Blackbeard

Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate by Angus Konstam was slow reading for me. This was due to the fact that I started this book with zero previous knowledge about pirates and Konstam is an expert. While I was approaching Blackbeard with the glee of an 10 year old boy, looking for gory details, battles, hangings, and blood and guts, Konstram was seriously discussing the history of pirates and Blackbeard's life. Sometimes the details became a bit tedious and boring to me. Also, only about half the book is actually specifically about Blackbeard. The first half of the book covers the history of pirates.

This may have not been the best first pirate book for me to read.

From Amazon:

"Konstam, the Scottish author of more than 50 maritime history books here explores the dreaded Blackbeard, "the archetypal pirate of the age...and one of the most fearsome figures around." Konstam makes a thorough, exciting examination of 18th century pirate life, with wonderful details such as the pirates' code, which can read as a precursor to America's own Bill of Rights: "Every man has a Vote in Affairs of Monument, has equal Title to the fresh Provisions, or strong Liquors, at any Time seized & use them at pleasure." However, the author's portrait of the seadog fails for two reasons: first, very little is known about Blackbeard, and Konstam hasn't been able to uncover much that's new; "we must assume" becomes a frequent, frustrating qualifier when the book focuses on its subject. Secondly, Konstram is fond of cliches: a ruler's power base collapses "like a house of cards" while another is able to "walk the political tightrope;" and the feared pirate himself "would stop at nothing to get what he wanted." The padding necessary to produce a lengthy version of Blackbeard's story produces a work that has little of the dash and derring-do readers will expect from the biography of a pirate, and ends up painting Blackbeard less as a terror of the high seas than a bully with a big boat. Illustrations."
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What I'm planning to do is read another pirate book, Under the Black Flag. Then I have a book on Captain Kidd that will follow at some point. (I also have 2 more nonfiction virus books calling me.) This will break the fiction/nonfiction order I'm trying to follow for the year, but I think it may be time to toss that rule out. As of today I'll be reading rule free and may be reading more nonfiction for awhile.

Heart-Shaped Box

Some readers are going to expect a whole lot from Joe Hill's debut novel Heart-Shaped Box because Hill is the son of Stephen and Tabitha King. Hill will not disappoint the majority. A new 2007 release, Heart-Shaped Box runs 374 pages but is an easy afternoon read. In the book middle aged rocker Judas Coyne buys a ghost advertised in an online auction. The ghost will arrive in the dead man's suit. After the suit arrives, Coyne discovers he was set up. The ghost "auction" was in reality only offered to Coyne and he now has living in his house a malignant spirit, the stepfather of one of his former groupies, who is out to kill him. Ostensibly the ghost is out for revenge for his stepdaughter's suicide, but Hill slowly reveals that there is more to the story.

After about the first 100 pages I wasn't sure if I wanted to finish this book or not. I'm not a huge fan of strictly graphic horror stories and it sure appeared it was headed in that direction. Then the tale took a twist and I kept reading. I'm not disappointed that I finished the book. In the end, Hill had some clever plot twists, tied up all the loss ends nicely, and there was a satisfying conclusion. I will admit, however, that I quickly skimmed through a couple of the more graphic scenes.

Virus Hunter

Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World by C. J. Peters and Mark Olshaker is a first person account of a real virus hunter. C. J. Peters spent his professional career studying deadly viruses in a lab and in the field. He was in the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and later in charge of the CDC. This book covers some of his more intriguing cases as well as his career and personal life. If you just want to read about deadly viruses, this probably isn't the book for you. Yes, the viruses are covered, but this is really more of an autobiography. Look at The Hot Zone or The Coming Plague for more exciting reading. Once you've read several different books about viruses and read the name of the men and women who have worked with them, you will recognize C. J. Peters names, as well as other people mentioned in this book. Virus Hunter was originally published in 1997.

Quotes:

"I was suddenly gripped by what we refer to as 'the pucker factor,' an uncomfortable and unpleasant tightening of certain sphincter musculature."

Concerning PR work with the media:

" We needed a well-conducted Strauss waltz to inform and calm the public, but instead what we had was a simultaneous competition among heavy-metal bands"

Concerning an emergency vaccine made in response to an outbreak:

"Worse, since it was made in the brains of these mice, recipients also got a does of foreign brain material, with the risk of autoimmune encephalitis. This is a pretty scary premise for a modern vaccine."

"African and Asian monkeys are critical to laboratory science throughout the Western world; you couldn't simply stop importing them. Even worse, cell cultures from their kidneys were used to prepare polio vaccines and the polio virus could grow side by side with [the] Marburg [virus] in the same cell cultures."

