Trying to Catch Up on Reviews

 

I'm so far behind in my book reviews that I didn't know where to start until I took a deep breath and realized that the best place to begin was with the books that have been waiting the longest. 

These catch-up reviews are going to be short and sweet, but at least you'll have an idea of what pages I've been turning the past few months! (I'll also provide links to Amazon in each title if you want to learn more about any of the books.)

Let's get started!

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

#1 Ali Dawson mystery

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Many of you know that I love Elly Griffiths' writing so much that I pre-order the UK editions of her books. In this book, she combines two of my favorites: mystery and time travel. 

A local MP sends time traveler Ali Dawson back to 1850 to answer a question about an ancestor. Good plot twists, a good sense of humor, and a good setup for the next book in the series. I loved fifty-year-old Ali Dawson with her fire engine red hair, working class roots, three ex-husbands, her son Finn, and her Siamese cat, Terry.

Bring on the next book, Elly!

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Standalone Golden Age thriller

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Told from the point of view of Dorothy L. Sayers, five bestselling mystery writers band together against the misogynistic males of the Detection Club to prove they're every bit (if not better) than the men.

The five women: Sayers, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Agatha Christie. I enjoyed how these women approached the investigation and learned how to play to each other's strengths. 

Yes, this is very similar to Rosanne Limoncelli's The Four Queens of Crime, but I much preferred this one.

The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice by Simon Parkin

Non-Fiction

Rating: A

My Thoughts: In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would ultimately claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. 

I learned so much from this book, not only about the siege of Leningrad, but also about seed banks, their importance, and the lives of the botanists who chose to risk starvation in order to preserve those seeds. Mind-boggling history that I couldn't devour fast enough. (Somehow the pun seemed inevitable. Sorry.)

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

Standalone Historical Mystery

Rating: B+

My Thoughts: Lawhon's The Frozen River was one of my Best Reads of 2024. I was so impressed that I wanted to read more of her work.

Once again inspired by a real-life unsolved mystery, Lawhon spins the tale of Judge Joseph Crater, a man who steps into a cab and disappears just as rumors of corruption begin to  circulate about him. Thirty-nine years later, his wife Stella is ready to reveal what she knows. It's a story that involves not only Stella herself, but a showgirl named Ritzi and the Craters' maid, Maria Simon.

This was so entertaining that I will be looking for more of Ariel Lawhon's books. She's one of my favorite discoveries of the past two years.

Well, I made a little dent in my list of reviews. Have you already read any of these books? Which ones? What did you think of them? Or... did I tempt you to add any of them to your own reading lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!

Meet the Kellys by Chris Enss

 

First Line: When the outlaw duo of George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn Thorne, kidnapped Charles Urschel in July 1933, the couple, and their accomplices, made history.

George Kelly was a small-time bootlegger until he met Kathryn Thorne. Thorne was charming, strong-minded, and pretty. She was already an experienced criminal, divorced twice, and ready to marry a man who could give her the lavish lifestyle she'd always wanted. Put Kathyrn Thorne and George Kelly together, and the country got "Machine Gun" Kelly, one of the most notorious American gangsters during the Depression.

With Kathryn's connections and intelligence, the two were soon living large, but it wasn't enough. The couple plotted to kidnap an oil tycoon, and it worked. They collected the ransom and the attention of the country-- even the world-- and the FBI.

~

Going to see Bonnie and Clyde at a local drive-in was the start of my interest in the Great Depression and that era's gangsters. Bonnie and Clyde. Pretty Boy Floyd. John Dillinger. Ma Barker. Bugs Moran. I'm not quite sure why I found these gangsters to be so fascinating. I didn't think they were romantic. I certainly didn't want to emulate them. I think it probably had something to do with how people reacted to and survived the Great Depression. So, it's no wonder that when I heard about Meet the Kellys that I wanted to read it.

I was familiar with other books written by Chris Enss, so I was expecting a well-researched history of Kelly and Thorne. That's exactly what I got. Kathryn Thorne saw the potential in small-time bootlegger George Kelly to give her the lifestyle she had always craved. And with her gift of a machine gun to Kelly, history was made. The couple's endless road trips not only had me hearing some of the music from Bonnie and Clyde, but they almost made me carsick.

I learned quite a bit from this book. I'd forgotten how kidnapping had taken center stage for several of these gangsters, so much so that the government passed the Federal Kidnapping Act in an attempt to put an end to it. In true diva style, when everything disintegrated, Kathryn Thorne tried her best to keep herself and her parents out of jail. She was definitely what my family would refer to as a "piece of work." If you have any interest at all in this time period, Meet the Kellys is well worth a read. 

