"The Swamp Fox, Francis Marion" by Noel Gerson

I am pretty sure that The Swamp Fox, Francis Marion was on my to-be-read shelves longer than any other book I currently own.  I believe I bought it back when we lived in Wisconsin.  We left Wisconsin in December of 2007.  That means I have packed up and moved this book three times.  

Well, I'm glad I hung onto it for nearly twenty years, rather than getting rid of it along the way, because I quite enjoyed this book!  Even though it was not quite what I was expecting.

I thought this book was going to be a non-fiction account of Francis Marion's guerrilla warfare against the British soldiers during the American Revolution.  Instead, it's written like fiction, and starts off in 1752, when Marion is a very young man!  It traces his on-again, off-again romance with the beautiful Esther Videau over several decades, while also showing how a young South Carolina plantation owner could become the kind of man who would basically invent guerilla warfare.

I did a scanty bit of research after finishing the book and found that a lot of what this book includes was true -- particularly that he really didn't get married until he was in his 50s, after the war had ended.  Since it's written in a fictionalized style, I didn't expect it to adhere strictly to facts, but it looks like the biggest thing they invented was saying that Marion only employed freedmen on his plantation.  In reality, he was a slaveowner like the vast majority of South Carolina plantation owners; this was published in 1967, during the tail end of the Civil Rights Era, so I'm guessing that may have played some part in that particular aspect.

Overall, this was a fun book, but I was disappointed that only a few chapters dealt with his Revolutionary War exploits, since I was expecting the whole book to be about that.  I'm glad I've finally read it, though!  And this marks my fourth book read for my #RevolutionaryWarReads challenge!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for descriptions of warfare and death.  It's pretty tame and generalized.  There's a bit of mild cussing here and there, too.  No smut or overt gore.

"Daniel Boone's Own Story" by Daniel Boone and "The Adventures of Daniel Boone" by Frances Lister Hawkes

How weird that these two short books have never crossed my path before this!  Especially considering what a big fan of Daniel Boone I have been since I was in single digits.  I've read so many junior biographies about him, so many articles... but never his own short account of how he helped open Kentucky for settlement?  Not sure how it escaped me before now.

Well, Daniel Boone's Own Story is the bold adventurer's own recounting of how and when and why he explored Kentucky with his brother and a few friends, how he returned to lead surveyors there, and why he brought his own family with a larger group to settle there.  This all happened before and during the American Revolution, but had little to do with the Revolution except to mention Lord Dunmore a couple of times (he who was Royal Governor of Virginia until the Revolution began) and to talk about refusing to surrender to British authority even as a possible escape from being held captive by a hostile tribe.  

I loved how Daniel Boone expresses himself in this.  He's straight-forward, modest, thoughtful, a little funny here and there, and can turn a pretty phrase.  And he repeatedly credits God with blessing his efforts, helping him and others out of difficulties, and making the beautiful wilderness land that Boone so cherished.

The Adventures of Daniel Boone by Francis Lister Hawks obviously draws on Boone's book, but fleshes the narrative out more.  It talks about Boone's life before and after the opening of Kentucky, which is nice.  I didn't learn much new from it that I hadn't read in other books, but I enjoyed the refresher anyway.  Hawks has a high-flown, old-fashioned writing style that makes Boone seem doubly plainspoken and uncomplicated by comparison.  But I didn't dislike the book just because his prose got a little purple here and there.  

Particularly Good Bits:

So much does friendship triumph over misfortune that sorrows and sufferings vanish at the meeting not only of real friends, but of the most distant acquaintances, and substitute happiness in their room (p. 4, Daniel Boone's Own Story)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of torture, some of which would be very disturbing for people with vivid imaginations.

Since these are so short, I am counting them together as my 50th book read for my 4th Classics Club list.  Which means I have finished my list!  Again!  Since January of 2014, I have read and reviewed 200 classic books :-D

(Actually, I've read more classics than that in those ten years, because I only count a book once for the Classics Club, and if I read it again after that, it doesn't count for my lists.)

I'll be making a fifth list soon!  Stay tuned for that...

"The Legend of Bass Reeves" by Gary Paulsen

Funny thing: I thought I had read this book before.  I assigned it to one of my homeschool co-op classes to read for this month, remembering it as an exciting recounting of Bass Reeves's adventures as a U. S. Marshal in the Old West.  I started reading it this week to have it fresh in my mind for our discussion next week... and discovered I had actually only read the last 50 pages or so before.  About half of the book is actually about Bass growing up in slavery in Texas.  Then it explores why he ran off to Indian Territory as a young man, and how he found friendship and belonging there among the Creek tribe.  Only the last third is about his career as a lawman.

