Island at the Edge of the World

Pitts, Mike. Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island. New York : Mariner Books 2026. Print.

First Sentences:

This story about statues begins on Easter Sunday, 1722, on what was then the remotest inhabited island on Earth. This was the day the first European set eyes on Rapa Nui, the start of the final century when Islanders were in control of their own world. It was the day when everything about the island began to change, so that within a few generations no one there could say what the statues meant or who made them.

Description:

No one can deny a secret fascination with Rapa Nui (Easter Island). After all, it's a barren island thousands of miles from the nearest land, with no trees, few inhabitants, and hundreds of huge stone statues of heads and bodies scattered throughout the land. How was this island ever discovered and by whom? Where did all those people go? Why are there no trees? And, of course, who carved the gigantic heads and for what purpose?   

 

Mike Pitts, in his extensively researched Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island, looks deeply into original documents recorded by the first seamen who came across Rapa Nui in the 1700s, as well as the diaries and notes taken by early researchers, Katherine and Scoresby Routledge, who in 1910 lived for months on the island with to study and understand its people, culture, and history. DNA and radiocarbon dating were also studied. He also included research by Thor Heyerdahl from the 1960s, although Pitts feels many of Heyerdahl's conclusions, while extremely popular with the public, were based on legends, misconceptions, and racism which perpetuated many untruths about Rapa Nui and its history.

 

Little is known of Raga Nui prior to 1760, with only scattered eye-witness records of Europeans from 1722 on and before the slave traders, missionaries, and South American governments took a self-centered interest.

 

Author Pitts divides Island at the Edge of the World into sections to explore several major questions. He focuses his studies about each subject on related hard evidence and original documents to draw conclusions based on facts rather than legends and unsupported rumors:

• First settlers? - Pitts research indicates that Polynesians were the first settlers around 1200. They were masters of navigating long distances and had already colonized other islands using huge outriggers that could carry sufficient men, women, and children as well as animals, tools, and food to start a colony. Easter Island culture is full of Polynesian art, building style, traditions, etc.

• First Europeans? - In 1760 a Dutch East Indian Company ship stumbled upon the island on, guess what, Easter Sunday, 1760. Other voyages followed, including those of James Cook and explorers from other countries as well. Pitts searched out these first-hand observations as the most reliable accounts of island life and people.

• What happened to the people? - Pitts found records indicating the immediate influx of Peruvian slave traders who captured most of the population as slaves. A decade later when the Chilean government passed laws to stop this human trading and return captured islanders, the released captives brought back diseases which decimated the population even further. The arrival of Christian missionaries spread more disease, further diminishing the culture and population. Investors bought the abandoned homes and gardens of deceased islanders and turned it into sheep-grazing land, destroying cultural centers, farms, houses, and religious symbols. The island was "sold" by the Chilean government in 1897 to one man who turned all the land to sheep grazing. The population was rounded up and placed in a single large community behind walls and not allowed outside that compound. Only a hundred or so people survived in 1877, down from an estimated population of 6,000  only a decade ago.

• Who built the stone heads (moai) and why? - Although the earliest interviews with the islanders were recorded by the Routledges in 1910, the current people did not know the origin of the carvings and purpose even at that early date. Recent carbon dating puts the stone carving between 1200-1680CE. Pitts concludes that the slave trade removed the men who knew how to carve the statues, as well as those who understood the purpose and traditions the carvings represented. Recent archeological digs have uncovered human bones at the foot of these stone heads, indicating the giant heads might be grave markers and protectors of ancestors.

• How were the statues moved? - Almost 1,000 heads were found scattered all over the island. They must have been moved from the quarry to their varied locations. But this barren island never provided enough trees to use as rollers under the statues, a difficult undertaking with any trunks that were not perfectly cylindrical. Rope-walking the heads was also tricky as statues were likely to fall, unable to be raised again. Pitts tested and soon felt the answer was sleds made of palm fronds and a couple of trunks which could easily slide the heads into desired locations.

• What new research is there? - DNA and radiocarbon dating have become very sophisticated, allowing anthropologists and archeologists solid data on the age of the stone carvings, the tools used, the ancestral history of the surviving people through buried bones, and the beginning of understanding of the few pieces of writing and pictures found.

Each of Pitts' conclusions was reached after exhaustive research into ancient records and visits to Raga Nui himself. Interestingly, he located records from Katherine Routledge, (the first person to actually study the island and culture), including her diaries, maps, statue counts and descriptions, sketches of petroglyphs, and interviews with natives. These documents had long before been seized and suppressed by her husband, Scoresby, after he had her forcibly committed her to an asylum for her paranoid behavior. Pitts also visited and described what few artifacts exist in museums around the world, including several carved heads, some untranslated writing on wood planks, and a feathered helmet.

