Shelved: Books Read and Reviewed in June 2025

 

 

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A Perfect Frenzy:  A Royal Governor, His Black Allies and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution.  Andrew Lawler.  Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025.  544 pages.   

While the American Revolution officially began in April 1775 at Lexington and Concord, two major events occurred in January 1776 that were pivotal in fueling the Patriot cause.  Thomas Paine published his pamphlet "Common Sense" laying out the arguments for independence.  The other event is perhaps less known today, but it was perhaps even more effective:  On January 1, 1776, the city of Norfolk, Virginia was burned to the ground.  No other American city in history has been completely and utterly destroyed as Norfolk was.  Twenty years later, visitors were still stunned by the vast ruins and fields of debris.  For 250 years, the Norfolk fire has been blamed on the British, specifically the royal governor Lord Dunmore.  As a result of the fire, Dunmore was vilified on both sides of the Atlantic and labeled a war criminal.  Patriot propaganda painted him as a cruel and witless libertine who hosted huge orgies with enslaved women in the Governor's Palace when he wasn't wantonly destroying the lives of his subjects.  Following the Norfolk fire, Dunmore was even shunned by his peers in the House of Lords who believed that he had gone too far.  Dunmore died in a state of ignominy, and his family was reduced to relative poverty, ostracized by the British upper class.  

The kicker?  Dunmore and the British didn't destroy Norfolk.  THE PATRIOTS INTENTIONALLY BURNED THE CITY TO THE GROUND, and this fact was always known.  The Patriot propaganda machine used the destruction to maximum advantage to stir patriotic fervor. The fact is that Norfolk was a Loyalist stronghold, and British warships did destroy a few dozen structures, mainly warehouses and docks, but 95% of the buildings destroyed were intentionally ignited by Patriot troops under orders from Patriot officers and political figures. Why? They wanted to punish Norfolk for being strongly Loyalist, and Dunmore, once extremely popular and respected governor among the landed gentry and yeoman farmers alike, had crossed the line.  He recruited and armed free and enslaved black Virginians to fight for Britain, promising freedom in return.  This book tells a great, formerly untold, story and illustrates that history is extremely complicated and never just black and white.  In this situation, you have black and white Patriots wearing engraved brass breastplates or embroidered shirts saying "Liberty or Death" going into battle against Dunmore's black Ethiopian Regiment troops wearing breastplates engraved with "Liberty For Slaves."

 

 

A Fatal Thing Happened On the Way to the Way to the Forum:  Murder in Ancient Rome.  Emma Southon.  Harry N. Abrams, 2021.  352 pages.

Although I reject the stupid social media trend a short while back claiming that men constantly think about ancient Rome, I know that it is a major topic of interest for many people who like history.  Here, however, author Emma Southon illuminates an aspect of Roman history that few, if any, consider.  To paraphrase Southon, ancient Rome was an exceptionally "murder-y" place.  That in itself is not very different from our own society which has a morbid fascination with murder.  Think of how much of our entertainment - books, television, movies - is murder based.   

In this book, Southon examines a number of murders, including of course the assassination of Julius Caesar.  After all, Rome was conceived in murder when mythical founder Romulus murdered his twin Remus.  The Roman Republic was founded when the last king was overthrown following the suicide of a noble woman raped by the son of the king.  Crowds thronged arenas to cheer as men, women, and animals slaughtered each other. Criminals were crucified.  In one fifty-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.  Rome was an exceptionally violent society. This book is much more than just a recitation of cases, though.  It is an examination of Roman society and culture as a whole, through the prism of murder.  We, as readers, discover how ancient Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.  It's complicated. For much of Roman history, murder was not viewed as a matter for the state to handle.  It was a family issue.  If a person was killed by another person, the victim's family handled it. Then you throw in murders of family members, murders of slaves by masters and masters by slaves, murders of emperors and political figures, and state-sponsored murder.   This book is extremely informative and thought-provoking, and it's also quite entertaining.  The author is a British podcaster with a PhD in ancient history, and the tone of the book is very "podcast-y," and she has that very British sense of humor that I love.  I highly recommend this book for those who are interested in ancient Rome.

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Anna May Wong:  From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend.  Graham Russell Gao Hodges.  Chicago Review Press, 2023.  304 pages.  Updated 2nd edition, first published in 2004.