The book is fictional in that Paulsen writes about Bass's life as if he was writing a novel, with all kinds of situations and dialog that are supplied by the author.  Historians really know very little about Bass Reeves's early life growing up in Texas, so a lot of that is filled in based on typical conditions and experiences of that time and place.  The subtitle of the book is Being the True and Fictional Account of the Most Valiant Marshal in the West, which gives you an idea of how this is a blend of real and imaginary things.

It's actually a deeper, richer book than I remembered... but also a bit sterner stuff than I would ordinarily have assigned to my 3rd-thru-5th-grade class.  I don't know if the reading level is above them, but there's some content here that I might have shied away from for them, such as a handful of bad words, mentions of torture and massacre (very lightly described, but could be really hard for very sheltered or sensitive kids to read about), and a pretty serious look at life as a slave.  (There's also a whole introduction that I would just advise most kids skip, to be honest.)  It does address the kinds of racism that Bass faced, and did an okay job pointing out that black, white, and native peoples all had different prejudices that worked against their getting along together.  It felt a little heavy-handed with that once or twice, but overall I think it was a really fair and sensible depiction of the era.

Anyway... class time next week could be interesting!  Happily, most of the kids in that class are into books like Goosebumps, so I don't think they'll find it scary.  And none of them are what I would consider quite sheltered.  We shall see how it goes!  I do know one of the nine-year-olds was about half done with it when I bumped into him earlier this week, and when I asked him what he thought of it, he said it was really interesting and not hard to read.  SO... it will probably be fine.  But I have definitely learned my lesson about relying on my memory about books I haven't read/reread within the last few years!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for the aforementioned scattering of bad language, as well as non-detailed descriptions of torture and massacre (naked dead bodies and scalpings are mentioned, along with vague description of mutilation, such as referring to "people being cut up").  The word 'rape' is used once in the book, but not defined, and the word 'prostitute' is used in the introduction, but not defined. 

Because it turns out I actually hadn't read most of this book before, I am counting it as my first read for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge this year.

"Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love" by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack Jr., illustrated by Randy DuBurke

What a fun and engaging way to present the life of "Deadwood Dick," also known as Nat Love, one of the Old West's premiere cowboys!  This fast-paced graphic novel presents Nat Love's life and adventures in a way that mixes the flavor of tall tales with a healthy dollop of facts.  It's written as if an aging Nat Love is writing down his experiences for a newspaperman, which is a fun way to frame the stories, especially since they are all taken from Love's autobiography.

Is this a 100% factual biography?  Nope, and it doesn't pretend to be.  The authors acknowledge that, while historians are pretty sure Love embellished some of his adventures, there are quite a few that have been verified by outside sources.  Instead of trying to sort the totally true from the exaggerated, they simply picked a nice collection that showcase the diversity of Love's adventures.

Nat Love was born into slavery in Tennessee in 1854.  He left home in his mid-teens and went west, working as a cowboy for twenty years and gaining fame for his prowess as a horse-breaker and bronc rider, as well as his skill with a rope and gun.  If you want to learn more about him, I wrote an article about Love for the Prairie Times a few years ago, which you can read online here.  Or you can find a copy of this graphic novel and read that!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a little rough language and some mild mentions of violence.

"Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves" by Art T. Burton

This book has been on my wishlist for a while now.  When I spotted the updated new edition at the Hole in the Wall Bookstore at Wall Drug in South Dakota while on vacation earlier this month, I snapped it up.  What better time to read about a great Old West hero than while driving around the West?

Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Arkansas in the summer of 1838.  He became one of the most-respected and feared Deputy U. S. Marshals in American history.  While enforcing the law under the jurisdiction of Judge Isaac Parker in the Indian Territory, Marshal Reeves served more than three thousand arrest warrants, but rarely resorted to gun violence.  He killed an estimated 14 people during more than thirty years as a peace officer, survived numerous assassination attempts, and was only wounded once at the most.  

This book is a meticulously researched deep-dive into Reeves's life, especially focusing on his career as a lawman.  It includes many, many court records, letters, telegrams, and even interviews with a few people who had met him.  It could have become a dry recitation of facts, but Burton fleshes out the litany of arrests with descriptions of Indian Territory and newspaper articles, as well as recollections of people involved when available.

