Shantyboat on the Bayous by Harlan Hubbard

 This is the second book in the trilogy about Harlan and Anna HubbardIn this book we find the conclusion of their 7 years living on a Shanty boat.  After reaching New Orleans they and their two dogs went through the Harvey Canal and began an odyssey of life in the bayous and coastal wetlands that make the southern shore of Louisiana so unique and intriguing.

They are floating pioneers, living off the land and waters, they lead a sustainable life and work as a couple in this partnership.  Set in 1950 this is long before we began to see the need for small houses, sustainable living, low impact choices.  This is a voyage that is not based on money, but rather fortitude.

They are not trapped by schedules, but, rather, stop and go as they desire.  Sometimes it is overnight, sometimes a month.  It is leisurely and yet it has the demands of finding food, repairing the boat and keeping themselves stocked with necessities.  

They fish, gather wild pokeweed, and find a way to observe the Cajun People, places, and lifestyles.  The two artists have an eye for life around them and share their keen observations with the reader.  

It is also a historic photo of the land that has now succumbed to the ravages of land loss, oil exploitation and intrusions of our corporate greed into these isolated regions.  Today many islands and lands they saw are no longer there.

But the hint of what will happen in the 65 years since they lived here are in the book.  The flames and sounds of oil rigs, the new road...

Death on the Greasy Grass by C M Wendeloe

This is a really fun series that deserves its own television production, like Longmire.  I enjoy the characters, the sprinkling of Crow and Lakota history and beliefs and the landscape of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn).

This is an iconic location and as such it has had lots of history and fiction (sometimes the history is fiction) written about it so it is fitting that the mystery would engage with the Custer legend and impose on current day Crow and Lakota relationships a mysterious diary that appears to be as responsible for current murders as it is a record of historic events.

This is not a big city procedural and it will not be confused with CSI, but it is fitting to this wide open space where the rules of life and engagement seem somehow more tied to historic old-west actions than to the rules of modern law enforcement.

Manny Tanno is FBI from Pine Ridge, imagine that! And he has a case on the Crow Reservation (a Lakota working on the land of the traditional Lakota enemies).  This is a case that crosses lots of lines and the dialogue and the personal issues seem to fit with the storyline and the land.

Empire of Sin by Gary Krist

This was an excellent history of New Orleans centering around Storyville and the Italian and African American prejudices of the time.  Spiced with the story of jazz and the bad reputation that was assigned to this truly American music this book is a page turner.

Written more like a novel than a history; the book describes a variety of crimes and leads us through the events and people associated with these event and allows the reader to make discoveries within the text, but never before it is appropriate.

Madams, musicians, and politicians all have their roles here.  The Black Hand of the Italians, Jim Crow leveraged against the blacks, and, always, the moralizing groups who want to impose their gods and their false set of standards on others appear throughout the book.

There is the tension between those who seek pleasure and those who would deny it.  Between those who are coerced and those who make choices.  It is a morality play with lots of stories to test our sense of what is right and what is wrong.

Larger than life characters emerge and carry us through the various threads and lead us to ask what if?    

Shantyboat - Harlan Hubbard

This classic book is one every river person should read. Harlan and his wife Anna take seven years aboard a shantyboat that they built themselves to go off the grid and explore the land and the waters of the Ohio and the Mississippi River. They are not in a hurry - every spring they pull in, plant a garden, settle into a new community of people, fish, pick berries and show us a wonderful life that is beautiful in both the scenery and the way of living.

He is an artist and both are musicians. They find pleasure in meeting people discovering new locations, gathering wild vegetables, eating from the land and the river they interact with drifters and fishermen as they go.

Moving with the current and no motor they are truly adrift and vulnerable to the whims of the great rivers.   This is after both the 1937 and 1927 floods and before the big box store invasion so the picture of the places is really valuable to our collective consciousness and image of the rivers. 

I just wish I could have met them and gone on board!

The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the story and writing.  McKinely is mostly known for being the man who died so that Theodore Roosevelt could become president, but as this political biography of the man, his assassin and the times proves, he is worth studying too.

It was a turbulent time when we had oversized power in the hands of corporations and the uber rich - a time so similar in some ways to what is happening now that we really have an obligation to look in the mirror of history.

It is a time of anarchists - people who will and did you violence - in response to repression and strike breaking violence.  People like Emma Goldman put to voice important issues and frustrations and an obscure immigrant Czolgosz reacted to both his personal frustration and the anger in Goldman's speeches and kills the president, as a result.

McKinely is portrayed as a very charismatic man, but one thrust into wars in Cuba and the Philippines and struggles in China.  While not a man hungering for war like so many of his colleagues, he is driven by Capitalism to find a way to keep the factories humming and production up which means taking an imperialistic stance to accumulating lands offshore and across the globe.

Hawaii, China, Guam and many other locations appear in this story alongside the Haymarket violence and other domestic stories.  I am delighted that I came on to this book and discovered the depth I did not anticipate.

Natchez Burning by Greg Iles

This was almost a perfect five star book. The pace was terrific, the dialogue was compelling, the combination of characters worked well together and were interesting people to read about and interact with. 