Meet the Kellys: The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathryn Thorne

by Chris Enss

eISBN: 9780806543079

Citadel Press © 2025

eBook, 272 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Medicine River by Mary Annette Pember

 

First Line: My mother's migraines hold me prisoner for much of my childhood.

Recently, I have immersed myself in the history of Indian boarding schools fictionally, historically, and physically. I often pass the site of the Phoenix Indian School, and my visit to the internationally acclaimed Heard Museum included much time spent in the excellent (and sobering) exhibit Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories. That time brought to life many things I've read, including Mary Annette Pember's Medicine River. 

Pember's exhaustive research began as a way to understand her mother's behavior as well as her grandmother's. Both women were sent to Indian boarding schools, and Mary's mother in particular was indelibly scarred from her experience.

Indian boarding schools were the U.S. government's attempt to assimilate all Native Americans-- to make them think and behave like whites. The boarding schools were rife with disease, and those in charge sent sick children back to the reservation to infect and kill many others. To add insult to injury, these children were forced into schools that Native Americans were forced to pay for. They literally funded their own abuse.

Pember shines light on so many topics. Legislation affecting Native Americans over the years. Famous Native Americans who were products of those boarding schools. Insights into her own Ojibwe culture. The homegrown historians (mostly women, both Indian and white) who are documenting and preserving America's Indian boarding school history. This book is a gold mine of illuminating facts that also helped the author shed light on her personal history.

One of the things I found most interesting was the study of epigenetics-- that humans can pass along more than DNA in our genes, that genes can also carry memories of trauma experienced by our ancestors. It's an interesting avenue of thought.

Medicine River is an important addition to Native American history. It is a history that we should all know more about.

Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools 

by Mary Annette Pember

eISBN: 9780553387322

Pantheon Books © 2025

eBook, 304 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy

 

First Line: One night in September 2018, I dreamed that I was standing in a courtroom, blinking in the bright lights, with microphones poking up all around me.

In 1972, Martha "Marty" Goddard volunteered at a crisis hotline in Chicago, counseling girls who had been molested by their fathers, their teachers, their uncles. It didn't take long for Marty to want an answer to a very important question: Why were so many sexual predators getting away with these crimes? By the end of the decade, she had launched a campaign pushing hospitals and police departments to collect evidence of sexual assault and to treat survivors with dignity. She designed a new kind of forensics tool-- the rape kit-- and once adopted by the Chicago Police Department, the use of this tool soon spread to New York City and beyond.

But even as Marty fought for women's rights, she allowed a man to take credit for her work, and when journalist Pagan Kennedy went looking for this pioneer, she discovered that even Marty's closest friends had lost track of her. While following clues to find out what happened to Marty, Kennedy also learned more about the problematic history of American forensics.

~

When I read the synopsis of The Secret History of the Rape Kit, I knew I had to read it. Call me more than a little disgruntled when I learn of all the work done by women that men have stolen the credit for.

Martha "Marty" Goddard's work is outstanding because she pushed it through the most corrupt police department in America at the time: the Chicago Police Department. This woman did not like public speaking and often found someone else to do it for her, but when she had to, she would. That is how dedicated she was to her project. It's hard for me to believe that Goddard sank almost without a trace. How can someone do something so important and then disappear? I congratulate Kennedy for bringing Goddard back into the spotlight where she belongs.

The history the author provides is fascinating. I'll share a couple of examples. Would it surprise you to learn that Hugh Hefner and Playboy played a very important part in getting Goddard's rape kits accepted? They did. Would it also surprise you to learn that the infrastructure we use every day is constantly feeding us messages about who is important and who is not? It does. The designer of the bridges and underpasses leading into Long Island purposely had them built with low clearances so buses couldn't get through. You see, he didn't want poor people to have easy access to the area.

Kennedy shows us how the rape kits and forensics have changed over time and shares her own experience of sexual assault. While I didn't really find the author's personal experience all that necessary to the book as a whole, it does shed light on a survivor's thoughts and feelings.

The Secret History of the Rape Kit is a valuable addition to not only the history of forensics but women's history as well.

The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy

eISBN: 9780593314722

Vintage Books © 2025

eBook, 320 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Sinners All Bow by Kate Winkler Dawson

First Line: Catharine Read Arnold Williams was a fearless woman.

 

When Sarah Maria Cornell was found dead on a small New England farm in the winter of 1832, her death was considered a suicide. But when certain details of her past and a secret correspondence with a popular local Methodist minister were uncovered, people began to wonder if Sarah's death could actually be murder. 

