The Novel Cure

Berthoud, Ella and Elderkin, Susan. The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness; 751 Books to Cure What Ails You. New York : Penguin 2013. Print.

First Sentences:

This is a medical handbook -- with a difference. First of all, it does not discriminate between emotional pain and physical pain -- you're as likely to find a cure within these pages for a broken heart as a broken leg....But there's another difference, too: our medicines are not something you'll find at the drugstore, but at the bookshop, in the library, or downloaded onto your electronic reading device. 

 

We are bibliotherapists, and the tools of our trade are books.

Description:

Want suggestions of books to read which understand what you are feeling at a specific time? Which can provide characters undergoing the same emotions you are feeling? Which might relieve your mind through laughter, wisdom, or just escapism? Which even can possibly suggest courses of action to ease your mind (or demonstrate roads not to take)?

 

Then check out The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness; 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin. Here you will find one to five titles and short descriptions of several books each relevant to whatever mood you are in and which expand plots and characters facing similar emotions. The authors consider themselves bibliotherapists, playing a similar role as doctors who prescribe specific medicines for specific illnesses of patients.

 

Taking some random flips through this book, I found:

• Flying. Fear of: (see Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery) - describes the fears of a aviator mail carrier wrestling in a flimsy two-seat plane with a cyclone in South America;

• Happiness, Searching for: (see Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury) - describes the conflict of direction faced by a fireman of the future assigned to burn books;

• Pessimism: (see Robinson Caruso by Daniel Defoe) - describes one man shaping his own destiny rather than giving in to circumstances; 

• Risks, Not Taking Enough of: (see The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes) - describes "being drenched in regrets for an underlived life."

There are other special categories with corresponding suggested books and descriptions as well as words of wisdom to deal with each Topic, such as:

• 10 Best Lists - including Audiobooks; Big Fat Tomes; Best Novels for Fortysomethings (every decade milestone is covered); Shocking Novels; Novels to Cheer You Up; For When You're Locked Out; To Drown Out Snoring; For Plane Journeys; To Read in a Hammock"; etc.

• Reading Aliments - including Being a Compulsive Book Buyer, Too Many Children Requiring Attention, Refusal to Give Up Halfway, Put Off By Hype, Seduced by New Books, Tendency to Skim, Desire to Seem Well-Read, Tendency to Read Instead of Live, etc.

Of course, the book is carefully indexed so you can quickly find books by title, author, ailment, or Ten Best lists. 

 

So many book titles I had not heard of but, with their detailed, easy-to-read, often humorous annotations, made me expand my To Be Read list by many, many new temptations.

 

Give it a browse. No need to read it cover to cover as I did just because each new section seemed compelling and full of interesting titles for me. Skim through it and see if you don't find the exact book you need for whatever you are feeling. I'm certain you will find multiple gens just right fir you.

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

 Prose, Francine. What To Read and Why.

Thirty-three short chapters on specific, can't-be-missed books by titles and lucid descriptions, as well as special sections for highly recommended books by subject. (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.]

The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing

Mun, Juhee. The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing. New York : Ten Speed Press. 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like letters. We feel a thrill when we receive them. One of their charms is that we can't see what's inside right away: there's an anticipation in unsealing the mysteries held within.

Description:

Sometimes we need a book that presents a reality that restores our faith in humankind. A world where people are friendly, curious, and good. A place where strangers seek to communicate in a kind manner, displaying their interest in the lives of others on a highly satisfying and very personal level.

Such a book is the delicate, wonderful The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing, by Juhee Mun. Mun opened a small lettershop in Seoul in 2019 called "Geulwoll," which is "a native Korean word, a respectful term meaning 'letter'." In her shop she sells fine writing materials from high end pens and variety of luscious papers to envelopes, stamps and books about writing.

But most importantly what Geulwoll provides the public are letter-writing spaces for people to sit down and actually compose letters. Customers purchase products and often remain in the shop to create  letters.For me, that's an amazingly comforting sight to imagine. 

 

The shop owner/author also is fascinated by her customers and describes her experiences watching and helping them. She writes about her own personal preferences as well, including her best places to write, best times, best opening lines, drafts, endings, and even replies. Here are a few samples of what Mun observes in her shop and life:

• That which takes longer to arrive stays longer in the heart. I think that is why we turn to letters when we want people to remember us;

•  I believe that letter writing is an act of storytelling;

• Letters have the power to remind us of the people who've made us who we are today.

