The Everest Years: The challenge of the world's highest mountain

The Everest Years: The challenge of the world's highest mountain, by Chris Bonington. Originally published in 1987, I think. This fills an important gap in the Himalayan climbing history. This time frame of the 1970s and 1980s takes place after the initial pioneering efforts to top Everest, but before the explosive climbing efforts that were to follow. May even be responsible for the rise in interest following this period. Interesting that this was still a time when the first to summit a peek could still be achieved. Good writing and good story telling.

Washington: A Life

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. We all know many pieces of the folklore around the life of George Washington. This very detailed and meticulaously researched biography provides the details of his life, without reading like an academic treatise. The parts of his life that I was not that familiar with are interesting. How he came into possession of Mount Vernon, the early parts of the revolutionary war, where frankly I was struck by what a miracle it was that we actually won the revolution. But for myself the most interesting was his 2 terms as the first president. Probably because I knew so little about that period. Creating a coutnry from scratch was an amazing feat, which in many ways ruined Washington's health and his finances. He was very aware of his place in history, and one of the reasons a thorough biography like this could be written is bacause he saved and archived his papers for the revolutionary war and his presidency. One thing that really stood out was the period when the new country was created, and the divide from the beginning of the north and the south. The north and south were very different before the revolution, but as independent colonies there really was no collision of the two. As the colonies were brougt together as the United States, these north/south issues were brought into the forefront. In Washington's first cabinet, his secretary of state was Jeffersons, Virginia landed gentry, and Alexander Hamilton, a native of the carribean, but a transplanted New Yorker who definately promoted the Yankee ideals. Hamilton wanted to have a strong federal presenece (The Federalsits) while Jefferson saw the new country as a land of gentlemen farmers. Much time is spent on the issue of slavery, and Washington owned hundreds for slaves. He is presented as someone opposed to slavery while still owning so many. His will freed many of his slaves, but in a complicaed way that really made it a slippery slope.

Pacific War in WW2, Triology

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942,The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944, Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945. A goo complient to Atkinson's European triology. The sweeping story of the Pacific war.

Agent Sonya

Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy, by Ben Macintyre. Amazing story of a Soviet spy that spans the decades from the 1930s to the 70s, and somewhat beyond. China, Germany, Switzerland, Poland and the UK are all part of this story, of WW2 and cold war esionage.

WW2 Literature

Recently read: With Wings Like Eagles- Michael Korda. The story of the battle of Britain. D-Day by Stephen Ambrose, and D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, 1944 by Rick Atkinson. 1944 by Jay Wink. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, fiction about young people in France and Germany before and during the war. Madame Fourcade's Secret War by Lynne Olson, the underground movement in France. Last Boat our of Shanghai by Helen Zia. The Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Travels With Myself and Another, by Martha Gellhorn, the journalists autobiography. His Final Battle by Joseph Levyveld, Roosevelt's final year. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

Garlic and Sapphires

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. This memoir rounds her life by filling in the space when she was the food critic for the New York Times. Her easy writing style and great sense of humor make her memoirs entertaining and informative. This book ends with her about to be the editor of Gourmet magazine, the story that is told in Save Me The Plums.

The Liberation Trilogy

The Liberation Trilogy: An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson, This trilogy is a history of WWII, the European war. The first book, Battle, is the African campaign, the second, Battle, is the Italian campaign, and the third, Guns, is D-Day and the end of the war. I have read the first two, but do not think I will read the third. The death and destruction outlined in these books is a bit too much to spend a lot of time with. (Since I originally posted this, I have gone back and read the third book.) Of course, I am being spoiled, as the people fighting these battles obviously could not just walk away. The details are quite extensive, and the author had access to quite a few personal diaries of both officers and enlisted men, so you get a real insight into 'men on the ground'. It is also interesting to contemplate when reading this that another part of the war was taking place in the Pacific at the same time. Along the same theme of dealing with WWII, the above details the war in Europe, and Ian Toll has a trilogy that deals with the Pacific war. Pacific Crucible and The Conquering Tide are the first two in the trilogy, the third comes out in July 2020. The first deals with a lot of background of the countries to be involved, and the leaders and military men who will be a big part of the pacific war. The second I found more interesting as it looks at the main part of the war in the pacific and does so by looking at different branches of the military, and not just providing a chronological story of battles.