 

Writer Catharine Reed Arnold Williams was determined to uncover the truth and wrote what many believe to be the first American true-crime book. The murder divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, but the reverend was not convicted.

True-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson set a goal to finish Williams' work. Using modern investigative techniques, Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams' research to find the truth.

~

Having read previous books by Dawson, I know she's a master at picking fascinating topics, and-- of course-- I have memories of reading Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in high school. (I didn't like his writing style, but the story certainly stuck with me.) I've also been known to dive into true crime now and again, so... there's no way I could've ignored The Sinners All Bow.

Dawson's research brings to light a murder victim who preferred the autonomy of millwork and refused to settle down with a husband and children. Her research also brought to light questions about author Catharine Williams. Yes, she was the first author to advocate for the crime victim, but could everything she wrote be trusted to be fact? 

 

Dawson's deep dive into the history of the times and the backgrounds of the major players (Sarah Maria Cornell, Catharine Williams, Reverend Ephraim Avery) brings to light some fascinating facts-- including ones that prove we haven't changed all that much in two hundred years.  

The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne

by Kate Winkler Dawson

eISBN: 9780593713624

G.P. Putnam's Sons © 2025

320 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

The Cure for Women by Lydia Reeder

 

First Line from Prologue: One afternoon in the summer of 1985, my grandmother and her four sisters, ages seventy-two to eighty-nine, gathered to celebrate their mother, Ellen Babb, who had passed away in 1953.

 

Before the 1850s, abortion was an accepted practice and midwives held valued positions in their communities. Women had to fight to pursue medical professions. Places like Harvard refused to admit women into their medical schools, so women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. 

 

There was bound to be a backlash.

 

Distorting Darwin's theory of evolution, the top male physicians of the day wrote bestselling books which stated women should never be allowed to attend college or enter any profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick.

 

Through exhaustive research, Lydia Reeder's The Cure for Women shows how gifted women like Mary Putnam Jacobi fought back. Her arsenal of weapons included things that the male physicians' did not: the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. Jacobi fought back with the facts, and the medical profession has never been the same. 

I learned so much from reading The Cure for Women, unfortunately, a great deal of it with my teeth clenched. Men writing "learned" treatises on women's reproductive organs when they wouldn't know an ovary or a uterus if one came up and punched them in the nose. Why? Because they'd never seen any of these organs and had no idea how they worked. You would think that we would have all the misinformation squared away here in the twenty-first century, but we don't. The fight for control over women's bodies is still happening, proving that we need more people like Mary Putnam Jacobi-- and more people to read this marvelously researched book.

The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine that Changed Women's Lives Forever

by Lydia Reeder

eISBN: 9781250284464

St. Martin's Press © 2024

eBook, 336 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler

 

First Lines: Los Angeles, November 1934. The wire reports traveled three thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean and described a gruesome scene: On Marchena Island, a bleak and barren speck of land in the northern part of the Galápagos, passing fishermen found two bodies.

 

Millionaire George Allan Hancock and crews of scientists had been visiting a group of European exiles on a remote island in the Galápagos for a few years, making sure that they had the supplies they needed. 

 

The exiles were Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his patient/lover, Dore Strauch Koerwin; World War I veteran Heinz Wittmer, his wife Margret, and his son Harry; and Austrian Baroness Wagner-Bosquet and her two lovers, Robert and Rudolph. Ritter and Koerwin were the first two on the island, intent on creating a Utopia. Wittmer and his family were escaping a Germany increasingly under the iron fist of the Nazis; while the supposed baroness with her riding crop and pearl-handled revolver wanted to create her own world in which she was in complete command.

With the addition of the baroness, things rapidly turned to chaos, and the conclusion was deadly. When Hancock returned to the island in 1934, he and his crew found that two exiles were missing, two were dead, and the survivors were hurling accusations of murder at anyone who would listen.

~

Eden Undone is an often fascinating account of a deadly mix of personalities thrown together on a small, remote island. Once all the people were in place, it was only a matter of time before disaster struck.

The remote Galápagos Island setting with its fascinating flora and fauna intrigued me, but I have to admit that I often found the backgrounds of the millionaires who visited to be more interesting than those of the people living on the island.

Ritter was so devoted to his idea of a splendid life in isolation that he had all his teeth extracted and wore a set of steel dentures. His patient/lover, Dore Koerwin, was dedicated to ensuring Ritter's brilliance to the world. But it was Ritter's insistence on spreading the word about his Utopia that brought about its downfall-- especially when newspapers were quick to emphasize that the two roamed around the island naked. Soon tourists were beating a path to the island. 

