The Lost City of the Monkey God

Preston, Douglas. The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story. New York: Grand Central Publishing. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

Deep in Honduras, in a region called La Mosquitia, lie some of the last unexplored places on earth....

Early maps labeled it the Portal del Infierno, or "Gates of Hell," because it was so forbidding. The area is one of the most dangerous in the world, for centuries frustrating efforts to penetrate and explore it.

Description:

In today's era where seemingly every inch of our Earth has been thoroughly explored, wouldn't it be fantastic to discover the ruins of a vast civilization? A thriving culture previously never before identified? A huge city and art right under our noses, completely sheltered by the thick rain forests of Honduras? 

Well, enter Douglas Preston and his new book on the recent exploration of just such a modern-day architectural/cultural find: The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story.

While there had been whispered rumors and scraps in ancient diaries of a great "White City," Ciudad Blanca, or the Lost City of the Monkey God, deep in the forests of Honduras, natives were reluctant to lead explorers to possible locations due to curses and evil histories of the city. Thick tree canopies, impossible terrain, and dangerous fel-del-lance snakes, leopards, insects, and unrelenting rain, rain, rain helped preserve any possibility of finding such a city. One could walk five feet by ruins covered by vines and other vegetation and never notice them.

But technology to the rescue. A new radar system from Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed to analyze photos from space was also able to penetrate thick tree cover and up to 15 feet below the Earth's surface to identify potential lost cities. An ariel survey in the late-1990s identified several possible locations   for the White City deep in the Honduran jungle but it was ten years before a physical exploration on foot could be mounted. 

The White City expedition, accompanied by writer Preston, is described in all its wet, scary, trackless, and dangerous glory. Slogging through knee-deep mud, relying on GPS systems when more than 100 yards from camp to find your way home, the explorers do eventually discover ruins and statues, but their difficulties are only beginning.

Intertwined with historical details about the lost culture that may have existed and built these unknown cities, the possible reasons the abandoned their homes, and the effect of the Spanish conquerors is carefully described by author Preston as well. I knew nothing about Honduras and its cultures, so this research was absolutely fascinating.

That all this exploration and discovery happened and continue to develop as of 2017 is unbelievably exciting. The explorers and scientists from the first trek continue to re-live the discovery long after their return via publications due to diseases brought back from the jungle. The knowledge and city they literally uncovered and continue to explore will keep scientists and anthropologists challenged for years.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
________________________________________

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

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

The 1925 true story of explorer Percy Fawcett and his gripping, obsessive hunt for the Lost City, the rumored civilization full of gold, in the Amazon rainforest (previously reviewed here)

Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time

Author Adams retraces the steps of ancient Incas through Peru to explore ancient cities. Along the way, this inexperienced hiker and historian uncovers tales of this ancient culture, the men who originally discovered it, and the future of these fragile cities. (previously reviewed here)

The Lost City of Z

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. New York: Doubleday. 2009. Print

First Sentences:

On a cold January day in 1925, a tall, distinguished gentleman hurried across the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, toward the SS Vaban, a five-hundred-and-eleven-foot ocean liner bound for Rio de Janeiro. 

He was fifty-seven years old and stood over six feet, his long arms corded with muscles. Although his hair was thinning and his mustache was flecked with white, he was so fit that he could walk for days with little, if any, rest of nourishment. 

His nose was crooked like a boxer's and there was something ferocious about his appearance, especially his eyes. They were set close together and peered out from under thick tufts of hair. No one, not even his family, seemed to agree on their color -- some thought they were blue, others gray. Yet virtually everyone who encountered him was struck by their intensity: some called them "the eyes of a visionary."  

He had frequently been photographed in riding boots and wearing a Stetson, with a rifle slung over his shoulder, but even in a suit and a tie, and without his customary wild beard, he could be recognized by the crowds on the pier. He was Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, and his name was known throughout the world.

Description: 

Colonel Percy Fawcett definitely is a man to be reckoned with and a character worth reading about, especially in the capable hands of author/researcher David Grann. His book, The Lost City of Z, promises adventure, travel, exotic locales, and personal quests, some of my favorite topics.  

By the early 1900s, the age of exploration was closing. There were few undiscovered places left for an adventurer to explore and make a name for himself. Percy Fawcett's chosen territory of expertise was the Amazon jungles of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. His goal? Discover an ancient, unknown civilization and their city of gold, the fabled El Dorado (the Lost City of Z) mentioned by early Spanish historians.   