 

Sorry this review is so long, but it is a fascinating subject full of thorough research clearly presented to try to unlock the secrets of Rara Nui. Many of Pitts' findings counter Heyerdahl's and other popular theories, with Pitt feeling these accounts relied on unproved rumors and conjectures by the writers, and did much damage to the real story of these islanders by suppressing the cruel influence that Europeans had thrust upon them. 

 

So read or at least skim this book for what I consider the true history, culture, and fate of this most mysterious of isolated islands: Rara Nui, also known as Easter Island. 

   

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Heyerdahl, Thor. Easter Island: The Mystery Solved

Read Heyerdahl's own explanation of the history of Easter Island, the stone carvings, writings, and original settlers. He proposes very different answers to the questions raised about the island, its people, and carvings. (Note: Mike Pitts, in the above book, thinks Heyerdahl is mistaken in almost ever explanation he proposes, but it is interesting to contrast their research and conclusions.)  (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

First Light

 Wellum, Geoffrey. First Light. New York : Viking 2002. Print.

First Sentences:

There are some days in the early spring when the weather is such that, no matter where you are, either in town or countryside, England is at her best and it's good to be alive. I notice that it is just such a day as I emerge from the underground at Holborn, turn left, and walk down Kingsway....I am seventeen and a half years old and, I suspect, a rather precocious young man. It was some six months ago when I first wrote to the Air Ministry...and very much wanted to fly an aeroplans, so could they give me a job, please?

Description:

I've only been up in a small plane a couple of times, but the thrill and freedom of soaring in the air made a lasting impression. So I was captivated by the very personal memoirs of World War II RAF airman Geoffrey Wellum in this memoir First Light. 

 

In this compelling stream-of-consciousness book, Wellum details his adventures learning to fly for the RAF and then entering numerous combat and escort missions during the War...all starting at the ripe old age of 17 1/2 years old. (He lied about his age and got into the RAF, even though he had no knowledge of planes or how to fly). One month after entering RAF training, England entered the War, making Wellum's flight instruction more intense and rushed (and real).

 

Wellum and his fellow students are rushed into action before completing their training. Aerial combat exercises were never undertaken. Nevertheless, he is assigned to the newly-formed 92nd Squadron and, at 18, is by far the youngest pilot. Unlike the older, veteran 92nd squadron pilots, Wellum has no dog-fighting experience, much to the consternation of his commanding officer who feels Wellum will be useless for the foreseeable future. 

 

Wellum is shown for the first time a new Spitfire plane, much different from the bi-wing planes of his training and, with no instruction, told to take it up to get used to it. What follows is a harrowing take-off, flying, and landing sequences that Wellum feels are so bad they will bump him out of further training and the RAF completely. His first night landing is so far off course that he clips a landing tower and takes off one of his Spitfire's wings. 

 

And we readers are with him in the cockpit throughout these and all his future flights as he clearly, if nervously, narrates his thoughts, fears, and unwillingness to give up. We are with him post-missions in the officers' mess and local pubs where friendships are sealed and recently-departed comrades remembered. 

 

We are all young, all paddling the same canoe, and as the evening progresses [at the local bar] the certain knowledge that few, if any, of us will survive to see the end of the war bind us even closer together....the thought of the possibility of being killed is not unduly worrying or upsetting. One just ignores it. Each is convinced that it cannot possibly happen to him. 

 

Wellum and the 92nd Squadron begin flying missions to defend England from attacking German planes. Two, even three sorties are required each day, all of them exhausting, tense, and death-defying. We readers experience what such fighting, terror, confidence, and survival tractics a pilot experiences during these encounters. 

 

And Wellum loses his friends and fellow squadron companions on a regular basis. Sometimes they are seen being shot down; others simply fail to return from a mission. And still the flying missions continue.

 

As the War begins to turn, Wellum' squadron is assigned to escort huge British supply convoys across the Channel from England to France, providing air cover and dog-fighting with any German planes which try to attack these ships. Sometimes the loss of these British boats and their contents signal a huge setback to the troops in France, while others that Wellum helps slip through enemy fighters provide relief that bolsters the Allies' war effort. Longer and longer distances to each flight are required as Allied forces push deeper into France, requiring air support for all troop movement even all the way to Malta.

 

The narration is breath-taking in its clarity of each flying situation and how Wellum responds. Sometimes he almost panics, sometimes he gets lucky, and sometimes he draws on extraordinary calm skills to see him through the flight and back to base.