Wittmer and his family wanted to escape a Europe that was rapidly descending into madness, and there was little strife between them and Ritter and Koerwin. It wasn't until the supposed baroness showed up with her lovers that emotions began to run high.

Watching these personalities clash and resentments begin to fester and boil, disaster was a foregone conclusion, and Abbott Kahler gives readers ringside seats to the calamitous end of another dream of paradise. 

 

 

Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler

eISBN: 9780451498670

Crown Publishing © 2024

eBook, 288 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley 

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

 

First Line: This book was born on a cold, drizzly, late spring day when I clambered over the split-rail cedar fence that surrounds my pasture and made my way through wet woods to the modest frame house where Joe Rantz lay dying.

 

In 1936, nine working-class boys from the University of Washington went to the Berlin Olympics in a quest for the gold medal. Their sport: rowing, a sport of which George Yeoman Pocock said, "That is the formula for endurance and success: rowing with the heart and the head as well as physical strength." It is an emotional, mental, and physical sport which, in this particular case, asks that nine human beings be in perfect tune with each other.

Author Daniel James Brown does an excellent job of putting his story into the context of the world stage, a time in which Hitler was determined to become master of the world-- and also a time when the world was still in the grip of the Depression.

At the heart of The Boys in the Boat is Joe Rantz of the University of Washington rowing team. At the age of ten, he was abandoned by his parents. Joe's father was willing to follow the lead of his second wife, a woman who decided that there were too many mouths to feed and that this child had to go. At one point, she told him, "Make your own life, Joe. Stay out of ours." Brown builds his story from the boys' journals and vivid memories, and it's a true Cinderella story. These boys were competing in an elite sport normally thought of as belonging to the privileged rich of the East Coast. 

Often compared to Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, I found The Boys in the Boat more in tune with another of her books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, with its emphasis on sport, the Depression, and a fascinating cast. As much as I savored the stories of the boys on the University of Washington rowing team, I also appreciated the in-depth look at the sport of rowing itself. I never knew how popular it was in the 1930s or how demanding it was.

 

If you're in the mood for a thrilling, eye-opening, often heart-wrenching, slice of history, I highly recommend The Boys in the Boat.  

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

by Daniel James Brown

eISBN: 9781101622742

Penguin Books © 2013

eBook, 417 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland

 

First Line: We were lucky at first.

 

Adrian Hyland's Kinglake-350 is the riveting account of Black Saturday, February 7, 2009-- the day the most devastating wildfire in the country's history swept through "the great fire triangle of south-eastern Australia... the most fire-prone location on Earth."

Hyland is a master craftsman who knows how to tell a tale. I became a fan of his mysteries Moonlight Downs and Gunshot Road and soon learned to get my hands on anything he's written. 

 

Hyland brings his considerable skill in fiction to Kinglake-350. I am no stranger to the subject of this book. Arizona has had more than its share of devastating wildfires, but I couldn't believe the sheer amount of information in the pages of this book. (And they weren't presented as dry, yawn-inducing facts.) Caught in your house during a wildfire? Don't shelter in the bathroom. Dirt can, and does, catch fire. Yes, there is such a thing as black rain. Hyland also goes into climate change, global warming, weather patterns, and government agencies trying to shift blame. I can see your eyes start to glaze over with those last topics, but this man weaves all that into the narrative in such a way that my interest never flagged. 

However, the backbone and the towering strength of Kinglake-350 lies in the people that devastating fire touched. There were many heroes that day; Acting Sergeant Roger Wood was only one of them. I think one of the vignettes that I remember best was the woman who, trying to keep the fire from destroying buildings, took pity on a shocked and staggering kangaroo, giving it a cooling shower with her hose. It's these personal details that made my heart beat faster. That made me try to turn the pages as fast as the fire was consuming everything in its path. 

Kinglake-350 is absolutely marvelous, and one of the best books I've read this year. Adrian Hyland has done it again.

Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland

eISBN: 9781921834738

The Text Publishing Company © 2011

eBook, 272 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

River of the Gods by Candice Millard

First Line: As he walked through the storied gates of Alexandria in the fall of 1801, a young British officer named William Richard Hamilton found himself in the middle of a stunning tableau-- abject misery set against the lost grandeur of the Pharaohs.

 

The source of the Nile River had been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years until a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt inspired European powers to send out waves of expeditions to map the unknown corners of the world and extend their empires. 

Two explorers were sent out by England's Royal Geographical Society to find the Nile's headwaters: Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, was a decorated soldier, and an atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer, passionate about hunting and determined to make his mark on the world.

