Books Read in 2012

Life would definitely be a lot less rewarding without reading (and writing). I read 22 books in 2012, less than in previous years. Perhaps that's because my quotient of non-fiction to total books was higher than in years past.

First, in no particular order, here are my favorites in the fiction category:

Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall
Excellent account of the life of Thomas Cromwell, minister to Henry VIII. It made me want to learn much more about the Tudors. The sequel, Bring Up The Bodies, is a must-read for 2013.
[Link: Wall Street Journal book review.]

Gregory, Phillippa: The Red Queen
Terrific historical novel about Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. I've resolved to read everything Gregory has written. An audiobook, I listened to it while driving to and from the EEI conference in Phoenix.
[Discussed elsewhere in this blog. ]

Dermont, Amber: The Starboard Sea
Rich boarding school kids live lives of decadence amidst the pain and confusion of adolescence.
[Link: New York Times book review.]  [Discussed elsewhere in this blog]

Among non-fiction, my favorite was Janet Reitman's Inside Scientology, an objective account of the bizarre "religion" and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Beware of Thetans and suppressive persons.
[Link: Janet Reitman's web site.]

And here are all the rest  (F = fiction, N = non-fiction):

Child, Lee: Killing Floor (F)
Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher dismantles a nest of criminals. Disappointing. I can’t picture Tom Cruise in this role.

Holman, Sheri: Witches on the Road Tonight (F)
Road trip takes a Depression-era couple to Appalachia, where they encounter a backwoods witch. Interesting and well-written.

Harkness, Deborah: A Discovery of Witches (F)    
Yes, another witch book. This book features vampires too, but the witches are much more interesting. Sorry, but I'm bored with tales of irresistibly seductive vampires and love-struck vulnerable women. No more, please, you're killing me. Well-written, but I won't bother with the sequel.

Hocking, Amanda: Switched (F)
I like to read a young adult novel every once in a while. The story had its moments. The author got this one noticed first as an e-book distributed via the Internet. That led to publication in conventional form. I give her a lot of credit for that, but this one's better suited to a teen female audience than guys like me.

Martin, George R.R.: A Clash of Kings (F)
A worthy sequel to A Game of Thrones.

Silva, Daniel: Moscow Rules (F)
I can barely remember what it was about. Something to do with an Israeli intelligence agent who is a deadly assassin and a gifted restorer of Old Masters. Give it a pass.

Collins, Suzanne:  The Hunger Games (F)
More than a young adult book, the author also has something to say about popular culture and celebrity. Much better than I expected.

Martin, George R.R.: A Storm of Swords (F)
Martin keeps the Game of Thrones wheeze moving along nicely in Book 3.

Martin, George R.R.: A Feast for Crows (F)
Book 4 of the Game of Thrones series. This one introduces a host of new characters while neglecting the most interesting from previous books. I could sense the author losing interest in his own story… or trying to prolong the series as long as he can for financial reasons… or all of the above. Too many promising plot elements are unresolved after four books. What happened to the Others and "winter is coming?" It's not coming fast enough.

Furst, Alan: Mission to Paris (F)
An actor is thrust into intrigue in pre-war Paris in this thriller. A better story than some of his prior books, perhaps because you don't have to wade through all those Balkan surnames.

Matheson, Richard: Steel (F)

Published as a tie-in to the Real Steel movie, this is a collection of Matheson's short stories, including some dating back to the 1950s. The tie-in: it includes Steel, on which the movie was  based and easily the best story of the lot. I picked it up in an airport bookstore.

Gwynne, S.C.: Empire of the Summer Moon (N)
Biography of the half-breed Quanah Parker, son of a Comanche chief and a captured pioneer woman. He chooses to live with the Indians, becoming a Comanche chief himself. Yet another bleak history of the exploitation of native Americans, it left me feeling weary and depressed.  

Rendell, Ruth: Portobello (F)
Not really a crime story, this one’s more a character study of contemporary Londoners. Great read. I’ll look for more by Baroness Rendell.

Fraser, George MacDonald: The Steel Bonnets (N) 
Remarkably detailed history of the Anglo-Scottish border reivers. By the author of the Flashman novels.
[Discussed elsewhere in this blog.]

Sansome C.J.: Dissolution (F)
In the days of Henry VIII, a hunchbacked lawyer is sent to dissolve a monastery and solve a murder mystery. Right after reading Wolf Hall, I was on a mad tear to find more Tudor material, and that led me to this one.