• Respite from loneliness, however brief, isn't found in the grand or the extravagant, but in the little, simple things -- a pleasant autumn breeze, a sweet dessert, or a letter just for me. Within simplicity we find serenity, and though the moment may be fleeting, our hearts grow peaceful for a while.

• When there's something I can't speak out loud, I can still write, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel to do so. Thus I try not to package up the letter solely as something beautiful; otherwise, it's impossible to be authentic as I sit before a blank sheet of paper.

There is also some charming advice that any correspondents might find useful, from selecting stamps to choosing the correct slot in a Korean mailbox, from using a post office itself to delivering the letter by hand. 

The shop also has an anonymous Pen Pal area where people may drop off letters into a box about their lives, questions, problems, etc. They then may select another anonymous letter to simply read or possibly begin corresponding with that stranger via the shopkeeper as go-between to preserve anonymity. 

For a few short hours, I found myself dreamily envisioning myself in Geulwoll, carefully perusing writing papers and even expensive pens for the first time, then settling down in a quiet corner to write to my wife, son, and a few other special people in my life. It's a magical image for me, one that flows throughout this brief book. Maybe it will transport you to that small Korean letter-writing shop as well.

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

 Youngson, Anne. Meet Me At the Museum

Simply a wonderful book about two people corresponding from half a world apart. The gentleness and affection for their worlds and eventually each other is transporting. It's the best. (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.] 

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.]

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.]

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.]

Catapult

Paul, Jim. Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon. New York : Villard 1991. Print.

First Sentences:

It had occurred to me that holding an old rock might be like looking at the stars.

Description:

I first read Jim Paul's Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon when it was published in 1991 (can that really be 35 years ago?) and was very much taken by it. When an article appeared recently in the New York Times Book Review section that revisited this book, I decided to dip into this serious/farcical memoir again.

 

The book details the trials and tribulations of two men trying to build a catapult to launch stones from abandoned military fortification bunker on the cliff side of the Headlands into the San Francisco Bay. Why? Just because it struck them as something to do. One man was an incompetent dreamer, one an irascible skilled builder. Surely, this pair will have an easy time of such a simple project.

 

Got your attention yet? 

 

Author Jim Paul, after finding a billion-year-old pink quartzite rock the size of a grapefruit, got it into his head that this rock needed to be hurled in a magnificent manner...such as with a catapult. This idea intrigued him in theory, helping him to convince his reluctant friend Harry to assist (i.e., design and construct) such a machine. 

 

Armed with a small grant from a local art center, they men researched what a catapult even is or was in olden days. The grant gave them a deadline of three months to build and then employ a catapult to hurl rocks off the San Francisco cliff into the sea. 

 

Two catches: since Federal law forbid bringing weapons onto their lands, Paul had to agree to only launch "fake rocks," a tidbit he kept from Harry who would wash his hands of the project if the catapult was not authentic enough to hurl actual stones. The second grant restriction was there had to be a follow-up public lecture to outline and summarize the project and launch, a notion that terrified Harry who was afraid of both public speaking, but conversely demanded to be included in the presentation out of fear of possibly being given lesser credit. Again, what could go wrong in this scenario?

 

The book details their search for what design their catapult should take, settling on the crossbow style that shot projectiles with immense force, resembling a horizontal crossbow. Now to build one. During the construction phase, they find themselves dealing with various backstreet and polished parts dealers who trafficked in springs, steel, wire, wood beams, welding, etc. 

 

Author Paul also delves into carefully researched history of such related topics as the origins of catapults, Archimedes, Alexander the Great, and the influences these had on the world: making castle walls obsolete and empires possible; the development of steel; and the construction, purpose, and effectiveness of the San Francisco Headlands military barricades where they would test their catapult.

 

The pressure builds as the deadline approaches. Their hunt for obscure but necessary jury-rigged parts and design changes as well as their personal relationships with each other and their families rising to the forefront of their project. Will they meet the deadline? Will the launch be successful? How about that lecture? And what happens when the project actually is completed?

 

A really enjoyable about the process to make a wacky dream become a reality. Every step was new to them, from design to parts, to labor, to testing (if they were ever even to construct a model).