The two men clashed from the beginning on a journey of tremendous hardships, illness, and one setback after another. After two years, Burton became too ill to continue, but Speke did and ultimately claimed he'd found the source of the Nile. Speke rushed to take credit for his discovery, and when Burton disputed it, Speke launched another expedition to prove his claim. The two became venomous enemies.

Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. Without a former slave named Sidi Mubarak Bombay, neither Burton nor Speke would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile. In fact, neither one of them would probably have survived.

~

Candice Millard is a Must-Read author for me. All of her books have been fascinating. In River of the Gods, the two main characters, Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, were so diametrically opposed that I found it easy to take sides. 

 

Richard Burton spoke several languages, believed in traveling as a native in whichever country he found himself in, didn't believe in converting anyone to Christianity, and only killed animals when it was necessary.  His main problem was that he could be much too blunt for the delicate sensibilities of others.

John Hanning Speke was a young aristocrat who was pompous, sloppy with details, and-- as an editor found out later to his horror-- was a total nightmare as a writer. He joined Burton in the expedition to the headwaters of the Nile for the glory, and he was completely capable of lying to get what he felt he deserved. On top of that, he loved to go hunting and blast away at anything that moved whether the men on the expedition needed the meat or not.

Sidi Mubarak Bombay was even more exceptional than Richard Burton. He was captured, enslaved, and shipped from his East African home to India. When his owner died, he joined the army and eventually traveled back to Africa. There he used his resourcefulness, linguistic powers, and courage to become a guide. There is no doubt that, without men like Bombay to lead, carry supplies, and protect these European expeditions, none of them would have been a success. 

Once again, Millard has crafted a fascinating history of the exploits of extraordinary people. Although slow-paced at times, River of the Gods is riveting.

 

River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

by Candice Millard

eISBN: 9780385543118

Knopf Doubelday © 2022

eBook, 424 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: A-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Lost Tomb by Douglas Preston

 

From the Foreword by David Grann: The first thing you notice about these thirteen remarkable true tales by Douglas Preston is that they all contain elements of intrigue.

 

Most readers know Douglas Preston as one-half of the writing team responsible (along with Lincoln Child) for the Pendergast novels, but he has also been an editor at the American Museum of Natural History and has written about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker, National Geographic and Smithsonian. His journalistic explorations have taken him around the world. 

 

The Lost Tomb is a collection of true stories about buried treasure, murder, lost tombs, and strange crimes. Several of the stories previously appeared in other publications and have been updated for this book. What became crystal clear as I read is the important part non-fiction has always played in Preston's fiction.

This book is a gold mine for enthusiasts of archaeology and paleontology. I felt as though I were with the team that discovered a vast Egyptian tomb Pharaoh Ramses II built for his fifty-two sons. (No, that number isn't a typo.) I became acquainted with the personalities of many famous archaeologists, anthropologists, and paleontologists. However, what I learned about archaeology in the Southwestern United States made the biggest impression on me. There is a lot of fascinating information in these pages

If you're interested in the subjects of archaeology, anthropology, or paleontology, The Lost Tomb is an excellent way to spend a few hours.

The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials and Murder

by Douglas Preston

eISBN: 9781538741245

Grand Central Publishing © 2023

eBook, 320 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Sailing the Graveyard Sea by Richard Snow

 

 

First Line: On the evening of December 14, 1842, the United States brig-of-war Somers sailed through the Narrows of New York Harbor.

 

1842. In a training voyage gone drastically wrong, the USS Somers arrived in Brooklyn Harbor to report an attempted mutiny. Some of the mutineers were being held under guard, but three had been hanged-- one of whose father was the Secretary of War. 

 

Months of accusations and counter-accusations led to a highly public court martial that put the commander of the Somers on trial for his life.  

~

Sailing the Graveyard Sea details an interesting chapter in U.S. naval history. Was there really a mutiny aboard the USS Somers, or did Commander Alexander Mackenzie overreact? Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, son of the Secretary of War, was spoiled and self-indulgent and much too in love with a book detailing the history of pirates... but was he really the ringleader of a mutiny? Fortunately, some good did come from this entire mess: the public was so disgusted with Mackenzie's training cruise that the U.S. Naval Academy was founded in Annapolis.

Author Richard Snow's research is exhaustive, and I did learn a great deal; however, his writing style-- cut-and-dried, and stuffed to the gills with dusty facts-- was a chore to read and I often found my attention wandering. All in all, lots of excellent information on this chapter of U.S. naval history, but if you like your historians to craft a book that reads like the best fiction, you'd be better off going elsewhere.