 

I was fully engrossed in this man and his adventures aloft, constantly reminding myself that he was only a teenager taking on these incredibly taxing, dangerous missions. Fortunately, Wellum took copious notes daily of his missions and thoughts, so his accounts of life in the RAF are highly detailed and personable, reflecting his and other pilot feelings about fighting the enemy in the sky:

Coupled with fear, I now also feel a sense of anger. What right has this German to fly his snotty little aeroplane over our England and try to kill me? Who invited him?....The bloody arrogance of it! Well, you'll not shoot me down you black-crossed sod. 

For anyone interested in flying, World War II dog-fighting, and aviation training along with the teamwork and execution of aerial missions, First Light is your book. Highly recommended. 

Often, after take-off and on the climb up, especially if we are top cover at 25,000 or more, a wonderful remote feeling of unreality seems to come over me. It's almost like a drug. Complete freedom from earthly worries or fears for the battle that will almost certainly develop after we cross the French coast. I just can't be bothered to get scared any more....I find it an environment of great beauty. It brings on a happiness and, almost, I look forward to the next operation before the one I'm on is finished. It's like getting your second wind.

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Dahl, Roald. Going Solo

The children's book author relates his adventures learning to fly in World War II and later entering combat missions in Africa and Greece. Riveting as he takes you right into the cockpit with him and tells you his thoughts throughout each step in his aviation and combat experiences. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

So Help Me Golf

Reilly, Rick. So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game. New York : Hatchett 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

When I was one, my family was staying at a mountain cabin in Evergreen, Colorado. Apparently, my dad had hit a rough patch with work and we had no place to live, so we stayed in my grandfather's vacation cabin until things turned around. 

Description:

Do you love or at least enjoy watching or playing golf? The sweeping fairways, the brilliant shot-making, the unbelievable escapes and shanks, and the colorful players themselves? Well, then, I've got the book for you:  Rick Reilly's So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game.

 

This is a collection of his very short pieces about his life playing and writing about golf. Each essay is only 2-4 pages, giving you an clear, often very funny insight into the workings of the game beyond the scores and standings found in general sports reporting. Reilly interviews the ordinary people as well as the stars behind each profile, giving a human touch to every story.

 

And oh, the things you will learn about the game and the figures who make it unique. Here are just a few examples from Reilly's interviews and research:

• Bob Gustafson played 536 rounds of golf in one year, usually about 63 holes a day, rain or shine, which he worked in before work, between job breaks for lunch, before dinner, and a quick nine after dinner;

• In a 1943 German Prisoner of War camp, Stalag Luft 3, American aviator pilots found a woman's 7-iron, pulled together scraps of string and rubber from their boots to make a small ball, and constructed a golf course. (This was the same Stalag where the Great Escape took place, with prisoners digging tunnels underground while others played golf above them.)

• Ricky Meissner, a journeyman player trying to qualify, learned he could make enough money to get to the next tournament by robbing a bank in the tournament town. In one year, he robbed 19 banks before being caught.

• Reilly, while preparing for his Mall of America book signing, noticed there were 200 chairs set up and ropes in place to control the lines of expected attendees. Food and beverage were available. But when he finally got started, only one scruffy man was sitting in the sea of chairs, urging Reilly to give his full presentation. When done, Reilly asked if he had any questions, and the man responded, "Can we eat them cookies?";

• On the Tour, the caddy of the winning player has to buy the other caddies a chicken dinner with beer, originating the phrase, "Winner, winner, chicken dinner."

• After falling from a horse following the second round, Mike Reasor, a 10-year Tour player was still required to play the final two rounds in order to qualify for automatic entry into the next tourney. With a separated shoulder, two torn ribs, and damaged knee ligaments, he went out on Saturday and Sunday with just a 5-iron and putter (those were the only clubs he could swing ...one-handed), and shot 123 and 114...but got his automatic entry into the next tourney;

• World Champion poker player Daniel Negreanu made a $500,000 bet with fellow pro poker player Phil Ivey that Negreanu, in one year, couldn't shoot an 80 on a chosen course. Negreanu took the bet, but ignored practicing for it for 11 months. Finally, in last-minute pratice, managed to shoot an 86. But with one week to go, he started a fantastic round that ended up with one putt on the final green to win that bet: a 5-foot putt worth $100,000 a foot; 

• RJ Smith of Minnesota went out every day with his wife to collect balls while she played (he did not like the game). He'd bring his haul back to their barn, sort them (by brand, number, style, as well as themed ones like NFL teams, Super Bowl balls, car manufacturers, etc.), and eventually collected over 70,000 balls carefully organized into egg cartons and crates.

Sorry to be so long in this review, but there were so many great, funny, off-beat stories to share with you I couldn't decide which ones to choose. Also included in the chapters are Reilly's own stories about his troubled relationship with his alcoholic father, an family environment that drove him to golf.