Fawcett researched the ancient accounts told to the Spanish conquerors by local Indians about a king who "slathered himself in gold and floated on a lake gleaming like a ray of the sun....while his subjects made offerings of gold jewelry, fine emeralds, and other pieces of their ornaments."  To Fawcett these accounts were the siren calls he had to answer, taking it upon himself to broaden the knowledge of an unknown land and hopefully reap the fame and recognition that accompanies such an achievement. 

Grann uses the paper trail of articles, maps, and diaries left by the explorer to slowly unravel Fawcett's research and exploits, revealing "the last of the great Victorian explorers who ventured into uncharted realms with little more than a machete, a compass, and an almost divine sense of purpose."  

The Lost City of Z offers a riveting story of a man driven by ambition and dreams played out in an unforgiving environment. Grann skillfully shows Fawcett's sheer force of will in expedition after expedition into the unknown jungle, many lasting years, then watch him emerge at the conclusion of each journey half dead but ready to re-enter on another quest.

I will not spoil the answer as to whether Fawcett discovers his civilization and fabled city. This adventure tale is enough to keep anyone reading to the final pages. And what better recommendation is there for a book than it cannot be put down or abandoned until the very end? 

Happy reading. 


Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Piccu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time  

The desk-bound author sets out with a modern-day Fawcett as his guide to walk the routes of Hiram Bingham in order to re-trace that explorer's search for the fabled city of gold in Peru, with very humorous and serious adventures along the way. (Previously reviewed here.)

Four Lost Cities

Newitz, Annalee. Four Lost Cities: A Secret History to the Urban Age. New York: Norton 2021. Print

First Sentences:

I stood on the crumbling remains of a perfectly square island at the center of an artificial lake created by hydraulic engineers 1,000 years ago.


Description:

Ancient people, civilizations, and cities have always fascinated me since traveling in my youth to climb around the Mexican pyramids of Chichen Itsa and the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, AZ. Nearby today, there are ancient mounds near my home in Ohio. These relics always whisper of mystery, intrigue, and wonder as viewers try to imagine the people, culture, and engineers who constructed and lived with these monuments to human achievement. 

 

Science journalist Annalee Newitz is a like-minded person. In her book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History to the Urban Age, she thoroughly researches four great ancient cities: the 7,000-year-old Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk, Turkey; the 2,500-year-old Pompeii; the Cambodian city of Angkor (from 1,000 years ago); and Cahokiawith, with its pyramids and mounds in southern Illinois, also inhabited about 1,000 years ago.

 

For each city, she interviewers researchers, anthropologists, archeologists, and other scientists to piece together what is known of these ancient urban areas. Always, she visits the sites, picking up details about the people who lived there as she paints a realistic picture of what their lives were like. 

For Pompeii, a scientist who studies the ancient roads, told her he noticed the ruts were the same distance apart, showing all carts were uniform in wheel base. He also noted that curbs were worn down on the right side, revealing that vehicles often cut corners while turning right, gradually eroding the curbs. No such breakage occured on the left curbs. The implication was that traffic direction flowed from the right side, like traffic in the United States, rather than from the left side as in England. Who could not enjoy reading about such details?

In Catalhoyuk, thought to be one of the first cities in the world, Newitz researches the causes behind why humans who settled there switched from being wandering nomads to creators of a cluster of permanent shelters. The next question she explores is why these early city-dwellers  chose to remain in the same location for thousands of years, building and then re-building on top of the foundations of their old cell-like homes (after filling in the old unit with all their trash to serve as a more solid foundation). 

After carefully assembling this scientific data of the cities and people, Newitz uses other interviews with experts to try to understand why these thriving urban developments were later abandoned. Was the emptying of the city a sudden geological occurrence as with Pompeii, or did the departure of inhabitants occur over many, many years as the artifacts from Angkor and Catalhoyuk suggest? Environment? Politics? Food shortage? Fire? Other factors?

 

Four Lost Cities is a thoroughly engrossing book, clearly-written and understandable to non-scientists like me. Newitz has a passion for history, people, behavior, and cities that shows on every page. If you are intrigued by history, people, culture, and unraveling mysteries, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

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

Preston, Douglas. The Lost City of the Monkey God.   