One of the things I found most interesting was how the nature of keeping the peace on the frontier changed during Reeves's career.  When he first started enforcing the law, Indian Territory was a haven for lawbreakers and bad people of every sort.  Reeves arrested murderers, peddlers of illegal alcohol, and thieves of every sort for decades.  But, as the frontier gradually was settled by more and more farmers and tradesmen, and eventually was turned into actual states, he had fewer violent criminals to track down, and more disturbers of the peace, swindlers, and so on.

It was also interesting that there was such a focus on arresting people for "introducing and selling" alcohol in Indian Territory in the wildest years.  From what I could gather, the Marshals had an approach somewhat similar to the way New York City cut down on crime for several decades -- if we can stop people from committing "small" crimes and convince them that even "minor" crimes don't pay, that will cut down on the "big" crimes too.

Also very interesting was how racial relations changed during his career.  When he was one of a handful of men brave enough to ride into Indian Territory after lawbreakers, the color of Bass Reeves's skin was rarely an issue.  Black and white Marshals worked together with American Indian peace officers, and everyone arrested anyone who broke the law, regardless of race.  But, as the area became more "civilized," there were more and more instances of white people taking offense at his authority.  Black lawbreakers also seemed to submit to his authority more readily than to a white Marshal's, at least in the instances described.  

I found this especially interesting because it agrees with other research I have done into Old West history, which points to the idea that, when survival was everyone's primary concern, racial conflict was more rare.  But whenever people got comfortable with their surroundings and started to feel safe about life-and-death issues like water, food, shelter, and "public safety," then racial conflicts increased.  Certainly bigotry and hatred of people with perceived differences have existed since Cain killed Abel and fled, marked as "other."  And, also, there was a lot of racial hatred from both sides involved in the wars between the American Indians and the white settlers.  But it's really fascinating how people were more willing to peacefully live and work with someone who was somehow "other" when they were all trying to survive.

ANYWAY!

Even if you've never heard of Bass Reeves before, you have probably heard of a fictional character that was most likely based on him.  Historians think that when George W. Trendle and Fran Striker created The Lone Ranger radio show in 1933, they took inspiration from Marshal Reeves's dedication to bringing in suspects alive as often as he could, his habit of teaming up with American Indians when pursuing lawbreakers, and the way that good and bad people alike feared him, as well as his tendency to use disguises.

I wrote a column about Bass Reeves for the Prairie Times last fall, which you can read online here if you want to know a bit more about his life and legacy.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for matter-of-fact and non-sensational mention of murder, rape, and other violent acts.  You will definitely come away from this book convinced of the depravity of humankind, but it is not gross or gruesome.

This is my 35th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023 (though it technically never made it to my TBR shelves because I bought and read it while on vacation).

"Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families" by Andrew Billingsley

Wow.

That's what I always say when I read about Robert Smalls.  Or think about him.  Or talk about him.  Wow.  What an amazing human being.

Born into slavery in Beaufort, SC, Robert Smalls grew up privileged by slavery standards, oppressed by free ones.  He was a "house slave" as a child, then allowed to hire out as a young man to learn carpentry and shipbuilding, eventually becoming a skilled pilot for boats and even ships in the Charleston waterways.  He and his mother were "kindly" treated by their masters and mistresses... and yet, they were still slaves.  Just because they weren't beaten or sold away from each other, that didn't mean they weren't conscious every minute of the wrongness of their slavery.

And that is why, when the Civil War broke out and the Union Navy blockaded Charleston Harbor, Robert Smalls concocted a daring plan.  He and some fellow slaves commandeered the Planter, a fast steamship that Smalls worked aboard.  They sneaked their families aboard and boldly steamed right past all the Confederate defenses, including multiple forts, and reached the Union blockade and freedom unharmed.  

That's what Robert Smalls is most remembered for today, and I read all abut that in the book Be Free or Die by Cate Lineberry a couple years ago.  So why did I also read Yearning to Breathe Free?  Because I wanted to know more!  Because I knew that Robert Smalls's remarkable life didn't end with him snatching his family away from slavery, an I wanted to know more.

And, thanks to this book, now I do!  I know things like the fact that Robert Smalls conversed and corresponded with Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass.  He met with President Lincoln.  He led naval forces against the Confederates and rose quickly up the military ranks.  He was instrumental in convincing the government that they needed to enlist freedmen in their army.  After the war, he became active in local, state, and national politics and served several terms in Congress.