 

A well-written, humorous, easy-to-get-lost-in book that is perfect for these warmer days of spring and our own chance to get out on the course or at least watch the pros hit their magnificent shots. Enjoy. 

 

Will Rogers said. "Golf is good for the soul. You get so mad at yourself you forget to hate your enemies." 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Reilly, Rick. Who's Your Caddy?

Author Reilly humorously documents the year he spent as a caddy for famous golfers and celebrities, recalling their wisdom, cheating, and his own ineptitude, all the while rejoicing in the beauty of the game of golf.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

Taylor, Elizabeth. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. New York : New York Review Books 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

 

Mrs Palfrey first came to the Claremont Hotel on a Sunday afternoon in January. Rain had closed in over London, and her taxi sloshed along the almost deserted Cromwell Road, past one cavernous porch after another, the driver going slowly and poking his head out into the wet, for the hotel was not known to him. 

Description:

This book is a bit of a switch for me. Short, cosy, quiet, not much action. But Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont got ahold of me with its characters and concise writing style and wouldn't let go until the very surprising end.

 

First published in 1971, Mrs Palfrey is the eleventh of twelve novels written by Elizabeth Taylor (not that Elizabeth Taylor), and  was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Taylor, once one of the most renowned of British women writers, seems to have fallen off the "To Be Read" list of modern readers. But with Mrs Palfrey, I stumbled onto her work and was immediately captivated.

 

Laura Palfrey, the main character, is a recently widowed mother to estranged daughter Elizabeth and equally distant grandson Desmond. She recently decided to move into a modest hotel to live out her days. The Claremont was located in London near the National History Museum and other attractions, favorable points in selecting that hotel although Mrs Palfrey and her other permanent residents in that hotel never have the energy or desire to visit these attractions.

 

While the Claremont is a regular hotel with temporary guests, there are several elderly women and one man who have made it their permanent home. Living sheltered lives of gossip, loneliness, and boredom, these residents exist on routines of checking the daily posted menu for each meal, eating, watching a TV serial, and knitting. The sole male, Mr. Osborne, spends his days writing complaint letters to The Times and buttonholing the hotel staff with dull stories and crude jokes. Mrs Burton, another resident, loves nothing more that obtaining drinks at the hotel bar, while the others content themselves with observing passersby on the street and gossiping about the lives of other people.

At the Claremont, days were lived separately. One sat at separate tables and went on separate walks. The afternoon outing to change library books was always taken alone. 

Highlights for each person is a visit from a relative, even though that is usually a matter of obligation for the visitor. Mrs Palfrey has only one grandson, Desmond, nearby who works in the British Museum and has little interest in visiting her. So Mrs Palfrey, alone in her days, by chance meets an impoverished young writer, Ludo, who becomes a friend and even visits her at the Claremont.

 

The trick: Ludo with Mrs Palfrey's insistence, pretends he is her grandson, Desmond, to show her fellow residents that she, too, has relatives who visit her. For Ludo, Mrs Palfrey gives him ideas for characterization of people in the novel he is slowly writing, so his intentions are not altogether altruistic. But for Mrs Palfrey, he is a godsend to her life and her relationship with the residents.

 

Taylor writes this novel as a series of scenes rather than a narrative. Mrs Palfrey is a keen observer of her world and its inhabitants, as well as the motivations and shortcomings of herself and others. While not much happens in the routine world of the Claremont, each page is full of quiet insights into the behavior of people, something I found fully absorbing. Taylor's writing style is compact, straightforward, yet loaded with insight, compassion, frustration, loneliness, and yes, some humor.

Sometimes when I was a young, married woman, I longed to be freed -- free of nursery chores and social obligations, one's duty, d'you know? And free of worries, too, about one's loved ones -- childish ailments and ageing parents, money troubles....But it's really not to be desired -- and I realise that that's the only way of being free -- to be not needed. 

In rereading this recommendation, I'm not sure my enthusiasm for Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont comes through. But let me assure you, if you are looking for a quiet, challenging, people-centered story of quirky, yet very human characters, you cannot go wrong with this novel. Give it a whirl and see for yourself.

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Willett, Jincy. Amy Falls Down

An elderly woman stumbles and falls in her backyard, only to awaken in a hospital as a celebrity due to something she recently wrote but now no longer remembers. Her quiet life is soon changed. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Moby-Dick

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: or The Whale. Oak Park, IL : Top Five Books 2026. (originally published 1851). Print.

First Sentences:

Call me Ismael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear or every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to the sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

Description:

Please do not be afraid of taking on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: or The Whale. I know, I know, there are many reasons to avoid this masterpiece of literature and history. 

