of things seen and read during a particular day in 1935 cause her act in a way that cause permanent injury to family and friends.  We see how she came to act the way she did, and how her actions played out in the future, over the course of the novel.

As much as I appreciated the writing and the nuanced way history played out over the course of the book, I had a hard time not thinking about what drove Briony to make the decisions she made. She was young (13 in 1935) and not particularly experienced, and the way her interior life seemed to influence her behavior made me wonder if she had an undiagnosed ASD (to the extent one could diagnose such a thing at the time). But it could just be that she's kind of a monster.

And just to put a cherry on top, the book also has a bit of a twist at the end that may change how you view everything that happened before it. 

 Book Log 2022 #30: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

While several authors used the Covid-19 outbreak as the inspiration for writing a pandemic novel, Mandel is among the few who used it to write a second pandemic novel. The difference between her first, 2014's Station Eleven, and the second, is personal experience.

A number of people have noted the similarities between Mandel and Olive Llewellyn, the main character who is also an author whose breakthrough novel involves a pandemic. Olive is on a lengthy book tour, and misses her family on the moon (there being two moon colonies in the 23rd century where Olive lives). Olive is on Earth at a time when an actual pandemic seems to be brewing, and isn't quite sure if it's enough of  threat to cut the tour short. Outside of actually living on the moon, it's pretty easy to see how Mandel's pandemic experience informed Olive.

But this is just one timeline in the book, which follows characters from the 20th to the 25th century. These timelines have a number of callbacks to other books (most notably The Glass Hotel), and are tied together by a real-life anomaly that Olive worked into her book. That anomaly later becomes a focus of time researchers, who provide its ultimate solution.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I've liked all of her books. It will help if you've read Station Eleven and The Glass House prior to reading this one, as there are some spoilers. There are significantly more sci-fi elements to this book than the others (you did notice I mentioned time travel and living on the moon?), so price that in if you're not typically into sci-fi (though I think people who aren't into sci-fi can still enjoy this).

 Book Log 2022 #29: London to Ladysmith via Pretoria by Winston Churchill

This book is the first of two Churchill wrote on his experiences in the Boer Wars. He went to South Africa as a reporter, and his letters and dispatches form the book's source material. While there's ample coverage of the military engagements (which Churchill would later participate in when he rejoined the military), I found the sections dealing with his capture by the Boers and subsequent escape to be the most interesting part of the book. 

Unfortunately I found most of the book not that interesting, probably a combination of a somewhat archaic writing style and a lack of knowledge about British military history and the Boer Wars in general. I wouldn't say it's a bad book, just one with a fairly narrow appeal.

 Book Log 2022 #28: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

An Asante woman named Maame has two daughters, half-sisters who live in separate villages in what is today Ghana. One winds up marrying the British governor of a local slave forts and remains in Africa, while the other sister is captured in a raid and enslaved, sent through the fort her sister lives in to North America, where she winds up at a plantation in the US south. The book follows their stories and those of some of their descendants, up to the present day.

Gyasi, who was born in Ghana and raised in the US, wrote this book after her first trip back to Ghana, where she was struck by the difference in the upper levels of the slave fort and the dungeons, and how the people living upstairs were unaware of what the people in the dungeons were going through. 

I don't know that I would have picked this book up on its own, and I'm very thankful to the reading challenge that led me to it.  It's wonderfully written, both story lines are engaging and the characters fully realized. It's also impressive that this is Gyasi's debut novel. Recommended.

 Book Log 2022 #27: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

When I was a kid one of the magazines we got at the house was Reader's Digest. I'm pretty sure we got a gift subscription every year, as I don't recall ever seeing my parents sending in the renewal.  And say what you will about America's favorite source of abridged stories, but it was the publication that introduced me to Ray Bradbury.

There may have been others, but I remember two chapters of his novels that I first read in the magazine. One was "The Sound of Summer Running" from Dandelion Wine, the other was "There Will Come Soft Rains" from this book. 

This was a re-read rather than my first time through, and this time through I found the similarities between 21st century Mars and 1950s America a bit distracting. I know this was more or less done intentionally as a way to depict how current thinking and values can have significant impacts in the future, but I don't think it's aged all that well. Still worth reading if you like Bradbury, though.

