I have read a number of truly outstanding books this summer (see A Gentleman in Moscow, Call the Nurse, Tai-Pan, and Lost City of the Monkey God for just a few of the highlights). I've also started and abandoned a number of clunkers, which I'll cover here very briefly:
American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles
Sickles was the first person to successfully use temporary insanity as a defense against committing murder after he murdered his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key). As portrayed by Thomas Keneally, Sickles was also a spendthrift, womanizer, swindler, Tammany Hall politician, and general scumbag. I gave up on this one both because I could hardly stomach Sickles and because I felt the book, though excellently written, was too much in the weeds. (I also recognize that those issues go hand-in-hand and if I hadn't been so thoroughly put off by Sickles's person, I might have found the additional detail interesting rather than repulsive.)
Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution
I picked up Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill because I was interested in deepening my knowledge about the American Revolution, about which I've read significantly less than the Civil War of either of the World Wars. Honestly, it was just too dense for my level of interest and I found I just wasn't that interested in every actor and every scene leading up to the break with Britain. Like American Scoundrel, I have no complaints about the book or writing per se, and think a reader with a strong interest in the topic would find this a worthy read. I've simply decided life is too short, and my reading list too long, to continue slogging away at those that don't fully capture my attention.
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
Leslie T. Chang's Factory Girls has been on my reading list for ages and I finally tackled it this summer after a few days in Vietnam left me looking for hard facts and data on the phases of globalization and transition from villages (or in some cases, "villages") to cities. Unfortunately, I would categorize Chang's work as a bit more anthropological in nature, and while she unquestionably creates a dynamic and accurate portrayal of migrant life in China (circa early 2000s), there is far, far less (virtually nothing in the 170 pages I read) about the larger causes, both in China and elsewhere, that lead young people, especially, to leave their native villages for a chance in big, and often anonymous and frightening, cities. Chang also commits one of my pet peeves and inserts herself and her family story into her work, with little to no payoff. It's not that her personal history is uninteresting; it's just not why I was reading the book, and it was a distraction. In any case, for those looking to put a personal face on the migrant experience in China, Chang provides that. For those looking for another lens through which to understand globalization, I'd argue not so much.
Dirigible Dreams: The Age of the Airship
Dirigible Dreams opens with great promise and potential, as C. Michael Hiam provides a riveting survivor's account of traveling aboard the ill-fated Hindenburg. Unfortunately, that is simply the prelude to the highly-detailed history of the birth of airships, which emerged as the brain child of German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early twentieth century. From there Hiam traces the innovations that Germans, British, and Americans made, particularly for military use. I'm not sure whether he got back around to the Hindenburg or not - I lost interest about two-thirds of the way through in the midst of numerous disasters and crashes, but without the most famous of the doomed airships in sight.
Summer, in a nutshell.
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