The Last Town on Earth

I was rather expecting something a bit different after reading descriptions of Thomas Mullen's debut novel, The Last Town on Earth. Published by Random house in 2006, it is 387 pages long, with a few extra notes at the end. The Last Town on Earth is set in 1918 in the state of Washington. Due to the epidemic of Spanish influenza raging across the country, the newly conceived utopian logging town of Commonwealth has imposed a self quarantine of the town from the surrounding communities. They closed off the road leading into town by felling a log across it and post guards. A weary soldier is shot as he refuses to heed the warnings and tries to make his way into town. These two events help set into motion many of the novels events. This, however, is really not a historical novel about the 1918 influenza epidemic.

Actually, I found many of the unconventional historical premises of this novel less than completely plausible. There were many socialists in Washington, apparently, at the turn of the century and Mullens does tie in labor disputes, the Everett Massacre, and the rise of the Wobblies into the story. However, It really comes across as a bit more of a preachy 2006 novel rather than a tale set in 1918. Even with anti war sentiments at the turn of the century, there were many more supporters and men who proudly served, like my grandfather. At times this book feels too much as if Mullens is trying to promote some personal agenda rather than tell a story. Also, this is a morality tale in many ways, not a story about surviving the flu epidemic. As Mullens says, "[T]he quarantine designed to block out the flu had only succeeded in cutting off the town from its previous ideals of right and wrong. It was a town in full eclipse..." Mullens is a young author and I would imagine his next book might hit the mark a bit more closely for me. It's not that this is a bad book; I simply would recommend others I've read before it.

The Demon in the Freezer

The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston is chilling reading during this age of bioweapons and fear over weapons of mass destruction. Published in 2002 after the anthrax scare (which is also covered along with smallpox) this is one frightening book precisely because it is nonfiction. D. A. Henderson, one of the people who fought for eradication of smallpox, said: "Smallpox was the only disease we know of for which there were deities. It was the worst human disease. I don't know of anything else that comes close." The smallpox virus aptly fits the WMD description. Although officially declared eradicated in 1978, there are stockpiles of the smallpox virus held in the USA and the Soviet Union. There may also be other countries who have secretly stockpiled some smallpox virus, perhaps as weapons.

It is known that the Soviet Union was making weapons grade small pox virus. One run of the Soviet Vector research group's 300 gallon tank would produce "enough smallpox to give each person on the planet around two thousand infected doses of small pox." Smallpox is highly contagious and spreads exponentially. "It has taken the world twenty years to reach roughly fifty million cases of AIDS. Variola [smallpox] could reach that point in ten or twenty weeks." "It is generally believed to be the most dangerous virus to the human species." "Smallpox can bring the world to its knees."

Perhaps one of the most frightening facts is that "Today almost everyone who was vaccinated against smallpox in childhood has lost much or all of their immunity to it."

The Cobra Event

Richard Preston is best known for his nonfiction book The Hot Zone, a horrifying account of the Ebola virus, and other research based books. I was interested in reading his fiction book The Cobra Event. It is a chilling story about what a bioterrorist attack could look like today. Preston also has included in the story some of the history of bioweapons and information regarding bioengineering. If you want to be scared to death by a fiction book that is solidly grounded in fact and almost reads like nonfiction, The Cobra Event will fit that description.

The bioweapon used in Preston's The Cobra Event, is a genetically engineered viral brain pox being slowly "tested" on humans by one crazed man. After 2 suspicious deaths in NYC, the CDC sends Dr. Alice Austen to do the autopsy of a 17 year old girl who dies from this virus. The FBI is also called in and the search for what the virus is and who engineered it begins. There are several very vivid descriptions of autopsies and of the symptoms and ultimately the violent behavior the virus causes in humans (seizures, self cannibalism). This is a very gripping story because it is so based on real facts.

Ultimately, Richard Preston is a nonfiction writer and he writes like one. This isn't always bad, but it does mean that, for example, when describing his characters, he gives us just the facts. Do not expect lengthy descriptive passages that help develop well rounded characters. He gives us the basic information and then proceeds onto his fictionalized attack and real facts regarding bioweapons. His facts are gripping and the story certainly moves along, but The Cobra Event often reads like an nonfiction account of an event.

You'll never look at a runny nose the same way...

Quotes:

regarding tests of bioweapons in the Pacific:

"The problem with bioweapons was not that they didn't work, it was that they worked too well. They were remarkably powerful. They were difficult to defend against. They were cheap and easy to make, and while they depended upon the weather for their effectiveness, they were a good or even superior alternative to nuclear weapons, especially for countries that could not afford nuclear weapons."

"The Gulf War Syndrome is almost certainly caused by exposure to chemical weapons. But we have not yet ruled out the possibility that it's some kind of biological weapon."