In 2012, author Douglas used sophisticated lidar radar from a plane to locate a lost city densely covered and forgotten by the forest of Honduras. Rumors of the fabulous riches of the "White City" have been whispered since the  days of the Spanish conquistadors. This book details the true adventures, dangers, ferocious animals, disease and other challenges experienced in the exploration Douglas undertakes to rediscover this ancient, sprawling city.   (previously reviewed here)

 

Turn Right at Machu Piccu

Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time. New York:Penguin. 2011. Print.

First Sentences:

As the man dressed head to toe in khaki turned the corner and began race walking uphill in my direction, I had to wonder: had we met before?

It certainly seemed unlikely. John Leivers was in his late fifties and spent most of his time exploring the remote parts of the Andes, machete in hand, searching for ancient ruins. The overdeveloped pop-culture lobe of my brain noted his passing resemblance to Crocodile Dundee -- John wore a vest and a bush hat and greeted me on the sidewalk outside my hotel with a cheery "Halloo Mark" that confirmed deep Australian roots -- but there was something else strangely familiar about him.

Description:

2012 marked the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of the fabulous Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru by English explorer Hiram Bingham. Bingham, a Yale professor of history, happened to be in Cusco, Peru, in 1909 when he heard about an unsolved Incan mystery. It was whispered that when the Spanish conquistadors invaded Peru, the Incans had stealthily evaporated into the highland jungles, taking their riches and sacred objects somewhere, never to be found by their enemies.

Bingham, intrigued, talked with experts, consulted ancient documents, and began searching for this lost city. Eventually, he followed the ancient Incan Trail through the mountains and, after years of searching, stumbled upon Machu Picchu in 1912. And he brought back artifacts to Yale to prove the fabulous discovery because he felt no one would believe his story.

Now Mark Adams, a confirmed city person, decides to retrace Bingham's exploration of the Incan Trail and discover Machu Picchu for himself to "get a taste of Bingham's experience." His account of this adventure, Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time, is both historically fascinating and unexpectedly funny in the spirit of Bill Bryson. 

He tells of the wondrous Incan empire and its hidden cities (yes, there are more hidden cities than just Machu Picchu) that he finds along the Trail. Along with these historic "discoveries," Adams also pokes fun at his own ineptitude on the hike and his interactions with the people he encounters. 

Allen's guide, John Leivers, is a man with "jungle explorer" written all over his face and clothes. Leivers has walked the Incan Trail many times, once barefoot to better experience the Incan mode of travel. Paired with Juvenal, the local 74-year old mule driver, Justo, the 4' 6" cook who talks non-stop at 15,000 words a day (counted by Leivers), and enough coca for all Peruvian team members to prevent altitude sickness (supposedly), Allen and Leivers' group is off to the trail. 

Allen soon feels the frustrations of Peruvian Time. "'I'll be right back' can mean just that, or it can mean that the speaker is about to depart via steamship for Cairo." And there is a huge gap in jungle hiking experience and general social skills as well. Guide Leivers is a bounder, racing up and down narrow, slippery tracks, while author Allen plods and stumbles along behind. Communication also can be strange, as when Leivers says he wants to stop for a "wee break," which Allen embarrassingly discovers means not that they would take a rest but rather that Leivers merely wants to take a pee.

But the discoveries along the route are fabulous. The Incan Trail turns out to be a series of spokes emanating from hub cities hidden in the mountains. By using these rough paths, ancient Incans could travel to any number of cities hidden in the jungle mountains to elude enemies. 

And the cities are equally astonishing. So covered with jungle vines, Allen's party almost walks by several huge crumbling buildings without noticing them. One city that Bingham stumbled on and recorded years ago became completely so completely hidden again in only one year that Bingham could barely find that city and therefore hired students to do nothing but continually clear away the jungle vines from these ruins until he returned the next time. 

I love "personal quest" books like Turn Right at Machu Picchu, accounts equally divided between the telling the fascinating historical discoveries by an obsessed explorer, and then pairing those accounts side by side with the modern day experiences of an author who retraces that same historic route.

This is a book that fills you with admiration for the bravery and perseverance of Bingham as well as the Allen through the details of their experiences and discoveries. While most of us will never plunge into the jungles of Peru to follow the Incan Trail, through Turn Right at Machu Picchu we can be totally absorbed into the Incan culture and the everyday trials and triumphs of people intrepid enough to walk this ancient route.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Smith, Julian. Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure.  

Smith retraced the route of Ewart Grogan's 1899 trek over the entire north-south route of Africa. Grogan sought to prove himself worthy of his wealthy girlfriend's father, while Smith needed one last solo experience as well as the time to think about his upcoming marriage and giving up the single life. Great descriptions of their efforts to survive all that Africa and its people can throw at them.

