Chaco Canyon is among the most important archaeological sites in North America. pg 7
This non-fiction book for middle graders, part of the “Digging Up the Past” series, gives information about Chaco Canyon, a site that still holds mysteries to be discovered.
It was home to many people but at some point, it’s not clear exactly when, the population wandered away, leaving ruins behind.
According to one descendant, “They didn’t abandon this place. It is still occupied. We can still pray to the spirits living in these places from as far away as our pueblo.” pg 84
The book gives information about the history of digs at the site, which were not conducted with the care and documentation that such things require today. I found that part of the book quite sad. Imagine all of the history that has been lost.
It touches on the challenges researchers face today in their efforts to study Chaco Canyon. These include damage from the weather, large numbers of visitors, and looters.
Recommended for children interested in non-fiction.
“I love my Mother Country, and I love my family, and I always will. I just wish, at the second-darkest moment of my life, they’d both been there for me. And I believe they’ll look back one day and wish they had too.” pg 386
I didn’t know what to expect from Spare, Prince Harry’s memoir. In the days after its release, it seemed like readers were quickly scanning the pages, looking for the most shocking details to smear in headlines.
What they left out in favor of the more salacious details, in my opinion, were the tender and intimate moments that really mattered.
What do I mean?
I mean the countless, quiet and unremarkable moments Harry shared with his friends and family.
The fact that Harry struggled with mental health and chose to seek out treatments again and again in an effort to find healing and peace.
He paints the picture of not an out-of-touch prince, but as a flawed yet hopeful person trying to find his place in the world.
Harry’s grief for his mother and love for his family form the large part of his narrative. Almost the entire book is a beautiful dedication to them.
I liked how Harry took widely reported events and shared his own feelings about what happened – from an unfortunate costume choice to the rumors swirling around about his out-of-control behavior.
He takes responsibility for his actions and doesn’t seek to lay blame at the feet of others. Which, let’s be honest, he could have.
Some kinds of fame provide extra freedom, maybe, I suppose, but royal fame was fancy captivity. pg 199
Harry could have focused on the bubble he was raised in and put every decision he ever made into the hands of others. But, in this book, he doesn’t.
I came away from reading Spare with a new found respect for Prince Harry. I hope that his new life, away from the flashing lights, is everything that he hopes and dreams it will be.
Highly recommended for readers who enjoy memoirs. Thanks for reading!
I’m doing a series at work (a library) where I’m reading the classics that are painted on the stairs. “Persepolis” is one of the titles featured there.
It is a modern classic about Marjane Satrapi’s childhood in Iran around the time of the revolution.
The story is told in black and white graphics which took a little getting used to, but by the end, I rather liked.
I liked Marjane a lot. But, having a daughter myself, I couldn’t help but empathize with her parents a little. They were trying to raise their daughter in such a challenging time- I can’t even imagine what that must have been like.
Even sending her out the door to school every day must have been a trial.
“Persepolis” has appeared on challenged or banned book lists in the past and I don’t understand why. I didn’t find anything offensive in these pages. The truth could be disturbing, but it is a good thing to put yourself in another person’s shoes for awhile.
It makes me realize what a charmed childhood I enjoyed.
“I don’t want to be a sex symbol. I would rather be a symbol of a woman, a woman who makes mistakes, perhaps, but a woman who loves.” pg 53
The incomparable Elizabeth Taylor shares anecdotes of her life between gorgeous photos of her personal jewelry collection.
My favorite parts are her memories about the tempestuous years between Richard Burton and herself. They’re just so drama-filled.
“Richard went to Van Cleef & Arpels and came back with this extraordinary heart and choker. The necklace tends to ‘roll,’ so you don’t see me wearing it much in photographs, but it’s one of my favorite pieces of jewelry because it was given with such love. That man knew how to make up!” pg 118
Meanwhile, there’s the jewelry… amazing stuff.
For example, there’s a pearl that is pictured with a series of European monarchs that her puppy tried to eat once upon a time. Can you imagine?
And Elizabeth received gifts for any and all reasons imaginable. Had a fight? Make up jewelry. Become a grandma? Not-at-all grandma jewelry. Just a regular Tuesday? Here’s some regular Tuesday jewelry.
It’s so over-the-top and I love it so much. Highly recommended for readers seeking coffee table books. You can’t get much more lovely than this.
“The components of the future earth and of Monks Mound were once bits of matter, created in the cauldrons of exploding stars, moving with great, swirling gravitational forces, like the stars still forming near the Cone Nebula today.” pg xiv
Cahokia: Mirror of the Cosmos is a reference book about the historic site, Cahokia Mounds. Author Sally Chappell takes the reader from the Big Bang all way through to the present – an estimated 13 billion years.
To say it is an ambitious book is an understatement.