He also was an involved and loving husband, father, stepfather, and grandfather.  He was active in his local church.  And he was a successful businessman.  Not only that, but he was a kind and forgiving Christian who actually took in and cared for his former owner when she was an elderly woman living on charity.  Can there be any question why I would find Robert Smalls to be such an amazing and heroic person?  If you created a fictional character with all these qualities who went on all these exploits, readers would call them unrealistic.  No way could one person be that cool and do that many astonishing things.  And yet, Robert Smalls really was and really did.

Andrew Billingsley is a professor of sociology and African American studies, and his book definitely leans toward the sociological.  He explores the importance of family and community in the life of Robert Smalls, which I found really interesting because I do enjoy studying sociology.  Some people might find those parts of this book to be dry, but I did not.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for non-detailed discussions of life under slavery, which do include things like whippings, beatings, children born out of wedlock, and lynchings.  These are presented fairly academically, but might be too much for children.

This is my third book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.

"Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend" by Robert K. DeArment

My best friend gave me this book because she loved it and wanted me to read it too.  And, happily, I loved it too!  I read it as research for my November column in the Prairie Times, which focuses on Bat Masterson (you can read my article here on page 6).  I enjoyed this biography so much that now I want to read DeArment's follow-up book, Gunfighter in Gotham, which delves into Masterson's decades in NYC with more depth than is provided here.

This book focuses mostly on Masterson's exploits in the Old West, beginning with his teen years as a buffalo hunter and exploring his various lawman jobs and gambling pursuits in a very thorough way.  It does devote a couple of chapters to his years as a sportswriter and columnist, too.

I was not expecting this, but I began to feel a lot of kinship to Bat Masterson as I read this biography.  A lot of his characteristics felt very familiar, like intense loyalty, a desire to study a situation thoroughly, but a willingness to act quickly if needed, and a great need to defend actions and decisions.  Just so many little places where I thought, "Yeah, I do that too."  Now, I don't enjoy gambling or prizefights, and I've never fired a gun at a person, but in small personality things, yeah, I found a lot of similarities.

DeArment has a clear and enjoyable writing style, and I've got a lot of his books on my TBR list now, thanks to this one.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for not mincing words about subjects like gunfights, wounds, and prostitution.

This has been my 43rd book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.

"A Man Called Peter" by Catherine Marshall

This is a loving tribute of a biography.  Catherine Marshall, famous to us today for her novel Christy, wrote the story of her husband Peter Marshall's life after he passed away, publishing it two years after he died.  It traces his growth from a Scottish boy working in a factory to his calling to become a minister in America, on through his schooling here in the US and his career as a minister that eventually led to his being the chaplain for the U.S. Senate.  

I think both Marshalls had beautiful faith, and I think I would have liked them both as people.  I really enjoyed this biography, though I'm not sure I would read it a second time.  But I'm eager to see the movie version now that I've read it, as it stars Richard Todd, an actor I'm quite fond of.  In fact, I read much of Peter Marshall's dialog in Todd's voice in my head because Todd has a delightful Scottish accent, which Marshall reportedly had also.

I must confess that I did not read the sermons and prayers included at the end of this book.  As is to be expected, since I am a Lutheran and they were Presbyterians, I did not agree with some of the theology presented in the bulk of the biography, and did not feel like wading through sermons and prayers I would undoubtedly spend a lot of time disagreeing with.

Particularly Good Bits:

"But it's no sin to be tempted," Peter loved to say.  "It isn't the fact of having temptations that should cause us shame, but what we do with them.  Temptation is an opportunity to conquer" (p. 49).

Dreams carried around in one's heart for years, if they are dreams that have God's approval, have a way suddenly of materializing (p. 68).

"Lord, where we are wrong, make us willing to change, and where we are right, make us easy to live with" (p. 139).

Peter was exceedingly realistic and consistently Christian in his attitude toward death.  In his mind, the soul and the body were two completely separate things.  "You and I are souls," he reiterated frequently, "living in bodies" (p. 231).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Clean and lovely.

This is my sixth book read and reviewed for my third Classics Club list, and also my 39th for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway" by David Rigby

This was a very cool book, especially since I love the new Midway (2019) movie so much.  This book really helped round out Wade McClusky as portrayed by Luke Evans in the movie and let me understand even better the pivotal part he played in winning the Battle of Midway during WWII.