Between 1919 and 1960, Anna May Wong appeared in over 50 movies, and she was one of the biggest celebrities in the world.  American, European, and Asian movie magazines constantly published photos of her, stories about her, and stories written by her.   She socialized with other A-list celebrities and with European royalty.  She was recognized as an excellent actress, but she was also a stage and nightclub star, as an actress, singer, and monologist, often performing in multiple languages.  She was incredibly talented at presenting herself, thoughtfully using her own hairstyles and wardrobe to develop fuller characters and to advance the film plots.  During the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, she contributed most of her income and much of her time to raising funds for aid to Chinese civilians and refugees.  She invested wisely and made a comfortable living, enough for herself and to educate her siblings.  She was one of Hollywood's brightest stars --- quite an accomplishment for the daughter of a laundryman born in Los Angeles in 1905 who made her on-screen debut at 14.

Yet, few people know her name today, and far fewer have ever seen one of her films.  Her career and legacy were handicapped from the beginning by outside forces over which she had no control.  Strict movie codes of the day forbade any hint of romance between characters or actors of different races, so she was not considered for leading roles.  Her roles were often stereotypical, reflecting American racism. She played the devious Chinese female, almost always a villain or a servant, and almost always forced to kill herself in the end. Hollywood refused to hire Asian actors, casting white actors in "yellow-face," instead.  While she had many adoring fans in China, the Nationalist government condemned her because she embraced being a flapper, bared her legs and arms in films and photos, and she often played prostitutes or slave girls.  She was accused of shaming the Chinese people and their culture.  Wong was a very complicated and interesting character, and there has been a bit of resurgence in curiosity about her in recent years, with new biographies, documentaries, and even a Wong Barbie and U.S. quarters.  This bio was ahead of the curve, however, and this new, updated edition is a thorough look at her life and career, although it's a bit dry.

 

The Emperor's Tomb.  Steve Berry.  Ballantine Books, 2010.  436 pages.  Book 6 of 19 in Cotton Malone series.

I've inadvertently been on a China reading jag lately, and the sixth Cotton Malone adventure fits right in.  Retired Justice Department special agent Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt are drawn into a looming power struggle for the control of China. Two highly placed government ministers are locked in a battle that will drastically alter the state of China, and, consequently, the world.  The tomb of China's first emperor, the site of the famous terra cotta army, is the key.  The Emperor's Tomb is definitely following the Malone formula.  There's an evil secret brotherhood, there are shootouts in historic sites, and the dominant theme is betrayal.  Who's betraying whom and whom can you trust?  It's always up for grabs in a Steve Berry novel.  It makes me want to ask "Who hurt you, Steve Berry?"  They're not great books, admittedly, but they are good adventures that hold my interest.  One thing I really appreciate about each one is the author's note at the end.  Berry always explains the real history that inspires his stories, and I've learned about a number of actual events, people, and things that have led me to do research.  

 

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Bad Monkey.  Carl Hiaasen.  Knopf, 2013.  336 pages. Book 1 of 2, Andrew Yancy series.

A break from history with this one.  Carl Hiassen introduces his "Florida Man" character, former detective Andrew Yancy.  Yancy's been fired from both the Miami and Key West police departments and finds himself demoted to "Roach Patrol,"  health inspector in in Key West restaurants. Desperate to get his detective job back, he agrees to take custody of a human arm accidentally snagged by fishing tourists.  The official story is that the arm belongs to an unfortunate boater whose boat sank and body was assumed to have been eaten by sharks, but Andrew soon finds that there is much more to the story.  A victim who is a career criminal lately practicing Medicare fraud with Feds on his trail, a scheming gold-digging widow, an estranged daughter, and a sexy medical examiner all enter Yancy's life to makes things difficult.  The case takes him to the Bahamas where an elderly Voodoo Queen and the titular simian, a former Hollywood monkey, enter the picture.  It's a great adventure, funny, action-packed, with twists and turns, full Florida.  Apple+ adapted the book into a series starring Vince Vaughn as Yancy.  It sounds like perfect casting and a good show, but I'm not adding more streamers.   (Photo generated by AI)

 

The Taking of Jemima Boone:  Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America.  Matthew Pearl.  Harper, 2021.  288 pages.

In July 1776, twelve-year old Jemima Boone, the daughter of the best known frontiersman in the American colonies, and two of her friends were kidnapped by a small group of Cherokee and Shawnee warriors.  Over the next few days, Boone and a group of men from the settlement of Boonesborough took off in hot pursuit. After about fifty miles, the pursuers caught up, rescued the girls, and killed some of the warriors, including a son of an important war chief named Blackfish.  This incident, fueled by British efforts to tamp down colonial resistance on the frontier before it blew up, led to a broader conflict as the Shawnee, the pro-war faction of the Cherokee, and elements of other tribes launched a major effort designed both to seek revenge and to end, once and for all, white encroachment into the region known as Kentucky.  The actual kidnapping and rescue are dealt with rather quickly in the book, but the real story is the aftermath.  The summer of 1776 was extremely consequential in American  history.  As delegates in Philadelphia argued over the Declaration of Independence and the opening months of the Revolution, white settlers were crossing the Appalachians into Native American territory, foreshadowing the conflict and extermination that was to follow.  This book is an excellent account of the events.

