Books I Read in July
Trying to keep the ball rolling here and to get myself caught up...
July
1. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford - Read, read, read! Truly, this was an awesome narrative about a group of women that don't get a great deal of press, historically. And the final chapters about the epic life of Queen Manduhai the Wise? How is this historical figure not swimming in historical novels? Married as a very young teen to a Mongol king, she bears two daughters and succeeds to lead the Mongols when her husband dies. She then rescues Batmonkh, who has a story of his own, and adopts him at the age of five or so, placing him in hiding, then bringing him into her own yurt when his caretakers prove incompetent. She goes to war against the Western Mongols, defeats them, then marries the young Batmonkh (who she's raised as a child) and rules with him jointly over a great deal of Asia. The two of them were the reason the Ming Empire decided it would be a very good idea to speed up construction of the Great Wall as soon as humanly possible. Awesome and epic book.
2. North By Northwestern: A Seafaring Family on Deadly Alaskan Waters by Captain Sig Hansen and Mark Sundeen - Very good, though obviously you're going to probably enjoy it more if you're already a fan of Sig's on Deadliest Catch. I do like the exploration of his knockabout childhood in the ethnic Norwegian neighborhoods in Seattle, and in how his family learned to adjust with the times. Well done, Cap'n.
3. Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine by Ray Watman - An interesting exploration of the moonshining business. The author seems to refuse to look at this in any other way but romanticizing the stills hidden in the woods and decrying the sentences given to those caught, but kind of casually brushes past some of the creepy urban stills which are, quite literally, poisonous, violent, and thought to be the cause behind a lot of unexplained urban deaths...still a good read.
4. My Lady Suffolk: A Portrait of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, by Evelyn Reed - Reed has a problem with making the subjects of her biographies fairly boring, but Willoughby's life was fairly epic, and it remains to be seen (to me, at least) why she isn't the star of several Tudor-era historical novels (The Sixth Wife being the obvious exception). Meh.
5. Kilroy Was Here: The Best American Humor from WWII, edited by Charles Osgood - A moving little book about the bits of life that keep us going in the toughest of times - plus, some of those songs are just dirty and hysterical.
6. Marie Therese: Child of Terror, by Susan Nagel - Well-done exploration of Marie Therese's life, one that gives her a human personality beyond the spoiled brat or terrified child of other biographies and novels. Best part? It doesn't stop with her getting free from prison - because there's life after that.
7. The Importance of Being Kennedy by Laurel Graham - I liked her take on the British royalty in "Gone With the Windsors," but this book just felt a little tired to me. Not bad, just not what I'd call her best work.
8. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass - I'd only read passages from it before, but this autobiography is brutal, in this man retelling his life and his continual efforts to be treated as more than a thing. I did like the forward in the beginning, from Malcolm X, I believe, who wrote in that though Douglass would likely always be remembered for this and for anti-slavery efforts, his efforts in increasing literacy and speaking out for the rights of women.
9. The Sari Shop by Rupi Bajwa - I liked it a lot, though the novel ended on a melancholy note. It's about a man who grew up in a loving family that valued learning, until his parents died and he was sent to live with relatives who stole his inheritance and kicked him out after he finished school. He makes friends with the men who live in the sari shop he works at, including one who continually complains about his wife. We learn about the wife's hideous life with her husband, eventually learning to drink her problems away. As the young man decides that he's going to better himself by learning everything he possibly can, learning languages and furthering his knowledge of the world, that search for knowledge brings him to the point where he finds his coworker's wife's suffering - and can't ignore it. Good story.
July
1. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford - Read, read, read! Truly, this was an awesome narrative about a group of women that don't get a great deal of press, historically. And the final chapters about the epic life of Queen Manduhai the Wise? How is this historical figure not swimming in historical novels? Married as a very young teen to a Mongol king, she bears two daughters and succeeds to lead the Mongols when her husband dies. She then rescues Batmonkh, who has a story of his own, and adopts him at the age of five or so, placing him in hiding, then bringing him into her own yurt when his caretakers prove incompetent. She goes to war against the Western Mongols, defeats them, then marries the young Batmonkh (who she's raised as a child) and rules with him jointly over a great deal of Asia. The two of them were the reason the Ming Empire decided it would be a very good idea to speed up construction of the Great Wall as soon as humanly possible. Awesome and epic book.
2. North By Northwestern: A Seafaring Family on Deadly Alaskan Waters by Captain Sig Hansen and Mark Sundeen - Very good, though obviously you're going to probably enjoy it more if you're already a fan of Sig's on Deadliest Catch. I do like the exploration of his knockabout childhood in the ethnic Norwegian neighborhoods in Seattle, and in how his family learned to adjust with the times. Well done, Cap'n.
3. Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine by Ray Watman - An interesting exploration of the moonshining business. The author seems to refuse to look at this in any other way but romanticizing the stills hidden in the woods and decrying the sentences given to those caught, but kind of casually brushes past some of the creepy urban stills which are, quite literally, poisonous, violent, and thought to be the cause behind a lot of unexplained urban deaths...still a good read.
4. My Lady Suffolk: A Portrait of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, by Evelyn Reed - Reed has a problem with making the subjects of her biographies fairly boring, but Willoughby's life was fairly epic, and it remains to be seen (to me, at least) why she isn't the star of several Tudor-era historical novels (The Sixth Wife being the obvious exception). Meh.
5. Kilroy Was Here: The Best American Humor from WWII, edited by Charles Osgood - A moving little book about the bits of life that keep us going in the toughest of times - plus, some of those songs are just dirty and hysterical.
6. Marie Therese: Child of Terror, by Susan Nagel - Well-done exploration of Marie Therese's life, one that gives her a human personality beyond the spoiled brat or terrified child of other biographies and novels. Best part? It doesn't stop with her getting free from prison - because there's life after that.
7. The Importance of Being Kennedy by Laurel Graham - I liked her take on the British royalty in "Gone With the Windsors," but this book just felt a little tired to me. Not bad, just not what I'd call her best work.
8. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass - I'd only read passages from it before, but this autobiography is brutal, in this man retelling his life and his continual efforts to be treated as more than a thing. I did like the forward in the beginning, from Malcolm X, I believe, who wrote in that though Douglass would likely always be remembered for this and for anti-slavery efforts, his efforts in increasing literacy and speaking out for the rights of women.
9. The Sari Shop by Rupi Bajwa - I liked it a lot, though the novel ended on a melancholy note. It's about a man who grew up in a loving family that valued learning, until his parents died and he was sent to live with relatives who stole his inheritance and kicked him out after he finished school. He makes friends with the men who live in the sari shop he works at, including one who continually complains about his wife. We learn about the wife's hideous life with her husband, eventually learning to drink her problems away. As the young man decides that he's going to better himself by learning everything he possibly can, learning languages and furthering his knowledge of the world, that search for knowledge brings him to the point where he finds his coworker's wife's suffering - and can't ignore it. Good story.