The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson

In The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson looks at the months leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, starting with the gallantry of Southern life (for the ruling class only) and the election of Lincoln, which agitated slave owners who assumed he would challenge their way of life and their prosperity.  As revealed in this narrative, the months leading to the attack on Sumter seem like a train careening off the tracks but with many moments when it seems someone should have been able to stop it.

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson #NonfictionNovember

Isaac's Storm details the events leading up to and following the infamous 1900 Galveston hurricane. At the time, Galveston was a bustling port in Texas, a rival of Houston in its importance to the area’s economy. Isaac Cline was the chief meteorologist at Galveston’s office of the US Weather Bureau from 1889 to 1901 and warned about the hurricane too late for residents to evacuate, so thousands were drowned. By total coincidence, I checked this out of the library and started listening to this at exactly the same time Hurricane Helene was causing terrible damage to North Carolina and Florida, adding to the poignancy of the narrative.

Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Title: Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess
Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885–1970)
Publication: Harper & Brothers, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Memoir
Setting: Washington, DC

Description: Keyes, who became a bestselling author in the first half of the 20th century, was married to a New England politician 22 years her senior. He served in New Hampshire as Selectman, Representative, Senator, and on several state commissions before being elected Governor of New Hampshire from 1917-19, then was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican for three terms from 1919-37. FPK was very conscious of the expense of public service, which she felt ordinary people did not appreciate: the cost for senators of maintaining two homes as well as entertaining and being entertained while raising a family.

The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price

Title: The Labyrinth Makers
Author: Anthony Price (1928-2019)
Publication: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, paperback, 2010 (originally published in 1970)
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 20th century Britain

Description: David Audley is a historian for Britain’s Ministry of Defense whose research expertise is the Middle East, when he is woken up by the telephone in the middle of the night, summoned to a 6 am meeting in London, and told to dress for a funeral.

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay

Title: The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park
Author: Sinclair McKay
Publication: Penguin, trade paperback, 2012
Genre: Nonfiction, history, WWII

This book, published in the UK as The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, is one of several recommended by my professor and Dr. Welsh (who created the British Studies program I will embark on this weekend) to read and review prior to our trip to London. Of course, I have been eager to visit Bletchley Park ever since I first read about it, long before it was actually made open to the public.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Title: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Author: Erik Larson
Narrator: Scott Brick
Publication: Random House, audiobook, 2015
Genre: History

Description: The Lusitania was a British-owned luxury ocean liner that departed from New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915, carrying nearly 2000 individuals, of whom 1,265 were passengers.

The Patriots: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the Making of America by Winston Groom

Title: The Patriots: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the Making of America
Author: Winston Groom
Publication: National Geographic, hardcover, 2020
Genre: History

Description: When the Revolutionary War ended in victory, there remained a stupendous problem: establishing a workable democratic government in the vast, newly created country. . .

Bookshelf Traveling - August 7

Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which is being hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness.   The idea is to share one of your neglected bookshelves or perhaps a pile of books on the floor that you keep meaning to read or at least make space for in a bookcase.

Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England by Kate Hubbard

Title: Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England
Author: Kate Hubbard
Publication: Harper Collins, hardcover, 2019
Genre: Biography, English History

The review below is a cameo appearance (her second) by my mother, Stephanie Martin, as I knew she would enjoy the book.

When books are written about 16th-century women, the subject is usually royalty. Besides their glamor, they are the ones for whom we have the most information. Elizabeth Hardwick is a remarkable exception. Not only did she have a long, eventful and well-documented life, she also was responsible for several splendid buildings.

Bess was born about 1521, lived to be 87, and outlived four husbands, the last marriage making her the Countess of Shrewsbury. She inherited property, married money, but increased and managed her holdings with great skill and became a very wealthy woman in her own right. She was friendly with all the major players of her time, including Queen Elizabeth I, who chose the Shrewsburys to be the jailors of Mary Queen of Scots when she sought refuge in England.

Hardwick Hall (Derbyshire)

Devices and Desires is not the first biography of Bess, but it has particular appeal because it highlights Bess’s achievements as a builder. An amazing number of records have survived from Chatsworth, Hardwick Hall, and other great houses for which she was responsible -- letters and contracts (called “bargains”) and account books. We learn from them how deeply involved Bess was with every decision and how closely she monitored each step. She bought land for its income, but also for its resources, so that if she needed, say, marble or timber, she already owned a source. She also micromanaged her large family, marrying two of her children to two of her stepchildren. Then there was her granddaughter Arbella Stuart, the focus of various political plots, whom Bess kept very close at home into her twenties.

The Green Velvet Bedroom at Hardwick Hall

Not all of Bess’s mansions have survived, but her masterpiece, Hardwick Hall, is still there, with its unusual floor plan, four great turrets and elegant mantels. By the time you finish this book, you will want to head for England on the next flight to visit it.

Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (1521-1608)

Source: A copy of this book was provided by Harper Collins for review purposes.

Young Bess (Guest Book Review) #1944Club

When I realized that my mother’s favorite book, Young Bess, was published in 1944, I asked her to contribute a review for the 1944 Club, in which Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings promote a specific year of published books.

