O Pioneers

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers. New York : Everyman's Library. 1913. Print.

First Sentences:

One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings, huddles on the gray prairie, under a gray sky. The dwelling houses were set about haphazard on the tough prairie sod; some of them looked as if they had been moved in overnight, and others as if they were straying off by themselves, headed straight for the open plain. 

Description:

Right from the openng sentences, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather pulls readers into the windswept tiny settlement of Hanover, Nebraska at the turn of the nineteenth century. One cannot help but picture the desolation, the cold, and the emptiness that surrounds the people who are trying to scratch out a new town and solidify their own lives against tremendous obstacles. They are immigrants, German, Bohemian, Czech, and Swedish, who are shaped by the land as much as they try to wrestle the same land to work for them.

This novel first brought author Cather to the attention of the literary world as it sparingly recounts the courage, fortitude, and resourcefulness of one woman, Alexandra Bergson, a Bohemian daughter with two younger brothers. 

As her father began to weaken with a long illness, he turned over the operational decisions of the farm to his eldest daughter, Alexandra. His decision was constantly challenged by her two strong but less-mentally capable brothers who did the heavy work in the fields and felt they should have more say in the land's future. 

 

After the father's death, the acreage was equally divided among the three siblings with each having completelcontrol over a segment. But is is Alexandra and her section which succeeds, further evoking the complaints and envy of her brothers. Faced with natural forces of drought and stubborn soil, as well as the doubts of her two brothers over her management ideas, Alexandra definitely became a force to be reckoned with.  

Years pass and Alexandra began to make the farm flourish and even expand. But there is a cost. She becomes isolated from the one man who clearly loves her and courts her to no avail. She is simply too busy dealing with the everyday challenges and decisions of a struggling farm, as well as planning for its future.

How terrible it was to love people when you could not really share their lives!

O Pioneers! is the first of Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy series (along with My Antonia and Song of the Lark), all set in the plains of Nebraska in the early 1900s. (She eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours). I have only read My Antonia and had the same admiration and warm feeling about the Nebraska land, the time, and the families. My Antonia is an equally absorbing novel which follows the lives of two children who grow up together on the prairies. I recommend both books for lovers of great writing, setting, and characters. 

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

 Young, Carrie. Nothing To Do But Stay

Memoirs of a woman living alone on the prairies of North Dakota after her husband died. The enthralling stories of her keeping a household, raising children, and surviving by cooking for field workers make this book a wonderfully engrossing read with my highest recommendation.   (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.]

Mostly True

O'Neill, Molly. Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball. New York : Schribner 2026. Print.

First Sentences:

Every one of my five brothers was born to play ball. For a long time it wasn't clear which of the boys would make it to the major leagues, but we had no doubt that The One was among us. We were the chosen. I do not recall a single moment of my childhood in which I was not imagining my family;'s life -- or my own -- as an epic tale. 

Description:

Author/chef/restaurant critic Molly O'Neill was raised in Columbus, Ohio, the first of six children. Unfortunately, in her eyes, all five of her siblings were rough and ready boys. Each time her mother informed her that she was pregnant, they both tried everything they could think of to produce a girl. Yet the inevitable hospital call from her father was always the same: "You have a new little brother."

 

While her youngest brother, Paul, because a Hall of Fame player with the New York Yankees, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball, is not a baseball book. The vast majority of the memories recounted are about Mollie, the narrator, as she survives living with her rowdy family of men and her once-wealthy, fastidious mother. 

 

Early on, Mollie is allowed to help her mother prepare complicated meals and desserts for the family including a fresh pie every day. Together, they also cooked lavish delicacies for last-minute parties hosted by a rich uncle living nearby who her mother dreamed would repay them with wealth one day for all these special meals (Spoiler alert: he didn't). When left on her own, Mollie continually let her curiosity and creativity take command in the preparation of various dishes...not just a few of which ended in splendid disaster.

 

As O'Neill grew into her college years, perfecting her culinary explorations and expanding her menus, she looked for a career that would allow her to keep preparing food. Meanwhile, she worked two jobs, volunteered, kept up with feminist literature, and attended anti-war rallies. She cooked every night for her roommates and a dozen or more friends who spontaneously stopped by for meals. 