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.  

Detailed adventures of British explorer Percy Fawcett in the early 1900's and his many forays into the Amazon jungle in search of the City of Gold. (Previously reviewed here). 

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession

Grann, David. The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession. New York: Doubleday. 2010. Print

First Sentences:

Reporting, like detective work, is a process of elimination.

It require that you gather and probe innumerable versions of a story until, to borrow a phrase from Sherlock Holmes, "the one which remains must be the truth."

Description:

I picked up The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession because I really enjoy the author, David Grann, (who previously wrote The Lost City of Z), and because I love mysteries, particularly those involving Sherlock Holmes. With no idea of what this book was about, all it took was the first sentence and author to seal the deal for me.

No Holmes mysteries are contained in The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, but these non-fiction accounts rival Conan Doyle's best writing. Grann takes on twelve real life occurrences and individuals that reveal the passionate and sometimes obsessive side of humankind. 

Each incidence is thoroughly described, driven by Grann's compelling interest in the story, his dogged pursuit of details, and then his clear writing style. I found that even situations which addressed characters that held no previous interest for me were suddenly transformed into riveting tales that I could not wait to see how they came out.

Grann opens by covering the mysterious death of the world's foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes (was it a suicide or was he killed to prevent him obtaining secret Arthur Conan Doyle papers?), followed by an in-depth investigation into the possible wrongful execution of a Texas prisoner. 

Then there is an interview and back story of Frederic Bourdin, the 30-year-old Frenchman known as the "Chameleon," who for years passed himself off as an abandoned teenager in fifteen countries, speaking five languages, living in orphanages and families, going to school every day. His only reason? "I am a manipulator ... My job is to manipulate." Nothing sexual, scandalous or evil in his intent - he just wanted to make people believe he was someone he was not.

I loved the absolutely fascinating description of Steve O'Shea, the marine biologost from New Zealand, who is passionately obsessed with finding the elusive giant squid. His focus is not on the 30-foot adult version, but rather the paralarva babies which he intends net and then grow to full size in captivity.

There is a heart-breaking story of a New York City fireman, one of the first to answer the call on 9/11, who woke up in a hospital later that day after being found unconscious several blocks from the Towers. He cannot remember whether he fell as a hero helping others or as a coward running away, and is driven to find the answers no matter what they reveal.

Other fascinating accounts center on the generations of men who created the ancient and now updated vast underground water system tunnels of New York, the lingering career of Ricky Henderson (major league baseball's all-time base stealer) still trying to play professional ball at age 46, and the 79-year-old bank robber recently arrested during his last job.

Each tale unfolds carefully, with details from interviews, news accounts, and visits to significant locations. Grann is thorough in his research, looking into each story from its origin, then non-judgmentally listening, observing, and reporting what he learns from the people involved. His writing then takes over, pulling you in until you cannot stop reading.

Truth may not be stranger than fiction, but in the capable hands of David Grann, it sure is fascinating and fun to read about. What an unpredictable world we live in, and what passionate individuals populate it.  

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

Comments 

Previous posts

____________________

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

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z  

Historical account of the explorations of Percey Fawcett to search for the "City of Gold" in the Amazon. (previously reviewed here)

The Lost Tomb

Preston, Douglas. The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. New York: Grand Central 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Some writers drank when the words didn't come. Now we have the Internet. Whenever I get stuck writing, instead of sliding open the bottom drawer with the whiskey bottle, I load up the New York Times or Politico, check my email, or, when all else fails, start Googling old acquaintances.


Description:

Who doesn't love a good mystery? Some sort of puzzle filled with suspicious characters up against thoughtful people who try to unravel the tangle of facts to eventually arrive at the truth and a satisfying conclusion by the last page?

But true life mysteries, while equally compelling as fictitious ones, are often not so neatly explained. Conclusions can be muddled, even after scores of scientists, treasure hunters, and researchers have delved into the physical and historic data for years. 

If you are like me, a true life mystery-lover, you should pick up Douglas Preston's The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. The author is a man curious about the odd, unsolved oddities he has read about over the years, leading him to publish heavily-researched articles which detail these mysteries for magazines including Wired, Harper's, and The New Yorker. Thirteen of these articles are collected in The Lost Tomb, conveniently organized into sections of "Uncommon Murders," "Unexplained Deaths," "Unsolved Mysteries," Curious Crimes," and "Old Bones." 

