Review 287: Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year

Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year by Henry David Thoreau
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Started reading February 04.  

Had to catch up to the days in the beginning, but by end of month was on track.

Daily entries by calendar date. I read each to match the day, more or less, and starting late. I expected a couple of the entries to mark the holiday, such as Christmas or even Independence day, but that wasn't the case. Some entries seemed like an odd choice.

I picked this up in October 2008. I enjoyed the way I read the book but would not have expected it would take me to 2021 until actually reading it through. I had a great year with reading it.

Overall an enjoyable experience to have throughout the year. I have a journal of his that I'd like to do the same, just read each day's entry as the year goes by. Decided not to do that for 2022, but maybe for 2023.

Review 286: The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr: A Riveting Untold Story of the American Revolution by Susan Holloway Scott
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars



I would not call it "Riveting" 

500 pages – longish book

Read somewhat quickly, from Dec.19 to 26.

Had time off work, so that helped.

roughly years: 1768-1829 

It was a very detailed account of a slave, that came from India, sold by her uncle for a pittance to a French lady to serve as a pet when she was around 8 years old. Briefly at a plantation in the Caribbean Islands she luckily was sold to a British officer who gave her to his wife where they lived in New Jersey. Mistress was a "good" master and here is the bulk of the book, with the American Revolution years. Aaron Burr does come into the book, later than one would expect.

The author notes how factual she tried to remain to history, with lots of fiction with our main character, except she did exist at least to the extent of giving Burr two children.

Review 285: Sea State: A Memoir

Sea State: A Memoir by Tabitha Lasley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Focus was on how she wrote this book, not the labors of the men in the North Sea. Yes, it says memoir but the premise was about the men working, instead we get relationships.

It does say memoir but the book blub talked about men who work in the North Sea on oil rigs. I expected more about the work, their labors. Instead we have a book about the author and her relationships, how she made the book, the interviews and such. She had a previous book but her flat was broken into, laptop stolen and no back-up. Starting over she ditched that boyfriend and moved to Scotland. (hmm...two books in a row See: The Sunlight Pilgrims). She ends up with a new boyfriend, although he's married and one of the first lads she interviews. There are bits of literary references thrown in to add flavor, I guess. Book didn't do it for me.

Review 284: The Sunlight Pilgrims

The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not a fan of the ending.

It's the near future, although in the book that makes it 2020. A cold freeze is happening all over the world. Dylan recently lost his family of mother and grandmother and the only home he knew a tiny art film house in London. He goes north to Scotland to find this tiny trailer his mother bought. The main character turns out to be this teen girl Stella, who transitioned from a boy last year. It's a small town, all her previous friends beat her up one day, except one, who actually kissed her not long ago. Yet he seems conflicted. Stella's mother and a couple other characters fill up the book, and the cold. It's hard to believe they are surviving at these extreme cold temperatures. The writing is lovely, but there are gaps. And I really didn't like the ending.

Review 283: Scientist: E. O. Wilson

Scientist: E. O. Wilson: A Life in Nature by Richard Rhodes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dec.29.2021 Edit: Sad to hear just a couple weeks after reading this biography that Edward O. Wilson passed away. He definitely had a well lived life, and changed our understanding on ants and more.

This is a good introduction to Edward O. Wilson’s work. Wilson was a highly productive, intelligent scientist whose initial focus was on the ant world. Later he expanded into other species, ecology and humans. When he wrote a textbook on sociobiology things got controversial. People started protesting him and his work, lecturing and attending conferences became difficult due to the protests and anger people directed at him.

The book covers some of his personal life, particularly growing up and a bit about his wife. Shortly after being engaged Wilson had an opportunity of exploration that he couldn’t pass up, so they parted and wrote each other letters, which many of the early chapters drew on.

There is too much in this man’s life to cover in detail at all phases, that would require a very long book, if not volumes. Wilson himself has written over 30 books, many bestsellers and several textbooks, and hundreds of scientific papers. This book feels like just the beginning of covering Wilson’s life. There is so much more to explore.

Thanks to DoubleDay Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 282: The Great Scot

The Great Scot: A Novel of Robert the Bruce, Scotland's Legendary Warrior King by Duncan A. Bruce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Historical novel written by a descendant of King Robert Bruce’s brother Sir Edward Bruce. It tells of the battles and important moments by a page, turned soldier, who was close to the King. This is the story of how Scotland became free, for a wee time.