 

She eventually landed in an Italian eatery in Provincetown, preparing salads and triumphing over the obstacles intentionally put in front of her by the owner who disliked her, such as lugging cases of products to storage. Shucking oysters was her Waterloo, struggling and struggling with the task until finally mastering it, earning the other cooks' respect.

 

Other restaurant stops followed, as well as a long friendship with Julia Child. A few of her articles on cooking gradually gave her a stellar culinary reputation and subsequently a job as food critic for The Boston Globe. Soon she was authoring her own cookbooks.

 

Of course, there is space for stories about her childhood with her brothers, watching with embarrassment as they terrorized the neighborhood with their yelling and flying balls. One neighbor refused to give back errant balls until he eventually packed to move and returned boxes of balls which he had collected. Her brothers even went through a period where they decided pooping in neighbors' yards was a thing, and encouraged this activity with other neighbor children. Each night after coming home from work, Mollie's father had to go to one or more neighbor's house to settle their complaints. 

 

The brothers regularly showed up at friends' houses and subtly coerced other boys to practically give away valuable baseball cards or risk the wrath of five O'Neill boys: 

[Their implied "consequences" left Pat] with a museum-quality collection of ten thousand cards and left most kids in Beechwold lousy with doubles of players who never made it past their rooking year....Pat was the brains. Mike was the muscle. Kevin and Robert were the foot soldiers.

Once, through her distraction, Mollie almost allowed her five-year-old brother, Paul, be killed by a car. Although instructed not to cross the street unless holding his hand, she had been absorbed in exploring a leaf fort in the park. Paul, seeing her, darted across the street to meet her and was hit. Eighteen hours of surgery to remove brain shards fixed him up. Of course, Mollie lied to her mother about what had happened:

"The nuns made me cross the street...They wouldn't let me stand there. I told him to wait for me. It's not my fault."

[Mollie noted] Of course, I had a distinguished history of lying to my mother. I lied to ease her worries, I lied to make her laugh. I lied to entertain us both. Under normal circumstances, I lied without compunction, without a second thought, and with significant elan.

Such are a few of the delightful recollections of O'Neill about her family life in Ohio and later in other cities. It's an engrossing memoir of the ups and downs of family, rebellion, goals, triumphs and failures as Molly climbed the ladder from eldest child to college radical to short order cook to critic and writer. Her inside thoughts, funny, wise, and always confident, are fully shared with us lucky readers as she tries to figure out and tackle each step in her life.

 

I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone who loves wry humor, family relationships, culinary arts, and simply great, warm, humorous writing. 

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

 Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages

The really very funny memoir of the family life of this author who, despite her raising of children, still found time to write spell-binding novels and short stories (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.]

  

After the Fire

 Mankell, Henning. After the Fire. New York : Vintage 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

My house burned down on an autumn night almost a year ago. It was a Sunday.

Description:

Henning Mankell writes more than the captivating thrillers with Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallenger. He can also create brooding novels with off-beat characters who experience unusual situations. One piece of evidence is my latest read: After the Fire. 

 

As the opening sentence (a compelling beauty, right?) sets the scene, the narrator, Fredrik Welin, has lost his family cabin and everything he owns except for the pajamas and overcoat he was wearing when he fled the fire. Only the bright light of the burning ceiling woke him up and allowed him to escape. 

 

But investigation showed that the fire was an arson and Welin is under suspicion that he is the person responsible. And then a second house is burned down, but Welin is still regarded as a possible arson suspect.

 

The novel recounts, through Welin thoughts and words, information about himself as a retired surgeon now living a solitary life in the family cabin on an isolated island in northern Sweden. He has his own routines, including a morning plunge into the lake by his cabin, even during winter when he has to chip away a hole in the ice.

 

We read about his wandering, estranged daughter who has only had sporadic communication with him for years, but who has  arrived on the island after hearing about the fire to inspect the damage and share news of her own life.  