 

I loved their passion, their frustrations with the progress and each other, their discoveries in hidden supply stores, the people they met, and their purposeful, dogged strides toward their goal. A wonderful, inspiring, funny, historically edifying tale well worth your time to read.

  

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

 Hutchison, Patrick. Cabin: Off the Grid with a Clueless Craftsman.

One man tries to salvage his dilapidated family cabin, despite knowing virtually nothing of carpentry (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.]

The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis

Woolaver, Lance. The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis. Nova Scotia : Nimbus 1994. Print.

First Sentences:

Nova Scotia is a rural province, as far removed from the great cities as any back-to-the-lander might wish. Yet when a Nova Scotian wants to call up the name of a faraway place, he is likely to turn towards Yarmouth, a county of fishing and farming communities, home to such names as Hebron, Hectanooga, Chegoggin and the birthplace of Maud Lewis.

Description:

For those of you who enjoyed the 2016 film, Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke about the crippled folk painter, Maud Lewis, you will love The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver. For those of you unfamiliar with this remarkable woman and her simple life in a remote region of Nova Scotia, well, all I can say is look into this short biography and gaze on her beautiful paintings and the note cards she sold for a few dollars from in front of her house on an isolated road. 

 

 

 

Whether familiar with Maud Lewis or not, Maud Lewis is a treasure of clear writing, researched details, photographs, and, of course, colorful paintings. Maud was born with severe birth defects around the turn of the century, afflictions that rounded her back and caused her constant pain through arthritis, especially in her hands. She endured constant teasing from schoolmates and only achieved a fourth-grade education due to constant absences for health reasons.

 

Trying to achieve an independent life after the death of her parents, she answered a scrap want ad posted by Everett Lewis on the local general store bulletin board asking for a live-in housekeeper and cook. Lewis was currently living a simple life by selling fish, firewood, and handyman work at the poor house/orphanage that adjoined his one-room house, the same poor house where he was raised. A notable miser, he hoarded his money and refused to get electricity, gas, or running water in his house until his death.

 

He hired Maud as housekeeper, but soon they both realized that, due to her physical limitations, she could not handle cooking, cleaning, and other chores. So Maud began to paint, a skill she had dabbled with her entire life. She covered every surface of their tiny house with tiny birds, flowers, and butterflies, from cupboards to windows, from their salvaged stove to tables, walls, and doors. What was once a ramshackle shed soon became a charming, colorful home. 

 

 

 

Everett scrounged for Maud brushes and leftover paint abandoned in trash piles and empty homes. Besides her house, Maud's painting surfaces were cardboard boxes and slats of wood, wall paper, particle board, and Masonite panels. Whatever paint cans he found were the colors Maud used in her paintings. 

 

When a few passersby on the road noticed her decorated house, Everett (Maud was too shy) showed them her other paintings and sold them for small amounts of money. She painted and then posted a sign outside their front door and began a roadside business. Everett did the selling and took all the earnings, putting it in jars and then burying them in their yard. He even took over the household chores of cooking, cleaning, and washing to free Maud to paint more. Maud enjoyed her new life with freedom to paint, a roof over her head, basic food to eat, and "a much-needed sense of worth."

 

 

 

And the paintings? Since she rarely left her chair by the window, they were created from her memories and imagination. Farm scenes, town buildings, cats, butterflies, birds, and cows were her favorite subjects. There were few people portrayed, but those men pictured driving a cart or hauling lumber were always wearing a red cap and checked shirt just like Everett. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved reading about her quiet life where she accepted bitter winters, poverty, a miserly husband, and a few scavenged art materials. She constantly demonstrated that she was a survivor who pursued her art with whatever was at hand, depicting the scenes she remembered from childhood or could envision in her imagination.

 

This is a book full of charm, beauty, and Maud's perseverance over major obstacles. Author Woolaver and photographer Bob Brooks combined thorough research along with historic photographs of Maud, Everett, their family, and the world they lived in to produce this colorful, revealing book. Highly recommended for art lovers and anyone just interested in the life of a woman who pursued the drive of her desires: to paint for its own beauty.

 

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

 Kane, William and Gabrielle, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story.

Very readable and informative background stories and explanations of the most famous works by artists including Michaelango, Da Vinci, Ver Meer, Degas, Manet, and many more. (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.]