The Riptide Ultra-glide.  Tim Dorsey.  William Morrow, 2013.  304 pages.  Book 16 of 26 in Serge Storms series.

Serge Storms, psychotic serial-killing vigilante and Florida history savant, is back to wreak havoc across the state and punish the never-ending stream of criminals and con-men that prey upon the hard-working and innocent elderly, underprivileged, and tourists.  In this installment, Serge and his travel buddy Coleman take on Florida's illegal oxycontin pain clinic operations and come to the rescue of the sweet and naive McDougals, laid-off special education teachers from Wisconsin who have devoted their entire lives to their students only to find themselves in the middle of a very violent turf war that rages all over Fort Lauderdale. It's typical Serge, action and hilarity at breakneck speed.  

Shelved: Books Read, Reviewed, and Shelved in May 2025

 

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Trespassers at the Golden Gate:  A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco.  Gary Krist.  Crown, 2025.  400 pages.

First things first:  the title is horrendous, "Trespassers at the Golden Gate" has next to nothing to do with the story.  But don't let that put you totally off, there's a good story inside.  On November 3, 1870, Laura D. Fair shot and killed her married lover in front of dozens of eyewitnesses, including the man's wife and a few of his children on a ferryboat in San Francisco Bay.  The victim, A.P. Crittenden was a well known lawyer and former California state legislator who had told Fair for years that she was his one, true wife and that he was going to divorce his wife and marry her.  When she finally realized that he was lying, she snapped, setting into motion a legal episode that captured the interest of the entire country.  The resulting trials led to public and private debates about marriage, morality, gender issues, and justice in California and beyond.  

Krist not only relates the now forgotten affair, but he also places the story in a larger context of the development of San Francisco which was a tiny little insignificant village in 1848 that became a wild and rough Gold Rush den of vice and corruption and, by 1870, was struggling to become a cultured and progressive metropolis.  During its meteoric rise, the fortunes of women, blacks, and Chinese in the city rose and fell, and Krist tells the stories of select representatives of those marginalized groups in parallel storylines.  He also introduces characters like Mark Twain, Brett Harte, and Susan B. Anthony who were swept up in the Laura Fair story.  It all makes for a really interesting story and a good history of San Francisco.  My only complaint is that, while I appreciated the tangents and the larger context, I can see that some readers would find them distracting and maybe even consider them filler material to pad a pretty cut and dried, straightforward story.

Save Our Souls:  The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder.  Matthew Pearl.  Harper, 2025.  272 pages.

On December 10, 1887, "The Wandering Minstrel" got caught in a storm and split in two in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  On board were the captain, Frederick Walker, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage boys, and twenty-something crewmen found themselves stranded on barren Sand Island, part of the Midway Atoll, a small uninhabited land mass claimed by the United States in the mid-1800s.  By 1887, the islands had resisted American efforts to transform them into a coaling station, and they were not frequented by passing ships.  The only human inhabitants were those unfortunates, like the Walkers and their crew, who were shipwrecked from time to time.  

Once they got their bearings, the castaways discovered that the island was, in fact inhabited, by a sailor who had been stranded there himself.  He shared the survival skills that he had developed and became a part of their group.  Little did they know.........

Their story became the only recorded true story of a castaway family (according to the book blurbs), a real life "Swiss Family Robinson."  The Walkers and their crew spent  fourteen months on the island before their rescue.

If you're into shipwreck stories, you have to read this book.  I personally can't give it more than 3 of 5 stars.  This is one of those books that really feels padded with all sorts of tangents and backstories in order to make a whole book, and the finished product is short.  It feels like the Walkers are absent for the majority of the book, and the survival story is not the main thrust of the book.  

The Paris Vendetta.  Steve Berry.  Ballantine Books, 2009.  432 pages.  Book 5 of 19, Cotton Malone series.

When Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on St. Helena in 1821, he supposedly took with him a huge secret:  where were the priceless treasures that he had plundered from palaces and treasuries across Europe as the spoils of his conquests?

