The Forbidden Garden

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

The largest seed back in the world is in St Petersberg, but it was founded in the 12920s when the city was Leningrad. The see back was world renowned and created by a world renowned scientist. During WW2 and the seige of Leningrad, the dedicated workers at the seed bank protected the collection, even at their own peril.

Into Unknown Skies

Into Unknown Skies: An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight Around the World by David K. Randall

The true account the first flight to go around the world, in stages and over 175 days. The Douglas World Cruiser aircraft was a 2 seater open cockpit plane. The US team started in Seattle and flew west, flying through freezing arctic conditions and through broiling desert heat. The US team started with 4 planes, each plane had a pilot and mechanic. Any time something brokde on the planes, the crew had to fix everything themselves. The US team had one plane actually finish the race. Other attempts were made by the UK, France, Portugal and Argentina. Each of these had a single plane. The major advantage the the US had was the US Navy havnig ships that supported the effort. This race was the idea of Gneral Mitchell in an attempt to get support for a more robust US military air effort.

Henry V

Henry V by Dan Jones.

Henry V was king of England in the early 1400s. A relatively short reign but a very active one. He brough Wales back to England after a very tough rebellion, and spent many years and battles in France, mostly Normandy. The most famous of his battles was Agincourt, where he was outnumbered in troops by the French. This was a very well written history, which I wanted to keep going. He fought so many battles in Normandy that I began to wonder if the Allies had studied these battles before launching D-Day.

The Notebook

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

Not to be confused with the Nicolas Spark book, as the subtitle says this is about paper and it application to notebooks. The basic premise is that when paper started to be mass produced in Italy in the 1400 this allowed the renaisanse to take off. Before this writing was done on velum, time consuming and expensive to produce and basically used the the Church to illuminated manuscripts. With paper readily available artists could carry a sketch book with them wherever they went and practice their craft. The best known of the notebooks are Leonardo Da Vinci's, of which a portion survive. Cheap notebooks allowed for diaries, journals, sketchbooks, thought diaries, lists, idea books to be carried by many people. There is also the premise that writing changed the way people think and work and the act of writing in a notebook allowed people to become better writers and thinkers.

Manhunt

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

This is a chronicle mainly of John Wilkes Booth before and the aftermath of the assasination of Lincoln. The author concentrates on the facts of the conspiracy to kill not just Lincoln but several high ranking members of the Feberal government. There is actually a lot of detail that is available about Booth after he shot Lincoln and fled the capital. Some of the details become tedious.

The Future Was Now

The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 by Chris Nashawaty

This book chronicles the watershed year of 1982, which during the summmer saw the release of 6 movies: E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior. The 1970s blockbusters Jaws and Star Wars saw everyone scrambling to create their own money maker, resulting in this glut of summer movies.

The Bookshop

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

This is the history of the boostore 'bookshop' mostly in north America. Starting the colonial times, with of course Ben Franklin and coming up through the present mega bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. Along the way small and specialty bookshops are explored. Many niche bookstores were important centers of communities in the civil rights era with black bookstores and LGBT bookstores providing vital info for their communties. Many stories of the personalities of people who were instrumental in creating the modern bookstore. Many of the pioneers were women at a time when there were not many options available, and there are nice little known stories such as the groundbreaking bookstore on the thrid floor of Mashal Fields in Chicago.