Strike of the Sailfish

Strike of the Sailfish: Two Sister Submarines and the Sinking of a Japanese Aircraft Carrier By Stephen L. Moore

A standard WW2 history, submarine history. This provides a good description of life on a submarine at this time.

Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building

Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities by John King

Using San Fracisco's ferry buildinig as the vehicle, the author provides a history of the city from the late 1800s to the present. He tracks the changing transportation needs over that period of time, and how the building and the city has adapted, often not easily and smoothly. He brings us up to the present time by showing how the building and the city have to adapt to climate change and the rising sea level.

MELVILLE IN LOVE

MELVILLE IN LOVE: THE SECRET LIFE OF HERMAN MELVILLE AND THE MUSE OF MOBY-DICK by Michael Shelden

This book came out a few years ago, and focuses on the time that Melville lived in the Berkshires near Pittsfield. Melville had a long relationship with the area that went back to his childhood. But the main point of the book is the 'affair' that he had with a local wealthy married women. This is at the time when he was writing what woudl be Moby Dick. He was a fairly well known author at this time, though not wildly successful. This book does track his life through to his death, and touches on the outcome of publishing Moby Dick and the fact that when published it was not a success. Like with Poe it was long after his death the Moby Dick was rediscovered and became the classic novel of American literature.

A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe

A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak

The focus of this book is the death of Poe, and the myth and legend that developed around Poe. The author makes the point that posterity has confused Poe the person with the narrators of his horror, gothic and mystery books and stories. Actually a very literary person who edited literary journals and was famous during lifetime as a literary critic. Ultimately a more complex person that people really acknowledge today, he lived in Boston, Richmond, New York, Philadelphis and Baltimore. Three of these cities have Poe museums, and he is buried in Baltimore. As with Melville he did achieve real fame until well after his death.

Dam Busters

Dam Busters: The True Story of the Inventors and Airmen Who Led the Devastating Raid to Smash the German Dams in 1943 – by James Holland

This is a very thorough history of the development of the bombs used to destroy the German dams. The bombs would be dropped at a low level, 100 feet, onto the reservoirs that were made by the dams, and were designed to 'bounce' on the water and then explode the dam. Torpedo nets were in place in these reservoirs so those could not be used. This turned out to be a very successful program that destroyed inmportant dams in the Ruhr industrial region, interupting weapons production and transportation. This book is a bit to thorough and I skipped over parts that seemed tedious. While this new bombing method was successful, this was the only time they were used.

Taming the Street

Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques

This is the story of the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission by FDR in order to try and bring the country out of the great depression. It is hard to believe but before 1933 there were no regulations of the banking and stock exchange industries. This meant insider trading and shady deals were standard operating procedures, and the basis of the 1929 crash where the filthy rich stayed rich and the rest of the country went broke.

There was a lot of objections to FDRs attempts to put in place regulations, and interesting enough FDR was basically part of the social class of all the people who were the corrupt people who were part of the problem. Many insteresting aspects come out in this book, which at first could seem like a really boring economics story, but the personalities involved were complex. Joseph Kennedy was the first commissionar of the Securities and Exchange, which surprised me. He came off as a much more interesting person that I expected he would be.

The Times

The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism by Adam Nagourney

This is a history of the New York Times, more or less since 1970, and documents how the Times made the transition from print to a media/internet company, and all the pitfalls that involved. Mostly the story of how the news side really did not agree with the business side on what direction the company should take. Lots of this books is about the personalities involved, and egos, that shaped the company. I found it interesting that the Times is still a family owned business, owned by the family that acquired it in the late 1800s.

The Doing of the Thing

The Doing of the Thing: The Brief, Brilliant Whitewater Career of Buzz Holmstrom by Vince Welch (Author), Cort Conley (Author), Brad Dimock (Author)

This story of Buzz recounts his experiences as the first person to run the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon as a soloist. As a contemporary of the people in 'Brave the Wild River' he knew some of the same people and their lives intersected. He lead a rather directionless life, but became a skilled boat person. He also achieved some fame for his early exploits, but as river running became more popular his exploits were no longer that unique so he drifted between jobs and adventures. This is a good contrast to the 'Brave' story as it provides different aspects of the same time period.

Why We Love Baseball

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments. by Joe Posnanski Many of the stories of baseball in this book are ones we have heard before and that have been told a number of times. But being all collected in one place it makes for a pleasant read. I would say that Posnanski's other recent book, "The Baseball 100" was more interesting to me, it seemed more focused, but taken together we get a pretty comprehensive look at baseball.