That's the mystery that Cotton Malone, retired special agent with the United States Justice Department turned rare book dealer in Copenhagen, is dragged into by his closest friend, billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen, and an inexperienced US Secret Service agent.  In this entry in the Malone series, the treasure is not the main thrust; it's only a sideline.  The story really centers on Thorvaldsen's vendetta, his quest to avenge the murder of his son in Mexico City, the murder that led to the meeting between Thorvaldsen and Malone.  To get to his son's killer, Thorvaldsen has to infiltrate The Paris Club, a select group of evil oligarchs out to control the world and make even bigger fortunes.  Throw in a terrorist/murderer for hire who has spread death and destruction around the world, and you've got a typical Cotton Malone adventure.  Don't worry, the obligatory shootout in a church happens, just a little later in the book than in previous books.  (I have to wonder what that trope says about author Steve Berry.)  Like the other books in the series that I've read, it's an entertaining and fast read, inspired by some real historical tidbits.

Zodiac.  Ai Weiwei, Elettra Stamboulis, and Gianluca Costantini.  Ten Speed Graphic, 2024.  176 pages.

Ai Weiwei is one of the world's best known living artists.  His father, Ai Qing, was a well known poet and devoted Communist Party member in his native China who was denounced during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were forced to spend 18 years in labor camps and in exile.  Young Weiwei emerged from that experience as an artist and a political and social activist.  In his mind, the two, artist and activist,  can not be separated; an artist must be an activist.  His pro-democracy activism in China led to his work being censored, his workshops being destroyed, and himself being imprisoned without trial or even charges.  Finally allowed to leave China in 2015, he has become a citizen of the world and continued his artistic work in multiple media and his activism.

Here, Weiwei takes the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac and interweaves their ancient Chinese folklore and the ascribed human characteristics with stories from his life.  It's more than his life story, however.  It's also an insight into his philosophy  on the meaning and importance of art and freedom of expression.

 

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Carson the Magnificent.  Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas.  Simon & Schuster, 2024.  336 pages.  Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.

@HistoryInFive @HistoryInFive @History_In_Five #HistoryBuffsBookClub 

Fifty-five million people watched his farewell show.  Every week night for 30 years, an average of 9 million Americans, and as high as 15-16 million, watched his late night talk show.  The biggest television hits of today struggle to get a couple of million viewers. He created the late night talk show still copied - poorly - today.  Current late night hosts' audiences combined don't come close to matching his audience. He was one of the most well-known and beloved celebrities ever.  Appearances on his show launched the careers of dozens.  Yet, nobody knew the real Johnny Carson - not his fans, not his co-workers, not even his ex-wives, sons, and siblings.  He constructed a huge wall around himself, never letting anyone else in.  Supremely confident and capable of entertaining millions on tv and even thousands in a room, but practically incapable of relating to people individually or in small groups, he was a horrible husband and a horrible father, and, at times, he was a complete and total a$$hole.  He was the worst kind of alcoholic, a lightweight who turned into a mean and nasty drunk, picking fights with strangers, physically abusing at least his first wife, and constantly cheating on all of his wives.

There have been numerous biographies written about Carson over the years.  This one was written by a huge fan, but it doesn't hold back.  Bill Zehme began working on it shortly after Carson's death in 2005, and he spent a decade doing research and interviewing dozens of the people closest - as close as one could get - to Carson.  Unfortunately, Zehme's work was interrupted by cancer, and he died in 2023 before it was actually finished.  Mike Thomas, a friend, took on the task of finishing it and seeing it published.  It gives readers a look into Carson's rise, his impact on American pop culture, and into his tortured psyche.

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Stranger in the Shogun's City.  Amy Stanley.  Scribner, 2020.  352 pages.

When asked why they don't appreciate history, many people might say that history is just the stories of kings and queens and the upper class, and, honestly, a lot of history is exactly that.  The lives of kings and queens are the most likely to be documented and written about, creating lots of material for historians to comb through.  "Regular" people don't often leave paper trails.  That's what makes a book like Stranger in the Shogun's City really stand out.  Stranger is the story of Japan just before the 1853 arrival of the American fleet which resulted in Japan's emergence onto the world stage, told through the life of Tsuneno, the daughter of a Buddhist priest.  Tsuneno grew up in a small village, and her parents ran the local temple.  The family enjoyed a relatively comfortable lifestyle, and the children were all educated.  Tsuneno's eldest brother was set to inherit his father's position, and Tsuneno and her sisters were expected to follow the normal path for priest's daughters, probably an arranged marriage with a priest in another village and a life managing the day-to-day operations of the local temple.  However, that life didn't appeal to Tsuneno; she had dreams of life in the big city, Edo (now Tokyo), the seat of power of the Shogun, the de facto ruler of Japan.  She finally makes it to Edo in her mid thirties, having been divorced three times.  Alone and penniless, owning little beyond the clothes on her back, she has to make her own way, and it's a struggle.  Her struggles are documented in numerous letters between her and her family, and they also present a detailed look at life in Edo.   The book is a great window into the culture of 19th century Japan, and specifically into the life of a Japanese woman at the time.  