Guinn, Jeff: The Last Gunfight (N)
"The real story of the gunfight at the OK Corral." Wyatt Earp wasn't a very nice guy; he worked in brothels, probably as a bouncer, and spent time in jail. It seems his brother Virgil was probably a better lawman. Doc Holliday is variously referred to as "the hot-tempered dentist," "the tubercular dentist" (is the author joking?) and "a very dangerous man."

Perry, Ann: The Face of a Stranger (F)
Atmospheric detective story set in Victorian London. A William Monk mystery. Well-written, but the amnesia plot element didn't feel convincing to me.

Ackroyd, Peter: London Under (N)
Hidden secrets beneath the streets of London. I don't suppose I'll ever get this topic out of my system, and in truth, I don't want to.

In total, that's 17 fiction, 5 non-fiction. Not a bad year.

Looking ahead, I have some interesting items on the shelf for 2013. In addition to Mantel's Bring up the Bodies, there's Constantine's Sword by James Carroll (I'm in the early chapters now), The Book of Genesis: A Biography by Ronald Hendel, Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum, and something or other by A.J. Cronin - perhaps Hatter's Castle.

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

Touchstone, 2011, 432 pages

I found this historical novel to be as well-written and entertaining as The Other Boleyn Girl and The Other Queen (both by the same author). It’s a darker story, but Gregory does a credible job of developing her central character, Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.  Margaret’s slow transition from innocent child bride to conniving, ruthless middle-aged woman seemed, to this reader, entirely believable. Gregory paints such a sympathetic portrait of her as a child that I didn’t mind what she became as life hardened her. It seems an understandable reaction to the constraints placed upon her by the times -- no freedom to choose and allowed to decide virtually nothing, despite being nobility and a rich heiress as well.

Historical fiction by its nature has to assign thoughts and feelings to real people whose true thoughts and feelings cannot be known. Some dislike that, but I love seeing famous figures made human. Richard III is depicted here as a good and capable man beset by conspiracy on all sides. Meanwhile Gregory has Margaret ordering the death of the princes in the tower. Interesting juxtaposition.

This author has been criticized for historical inaccuracies, but I personally don’t care about that. When I want facts, I’ll read history. I read fiction because I love being carried along by a good story with believable characters. This book fit my needs admirably on that score. I know I’ll read more of Philippa Gregory.

Wikipedia article on Margaret Beaufort

The St. Albans Hoard

Yet another ancient coin hoard has come to light. Last month, a patient guy with a metal detector discovered the largest hoard of Roman coins ever found in the United Kingdom. Gold, that is. Oro. Au.

Coin World, Nov. 12, 2012

According to this article, during the Roman occupation of Britain, coins were sometimes buried as a religious sacrifice to the gods. Some say objects were thrown into the Thames for the same reason. "The coins were scattered across a wide area... evidence suggests that the hoard was disturbed in the past few hundred years by quarrying activity or plowing."

Get the whole story:
Roman Ancients in Hoard Hidden About 1,600 Years
Coin World, Nov. 12, 2012

It's an Outrage!!

The September 29 issue of The Economist contains an article with this headline: "The Faint Smell of Dog Fart". The story, which is about North Korean agrarian reform, informs us that the slogan “reform and opening up” sounds like the Korean word for “dog fart.”

This raises a number of issues.

What sort of a world are we living in when a respected publication like The Economist even prints the word "fart?" And in the headline, no less.

Furthermore, it is not accurate to describe dog farts as smelling "faint." Pungent, yes. Sharp, sour, noxious... but not faint.
I'm sorry, but this not responsible reporting. Excuse me, please, but I have to take a stand against this. We cannot afford to tolerate such gross breaches of the standards of journalistic excellence. Dog farts should be appropriately described. Or better yet, not described at all. At the very least, the managing editor of The Economist should have sent this article back for a headline re-write.

All of which has nothing to do with North Korean agrarian reform. But I don't care about North Korea, or agrarian reform in any context. As far as I am concerned, North Korea is not worth the powder to blow it to hell. I am, however, worried about the ever-declining moral decay we see all around us. This is an evil world, and daily groweth worse.

Get the full story: http://www.economist.com/node/21563772

Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

512 pp; Chicago Review Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 1556527594

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In this episode in Rosemary Sutcliff's fine Arthurian novel Sword at Sunset, Arthur is lost while walking in the mountains, and must spend the night in an isolated farmhouse. His hostess (here named Ygerna -- like Igraine, or is it Morgana?) sends the servants away and gives Arthur a drugged cup of wine. We then have the following memorable passage, told in the first person by Arthur, in which Ygerna says: "I knew that you would come, one day."

