08.24.23
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BATTLE OF INK AND ICE/DARRELL HARTMAN

You’ll explore as much about the New York City competitive newspaper environment at the turn of the 20th Century as you will about the discovery of the North Pole by either Robert Peary Frederick Cook! Darrell Hartman’s book is a fascinating enlightenment of the parallel stories, each with its own surprising turns. BATTLE OF INK AND ICE reads like a historical novel making all of the facts easily digestible.

Who got to the North Pole, Cook or Peary? Better yet, the book raises the prospect that neither of the men may have accomplished the feat.

The personalities of Cook and Peary are fascinating but the in sight into Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, James Gordon Bennett of the Herald, William Randolph Hearst of the Journal reveals the competitive environment of the period amongst the New York media barrons.

Who first reached the North Pole, which newspaper got the story right? You will be the judge.

08.05.23
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AMERICAN PROMETHEUS/J.ROBERT OPPENHEIMER

Without hesitation, this superb work by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin is among the very best biographies I have read in recent years. I place the writing and research on a level with Robert Caro and Jon Meacham.

The wonder of this book is the understanding of Oppenheimer and his time and place in American History. The story of the Atomic Bomb is well known to many. However, the complexity and passages of Oppenheimer himself amid the social and political atmosphere in which he lived and worked is a revelation. The beauty of Bird’s and Sherwin’s writing is that you need not be a physicist to wrap yourself around the life and story of this complex scientist, intellectual and iconic American figure. The dimension of the book is enormous, foremost in its content, but also in size!

I am confident that reading THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY of J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER is a plus before seeing OPPENHEIMER the movie.

07.18.23
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THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME

Isabel Allende weaves the characters in her new novel THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME with contemporary themes and political consciousness. The book is a perfect combination of fact and fiction just as she accomplished in another novel A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA.

Here, Allende strikes at the heart of the immigration issue while at the same time tugging at the heart with her prose.

Add THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME To your summer reading.




07.13.23
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AND THERE WAS LIGHT ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE AMERICAN STRUGGLE /JON MEACHAM

Yet another excellent work by Jon Meacham. AND THERE WAS LIGHT ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE AMERICAN STRUGGLE is a detailed chronology of Lincoln’s positions on slavery from his early years in politics prior to the Civil War through the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a remarkable look not only at Lincoln’s changing personal views on abolition but how he managed this toxic issue as a master politician.

Meacham coaxes the reader to evolve along with Lincoln as the president wrestles emotionally, religiously and politically to ultimately envision and execute the correct route to not only abolish slavery but to save The Union.

Search gordonsgoodreads for these other works by Meacham. The Soul of America, American Lion Andrew Jackson and the White House, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship.

06.28.23
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WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS JULY 4TH/FREDERICK DOUGLASS

I doubt there is a greater perspective on Slavery than the July 4th, Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered before an audience in Rochester, New York. Applewood Books of Carlisle, New York published the complete text, WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY? It is available of Amazon for $9.99. It is worthy of all American households.

06.16.23
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THE TRACKERS/ CHARLES FRAZIER

I seem to have fallen into a pattern of reading novels whose protagonists are young people born into difficult if not impossible circumstances. Just last week I finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and before that, Nickel Boys by Colin Whitehead. ( Search gordonsgoodreads). Now Charles Frazier of Cold Mountain fame comes along with his new novel The TRACKERS.

This time the protagonist is a young woman ( barely) living the life of a hobo, hopping fast freights, joining a grade B or even lower status cowboy band. Surviving during the Great Depression. Then suddenly catapulted into the lap of luxury!

What’s next? Enjoy.

06.08.23
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THE OLD LION/ TEDDY ROOSEVELT/ SHARRA

I have read most all of Jeff Shaara’s historical novels and his ability to use the medium to awaken history sets a high standard. ( search gordonsgoodreads).

His latest, THE OLD LION, is a great overview of Teddy Roosevelt’s lifetime. Unlike the great biographies by Edmund Morris or David McCullough THE OLD LION moves quickly through the highlights of TR’s career.

This book is a good choice for a first round study of TR from his sickly childhood to the Rough Riders charge up San Juan Hill. After retirement from the presidency Roosevelt’s epic adventurous trip on the headwaters of the Amazon are captured by Sharra.

Enjoy

06.08.23
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TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW/ ZEVIN

When i flipped the first pages of Gabrielle Zevin’s novel TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW I hesitated. Why would I be interested in a young group of MIT stereotypes creating video games? The answer came quickly. The novel is MUCH MUCH MORE! Life is complicated and even more so among a group of brilliant young high achievers. There are love stories among the code writers and keyboard clicks that follow convoluted paths of happiness and sadness. My guess is that like me, you will be quickly drawn in by Zevin’s characters.

Put TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW on your list. You won’t be disappointed.

06.05.23
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DEMON COPPERHEAD/BARBARA KINGSOLVER

As I finished the last chapter of Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel DEMON COPPERHEAD, I reflected sadly that this could well be a work of nonfiction. Demon Copperhead ( David Copperfield of another generation) is born and raised into the institutional poverty that to this day prevails in southern Appalachia.

Kingsolver spares no evils of abject poverty upon the young. Children abandoned, often times at birth, through death and despair. Those surviving ( Demon Copperhead) face the blight of Foster Care, a failed educational system, ineffective social services, bad choices of relationships and the pervasiveness of the drug epidemic that today sweeps through the hills and hollers of the backcountry.

The New York Times review was correct in writing, Kingsolver creates images that stay with the reader.

No happy endings and no joy in this read but the NYT was on the mark about Kingsolver’s lasting images.

05.03.23
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NICKEL BOYS/COLSON WHITEHEAD

Colson Whitehead’s novel, NICKEL BOYS is the real story of a 111 year old State of Florida “Reform School. ” Colson’s characters live the story of the NICKEL ACADEMY, which is actually a chamber of horrors, brutality, sexual abuse and racism. Children disappear into a hidden cemetery located behind the what is in reality a children’s prison.

Elwood, a black youth abandoned by his parents and raised by his grandmother is a teenager with great potential. He becomes a NICKEY BOY by inadvertently riding in the wrong car as he heads off to college. But Elwood is a reformer, a believer that things can change even from inside an abusive and racist ” Reform School.” He must first survive and then set about his work.

Colson weaves reality into an enormously compelling and emotional narrative as can only be accomplished by a great novelist. From within the decadence of NICKEL ACADEMY and the plight of those incarcerated there comes a glimmer of hope for reform from a determined Elwood.

Colson’s novel is representative of numerous ” Reform Schools” operating throughout America during the early to mid twentieth century. Fortunately most were closed but the stories of hundreds of “missing” youths remain to be discovered.