 

Sailing the Graveyard Sea: The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial that Gripped the Nation

by Richard Snow

eISBN:  9781982185466

Scribner © 2023

eBook, 304 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: C+

Source: Net Galley

Riding with Cochise by Steve Price

 

 

 

First Line: By 1863, however, both the water and the canyon were controlled by the Apaches, who were being led by an imposing and charismatic leader named Cochise.

 

Using oral histories told by relatives of the legendary Apache warriors Cochise, Geronimo, Victorio, and Mangas Coloradas as well as the personal diaries of others who were involved, author Steve Price paints a vivid and memorable portrait of a people.

 

"The Apache sense of place was essentially their culture." They worshiped one god-- Ussen-- who made them caretakers of the Earth, and if they did not care for it properly, it would be taken from them. They knew their homeland so intimately it was the major reason why they were able to hold off thousands of soldiers in America's longest war. For example, during one time period, Geronimo, along with thirty-four men, women, and children outran and outfought 5,000 American and 3,000 Mexican soldiers.

 

Even though so much Apache history has been wiped clean from their ancestral lands, Price includes many historic places (and the directions to them) that readers can visit. I was pleased to see that I'd been to most of the Arizona locations such as  Cochise Stronghold, the Chiricahua National Monument, Fort Bowie, the Butterfield Overland Trail, and Skeleton Canyon.

But while my knowledge of the area greatly enhanced my enjoyment of Riding with Cochise, it was the history of the Apaches themselves that was vital. I learned so much about Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, Victorio, and Geronimo-- leaders known by their Spanish names because their actual names were too difficult for the Mexicans and Americans to pronounce. 

 

The Apache leaders were honorable men. They wanted peace and did their best to achieve it. They upheld all the terms of any treaties they agreed to. However, it was impossible to trust those with whom they signed those agreements. An American Army officer ordered one Apache leader to be murdered, and the Mexicans loved to bring the Apache in under a flag of truce to then massacre them and collect the bounties on their scalps. No wonder the Apache fought so hard.

Riding with Cochise is a fast-paced, informative history of the American Southwest. The next time I'm traveling in southeastern Arizona, I'll have an even greater appreciation of the Apache, their history, and their homeland.

Riding with Cochise: The Apache Story of America's Longest War 

by Steve Price

eISBN: 9781510774582

Skyhorse Publishing © 2023

eBook, 240 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Purchased from Amazon.

The War of Words by Molly Guptill Manning

 

First Line: When Dean Chatlain led his unit into battle in Southern Tunisia in early 1943, he did not expect the day's events would turn him into a literary hero.

 

Hitler's Germany was #1 in the number of newspapers published and sold. His propaganda budget was $134 million per year. When the United States entered World War II, US Army Chief of Staff George Marshall and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew that something had to be done to combat the Nazis' campaign of misinformation. The best defense was to lessen censorship and to let American troops bring the truth into focus by writing and disseminating it themselves. 

 

By war's end, over 4,600 unique GI publications had been printed around the world. In newsprint, troops made sense of their hardships, losses, and reasons for fighting, and these newspapers became the heart and soul of their units. They were kept by the soldiers and mailed back home to their loved ones, with strict instructions to save them all. 

 

From Normandy to the shores of Japan, American soldiers exercised a level of free speech the military had never known before... or since. As in her When Books Went to War (one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read), Molly Guptill Manning does a masterful job of showing what went into the creation of these GI newspapers. How typewriters, paper, mimeograph machines and stencils-- everything that the soldiers would need to create their newspapers-- were gathered and shipped. She shows the opposition George Marshall faced in putting this program together as well as how stateside newspapers enthusiastically joined forces with him. There were some mighty tender egos to be reckoned with, and I enjoyed how soldiers found ways to circumvent them to say what they wanted to say.

 

Probably the most important lesson learned by the War Department at this time was the fact that keeping soldiers and civilians in the dark actually lowered morale. At the beginning of America's entry into World War II, morale was very low. Soldiers couldn't understand why they were being sent to Europe when it was the Japanese who'd attacked Pearl Harbor. Why weren't they being sent to the Pacific? When the War Department eased up on censorship and began to let people know what was going on, morale skyrocketed. Soldiers knew what they were fighting for, and civilians were now eager to do their part in the war effort. 

 

There are so many powerful personalities to learn about in The War of Words. So many amazing stories of what had to be done to keep getting those newspapers into the hands of the troops. So many lessons those in power had to learn. (For instance, the need to provide news aimed at troops who were Black, Japanese-American, Native American, and women.)

