The Thoreau You Don't Know

Robert Sullivan's previous best-seller was Rats, so he has taken a definite step up in subject matter.

Here he provides us with the 1,423rd re-consideration of Thoreau. You would think that the world doesn't need to take one more walk around this American monument, but Sullivan's book is a worthy treatment of the American icon, and Sullivan achieves that by treating Thoreau not as an icon but as, well, a guy. Who did some stuff and wrote some things.

Those who write about Thoreau tend to fall into one of three camps. 1) He was a pure, unadulterated genius, forsaking ordinary life for deep communion with nature. 2) He's an overhyped sham. 3) Wasn't he that guy who lived in the cabin?

Sullivan steps over all three of these boxes and treats Thoreau as if he'd just discovered him for the first time. He is occasionally ingenuous, being surprised by facts that even casual Thoreau scholars already knew. But he humanizes Thoreau, treating him as neither genius or con job. He puts many of Thoreau's achievements in perspective and in context, so that even things we knew about Thoreau make a bit more sense.

Sullivan is ultimately most interested in Thoreau the environmentalist, but he pays attention to the writer, the worker, the citizen, and most of all, the man. In bringing Thoreau down to human scale, Sullivan makes him both more impressive and more accessible. There are no shocking new revelations about Thoreau here, but in a breezily-written slim volume, Sullivan lets us see Thoreau's accomplishments as part of the bigger picture of his life, while also connecting it all to the modern world as well.

Not the shocking new view of Thoreau that some PR suggests, but a solid, readable book about an important American voice. Well worth the read.

Cod

You may remember hearing about Mark Kurlansky's book when it first hit big over a decade ago. If you passed on it at the time, consider giving it a read now.

It's not a massive tome, but a fun little book that looks at the history of one small fish and how that story had an impact on many other stories through history.

Perhaps most interesting is how cod influenced the discovery and exploration of the new world. Kurlansky, using the judicious eye of both historian and journalist juxtaposes those ancient tales with the state of modern cod fishing, which may in fact represent the end of the history of cod fishing as anything other than casual pastime

The cute extra touch with this book is cod recipes and tips for those of you who can afford salt cod.

The book is reminder of the early importance of fishing and the seagoing way of life in America. Kurlansky does not belabor his point, nor drag it out, and one of the tiny remarkable features of the book is how succinctly and aptly he can sum up events such as, say, the American revolution.

A quick read, but interesting and fun (from the same author who gave us a history of salt).

The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan Tao Yun)

Eliot Pattison is steadily creating one of the most hauntingly beautiful mystery series in print.

Shan is a gifted Chinese detective, an inspector who in his prior career took on powerful officials, leading to a sentence in a Chinese gulag. This series finds him in varying degrees of unofficial release from that imprisonment, investigating murders that are complicated not just by a web of motives and mystery, but by the web of politics and faith that surround them.

Patison's real subject in all of these books is Tibet, and the complex and difficult complex of Chinese political that surrounds Tibetan affairs. Each mystery is complicated by the Tibetans' own spiritual faith and painful history as well as a Chinese system that worries more about the shifting sands of political power. The Tibetans value a spiritual truth, the Chinese value political truth, and Inspector Shan must try to find some measure of truth and justice in the midst of it all.

The mysteries are intricate and intriguing. The mood is darkly poetic. Shan is a man largely beaten down by life, trying to pursue a spiritual path while somehow surviving. The novels also serve as travelogues, illuminating the Tibetan struggle and culture.

The series is best read in order, and all are great, though Beautiful Ghosts is particularly strong, taking Shan to America and into a fascinating hidden temple. These are great books, intriguing mysteries and fascinating studies of a complex and little-understood culture.

The Gormenghast Novels

Understand that if I could only get you to take my book advice a couple of times, this is one of the works I'd want you to experience.

Gormenghast is a vast an ancient kingdom set we-know-not-where in an unknown time. Its centerpiece is a sprawling castle filled with a giant gallery of grotesques, and we discover it just as a bitter, vengeful kitchen boy begins a ruthless and brilliant rise to power, even as the heir apparent comes of age, angry, sullen and wishing to be free of his weighty heritage.

This work really isn't like anything else in the literary world. I had it first recommended to me almost forty years ago because I was reading, again, the Lord of the Rings. "If you like that," said my teacher, "you'll probably like this." Well, on the face of it, that recommendation is absurd. Peake's books were marketed as fantasy adventures, but there is not a single hint of magic, not the slightest dash of fantastic creatures.

What it has in commmen with Tolkein and other fantasy greats is a completely realized created world, a world that at once makes no sense and which makes perfect sense. And good lord can Peake write. The language in these books is a finely wrought and dense as poetry, and it just keeps coming. Just to read his description of a set of rooms is awesome.

The characters are all bizarre-- extreme grotesques and yet somehow completely human. There is action, political machinations, well-turned plot threads, stunning set pieces-- even some of the most hilarious passages and scenes I've ever read.

This volume collects the three published novels. The first two are the heart of the work, detailing Steerpike's vicious rise to power and Titus's attempt to avoid it. The third, written later and not entirely completed before Peake was wracked by debilitating illness, literally takes us into another world. This volume also includes the few brief notes completed for a fourth work. Also included are some scholarly articles and Peake's own drawings (he was actually an illustrator by trade).

This is a book I read again every few years, and I always approach the last pages with sadness to think that this is all there is. But what there is is a lot, a fabulous reading feast. This book gets the highest recommendation I know how to give.

A Voyage Long and Strange

As he did in Blue Latitudes, Tony Horwitz mixes historical writing with travel journalism as he explores the earliest ventures into North America.

Horwitz is perhaps a bit disingenuous at first (is it really that much of a surprise that people landed here before the Mayflower) but his "debunking" of popular myth allows him to undertake an entertaining journey of discovery as he retraces the steps of the earlier exploration of the continent.

His well-researched capsule versions of the early travels, from the Vikings to the Spanish, from winners like Coronado to the astonishingly ill-fated Cabeza de Vaca, are breezy and readable, quick colorful capsules of what actually happened.

As a modern-day journalist, his strength appears to be quickly ingratiating himself with the folks he encounters. From tour guides to amateur historians to people he just happens to meet, Horwitz seems to be able to get them to open up and share points of view that are colorful and illuminating. These modern-day adventures in tourism bring the struggles and triumphs of the early adventurers into sharp relief.

It's all fun and informative and entertaining at the same time. A great way to get your pre-colonial history and see some interesting parts of America all at the same time.

Passionate Sage

Joseph J. Ellis has contributed several fine works to the recent spate of ink devoted to our founding fathers (American Sphinx and Founding Brothers). This particular work deals with John Adams, fast becoming my favorite founder.

First published in 1993, the new edition allows Ellis to expand on a few points, but the thrust of the book remains the same-- an examination of Adams' legacy, looking at what he influenced, what he left behind, and how has come to be remembered (or, unfortunately, not so remembered).

For folks who like their Famous Guy Bios focused rather than thorough, this is a good choice. There are so many difficult episodes in Adams' life, and so much of his own writing to poke through, that it would be easy to ramble on forever about the man. What Ellis manages to do is find a focus that allows us to avoid being sucked down any side streets and still come away with a full-ish picture of a man who was in many ways the most difficultly human of the founding fathers.

In other words, among the many Adams works out there, this is an excellent place to start for a thorough but accessible overview, creating a picture of a man both infuriating and lovable, humble yet hungry for a fame that he feared would escape him. By focusing on the later period of Adams' life, Ellis manages to show what is perhaps the most satisfying picture of Adams-- that of a man who comes to terms with himself, his past, his legacy, his victories and losses. It is a work written with obvious affection, but with an equal degree of honesty.

With the paperback version available currently for a measly eleven bucks, this is a worthwhile addition to any history-laden shelf.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot

I love Sarah Vowell. That's a testament not just to how well she writes, the intelligence of the observations, the sharpness of her vision, but to the fact that you end up feeling that you know her personally as you read her work.

This particular book collects a large helping of short pieces, offering insights on everything from the ubiquitous desire to claim Rosa Parks as a personal model to the intersection of love and tension in hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner. There are also pointed insights involving the Wonder Twins, Tom Cruise, the parks service, tourism at Salem, Canadian Mounties, and the failings of the national press.

Her observations are always sharp and pointed, honest and funny. Vowell leans to the left, but it's a matter of convictions and conscience rather than ideology. Like P.J.O'Rourke, another favorite of mine but on the other end of the political spectrum, she's trying to understand and explain, not jam things into a pattern that fits her pre-conceived notion of How The World Works.

This is a great and funny book, a nice place to start if you're unfamiliar with her work and want something that won't stretch your attention span.