 Book Log 2022 #26: Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

A part-time jazz drummer dies during a gig, and when London constable Peter Grant arrives to investigate he senses the tune of a jazz standard coming from the body, a sign that the death is not just unnatural, but likely supernatural.

Grant soon discovers this is just the latest unexpected death of someone in London's jazz scene. The broader scope of the investigation leads him to involve both his boss, the wizard Inspector Nightingale, and a music journalist with an understanding of the London jazz scene. The case quickly becomes personal for Grant, given that his dad is a jazz musician and that the relationship with the journalist starts heading in a romantic direction. 

This description probably doesn't do the book justice, as it's a highly imaginative (and often funny) mix of mystery and fantasy. I've come to like this series quite a bit over the first two novels, and am looking forward to continuing on.

 Book Log 2022 #25: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

A novel of the Shakespeare family rather than of the Bard himself, this book is named for William Shakespeare's son Hamnet, who (spoiler alert) died at the age of 11. O'Farrell uses his death to tell two different but related stories, one on how his illness and death affected Shakespeare's work and relationship with his wife, and the other going back to when the pair met and fell in love 15 years before Hamnet's death.

For all the talk of William and Hamnet, the main character of the book is Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife and Hamnet's mother. We know very little about her in real life, possibly not even her first name (at least one surviving document refers to her as Agnes). O'Farrell uses this largely blank canvas to depict Anne as an eccentric, with an interest in healing and falconry. We see how her marriage to Shakespeare leads to conflicts between her original self and her as a wife and mother, and how the loss of Hamnet causes grief, but also an opening through which to reclaim part of herself.

Most commercial reviews of the book were highly positive, while reader reviews seemed more split (a number of people complained about the pacing, as well as finding the characters flat). I did not find either of those to be issues, though as a parent (and as someone who lost a sibling at a relatively early age) I may have connected more with the issues of grief and loss and not noticed other shortcomings. 

 Book 2022 #24: Oh, Florida! by Craig Pittman

Pittman, a native Floridian (so a Florida man, but not Florida Man), brings his personal and journalistic experiences together in this book whose subtitle, "How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country," fits both the state's general vibe and its cultural weight. 

More than just a compendium of stories involving men, alligators, and liquor stores, this book is an honest (and funny) attempt to explain why Florida is the way it is. Not surprisingly, Florida was kind of weird from the get go, and has only become weirder as time gave us more ways to be weird and more ways for that weirdness to be noticed outside of the state.

Pittman does a great job of balancing humor, history, and a kind of pride about living in Florida. He's also a good interview, as he's been on Rick Steves's radio show a number of times to talk about the state (this show has an interview about this book, but he's appeared on other episodes, too). 

 Book Log 2022 #22: Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet by Michael Meyer

Before Benjamin Franklin died, he added a bequest in his will to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, leaving both 1000 pounds. But it wasn't a simple gift, as he also put specific conditions on the use of the money. For the first 100 years after his death, the funds would only be available to help fund apprenticeships, similar to the one that got him started in the printing business. Any money not loaned out would be invested to collect interest.

After than 100 years, 75 percent of the principal could be used for a public works project, with the remaining money staying invested and available for apprenticeship loans. After another 100 years, whatever money was left could be used as seen fit with no restrictions.

This book tells the story of how the money was spent over time, and the issues that came up along the way. Not surprisingly, there are stories of bad investments and politicians using the money for themselves. But there were also questions of how to manage a bequest as times changed. For example, as apprenticeships became less popular, what options do you have to loan money that would still meet the letter of the gift?

I did like the book, but I felt like there was probably more Franklin backstory than was strictly necessary.

 Book Log 2022 #23: Runnin' With the Devil by Noel Monk

Monk, who served as tour manager and then personal manager for Van Halen, tells the story of his time with the bank in this book, which roughly covers the band's beginnings to the departure of David Lee Roth. 

Most of the behind the scenes stuff is what you'd expect - they trashed a number of hotel rooms and had a fondness for cocaine - but there were some more revelatory aspects to the story as well.  Alex and Eddie Van Halen's home life when they were growing is presented as deeply dysfunctional, making it easy to draw a line to issues in their adulthood (Eddie is depicted as emotionally needy, while Alex is shown as having more issues with being part Indonesian). The Van Halens and Roth were also depicted as not treating bassist Michael Anthony as an equal member of the band, and he does kind of come off as being a bit apart from the others (though Monk always describes him positively).