No Crying in Baseball

No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own: Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood by Erin Carlson This is the story of the film, and of course the most famous line from the film that still endures. Also, this is biography of Penney Marshall land the difficulties she had to make the film, but also the success that came along with making the film. Many great behind the scenes stories of the filming and preperation. For many of the actors in the film this had a lasting affect on them and their careers and was not just anoth gig. A companion piece to this would be "The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham". I think between these two books we have descriptions of two of the best movies about baseball, both about obscure teams, one real one fictional. Incidentally "A League..." is the most successful baseball movie of all time.

Daughter of the Dragon

Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History. by Yunte Huang. This biography of the Chinese-American actress covers her life from the early 1900s to her death in the early 1960s. She grew up in Los Angeles, her father owned a laundry where she worked as a teenager, but became interested in the theater and film at an early age. This is of course the story of descrimination in the US, most chinese characters in films were played by white people made to look 'oriental'. She was mostly able to get bit stereotypical parts, with a few successes. She had more success on the stage and did spend several years in China before WW2 studying Chinese theater.

Rocky Mountain High

Rocky Mountain High: A Tale of Boom and Bust in the New Wild West, by Finn Murphy This second book by the auther of Long Haul, which was about the long distance moving business, is about the culture of growing hemp in Colorado as it was legalized several years ago. The author is great at describing the details of the business and the pitfalls involved, the gold rush mentality around legalizing that sent things into the stratosphere. But also he is good at telling the bigger picture story of the history of hemp and the culture that develops around boom and bust economies.

Trail of the Lost

Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail. by Andrea Lankford The author is a former search and rescue ranger for the park service and for law enforcement. She focuses on 3 hikers who disapeared on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 2015, 2016 and 2017. They all disapeared on different parts of the PCT, but she saw similarities in their stories. Along the way Andrea meets many people associated with the PCT and family and searchers looking for answers. Lots of info here about the trail and trail culture, the pitfalls that can be found and the shady characters that are attracted to the trail, and other long distance trails. Good story but sadly the people she is looking for are never found, and the families continue to mourn.

Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny

Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny. This is a great true story of two female botonists at the Univ. of Michigan, who in 1938 chartered with a river rafter to go through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado river. The aim was to catalog the botony of the canyon, which had not been done previously. They assumed they would find new species in this isolated area and they were right. The 2 women and 4 men started at the Green river and then went down the Colorado to Lake Mead. This was long before the Glen Canyon damn was built so this is a great story of the wild Colorado. At that time only a handful of people had rafted the Colorado, and they were the first women to do so.

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Here latest after the amazing best seller H is for Hawk, this collection of essays continues to provide excellent nature writing and allows the author to explore themes beyond birds, though that is mostly what she focuses on. While H dealt specifically with how she dealt with the grief of her father's passing, this collection allows her to explore many tangents of the natural world. She also addresses some pressing issues of our natural environment that are now important; the disapearance of many natural habitats and the effects of climate change.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

The amazing story of one of the greatest art thiefs in history. This takes place in the 1990s and 2000s and I guess was a big story in Europe, where it all took place, but some how never made it into US media stories, at least that I remember. The 'thief' got away with the most amazing crimes for years, until stupid mistakes tripped him up. A complicated family psychology adds to the story, and an amazing reaction from the authorities. The fact that he never stole for profit helps to illustrate the uniqueness of this story.

Revolutionary Roads: Searching for the War That Made America Independent...and All the Places It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong by Bob Thompson

Revolutionary Roads: Searching for the War That Made America Independent...and All the Places It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong by Bob Thompson

In a similar vein to Travels with George, this books takes the reader to what are the present day situation of the geography that was the American Revolution. Told in a friendly style the author examines many of the personalities of the revolution, Benedict Arnold, Lafayette etc.

Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer

Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer The accounting of the women that Capote called his 'swans', glamorous trend setting women of the 50s through the 80s that he was friends with and that set the tone for a certain segment of society. These women were alos the subject of the unfinished Capote book about them and was going to be dishy and blast open their world, which did not need blasting. The women are names that you know, Babe Paley, Lee Radziwell, Joanna Carson etc their real story is one of not glamor but trying to get by in the sexist world the lived in while keeping a front of Vogue cover sophistication. A narrow slice of society by an easy one to read about.

Dry River (essay)

The Gila river runs from east to west, just south of Phoenix. At one time in history the river ran water into the Colorado river, on its way to the Sea of Cortez. However, it was mostly seasonal, and rarely has water in the river for the past 100 years. During WW2 in the early 1940s there was a large POW camp just south of Phoenix. There were several thousand German and Italian prisoners being kept at this camp. A few of the prisoners got their hands on a map of Arizona, and saw that just south of them was something called the Gila River. The assumed where there is a river there are boats, so they came up with a scheme to escape the camp, make it to the river and steal a boat where they could go west on the Gila River and meet up with the Colorado and navigate to the Sea of Cortez. About 6 of them escaped and they made it to the river, of course only to find that they were at a dry sandy ditch. The prisoners were rather quickly apprehended and returned to the camp.