 

Welin talks about interactions with the community in which he lives and the ordinary, if somewhat quirky townspeople he encounters. There is the former postman Jansson who seems to know and share every rumor and was generally assumed to read all mail before delivering it. A local newspaper reporter arrives to write a story about the fire and captures Welin's attention. Then there is the unknown person who visits Welin's campsite and leaves it in pristine order after departure.

 

While this may sound like a simple story, in the hands of a master like Mankell, there are mysteries all around. Some are only hinted at, seen out of the corner of Welin's eye and which he cannot determine whether they are just an ordinary situations or possibly hold a key to the happenings in the community. Learning about these people and happenings are quietly unfolded in this engrossing novel. It puts you right in the midst of the cold isolation of a small town experiencing two (and maybe more in the future?) arson cases.

 

So plunk down in a cosy chair and sink yourself into the isolated world of northern Sweden with all its subtle goings-on. A very nice way to spend some time. 

 

 

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

Mankell, Henning. The Pyramid

Five short stories about the back story of Swedish Investigator Kurt Wallander, how he came onto the police force and early cases, all sprinkled with details of his early personal life.. (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.]

Wild Dark Shore - New First Sentence Reader recommendation

McConaghy, Charlotte. Wild Dark Shore. New York : Flatiron 2025. Print.

 

First Sentences:

I have hated my mother for most of my life but it is her face I see as I drown.

Description:

The setting of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is an isolated island near Antarctica, 1500 miles from the nearest landmass. It is the home of an international seed preservation vault along with an non-functioning lighthouse. A family of four lives on this bitterly cold island, hired to oversee the seed vault ("built to withstand anything the world could throw at it; it was meant to outlast humanity"). They regularly check the temperature, any water leakage, and make any repairs to the equipment needed to maintain the vault and its contents. 

They are joined occasionally on this island by scientists studying the environment, animals, weather, and of course, the seed vault. Then, too, there are thousands of seals, penguins, walruses, albatrosses, whales, and other marine animals who, due to their isolated separation from humans, have no fear of the other inhabitants of this lonely site. The family members can freely intermingle among this wildlife.

This is a strong family, with deep ties to each other and acceptance of their roles on their close-knit team to complete the daily tasks set by their stern father to keep the vault and their own lives thriving.

 

You are not meant to have favorites, but my youngest is that...Not because we are least alike; That is my daughter and me. Maybe it is because he is curious and kind and so smart it can make your eyes water. Maybe it's because he whispers to the wind and hears its voice in return. Most likely I don't know why. But it may also be because, for one brief moment long ago. I wished him dead. 

Into this world during a tremendous storm, they discover woman's body floating offshore amongst the rocks. When the body is retrieved, the family is astonished to find woman is somehow alive. What she is doing in this part of the ocean is a mystery she keeps to herself as she slowly recovers and eventually joins the family in maintaining their work and lifestyles.

 

But she is not the only one hiding secrets. Each of the family members is carefully guarding their own individual secrets as well as possibly a bigger family secret. And the scientists? They've all recently left the island rather suddenly. They have noticed the sea water rising on the island due to global warming, signaling the end of their living quarters, experiments, and even the seed vault itself. But they have mysteriously decided to leave before the precious seeds were prepared to be moved to a safer location via the next supply ship...which is not scheduled to come for eight weeks. 

 

Worst of all, the family has only recently found that the entire communication system for the island was intentionally destroyed beyond repair. Coupled with the fact that all the electricity was knocked out by the storm that brought the woman into their lives, they realize that they have to rely on batteries, chargers, and their wits to move prepare the seeds until the supply ship comes. And also survive.

 

And that is how this engrossing book starts. Each brief chapter focuses on one of the characters, delving into each mind to reveal their thoughts, musings over decisions, rationalizations for their actions, and how they envision their own and their family's future. We slowly learn their secrets, get insight into their personalities, and understand the histories that affect their individual decisions.

 

This is a story of the power of love, of family, of duty, and of survival. All characters face the challenges of isolation, weather, tragedy, and family members every day as they fight to preserve the historic seeds and address relationships with those on the island and from their past. 