I also hadn't really known what an overnight success the band was, probably as they became popular right when I first started noticing bands and listening to the radio. They're one of those bands that, to my mind, has always been there.

I did enjoy the book quite a bit, it's not the most penetrating analysis of the band but the stories are good and it fills in a lot of history for those of us who might not be aware. One suggestion I came across online was to read this and Van Halen Rising, as that book covers the period up to their signing with Warner, with this book adding on the history up to Roth's leaving. Seems like a good suggestion.

 Book Log 2022 #21: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The story in this book runs in three timelines - one set during the 1453 siege of Constantinople, one in present day Idaho, and one in the future on a spaceship delivering colonists to an exoplanet.  What each timeline shares is an ancient Greek story of a person who wants to be turned into a bird so they can go to a utopia in the sky. We see how the story affects the characters in each timeline, and the influence it has on them and, in some sense, the other timelines.

The book gave off Cloud Atlas vibes for story and character, and how these connected over time. I don't know that I liked this book as much as that one, but I did like it quite a bit. The page linked above tries to tie this in with Doerr's previous book, All the Light We Cannot See, but I don't think there's much of a connection. That shouldn't dissuade you from reading either book.

 Book Log 2022 #20: Collusion by Stuart Neville

After a string of killings in Northern Ireland, Gerry Fegan has gone to New York and the ex-wife and daughter of Belfast police detective Jack Lennon have gone into hiding.  While Lennon presses to find his daughter (with resistance from official channels), Fegan has to return home and face a rival hitman, hired by a survivor of Fegan's violence to exact revenge. 

The book was fine, I was on the fence about the series after the first book and am no more convinced either way as to whether or not I should continue on with it.  

 Book Log 2022 #18: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The second book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, this is actually set before the first book. 

Daniel Martin survived a difficult childhood (thanks in part to the Sempere and Sempere bookstore) to become a writer of books about Barcelona's underworld. He moves into a deserted house with a murky past, one that appears to be slowing shaping his present. It impacts not only his writing - primarily a commission by a shadowy Frenchman to write a religious-themed work - but in his personal relationships with his patron, the daughter of the patron's chauffeur, and a devoted fan.

This all leads to an atmospherically gothic ending that may put some readers off. I figure if you can accept a story where a house is imposing its history on its current resident, the ending isn't that unexpected.

I think if you liked the first book you'll like this one. 

Book Log 2022 #19: The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva

This is the first in a very long series of spy thrillers featuring Gabriel Allon, who is trying to put his past in Israeli intelligence behind him to return to his real passion: art and art restoration. That doesn't quite work out, as he is drawn back into service after the Israeli ambassador to France is assassinated. The killing is the work of the same terrorist who killed Allon's son and caused permanent mental damage to Allon's wife, so Allon's return to spy work is part professional experience with the terrorist and a chance at revenge.

I'd been thinking about starting this series for a while, unsure if I wanted to start a new series. In the end it turned out to be a perfectly serviceable example of the genre, firmly in the airport read zone if a little better than what I think of as the average book of that type.  I think the involvement of the art world gave it just that small difference to separate it from standard spy fare. I'll probably keep reading these, they move pretty quickly and do scratch that genre itch.

 Book Log 2022 #17: Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

Harriet Baxter, now an old woman living in London, is taking upon herself to chronicle the life of Ned Gillespie, an artist who she believes never gained the acclaim he deserved. She considers herself to be the best suited person for the job as she knew Gillespie quite well, having met him and his family by accident when she was visiting Glasgow for the 1888 International Exhibition.

That meeting involves Harriet saving the life of Gillespie's mother, and from that act she becomes quite close with the family, becoming a sort of surrogate member by helping with day to day tasks and patronizing their work as artists. It's clear that the family has its troubles, and when they eventually lead to tragedy and a criminal trial, Harriet winds up in the middle of things.

Where the book is told from Harriet's point of view and several decades removed from the events she's recalling, there is plenty of room to question the reliability of the narrator. It's also not clear what her motives are in telling the story - is she really trying to give Gillespie a boost in popularity, or is she trying to clear her own name?

I liked this book quite a bit, though in reading a couple of reviews Harris' previous book, The Observations, was noted as being along similar lines but better. I've not read it, but maybe it would make sense to read that one first.