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The Master Plan:  Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust.  Heather Pringle.  Hyperion, 2006.  480 pages.

In 1935, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi SS and a chief architect of the Holocaust, founded The Ahnenerbe Institute, a supposedly academic research organization of researchers, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and physicians whose mission was to scour the world for evidence that proved the racial superiority of the ancient "Aryans."  Teams of scientists were dispatched around the world to investigate crackpot theories proving connections between ancient Aryans and Nazi Germany, rationalizing both German dominance in Europe and the "Final Solution."  The research of The Ahnenerbe was used to justify the extermination of the so-called "inferior" races.  As the war progressed, the horrific medical experiments performed on concentration and death camp prisoners also fell under the purview of The Ahnenerbe.

Following the war, The Ahnenerbe fell through the cracks of history. Many of the men involved resumed their academic careers. Little was published about its work until Heather Pringle published this book exposing the unimaginable which became very real and very frightening.

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Nothing But the Night:  Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America.  Greg King and Penny Wilson.  St. Martin's Press, 2022.  352 pages.

On May 21, 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was kidnapped and bludgeoned to death by Richard Loeb- his cousin - and Nathan Leopold.  The three teens (Leopold was 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb was just a couple of weeks away from turning 19.)  all lived within a few blocks of each other in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, a very wealthy and very Jewish neighborhood.  Leopold and Loeb were both very wealthy and very intelligent; both completed undergraduate degrees at the University of Chicago at age 18.  Why did they do it?  They did demand a small ransom of $10,000 (after Bobby was already dead), but the motive wasn't just financial.  Leopold and Loeb were bored, privileged, and considered themselves superior to everyone else around them.  If anybody could pull off a perfect crime, it was them, and the thrill of pulling a perfect crime and getting way with it was too much to pass up.  Unfortunately for them, they miscalculated their own brilliance, and their crime began to unravel very quickly.  By May 29, they were arrested and charged.  Their family hired the best known attorney of the 1920s, Clarence Darrow, to defend them.  Darrow saw a huge paycheck and an opportunity to fight capital punishment, which he opposed, and accepted the job.  The trial became a national sensation, the original "Trial of the Century."  Guilt was not the issue; both Leopold and Loeb confessed and even took police to the scenes of the crime; the evidence was overwhelming.  They entered guilty pleas.  The point of the trial was to determine whether they would receive the death penalty.

A hundred years later, the authors of this book use 21st century investigative tools, forensics, and psychological advances to reevaluate the case and present it in a fresh, new, and detailed take.  They delved into the killers' childhoods, the dynamics of their twisted relationship, whether they were responsible for other violent crimes, the murder of Loeb in prison, and Leopold's lifelong efforts to manipulate the narrative in his favor. They also reveal the classism, the antisemitism, and the anti-homosexuality that permeated the media coverage of the case and the public sentiment surrounding it.  

Starter Villain.  John Scalzi.  Tor Books, 2023.  272 pages.

After reading the book about the Leopold and Loeb case,  we needed a palate cleanser, so to speak.  Someone on my Facebook timeline happened to mention Starter Villain, and the cover naturally piqued my interest. I downloaded the audiobook because we were starting a long drive. One of the greatest recommendations ever! I can't think of a single reader I know who wouldn't enjoy this book.

Charlie Fitzer is a divorced former business reporter who moved in with his ailing father to help out.  Following his father's death, he continues to live in the family home and barely makes a living as a substitute teacher.  Then, his very wealthy uncle, with whom he's had no contact since age 5,  dies.  Charlie is shocked to learn that his uncle left him the family business, but not just the nationwide parking garage properties that he controlled.  It turns out that Uncle Jake was an international supervillain, one of a league of supervillain oligarchs, along the lines of the great James Bond villains with a strong flavor of Dr. Evil. Charlie even gets his own volcano island secret lair, complete with satellite-destroying lasers and all sorts of technological gadgets.  But wait, there's more!  He also gets talking dolphins who make Don Rickles seem like Mr. Nice Guy and super-intelligent spy cats who dabble in real estate on the side.  

