Goods Reads: History Edition
My major was history, and
history is my answer to a general personal problem in finding good
fiction. For instance, I enjoyed the
movies About A Boy and High Fidelity based on novels by Nick
Hornby. So, I check out his latest, How
To Be Good from the library, and I am quickly annoyed. Oh, the writing style was rather good, and
it was an enjoyably smooth read and all, but I just did not like the actions of
some of the characters. Also, I
especially did not like the ending. Barbara
Kingsolver even failed me, though her new collection of essays (Small Wonder)
… nonfiction again … was enjoyable. Her
early works (Animal Dreams, Bean Trees, etc.) was quite all
right, but then she followed with her opus (Poisonwood Bible), which I
wanted to like, but just could not manage to get into. The same with her more typical follow-up,
which early on annoyed me because I did not like the characters. She would understand, since Kingsolver has
said that she is a very picky reader.
I did enjoy Farewell Waltz by Mila Kundera, a somewhat strange
philosophical but absurdist novel written in a wryly amusing way about some
people at a spa in a communist nation in the 1960s.
Of
course, just because a book is historical does not mean I will enjoy it. Nonetheless, history books can have
the drama and storylines of good fiction, and some of the best examples are
even written as if we are reading it. A
couple good examples of this is A Beautiful Mind (more complex and in
that more enjoyable than the Oscar
winning picture) by Sylvia Nasar and Black Livingston: A True Tale of
Adventure in Nineteenth Century Congo by Pagan Kennedy. The latter is the story of a missionary who also
was one of the first people who protested human rights violations in Africa,
and Kennedy herself (not known for historical accounts of this nature) was
attracted by the adventure of the title.
A third book that is written in this style is To An Unknown God:
Religious Freedom On Trial by Garrett Epps, which discusses how one
remarkable man’s use of peyote for his religious ceremony led to a landmark Supreme
Court case. His story, as well as
the story of the prosecutor that went out of his way to stay on the case, is
both remarkable and well told by Epps.
A final example: Aaron Burr: Conspiracy To Treason by Buckner F
Melton Jr. (some name!).
A few
other works of history were good reads for me over the last few months. Affairs of Honor: National Politics in
the New Republic by Joanne B Freeman discusses how honor was an important
glue in early United States history, when things like political parties were in
their infancy, as well as showing the complexity and symbolism involved. Devices and Desires: A History of
Contraceptives in America by Andrea Tone discusses the complexities of
contraceptive production, sale, and use from the mid-eighteenth century to the
last twentieth. Fast Food Nation:
The Dark Side of the All American Meal by Eric Scholosser is a well-written
muckraking piece, but also serves as a good history of the subject as
well.
And, to
end things, here are a few more books of interest. American Muslims: The New Generation by Asma Gull Hasan is
a personal look at the American experience through the eyes of a twenty
something Muslim woman. In Our Best
Interests: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All by William F Schultz
and Harmful To Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex by Judith Levine
(controversial book!) both discuss very important subjects. Oh and for those
not sick of the whole
thing by now, Jews For Buchanan: Did You Her The One About The Theft of the
American Presidency by John Nicols touches upon some interesting aspects that
others downplayed or totally ignored.