Not that I’m expecting anyone to rush out and read these books, but here’s what I’ve been plowing through since June.
The synchroblog for the month is on favorite books and/or movies of the summer. How have we bloggers been entertaining ourselves since June 23, or, more fuzzily, since it first started to get warm, or since the semesters first ended? What books or movies might we pass along, or recommend?
Well, I read a lot anyway, and don’t necessarily keep track of when I’ve read things. The public library does, but I don’t keep the check-out receipts; I pretty much use ’em as bookmarks, and toss them when I’ve finished the book. Some memorable books come to mind, so I’ll refer to those.
The Bible. Of course.
Edison and the Electric Chair, Mark Essig. Society was looking for a more humane and certain way to execute convicts than hanging or shooting. Stories about people who had been accidentally electrocuted—zap and they’re dead—made that sound like a possible alternative. So state governments began picking inventor Thomas Edison’s brain about the possibility. Edison, at the time, was in heavy competition with George Westinghouse for the electric utility business; Edison’s system used low-voltage direct current, and Westinghouse’s system (which we use today) used high-voltage alternating current. Although Edison was personally against capital punishment, he did think it was possible… provided they use Westinghouse’s grid, because his grid was safe. Ah, business and politics; some things never change.
The Mauritius Command, Patrick O’Brian. After O’Brian’s Master and Commander was made a movie, out of curiosity I read the book, ’cause the book is usually better. The book isn’t at all like the movie (it was actually based on his The Far Side of the World) but it was brilliant: It’s about the early-19th century British navy, written as if the author were from the 19th century, and not the 20th; and written with an attention to detail and historical accuracy that always keeps it interesting. The Mauritius Command is about the historical taking of Mauritius and La Réunion from the French in 1810, only now O’Brian’s protagonist Jack Aubrey is running the show.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seth Grahame-Smith. The movie is coming next year. Basically, Grahame-Smith takes a biography of Lincoln and inserts vampires: Whenever Lincoln’s friends or family members died, like his mother or his good friends or Anne Rutledge or his children (or, in this book, Edgar Allan Poe), it’s because of vampires. As a result, Lincoln used his rail-splitting skills, and some help from a sympathetic vampire, to take an axe to vampires, who it turns out had largely taken over the pre-Civil War South, and were using the slaves to feed on. Grahame-Smith gets a few facts wrong (it is fiction after all), but is otherwise quite clever in the way he inserted vampires all throughout Lincoln’s early life. He fumbles, though, when it comes to his presidency and the Civil War; that bit feels rushed and anti-climactic. Still, history buffs like me will be amused by it.
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? Philip Yancey. Of course, had his conclusion been “no,” Yancey would catch hell from his readership. I like Yancey’s work; his journalistic training helps him ask all the important skeptical questions that we Christians really ought to ask about our faith, and his stories are always interesting. I’m currently halfway through his What Good is God? Thus far, God appears good; I’ll let you know.
The President Is a Sick Man, Matthew Algeo. In 1893, then-president Grover Cleveland underwent surgery for mouth cancer. He tried to keep it secret, naturally for political reasons. Of course, a reporter found out about it; the Cleveland Administration tried to cover it up; jealous competitors and political opponents slandered the reporter; and there we have the story.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris. I started Morris’s trilogy of Roosevelt biographies in the middle with Theodore Rex some years ago; I started his last book, Colonel Roosevelt, but then realized I really ought to read the first book, The Rise of TR, first. So I did. Roosevelt’s one of those fascinating characters whose traits are, in the present day, considered huge contradictions: A conservationist who loved to hunt for sport; a peacemaker who nonetheless thought war was glorious; a man who was both pro-business and pro-federal regulation of business; a civil service reformer who knew how to work the system; a man who knew how to both manipulate and ignore the press. Any decently-done biography of him would be interesting, but Morris can write. (Although skip Morris’s biography of Ronald Reagan; he tried to get a bit experimental with it, and it didn’t work.)
Decision Points, George W. Bush. As most of you know, Bush disappointed me; I voted for the compassionate conservative and instead got a guy whose single-minded pursuit of the War on Terror undermined everything else he promised to do. The book is not an autobiography; it is a memoir about what Bush considered his bigger decisions as President, and (unlike how he behaved as President) actually does some soul-searching about how he might have done better. In it I started to see, once again, some of the guy I voted for. Liberals might be surprised at that; as well as conservatives who thought Bush could do no wrong.
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, H.W. Brands. Unlike other biographies of Franklin, Brands attempts to show how Franklin evolved in his personal philosophy from being an Englishman, beholden to patrons and working the system, to becoming an American revolutionary, and using his fame as a writer and inventor to push that cause.
Bossypants, Tina Fey. Her memoirs about working at Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. I always find her funny.
Talk Show, Dick Cavett. I’m in the middle of this one: His early columns for the New York Times. Cavett’s one of those guys who you always wonder why more people don’t appreciate him. (Interesting personal side note: My mother tells me my first full sentence as a toddler was “Dick Cavett goes potty on the potty chair.” Seems Dad was a Cavett fan. Oy, the things they teach you in toilet-training.)
Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, Merle Miller. I first read this in high school, when my civics teacher wanted us to read a biography of a great American. I had already started reading Will by G. Gordon Liddy (say what you will about the guy; that book, a memoir of all the outrageous bulls--- he’s ever pulled up till 1980, is hilarious) and wanted to do that. He concealed as best he could his rather obvious revulsion for Liddy and said, “No. Pick another one. Try Harry Truman.” So I found Plain Speaking in the school library and read that. I’ve read it a few times since, and again this summer. It consists of transcripts from filmed interviews with Truman and some of his friends, made about a decade after he left office, and never aired—this was still years before people realized what a great president Truman actually was. Unlike George W. Bush, Truman had very few regrets; he was one of those folks who figured he did the right thing the first time, and besides, speculating about what might have been was a waste of effort. I don’t care for that attitude at all, but Truman largely did do the right thing most of the time, so I’ll let it slide with just this note of my disapproval.
Obviously I like history. And I told you I read a lot.
I’ve read more than this, but most have been books where I read a chapter or two and stopped reading because I lost interest, or got distracted. If a book sucks, I stop reading. I’m more patient with movies, I suppose.
As for movies, I’ve seen Captain America at the theater (thumb up; clever) and on DVD I’ve watched True Grit (thumb up; authentic-looking) and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (thumb down; stupid). Most of what I’ve been watching have been old TV shows that I never got around to, like Veronica Mars and My Name is Earl, and old episodes of Sons of Anarchy. Summer means all the shows I usually watch aren’t being aired yet, except for Louie, and I don’t try to replace them.
The August ’11 synchroblog.
So, there’s my summer reading list. To read the other lists (or other musings) of the other synchrobloggers, pick a blog from the pull-down menu on the left. Not mine; you’ve read mine. Well, I’m assuming you read mine, anyway.