The writing style is simple, although there are untranslated words, sentences in several languages such as Gaelic, Scots and French, perhaps a bit of Latin thrown in. At times there was too much summary, too cursory. The book is attempting to be accurate, and with lack of information from the 1300’s much has to be invented or glossed over. Yet some moments are fairly details, which makes the book a little uneven. Character development is flat as well. What you get instead is moments of battle and a lot of marching all around Scotland. Places are named, not described. There is a little more description when the narrator goes to France on a diplomatic mission.

Despite all the flaws, I still enjoyed the book.

Reminiscent of the book: In Freedom's Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce. Covering 1293-1315.

Review 281: Appleseed

Appleseed by Matt Bell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is quite the tale, expansive and allegorical, incorporating ancient myths, fables and American folklore. The story is told in three timelines, three main viewpoints. One is the near future, one is of the past when America was being colonized, and the other is the far future. Every timeline deals with the world coming to an end, or vastly changed from what it currently is into something new and different.

In the past, as settlers conquer the wild, Chapman and his brother Nathaniel travel around planting apple tress for their future. Chapman is a faun, half-man, half-animal. Faun and apples are echoed through each story line.

In the far future a lonely C, a regenerated synthetic, reborn when the current body is too damaged and needs to be renewed. The current form C-433 looks mostly like a faun as well. This newest version stopped the exploring, instead found old books and is trying something different.

Then we have our near future, where the corporation Earth Trust is taking over while attempting to save the what is possible with the climate and species collapsing. People join as volunteers giving up everything, even their citizenship in exchange for shelter and food. This timeline is easier to connect to, closer to our current world and yet a bit fantastical as well. John is this focus here, he helped start Earth Trust, with Eury the head of the corporation, yet now thinks she’s gone too far. He has a plan to stop her.

This is a bit like fantasy and science fiction mixed with fables and ancient myths, perhaps some magic thrown in. The book has almost a feel of a trilogy contained within this one book.

Thanks to HarperCollins/ Custom House and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 280: That Summer

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I went into this book thinking it was an easy beach read, but instead found it tackles an important issue as part of the #MeToo movement.

There are two main women characters: Daisy, a married mom with a teenage girl living nearly the typical housewife life; and Diane who was raped as a teenager which affected her life dramatically. Diane’s story is about coming to terms with this. Daisy’s teenage girl, Beatrice had a voice as well, but not much and I felt was lacking in development, it needed more space, or none at all. I also felt like Daisy’s husband Hal needed more character development, as he was more of a caricature in this story, one-sided. Near the end we get a chapter for him, but it would have been a stronger book if his view was expanded. Or was the intention to portray him as this caricature? Which makes me thing of Daisy’s brother, I found his role not fully believable. I don’t want to get into details for spoiler reasons, but this character didn’t ring true to me.

The storyline was not linear and was extremely confusing, as there was back and forth in time, but not presented clearly. So, what I thought was happening simultaneously was not at all.

There was subterfuge on Diane’s part, which was never fully explained why. At first, I thought she was a con-person, or out to blackmail. Why this a major part of the story was, and still is, baffling.

Despite these faults the story I kept reading to find out how it would resolve and honestly, it wasn’t all that satisfying. The book felt like a good draft, but needed work, like the writing was rushed or something hurriedly done with.

I listened to the published audiobook. The narration was decent and kept me going.

Review 279: Obsessive Genius

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this biography, having very little knowledge of Marie Curie this book satisfied understanding some of her life. Born in 1867 as Marya Sklodowski she grew up in an occupied Poland. Her father was a scientist and teacher, but unable to practice due to the political situation, yet he strove to give the highest education possible to all his children, even the girls such as Marie. Without this foundation she never would have succeeded to becoming the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize, let alone twice.

Unfortunately, the death of her mother and older sister, within two weeks of each other, brought about a depressive state that would recur in Marie’s life particularly when faced with loss. Despite her emotional illness, and the prejudices against women, Curie was able to persevere and focus on her scientific work in radiology.

It isn't a long book and with all that she accomplished certainly much more can be written about her. The scientific details are thin, enough to understand the significance but without going into details that only scientists can truly grasp. If someone wants in depth science that Curie accomplished, this is not that book. For the basics of a biography, this was a good book.