 

I loved this book and give it my highest recommendation. It is absorbing, tautly challenging, and completely unpredictable right up to its very edge-of-your-seat ending. Un-put-down-able.

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

 Stedman, M.L. The Light Between Oceans.

A young couple, caretakers for a working lighthouse, find washed ashore on their remote island a small boat containing a baby. Should they try to find its parents or remain quiet and keep the child as their own? (Previously reviewed here.)

Stonex, Emma. The Lamplighters.

A historic novel based on the sudden disappearance of all three lighthouse keepers from their isolated station. When searched, the lighthouse was found to be in immaculate condition. But the men left no trace of their fate and they were never found. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 490 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

I Leave It Up to You

Chong, Jinwoo. I Leave It Up to You. New York : Ballentine 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

Waking up is an easy thing to do. To be asleep, then not. To be a mind out there in the dark with no ground underneath, no legs or arms,no chest, no blood pumping in rhythmic bursts up my neck,no body at all, no hands, no hair or eyes, no ass or dick. Yes, sir, just your eyeless, handless, assless, dickless self just handing out there in space for forever until suddenly, you're not. Because suddenly is in fact the best word I can think of to describe it.


Description:

Jinwoo Chong's captivating novel, I Leave It Up to You, has a simple premise. After a man unexpectedly wakes up from a coma after almost two years, how does he put his life back together? How does he understand a world that has experienced COVID and he has not? How does he reconnect with friends, family, lovers, and his own past? And where will these questions and answers lead him as he tries to move forward with his life?

 

Jack Jr., the narrator, is a Korean twenty-something man who, in the first pages, suddently, unexpectedly wakes up in a hospital room from a two-year, medically-induced coma. Struggling to figure out what happened to bring him to this place, how long he has been away from the world, and what this all means to the reality he now faces is fascinating to watch unfold from his point of view. Ironically, he finds he can remember everything about his past with the exception of the exact events which landed him in the hospital and his ensuing coma.

Why did my entire body feel like vibrating air? Like Jell-O? Like it was broken in every conceivable place and hastily put back together again by someone with only a loose understanding of the human body and which of its parts fit into each other?....Thinking coherent thoughts felt a little like trying to juggle a pack of angry puppies that didn't want to be anywhere near me... 

Jack Jr. remembers his partner Ren, but wonders why he has had no contact with that very personal friend since awakening. He also senses a hesitation from his family and hospital staff when asked about Ren. Jack Jr. does recall a rift with his family that made him move from their home in New Jersey ten years ago and his refusal to have any dealings with them for the past ten years. And he remembers a strong rejection while working in the struggling family sushi restaurant run by his elderly, highly skilled father. 

But now he knows he needs to move forward as well as recreate his past. Upon leaving the hospital, he tries to find Ren, work to understand his father and the sushi restaurant that consumes him, and explore new relationships both with his family and new people who become important figures to his growth.

 

This is a quiet novel, an introspection of the world and people as seen through the mind and eyes of a conflicted, confused, but wondering individual. It is also a vision of how once-close people react and adapt to someone who was taken from them for years and has suddenly returned to be a part of their lives -- or to reject them again.

[For the people waiting for him to wake from the coma]  It was not a tight, quick wound that hurt the most in the first few seconds. I bet it was slow. I bet it was like putting your hand in a  pot of cold water and turning on the stove.

I was completely absorbed by this book and the detailed characters it presented. The challenges they all faced, from family and friends trying to deal with Jack Jr.'s return and state of mind, to Jack Jr. himself and his attempts to understand the world and his newly restored life, make every page one of discovery, growth, failure, communication, uncertainty, and questions. For readers, it is a very interesting, challenging way to spend a few days, introducing you to complex people while making you wonder from page to page how the characters will fare and what roads they will take.

It was a beautiful, lucky place to be, to know someone as well as you possibly could, to know what to do to make them better. And for now, in the universe of things we had left to say, this would have to be enough. 

 

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

Feeney, Alice. Sometimes I Lie.