Title: Young Bess
Author: Margaret Irwin
Publication: 1944
Genre: Historical Fiction

The original cover

Recently there has been a spate of novels about the Tudors, especially Henry VIII and his wives. And, of course, Elizabeth I as queen has been extremely visible in fiction, on stage, in opera.  More unusual is the vivid portrait of Elizabeth as a vulnerable girl in Margaret Irwin’s memorable book, Young Bess. It begins in 1546 with the 12-year-old Bess on the ship Great Harry with Henry and his entourage, and ends eight years later at the death of her young brother Edward VI. In between she copes with loneliness, treachery, and dangerous rumors about her relationship with her stepmother’s husband, all the while learning how to survive and eventually to rule. There are many well drawn characters, such as her kind stepmother Catherine Parr, her feisty governess, Cat Ashley, her tutor, Roger Ascham, and the noblemen jostling for power over the boy king.

The book is scrupulously accurate; that is, it makes good use of the historical evidence, and doesn’t go far afield. Obviously, we cannot know what Elizabeth’s thoughts were, or what actually went on between her and Thomas Seymour. But if there are to be historical novels featuring real people, this is a model. Margaret Irwin went on to write two more novels about Bess: Elizabeth, Captive Princess (how her sister Mary imprisoned her in the Tower) and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain (well, you know that part.) They are very good, but Young Bess rules.

A more recent cover (the popular headless look)

A personal note: somehow I discovered this adult novel in fourth grade. From that moment I was fascinated by the period, and went on to read the rest of the trilogy and much more, and to choose as my college major the Renaissance and Reformation. In England long afterward I saw the original of a letter Bess wrote in 1548. It was a thrill, especially since I had known it word for word since I was ten.

Source: First edition/personal copy

Deborah Kerr was originally to play Elizabeth
in the 1953 MGM movie but wound up as Catherine Parr 

Stephanie Martin

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (Book Review)

Title: Hidden Figures
Author: Margot Lee Shetterly
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 2016
Genre: Nonfiction/History/Women’s Studies

Plot: The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner, opening in January  2017.

The Room Where It Happens

I wanna be in the room where it happens
The room where it happens
The room where it happens . . .

That hardly makes me unique but the other day I actually got to be in the room where it happens! I had left some documents at Boston City Hall for the mayor’s signature, and when I went back to pick them up his secretary noticed my curious glances down towards his office. She kindly offered me a quick tour (knowing he was in China for a few days, I could accept without worrying he would appear and find me gawking) and when she told me the mayor uses former Mayor Curley’s desk I was enthralled. “Sit down; I’ll take your picture,” she offered.

For those who don’t know, James Michael Curley (1874-1958) was a legendary four-time mayor of Boston (and one term governor of Massachusetts) whose popularity reflected the increased influence of the Irish community. Accused of campaign bribery, among other things, he was indicted twice but was still reelected to a fourth term. During his fourth term, he actually went to jail. John Hynes (grandfather of goalie John Hynes who took Shakespeare with me in college, now a big developer) served loyally as acting mayor, until Curley returned from jail in Connecticut, greeted by enthusiastic crowds and a brass band. Not the kind of person I would like in real life but intriguing to any historian!

James Michael Curley

Without any of the usual courtesies one would expect from the courtly Curley, the old mayor once back in his office brusquely pushed Hynes aside. Curley seemed to believe that it was important for him to quickly re-assert primacy over city government, and that the best way to accomplish this goal was to diminish the man who had ably served as caretaker during his five months in Danbury Prison. Later in the day, convening an impromptu press conference, Curley remarked that he had accomplished more in that one day than Hynes had done in five months. It was a disastrous miscalculation. Curley was a master of the political arts, but he made a fatal mistake. He had given the mild-mannered Hynes an invaluable political asset: passion. Hynes would not soon or easily forget the insult – his son would recall that he had never seen his father as angry as he was that day – and 1949 offered him the chance to exact revenge on the aging and increasingly out-of-touch Curley.

There was no fifth term for Curley. An outraged Hynes ran against Curley and won in a very close race, portraying Curley as out of touch and corrupt. As James Aloisi says in CommonWealth, also cited above, this election was a conscious choice by Boston voters to put aside nostalgia and elect someone who would move the city forward.  Much later, Hynes' grandson was in my Shakespeare class in college!

(Apparently, it's not uncommon to get a tour of the mayor's office - his secretary wasn't breaking any rules.  But it still made me feel extremely special!)

Swoon (Book Review and Giveaway)

Title: Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them
Author: Betsy Prioleau
Publication Information: Hardcover, 2013, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., isbn 9780393068375
Genre: Nonfiction/Relationships/Cultural History

Description: Swoon is a glittering pageant of charismatic ladies’ men from Casanova to Lord Byron to Albert Camus to Ashton Kutcher. It challenges every preconceived idea about great lovers and answers one of history’s most vexing questions: What do women want?

