Gator A-Go-Go. Tim Dorsey. William Morrow, 2010. 352 pages. #12 of 26 in Serge Storms series.
"It's history. How can you not be fascinated?" Serge Storms.
Serge Storms is my fictional alter ego. OK, maybe not the psychotic, serial killing vigilante part, speeding across Florida and punishing criminals and the ill-mannered and annoying on behalf of the victimized - not yet anyway - but the super-enthusiastic love and knowledge of all things related to Florida's human and natural history. Serge makes me look like a piker in comparison.
In this adventure, Serge relates the history of spring break in Florida to the reader, to his faithful companion Coleman, and to anybody who finds himself within the general vicinity. As usual, the thrilling story involves multiple parties, all in pursuit of something. In this case, a murderous Miami drug gang led by "Madre" Juanita, FBI agents overseeing the Witness Protection Program, and the producers of a "Girls Gone Wild"-style video series, not to mention lots of innocent spring breakers. Characters from previous Serge adventures appear and get involved as well. As always, it is a very fun ride. I love this line from the Raleigh News & Observer’s review and “gobble up the Serge A. Storms stories…and you’ll see what an overrated, humorless dullard Hannibal Lecter has always been.”
Author talk
Kugels and Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina. Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey. University of South Carolina Press, 2023. 256 pages.
South Carolina became home to some of the first Jews to ever live in North America, with the first recorded Jewish settlers arriving in Charleston in the 1690s. Over the centuries, more Jews arrived, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi, then Germans, Russians, and Eastern Europeans, at the turn of the 20th century and, later, escaping the Holocaust. Jewish families adapted and blended their traditions and foodways in their new home, influenced by contact with other ethnic groups, black and white, and by new and different ingredients that they found. The result is this history and cookbook, containing some 80 recipes alongside dozens of stories about their creation and history. As I've said lots of times in the past, it's hard to go wrong when combining food and history, and this book is a revealing insight into a particular culture.
Author Talk
Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. Jeffrey H. Jackson. Algonquin Books, 2020. 336 pages.
Another book about anti-German resistance in occupied territory during WWII, but this one is unique. First, it's set on the island of Jersey, one of the Channel islands between France and the UK which doesn't get a lot of ink. Second, it's the first book to tell the story of two queer artists, Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe (known in the art world as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore), whose lives and resistance were almost forgotten. Third, their resistance involved no weapons, no espionage, and no hiding of Jews or Allied pilots. Their resistance was writing anonymous notes. That might sound benign and low-key, but their actions were still punishable by death.
Schwob and Malherbe were well-to-do French women (childhood friends who actually became stepsisters when their parents married) who became lovers and were deeply involved in the cross-dressing, homosexual, gender-bending, artistic, and literary free-for-all that was Paris in the 1920s. They socialized with all the big names (Gertrude Stein, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Aldous Huxley, among others) of the Lost Generation and Surrealism. They became avant-garde artists themselves, dabbling in various media but mostly photography focusing mostly on gender and challenging social norms. As the European situation deteriorated, they decided to move to the quaint peaceful island of Jersey. There, they had to closet themselves as just sisters because it was a different world from Paris. Their respite was brief, however, as Jersey was occupied by German troops. The pair began a propaganda war against the occupiers, conducting psychological warfare by creating and distributing "paper bullets" — small typed notes containing wicked insults against Hitler, calls to rebel, and subversive fictional dialogues designed to demoralize Nazi troops. They would sneak the notes into soldiers pockets, on and in vehicles, and various other places. Finally arrested and sentenced to death, they continued resistance in prison, reaching out to other prisoners to lift their spirits. It's quite an interesting story.
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World. Edward Dolnick. Harper, 2011. 400 pages.
England's 17th century was chaotic - a civil war, the execution of a divinely appointed king, a religious dictatorship, religious wars and persecution, a plague, the Great Fire of London, and a relatively bloodless royal coup. London's streets were covered in filth, the overwhelming majority had no access to clean water or education, and the murder rate was five times higher than today. At the same time, England's fortunes as a trading power and colonizer were rising, coffee houses boomed as men of various backgrounds gathered to discuss everything under the sun, and thinkers like Hobbes and Locke wrote far-reaching philosophy.
