An Unsung Hero

Smith, Michael. An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Arctic Survivor New York : Gill Books, 2000. Print.

First Sentences:

Thomas Crean was born on 20 July 1877 at Gurtachrane, a remote farming area a short distance to the west of the village of Anascaul on the Dingle Peninsula, in Ireland's County Kerry....The Contrast with the hostile, frozen Antarctic Continent where Crean would carve a remarkable career could hardly be more stark.

Description:

I've always been drawn to non-fiction memoirs, biographies, and re-tellings of explorations, adventures, resourcefulness, and survival under difficult conditions. How do these people overcome the obstacles they face daily? Where do they get the strength and will to press on? Sometimes I even wonder how I would have fared should I have been alongside these brave people (No question here, I would have done poorly and given up at a very early stage).

 

Thomas Crean is not a man who gave up. While his name is not familiar to most of us, I was given his biography by friends who visited a museum in Ireland dedicated to his exploits. He was a survivor, a conqueror of more than a few death-defying situations, and someone truly respected by the great Arctic explorers of his time, enough so that they requested him accompany them on several dangerous expeditions to that unknown world.

 

Thomas Crean was a shipmate with Ernest Shackleton on Robert Falcon Scott's ambitious  voyage to explore for the first time Antarctica, an "unknown and hostile territory." This was to be a hugely dangerous but prestigious and widely popular undertaking.

The Discovery expedition to one of the world's last unconquered spots had aroused huge interest in the English-speaking world. It was regarded by many as something of a virility symbol for Britain at a time when the Victorian age had finally drawn to a close, and the Empire was under severe strain in places like South Africa and Ireland.

Thomas Crean, an Irish seaman assigned to another ship helping to outfit Scott's Discovery for the expedition, was chosen to replace a discharged Discovery crew member at the last minute and thus gained a spot on the voyage and an introduction to the Antarctic. Although Crean proved popular with mates and officers alike, it was Scott himself who doomed the voyage.

[Scott] determined that the expedition would use traditional British methods of traveling, which meant man-hauling sledges across the ice, rather than the more suitable dogs and skis. Dogs were quicker, hard working and at worst, could be eaten by the other dogs or the explorers themselves.

Once in Antarctica, instead of dropping off a small group of men to explore and map local areas while the Discovery wintered safely in New Zealand, Scott chose that everyone would spend the winter safely iced up in -40 degree weather for nine months to await the "warmer" season when exploration was possible. Thus Crean and his shipmates were introduced to the cold, inhospitable land, making forays over the ice on day trips, hauling massive sleds with supplies by their own strength after their Siberian horses proved unable to walk, much less pull sleds over broken ice fields. The horses quickly died and were eaten.

Man-haulers during this era were plagued by the intense, cold, frostbite, blizzards, hurricane-force winds, snow blindness, life-threatening-crevasses and one final indignity -- they were always thirsty and hungry....The British...took special pride in the ability to cope with hardship, the test of real men pitted against the worst the elements could throw at them. ...They gloried in the hardship and seemed unable or unwilling to adapt to more modern, less arduous methods of travel, such as dogs and skis.

Crean became one of the best of these man-haulers, never weakening in his responsibility to not let his piece of harness go slack, and encouraged other haulers to keep them going and alive. They covered an average of only 6-12 back-breaking miles a day. Roland Amundsen, a rival explorer also trying to be the first to reach the South Pole at the same time, was familiar with travel on ice. He studied the natives in Norway and, using their proven methods with dogs and skis, and was able to cover 60 miles a day without men hauling the sleds. Guess which man made it to the Pole first and which one died on the cross-continent trip back?

Crean survived this ill-fated voyage and undertook two other Arctic trips with Ernest Shackelton, including the famous disastrous trip where Shackelton, Crean and crew were so badly iced in that their ship, the Endurance, broke up into pieces. Some of the men, including Crean, were forced to haul boats miles over the ice to the open sea and then try to row hundreds of miles without instruments to seek help for the men left behind.

Crean also, when a fellow crewmate was disabled on an multi-day exploratory trek, volunteered to go get help by jumping on floating ice floes to work his way back to their base camp. He even survived falling into a deep crevasse, using only his physical strength and willpower, an incredible feat.

Adventure after hair-raising encounter with challenges, death and despair fill the pages of An Unsung Hero, forcing readers to marvel at Crean's perseverance, strength, and positive attitude. It's a detailed examination of the outdated British methods of exploration and unqualified leaders and crew, life of men stuck on a ship for months of sunless cold, as well as the personal triumphs for those who flourished when facing hardships.

It's a page-turner of a story of an extraordinary man and his survival in the last glorious age of exploration where the world breathlessly followed the progress of brave men, hailed their triumphs, and mourned their defeats. And Tom Crean was in the middle of it all, and survived to tell of these exploits and the men who endured them. Highly recommended, of course.

  

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

 Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Classic, minutely-detailed, and gripping account of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated adventure to cross the Antarctic. One of his most trusted crew members was Thomas Crean, chronicled in the above book.

 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 Last Policeman

Winters, Ben. The Last Policeman. Philadelphia : Quirk Books. 2012

First Sentences:

I'm staring at the insurance man and he's staring at me, two cold gray eyes behind old-fashioned tortoiseshell frames, and I'm having this awful and inspiring feeling, like holy moly this is real, and I don't know if I'm ready. I really don't, 

Description:

Sometimes I am attracted to a book by the setting alone, hoping to see how major characters deal with foreign, often threatening situations caused by their environment and the forces faced. Such books include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (stranger in a magical land); The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (evolving human settlement of Mars); Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (Earth's moon blows up on the first page and humans have 18 months to figure out how to preserve some form of mankind); and even Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchel (living in a Civil War-torn country).

