Reading in Reykjavík

Like many other legends of the old West, Calamity Jane's legendary status makes her out to be a larger-than-life character, a shining heroine who lived as she pleased and enjoyed more freedom than most women of the era. Considering that she was already a legend in her own lifetime, surprisingly little seems to be known about her real life, which is eclipsed by her legend. I think I first became aware of the legend of Calamity Jane when I watched the 1953 movie starring Doris Day and Howard Keel as a kid, but what I remember best is the Lucky Luke comic about Luke's encounter with her. Both are, of course, purely fictional. I'm not sure I even realised she wasn't a fictional character at that point. I have a mild interest in all things Old West, and when I came across this book, which was, at the time of original publication, touted as the most accurate and exhaustively researched biography of Calamity Jane, I decided to shell out the money to buy it - which w...

What's in a Name challenge category : A number in figures in the title   Author : Mark Kurlansky. Full title : 1968: The Year that Rocked the World Genre : History Published : 2004 One would think that finding a book with a number in the title would be easy in a book collection as large as mine, but it wasn't. I only found two among my 700+ TBR stack and ended up reading this one because my second-hand copy of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was so musty that I started sneezing after reading a couple of pages.   The year 1968 was a pivotal, tumultuous year in history, full of student riots, protests, massacres, the assassinations of public figures, the Vietnam war and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, with the Cold War as a backdrop for the whole thing. Kurlansky has drawn all of this together into a solid, interesting book. Unlike two previous books of his that I have read, Cod and Salt , it does not begin to feel rushed towards the end, and thi...

Have you read this book? Why not leave a comment to tell me how you liked it? What's in a Name challenge category : Alliterative title. Author : Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz Sub-title : A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine. Genre : Biography/history. First published : 2014. The 19th century saw many revolutionary changes in medicine, and Thomas Dent Mütter was one of the men who contributed to these changes. While he was not the one who actually discovered bacteria, he did teach his students at Thomas Jefferson University that cleanliness was important to the well-being, and indeed the increased likelihood of survival, of patients, and he also stressed treating them with sympathy. It seems neither of these things could be taken for granted at the time, and there are some gruesome descriptions in the book of major surgeries, like amputations and reconstructive surgeries on conscious patients with little or no analgesia, and also of the inh...

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. Mary Cassatt: 5 O'clock Tea I am an avid tea drinker and have been ever since I drank my first cup of tea around age six. I enjoy tea in many of its incarnations: the sweet, spicy chai of India and Pakistan, the minty green tea of Morocco, strong and sweet Turkish tea, delicate Darjeelings, robust Kenyans and iced tea with slices of orange and lemon, to name some examples. I have never been much fond of fruit teas or plain green teas - the first I can tolerate iced, but the second tastes to me like freshly mown grass: the smell is nice and refreshing but the flavour is less than pleasing. I guess it’s an acquired taste and no doubt I will learn to drink it if I ever visit Japan or China. I am not what you would call a tea snob - you are just as likely to find me slurping sweet milk tea made with a tea bag (oh, my!), from a chipped and stained old mug (horror of horrors!), as you are to find me sipping milkless FT...

Genre: History Year of publication: 2000 Setting & time: USA and the Pacific Ocean, 1820-21 In 1820 the whale ship Essex , small, old and with a mostly inexperienced crew, set out from Nantucket Island towards the whale-hunting grounds of the Pacific Ocean. Once they were there the crew proceeded to hunt sperm whales and fill the hold with barrels of oil, but on November 20th the ship was attacked by a huge bull sperm whale which rammed it twice and sank it. The crew were able to rescue some navigational charts and equipment and food from the sinking ship, but were left floating aboard three flimsy and old whale boats thousands of miles from the South-American mainland. Ironically, in light of what was to happen later, fear of cannibals kept them from making for the nearest cluster of islands and instead they resolved to head for South America, a mistake that may have cost 12 of the crew of 20 their lives. About 20 years later Herman Melville read about the incident, whic...

Originally published in January and February 2005, in 2 parts. Book 50 in my first 52 books challenge. Editor: Natalie Rothstein Text: Madeleine Ginsburg, Avir Hart, Valerie D. Mendes, et al. Photographs: Philip Barnard Year published: 1984 Pages: 176 Genre: History of clothing styles Where got: Public library I was planning to read a Danish book titled Krop og klær: Klædedragtens kunsthistorie (In English: Body and clothing: The art history of dress) for this week’s review, but leafing through it I realised I could never finish it in one week AND enjoy it, because it’s been a while since I’ve read anything more complicated than craft magazines in Danish, and there is a fair amount of technical vocabulary in it that requires the use of a dictionary. I did want to read something about textiles, and picked up this overview of dress history as seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Dress Collection. It is published by the museum and contains a large number of photograp...