And what unsolved mysteries are detailed? Here's a sample:

• The author's own boyhood treasure chest buried with a friend, but in later life he was unable to find. His search led him to unexpected information about this boyhood friend whom he had lost touch with;

• Hundreds of skeletal bones found in a remote lake high up in the Himalayas whose age, how they got there, and what caused their deaths remain unknown;

• The Oak Island Money Pit, over 190' deep (so far) which has been explored for over 100 years by fortune-hunters and scientists looking for a rumored buried treasure;

• The New Mexico skeleton and accompanying artifacts that might be 20,000 years old, (making this the oldest evidence of man in America), discovered by a quirky Indiana Jones-type anthropologist;

• A 3,500-year-old Egyptian tomb that has 150 rooms (only 10% of which have been uncovered) that might be the final resting place for Rameses II and his 50 sons;
  

• Rare points from arrows and spears created by the ancient Clovis people in America, that suddenly turned up together in a suspiciously rich cache;

• A site with fossils of feathers, glass raindrops, delicate fish, and plant materials so carefully and instantaneously preserved that they might document the exact date when the asteroid hit Earth and destroyed 90% of all life.

Preston gathers the origins of these mysteries, researches the often-conflicting data from various people and scientists who are experts in the mystery, then allows each reader to draw his own conclusions. The people involved in the mystery are as fascinating as the mysteries themselves, presenting diverse opinions and drawing solid, if unproven conclusions that continue to be debated today.

I find real-life mysteries like these to be fascinating, even if they often do not have a tidy conclusion. Buried treasure, ancient bones, lost cities, and unexplained anthropological artifacts stretch my brain to wonder at the complexities of human life and our attempts to understand nature and our own past history. Highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

More book recommendations

About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

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

Preston, Douglas. The Lost City of the Monkey God  

The author relates his electrifying, dangerous, scientific adventures in 2012 seeking the (rumored) fabulously wealthy, but cursed lost city of gold in Honduras as documented by Cortez and other explorers. A real page-turner for history and treasure buffs alike. (previously reviewed here)

Mother of God

Rosolie, Paul. Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon. New York: HarperCollins. 2014. Print

First Sentences:

Before he died, Santiago Durand told me a secret.

It was late at night in a palm-thatched hut on the bank of the Tambopata River, deep in the southwestern corner of the Amazon Basin. Beside a mud oven, two wild boar heads sizzled in a cradle of embers, their protruding tusks curling in static agony as they cooked. The smell of burning cecropia wood and singed flesh filled the air.

Description:

You just cannot get a better opening than reading a dying man's secret as told in a mud hut on the bank of an Amazon river with wild boar heads sizzling on coals nearby. Paul Rosolie's Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon immediately checks all my boxes for a good read: interesting setting, Check; unusual characters, Check; potential for great plot, Check; intriguing use of words, Check. After just these first sentences, I'm all in. 

Mother of God are the true experiences of the author, Paul Rosolie, and his life in the wildest areas of the Peruvian Amazon jungle. When his dyslexia and disinterest in school cause him to struggle with academics, he obtains his GED, drops out of high school, and works as a life guard to save money to travel to the Amazon, a word that has caught his attention. He has always had an interest in nature, hiking, and rescuing injured animals, and later develops a fascination with isolated environments and real possibility they might disappear before he had a chance to experience them. 

Through writing letters to anyone working in a jungle environment, he eventually obtains a volunteer research position on a 27,000 acre preserve in the Peruvian portion of the Amazon jungle, an area known as the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God"). Emma, a British biologist, and JJ, an indigenous guide and her partner, have scraped together enough funds to purchase this land and ecotourism lodge to create the Las Piedras Biodiversity Station. 

Surrounded by hundreds of miles of untouched jungle, the LPBS is heaven for the inquisitive Rosolie, and his real education begins to take place every day under the tutelage of JJ . They daily walk the trails throughout the preserve and observe the diversity of the jungle, identifying and observing tracks, medicinal plants, and the animals themselves. 

[from a plane] it was like looking into the vault of the universe to where all the greatest secrets were kept, the library of life....the foliage of the Andes/Amazon interface ... constitutes more than 15 percent of the global variety of plants....rough tallies for the entire Andes/Amazon region: 1,666 birds, 414 mammals, 479 reptiles, 834 amphibians, and a large portion of the Amazon's 9,000 fish species.