The World Rushed In

The World Rushed In by J.S. Holliday is an eyewitness account of the California gold rush of 1849. Holliday based this account largely on the voluminous journals of William Swain and the many letters exchanged with his family. When available, he also used accounts of others to tell the stories of the '49ers. Holliday follows Swain from his start in Youngstown, NY, across the country to the gold mining camps of CA, his journey home by ship and through the Isthmus of Panama, and back to Youngstown. This is truly an eye witness account of history.

In The World Rushed In Holliday has arranged each chapter into 3 sections. He begins each chapter with an historical overview of that section of the journey along with a map of the section of the trip the chapter covers. The next section is Swain's journal entries. The final section is composed of the letters to Swain from home, mainly by his wife Sabrina and brother George.

This is an interesting way to document a historical account. The beauty of the way it is organized is that it allows the reader to either read the historical sections and follow the maps while skipping much of the journal entries and/or letters or choosing to read it all. It was originally published in 1981 by Simon and Schuster and is 559 pages long, although the account ends at page 463. The rest of the book consists of notes, sources, and an index.

Some interesting quotes:

From Swain's journal entry of May 29th when he did some self medicating, "[I] took a dose of cayenne pepper, got into a fine sweat, and slept nicely till morning."

"One would think that they [antelopes] were all females on account of their curiosity."

"There seems to be little disposition to maintain religious worship here. The thoughts of the people are entirely preoccupied with drinking, gambling, or getting gold out of the earth. Religion and religious services, like everything else in California, is singular and unnatural."

"The whole business of the inhabitants of this country is to make money, no matter by what means."

The Inheritance of Loss

I read The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai for a group that reads award winning books.

From Amazon:

This stunning second novel from Desai is set in mid-1980s India, on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state. Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired Cambridge-educated judge, lives in Kalimpong, at the foot of the Himalayas, with his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook. The makeshift family's neighbors include a coterie of Anglophiles who might be savvy readers of V.S. Naipaul but who are, perhaps, less aware of how fragile their own social standing is—at least until a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Jemubhai, with his hunting rifles and English biscuits, becomes an obvious target. Besides threatening their very lives, the revolution also stymies the fledgling romance between 16-year-old Sai and her Nepalese tutor, Gyan. The cook's son, Biju, meanwhile, lives miserably as an illegal alien in New York. All of these characters struggle with their cultural identity and the forces of modernization while trying to maintain their emotional connection to one another. In this alternately comical and contemplative novel, Desai deftly shuttles between first and third worlds, illuminating the pain of exile, the ambiguities of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a "better life," when one person's wealth means another's poverty.

Desai's writing and descriptions are beautiful, which would help explain why this book won the Man Booker Prize in 2006. The only problem is that after reading The Inheritance of Loss I was left with a feeling of despair and utter hopelessness. I need to think about it some more before I could really recommend it. Perhaps the book groups discussion will help solidify my feelings.

Sleeping at the Starlight Motel

Sleeping at the Starlight Motel by Bailey White is a collection of stories with a decidedly Southern point of view. This book is a small volume, 238 pages, that was originally published in 1995. I read a library copy when it first came out and always told myself that someday I would own my own copy. Time has not diminished my enjoyment of White's lovely little tales. Part of my enjoyment could be due to hearing White share her stories on NPR years ago. I particularly enjoyed the fruit tree man story (I knew someone just like that) and the teacher's playing hooky at the dog track.

Quotes:

"Actually, every good family has a story of a spectacular plumbing disaster."

[The house looked] "as if it had been designed by someone who made a careful study of the Tryon Palace under the handicap of a visual learning disability."

" 'So foolish of young people to marry today,' she said. 'Much better to just stay at home - simpler and more hygienic.' "

"There is something quite comforting about being given a complete physical examination by a beloved old family doctor, now nearly blind."

The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was originally published in 2005 and released in the USA in March, 2006, by Alfred A Knopf. The hardcover is 550 pages long. In The Book Thief, which is set during W.W.II, Death narrates the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster child to Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching, Germany. Liesel is a book thief, although only of a handful of books, but these books form the foundation for the story Death tells us. It is also the story of Liesel's neighbor, Rudy, the mayor's wife, and Max, the Jewish man the Hubermann's are hiding. It is a story of survival, pain, regret, determination, love, and convictions, but, ultimately, it is the story of the power of words.

Although this book is listed as young adult fiction, it is very much a book for adults too. I really think that placing The Book Thief in the young adult section may have precluded many adult readers from considering reading it. I know I originally passed it by after seeing several adults recommend it because it was listed as a young adult book. When two trusted book loving friends added it to their stacks, I finally decided to give it a try. I do not regret this decision.