• Too long (600+ pages with 135 (short) chapters); 
• Too much whale info (from species differences to killing to processing to the value/use of spermaciti); 
• Too difficult a language (in 1850s style, why use one adjective and a short sentence when ten adjectives in a 50-word sentence works even better?); 
• Too much symbolism (everything comes in three's, too religious, fate vs. free will, etc.); 
• Too tragic (obsessive, vengeful doomed captain vs. maniacal, equally vengeful whale); 
• I simply don't have the time and don't care about this book.

But you will be denying yourself one of the greatest work of historical fiction ever created. You would want to at least give such an immersive novel a chance, wouldn't you? I thought as much so keep reading. 

 

To warm you up, I have included several more opening sentences above, more than just the first words of this novel. After all, who doesn't know "Call me Ishmael," probably one of the familiar opening three words in literature? 

 

But you need to notice and absorb the rest of these enticingly rich, revealing opening sentences to get a sample of what lies ahead. What you are presented with immediately are the evocative, highly-personal musings of the narrator, Ishmael, as he contemplates his current lack of funds, boredom with life, thoughts of death, the growing dominance of his "hypos," along with a weakening "moral principal" which prevents him from "knocking people's hats off," and his growing attraction to "pistol and ball" to end his life. 

 

To address his musings, Ishmael turns to his usual remedy: he takes to sea and impulsively joins the crew of the Pequod whaling ship.

 

Thus Melville introduces the character whose role is to observe and relate his tale to any land-lubber readers unfamiliar with a seaman's life and whaling. From his first musings and descriptions of the world and people around him, Ismael reveals his serious eye for detail and contemplation, a masterful use of language, and even some humor. He becomes an ordinary man on board a whaling ship in the 1850s among a company of shipmates with distinctive personalities. In these first sentences, we are given a penetrating picture of this thoughtful character.

And his fellow Pequod crew members are all under the leadership of captain Ahab who, Ishmael soon discovers, only took on the captaincy of this whaling ship so he could pursue and take vengeance on Moby Dick, the white whale that chewed off Ahab's leg on a previous voyage. Collecting valuable spermaieti from whales, the PequodI's investing owners' goal, would be only a secondary task to Ahab and his crew.

 

Here are the main characters:

• Ishmael (narrator) - "A simple sailor";
• Quequeeg (harpooner) - A heavily tattooed Islander who could hit a spot of tar across the ship deck with his harpoon (which he shaves with), and a friend to Ishmael;
• Starbuck (First Mate) - Voice of reason who tries to convince Ahab to abandon his quest of vengeance;
• Stubb (Second Mate) - Happy-go-lucky, pipe-smoking officer who enjoys eating raw whale meat; 
• Flask (Third Mate) - "A short, stout, ruddy young fellow...who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him";
• Fedallah (Ahab's harpooner) - Parsee (fire-worshiper) and predictor of the future; 
• Ahab (Captain) - Glowering, facially scarred, peg-legged, tragically-driven, vengeful leader of the voyage and crew.

  

We all know the story of Moby Dick and its tragic ending, so I won't re-tell it here. But beyond the plot, what makes this book fantastic is the depth Melville explores in so many areas. Whether describing the thoughts and actions of Ishmael's crew mates, musing over the roles of Fate vs. Free Will in decision-making, sharing the workings of a real whaling ship and voyage (a significant industry to readers of 1851 when the book was published), and even the cataloging of the different species of whales and harpoons, Melville is the master of observation and encyclopedic knowledge. He intersperses references to Shakespeare and the Bible alongside the history of whaling tools and the men who created and used them. All these inclusions are to support Melville's broad survey of the importance and reality of whaling in the 1850s. 

 

Moby-Dick is not a page-turning thriller although there are many suspenseful situations. It also is not a straightforward story that moves from Point A to Point B clearly and succinctly. If you are looking for a quick distraction, this is not the book for you.

 

Rather, it's as if we, the readers, are placed at a table with a magnificent gourmet feast in front of us. But before we can sample the food, the chef enthusiastically explains the workings behind the meal: from the growing of special crops and meat and their preparation; the people who cultivated and cooked the ingredients; the kitchen layout and utensils employed; the table setting; and even the atmosphere of the room. 

 

While this may sound tedious and frustrating ... "Just let me get on to the food!" you might think ... these vital details reveal the complex world behind the meal, a necessity to fully enhance for the novice diner the gourmet experience and the food itself. Through this chef's concern about presenting these details, we diners come to understand and appreciate the totality of this feast far beyond just the mere consumption of the food. 

 

There are plenty of fast food or even sit-down eating experiences out there if you preger those. No judgment. But Moby-Dick is a "meal" to be contemplated, savored slowly, and appreciated on a variety of levels. If you want a quick bite, an action-based story with everyday characters, you'll not find these in Moby-Dick. 

