The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth. Adam Goodheart. David R. Godine, Publisher, 2023. 272 pages.
In November 2018, most of the world heard about North Sentinel Island, one of the Andaman Islands off the coast of India, for the first time when a young American missionary broke Indian law by landing on the island, intending to share his Christianity with the Sentinelese tribe that lived there and had violently repelled almost all previous attempts to contact them. His death was the result, and it became a big international story for a minute as people debated his mission: arrogant, racist, colonialist, superiority complex or misguided, brash young man attempting to do God's work? Eventually, the world moved on, but the story continued to resonate with Adam Goodheart, a journalist and historian who had visited the Andaman islands in the late 1990s and even briefly (and illegally) visited the coast of North Sentinel Island. Twenty years later, he answered the urge to return and to learn more. He recounts his research and his journeys in this book, along with the history of the Andaman tribes and their interactions with explorers, travelers, and the British, then Indian governments. During these interactions, the Andamanese natives were abused, killed, enslaved, and infected with devastating diseases. However, the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island had successfully, and forcefully, resisted all contact with the outside world, and they continue to do so today, living much as they have for tens of thousands of years, but modernity's threat is intense. Like Goodheart, I have always been fascinated by stories of first contact between cultures, and this was a great read.
The Jefferson Key. Steve Berry. Ballantine Books, 2011. 480 pages. Book 7 of 20, Cotton Malone series.
When you publish a book a year in a fictional adventure series, you have to have a formula, and Steve Berry definitely does have a cotton formula. The plot is going to revolve around an interesting, and legitimate, historical mystery. Somebody close to Cotton Malone is going to need assistance. There are going to be crazy shootouts in very historic locations. There are going to be betrayals. The bad guys are part of a shadowy and powerful secret organization of power- and money-hungry oligarchs who crawl out of the woodwork to take over the world. Somebody is going to ask Cotton how he got his name, and Cotton is not going to answer. And there's lots and lots of action. They're not great works of literature that will change your life. They are fun reads, or in my case listens, while walking or driving or doing something else, and I usually learn something or get interested in learning about something or reading something else discussed in the author's notes.
In this case, all four assassinations of American presidents are linked to the modern day descendants of four privateers, officially and constitutionally-sanctioned pirates. They take action when they feel Presidents turn against them, and it's up to Cotton to end their threat once and for all. What's the Jefferson Key? The key to the mystery is dependent on a secret cipher developed by Thomas Jefferson.
From "60 Minutes"
1000 Years of Joy and Sorrow: A Memoir. Ai Weiwei. Crown, 2021. 400 pages.
Before our recent trip to Seattle, I was vaguely aware of the Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei. As it happens, the Seattle Art Museum is hosting the largest Ai Weiwei exhibition ever staged in the US, over 100 pieces on view through September 7, 2025. I must admit the very first pieces in the exhibit did not impress me. "Great," I thought to myself, "he thinks flipping the bird is art." There are a lot of birds flipped. As I got deeper into the exhibit, however, I was duly impressed and saw more, a much more varied and interesting body of work. Ai is very prolific, and his work challenges the viewer and makes him/her think. Isn't that what art is supposed to do?
His memoir explores his philosophy of art and particularly his unshakable belief that artists must also be activists. It's also a history of communist China. Ai's father, Ai Qing, was once an associate of Mao Zedong and the other leaders of the Communist Revolution. He was hailed as the poet of the Revolution, widely known and appreciated throughout China and in international literary circles. Then, he fell from grace during the Cultural Revolution, arbitrarily labeled a "Rightist" and an "Enemy of the Revolution." As a result, he and his family were banished to the hinterlands for much of Weiwei's childhood, and Qing was subjected to public shaming and sentenced to hard labor, including cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his family's struggles and the oppression that the Communist Party has constantly subjected the people to, most of which westerners are unaware. The stories make it easier to believe the rumored genocides being conducted currently against ethnic Tibetans and Uyghars, among others, Westerners are also largely unaware of the long history of dissidence that has occurred in China. Ai Weiwei was hugely influenced by his personal and family experiences and the acts of dissidence that he witnessed. His art caused him to be persecuted and imprisoned as a dissident himself until he was allowed to leave the country. Today, Ai Weiwei is more or less a citizen of the world, and one of the leading proponents of freedom of expression.