 

On a personal note, as I read The War of Words, I was constantly reminded of my mother and a good friend who put their heads together to create a hometown newspaper for my cousin who was serving in Vietnam. Filled column by column with juicy gossip from my little farm town, it kept my cousin informed of what was going on at home-- and it became so popular that it was put on the bulletin board for everyone else to enjoy-- and they did even though they didn't know the people being gossiped about.

 

Never underestimate the power of words. 

The War of Words: How America's GI Journalists Battled Censorship and Propaganda to Help Win World War II

by Molly Guptill Manning

ASIN: B0BZJW7S7H

Blackstone Publishing © 2023

eBook, 323 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

 

First Line: The most powerful man in Indiana stood next to the new governor at the Inaugural Ball, there to be thanked, applauded, and blessed for using the nation's oldest domestic terror group to gain control of a uniquely American state.

 

When most of us think of the Roaring Twenties-- the Jazz Age-- we think of flappers and frivolity, but it was also the height of the Ku Klux Klan, a uniquely American hate group. Their membership didn't just reside in the South, they were also strong in the Midwest and West. This group took radical steps to keep Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants "in their place", and one man spearheaded the group's attempt to take over America.

 

D.C. Stephenson was a charismatic charlatan; he knew just what people wanted to hear and was happy to reinforce their fears. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he became the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows. Their message was spread from church pulpits, family picnics, and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors, and senators across the country proudly proclaimed their membership. 

 

But at the height of Stephenson's power, just at the moment he was going to be groomed for President of the United States, it was a seemingly powerless woman-- Madge Oberholtzer-- who would reveal the true D.C. Stephenson and bring the Ku Klux Klan to its knees.

 

~

 

When I came across a photocopied news article from the 1920s in my deceased mother's papers telling of a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan chapter in my own little (population 1700) hometown in central Illinois, my jaw dropped in total shock (just as I imagine my mother's did). I had no idea that the KKK had ever been anywhere near my hometown. When I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Timothy Egan, had written a book about the KKK in the 1920s, I knew I had to read it. To call A Fever in the Heartland eye-opening, compelling, and disturbing is the mere tip of the iceberg when describing the book's effect on me.

 

To learn of the presidents who either condoned or turned a blind eye to this hate group's actions was enlightening. To learn that the KKK had a group for everyone (the KKK for males, the KKK Women's Auxiliary, Ku Klux Kiddies, and Klan Klubs for high school students). To learn that there was a KKK chapter aboard a U.S. battleship and that there was Klan Day at the Indiana State Fair... all this was sobering. The Klan used Indiana's Horse Thief Brigades as its own morality police, and it had its own "poison squads" disseminating fake news. To learn how Indiana became the most saturated Klan state that passed the world's first eugenic sterilization law (which was later picked up by an additional thirty states) was chilling. 

 

The Klan in Indiana had tentacles everywhere, from the governor's mansion to the smallest town, and the Grand Dragon of them all, D.C. Stephenson, was responsible for the huge upsurge in membership across the country. The man was a con man of the highest caliber-- and a violent sexual predator. After each scene in which Stephenson took center stage, I wanted to take a hot shower to wash him off. Repulsive isn't a strong enough word to describe this person. After all that Madge Oberholtzer suffered, it was wonderful to see that she, and she alone, was strong enough to take down this monster.

 

However, after finishing A Fever in the Heartland, I came away with a feeling of dread.

 

"Isn't it strange that with all our educational advantages," noted the Hoosier writer Meredith Nicholson, "so many Indiana citizens could be induced to pay $10 [the KKK membership fee] for the privilege of hating their neighbors and wearing a sheet?" 

 

With the events of recent years, I can't help but think that many of us haven't moved very far away from the emotions that overwhelmed the people of Indiana in the 1920s. May we not be doomed to repeat such a dark chapter of our history.

 

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

by Timothy Egan

eISBN: 9780735225275

Penguin Publishing Group © 2023

432 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

 

First Line from the Prologue: The only impartial witness was the sun.

 

In January 1742, a dilapidated boat carrying thirty men who were barely alive washed ashore on the coast of Brazil. They were survivors of the shipwrecked HMS Wager, part of a flotilla of British ships sent to war on the Spanish. The Wager had wrecked on an island in Patagonia after an unsuccessful attempt to round Cape Horn. After being marooned for months with little shelter or food, these men managed to piece together a boat and set out on a 3,000-mile journey that took over one hundred days. They were hailed as heroes.

Six months later, an even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. The three castaways aboard this boat had a very different tale to tell: those thirty men in Brazil weren't heroes, they were mutineers.