This book was one of the funniest and most creative books I've ever read.  And the audiobook is read by Will Wheaton who does a fantastic job, one of my favorite audiobook narrations ever.  He has the perfect smarta$$ attitude for the job.

Tiger Shrimp Tango.  Tim Dorsey.  William Morrow, 2014.  320 pages.  Book 17 of 26 in Serge Storms series.  

The Sunshine State's favorite serial killer and walking encyclopedia of Florida history and lore, Serge Storms,  is on the move again, alongside his road buddy Coleman and his former arch-nemesis private-eye Mahoney.  His mission is two-fold: go after scammers who prey on the innocent and exact revenge for the murder of his love Felicia.  This book also marks the introduction of Brook Campanella, one of my favorite Serge-universe characters who becomes a crusading attorney, inspired in large part by her fling with Serge.

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Lincoln On the Verge:  Thirteen Days to Washington.  Ted Widmer.  Simon & Schuster, 2020.  624pages.  Thank you @HistoryInFive  @History_In_Five #HistoryBuffsBookClub and Simon & Schuster for the free book to review.

The period from November 1860 to March 1861 was a tumultuous and chaotic one in American history, to say the least, a period during which the "United States" became Dis-united, eventually leading to the deaths of over 600,000 American soldiers in battle.  Abraham Lincoln was elected President in November, despite the fact that his name didn't even appear on most southern ballots.  Immediately, southerners whose lives and livelihoods depended on the institution of slavery believed that Lincoln would immediately storm the South, if necessary, to destroy it, despite the fact that Lincoln made frequent public pronouncements that he had neither the authority nor the desire to do so.  In February, before Lincoln's electoral votes were even officially counted by Congress on February 13, 7 southern states sent delegates to Montgomery Alabama where they voted to secede from the Union and establish their own country, with their own president, congress, and constitution.  Days later, Lincoln boarded a train in Springfield, Illinois and embarked on the 13 day trip to Washington for his inauguration.  It was to be a grand tour of sorts, allowing him to make stops along the way to express his gratitude to supporters, to speak directly to Americans, and to actually see the country before he assumed the presidency.  Meanwhile, some southerners vowed to prevent his inauguration, by assassination, if necessary.  The next 13 days would be filled with threats, plots, counterplots, and deceptions, but the trip also seemed to steel Lincoln's resolve to stand strong in order to reunite the country and shape him into the leader that he became.  Widmer's book is an outstanding account of the journey and its effects on the man and the nation.

 

Atomic Lobster.  Tim Dorsey.  William Morrow, 2008.  352 pages. book 10 of 26 in Serge Storms series.

Atomic Lobster is the 10th entry in the Serge Storms series, and it's a doozy.  It feels like almost every character from the first nine books makes an appearance and is somehow involved in the crazy and chaotic conclusion, set aboard a cruise ship. Drug smugglers, terrorists, little old ladies, retired football superstar, ex-mobsters in witness protection, secret agents, a family of killers out for revenge, and even Serge's pre-Coleman traveling buddy, Lenny --- they're all here. Throw in a drug-crazed prostitute and a clowns versus mimes fight club, and you've got a typically screwy Serge adventure.  Along the way, of course, the reader learns about the annual Epiphany dive for the holy cross that takes place in Tarpon Springs and other unique aspects of Florida history.  This book did read a little differently for me in one way though.  I don't know if Dorsey was going through anything in particular when he wrote this one, but I think there is more sex and really graphic violence in this one than in the other Serge titles that I've read.

Starvation Heights:  A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest.   Crown, 2005.  432 pages.

In 1911 two wealthy British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, arrived at a sanitorium in the forests of the Pacific Northwest to undergo the revolutionary “fasting treatment” of Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard.  They were always open-minded when it came to new health treatments and crazes, and Dr. Hazzard's treatment looked promising to them.  Hazzard and her husband were building a sanitarium outside of Seattle that they dreamed would rival Kellogg's famous sanitarium in Battle Creek Michigan.  The sisters entered into her care and submitted to weeks of enforced fasting, subsisting on weak tomato and asparagus broths, and daily enemas.  Claire died, and her sister Dora finally made contact with the girls' childhood nurse in Australia and an uncle who arrived to rescue her.  What they found on their arrivals made no sense, and they got British and American authorities involved, discovering many more deaths caused by Hazzard's "medicine."  It's a real life horror story and a story of extreme quackery tinged with pure evil.

Shelved: Books Read and Reviewed in April 2025

 

Author Talk

The Residence:  Inside the Private World of the White House.  Kate Anderson Brower.  Harper, 2015.  320 pages.