One of these creatures is Lulu, an orphan baby giant anteater that Rosolie rescues and raises at the lodge. What is a baby giant anteater like? Imagine "if you bred a hyper baby black bear with Edward Scissorhands"...with "three-inch-long black sickles that could tear through denim and skin with ease." And there's that two-foot-long sticky tongue. Undaunted by Lulu's huge claws and her need ride on his back and sleep on his chest in his hammock, Rosolie patiently learns to hand feed her until he can teach her (somehow) to identify ant hills and how to use her claws and long tongue to feed herself.

And, oh, the adventures he has each day, including:

• a cayman (crocodile) that swallowed a 4' bag of Brazil nuts, cooking pot, and fish in one gulp;
• footprints from tapirs and jaguars found many mornings only inches from tents. (JJ feels it is "probably the smell of fresh white gringo that was attracting them.")
• spider monkeys that taunt and throw figs at the fiercest animal, the peccaries (wild pigs);
• awakening one night in his hammock to the hot breath of a jaguar only inches from his face;
• gliding ants that can sail back to tree trunk when wind blows them off.
• a 15' anaconda (snake) (Rosolie'e encounter is scoffed at by Santiago who tells of an area that has anacondas are over 40' long 24" wide - and Rosolie later actually finds one!)

Not all his experiences are with the animals, nor are they all pleasant. He notices the impact of each action on the jungle has repercussions, some temporary and some permanent. The jungle is a living organism that suffers from any modification in its system of life. 

He encounters poachers who kill a wide variety of wildlife with disastrous impact on the jungle. Rare trees with unique holes are chopped down to secure a nest of endangered baby birds, thus destroying not only the birds but a very rare nesting spot for similar birds. Rubber plantation owners exploit and destroy both the trees and the natives. Loggers clear-cut mahogany trees that take years, if ever, to regrow. Government road-builders blast huge swatches of the jungle to cut a highway across from Brazil to Peru to provide access to the resources and animals, as well as the opening of areas for human settlement. Small tribes of "uncontacted" natives move deeper and deeper into the jungles and became fiercely suspicious of outsiders and deadly protective against intruders. 

But Mother of God is a work of hope and survival. There is so much fascinating information presented as the author explores trails, animals, and survival knowledge from the indigenous people he encounters. Page after page of beauty, wonder, and adventure fill this book and pull readers onward, deeper into the world of the Amazon.

And, of course, Rosolie must seek the lost world described by Santiago, the old native who tells stories of the giant anacondas and many other wonders, and who is never proved wrong in his knowledge.  Access is treacherous, but Rosolie sets off alone to find it using Santiago's ancient directions.

He said it was a place where humans had never been. Between rivers and isolated by a quirk of geography, it had remained forgotten through the centuries. The only tribes who knew of the land had regarded it as sacred and never entered, and so it had remained untouched for millennia...He told me that it was the wildest place left on earth.

Mother of God is a book of exploration, whether learning about tracks or seeking means to keep the Amazonian jungle and its inhabitants protected. So much beauty is described and experienced by the author, an adventurer and seeker of knowledge and understanding about this wild land. As he writes on the departure of his solo journey to find the lost world:

In the most savage and dizzyingly vast wilderness on earth, the rule is simple: never go out alone. Yet there are those among us who have difficulty accepting what we have not found out for ourselves, who pass a WET PAINT sign and cannot help touching the wall. We simply have to know. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

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

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.  

Detailed adventures of British explorer Percy Fawcett in the early 1900's and his many forays into the Amazon jungle in search of the City of Gold. (Previously reviewed here). 

Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Piccu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time  

The desk-bound author sets out with a modern-day Fawcett as his guide to walk the routes of Hiram Bingham in order to re-trace that explorer's search for the fabled city of gold in Peru, with very humorous and serious adventures along the way. (Previously reviewed here). 

Davis, Wade. One River.  

Memoirs of the author who traveled the length of South America via the jungle, meeting and interacting with isolated tribes, describing their friendships, rituals, food, hunting practices, languages, and social structure.

Vaarty, Boyd. Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home.  

Fascinating memoir of the author and his family who lived on their game reserve and ran a safari company for four generations in the wilds of South Africa. The book opens with the author awakening, at age 11, to a deadly 9' mamba sliding over him - one bite is fatal. And it goes on for there with encounters with all forms of wildlife on the reserve.