 

But there is oh, so much more that turns this novel from a hunt for a whale into a higher level that contemplates the battle between predestination, tragic obsession, and commercial whaling. Melville's language is so rich that it cannot be skimmed over. A reader must deliberately slow him/herself down to savor the 19th century words, the layered phrasings, and the concepts possibly unfamiliar to us living 175 years after Melville wrote. 

 

In short, you need to commit yourself to 1850 and life in the whaling industry to fully appreciate and identify with the characters and action of this book just as you would slowly, appreciatively relish each bite of a gourmet dining experience, even if there are courses that are not to your initial liking. It is the entire experience that shines and will stay with you long after the meal is over or the final pages are read.

 

 

 

As an elementary school kid I had repeatedly poured over my Classics Illustrated comic book version of Moby-Dick. (Note: Familiarity with the plots and characters in these 169 graphic interpretations of great novels, e.g. Silas Marner, Pitcarn's Island, Kidnapped, etc., carried me through my English classes in high school, my college BA and Masters in English). Later I had a wonderful high school teacher who took one entire day on the opening sentence of this novel and taught me how to appreciate its enormity. 

 

This month, when I learned that there was a re-release of a 1930 edition of Moby-Dick illustrated by Rockwell Kent, one of my favorites artists (these are his illustrations), I decided it was time to give the novel another, more adult look. Not a glance, not something to be quickly skimmed, but something I really wanted to understand in-depth. And boy, what I ever satisfied.

 

Maybe the 600+ pages is daunting to many readers. Or the language too unfamiliar. Or the diversions in whales, whaling, and the world of 1850 is too tiring to pursue when we have the internet, social media, and the television to captivate us more quickly. 

But I stand here today to highly recommend Moby-Dick  to everyone willing to at least sample, even if only for 50 pages or so, what powerful writing, themes, and stories can be. It will be time well spent, and, if nothing else, something you can brag about to friends and family.

 

[P.S. Those who notice such things may wonder why there is a hyphen in the title, Moby-Dick, but only the unhyphenated name "Moby Dick" is used in the book. No one knows why this is, although the rumor is that Melville's brother changed the proof in the title at the last minute because he liked hyphens, but didn't have time to do so throughout the book. Melville himself used a hyphen in his sea-faring adventure novel, White-Jacket, but really who knows (or cares)?  It's still a fantastic book, with or without a hyphen.]

[P.P.S. Here is a beautiful graphic map to help you understand what happens where and when on the voyage]:   https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/moby-dick-map/

Of course, it gets my Highest Recommendation. Enjoy. And let ne know your thoughts if you do read it or decide to give it a pass. I'm interested.

 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 DeFoe, Daniel. Robinson Caruso

One man is shipwrecked on a deserted island and make his way along, contemplating the world, his fortune, and his survival until jhe discovers a companion.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Dentist

 Sullivan, Tim. The Dentist. New York : Atlantic Crime 2020. Print.

First Sentences:

The young woman standing in front of him was smiling. Cross was sure of this, as her mouth was turned up at both corners, which was a definite sign. He wasn't sure what it meant though, because he didn't know her. 

Description:

It's always a great pleasure to me to discover a new author, particularly one who has written numerous books in a genre I enjoy. In this case, my latest discovery is Tim Sullivan and his initial police procedural mystery, The Dentist. 

 

Detective Sargent George Cross, the main character in this novel, is a brilliant, yet irritating detective for the Major Crime Unit of the Avon and Somerset (England) police force. Cross, while having probably the best criminal conviction rate in the country, is extremely awkward to be around due to his Asperger's Syndrome which puts him on the Autism Spectrum.

 

This condition makes him extremely detail-oriented and relentless in his pursuit of the truth, both pluses for any criminal investigator. But he is also socially inept, unaware of the affect of his words and actions on others, definitely a minus for his department, suspects, and his long-suffering partner, Josie Ottey, and new officer Alice Mackenzie. He abruptly leaves meetings without a word to pursue some new idea, leaving others to wonder what he's up to. It never occurs to him to include them on what is going on in his head unless they specifically ask him.Truly a trying man to be around professionally and socially.

[Ottey] had become his apologist and translator with the rest of the world. She wasn't entirely happy about this....As frustrating as she found Cross and partnering him, it did have its upside. She wouldn't dream of telling anyone else, but she'd learnt a lot from this man. More than she'd care to admit. 

Cross doesn't drive.although he can. Instead,he sometimes opts to be driven (often reluctantly) by his colleagues so he can concentrate on his thoughts en route. He mostly prefers to use his bicycle for transportation when a driver is not available or he is in too much of a hurry to get somewhere.

