Book Reviews for September

Ha! You thought I'd never get back to doing these, didn't you?

I did my research on my library's online catalog before visiting it a couple weeks ago, so I actually got a good amount of books, as mentioned in an earlier post. That's the way you have to do it on the mainland, apparently. Otherwise you'll never find anything you want, grr.

So I managed to squeeze a few new reads in this September. It'll be a short list, but a little is better than nothing!

HMS Surprise, by Patrick O'Brian
This is definitely my favorite of the Aubrey-Maturin novels I have read so far. It's very exciting, and almost unbelievably well-written. Although written in the 1970's, I think, you could easily be fooled into believing it's a bona-fide 1800's novel. Mind-blowing. What makes it more than merely a really well-done period novel, however, are the wonderfully three-dimensional characters (especially Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin themselves, but also the infuriating and yet pitiable Diana and a few others) and the extremely wry and unexpected darts of humor that O'Brian weaves into the story when you least expect them. This novel has the added plus of moments of genuine pathos, particularly the Diana/Maturin subplot and one moment during the crew's stay in India that I'll not describe further in case you care to read the book for yourself. To sum up: I'd recommend this it, and I have now added 'Use the phrase "You have debauched my sloth!" in conversation' to my bucket list. The whole Maturin and the sloth side-plot (there's lots of subplots and side-plots in this book!) had me crying with laughter. The only negatives in the book are the fact that the very stylized writing could certainly be wearisome to some readers, there's some hard old sailor swearing, and the story is more set up as a chronicle of a certain amount of time in the main characters' lives, which means it's not really tidily plotted with loose ends tied up and all. This can be seen as a strength or a weakness of the story, depending.

Nathan Hale, by M. William Phelps
I on occasion enjoy a good biography, and this is a good biography. I've long been interested in Nathan Hale, so I was delighted to find a biography that looked good at the library. I like learning about history from the original contemporary sources, eg. reading Thucydides and Xenophon to learn about Greek history instead of just reading modern history books. So I always appreciate it when historians quote letters and things like that in biographies. There's a good scattering of quotes like that in this biography, as well as a lot of stories about Hale as told by his friends and family, along with excerpts from his diary and stuff. The book seems well-researched, and is engagingly written. Phelps doesn't try to glorify Hale, but he doesn't try to tear him apart to 'reveal the man behind the legend' either, like so many biographies do to their subjects. Instead, he does his best to give the reader a basic understanding of the contemporary events and issues, and to let Hale speak for himself, which I really liked. The book sometimes get a bit circuitous though, because of all the information the author tries to cram in.

This leaves The Dreamer (Vol. 1) by Lora Innes as the Book of the Month!
I won't say too much about it now, since I already raved about this webcomic earlier. But basically it's a time-traveling romance/adventure story, with a heavy emphasis on wallowing in American Revolutionary War history. The characters are wonderful in both times/realities(?), the script is extremely solid, and the usage of history here? Simply fun. Innes' devotion to detail in both her script and her art is that of a real history fiend, which is lovely. There are plenty of historical characters in the story as well as original chararacters, though: Thomas Knowlton, Alexander Hamilton, William Howe . . . Nathan Hale himself actually features as a very prominent character, which is just another bonus. I found the printed collection of the first few books of this webcomic at the library and snapped it up to peruse it in hard copy form for the first time, which is why I decided to include it on this list. The colors are much brighter in book form than on the internet, details are easier to see, and there's a cute little sketch summary of the American revolution on the front pages which serves as a run-down on what you need to know in order to fully appreciate the historical setting of "The Dreamer". I'm not usually a webcomic person, but this book is both entertaining and informative, with all the historical cameos a history geek could wish for. Definitely give it a look!