“A major change in midwestern climate about 1250 may have caused considerable stress in Cahokia. The overall temperature of the region cooled during this infamous Pacific Climate Episode.” pg 72
That being said, once Chappell gets into the history of the site itself, it is an excellent look at a little-remembered place of forgotten significance.
Monks Mound is the largest earthen mound in North America, but so few people know about it.
The visitor’s center is currently closed for a much-needed update. I’ve been in there half a dozen times and it doesn’t do the site justice.
What Cahokia Mounds could really use is a team of historians, archaeologists, and a couple years worth of grants to properly study it.
And more books like Cahokia: Mirror of the Cosmos.
“By 1900 the Cahokia landscape was so changed by farming, canals, ditches, clear-cutting, railroad construction, housing, erosion, highways, streets, telephone lines, and rogue vegetation that only shadows of its past remained.” pg 151
Recommended for scholars who are interested in Cahokia Mounds. Chappell gives you a broad but ultimately helpful place to start your research.
How to Slay a Dragon is a humorous look at medieval history with a running, stand up-esque commentary by a nameless narrator.
“…this is still a book to guide heroes who are setting off to slay a dragon, steal the throne, and defeat a few hordes of supernaturally evil creatures along the way.” pg xv, capitulum infodumpium. (Not real Latin, but amusing all the same.)
Cait Stevenson divides the history into broad categories like: preparing for your quest, hazards along the way and winning the war. Then there are subcategories like: how to not marry the prince, how to win the bar fight, and how to outwit a genie.
My favorite was “How to Put Up with the Bard” because I tend to play that class of character in role-playing games. 🙂
“When William Porland recorded the names of fifty taverns in the fifteenth century, six of them were called the Swan. … There was no reason to distinguish an inn by a written-out name when literacy rates maxed out in the 30 to 40 percent range, which meant a 60 to 70 percent chance that the clientele couldn’t read… pg 27 How to Find the Inn
Cait uses actual events and historical figures to make the past come alive. I found the whole book very entertaining and I learned so much- a hallmark of a successful history book.
She even includes fantastical beliefs and superstitions like: “The most important thing to know is that medieval dragons usually kill with venom, not fire. They breathe thick clouds of deadly smoke in all directions at once.” pg 93
In the modern era, I think we dismiss historical figures as unapproachably different from us because technology wasn’t as developed as it is now. This book makes readers realize that there is very little difference between a historical figure and a modern one. People are people- with their flaws and strengths.
Now, they just happen to walk around with iPhones.
“Snowball fights in fifteenth-century Germany were apparently so common that priests classified them as a sin. Or perhaps the real problem was that priests were getting smacked in the face with snowballs.” pg 117
Highly recommended for readers who love history and humor in one convenient package. This book might fit the bill for reluctant readers as well.
“Fate did not hand Genghis Khan his destiny; he made it for himself.” pg 9, ebook
Author Jack Weatherford follows the Mongol empire from Genghis Khan to his grandson, Khubilai, and on to the distant descendants and faded glory of a once-great kingdom.
The early years of Genghis Khan’s life were the most interesting part of this book. However, this history relies on a single text, The Secret History of the Mongols, which was written in code, filled with exaggerations and inflated numbers (perhaps as propaganda) and still has not been thoroughly interpreted.
So, Genghis Khan, the historical personage, remains a shadowy figure. On the other hand, Weatherford opines that Genghis Khan’s empire had long lasting effects even to the present day.
“Seemingly every aspect of European life- technology, warfare, clothing, commerce, food, art, literature, and music- changed during the Renaissance as a result of the Mongol influence.” pg 14
Because the Mongols subjugated so many people, they controlled huge areas of the world and facilitated trade among different kingdoms. Weatherford writes that the Mongols didn’t press their culture upon the peoples they conquered (like the Romans) but adopted and adapted pragmatic customs and manners of civilization from everybody they ran into.
This diversity made the empire strong. For a little while.
But as the years passed, Genghis Khan’s descendants began to suffocate under the weight of this sprawling empire. They squabbled among themselves and spent lavishly on entertainment and comfort.
Their social policies weren’t as open as their patriarch’s. Notably, some of the rulers began to torture and abase their enemies, something that was not practiced during Genghis Khan’s time according to Weatherford.
Plague further divided the empire as the world’s populations decreased and trade faltered. The empire’s ending wasn’t a clear cut cessation, but more of a slow descent into darkness.
As a student of history, I was fascinated by the relatively recent disappearance of Genghis Khan’s Spirit Banner, a ceremonial spear with strands of horse hair braided atop it. It was a potent symbol of the Mongol’s strength and leadership.