[At the crime scene] He had arrived on a bicycle, fully kitted out in a dayglo green helmet with a flashing light and digital camera attached to the top, dayglo cycling windbreaker, dayglo bicycle clips round his ankles and a small backpack over his shoulder. He looked more like an eccentric, absent minded, fifty-year-old geography teacher who had lost his way en route to an orienteering field trip...  

In the opening pages of The Dentist, Cross and Ottey are faced with the dead body of an elderly homeless man. Uniformed officers on the scene had already dismissed this death as a "homeless on homeless" situation that likely involved an argument, an escalating fight, and then an intentional or accidental death. The police conclusion? Inconsequential people in a time-waster of a case. 

 

But to Cross the body represented an individual who needed to be understood in order for Cross to recreate at the situation that led to his death by an unknown person.

Cross studied the corpse's face. Who was this man? How did he end up here? Like this? What events in his life led him to this moment? What was his story?

So there you have it. An odd detective, his partner, a rookie staff person, and the rest of the police force working on a case. I can't give any more away. However, if you are looking for careening car chases, shoot-outs, and fist fights, this is not the book or characters for you. This is a police procedural, one where the action is looking for clues, intensively interviewing suspects, rejecting false leads, and sitting around in meetings and thinking. Maybe this sounds dull, but the conversations, interviews of suspects as well as the investigation procedures conductive by intense and sometimes confused (by Cross) colleagues are fascinating to see in "action."

 

Best of all, author Tim Sullivan has written eight (so far) DS George novels. Having read the first three (The Cyclist is the second in the series, then comes The Patient, both equally well-written and compelling), I have five more queued up on my "To Be Read" list. Nice to have a good novel to turn to when other items don't pan out. I'm going to read them in order as there is growth to the characters and their relationships to each other, even in the first two books. Can't wait to dive into the fourth book, The Politician, when I need a reliable story to fill my spare hours.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Baldacci, Davie. Memory Man.

Amos Decker is a man has a memory that remembers every detail, conversation, picture, or situation ... forever. He can never forget the brutal murders of his wife and child, dropping out of the police department and becoming a derelict. But he is reluctantly pulled back into an investigation by a friend who had been on death row but was released after a last-minute confession by another person. Highly interesting and pulse-pounding. Decker is a fascinating character. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

A Marriage at Sea

Elmhirst, Sophie. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck. New York : Riverhead 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

Maralyn looked out at emptiness. There was little to see except the water, shifting from black to blue as the sun rose. A clear sky, the ocean, and themselves: a small boat, sailing west. 

Description:

Survival stories are some of my favorite non-fiction books to read. Combine that setting with a relationship adventure between two free-spirited souls and you have my full attention. So you can see why I now recommend to you Sophie Elmhirst's true adventure account of Maurice and Maralyn [sic] Bailey's shipwreck tale in A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck.

 

Both Maralyn and Maurice were unique personalities. Maurice was a loner, a man who dreamed of a life where he could be his own boss with no meetings or schedules ... free from responsibility to anyone except himself. He was a stutterer, had a hunchback, and once suffered from childhood tuberculosis which caused him to miss quite a bit of school. He made up for these shortcomings through self study and proved himself to the world by becoming a rock climber, a handyman, a pilot, a sailor, and more. 

 

Maralyn was a strikingly pretty woman who lived a sheltered life with her parents. They were people who liked doing things the old ways and kept Maralyn protected from experiencing anything new or challenging. Despite these constraints, Maralyn had become a confident, intelligent woman who simply preferred to be alone, taking walks in the woods, wearing her sister's cast off clothes, and being completely uninterested in anything that others did or said in social situations.

 

Maurice and Maralyn met when Maurice subbed for a friend in a two-person car rally. Maralyn was the driver and Maurice the navigator. She gave Maurice confidence by being interested in his life and decisions, while he opened the world from his real life skills and experiences. They began dating and soon married.

 

But soon, restlessness set in for both of them. They decided to work and save for five years to afford a boat, quit their jobs, then live on the boat, sailing off into the sunset with no plans or destinations, and no bosses. They accomplished those goals, created the boat, and set off.

 

Things went smoothly for the first year at sea until a whale's tale punctured a hole in their boat. They had only a few minutes to gather several items and jump into their inflatable lifeboat.

 

No spoilers in this previous information as all these events happen in the first few pages. But here's where I stop retelling their background and force you to read Marriage at Sea for yourself about how they survived 117 days adrift. What they ate, how they recorded their days, how they reacted to each other, the sharks, the boobies (sea birds), and their failed plan to have giant turtles pull their raft are the stuff of this captivating memoir. They and their story survive, of course, and this book details their daily hopeless grind of survival and relationship.