Although the book title would suggest that this focuses solely on his role in that particular battle, it's actually a full biography of McClusky, going from his boyhood through his early naval career, and continuing on past the war into his retirement and eventual death.  But the bulk of the book does involve that particular battle and all the factors that went into how it played out.

My one quibble with this book is that it got a little repetitive with its insistence that McClusky has been misrepresented and even somewhat slandered in other accounts of the Battle of Midway.  I understand that Rigby was trying to set the record straight and show how heroic and pivotal McClusky's role in that battle was, and I agree it's important that it be understood aright.  But I feel like he belabored the wrongness of other historians and authors more than was necessary, rather than letting the truth speak for him.  There came a point when I would skim any paragraphs that dealt with pointing out the flaws in other accounts of the battle or reports of McClusky's behavior in it because it was kind of the same thing again and again after a while.  It started to feel more like a defense attorney was writing this, or a religious apologetics professor, rather than a historian and biographer.  

But I enjoyed this book overall, and I learned a great deal about Midway and the US Navy's aviation program and presence in WWII as a whole, which was really cool.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some war-related accounts of violence and danger.  No cussing that I can recall.

Luke Evans really doesn't look anything like the real Wade McClusky, but he did such a marvelous job of portraying his quiet, calm, detail-oriented, attentive, steady leadership.  Though I suppose I might be biased, being an Evans fan already.  If it hadn't been for him talking about this movie on his social media accounts, though, I might never have gone to see the movie at all, which would have been a tragedy!  Because it has become one of my absolute favorite movies ever!

This is my 13th book read for #TheUnreadshelfProject2020.

"Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero" by Cate Lineberry

I first learned about Robert Smalls on Facebook, of all crazy places.  I can't believe I knew nothing about him!  Especially since he was quite famous during the Civil War.  Hmm.

Born a slave in South Carolina, Robert Smalls was working on a paddle-wheel steamer in Charleston harbor when he hatched a daring plan of escape.  He and the other crewmembers, also slaves, smuggled family members and friends aboard the steamer one night and chugged boldly past multiple Confederate forts. Smalls impersonated the white captain, fooling all they met thanks to a borrowed hat and the dim light of early morning.  They made it to the Union blockade ships and delivered not only the steamer into the US Navy's hands, but also a cargo of valuable weaponry.  And, most important to them, they had reached freedom.  Smalls and his wife and their young children forged new lives for themselves, and Smalls went on to meet President Lincoln, pilot boats for the Navy, and eventually buy the plantation home where he was born a slave.  After the war, he eventually became a US Senator!

This is a very readable biography of Smalls' life, mostly focused on the Civil War years.  It does delve into his childhood and adult life before his heroic escape from slavery, but it doesn't spend a lot of time on his life after the war.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of slavery and mention of things like rape, killing, and torture.  Not super-detailed or descriptive, but still not something I'd like child or tween read.

"She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman" by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

After seeing the movie Harriet (2019) in the theater last month, I decided I needed to know more about Harriet Tubman.  I re-read Freedom Train right away, then wanted a more adult nonfiction account of her life, so I found a couple different ones at the library and put holds on them.  This is the first one that came in.

This was a really fast, engaging read.  I actually wanted it to slow down a few times, and I'm glad I've got another biography of her from the library to try as well (if I can only snatch the time before it's due).  This is definitely a step up from the junior-nonfiction bio Freedom Train, but kind of aimed at teens/young adults, I think.  It has a lot of infographics and illustrations by Monica Ahanonu, which are neat, but make it feel... not quite serious, if that makes sense.

Still, I did learn a lot from this book, both about Harriet Tubman and the world she inhabited.  If you're looking for one book to learn about her life, this is a good one to pick, I think.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for mentions of sexual activity and violence.

"The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart" by Susanne K. George

So, y'all already know that I dearly love Elinore Pruitt Stewart's two collections of letters, Letters of a Woman Homesteader and Letters on an Elk Hunt.  They're flavorful and fascinating and fun.  And the fact that they're mostly based in fact is just sooooooo cool to me.

Well, this is a combination biography of Stewart and a collection of MORE of her letters.  It shows just how much care she put into crafting her writings, more than I'd realized, but also highlights her brave pioneer spirit.  Yes, she consciously wrote many of her letters specifically to reach a wider audience than just the person the letter is addressed to.  Yes, she mixed fiction with facts when recounting some things.  Yes, I like her and her writing even more after learning more about her real self.

