Missive #388 Published 14 November 2024
This was Dos Passos's last published book, he died the same year that it was published. It was also not so much written by him as a compilation of seamen journals by those explorers that landed at the island starting with Cook. He only wrote a couple of chapters about his visit. It does provide some good island history so is worth a read.
Missive #387 Published 13 November 2024
Originally a volume in a series dealing with American Folkways from various sections of the US (the series was edited by Erskine Caldwell), Edwin Corle relates the tales and legends of the desert country of Nevada, Arizona, western Utah, and southeastern California. The story of the early explorations of Mitchell Caverns under the Providence Mountains in the Mojave Desert, Death Valley tales, reports of the Mormons in Deseret, yarns concerning various Indian tribes of the southwest, and of course mining adventures are all rounded up and revealed to the reader in the most casual, entertaining fashion. Historical fact is at the root of most of what's in this book, but only as a guidepost.<.p>
Missive #386 Published 11 November 2024
This book was not published until after Fraser's death although it had been written before the Flashman series. He could not get any publishers to buy it and tucked it away and started the Flashman series. It is a good historical novel but not in the 'picaresque' Flashman style as the book promo claims.
Missive #385 Published 10 November 2024
Continuing The Anti-Federalist Papers
Brutus XIV (pt. 1)
by Robert Yates
Missive #384 Published 9 November 2024
An elegiac essay on memory and the power of storytelling by a master of the art. Well-known as a Pulitzer-winning novelist (Duane’s Depressed, 1998, etc.), McMurtry turns less often to nonfiction. It’s usually a delight when he does. In this book-length meditation on the past—his own, that of his ancestors, and that of the corner of west Texas whence they hail—
Missive #383 Published 8 November 2024
60. The Burglar in the Well
Nasruddin awoke to the sound of a burglar outside. He crept into the yard but saw nobody, and then he looked in the well. Sure enough, he saw a man’s face in the water.Missive #382 Published 7 November 2024
The author’s son wrote an introduction to the book’s edition that I read explaining his father’s motivation for writing One Man’s West. The son says his father was “doing more than creating a personal memoir. He is describing a period of time and a way of life that he felt was disappearing rapidly yet was worth attempting to preserve.”
Missive #381 Published 4 November 2024
India, 1803. Sergeant Richard Sharpe witnesses a murderous act of treachery by an English officer who has defected from the East India Company to join the mercenary army of the Mahratta Confederation. In the hunt for the renegade Englishman, penetrates deep into the enemy's territory where he faces temptations more subtle than he has ever dreamed of.
A another historical fiction novel by a master of the genre. This is only the second book in the series so I have a lot more to read.
Missive #380 Published 3 November 2024
Continuing The Federalist Papers.
Federalist No. 33Missive #379 Published 2 November 2024
Hector Lynch and his companions are in the Caribbean, diving to plunder a wreck on the notorious Vipers reef, when they are spotted by a passing Spanish ship. To prevent news of their activities getting out, they cripple the Spanish vessel by burning her sails — an act of piracy — and then head for their base in Tortuga. There Hector's wife Maria awaits, for she and Hector are planning a better life for themselves — this time on the right side of the law.
This is another entertaining book in the series with one more remaining. My only criticism is the author has worn the play rather thin with how many times Hector gets locks up and manages to escape.