Sea Otters

 

Something is scheduled to happen in my life during the latter part of May.  My husband and I are headed to Alaska for a short vacation.  We will be there a week, which is a normal length for a vacation, but when considering an area the size of Alaska a week is short in relation to what all there is to see.  We will be enjoying two national parks.  In preparation for the trip I checked out James Michener's Alaska on Libby Overdrive.  It is an extremely long historical novel.  I will likely NOT get it finished before I have to return it and will end up buying it on my kindle app.  If I get it read before we leave I will be surprised.  Each chapter is the length of a short novel.  For example, chapter four is roughly 260 pages.  I have about 50 pages left in chapter four.  This chapter covers Russia's interest in Alaska beginning with exploration and going on into the fur trade's beginnings in the 1700s.   The early commercial fur traders were brutal to not only the sea otters but also the native populations. The Aleutian Islands were the area that Michener focused on in this area of his novel.  I have been looking up some additional information online this afternoon.  The library of congress has some information that can be found HERE and an Alaskan Theater/Education  Group has posted some information HERE.  Finally the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game has some sea otter information on their site HERE.  The pelt of the sea otter was especially coveted by many countries. The video that follows has information on the sea otter pelt.  I am looking forward to continuing to read this novel. 

The Enemy In Our Hands by Robert C Doyle

 

The Enemy In Our Hands

by

Robert C Doyle

I am not sure where to begin reviewing this book.  I started it only because I wanted to read background information for how pacifists were treated during the American Revolution.. In my family history searching last summer I ran across the fact that there were pacifists during the revolution that were treated like loyalists and thrown into POW camps.  With many of my ancestors being anabaptist and pacifists I wanted to pursue what might have been included in their life experience.  While searching online I came across a magazine article that interviewed this author.  So I emailed him.  He was very gracious and encouraged me to read his book. So I downloaded a free sample and then purchased the book.  Imagine my shock when preparing this blog when I found the author's obituary.  He passed away early this very year.  But as I was reading the book I was unaware of it.  Originally I had intended to read only the chapter about the American Revolution as suggested by Dr Doyle.  But by the time I finished those first couple chapters I was hooked.  I read the entire book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in military history.  In fact I have been bugging those around me with all the information that I was running across in the book that I found interesting.  The Enemy In Our Hands is about how the United States treated POWs in the various wars we have been involved in.  This is one of four books this author wrote.  I may well eventually read some other titles by him.  They are:  1) Voices From Captivity which is about POWs that were American and captured by others.  2)yA Prisoners Duty Great Escapes in US Military History and 3) Men of God Men of War Military Chaplains.  Click on the authors name above to follow the link and read his obituary.  Click on the book title above at the beginning of this blog to read more about the book.  And if you have the time and inclination watch the following very long video on CSPAN at this LINK.   Or watch as much of it as you would like to see the author lecturing about the book to his students. 

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

 

The Invisible Library 

by

Genevieve Cogman 

This book was a birthday gift to me from a family member.  I finished reading it on my kindle last night.  The genre of the book is fantasy or possibly sci-fi which is a different type of book than I normally read.  I did take me a bit into the story to begin to be able to follow it but by midpoint I was hooked and the last quarter of the book I finished in one setting.  It is a good story and the first novel of a series so I will have to read the others in the series eventually.  The library that is invisible is between alternate realities and saves books for all time from these various worlds.  It sends librarians out into the various realities to obtain particular books and bring them back to the invisible library.  While trying to obtain the particular copy of the book required the librarian, Irene, has to deal with faes, dragons, monsters, werewolves, vampires and lots of other gruesome enemies that try to stop her.  It was a fun read and a good escape.  I recommend it to anyone who is wanting a light read.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Extraordinary Relationships by Roberta Gilbert MD

 

Extraordinary Relationships

by

Roberta M. Gilbert, MD

Roberta M Gilbert, MD has written this personal development genre book which is explains a way of looking at relationships.  If a person has ever wondered what influences the manner they interact with the people they come in contact with this book will give them one frame work of understanding.  It explains the impact of sibling oder and the sibling order of parents on how a person interacts with their spouse and children. Based on the life work of Dr Murray Bowman, it is an interesting book that a family member of mine read and recommended.  I have recommended it to several other of my family members since reading it.  It is not light reading but it is worth the effort to take the time to understand the material and will provide insight to those that choose to read it.  After all,  we can always improve our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information and watch the video that follows.  

"Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fischer

 

Albion's Seed

by

David Hackett Fischer

This is a book that has taken me over a year to read.  There were months I did not even open my kindle app and work on it.  It is an overwhelming one thousand pages of what is very good information but not in any way light reading.  It is a social history of four of the groups of British immigrants to Colonial America and their enduring contribution to the formation and history of the United States.  The four groups are the Puritans,  the Virginia Planter,  the Quakers and what I have always known as the Scotch Irish, which he called the  Northern Border People.  With my interest in family history I considered this a must read and I do recommend other students of American Social History also wade through it.  But I am very glad to have reached the end.  It was work to read.  The book contains a great deal of extremely good information.  I am not sure I totally agree with the author but it would be interesting to hear his ideas debated by learned historians.  Please enjoy the video that follows about the book and click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information.  

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Horse

By

Geraldine Brooks 

It has been almost a year since I finished a book and posted about it on my blog.  I have had the same book on my kindle for that long.  I retired so no longer commute which is when I listened to audio books.  But some recent short car trips alone enabled me to complete and audio book.  It was a really good one!  Therefore I am able to share it with you.  

Geraldine Brooks is one of my go to authors.  I have read five of her six novels and will eventually read any book she writes.  Horse is a historical novel and one of its themes is  the racing industry in the United States during the time frame of just prior to the civil war.  Another theme that weaves throughout the story is equine art.  The book bounces between the 1850s, the 1950s and 2019.  Science is part of the novel as  skeletal reconstruction is touched on along with  the issue of race related to police brutality in our current culture.  This novel is timely and yet timeless.  I really enjoyed listening to it and recommend that others read it too.   

Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

 

The Lost Apothecary 

by

Sarah Penner

I chose to listen to The Lost Apothecary on audible for the Halloween season because it sounded spooky.  And it did have murder and magic with in its story.  But the book was not frightening at all.  It is a novel about how everyday women survive in a world where they are often mistreated by men.  There are two time lines in the book.  One is the late 1700s when an apothecary shop caters to women's illnesses.  It also provides poisons for women to rid themselves of abusive men in a time when being abused was often something women had no way out of.  Sometimes the men were fathers.  Sometimes they were brothers.  Sometimes they were husbands.  The second time line is modern day where an amateur historian takes a vacation to clear her head after learning of her husbands affair and stumbles upon the mystery of the long forgotten apothecary.  As a woman and a person who enjoys researching family history this book was right up my ally.  I also have an interest in herbs and plant oils.  So all the elements in the book came together for me.  I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.  When I saw it was a harlequin romance I almost didn't download it.  I had a preconceived connection to harlequin romance and true story magazine from the early 1970s.  After noting it had been on several best seller books I went ahead and selected it.    I am so glad I went ahead and gave this book a try.  I won't consider harlequins trash books any more.  This one was delightful!  Please click on the book title and author's name above for more information and enjoy the short book review in the video that follows.