I've read a few negative reviews of Stewart's books that seemed like those people felt somehow cheated or deceived by her writing because she did write things specifically for publication.  As if her letters were no longer as true, or that they couldn't trust her.  I don't see her writing that way at all.  I now view her letters as almost like blog posts.  I write my blog intending for many people to read it.  When I recount real-life events like going to a live show, I'm not making up that I went to the show.  But I'm consciously crafting my words.  I'm adopting a bit of a persona -- I might not use the same words and descriptions when telling the story in a private letter to a close friend as I will when writing it up for my blog.  I'm writing as Hamlette, just as she was writing as the Woman Homesteader.  I think her readers in the day understood that, just as you, my blogging friends, understand that.  

Anyway.  Stewart had an amazing, adventurous life.  She chose to share that lifestyle with others through letters both public and private, and the fact that we can read those letters today fills me with joy.

Particularly Good Bits:

To get away from every one is a blessing to be eagerly seized some times and I was deeply enjoying cave man freedom (p. 154).

I must warn you, though, that I cannot be a lady.  I'm just me.  I cannot put on airs (p. 164).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for descriptions of illnesses, accidents, mild violence, and general hardships.

This is my tenth book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge!

"The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne" by Catherine Reef

I've wanted to know more about the real lives of the Brontës ever since I read Becoming Jane Eyre a few years ago.  I wanted something less sensationalized, more truthful, and that's exactly what The Brontë Sisters gave me.  I found this in the junior non-fiction section at my library, and I think it would be suitable for kids 12 and up, but not for younger readers.  It does discuss things like alcohol abuse and opium addiction, and it touches (non-graphically) on some more mature subjects that the sisters discussed in their books which shocked some readers of their day.

If you want to know more about these three remarkable authors, this is definitely a good place to start.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: a high PG.  No bad language, but the subject matter is not always appropriate for (or interesting to) children.

"A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War" by Joseph Laconte

Oh. My. Goodness.

You know how sometimes, lots of people tell you to read a book because they're sure you would love it, and so you find the book, and then you put off reading it for like a year because you're afraid you might not like it as much as they expect you to like it?

Or is that just me?

Anyway, that happened for me with this book, and it just goes to show you how foolish I can be sometimes.  Because this is a great book.

I've been gravitating toward books about WWI lately, I think.  Not intentionally, they just... keep cropping up.  I'm happy about this because I feel like I don't know enough about WWI, and this is all filling in a gap in my knowledge of world history.

ANYWAY!  I'm rambling today.  Sorry.  THIS book is fantastic.  It focuses chiefly on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, as you may have guessed, especially their experiences as soldiers on the front lines during WWI and how those affected the rest of their lives.  Especially their literary lives, of course, since that's what most of us know Tolkien and Lewis for.  

But it doesn't stop with those two.  It shows, gently and persuasively, how the catastrophic destruction of that war caused millions of people to turn away from God and look to science and technology for their salvation here on earth.  And how that change in the world around them informed the things Tolkien and Lewis wrote about.

I learned so much from this book!  In fact, I told my husband he needs to read it too.  I'm confident he'll also find it fascinating.

(From my Instagram account.)

Particularly Good Bits:

Tolkien and Lewis were attracted to the genres of myth and romance not because they sought to escape the world, but because for them, the real world had a mythic and heroic quality (p. xvi).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for discussions of war-related violence, suicide, and so on.  No cursing or anything like that, just a lot about the realities and horrors of war.

This is my 13th book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018.

And this review is also part of my Tolkien Blog Party.  Tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway and the games, so if you haven't done so already, have at it!  I'll choose giveaway winners on Saturday, and post the game answers and scores too.

Finally, this is part of my continuing quest to read a goodly number of the books I've collected that have to do with Middle-earth and J.R.R. Tolkien, which I've dubbed My Years in Middle-earth.

"Luther: Biography of a Reformer" by Frederick Nohl

I'm pretty sure I've read this before, back in middle school or high school.  But I enjoyed re-reading it nonetheless, and I'm thinking I'll have my son read it as part of his homeschool curriculum this fall.  It's definitely easy enough that someone with a middle-school-level reading ability should be able to understand and enjoy it.

This book isn't even 200 pages long, so it's not a very in-depth look at Luther and his theology.  Rather, it's a good overview of his life, with lots of information about the political and social aspects of the world he lived in.  Anyone who is interested in understanding how and why Luther tried to reform the Roman Catholic Church, the impact his actions had on the world as a whole, and why we're still talking about him 500 years later would probably get a lot from this book.