Insomniac City

Hayes, Bill. Insomniac City. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. Print

First Sentences:

I moved to New York eight years ago, and felt at once at home. 

 

In the haggard buildings and bloodshot skies, in trains that never stopped running like my racing mind at night, I recognized my insomniac self. If New York were a patient, it would be diagnosed with agrypnia excita, a rare genetic condition characterized by insomnia, nervous energy constant twitching, and dream enactment -- an apt description of a city that never sleeps, a place where one comes to reinvent himself.


Description:

From these very first words, I loved Bill Hayes's Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me  Who could not fall in love with such captivating language to describe a unique environment? Clearly, this book promised to be full of wry, thoughtful and unique observations, so I was all in.

 

Author Hayes moved to New York from San Francisco after the sudden death of his long-time partner, Steve. As an insomniac, Hayes began to wander his new city in the late and early morning hours, both observing and conversing with people who were similarly sleep-challenged.

In the summertime, late into the night, some leave behind their sweat-dampened sheets to read in the coolness of a park under streetlights. Not Kindles, mind you, or iPhones. But books,. Newspapers, Novels. Poetry. Completely absorbed as if in their own worlds. And indeed they are.

Hayes also brought along his camera, his "travel companion," during day and night city walks. He shot photos of people for his own private enjoyment. Unwilling to intrude on some intimate scenes, Hayes shot body parts that reflected the person's essence.

Couples captivated me -- on the Tube, on park benches, arm in arm on the street. Couples so in love you could see it in their faces....Their smiles were heartbreaking. I took pictures of their hands, laced together as if in prayer, or their feet -- the erotic dance that is a prelude to a kiss.

Hayes records these episodic meetings, observations, and photos in his diary, entries which he compiles into Insomniac City. And oh, the joy, hope, and humanity each piece presents to us lucky readers fortunate enough to share his everyday sights, elegant writing, and imagery. 

Sometimes I'd sit in the kitchen in the dark and gaze out at the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. Such a beautiful pair, so impeccably dressed, he in his boxy suits, every night a different hue, and she, an arm's length away, in her filigreed skirt the color of the moon. I regarded them as an old married couple, calmly unblinkingly keeping watch over one of their newest sons. And I returned the favor; I would be there the moment the Empire State turned off its lights for the night as if to get a little shut-eye before sunrise.

But there is yet another part of this wonderful book besides late night observations and photographs. Hayes meets Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and best-selling author. The two men connect and become romantic partners, a first for Sacks in decades. Their loving relationship is also reflected on in Hayes' diary as he records bits of their conversations, random thoughts from Sacks, and a peak at the new life they spend together.

...last night the clock chimed,..O[liver] and I counted the chimes carefully. A big smile broke out on his face. "Oh! That's very eccentric! Earlier, it did ten chimes at four o'clock, and now, seven at nine."

We laughed how this is like having an aging parent in the house, one who's a little "dotty," gets a little lost, misremembers, from time to time ... 

I could keep on giving examples of Hayes' narrations, but I have to stop and leave so many more for you to experience. Suffice to say, I fell in love with both these men, New York City, and the beauty of descriptive writing that will stay with me for a long time. Highest recommendation.

I have come to believe that kindness is repaid in unexpected ways and that if you are lonely or bone-tired or blue, you need only come down from your perch and step outside. New York -- which is to say, New Yorkers -- will take care of you.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales.

Highly unusual cases recorded and commented on by Sacks, detailing his experiences in a New York neurology clinic depict some of his patient' symptoms and treatment, including: a man with no recollection of any events in the last sixty years; a man who cannot recognize faces (including his own); an autistic, but brilliantly gifted artist; a woman who has Irish songs from her childhood constantly running through her head; and of course, the title character who grabbed his wife's head and tried to put it on his own head. Incredible, readable, and wonderfully entertaining as you try to imagine the reality of these patients.

 

The Last Great Walk

Curtis, Wayne. The Last Great Walk: The True Story of a 1909 Walk from New York to San Francisco, and Why It Matters Today. New York: Rodale. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

At twenty-five minutes past four on a clear, chilly late winter afternoon in 1909, an elderly man walked out of the main New York post office, opposite City Hall in lower Manhattan, and paused for a moment on the uppermost step.

