Last week I finished:
As I said earlier, I had been interested in The Last Days of Night when it came out, but then I chickened out reading it for a long while because it was historical fiction based on actual events. This is a genre of books that makes me uncomfortable. I love nonfiction and I crave facts. I always get jittery when books blend fiction and nonfiction, because I don't know where the line between the two is and when it's been crossed. But the time had come to either read the book or donate it, because bookshelf space is prime real estate these days, so I decided to at least start it, and if I got too itchy, I could abandon ship. The technical skill of the book was something many reviewers had commented on, and that was enough to soothe me somewhat. Luckily, this is a story that pulls you in right away. No time is wasted on setting the scene or introducing characters slowly, and that went a long ways toward hooking and keeping me. It's a little difficult to summarize the plot , as one of the joys of this book is the plot's intricacy. There are a lot of moving pieces, but everything comes masterfully together in the end. It's the story of the electrical current war between Thomas Edison (in favor of D/C, or direct current) and George Westinghouse (in favor of A/C, or alternating current) in the 1880s. Edison had Westinghouse tied up in patent litigation (312 cases, to be exact), and Westinghouse hires the young hotshot lawyer, Paul Cravath, to fight Edison, and eventually save his company from bankruptcy. Also involved in the war is the eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla, who once worked for Edison, but is enticed to join the Westinghouse team. This is a simplification of the plot, and the book also calls in ideas like business's role in invention, intellectual property, if an idea or only a tangible item can be patented, the nature of genius, the importance of marketing, and many others. There is deception, intrigue, double-dealing, spying, allegiances, theft, coercion, and even romance. There is a lot going on here. And the amazing thing is, it's all true! I was eager to read the author's last pages where he talks about what in this incredible story he changed or massaged to better lend it to fiction, and other than some date manipulation, there is surprising little. It's a remarkable story, which I highly recommend. If you're looking for a book for a guy in your life, this is a good bet. My rating: 4 stars.
In an effort to get to The Mathews Men, which has been on my TBR for awhile, I decided to pick up the audio version. War stories are hit or miss with me. I like them, but I definitely like reading about the human element more than the machinations of war. I'd anticipated this book to be an intimate portrait of seven brothers from Mathews County, Virginia, (on the Chesapeake Bay) and their World War II experiences as U.S. Merchant Marines. While I learned a lot about Merchant Marines and how the war played out in the Atlantic Ocean--which no one ever writes about--I found the book difficult. For one thing, the title is not indicative of what to expect. It does cover the seven Hodges brothers involved in the shipping industry, but it also covers oodles of other men, and it was all too much--especially on audio. I also just felt the various skirmishes with German U-boats were just kind of uninteresting. Perhaps that's because I read Erik Larson's Dead Wake about a German U-boat sinking the Lusitania. There's only so much to say about U-boats and sinking ships, after all. My mistake might have been in taking this on in audio-form, but had I started it in book-form, I would have bailed quite early on. I think for someone interested in marine battle and the like, this would be a good read, it was well written and comprehensive, but it just wasn't a good fit for my interest level. I didn't find it particularly interesting. I'm getting a little burned out on war books, and the fatigue definitely showed while listening to this one. My rating: 2.5 stars.
Next up:
I believe Killing England is the last in the O'Reilly/Dugard Killing series. This one is about the Revolutionary War. And it's the last war book of the year, I swear!
Last week I started:
I have feelings about Tsh Oxenreider's Notes from a Blue Bike, but until I see how the second half plays against the first, I'll reserve my comments.
This week I continue reading:
Although I enjoy both of my current night reads, neither really inspire me to pick them up, either. Poetry Will Save Your Life is well done. I really like it, but I feel almost overloaded if I read too much of it. Make Your Bed is sort of the same way. I have other night reads to start, but alas, they're all "in the mail." Maybe I should spring for Amazon prime just to not have to wait so long for my books?
My audiobook:
After The Mathews Men, I needed an audio that was much less fraught, something a bit whimsical, so I began The Penderwicks of Gardam Street, the second in the Penderwicks series. It's a middlegrade reader about four sisters growing up with their father in contemporary Massachusetts.
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