While I must admit that I slogged through this book, even skimming a few sections, it is not a bad book. In fact, it's pretty good, and it's an informative, thought-provoking, and important book. I can't explain why it took me so long to read.
The Kaiju Preservation Society John Scalzi. Tor Books, 2022. 272 pages.
Another historical break - however, I did learn that there was a collective word for the giant monsters that have been a part of Japanese popular culture for decades: Kaiju. In my teens and twenties, I read lots and lots of sci-fi and fantasy, but I've been away from it for a long time. John Scalzi has brought me back for a couple of hugely fun reads, and I look forward to a couple of more. He's creative and hilarious. Like Starter Villain, my favorite read so far this year, I listened to the audiobook version, and Will Wheaton does a fantastic narration.
The story: Jamie Gray is climbing the ladder at a food-delivery app corporation when he is arbitrarily fired by the clueless CEO. Stuck in New York City at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, he is forced to support himself by becoming a "deliverator" for the same company. One delivery serendipitously reunites him with a former acquaintance named Tom who sends him to a job interview that changes his life. The job turns out to be with an interdimensional "animal rights organization" with the job of studying and protecting a world populated with humongous nuclear-powered creatures and the parasites and mutualistic creatures that depend on them. These giants are called Kaiju, and it turns out Godzilla was one of them who accidentally crossed into our Earth. Of course, Jamie's first mission into Kaiju-world leads to a crisis that threatens the existence of both worlds, and he and his new friends have to save them. It's all so much fun!
Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined. Stephen Fry. Chronicle Books, 2025. 288 pages.
I've loved mythology since I was a child, and Stephen Fry is one of my favorite human beings, so I'm naturally going to read his re-imaginings of Greek mythology. This is his 4th, and most recent, volume, a re-telling of the epic-est of epics, Homer's Odyssey. After ten years away from his throne and family in Ithaca, Odysseus and his men make their way home following the Trojan War. Unfortunately, the easily offended Olympian gods are repeatedly offended and intervene in the journey, ultimately killing all of the hero's crew and delaying his return for another decade. Odysseus has to survive the islands of Circe and Calypso, the Cyclops, the monster Scylla, and the murderous whirlpool Charybdis, and more, only to find his family and palace besieged by 108 evil suitors determined to force his wife Penelope to marry one of them. At approximately 2,700 years old, Homer's Odyssey is still one of the greatest stories ever told, and it has been re-told in too many forms to count. Stephen Fry's re-telling is a masterpiece. If you have any interest in Greek mythology, you must read Fry's books, and I highly recommend that you listen to him performing the audiobooks.
.png)
From CBS Sunday Morning
Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents. Robert Strauss. Lyons Press, 2016. 304 pages.
I went looking for a biography of James Buchanan and found that there were few. Fitting for the man that probably appears most often on lists of worst presidents ever, the president as the country literally disintegrated, the Confederacy was formed, and preparations for the Civil War were underway, all while he believed that he was constitutionally powerless to do anything about it. During the Civil War, even his Pennsylvania neighbors blamed him for it. One might argue that he was a 19th century of the "Peter Principle," the idea that a person rises in a business hierarchy up to a level at which they are notably incompetent, in action - except that James Buchanan was never truly competent at much of anything. At anything political anyway. He did amass a fairly large fortune through business investments that allowed him to indulge in the luxurious lifestyle that he enjoyed. Otherwise, as a student, a Congressman, a Senator, an ambassador, and an ambassador, he was totally unremarkable and unaccomplished. He seemed to have no personal political convictions. He almost never committed publicly to one view or another, and, on those rare occasions when he did state an opinion, he usually contradicted it later, sometimes in the same statement. Yet, he set his designs on being President, and worked hard for 20 years to finally achieve it. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded at precisely one of the worst moments in American history. The author's examination of Buchanan and "the POTUS rating game" led me to realize that the vast majority of US Presidents have been incredibly mediocre men. It is absolutely incredible to think that the United States is about to celebrate 250 years of existence.