If you enjoyed the murder mystery comedy "The Residence"  on Netflix, as I did,  you may have been surprised, as I was, to learn that it was inspired by a nonfiction book, a history of the White House through the eyes and recollections of the men and women who work there daily as maids, butlers, ushers, cooks, plumbers, electricians, engineers, florists, nannies, and even calligraphers and have devoted their lives to serving the nation by saving its First Families, often for decades.  The author interviewed dozens of employees and wrote a truly fascinating account of what goes on behind the scenes and out of sight of the public.  The main focus is on the administrations from Kennedy to Obama, but there are historical tidbits that cover the entire history of the White House, going back to its first occupants, John and Abigail Adams.  Getting the employees to share their experiences was quite a feat.  Only a handful of White House employees have ever published their memoirs, and there is a universal sense of pride and professionalism among the employees of "The House," as they call it, that exists almost nowhere else.  Employees are fiercely protective of the families that employ them and often reveal very little about their work even to friends and family members, sometimes not even revealing to acquaintances where they work.  For many, telling stories in public was unthinkable. Their work is demanding and draining, but they often form deep and lasting relationships with each other and with the Presidents and their families. This was a great read, a very informative and entertaining look at how things work, the people that make it work every day, and the First Families of the past 50 years.  (Readers may be surprised to learn which families, and family members, are the most and least fondly remembered.)

Hurricane Punch.  Tim Dorsey.  William Morrow, 2007.  384 pages. #9 of 26 Serge Storms novels.

In the 9th Serge Storms novel about the ultimate Florida history savant with the unfortunate (?) habit of murdering bad people in fiendishly diabolical ways as he zooms around Florida on his hilariously madcap history-seeking adventures, Serge and his buddy Coleman are chasing not one but two massive hurricanes around the state.  Not only might the two storms' paths collide (Who knows what would happen then?), but Serge and Coleman are also being chased themselves, by Agent Mahoney who has been on Serge's tail for years and by another possible serial killer.  The result is the usual cornucopia of historical facts, unbelievable characters, and incredible events ---- made all the more unusual by the fact that author Tim Dorsey always bases much of his plots on real "Florida Man" truths.

And yet another quote that links me, perhaps disturbingly, to my fictional  alter ego, Serge Storms:  "I naturally absorb history at an advanced rate."  Just ask anybody who has been to a museum with me.

Cadillac Beach.  Tim Dorsey.  William Morrow, 2004.  352 pages.  #6 of 26 in Serge Storms series.

With stops at Disney World and in Tampa, this installment of the Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey, finally settles down in Miami Beach.  The action goes back and forth between the present day and the 1960s, when Miami was coming into its own as an entertainment capital in America.  Jackie Gleason used his enormous clout to force his network to film broadcast his show from there.  The Rat Pack entertained in Miami Beach clubs, and black entertainers like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr, and Ella Fitzgerald entertained segregated white audiences (Miami was still "South" then.) nightly and then went home to their accommodations in Miami's once flourishing black neighborhood called Overtown, after first performing late night shows for black audiences.  Cassius Clay upset the champ, Sonny Liston, in a huge fight in Miami Beach in 1964.  Serge was just a precocious little boy then, often in the company of his grandfather and namesake and his gang of con artists and crooks. 

Back in the present, Serge returns to Miami Beach to solve two mysteries:  1) Was his grandfather's death a murder or a suicide?  2 ) Where are the missing diamonds stolen in the infamous "Murph the Surf" jewel heist forty years earlier? Of course, Serge's grandfather and his boys were involved in the heist somehow, as was the powerful Palermo crime family.  That much peril isn't enough for Serge, naturally, so he pulls in the FBI, the CIA, and Cuban radicals in Miami, ultimately initiating an invasion of Cuba. Another fine read for fans of Serge Storms and Tim Dorsey's crazy, fast-paced, history-packed, romps around Florida.

Welcome to Florida:  True Tales From America's Most Interesting State.  Craig Pittman.  University Press of Florida, 2025.  296 pages.  

Freelance journalist Craig Pittman is definitely one of a kind.  He's a true investigative journalist, the bane of every Florida politician's existence, revealing their hypocrisy, duplicity, greed, and downright evil shenanigans, especially as they affect Florida's greatest, and most vulnerable, asset, nature.  He also spotlights really interesting, unique, and noteworthy Florida men and women who truly deserve the spotlight. And he is the master of reporting the "Florida Man (and Woman)" stories for which the state is world famous - the weird criminals and idiots who do incredibly stupid things.  No matter which kind of story he's telling, he tells it with intelligence, a great sense of humor, and a reverence for his native state that shines through.