I was not 100% crazy about the writing style, to be honest.  The author wrote most of it as a straight history, which is what I wanted.  But once in a while, he would write out a scene as if it were fiction, putting dialog in people's mouths and so on.  And I guess I'd rather have one or the other -- either straight history or biographical fiction, not a mix of the two. That is a personal glitch, though, and not one that would cause me to tell people not to read this!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG.  It's very clean, but there are some stressful parts where Luther's life is in danger and so on.  

Obviously, this is another post in my series about the 500th anniversary of Luther nailing his 95 these to the Wittenburg church's door.  I've started posting more about this on my other blog too, if you're interested.

This is my tenth book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2017.  Getting close to my goal of twelve!

"The Trouble Begins at 8" by Sid Fleischman

Sid Fleischman has been one of my favorite authors since I was probably ten or so.  My mom read By the Great Horn Spoon! aloud to my brother and I, and she had to stop reading over and over because we were laughing so hard, we couldn't hear her.  I read every book of his I could get my hands on after that, and have a deep and abiding fondness for him.  I read his memoir, The Abracadabra Kid, a few years ago and loved that too.

So it comes as no surprise that, when I spotted this on the junior nonfiction shelves at the library last week, I snatched it up.  It's also not surprising that I read the first three chapters before we even left the library.  Or that I swallowed up the rest of it in no time at all.

Fleischman's own love of the absurd, the fanciful, and the ridiculous-yet-believable makes him the ideal biographer for Mark Twain.  Both Twain and Fleischman are able satirists, great at telling a funny story that you laugh and laugh over, only later to realize that they were teaching you something at the same time as they were tickling your funny bone.  The Trouble Begins at 8 focuses on Samuel Clemens' metamorphosis from human tumbleweed who acquired and abandoned jobs freely to a celebrated humorist, lecturer, and novelist.  Yes, this is written at a middle-grade level, and yes, adults will get a big kick out of it too.

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for mentions of drinking alcohol, smoking cigars, and western violence.

"The World of Raymond Chandler (In His Own Words)" edited by Barry Day

You most likely know by now that Raymond Chandler is my favorite author.  I go into occasional rhapsodies about his startlingly delightful writing style.  I've reviewed several of his novels here.  I mention him a lot.

But I really didn't know much about him before now.  I knew a few things, like that he grew up in England.  And that he wrote some screenplays.  That was about it.  

I must admit that I shy away from biographies of people whose work I really admire.  I'm afraid that I'll learn something about them that will taint the way I view their creative work, be it books or movies or songs or whatever, and then I'll never be able to enjoy those things again.

However, the subtitle here, "In His Own Words," made me feel like this might not shatter my love of his writing.  And happily, I was right!  Editor Barry Day provides a basic framework and the connective explanations needed to make this coherent, but 95% of the words in this book are Chandler's not Day's.  Through them, we begin to see a deeply unhappy man who never found as much acceptance or approval as he craved, but who stubbornly insisted on writing and living his own way anyway.  I can respect him for that.

Particularly Good Bits:

In retrospect one can see that from the outset Marlowe had a dimension that Spade and the others lacked.  He was a realist instead of a cynic, and he was cursed with a brand of idealism that would draw him irresistibly down the meanest of mean streets (p. 48).

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for occasional language, discussion of some of Chandler's less savory story elements, and lots of alcohol use.

"Rooster" by Brett Cogburn

This book's subtitle is The Life and Times of the Real Rooster Cogburn, the Man who Inspired "True Grit," and as such, I'm afraid I found it disappointing.  While Brett Cogburn does show that Charles Portis clearly did a lot of research into the history of Arkansas and the people, names, and places therein, I was never convinced that Brett Cogburn's ancestor Franklin "Rooster" Cogburn in any way directly inspired the one-eyed U.S. Marshal of True Grit fame.  Franklin Cogburn was never a Marshal, had two good eyes, was only rarely called "Rooster," and never lived to be an old, fat man.  What he did do was serve a prison sentence for moonshining and conspiring to kill a Marshal, then raise a family, turn preacher, and die of an illness at 45.

So as the story of a man who inspired Charles Portis' novel, this did not convince me.

However, as the well-researched, loving, and detailed history of a backwoods patch of Arkansas where moonshiners held enough sway to keep the Revenuers at bay for a long time, it's very interesting.  Rambling, but interesting.  I enjoyed reading it, I didn't feel like it was wasting my time, and I now have a firmer grasp of the history of this country's midsection in the 19th century.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for language, alcohol use, and violence.