Doubt grows in emptiness.

I won't detail their days at sea, but if you are like me and enjoy survival stories, this one is for you. One cannot help but marvel as they face and overcome multiple obstacles and maybe, like me, wonder if I would have been as resourceful and hopeful for as long as they did. (Spoiler: probably not very long for me!).

 

It's a gripping tale of adventure, survival, and hope between two very different people who happened to be committed to each other through thick and thin. Fully engrossing and able to keep readers in suspense from the first to the last get to know and understand these unique people in crisis and in their relationship. Hope you like it.  

"We had found self-knowledge, self-reliance and proved our emotional self-sufficiency" recalled Maurice. As if it were an achievement, to need no one else. 

____________________

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi

One young boy from India survives a shipwreck, floating for weeks alone ... except for a giant tiger in the lifeboat with him. 

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

A City on Mars

Weinersmith, Kelly and Weinersmith, Zach. A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?. New York : Penguin 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Wherever you are on this planet, you've recently given some thought to leaving it. Space is looking more promising every day. There's no political corruption on Mars, no war on the Moon, no juvenile jokes on Uranus. Surely space settlement presents the best chance since about 50,000 BC to try out something completely new and leave all the bad stuff behind.

Description:

I'm always interested in all things space-related. A new topic in this area has cropped up recently:  the possibility of flying humans to Mars and creating a permanent settlement there. 

Many exciting possibilities are envisioned in this scenario, including establishing a new environment for humans should the Earth prove unlivable; a chance to put new technology to work; possible mineral riches to be mined; and even the design of a new community free of political and social strife.

 

Husband and wife authors Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith examine every issue imaginable regarding the travel to Mars and a potential settlement there in their new book, A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?  

 

Here they probe into the dreams, reality, and potential obstacles to Mars travel and communities on both Mars and our Moon, including:

• Lack of data for extended time in space; 
• Health issues;
• Space sex, reproduction, and radiation;
• Solar panels, underground lava tubes, and launch sites on the Moon; 
• Martian landscape (-60C with no breathable air, dust storms, and toxic soil);
• Rotating space wheel environments;
• Outer space habitats;
• International space politics and treaties;
• The human factors involved in living in a transportation rocket for six months and then settling in a close-knit colony;
• Advantages and disadvantages of waiting some extended time before trying to colonize Mars;
• Alternative potential space habitation locations (planets, asteroids, other sun systems).  

Each of its six chapters examines a situation for colonizing Mars from a scientific and practical viewpoint. These topics include:

• How space affects human bodies?
• How to stop the effects of radiation?
• Can humans live in an environment with only 2/5 of Earth's gravity?
• What habitats and vehicles work in space?
• How to insure people won't die in space and Mars;
• Is a Mars settlement internationally legal?
• How do we update laws to better accommodate human settlement?
• How can we address the sociology, growth, and reproduction issues?
• Can we actually achieve a successful Mars settlement despite all these obstacles?

The authors outline the popular opinions currently held by many humans:

Space is supposed to: lessen the chance of war, improve politics, end scarcity, save us from climate change, reinvigorate a homogenized and rapidly wussifying Earth, and...make us all as wise as philosophers....The problem is that...these ideas are almost certainly wrong.

They interview scientists, astronauts, biologists, sociologists, and many other experts to try to understand the possibilities and difficulties faced  before each challenge can be addressed. The text is both extensively researched and dryly witty, making this book both highly informative and interesting as well a subtly humorous and casual in its imagery.

[On the Moon] you'd need to cook all the water out of six tons of lunar soil to get the three kilograms of water you need daily to survive, not including cleaning, showering, and the occasional water balloon fight. 

It is a deep probing into the potential and obstacles for space travel and settlements that I found fascinating. If you are into anything about space or simply want to discover what waits us beyond the confines of Earth's protective atmosphere and the possibility of settling on another world, then this is the book for you. Highly readable, informative, and quirky in its (ahem) down-to-Earth humor. Highly recommended. 

Space combines just about every bad environment on Earth, plus a few curve balls like ultra-extreme temperatures, poison-soaked soil, and endless horizons of charged jagged glass. Space settlement is not impossible, but it will be damn hard....

Even is our species never settles Mars, deciding how we might do it is a project that requires objectively awesome and bizarre research and development in almost every field of human endeavor, from artificial wombs to international law.  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

From issues of going to the bathroom, sex, zero gravity, isolation, radiation, transportation, buildings, and crash landings in space, the author interviews experts in the field and even tests equipment and situations about all aspects of space travel and life apart from Earth. Fascinating, easy to read, humorous, and highly informative. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]