Aug 30 2008
A long weekend
I am in Michigan for a long weekend. I plan to start digging out from my Books to Review pile upon my return.
Hope all of you are having a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.
Aug 26 2008
One Continuous Fight by Eric J. Wittenberg, J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent
Missed opportunities. With those two words I would describe the days after the Battle of Gettysburg. Eric J. 
Wittenberg, J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent provide an excellent narrative and analysis of the retreat from Gettysburg and the pursuit of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in One Continuous Fight.
The book mainly covers July 4 through July 14, 1863 because, as the authors point out, the main action after the battle occurred during this time period. Although many have written and analyzed the Battle of Gettysburg, few have spent much time on Lee’s retreat and Meade’s pursuit. This book has a plethora of information on the time period – the authors cover everything from the evacuation of the wounded to the final withdrawal south of the Potomac River by the Confederates.
I like the balance of the authors as they discuss the decisions and dispositions of the two forces. In my opinion, neither the Union nor the Confederate forces is favored. The authors equally praise – the actions of the Union and Confederate cavalrymen during the retreat – and equally criticize – the actions of certain generals on both sides.
I once thought that the aftermath of the battle was anticlimactic and nothing much really happened. However, as the title infers, there were more than 20 engagements – mainly cavalry verses cavalry or cavalry verses infantry. These engagements took place over a large area of territory – from Greencastle, Pennsylvania to Williamsport, Maryland to Hagerstown and Falling Waters, Maryland. The authors do an excellent job of describing each of these battles and the significance of each to the overall campaign.
The authors interweave personal accounts from letters and diaries of the participants into the narration of the events. Thankfully, the text and the primary sources smoothly fit together unlike some books which are just a collection of primary sources with no real transition language between them.
Aug 26 2008
Birnbaum v. Elizabeth Strout
Birnbaum talks “Friends, Family, Readers, Casual Acquaintances, Occasional Correspondents, ex Wives, Admirers and what not” with Elizabeth Strout.
Aug 25 2008
What do you think?
So those few longtime readers visiting the site since the change over: what do you think?
Do you like the design? Functionality? Sideblog? Please feel free to leave some feedback or just say hello.
Aug 25 2008
In the Mail: memoir edition
–> Walking the Rainbow by Richard Rene Silvin
Product Description
Richard Rene Silvin seemed to have it all. After overcoming a childhood of emotional neglect and trauma, much of which has been shared through the honest and brutal pages of his first book, I Survived Swiss Boarding Schools, Silvin transcended his past to lead an enviable life of power and world travel during a career in international hospital management. After decades of shame and hiding his sexuality, this handsome and successful man became true to himself, came ”out,” and burst forth into the hottest gay spots in Florida, California, New York, and Europe. Supported by beloved friends and eventually buoyed by finding his true love, Silvin could be seen as riding on top of the world.All that glitters however is not always gold. A new phase of emotional and physical horror for Silvin and many others was on the horizon. Silently creeping its way into the life of so many during the late 1970s and early 1980s – including Silvin – was the then-mysterious illness to later be known as AIDS and caused by the as-yet unidentified human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His professional life in cutting-edge international health care allowed Silvin to work with colleagues ahead of the curve in terms of HIV research, diagnostics, and medications. Yet he, his friends, and his partners fought overt discrimination and numerous painful, life threatening complications of the virus, which in a grisly succession eventually claimed all those dear to him, despite their hard fought and heroic efforts.
Walking the Rainbow: An Arc to Triumph shares with readers Silvin’s battles, both won and lost, on the pathway to understanding and struggling with the war against the deadly virus.
–> The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
Publishers Weekly
Journalist Cooper has a compelling story to tell: born into a wealthy, powerful, dynastic Liberian family descended from freed American slaves, she came of age in the 1980s when her homeland slipped into civil war. On Cooper’s 14th birthday, her mother gives her a diamond pendant and sends her to school. Cooper is convinced that somehow our world would right itself. That afternoon her uncle Cecil, the minister of foreign affairs, is executed. Cooper combines deeply personal and wide-ranging political strands in her memoir. There’s the halcyon early childhood in Africa, a history of the early settlement of Liberia, an account of the violent, troubled years as several regimes are overthrown, and the story of the family’s exile to America. A journalist-as-a-young-woman narrative unfolds as Cooper reports the career path that led her from local to national papers in the U.S. The stories themselves are fascinating, but a flatness prevails—perhaps one that mirror’s the author’s experience. After her uncle’s televised execution, Cooper does the same thing I would do for the rest of my life when something bad happens: I focus on something else. I concentrate on minutiae. It’s the only way to keep going when the world has ended.