Contrary to popular myth and dogma, the men who consistently beguile women belie the familiar stereotypes: satanic rake, alpha stud, slick player, Mr. Nice, or big-money mogul. As Prioleau, the author of Seductress, points out in this surprising, insightful study, legendary ladies’ men are a different, complex special altogether, often without looks or money. They fit no known template and possess a cache of powerful exotic secrets.

With wit and erudition, Prioleau cuts through the cultural lore and reveals who these master lovers really are and the arts they practice to enswoon women. What she discovers is revolutionary. Using evidence from science, popular culture, fiction, anthropology, and history, and from interviews with colorful real-world lady-killers, Prioleau finds that great seducers share a constellation of unusual traits.

While these men run the gamut, they radiate joie de vivre, intensity and sex appeal; above all, they adore women. They listen, praise, amuse, and delight, and they know their way around the bedroom. And they’ve finessed the hardest part: locking in and revving desire. Women never tire of these fascinators and often, like Casanova’s conquests, remain besotted for life. [from the flap copy]

What I liked: As a former romance editor, I was immediately intrigued when I heard about this book. I have always been a firm opponent of the arrogant hero who is obnoxious and condescending to the heroine for the whole book, yet she is expected to (and does) fall into his arms at the end, so was eager to hear more about men who use charm and appreciation of women who conquer and win hearts. I particularly enjoyed the range of subjects the author investigates from Gershwin (who “lacked the requisite matinee-idol looks” but charmed through ebullience and a special joy in life), Robert Louis Stevenson (who knew he was beloved by many women, I had a vision of him as a sort of Dungeons and Dragons geek), and David Niven (the British actor, who was a chronic womanizer described as “delicious as French pastry” – although I never saw him in his prime, I have no trouble believing this), and much more.

She describes author Kingsley Amis, who charmed everyone in sight during a teaching stint at Princeton with his British accent and sense of the ridiculous (and later married Elizabeth Jane Howard, whose Cazalet Chronicles will appeal to Downton Abbey enthusiasts).

Fans of modern romances will enjoy the references to Patricia Gaffney (a friend from my Topaz days), Susan Elizabeth Phillips (a friend from my Avon days), Lisa Kleypas, Jennifer Cruisie, Jane Green, and Megan Chance, among others.

The author’s credentials are impressive: a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke, one of my alma maters, and is published by Norton, which in and of itself, is a great recommendation.

Prioleau addresses the issue of the cold, professional seducer, arguing that “[a]n authentic woman-charmer doesn’t despise his conquests or seek their destruction.” Of course, that type does exist – maybe he requires another book!

What I disliked: I found the organization of the book a little confusing which made it fun to read as a browse but meant I relied on the index when looking for a specific topic. This did not detract from my enjoyment, however.

Source: I received this book from TLC Book Tours, which gave me a copy to give away.  Please leave a comment if you would like it.   Here are links to other stops on the tour.

Monday, March 4th: Scandalous Women (this is one of my favorite blogs)

Tuesday, March 5th: Enchanted by Josephine

Thursday, March 7th: A Bookish Affair
Monday, March 11th: The Blog of Litwits
Tuesday, March 12th: In the Hammock
Thursday, March 14th: Jenny Loves to Read
Friday, March 15th: Patricia’s Wisdom
Monday, March 18th: Dolce Bellezza
Tuesday, March 19th: Book Addict Katie
Wednesday, March 20th: Stiletto Storytime
Thursday, March 21st: Unabridged Chick
Friday, March 22nd: Books a la Mode – author guest post
Monday, March 25th: Man of La Book
Tuesday, March 26th: Literally Jen
Wednesday, March 27th: Peppermint Ph.D.
Thursday, March 28th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Monday, April 1st: A Chick Who Reads

Call the Midwife: suggested reading list for fans

For those who enjoyed the PBS series* (and if you missed it, here is an article from Time Magazine to change your mind) and are eager to read more about midwives:

Nonfiction

Call the Midwife: a True Story of the East End in the 1950s – Jennifer Worth
This is the first of a trilogy about the author’s work in post-WWII London as a midwife, and inspired the PBS series. Like the characters in the series, Worth left a comfortable home to live in a convent and minister to London’s slums.

Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 – Laurel Ulrich
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History, this fascinating book is based on the diaries of a midwife and healer in 18th century Maine.

Fiction

The Midwife - Gay Courter

An old NAL bestseller: Hannah Blau and her family emigrate from Russia (where she received her medical training) to the Lower East Side of New York where she faces a harsher world than that of All of a Kind Family.

In Hoc Signo Vinces

The Boston Globe had a nice story the other day about one of my favorite judges, Judge Richard Stearns of the District Court of Massachusetts. In addition to describing the selfless way he uses his vacation time to promote judicial reform in Eastern Europe, it mentioned that he was inspired by A Child's History of the World by V. M. Hillyer, the very book my mother cherished so much growing up that she brought it to school proudly as her favorite book for show and tell, and was teased by her classmates. I am not sure if the copy we own is my mother's childhood copy or if I found another in the intervening years but it is an outstanding book.