The narrator wakes up in a hospital room, unable to move any part of her body or respond to her husband and sister who visit. But, unbeknownst to them, she can still hear and unbeknownst to them listens in on their conversations. Through these overheard talks, she tries regain her memory and puzzle out the situation that brought her to this condition. Twists, turns, lies, deceptions, and mysteries abound in this delicious novel. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

So Far Gone

Walter, Jess So Far Gone. New York : HarperCollins 2025. Print.

 

First Sentences:

A prim girl stood still as a fencepost of Rhys Kinnick's front porch. Next to her, a cowlicked boy shifted his weight from snow boot to snow book. Both kids wore backpacks. On the stairs below them, a woman held an umbrella against the pattering rain...."We aren't selling anything," said the boy. He appeared to be about six. "We're your grandchildren."


Description:

Rhys Kinnick chose to become a recluse. One day, simply fed up with his work as a newspaper columnist on environmental issues, the world in general, and his own life in particular, he walked off his job. He left his home and drove to an almost-abandoned deep woods cabin built by his grandfather, unoccupied and rarely visited now. There he lived off the grid for seven years -- no phone, no internet, no television, no outside communication -- peacefully, collecting books to be read for pleasure or research for a possible future book he was writing. He slowly erased himself from everything.

I felt like the world was drifting in one direction and I was going the other way. 

But the appearance of his grandchildren, Asher and Leah, on his porch, and a note from his daughter held by the kids' neighbor who brought them, changed his life. 

Dear Anna. If you're reading this, I had to leave in a hurry. I know this is a lot to ask but can you take the kids to my father, Rhys Kinnick. He is a recluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane....

Rhys' daughter, Bethany, had to flee from her husband Shane who recently had become an extreme religious fanatic and planned to forcibly move their family into The Rampart, an armed religious community of similar ultra far-right souls. He had frequently argued with Bethany that she was an unfit mother for not bowing to his demands and his position as husband and father, finally threatening to take sole custody of their young children and make this move with or without her consent.

Rhys awkwardly takes in the young children. But the next day at Asher's chess tournament, they are confronted by two armed thugs from The Rampart. Acting on the orders of the children's father, the roughnecks beat up Rhys, violently grab the children, and take off with them. 

It is now up to Rhys, along with the help of a retired detective, a Native American neighbor, and his ex-girlfriend to try to locate and take back his grandchildren from the religious fortress. But even if he does find and reclaim his grandchildren, what then?

This may sound like a fairly common, straightforward tale, but in the hands of a skilled author like Jess Walter, all the elements found in a quality book -- great plot, writing, characters, and setting -- play important, unpredictable roles in the unspooling of this tale. Relationships are created, challenged, destroyed, and renewed throughout the book, with characters both rising to the challenges facing them and alternatively failing to reach their own desired goals. 

The story and people grow closer to readers until you simply have to keep reading to peek at what will occur next, find out how a person could possibly escape a situation, or watch from between fingers over your eyes whether impending violence will take place and what the outcome will be.

It's a compelling read full of conflicting emotions, bravery, hiding, and throughout it all, an underlying love for family and friends. Well-written, wonderfully paced, and chock full of interesting people and situations, So Far Gone is a highly worthwhile read for just the pleasure of good writing and all the other elements that make a great read.

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

 Haruf, Kent. Plainsong

Two elderly bachelor farmer brothers take in a pregnant teenage girl, protect her from an abusive boyfriend and help her adjust to a life on an isolated farm in a small town. Wonderfully touching and honest. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

 

Fred

Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

The Girl With No Shadow

Harris, Joanne. The Girl With No Shadow. New York: HarperCollins 2007. Print.

First Sentences:

 

It is a relatively little-known fact that, over the course of a single year, about twenty million letters are delivered to the dead. People forget to stop the mail -- those grieving widows and prospective heirs -- and so magazine subscriptions remain uncancelled; distant friends unnotified; library fines unpaid....You can learn a lot from abandoned mail: names, bank details, passwords, e-mail addresses, security codes...A gift, as I said, just waiting for collection. 