This book is a collection of his best stories from roughly the past four years.  Whether you're a native, a resident, a visitor, contemplating the move to Florida, or recently moved to Florida, these stories will entertain and educate you.  (And if you happen to have the slightest respect for any politician, these stories will eliminate that nonsense.)

Shark Skin Suite.  Tim Dorsey.  William Morrow, 2015.  336 pages.  #18 of 26 in Serge Storms series.

Homicidal psychopathic serial killer Serge Storms is, as usual, on a mission or two or three in this 18th entry in the series. He decides he wants to be a lawyer.  The problem is that he never went to college, so, in Serge Storms style, he begins a marathon of movies set in and inspired by legal cases in Florida, and he and his buddy Coleman begin a trek around the state to visit various legally-themed sites.  Along the way, he gets involved in a major class-action court case against a crooked mortgage company accused of perpetrating huge fraud against its customers.  Lawyers involved pull out all the dirtiest tricks, including murder, and Serge, of course, goes into vigilante mode.  Along the way, he is reunited with former love Brook Campanella, paraprofessional turned superstar crusading lawyer, and he meets crusading journalist Rivas who shows up in a couple of future books.  In the midst of all of the legal tensions, Serge devises a couple of really unique punishments for wrongdoers, and he and Coleman narrowly escape the jaws of a Burmese python in the Everglades.  This one is a standout in the series for me.

Author talk

Harriet Tubman Live in Concert.  Bob the Drag Queen.  Gallery Books, 2025.  239 pages.  (Audio version 4hrs, 17 minutes)

Wow!  I had no idea what to expect when I first learned about this book, but I immediately pre-ordered it.  We've been fans of Bob the Drag Queen since his first appearance on "RuPaul's Drag Race" and have seen him on a couple of stand-up comedy tours, but a book about Harriet Tubman?  It blew me away.  Pure creative genius and one of the most original things that I've read in a very long time.

Picture it:  NYC, present day.  People from the past, including many major historical figures have suddenly returned to life.  There's no explanation, almost no attention paid to it in the story.  It's just the mechanism which makes the story possible.  Don't worry about it.  "The Returned" live their lives and integrate into the present.  Cleopatra, for example, becomes a hugely successful makeup and fashion Instagram influencer.  Harriet Tubman, and several of the people she led to freedom on the Underground Railroad, have returned, and she's on a mission, again - a mission from God.  She contacts Darnell Williams, a once-hot hip-hop writer and producer whose music career is struggling, and tells him that God has chosen him to assist in her mission.  While one might deny God, nobody dares to say No to Harriet Tubman!  Her mission:  create an epic hip-hop album and stage show, a la "Hamilton."  In her first life, Tubman freed about 700 people from physical chains, and many more indirectly.  Now, she's back to free millions from metaphorical chains of all sorts.  Darnell has his own metaphorical chains to break, and he goes to work, with Harriet's guidance, to break free into his own authentic self.  This is a fantastic work, and I so hope that Bob is actively working to create a real album and show; it could be bigger than "Hamilton."  I highly recommend the audio version.  Not only is Bob the reader, but it also includes two of the show's songs at the end.  (NOTE:  The photo above was generated using AI.  There is no known photo of Harriet Tubman spittin' fire.)

Author talk

The Greatest Nobodies of History:  Minor Characters From Major Moments.  Adrian Bliss.  Ballantine Books, 2024.  304 pages.

Adrian Bliss is apparently an YouTuber and podcaster who does comedy bits about history, science, and philosophy among other things, and he has millions of followers across social platforms.  Here, he's written a dozen or so stories told from very unique points of view.  For example, the reader or listener will hear from the ferret in Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady With Ermine," Henry VIII's Groom of the Stool, Buffalo Bill's favorite show horse Charlie, the commander of the emu army in Australia's Great Emu War, the oak tree that hid Prince Charles as he evaded capture during the English Civil War, and even an interview with the Bubonic Plague bacteria herself.  The stories are incredibly creative and funny, with a few sad touches here and there.  At the end of each story, Bliss tells the true story behind the event.  This book is great for people who love history podcasts; each chapter is like a podcast episode.  It's also great for fans of British comedy and for people who might not be in the mood for deep dives into history.  The humor is very much like Bob Newhart meets David Mitchell (British comedian and actor and author of Unruly, a great history of the British monarchy - it reads very much like Unruly), Monty Python, and Horrible Histories.  I strongly recommend the audio version.

Shelved: Books Read, Reviewed, and Shelved in March 2025

 

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.