I frowned, and shook my head in a last attempt to clear it. "Are you a witch, then, to know the thing that has not yet come to happen?" And even as I spoke, another thought sprang to my mind. "A witch, or…"

Again she seemed to read my thinking; and she laughed up into my face. "A witch? Are you afraid to wake in the morning on the bare mountain side, and find three lifetimes gone by? Ah, but whatever happens tomorrow, surely tonight is sweet?"

With the speed and liquid grace of a cat, she slip-turned from her kneeling position, and next instant was lying across my thighs, her strange ravaged face turned up to mine and her dark hair flowing over us both. "Are you afraid to hear the music of the Silver Branch? Are you afraid to hear the singing of Rhiannon's Birds that makes men forget?"

I had not noticed the color of her eyes before. They were deeply blue, and veined like the petals of the blue cranesbill flower, the lids faintly stained with purple like the beginning of corruption. "I think you would not need the Birds of Rhiannon to make men forget," I said thickly, and bent towards her.

Never fear, it doesn't get any more explicit than that. But ruinous consequences ensue. The woman is Arthur's half-sister, although he doesn't know it at the time.

Here's an interview with author Rosemary Sutcliff, from the excellent Camelot Project at the University of Rochester. Sadly, she spent most of her life in a wheelchair, but by God, the woman could write.

William Marshall: Trial By Combat

The English knight William Marshall was regent of England under Henry III, as mentioned in  a previous post, The Brussels Hoard. In this true-life account taken from his biography, the young Marshall confronts his accusers.

"In the year 1180 William was in the summit of his career in the young king's court. Valued for his prowess in battle and his sagacity in counsel, he was favored by Prince Henry over all other members of his household. But his eminence aroused the anger of a number of his comrades-in-arms. They circulated the rumor that William was the lover of the young queen, Margaret of France…

"Naturally William wished to put an end to these rumors and clear his name as quickly as possible. His opportunity came in the autumn of 1182....Categorically denying the truth of the rumor that he was Queen Margaret's lover, he offered to prove his innocence in battle. On three successive days he would fight the three strongest of his accusers. If any one of them defeated him, his master could hang him as a traitor.

"When young Henry refused to accept this offer, William proposed that a finger should be cut off his right hand and that he should then be allowed to fight the strongest of his enemies. But Prince Henry had no intention of bringing the matter to trial. As soon as William realized that his master's purpose was to drive him from the court, he demanded a safe conduct to the frontier of the Angevin lands."  
 

From "William Marshall: Knight-Errant, Baron, and Regent of England" by Sidney Painter, Medieval Academy of America © copyright 1982

The Brussels Hoard

The Brussels Hoard of 1908

The Long Cross Coinage of Henry III

by Ron Churchill and Bob Thomas
Baldwin’s and the British Numismatic Society, 2012

Yet another example of hidden mysteries: as explained in this newly published book, workers tearing down an old tavern in Brussels uncovered something bricked up in a vault in the basement. The hoard they found there included 140,000 British coins. Indications are that they were last concealed in 1266 or 1267, so many must date to the reign of Henry III.

Oddly, Coin World states: "Most of the coins are worth only their silver value." Surprising, since they're over 700 years old.

The discovery was made in 1908. Apparently a portion of the coins were melted down for their silver content in the interim.  But these coins are going to become available to the public soon. It's inevitable: I'll buy one.

As an aside: Henry III's regent was William Marshall, who deserves a post of his own in this blog. That will follow soon.


Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
by George MacDonald Fraser
Barrie and Jenkins, 1971, 384 pages

In his history of the outlaws and border lords of the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, the author of the Flashman books notes that Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson were both descendants of three notable Scottish Border clans:

"Lyndon Johnson's is a face and figure that everyone in Dumfriesshire knows; the lined, leathery Northern head and rangy, rather loose-limbed frame belong to one of the commonest Border types.... Richard Nixon is the perfect example. The blunt, heavy features, the dark complexion, the burly body, and the whole air of dour hardness are as typical of the Anglo-Scottish frontier as the Roman Wall. Take thirty years off his age and you could put him straight into the front row of the Hawick scrum and hope to keep out of his way. It is difficult to think of any face that would fit better under a steel bonnet."

Reivers also have a role to play in George Garret's historical novel The Succession (Doubleday and Company, 1983, 538 pages).