Each year all Fulbright scholars who are coming to the US come to the Univ. of AZ in August for an orientation. This is run by the Center for English as a Second Lanuage. They aks for volunteers to help out with social events for the scholars, so that on weekends they can have some non academic experiences. These scholars are from all over the world, south america, europe, asia. One year on a Sunday I volunteered to go with the group to the farmer's market at St. Phillips which is right on the Rillito river. This was right at a time when we were having a big monsoon season, the Rillito was running bank to bank with water. Those of us who live in Tucson were freaking out at how much water was in the river. The scholars from all over the world thought we were nuts, they couldn't understand why it was a big deal to have water in a river.

Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears

Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears by Micahel Schulman. As the title says, a history of the Oscars. Interesting enough when the Academy of Motion pictures began it was more of a guild, and the Oscars were a very minor part of the organization. This was all overshadowed by SAG and the Writers Guild as time went on, and the Oscars became a force of its own. Any fan of movies will find something interesting in this book. Many stories of the films that everyone thought should have won best picture but didn't, and the many personalities that were of course involved.

All Hands On Deck

All Hands on Deck: A Modern-Day High Seas Adventure to the Far Side of the World by Will Sofrin. To transport the sailing ship the Rose from Newport to Californian to be used in the filming of the Master and Commander films, the shipped sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, transfersing the Panama Canal. This is the story of the voyage by Will when he was a young man, along with the crew who made it happen. Quite a lot of adventure at sea occured trying to transport this historic ship across the globe. Really a coming of age story but a sea story about a technology that was outdated but still servicable.

The Wager

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, the amazing story of a shipwreck off the coast of Patagonia in 1741. Chronicles the survivers and how they persavered on a deserted island and how many made there way back to England. Remarkable story and really remarkable that so much of the original accounts survive by the people involved.

Third Girl from the Left: A Memoir

Third Girl from the Left: A Memoir by Christine Barker. Interesting memoir of a person who would become a broadway dancer, and was in the original production of Chorus Line in the 1980s. While this is about her professional career, it is also about New York at a time when AIDS was just taking hold and of course devastating the Broadway world. There is also an interesting connection in that her brother was the lover of Perry Ellis, and Ellis' attourney, both of whom died of AIDS.

Lincoln on the Verge

Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington by Edward Widmer. After Lincoln's election as president, he had to travel from Springfield, IL to Washington DC to take office. This is the chronicle of the train journey that took him across the northern part of the country to. He travelled through the north to avoid any assassination attempts that were assumed would take place if he traveled a more direct route, which would take him through southern states just as they were beginning to succeed from the Union. Along the route of this trip he used the opportunity to have as many people see him as possible, at a time when newspapers were the only mass communication. Highlighted in this telling is the presence of the telegraph, which had come into its own and would play a part in the civil war. The author can tend to be a bit too 'wordy' and goes off on tangents, which may be necessary when the story is of a train trip. As Lincoln gave speeches during this trip the authors highlights how he was perfecting his style and approach that would mark the 4 years of his presidency.

Valley Forge

Valley Forge by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. An account of the winter of 1777 and 1778 when Washington held his troops at Valley Forge in during the horrible and brutal winter. Made worse by the lack of supplies of every kind, food and clothing. Like many things I read about the american revolution, it really is amazing that we won the war with the British. Two interesting things I learned from this book, one about a brutal bayonet battle that the British waged with the Americans that must have been terrifying. The second that George the third in the Spring of 1778 made a peace offering to the contenentals, that if they ceased hostilities he would end taxing the Americans, remove British troops from the colonies, recognize congress as an official body and provide representation in Parliament to the Colonies. In hindsight not a bad offer, and can't help but wonder what would happened if it had been accepted. Would slavery have ended sooner in North America? In some places a dense read but well researched and well written.

Cadillac Desert (1986)

Cadillac Desert (1986) by Marc Reisner. This excellent cultural and environmental history of the western US and the history of how water is used, abused and allocated. Published in 1986, it is amazing how right the author was about so many things that are now coming true. The history of planning for water that is not there and never would be is quite amazing. The first half of the book is a great chronology of how water was managed, how and why the damns were built, the well known story of Mulhalland and the Los Angeles water systems. It is interesting to see that our present situation was being predicted for decades, but no one took any actions around it.