“Somewhere in the 1960s, eight centuries after the birth of Genghis Khan, his sulde, the Spirit Banner that he had carried across Eurasia, disappeared from where the Communist authorities had kept it. … others hope that just perhaps the sulde lies forgotten in some dusty basement or bricked-up room from which it will, one day, be brought out to lead and inspire the Mongols once again.” pg 199, ebook
“China, so far, tends to creep into our narrative only from the time it appears on the imperial horizons of the West, or when it enters the international politics of the twentieth century, or when its economy seems unresistingly relevant (or threatening) to us.” Preface, x
Ways of Heaven, by professor Roel Sterckx from the University of Cambridge, seeks to build a bridge for the western mind to a thorough understanding of Chinese thought through its philosophy, history, historical figures, rituals, food and more.
The result is a delightful window into a different world, complete with context and signposts to guide your way.
I was looking for a book with a general overview of Chinese philosophy and this one definitely fits the bill.
Duke Ling of Wei asked Confucius about military formation. Confucius replied: ‘I have, indeed, heard something about the use of sacrificial vessels, but I have never studied military matters.’ The following day, he left the state. (An. 15.1) pg 221
Sterckx explains how Chinese history changed with each dynasty as well as the interpretations of key philosophical texts. Each succeeding ruling figure had to prove that their rule was legitimate and connected to all of the ones that went before it. Also, if Confucius’s teachings didn’t fit with how the current emperor wanted to rule, all that had to be done was to craft a different interpretation for the new ruler.
In that way, Chinese history and philosophy are both living systems, shaped by those who came before us and also, perhaps, changed in ways we will never know. It is fascinating to consider.
(And also ripe fodder for any authors who are looking for material to create historical fiction or alternative universes.)
I appreciated how Sterckx teases out the importance of symbols and materials that permeate Chinese culture. Lately, I’ve been on a Chinese and Korean television binge through Netflix and I could tell I was missing all sorts of meanings because I didn’t grasp the cultural cues.
Ways of Heaven helps with that too.
“In the Olympics of Chinese metaphor, champions are those who float along the river of life with ease, accompanied by a teacher or loved one and with the looks of a dragon and a character like jade.” pg 367
My favorite part of the book is when Sterckx talks about the use of music in Chinese ritual. How many times in films and television have you seen an ancient sage playing a flute while seated serenely on the side of a mountain? I can think of dozens of examples of just that. Now I know why:
“Music creates an unspoken bond that no other medium can achieve. … It is ritual lived through sound: ‘Music is what sages delight in, and it can be used to make the hearts of the people good. Its effect on people is deep; it can change habits and alter customs.'” pg 241
Highly recommended for readers who are interested in Chinese history or philosophy.
“A clearly defined medieval book has a unique personality, and part of what we have been doing in our visits to collections has been to engage with manuscripts as individuals and to discover what they can tell us, which can be learned from nowhere else.” pg 569
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is more than a scholarly look at medieval manuscripts. It is a book for anyone who appreciates the intersection of art, history, politics, religion, and the rediscovery of forgotten things.
Readers learn about the tremendous amount of materials and effort that went into creating the manuscripts as well as why they were created, and for whom. These details are incredibly revealing.
“The 1,030 leaves of the Codex Amiatinus would have utilized skins of 515 calves or young cattle.” pg 82
Christopher de Hamel attempts to trace the history of the books from their creation to the present. He visits libraries and museums across the world, relating stories of gorgeous buildings and caretakers both cautious and casual.
“The Book of Kells is so precious and so immediately recognizable that Bernard explained that it would be inappropriate to allow it into the reading-room.” pg 102
De Hamel has chosen twelve books from different centuries. As the reader progresses through time, the development of binding techniques, art, layout styles and more unfolds before her eyes. It is like viewing a series of snapshots about humanity, revealed through manuscripts.
A majority of the books are about religion, others war, and still others are concerned with the movement of the stars through the sky. Curiously, at least to this modern reader, the books weren’t necessarily created for the purpose of reading.
“Gospel was a work of art. It was a sacred object and a tangible symbol of divinity, enclosed in a cumdach, for sanctifying a church, for carrying in processions, for swearing oaths, and for veneration. … Mere reading was secondary.” pg 128
My favorite part of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is the photo of the cover of each manuscript at the beginning of each chapter and the pictures of the pages scattered throughout the text.
“Those who meet famous people often remark afterwards how unexpectedly small the celebrated personage was in reality.” pg 17
This is a book that celebrates bibliophilia. The author lovingly describes what it feels like to handle the manuscripts, critiquing the art and admiring the meticulous calligraphy. He makes you feel like you were there too.
One small criticism, this is a dense read and though de Hamel does his upmost to make the topic accessible, occasionally it ventures into the niche, though fascinating, world of medieval manuscript scholarship. But he never veers too far from the path.
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