Medieval Shaft Beneath Sofa

Bearing out the truth of a previous post: hidden mysteries abound in England. Here we have a true story from the Daily Telegraph (London). While replacing a floor, a man in Plymouth uncovered a medieval well beneath the sofa in his living room. No wonder the floor was uneven.

 Research shows his property was woodland until 1895, but the well itself dates back to the 16th century.  The Telegraph calls it a "medieval shaft," which is a nice choice of words. After digging down 17 feet, he discovered an old sword.

For display purposes, "he has installed lights in the structure and the well has been covered up by a trapdoor beside his sofa." Extraordinary! Read the full story here, on the Telegraph site. Compared to this, my discovery of the main intake to the furnace is as nothing... nothing.

The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont

St. Martin's Press
320 pages; February 28, 2012

On one level this is a boarding school story and a coming-of-age novel. That’s good marketing. In fact, it’s what attracted me in the first place. But don't be mislead by the cover. This book is packed with deep stuff for adults, with a lot to say about the difficulty of finding “the right sea, the true sea… the best path in life.”

Dermont makes that point by using sailing as a metaphor. The lead character, Jason (as in “the Argonauts”), is a senior at The Bellingham School and loves sailing. The sailing coach, Tripp (as in “odyssey”), teaches him to navigate. The coach’s own sextant is of brass, a finely crafted instrument of precision. Tripp gives Jason a sextant of his own: “It’s just plastic,” he said, “but I figured it would be a good start.”

Dermont is saying we’re all “searching for guiding stars” to help us navigate through life. Some may be better at this than others, and adults can be of tremendous help to children in this regard. But some of the adults in this story are as corrupt, unhappy and lost as the adolescents. They lost their course, or never found it in the first place.

This deeply satisfying book is one of my best reading experiences of the past year. It’s clearly aimed at grown-ups, but young adults (at least, those that are like I used to be) will enjoy it for the plot and the young characters you come to care about deeply. It’s the 12th novel I’ve read this year and much more finely drawn than most of the fiction that crosses my desk. Those who enjoy The Starboard Sea may wish to try Frederick Reiken's Lost Legends of New Jersey (2001) or Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children (2007).

God Speed!

Edmund Leighton (1900)

Some may call this sentimental, kitschy, or worse. But still, there's something about it...

Celtic Coin Hoard

Metal detector hobbyists have discovered a hoard of Celtic coins in the Channel Islands. And it's a big hoard.

Imagine digging a hole in the ground and uncovering 50,000 coins. Oddly, they were fused together in a solid block weighing three-quarters of a ton. Archaeologists needed a crane to lift this tangled mass.

Initial assessments date these coins to around the year 50 BC -- roughly the time of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. If accurate, that would make them over 2,000 years old, as explained in this Coin World article:
Hoard yields thousands of Iron Age coins

Why does this fascinate me so? I suppose it’s because I've always dreamed of uncovering.... hidden mysteries. As to what those might be, I'm quite flexible. It doesn't have to have monetary value. No, the hidden mysteries I'm interested in include the forgotten, the abandoned, or things that are just plain hidden and old. A few examples:

• The Kecksburg Incident
• John Michell
• Infiltration: places you're not supposed to go
• Disused stations on London's Underground
• Secrets of Grand Central Station
• Abandoned mines
• Carney Mine, Unity Township, PA
• Stuff that's gone
• The underground stream

Sadly, hidden mysteries are tough to locate in Las Vegas, even with the most powerful metal detector. Yet this sort of thing happens regularly in England. For example, the Bredon Hill Hoard is described here: Metal detectorist makes find of lifetime with hoard discovery
And the more contemporary Hackney Hoard:U.S. gold coins found buried in garden

The Holy Grail by Arthur Edward Waite

Thirsting for esoteric knowledge, I set forth to read The Holy Grail: History, Legend and Symbolism by Arthur Edward Waite. It's one of the most obtuse books I’ve ever encountered.

On page 18, we have the following sentence: “The literature which enshrines this Mystery, setting forth the circumstances under which it was from time to time discovered and, in fine, its imputed removal, with all involved thereby, is one of such considerable dimensions that it may accurately described as large.” Oh my Gawd! That’s what I call writing.

Undaunted, I drilled down to page 480, where all was revealed. To paraphrase the learned Waite: The Grail itself is the manifestation of God. The quest for the Grail is the search for God, as well as presentation of the Christian life as perceived by a 13th century mind. Galahad is God’s own minister, charged with a mission which is far beyond his personal concern. It says so, right here in "Book XII: The Secret of the Holy Grail."

Ah, now I understand.