Set in Natchez where I travel regularly in my work on the Cruise boat I felt the community - actually both communities - Natchez and across the river Vidalia. The author gave us his familiarity with the place and people. This was outstanding.

The tension was charged with the racial context of KKK and a past of killings and burnings that were part of the sixties, but that continue today barely beneath the surface. The title suggests the legendary movie Mississippi Burning with good cause. Hatred is a vile element of the human story and racial hatred is especially vile since it does not respond to a person, but to a bland and stupid sense of superiority based on nothing but color.

This kind of hatred leads to violence, but it does not lead to dialogue and peaceful resolution. It is a blind rage and when the KKK and putrid offshoots begin to lash out it escalates to even more violence. 

So we have a mayor who has feels the compulsion to protect his father, a doctor, who would seem to have been the Mother Teresa of the region, but is now confronted with a racial murder charge, a potential half brother who wants the doctor prosecuted despite age and infirmities.

The Doctor has a close friend in an ex-Texas Ranger and the Mayor has a finance who is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. Outside the family bonds is a crusading investigator who wants to nail the KKK for killing his friend and mentor and a DA who has a vendetta against the mayor.

Then there are the evil men insinuated into community wealth, the Louisiana Police force and a pack between murderers and torturers forming a formidable group of adversaries.

Normally I hate books that exceed the good taste of a 400 page novel and this almost doubles that, but it is written so well that it flies by and pages are gone in a breathless desire to get to the end. And luckily, the pages are so well written that you do not want to skim, you want to read and be involved.

So why only four stars? Well it is the ending. Only a part of the loose ends are tied up. There is not even an attempt to put some of the story lines to rest when it comes to a halt. For me, it is not even the most compelling storyline that ends. So what comes next - another book, I assume and if that is the case I would have liked to see PART One somewhere at the beginning.

Nebraska - the movie

Every once in a while you find a movie that just stays with you, you replay lines and scenes in your mind, and find that the movie just reached in and connected with you. Not guns and wild chases, not wild women and breathtaking scenery, but a part of life comes across in subtlety and charm. The humor not slapstick nor coarse, but straight from the homeland. Such a discovery was Nebraska - Bruce Dern - a black and white movie which was perfect in its lack of color. Color would embarrass these people of the plains. The scenery was flat as possible, the images of the town were of a dying community, still hanging on with a cast of characters that are almost interchangeable with any other small town on the great plains.

The images of the old guys sitting on the couch, all asleep, all with their mouths agape, the jealousy when it looks like one of their own might rise above the crowd...all painted an amazing set of pictures.

This movie is certainly not for everyone. Some will read my first paragraph and say no sex, no violence, no phony patriotism, why bother, but for those of us with Midwest backgrounds from Ohio to the Rockies it is a set of scenes from our childhood, our neighbors, our life's.

An old man thinks he won a million dollars not understanding that this is another of the millions of scams that come in the mail (and now on the internet) and a son so hungry for his father's love that he will sacrifice his own comfort to help in a Quixotic journey.

These are people who have their life, their passion, their emotions bottled up within themselves. Unable to express things directly there is an internal conflict with bigger ideas and bigger emotions. I loved it and still smile at the mental images it gave me.

Books of 2014

Already having 7 great books for 2015, it is time to set aside Burning Natchez by Greg Iles and Moving Day by Jonathan Stone and reflect on 2014:

From the 113 books I read in this great year which did I give five stars in my rambling style of grabbing books wherever I am, inspired by what I am seeing, what I am teaching, and what stands out in the independent book stores I visit.  Lots of really good books, but only a few do I give my five star rating and that rating has no rationale other than how I felt when I finished the book:

***** listed in sequence from the last read to the first.  Not in rank order.

• You Are My Sunshine - Stanley Gordon West - a multi-generational ranch family and their complexity as they grow move out, move back. West is good to his name capturing the largest of the land.
• America's Other Audubon Joy Kiser.  A good story about a work hidden in the archives.  A young genius is inspired by Audubon and involves her family in the collection of nests and eggs that fill her magnificent paintings.
• Paw and Order - Spencer Quinn.  The lovable dog and his barely efficient detective partner are in D. C. where they manage to cross over to a level of spy story intrigue, but don't worry Chet the Jet - the best dog detective in the world is still hilarious and intelligent.
• Scoop - Jeff Miller.  Who knew that buying and continuing an ice cream business in Hayward, WI could be so funny and informative.  As you would assume from this rating it is about a small town adjusting to a gay couple, a new voice, and in turn, their adjust to the town.
• The Book Thief - Makus Zusak.  This excellent story is set in a small German town during the war and is a good look at the importance of books as a repository for truth.
• Ragtime, E. L. Doctorow.  This is a book of invention, communal unrest and racism.  It is 1906, but it is also today.
• Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krugar.  An outstanding and strong story of death in a small town where the conflicting emotion of a death is both a reflection on the person and the people who were connected to that person.
• Genius of Place, Justin Martin.  A biography of Frederick Law Olmstead and his work to create parks and preserve a sense of Place.
• Home Sweet Anywhere, Lynne Martin.  About a couple that sells their home and freely lives wherever they want around the world.
• The Stages, Thom Satterlee.  A Danish mystery set in Copenhagen.  With the narrator suffering from Asper and accused of murder this is an insightful story and mystery.
• The Homesman, Glenden Swarthout.  Set in Nebraska, a covered wagon full of women who are bound for a mental institute provides for many personality dynamics with a less than forthright guide and a determination to get things done right.
• The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert.  Excellent look at our planet and our dying species.  Kolbert has examined global climate change and other issues which all come together in this book.