Originally published in November 2004, in 2 parts. Book 38 in my first 52 books challenge Author: Daniel Pool Year published: 1993 Pages: 416 Genre: Social history, reference Where got: Amazon.co.uk I’ve read quite a number of novels set in 19th century England, and have often asked myself certain questions about the stories. One of those questions was “why did Mr. Darcy hand-deliver his letter to Elizabeth - surely he could have sent a servant with it?”( Pride and Prejudice ) and another formulation of the same question was “why did Elinor think Marianne and Mr. Willoughby were engaged just because Marianne sent him letters?”( Sense and Sensibility ). I had also wondered about certain social rules, like the order of precedence, which titles belonged to the nobility and which to the gentry, what was the definition of a gentleman, and when was the “season” and the “little season”. In all of these cases I could make educated guesses, based on the text and other books I had re...

Year published: 2008 Genre: Travel, history In this book, the author begins her journey at the mouth of the Indus river , moving up river and backwards in time and exploring the history, archaeology and geology of this long and immensely important river that flows through three countries: from its source near Mount Kailash in Tibet, through the Indian state of Ladakh and down the length of Pakistan to the sea. This is a perfect combination of travelogue and history that should be read by any woman who fears travelling alone, as well as anyone who is interested in the history of the region and in adventurous travel off the beaten track. It’s also a must for river fanatics. It took me a long time to finish, nearly 2 months, but that was because I felt that each chapter needed to be properly digested and considered before I moved on to the next, and not because of anything else. It is well written, and while scholarly, it is neither dry nor boring. Recommended. 5 stars. There is an off...

Originally published in 2 parts, in May 2004. Book 17 in my first 52 books challenge. Full title: The Professor and the Madman: A tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary Author: Simon Winchester Published: 1998 Genre: History, biography, lexicography Where got: National library This book is about two men who worked on the making of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and their longstanding relationship. What got me interested in it was the title. We will have to see if the book lives up to it. The story: The book touches upon several subjects, but the core story is that of two men who were influential in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. One was Professor James Murray, the longest-serving editor of the OED, and the other was one of the most useful contributors of quotations to the book, Dr. William C. Minor, an inmate in a lunatic asylum (as they were called in those days). The life stories of both men are told in brief, showing how P...

Originally published in 2 parts, in April 2004. Book 13 in my first 52 books challenge. Entry 1: Full title: The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West Author: Dee Brown Year published: 1958/1981 Where got: second hand bookshop Genre: Social history, women, pioneers This looks like a promising piece of women's history. If we were to go by the history books we read in school, it would seem that men single-handedly settled the western parts of the United States. This is of course not so - women did their share of the work and had a great deal of civilizing influence on the men. I'm looking forward to exploring the west with them, through this book. Written by the author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Entry 2: The Gentle Tamers is a collection of true stories about the women of the wild west. Some who are included are true pioneers, like Janette Riker, who survived a harsh Montana winter alone in a covered wagon, others are included because a history of women in the Wil...

Originally published in 2 parts, in April 2004. Book 12 in my first 52 books challenge. If you're wondering about no. 11, it was The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms . I did not feel it was worth republishing. Entry 1: Full title: Seabiscuit: An American Legend Author: Laura Hillenbrand Year published: 2002 Where got: book store Genre: History, biography, sports This book is about a famous American racehorse and the men whose belief in him took him from the lowest rungs of the racing world and right to the top. I am not particularly interested in sports, and know next to nothing about horse racing, so this is not a book I would have picked up if it had not been for the fact that it has been made into a film. As a teenager I enjoyed a film about another famous racehorse, Phar Lap, and so when Seabiscuit hit the cinemas I decided this was a film I wanted to see. Well, somehow I managed to miss it. However, after watching a National Geographic documentary about Seabiscuit, I decid...

Year published: 2005 Genre: History, portrait of a city Setting & time: Venice, 1996-2003, with historical background going back farther John Berendt arrived in Venice a few days after La Fenice (The Phoenix), Venice’s opera house, went up in flames, and visited it repeatedly over the next 8 years, interviewing people and doing extensive research. The book is a portrait of the city’s artists, aristocrats and glamorous expatriates at that time, with the story of the Fenice fire and its aftermath up to the grand re-opening as the backbone of the narrative, even when discussing other matters, like the debacle over Ezra Pound’s papers. The book begins with a gripping account of the night of the fire, looking at it through the eyes of some of the people whose portraits he draws later in the book, and continues with a tightly woven tapestry of words. Berendt, like a good journalist, always keeps back and is rarely in the forefront of the narrative, so the book can’t really be called a...

Originally book 6 in my first 52 books challenge. Published in 2 parts on February 29 and March 7, 2004. Full title: Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the world Author: Mark Kurlansky Published: 1997 Where got: public library Genre: History I decided it was time to learn more about the fish that can, with some justification, be called the basis of Iceland's economy. I have always liked haddock better. Maybe this book will change that. After all the rave reviews and accolades, I expected Cod to be something more than just an ordinary history book. It isn't. Like many other history books I've read, it's well researched, informative and well written, if somewhat journalistic at times, but by far the best thing about it is the quotes and recipes, for which Mr. Kurlansky is not responsible. The writing failed to get me interested in the subject and about the only thing I found interesting was chapter 2 which gives information about the biology and ecology of the...