Description:

Wayne Curtis in his fascinating book The Last Great Walk: The True Story of a 1909 Walk from New York to San Francisco, and Why It matters Today interweaves the facts of Edward Payson Weston's 3,900 mile walk across the United States in 1909 along with significant related topics such as how man began to walk, styles of walking, the development of quality roads, the conflict between pedestrians and automobiles, and the current state of walking in today's society.

Edward Weston was known as The Walking Man for his many long distance walks throughout his life. His first walk resulted from losing a bet that Stephen Douglas would win the 1860 presidency election. The loser (Weston) had to walk 430 miles from Boston to Washington DC in 10 days and witness the presidential inauguration. Weston, although at first doubtful he could complete that distance, actually found the walk an easy, enjoyable experience. He fully intended to walk back Boston a few weeks later but had to alter his plans due to the outbreak of the Civil War that made walking on roads in that area dangerous.

Over the next years he walked 5,000 miles in England and 1,200 miles from Portland, Maine to Chicago in 30 days on a $10,000 bet. He was a showman who advertised his challenges to raise money and also see the flocks of people who cheered him along the way.

But his biggest challenge and the subject of this book was to walk from New York to San Francisco in 100 days. It would require approximately 8.2 million steps - about 80,000 per day (compared with the average American today who takes about 5,000 steps daily). Weston would have to walk over rural and non-existent roads as only 6% of US roads were paved in 1909). He trained by walking 25 - 30 miles each day for months.

The weather was consistently horrendous throughout the journey, with stiff winds that blew him off the road, snow, rain, and mud; all difficult elements that make him re-think his decision to start the trip in winter to commemorate his 70th birthday. That's right, he was 70 years old when he set out from New York City in 1909.

He braved walking across a train trestle (after being reassured that no trains were coming) which spanned the Missouri River. It was one mile long and 150' high, giving him frightful nightmares for days after. In the covered snow tunnels in Montana, he had to press himself flat against the wall as trains shrieked past him only one foot away. Sometimes he walked 35 miles without seeing a house where he could get rest and food after his accompanying car broke down and had to be abandoned. 

In the end, he averaged 38 miles a day over the 3,925 miles, including 2,500 miles walking on railroad tracks to avoid the ankle-deep muddy roads. He walked 1,800 miles alone without a support vehicle, wore out three pairs of shoes, and estimated his money spent as $2,500 (about $60,000 today). To offset costs, he sold photos of himself, gave lectures along the way, and received free lodgings and meals from hotels which he promoted in his articles and interviews.

But The Last Great Walk has much more to offer besides this fascinating man and his travels. Woven into Weston's walk is detailed research into the invention and rise in popularity of automobiles, walking styles, and the dangers of walking (in 1909, 60 people were killed and 1,200 injured in Chicago alone). Author Curtis explains the term "jaywalking," created to convince people not to walk so randomly in streets, has nothing to do with birds. 

["Jay" was] slang for a rural rube or country bumpkin: Only someone who didn't know the ways of the city would cross in the middle of a block ... framing the debate to make urbane city residents fearful of being thought a hick.

While these details might sound like a distraction from the Weston trans-America walk, they actually add tremendously to our understanding of the world of 1909, the magnitude of Weston's feat, and the progress of walking, roads, and automobiles. I found I loved reading these details as much as the trek itself. 

In the end I simply enjoyed following this small, determined 70-year-old man and his quests to walk longer and longer distances to promote health and to just show everyone he could do it at any age. His philosophy was always the same: pedestrianism is something all people can benefit from. After his second cross-country walk, he sums\med it up:

"Anyone can walk....It's free, like the sun by day and the stars by night. All we have to do is get on our legs, and the roads will take us everywhere."

Weston might have been the inspiration for cancer survivor Thomas Cantley who just last week completed his own 4,000 mile trans-America walk while pushing a 6' ball to raise awareness for testicular cancer. Long distance walking clearly still has the power to captivate the attention and imagination of casual walkers like me. Well done, Weston and Cantley! And well done to author Curtis for resurrecting Weston's story of determination.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

This is a little more humorous long walk as writer Bill Bryson attempts the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail. Along with his cranky companion Katz (who throws out all their food in the first few miles because it was too heavy), Bryson comments on nature, the people they encounter, and the joys and sorrows of hiking for distance..

White, Dan. The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind - and Almost Found Myself - on the Pacific Crest Trail (P.S.)

Young couple other decide to test their lack of skills against the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Train on the West Coast snaking up from Mexico to Canada. Love, insanity, harsh words, and cactus-eating occurs.