"The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" by Vincent Starrett

This is not a tell-all expose of deep, dark secrets supposedly harbored by the world's first consulting detective.  And it has nothing at all to do with the Billy Wilder film by the same title.  This is actually a very scholarly biography of Sherlock Holmes, possibly the first biography of a fictional character ever published.

But this is more than simply a chronology of Holmes' life and accomplishments.  Yes, it does discuss what little detail Doyle provided about Holmes in the original texts.  It also delves into the lives of Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson, and when Starrett runs out of actual facts, he makes some very credible speculations about what was and wasn't likely to have occurred in their lives.  He also discusses the theories of others about things like where Holmes attended university and when Dr. Watson got remarried.

I'm not at all sure why, but it took me more than a month to get through this book.  It's well-written and engaging, not at all dry, and I dearly love the subject matter.  But I only managed to read a few pages at a time, partly out of lack of time, but I think also because I had to digest what I was reading, it was so thought-provoking and, yes, deep.  Also, it's not fiction, so I didn't have the "fictive dream" to pull me back in over and over.  Still, I'll be returning to this book again and again in the future, I'm sure, to research or review some aspect of Sherlockiana.

Vincent Starrett was the foremost authority on Sherlock Holmes when he wrote this.  Possibly foremost of all time, after A. Conan Doyle, of course.  He helped found the original Baker Street Irregulars, the first group dedicated to discussing all things canonical and Conanical.  He wrote a very famous poem about Holmes, "221B" (read it here), as well as a rather good pastiche called "The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet," both of which are included in the edition I read.

Particularly Good Bits:

His theatricality is evident in nearly all of the adventures.  It is his most human failing -- his appreciation of applause (p. 24).

But Watson, although he may have faltered, never really blundered.  Holmes knew the qualities of his assistant.  No case was ever lost by Watson's failure (p. 72).

Watson, good fellow, was inclined to be a trifle curt until he had his coffee (p. 79).

Resurrection must always, one fancies, occasion dramatics more spectacular than the more familiar phenomenon of death (p. 93).

That is the way we feel about Sherlock Holmes.  Let us be done with all this talk of... whatever we may happen to dislike in the daily headlines.  Let us speak rather of those things that are permanent and secure, of high matters about which there can be no gibbering division of opinion.  Let us speak of the realities that do not change, of that higher realism which is the only true romance.  Let us speak, and speak again, of Sherlock Holmes.  For the plain fact is, gentlemen, that the imperishable detective -- I hope I have said this before -- is still a more commanding figure in the world than most of the warriors and statesmen in whose present existence we are invited to believe (p. 148).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G for Great.  Nothing objectionable whatsoever.

This is my ninth book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Challenge and my tenth for The Classics Club.

"Nothing Daunted" by Dorothy Wickenden

The full title of this book is Nothing Daunted:  The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West.  It's the story of how two young women from Connecticut (one of them the author's grandmother) went to Colorado in 1916 to teach school for a year.  In telling their story, the author also includes a bit of a history of that part of Colorado, the life stories of several of the people they meet there, and what happens to the two girls during the rest of their lives. 

Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood both came from wealthy families, graduated from college, spent a year together in Europe, and did not want to marry right away and raise families.  They wanted to make a difference, to be helpful and useful to other people outside their own circles.  So they answered a request for teachers at a new school in a rural Colorado community.  Despite having no teaching experience or training, off they went, embarking on an adventure that would gain one of them a husband and both of them a new outlook on life.  They taught those children about the world, about reading and writing and arithmetic.  But those hardy families still living the pioneer life while the rest of the world was tumbling toward World War I -- they taught Dorothy and Rosamond what strength of character and will really meant.

I love history, and I love reading about pioneers and cowboys, so this book fitted my interests very nicely.  I also really liked the contrast between these women's ideas on things like marriage and the way people view them today.  For instance, when one of them received a marriage proposal, she realized "I really was very much in love with him and he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with" (pg 140).  Do you see that?  She wasn't swayed only by emotion and sentiment -- she was also ready to make a lifelong commitment to this man, and had turned down other suitors previously because she could not see herself spending her whole life with them.  I was particularly struck by how both of these women insisted on marrying not merely for love, but for the rest of their lives.  If only more people were like that today!

If this was a movie, I would rate it:  G.  Nothing objectionable whatsoever!

You might enjoy this if you like these:  the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder or Christy by Catherine Marshall.