In 1660, the Royal Society of London was formed, bringing together the most intellectual men of the country to discuss, debate, and solve the scientific mysteries of the universe. Along with their intellects, the men brought their faiths, wills, and egos, setting the stage for major discoveries and for major conflicts. That's the real strength of this book, the biographical sketches of men like Newton, Hooke, Boyle, Kepler, Brahe, Leibniz, and Galileo and the stories of their beefs - especially the beef between Newton and Hooke and Newton and Leibniz. (Turns out that Newton's pettiness rivaled his brilliance.)
I loved that part of the book. However, the author goes deep when he explains the theories and work of these men, albeit in an understandable way. Personally, I tend to zone out when it comes to physics and math. My wife, who taught math and science, loved that part, however. I think this book can be enjoyed by both types. It's a really good read.
The Venetian Betrayal. Steve Berry. Ballantine Books, 2007. 496 pages. Book 3 of 19, Cotton Malone series.
Cotton Malone's third outing leaves the biblical mystery world but still tackles an ancient mystery. The retired U.S. Justice Department Agent turned rare-book dealer in Copenhagen finds himself looking for the final burial place of Alexander the Great. Of course. it can't be that simple. Author Steve Berry throws in a female supervillain: a ruthless despot who has singlehandedly united the former Central Asian Soviet republics into a major world player and who dreams of becoming the 21st century Alexander the Great who plans to devastate the rest of Asia with biological weapons of mass destruction. There are other secrets too, like Greek fire and a panacea cure for deadly viruses. It's definitely a familiar Cotton Malone adventure, with his usual associates, globetrotting from city to city, gunfights in historic sites, betrayals on top of betrayals, and a shadowy organization of powerful oligarchs, but they're fun, with tasty historical bits scattered throughout.
The Charlemagne Pursuit. Steve Berry. Ballantine Books, 2008. 528 pages. Book 4 of 19 in Cotton Malone series.
Cotton Malone, retired special agent of a secret branch of the Justice Department turned rare-book dealer in Copenhagen, is back for his fourth outing. This time, it's personal. (Well, it was personal in the books in which his son was kidnapped and his bookstore was bombed too, I guess.) He learns that the death of his submarine commander father did not happen the way the US Navy said it did. It was part of a top-secret mission, and the subject of a high level coverup for decades, to Antarctica - a mission to investigate a theory that would upend everything we think we know about the development of human civilization. It was a secret that the Nazis explored too, and Cotton finds himself in league with two twin German sisters out to find proof of the theory that their grandfather and father shared, and possibly to kill each other in the process. How does Charlemagne fit into all this? The keys to the mystery are found in clues and riddles left by one of Charlemagne's courtiers who discovered the secret, and Charlemagne was one of many figures in history that used the secrets to advance his own goals. The Cotton Malone formula at work, but it works - a nice adventure story.
Author talk, 2017
Five-Carat Soul. James McBride. Riverhead Books, 2017. 320 pages.
This is a collection of previously unpublished short stories by one of my favorite writers of fiction, James McBride. As one familiar with McBride's work would expect, the stories are full of deep insights into human nature and vivid characterizations, and most of them are history related. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. Members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives. The final story is set in a zoo, with the animals as the characters grappling with the big questions about life, the natural order of things, and their relationship with the "smellies" - humans. Each story is a treat.
Nuclear Jellyfish. Tim Dorsey. William Morrow, 2009. 320 pages. #11 of 26 in Serge Storms series.
The worlds of diamond couriers, coin show dealers, and Florida Man collide in this Serge Storms entry. A vicious Florida gang led by The Jellyfish -err, I mean, The Eel- uses inside information to rob and murder dealers on the coin and stamp show circuit who supplement their incomes by secretly transporting valuable jewels between jewelers. Serge Storms, the psychopathic serial killer and Florida's greatest historian, booster, and vigilante, stumbles into the mess while he's on the historical quest to visit landmarks connected to Florida's southern rock history icons, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers. When one of Serge's friends is nearly killed by the gang, it's on. If you hurt one of Serge's friends, your days are numbered.