Description:

Having enjoyed the film Chocolat with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, I stumbled onto the novel Chocolat by Joanne Harris on which the movie was based. I was surprised to discover that there are three additional books about Vianne Rocher, chocolatier (chocolate maker) extraordinaire. While I am not usually attracted to books of fantasy and magic, I took the plunge into The Girl With No Shadow, the second in the series, just because I was curious to read what new adventures awaited the heroine and her daughter, Anouk, several years after the ending of Chocolat.

In Girl With No Shadow, Vianne, eleven-year-old Anouk, and four-year-old daughter Rosette, have set up a new chocolaterie in another tiny French village. We soon learn that they have fled from their previous city after the boatman Roux's boat was burned up. They have changed their names to Madam Yanne Chargonneau and Annie. The small, but growing chocolate shop they take over originally sold only pre-packaged chocolates, but when the owner died, Yanne/Vianne begain making her own delicacies, much to the delight of the townspeople.

Cooling [chocolate] acquires a floral scent; of violet and lavender papier poudre. It smells of my grandmother, if I'd had one, and of wedding dresses kept carefully boxed in the attic, and of bouquets under glass. 

Into their lives drifts the exotic woman, Zozie, who joins the shop as a helper and companion to Annie and her tiny sister Rosette while Yanne is cooking. But Zozie seems to have a hidden background and certainly some unusual talents with magical symbols and words which seem to attract customers and encourage them to eat. The chocolaterie becomes more popular and thus these outsiders become part of the tiny community.

Narrated in turn by the four individual characters, Zozie, Yanne, Annie, and even the mute Rosette, the plot slowly unfolds as somewhat ominous, like glimpsing a darting light out of the corner or your eye. Who exactly is Zozie and what is her purpose for befriending Yanne and Annie? Who are Yanne/Vianne and Anouk/Annie and why did they continue to roam the world and only temporarily settle down before moving on? Why is Rosette silent and underdeveloped for a toddler? And what about the villagers, especially the wealthy Monsieur Thierry, who owns the building with their apartment and chocolaterie, and who has a huge, slightly overpowering crush on Yanne? 

To be a mother is to live in fear. Fear of death, of sickness, of loss, of accidents,of strangers, or simply those small everyday things that somehow manage to hurt us most: the look of impatience, the angry word, the missed bedtime story, the forgotten kiss, the terrible moment when a mother ceases to be the center of her daughter's world and becomes just another satellite orbiting some less significant sun.

It's a dreamy, captivating, and slightly ominous book that certainly engrossed me from start to finish. It gives up its secrets behind the characters ever so slowly, sometimes confusing readers as to who exactly is narrating a particular chapter. While the writing style and pace may lull you. the plot and characters keep you alert right up to the frantically-paced end.

Everything comes home, my mother used to say; every word spoken, every shadow cast, every footprint in the sand. It can't be helped: it's part of what makes us who we are.

I really loved it and hope you will too.

 

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

  

Harris, Joanne. Chocolat.   

First of four books about Vianne Rocher, the mysterious chocolatier, along with her daughter Anouk who blow into a small French town one windy day and create a wondrous chocolate shop. Vianne has the skill to predict what each townsperson's favorite chocolate delicacy is, choices which seem to cause changes in their lives. But her presence and personality somehow pose threats to others in the village. Wonderfully written with fascinating characters.

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

 

At Ease

Eisenhower, Dwight D. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends. New York: Doubleday 1967. Print.

First Sentences:

Talking to oneself in Abilene, in the days of my youth, was common enough. Generally speaking, it was a sure sign of senility or of preoccupation with one's worries. Now, it is nationally advertised as the hallmark of the efficient executive.


Description:

I enjoy biographies and autobiographies as much as the next person. However, some can be a bit pedantic in their attention to major occurrences in the subject's life, details that paint the person as a highly important figure. Maybe not as honest a picture as I sometimes hope for.

But President (and author) Dwight D. Eisenhower took a new approach. Assuming that every event in his life as a military, political, and academic figure had already been covered by multiple biographers, Eisenhower decided to honestly and humbly tell a behind-the-scenes series of episodes in his life that truly reveal his character. 