When all the survivors returned to England, accusations flew thick and fast. The alleged mutineers told of a captain not fit for duty-- a captain who shot and killed a fellow crew member with no warning whatsoever. When the Admiralty convened a court-martial, there was a lot more that had to be settled than the mere loss of a ship, and whomever the court found guilty would hang.

~

David Grann is one of my favorite authors, and his Killers of the Flower Moon is one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books. Since I have an interest in maritime history, I knew I had to read The Wager, which describes one of the longest castaway voyages ever recorded.

Grann set the stage so well that readers feel as though they're on board ship with the officers and crew. This was the time of press gangs when the British Navy had so much trouble finding enough sailors to man their ships that they'd send groups of men to roam the streets outside pubs at night to kidnap men and force them aboard ships for duty that could last years. This meant that not all the men on the Wager wanted to be there. As the voyage progressed, scurvy set in, and as men began to die, the Wager found itself with a new captain named Cheap, a man who would be called "Jobsworth" by the British (as in it was more than Cheap's job was worth to go against his orders). Cheap's bungling and indecision were instrumental in the Wager's unsuccessful attempt to round Cape Horn, ending with the ship being wrecked and the survivors being castaways on a desolate island in Patagonia. This isn't the first book I've read about the land, the seas, and the weather of the Tierra del Fuego, but Grann wrote of it so well that I felt seasick, wet, and frozen solid as I turned the pages. The months the castaways spent on that island, trying to survive and trying to escape, were brutal.

Grann immersed me in these men's lives-- one of whom would be the grandfather of the poet, Lord Byron. (Yes, Byron's experiences were important in light of one of his descendants, but the crew member who had the most impact on me was the free Black man on the Wager, John Duck.) Grann also reminded me of the integral part sailors played in the history of our clothing and our language. However, the one thing that I enjoyed the most was how he exposed what was really going on and how the Wager's original assignment and the proceedings of the court martial at the end actually fit into the much larger world stage. 

Any reader with an interest in ships, the sea, human nature, and government machinations should read The Wager.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

eISBN: 9780385534277

Knopf Doubleday © 2023

eBook, 352 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

The World's Greatest Sea Mysteries by Michael and Mollie Hardwick

 

First Line from Introduction: The world is made up of four elements, said Aristotle: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

 

Who knows? Perhaps my lifelong interest in maritime history is due to the Navy men in my family, which is why I picked up Michael and Mollie Hardwick's The World's Greatest Sea Mysteries.

 

Originally published in 1967, the Hardwicks cover a wide range of maritime mysteries in twenty-eight chapters. The book's emphasis is slanted to British readers, and-- due to it being over fifty years old-- it does occasionally feel dated, but it still held my interest throughout.

The precariousness of life can be seen in letters returned to senders marked "Sailed for England" or the much more dire "SHIP FOUNDERED". Readers can learn about men who had similar experiences with whales as Jonah. There are pirates, lost treasures, and men disappearing in their attempts to find the Northwest Passage. Perhaps the most unsettling to me were the floating derelict ships, but the most mystifying was the racehorse found on an uninhabited island many miles from the mainland.

If you have an interest in the sea and its centuries-worth of mysteries, you should be able to find several items of interest in this book.

The World's Greatest Sea Mysteries by Michael and Mollie Hardwick

eISBN: 9781800555921

Sapere Books © 2022

Originally published in 1967.

eBook, 301 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley 

The Way We Were by Tom Santopietro

 

First Line: In the beginning, screenwriter Arthur Laurents agreed to write a movie for Barbra Streisand.

 

There's nothing more guaranteed to make a person feel old than learning that one of her all-time favorite films is coming up on its fiftieth anniversary. I had just started college when The Way We Were opened, and I made a beeline for the theater and what would turn out to be one of the most memorable movie experiences of my life.

There's a reason why the movie theater experience is hands-down better than watching a film on a big-screen television at home. Sitting in the packed, darkened theater on that long ago day, when Robert Redford said, "Katie, you expect so much!" and Streisand looked at him and replied, "Oh, but look what I've got!" every female in the audience (and probably many males) audibly sighed. I'll never forget that. 

 

So... I wanted to know more about this movie, and author Tom Santopietro certainly delivered the goods with his in-depth, meticulous research. The movie studio was strapped for cash and thought that a movie with a non-singing (and Communist!) Barbra Streisand was the kiss of death. How wrong could a bunch of "experts" be?

From writing the story and the unforgettable music to choosing actors and filming locations and beyond, I feel as though I learned everything there is to know about The Way We Were. Anyone who's interested in this classic romantic film or in film-making itself should read it, too.

The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic by Tom Santopietro

eISBN: 9781493071265

Applause © 2023

eBook, 336 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley