Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living by Paul Collins

Looming large in the popular imagination as a serious poet and lively drunk who died in penury, Edgar Allan Poe was also the most celebrated and notorious writer of his day. He died broke and alone at the age of forty, but not before he had written some of the greatest works in the English language, from the chilling “The Tell-Tale Heart” to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”—the first modern detective story—to the iconic poem “The Raven.”

Poe’s life was one of unremitting hardship. His father abandoned the family, and his mother died when he was three. Poe was thrown out of West Point, and married his beloved thirteen-year-old cousin, who died of tuberculosis at twenty-four. He was so poor that he burned furniture to stay warm. He was a scourge to other poets, but more so to himself.

In the hands of Paul Collins, one of our liveliest historians, this mysteriously conflicted figure emerges as a genius both driven and undone by his artistic ambitions. Collins illuminates Poe’s huge successes and greatest flop (a 143-page prose poem titled Eureka), and even tracks down what may be Poe’s first published fiction, long hidden under an enigmatic byline. Clear-eyed and sympathetic, Edgar Allan Poe is a spellbinding story about the man once hailed as “the Shakespeare of America.”

The combination of the life of one of the most intriguing Victorian writers in the hands of one of the best narrative history writers around at the moment meant that Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living an immediate addition to my TBR list. Collins has done a great job in the past with The Murder of the Century and Duel with the Devil, and I included both in my list of top ten books to get someone started on narrative history. Here, he has a much smaller canvas than usual – this is a streamlined biography, but one that works extremely well.

In a few short chapters (according to my Kindle, the dead tree version has 132 pages), Collins manages to paint a clear portrait of a man whose genius was in constant battle with his demons. From the death of his parents, the difficult relationship with the man who raised him but refused to adopt him, to his struggle with poverty and alcoholism, Poe did not have an easy life. Yet throughout, Collins shows that he continued to try and find his way out through his writing. Calling particular attention to the genre-changing creation of Dupin (the proto Holmes) and the writing of the Raven, Collins points out the huge impact that Poe had on modern literature. All in all a great, if short, biography that should be accessible to all.

I gave Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living 4 stars.

US Presidents Series: The Roosevelt Trilogy by Edmund Morris

A vast and sprawling exploration of one of the most interesting presidents to ever serve in the White House, Edmund Morris’ trilogy of books (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt) explore Roosevelt’s life before, during and after his tenure as leader of the free world, from his childhood struggling with ill health, to his youth and travels around the world with his parents, and beyond to the tragedies of his adulthood that led him down the path to the White House. Throughout, Morris gives a very rounded portrayal of the man behind the legends, as well as providing the proper context of the world in which Roosevelt lived and how both it affected him and he affected it.

Morris’ writing is never dry and he has the descriptive eye of a novelist – some of the passages following Roosevelt into the wild or through the Amazonian jungles are fantastic. Roosevelt himself comes across as a flawed, brilliant man, able to command great loyalty but whose reluctance to release his hold on the Presidency forced a breach in his own party. It was amazing to realise how much Roosevelt did after he left the big chair – his subsequent runs ended up creating the Progressive Party and saw the Democrats win the presidency for the first time in decades.

All in all, Morris’ trilogy is the ultimate exploration of a president, full of wonderful writing worthy of the larger than life Roosevelt.

I gave all three books 4 stars.

Wrat-Up 2014 - Top Ten Non-Fiction Books

I have always loved non-fiction books and wish I had time to read more. This year was a good year, I increased the number of books from 34 to 51 compared to 2013, and in there were some great additions. I have not included the President Read in my top ten, preferring to concentrate on the others. 

Here then is my Top Ten for the year in no particular order...

The Second Amendment by Michael Waldman

A fascinating exploration of the most controversial and dangerous amendment in the constitution, proving a clear-eyed view of the original intent behind it and how it has come to mean what it does today. My review is here. 

No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald

When the NSA leaks became the story of 2013, the person most people focused on was Edward Snowden. Glenn Greenwald, one of two journalists who broke the story, here explains how the leaks came about, as well as showing exactly how important they were. Superbly written and chilling in its implications.

Life, Animated by Ron Suskind

Heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time, Life, Animated is the tale of a family who use the magic of animation to communicate with their autistic son. Anyone who reads this blog knows that my family and I have a disabled son, so this one hit particularly hard. Suskind does a fantastic job of exploring what this means and manages to tell the story with a keen eye and a huge heart.

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis

If you think the 2008 financial meltdown was the most terrifying thing to happen on Wall Street, read Flash Boys. Incisive, told with the pace of a thriller novel, Flash Boys is a great exploration of the next step in the financial world. 

Delancey by Molly Wizenberg

Delancey is the name of a restaurant that Molly Wizenberg and her husband opened together. In the book that bears its name, Wizenberg tells how what started out as another of her husband's crackpot ideas turned into part-dream, part-nightmare. I dare anyone to read this and not want to go out that night and eat a pizza! 

City of Lies by Ramita Navai 

If, like me, you think you know about Iran from the news media, read this book. Showing that this is a country just as complex and contradictory as any other, City of Lies delves into a side of Tehran few people know but that more people should. Written with an unflinching eye, but also with warmth for a country that most of us do not understand. 

The Good Spy by Kai Bird

A compelling look at a shadow warrior who spent just as many years getting close to his enemies in order to better understand them, Kai Bird's biography of Robert Ames shows a man who was able to bridge the gap between East and West, whose presence might have helped the rift between Western and Arab countries.

Sous Chef by Michael Gibney

One of the most original non-fiction works I have read in a long time due to its use of second-person, Sous Chef is as fast paced and stressful as the greatest thriller, taking you into the life of a sous chef on the front lines.

As You Wish by Cary Elwes

A touching look at a seminal movie, As You Wish traces the making of The Princess Bride from casting through to release and beyond to the film's second life on VHS and cult following. Elwes is a fine narrator, self deprecating and unflinching, helped along by regular additions from other members of the cast and crew.

 

Eight World Cups by George Vecsey

Football through the eyes of a man who calls it Soccer, Eight World Cups is the exploration of the FIFA World Cups from 1982 to 2010. Dealing as much with the way each country was affected by hosting the "greatest game" as with the action on the pitch itself, Eight World Cups is made memorable thanks to the small personal touches Vecsey adds along the way. 

The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney

An engrossing biography of the longest-reigning female pharaoh in Ancient Egypt and the story of her audacious rise to power in a man’s world.

Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who took Egypt's throne without status as a king’s son and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty, was born into a privileged position of the royal household. Married to her brother, she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father’s family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her inconceivable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just twenty, Hatshepsut ascended to the rank of king in an elaborate coronation ceremony that set the tone for her spectacular twenty-two year reign as co-regent with Thutmose III, the infant king whose mother Hatshepsut out-maneuvered for a seat on the throne. Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with the veil of piety and sexual expression. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to shrewdly operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypt's second female pharaoh.

Hatshepsut had successfully negotiated a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign saw one of Ancient Egypt’s most prolific building periods. Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were destroyed within a few decades of her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Constructing a rich narrative history using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power—and why she fell from public favor just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of an almost-forgotten pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.

Basing her conclusions on the few remaining artefacts and allowing herself a lot of leeway to fill in the gaps, Kara Cooney has created an enthralling portrait of an amazing woman in The Woman Who Would Be King, a biography of the second female pharaoh, Hatshepsut. From her birth and training as a priestess to her co-regency with her stepson, Cooney traces the steps Hatshepsut took in order to both secure her position and then consolidate it, identifying her as unique - a woman who was able to gain the throne in a male-dominated society during a time of peace rather than war. 

Cooney makes some interesting points, showing how both the later Pharaohs and the even later Egyptologists twisted the few elements we have about this remarkable woman into the story of a power-mad temptress who seized the throne from the rightful heir and held it against the judgement of her entire society. The story Cooney tells is much more complex, requiring a knowledge of Egyptian culture and mores, especially when it comes to female sexuality. A true narrative history, The Woman Who Would Be King is far from a dry exploration of ancient artefacts, but instead is an interesting and exciting dive into a world that seems incredibly alien from our point of view. And yet Cooney manages to make the narrative contemporary, showing how the way we look at Hatshepsut affects the way we look at woman in positions of power even today. 

I gave The Woman Who Would Be King 4 stars.

Celestial Revolutionary by John Freely

In the spring of 1500, at the apex of the Renaissance, a papal secretary to the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI, wrote that "All the world is in Rome." Though no one knew it at the time, this included a young scholar by the name of Nicolaus Copernicus who would one day change the world. One of the greatest polymaths of his or any age - linguist, lawyer, doctor, diplomat, politician, mathematician, scientist, astronomer, artist, cleric - Copernicus gave the world arguably the most important scientific discovery of the modern era: that earth and the planets revolve around the sun and that the earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. His heliocentric theory and the discoveries that would follow ushered in the age of modern astronomy, often called the Copernican Age, and change the way we look at the universe forever. This brilliant and controversial belief - born of a fusion of the theories of the great scholars of antiquity and the knowledge of the medieval Islamic world - was immortalised in Copernicus' epic "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium", a book whose very first printed copy was placed into his hands at the moment of his death in 1543.


Here, for the first time, is a biography of Copernicus that not only describes his theories but the life of the man himself and the epic, thrilling times in which he lived.

I probably know as much about Copernicus as the next layman so when I saw this book on Netgalley about his life and work I decided to give it a try. Talk in the blurb of a biography that would delve into the life of the man and the thrilling times in which he lived drew me in. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to that promise. Although the early chapters do provide a nice look at the politics, history and culture surrounding Copernicus and his work, the rest of the book became a study of the various theories the man developed. While I’m sure that someone with more of a basis in science would have been interested in this part, I skim-read it all, not particularly interested in a discussion of the various parts of the theorems that brought Copernicus to his conclusions. Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on your own background and interests, but unfortunately it failed to spark for me. 


I gave Celestial Revolutionary 2 stars.

Here is Where by Andrew Carroll

Here Is Where chronicles Andrew Carroll’s eye-opening – and at times hilarious -- journey across America to find and explore unmarked historic sites where extraordinary moments occurred and remarkable individuals once lived. Sparking the idea for this book was Carroll’s visit to the spot where Abraham Lincoln’s son was saved by the brother of Lincoln’s assassin. Carroll wondered, How many other unmarked places are there where intriguing events have unfolded and that we walk past every day, not realizing their significance? To answer that question, Carroll ultimately trekked to every region of the country -- by car, train, plane, helicopter, bus, bike, and kayak and on foot. Among the things he learned:

*Where in North America the oldest sample of human DNA was discovered

* Where America’s deadliest maritime disaster took place, a calamity worse than the fate of the Titanic

*Which virtually unknown American scientist saved hundreds of millions of lives

*Which famous Prohibition agent was the brother of a notorious gangster

*How a 14-year-old farm boy’s brainstorm led to the creation of television

Featured prominently in Here Is Where are an abundance of firsts (from the first use of modern anesthesia to the first cremation to the first murder conviction based on forensic evidence); outrages (from riots to massacres to forced sterilizations); and breakthroughs (from the invention, inside a prison, of a revolutionary weapon; to the recovery, deep in the Alaskan tundra, of a super-virus; to the building of the rocket that made possible space travel). Here Is Where is thoroughly entertaining, but it’s also a profound reminder that the places we pass by often harbor amazing secrets and that there are countless other astonishing stories still out there, waiting to be found.

Combining a travelogue with a series of lost historical stories, Here is Where takes the readers on a road-trip across America, ignoring the more famous landmarks in favour of the forgotten places, many of them ignored even by people who live a few steps away. From milestones in science to first legal victories, from horrific massacres to the building of rockets, Andrew Carroll’s fascinating journey reminds that there are hidden stories just waiting to be found, many of them in our own back yards. 

Here is Where does a great job of exploring lost, forgotten and ignored stories from American history, spanning centuries and moving from one coast to the other. Along the way, Carroll’s funny, depreciating and well-informed voice provides a great companion, spending just enough time on his own (mis)adventures before sharing some true jewels of lost history. The book is split into sections, from legal decisions to scientific breakthroughs, so you are likely to find something that will interest you. Although I skipped around in the medical section, the rest of it was intriguing enough to keep my attention and the pages flipping. I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, so I was especially thrilled to see him exploring a milestone decision from the Supreme Court in the first half of the 20^th century regarding a couple of Witness children expelled from their school for refusing to salute the flag. All of the stories are interesting, many of them deserve to be remembered more than they are. Carroll has done a great job bringing them to people’s attention.

I gave Here is Where 4 stars.

Delancey by Molly Wizenberg

In this funny, frank, tender memoir and New York Times bestseller, the author of A Homemade Life and the blog Orangette recounts how opening a restaurant sparked the first crisis of her young marriage.

When Molly Wizenberg married Brandon Pettit, he was a trained composer with a handful of offbeat interests: espresso machines, wooden boats, violin-building, and ice cream-making. So when Brandon decided to open a pizza restaurant, Molly was supportive not because she wanted him to do it, but because the idea was so far-fetched that she didn't think he would. Before she knew it, he'd signed a lease on a space. The restaurant, Delancey, was going to be a reality, and all of Molly's assumptions about her marriage were about to change.

Together they built Delancey: gutting and renovating the space on a cobbled-together budget, developing a menu, hiring staff, and passing inspections. Delancey became a success, and Molly tried to convince herself that she was happy in their new life until in the heat and pressure of the restaurant kitchen she realized that she hadn't been honest with herself or Brandon.

With evocative photos by Molly and twenty new recipes for the kind of simple, delicious food that chefs eat at home, Delancey is a moving and honest account of two young people learning to give in and let go in order to grow together.

Full of ups and downs, stress and excitement – and packed with amazing recipes – Delancey is the story of a marriage pushed to the breaking point by a shared dream: the desire to open a pizzeria in the midst of an economic downturn. Chronicling the amazing pressures caused by such an enterprise, Delancey is both a brutally honest look at a relationship and a loving exploration of the power of food. 

Delancey is part memoir, part recipe book, exploring the relationship between a man and a woman, the stresses inherent in beginning a new adventure and how difficult it can be to let go and learn to go with the flow. After exploring what brought her husband and her together, Molly Wizenberg gives us a glimpse into the tough world of opening a new restaurant, as well as the joys that arise along the way. Sharing some of the recipes they used in their restaurant or that they cooked in the crazy days of building pizza ovens and painting walls, she manages to perfectly convey all of the madness that goes in to such an undertaking while leaving the readers salivating at the thought of setting foot in the restaurant they built. Wizenberg is an excellent writer in her own right and the memoir moves along at a novel-like clip. Recommended for all lovers of mad adventures and good food! 

I gave Delancey 4 stars.