A Book Update and My Favorite Authors

Thursday already! How time flies when you're having fun, eh? At the moment Jo and I are watching Deadline: White House, Bonnie is between us on the sofa, having had just suffered having pine needles removed from her paw. Clyde has been outside and barked at the neighbors and he's now upstairs in bed. 

I received two books in the mail in the last two days. I'll provide the synopses of both. I'll also continue with my ongoing look at my favorite authors. (Note - There will be a gap in this post, not that you'll be able to tell... :0) as Jo and I are going to out to get a few groceries in a few minutes.)

New Books

1. The Case of the Lucky Legs by Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason #3). I'll have to treat this book carefully as it's seen better days.

"Frank Patton was a promoter. Tall and dignified he was a handsome and persuasive crook. His racket of running contests for girls with beautiful legs was carefully planned. When Perry Mason caught up with him he had a nine inch knife in his chest."

2. The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman (1989). Sci Fi by a new author for me, a Canadian now living in England. 

 

 

 

 

 

"In the city of the future, humans photosynthesize, viruses educate people, organics have replaced electronics...and almost no one lives past forty. In the city of the future, Milena is resistant to the viruses. She is barred from the Consensus. She has Bad Grammar. In the city of the future, Milena feels alone. In the city of the future, Milena meets Rolfa, the huge and hirsute Genetically Engineered Polar Woman. And might, just might, find a place for herself after all..."

My Favorite Authors - Simon Winchester

Along with Bill Bryson, Winchester is one of my favorite non-fiction authors. Both write on such varied and diverse topics. Winchester was born in London in 1944. I first became aware of his writing when Jo bought me two of his books for Christmas in 2007 or so. They were both fascinating stories about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), one a general story, the other about an American who was sent to Bedlam in England but from his asylum cell became one of the major contributors to the OED. I've enjoyed six of his books so far.

1.  Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (2003).

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I quite enjoyed this novel. I've read other Simon Winchester books before; the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, the Map of the UK (geological) and have found his interests quite varied. I was somewhat worried at the beginning that this story might be too scientific as he tried to explain tectonic plates and the makings of the Earth, but my fears were unfounded. The story was varied and interesting and got even more so as it got deeper into it. It covered such areas, as the development of the telegraph system and how the Explosion of Krakatoa made it so viable and the world a 'global village'. He covered the Dutch settlement in Java and Sumatra, the explosion and its devastation and its overall impact on the Earth itself. He went into the social impacts of the explosion, the rise of Islamism in Indonesia and finally the current situation. Overall, this was an entertaining, very interesting story and I look forward to reading the other Winchester stories I have on my shelf. (4 stars)"

2. A Crack in the Edge of the World (2005). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Like most of Simon Winchester's novels, I enjoyed this one. The focus is the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. The earthquake, while the focus, is more an opportunity for Winchester to discuss fault lines, new geology, some history, sociology, etc. I like his meandering pace and always find the information he provides on his subject, accessible and interesting. Worth reading. (3 stars)"

3. The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology (2001)".

"In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell -- clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world -- making it possible, for the first time ever, to draw a chart of the hidden underside of the earth. Determined to expose what he realized was the landscape's secret fourth dimension, Smith spent twenty-two years piecing together the fragments of this unseen universe to create an epochal and remarkably beautiful hand-painted map. But instead of receiving accolades and honors, he ended up in debtors' prison, the victim of plagiarism, and virtually homeless for ten years more. Finally, in 1831, this quiet genius -- now known as the father of modern geology -- received the Geological Society of London's highest award and King William IV offered him a lifetime pension." (3 stars)

4. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford England Dictionary. (1998). This was turned into a movie in 2019. I have yet to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

"The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane." (4 stars)

5. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. (2003). Even though it has the same subject matter as The Professor and the Madman, it was told from a more varied perspective. Who'd have thunk that a book about making a dictionary could be so interesting.

 

 

 

 

"From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary. 

Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language--"so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy"--and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from "the irredeemably famous" Samuel Johnson to the "short, pale, smug and boastful" schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries.

In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition.

Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making--how unexpectedly tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient than anticipated--and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press. We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium--the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it--and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W.C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption.

The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project--a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world's unrivaled uber-dictionary." (4 stars) 

6. Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (1985). 

"Simon Winchester, struck by a sudden need to discover exactly what was left of the British Empire, set out across the globe to visit the far-flung islands that are all that remain of what once made Britain great. He traveled 100,000 miles back and forth, from Antarctica to the Caribbean, from the Mediterranean to the Far East, to capture a last glint of imperial glory.

His adventures in these distant and forgotten ends of the earth make compelling, often funny reading and tell a story most of us had thought was over: a tale of the last outposts in Britain's imperial career and those who keep the flag flying.

With a new introduction, this updated edition tells us what has happened to these extraordinary places while the author's been away." (4 stars)

I don't have any others of his books on my shelf but will continue to check for them. The complete listing of his works can be found at this link. He's well worth checking out.