****Listed from first read to last, no order of rank intended and titles without notes.

• Old Man River, Paul Scheider
• Madam, Cri Lynn and Kelly Martin (early New Orleans prostitution)
• The Trail to Seven Pines, A Hopalong Cassidy story by Louis L'Amour
• Unfathomable City, Snedeker and Solnit - Examining New Orleans by maps
• The Dark Horse, Craig Johnson.  Longmire store.
• The Story of Earth, Robert Hazon.
• The Red Mans Bones, Benita Eister.  Life of George Catlin.
• The Hammer.  Sports Illustration collection of stories about Hank Aaron
• Badluck Way, Bruce Andrew.  Ranch in SW Montana
• The English Major. Jim Harrison. Sex, Drugs, and life's journey
• Lincoln Letter, William Martin
•  Born to Run, Christopher McDougall
• American Naitons, Colin Woodard. Differences that prevent the United States from uniting.
• The Whiskey Rebels, David Liss.  Hamilton's bank and the country distillers.
• Deadball, David Stinson.  Baseball in the ghostly parks that of historic America
• Going Somewhere, Brian Benson.  Bike ride from WI to OR
• West of the Revolution, Claudio Saunt.  Events in North America while the revolution took place in the East.
• The Good Thiefs Guide to Amsterdam, Chris Ewan.
• Let them Eat Shrimp, Kennedy Warne.  The loss of mangroves and the impact on sea food.
• Cinnamon Kiss, Walter Moseley
• Hydro Carbon Hucksters, Zubrowski
• War Dogs, Rebecca Frankel
• Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain (read again for ???time)
• River of Conflicts: River of Dreams, bilone Whiting Young.
• Toys of the 50's. 60's 70's, Roberts and Sher
• In the Kingdom of Ice, Hampston Sides.  Tragedy of ship Jennette and her explorers.
• Spirit of the Ojibwe, Balbin Baille.  Story of Lacourt O'reilles reservation and people

Sorry, but no space for 3,2,1 stars.

The Bohemians by Ben Tarnoff

This book was one I looked forward to reading for the insight I would get into writing as it developed in the west, but it soon became much more - in fact it set a high standard for the new year and allowed me new insights in to the complex life and personality of Mark Twain as his career makes the critical turn in the Gold Camps. 

The circumstances of this time period have never been laid out so thoroughly and Twain's very complex personality really plays out in this book, but even more so because of the contrast with his contemporaries who form the Bohemians. Ina Coolith, Charles Warren Stoddard, and Bret Harte complete the foursome that flips literature from East to West and back again. Each of these made a major contribution during their lifetimes, but only Twain ascended to the Master's level. 

We see this group like so many writers groups - I just finished watching the hilarious movie Authors Anonymous and in this small group of four we find the basis for many stereotypes. Ina Coolbrith is, perhaps, the saddest. She obtains the status of state poet laureate in old age, but it is the life she lives, tied to the bonds of her family. She cares for the old, raises children that are not hers, watches Stoddard sail to the islands and Twain and Harte move east, but she is bound to the place and is sad because of it.

Stoddard is another who becomes a role player in the group. He is a man lost in his own world and unable to identify with the world around him. His sexuality finally finds expression in the warm and idyllic islands of the Pacific and he is able to create one great work of literature, but his spiral cannot continue upward and he loses his position in literature as he struggles to be a secretary for Twain and other roles he is not suited for.

Harte is the man of immense talent and an even larger ego. "A DANDY" in his fancy clothes, a skeptic, a critic, and bitter in his philosophy and writing. Luck of Roaring Camp is his classic. It pulls him from the West to the East and by leaving California which had provided his muse he has only his inflated sense of self left. He will insult and injure all who reach out to him and his ego will not allow himself to be rescued.  This will include his most popular work the Heathen Chinee that originally was a plea to understand the racism that impacted the Chinese and ultimately became an instrument to increase the racism.  He sees himself as a martyr, but in fact he is a self destructing narcissist and his tragedy lacks sympathy because he has cut off all who would mourn.

But the group is driven by Twain, who, like Harte, begins by allowing cruelty and self righteousness to affect his early writing. The result is a need to periodically run from the storms he creates. The Bohemians help to ground him and they would all have remained friends if Harte had not developed such a toxic and acerbic presence that will finally flip friendship for enmity. In the end, it is Harte's criticism of Twain's home (he lived there free) and then of Livy (Twain's wife) that makes the separation complete.

We can follow Twain who is driven by jealousy of Harte's success and then see him rise to the ultimate level of literary reputation. The entwined lives are fascinating