 

Ben Winters' The Last Policeman is exactly such a book. Here is the situation: Earth scientists have discovered a monstrous-sized asteroid heading for earth and are 100% certain it will hit Earth in six months with the destructive force that killed the dinosaurs. 

Hearing this news, people have reacted differently, from quitting jobs, pursuing Bucket List adventures, delving into drugs to leave the world high, and more and more commonly, suicide.

 

In this world of small town Concord, New Hampshire, Detective Hank Palace narrates the tale of how he tries to preserve his sense of order and justice. Recently promoted to Detective (since so many police officers above him had simply left the police department), Palace finds himself in his dream job. But he is surrounded by fellow officers who are unwilling to make any effort to confront crime. 

Detective Palace, nonetheless, doggedly pursues a new case, the suicide of a man found in a MacDonald's bathroom. Palace believes this, his first murder, is not a suicide as all appearances point to. Fellow officers, the Police Chief, the coroner, and even the victim's sister all feel this is merely one of a huge number of self-inflicted deaths, an act easily explained by the hopeless despondency felt worldwide.

 

But Palace is not to be deterred. There was no phone found on the body, an expensive belt was used in the hanging, and the location was an unusual one. Palace digs in, exploring seemingly minor leads and people to understand who this man was, his work, his relationships, his emotions, and any possible reasons to do away with himself.

 

Working in this highly tense environment, Palace is in contact with people who demonstrate they have no hope left, have religious convictions of salvation, feel they have uncovered highly secretive plots, want to lead believers to safe underground compounds, and even those who dream of space travel to the secret moon colonies the government has hidden from the world.

 

Crackpots, fanatics, dreamers, rebels, and even a few ordinary people who accept their inevitable fate are part of people Palace must interrogate to try to wring out of them the circumstances of this man's life and whether Palace's theory of murder is any more than just a fancy. And all this occurs in a world with unreliable phone service, businesses shut down, gasoline unavailable, and when friends, colleagues, and everyday people you meet one day are gone forever the next day from their jobs, homes, or life itself.

I would characterize the mood, here in town, as that of the child who isn't in trouble yet, but knows he's going to be....He's sullen and snappish, he's on edge. Confused, sad, trembling against the knowledge of what's coming next, and right on the edge of violence, not angry be anxious in a way that can easily shade ito anger.  

Clever, twisty, completely unexpected, and totally involving, The Last Policeman is a gripping, fascinating deep dive into a world so foreign, yet so possible, along with the people who have to plan and then undertake the manner of how they will live out their final days.

 

Best of all, there are two more Detective Palace books available (Countdown City and World of Trouble). Of course, I immediately borrowed these from the library and absorbed them. One is set with only three months before Earth's destruction, and the last one takes place with only a few weeks to go. They both were fantastic, but you must start with The Last Policeman. It's a delightful, thought-provoking, wild ride.

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

 Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves

In the first sentence, the Earth's moon blows up and scientists worldwide predict the debris will begin raining down on Earth in 18 months. It is up to the combined resources of the world to somehow address this situation and try to survive this cataclysmic disaster to preserve the human race. It's simply the best sci-fi novel ever. (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.]

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.]

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.] 

Hatchet

 Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York : Simon & Schuster 1987. Print.

 

First Sentences:

Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below. It was a small plane, a Cessna 406 -- a bushplane -- and the engine was so loud so roaring and consuming and loud, that it ruined any chance for conversation. Not that he had much to say.


Description:

Just because a book is labeled as being in the "Young Adult" genre doesn't mean it is not worthy of attention by adults, too. Such is the case of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Many of you may already know of this book (and many of Paulsen's other works) after reading it to your youngsters or watching them become engrossed while reading its story for themselves as teens. 

 

For me, it was cleaning out my bookshelves. I came across a worn version that both our son and I had read and re-read several times, although in my case not for many years. I decided I needed a bolstering adventure tale so started reading it again. In only a couple of days, I finished the nail-biting adventure, fully satisfied with the writing, characters, setting, and of course the survival story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, lost deep in the Canadian woods.

Brian, flying in a small bush plane for a visit with his father in backwoods Canada, has to crash land the plane after the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies in the skies over the middle of nowhere. Brian manages to scramble out of his seat and finds himself in a dense, lonesome forest surrounding the lake where he crashed.

 

As a city boy who knows virtually nothing about the outdoors, Brian is faced with the conclusion that no one knows where he is or even whether he is alive. Therefore, left on his own, he must learn how to find shelter, eat, and ward off any threats to his survival.

 

The rest of the book follows his self-taught education into forest lore and the creatures and environment that surround him. He learns, slowly, frustratingly, and sometimes painfully how to manage his life day to day, alone.

 

And that is the story. I found the challenges faced by Brian to be realistic as were his solutions, including the choices he made that did not work in his favor. I was caught up in the life alone in the woods and continually wondered whether I would have addressed the situation and survived or just ... I don't know, gave up?

 

It is a gripping tale, a very personal experience narrated by Brian as he struggles with new challenges virtually every hour.  Author Paulsen is an extremely gifted writer of YA books and has related that he himself had experienced in his own life each of Brian's challenges, thus adding to the realistic adventures and mindset of Brian in his foreign world.

 

There are several other adventures in the Brian Robeson survival series, each one great although I enjoyed Brian's Winter the most for its completely different challenges he faces in the bitter cold season (see below).

 

Highly recommended for your own reading and especially to read aloud or give as a gift to a curious young person seeking adventure and a voice they can understand and identify with. 

  

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

Paulsen, Gary. Brian's Winter.

What if Brian had not been saved before the bitter cold of winter arrived in his woods? How could he survive, even using his newly-discovered forestry skills? A gripping adventure full of adventure, obstacles, hardships, and triumphs.

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.]

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.]