His collection of these reminiscences, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, reveal his thoughts, dreams, conversations, decisions, ambitions, and failures in such an casual, often humorous manner that you feel he is talking just to you as a intimate friend, revealing himself and how occurrences that shaped his life and even the world really happened.

The book spans Eisenhower's years from birth in Kansas and childhood in Texas, training at West Point, military career, family life, and being nominated to run for president just as he was just settling in as president of Columbia University. Each episode in between is matter-of-factly unfolded as Eisenhower "talks" about situations and people that affected his life.

Early years

• As a five-year-old he finally overcame the torment dished out by a huge gander by taking a stick to defend himself, and thus admitted he learned "Never to negotiate with an adversary except from a position of strength."
• A great reader of history, he so neglected his chores that his mother locked his books in a closet ... an effective punishment until Eisenhower found the key one day and continued to read whenever his mother was not present.

West Point

• Admitted, "Where else could you get a college education without cost?" 
• Assigned to the "Awkward Squad" for his inability to march with coordination. 
• In his first weeks, just after learning how to salute every officer, he tried three times to salute a highly-decorated man he passed in uniform, only to discover he was saluting the local drum major.
• As punishment from an upperclassman, he and a friend had to report in "full dress coats," which they did, but did not put on any other clothes. 
• His disciplinary file, partially reprinted in the book, reveals him to rank 125th in discipline out of 162 cadets.

Family

• The first time he met his future wife, Mamie, she accompanied him on his Fort Sam Houston guard duty patrol.
• At Camp Colt in Gettysburg, PA, the base suffered an outbreak of Spanish Influenza that killed many men. Ike, his family, and staff were spared due to an experimental nasal spray and throat medicine given by the camp's doctor.
• He and Mamie lost their two-year-old first born son, Ikky, to Scarlet Fever, “the greatest disappointment and disaster in my life, the one I have never been able to forget completely."

Military

• He had a long-time friendship with George Patton, and constantly tried to stop his friend from making controversial statements in public.
• Learned to fly at age 46, 30 years after the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, where he communicated with the ground by dropping paper messages tied to rocks, then flying low to buzz buildings until someone came out to see what was up and retrieve his notes.
• His WWII orders were "Land in Europe and, proceeding to Germany, destroy Hitler and all his forces." There was nothing about invading Berlin, something Eisenhower was widely criticized for not pursuing.

Columbia University

• Took over for the previous University president who had served in that office for more than 50 years. Eisenhower was not recognized as the new president and denied access by a watchman to the president's office on his first Saturday when the university offices were closed
• Eisenhower felt his greatest contribution to Columbia was that he persuaded their beloved football coach stay at Columbia rather than taking the coaching job at rival Yale.

Anecdote after story is gracefully rolled out by a master storyteller. Each insight, carefully woven into a chronological timeline of his life's events, is captivating and insightful. While there is little about the specifics of WWII battles, there is plenty about his discussions with his officers, advisors, and other military leaders as well as the results of his decisions.

The book ends as Eisenhower reluctantly gives up his position as Columbia's president to accept the nomination (which he did not desire) to run for President of the United States. 

Please give this book a try if you have interest in great storytelling, interesting people, and the life of one important figure in American history. I loved it and now feel a new respect for President Dwight Eisenhower the man as well as the military figure and academic leader. Now, I just need to look for a follow-up book by him detailing his later years.

The making of history, the shaping of human lives, is more a matter of brief incidents, quiet talks, chance encounters, sudden flashes of leadership or inspiration, and sometimes simple routine than it is of heroes, headlines, grand pronouncements, or widely heralded decisions.

 

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

Sassoon, Sigfried. The Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: (Book Two in the The Memoirs of George Sherston trilogy) .   

A fictionalized but very realistic depiction of World War I in France as seen through the eyes and mind of an French officer./ Based on Sigfried Sassoon's real heroic life and later disillusioned memories of his military experiences during that War, including his eventual pacifism and protest to end the conflict. 

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

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