And, yes, Strauss does address the only issue that has kept Buchanan, besides his incompetence, in the public consciousness for 150 years: the speculation about Buchanan's sexual orientation. While there are tantalizing bits of circumstantial evidence, the fact is, we'll never know.
John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton do a reading
Redshirts: A Novel in Three Codas. John Scalzi. Tor Books, 2012. 320 pages.
Here's another fun break from history, another fun sci-fi read written by John Scalzi and audiobook-narrated by Wil Wheaton. Again, it does nod to history, specifically the history of science fiction television, especially "Star Trek," and this book will definitely appeal to fans of humorous and irreverent sci-fi and especially to fans of "Star Trek." The title refers to one of the most common tropes in the Star Trek universe, going back to the original series: if red-shirted security extras accompanied were art of an away team beamed to another planet, the chances are very high that at least one of them would die.
Ensign Andrew Dahl has been assigned to the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union, a prestige posting. He soon realizes that something is amiss: Every away mission is a harrowing and dangerous encounter that results in either serious injury or death to at least one low-ranked crew member while the five highest ranking officers always either escape unscathed or recover very quickly, if not miraculously, from some life-threatening condition. Along with his small group of friends and a mysterious crewmen who hides in abandoned holds and tunnels of the ship, Dahl comes to a shocking conclusion and effects a plan to set things right. Okay, yes, I'm seeing patterns as I read more Scalzi works: the hero is a young intelligent smart-alec who is kind of floundering because of circumstances beyond his control, and he finds a small, equally intelligent, witty, and misfit-y friends, and together they meet and conquer the obstacle. Characterization and character development are not Scalzi's strengths; wit and creativity are. While there is a lot of familiarity, the story is original and different, and I love the humor, and Wil Wheaton's narration makes it even better.
Author talk
Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage. Jeff Guinn. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 400 pages. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free review copy.
For 51 days in 1993, hundreds of ATF and FBI agents lay siege to a haphazard compound outside of Waco Texas. Inside were under 100 men, women, and children who were all devoted followers of Vernon Howell, who took the name David Koresh. They believed that Koresh was a prophet, anointed by God to be "the Lamb" spoken of in the Book of Revelation. As the last prophet, Koresh was destined to break the seven seals that would set the events of Revelation's End Time into motion. He would lead them in battle against the evil forces of "Babylon," otherwise known as state and federal government, but they all knew that they would be killed in the process, only to be resurrected at the right hand of God, as His chosen people.
As "the Lamb," Koresh controlled every aspect of his followers lives, even decreeing that all marriages were dissolved and that all women members were his. A select number of women, and girls as young as 10 or 12, were chosen to be his sexual partners and to bear his children. The sect's activities were partially funded by the illegal activity of converting semiautomatic guns to fully automatic guns and manufacturing hand grenades. While the local sheriff basically ignored the Davidians because they weren't really bothering anybody else, accusations of child abuse drew the attention of local authorities, and the gun business drew the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Warrants were issued for the arrests of Koresh and a few others, and search warrants were issued for their compound. The raid occurred on February 28, and it was an unmitigated disaster, leading to the deaths of 4 agents and 6 cult members. The siege began and ended with a tear gas raid and the burning of the compound; nearly 80 Davidians, including Koresh and a couple of dozen children, died. The whole operation is still clouded by differing accounts, uncertainties, lies, cover-ups, incompetence, stupidity, arrogance, inter- and intra- agency rivalries, and it had, and continues to have, a huge impact on Americans' view of, and relationship with, the federal government, from distrust to outright antipathy, as exemplified by Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City two years later and the formation of armed militant organizations around the country.
Guinn's book is an enlightening and through account of the subject, well worth a read.
Band of Brothers Documentary
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Stephen Ambrose. Simon & Schuster, special 25th anniversary edition, 2017. 336 pages. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free review copy.
If you know anything about great books about World War II or about the greatest WWII television series ever filmed, you probably have read Band of Brothers, as I did in the 1990s. It is an absolute classic and a must read for anybody interested in the war. I was sent a special review copy of the 25th anniversary edition, and it's definitely re-read worthy. It's easily one of the best military history books that I've ever read.
Just in case you don't know the story, this book is the story of the men of Easy Company in the 101st, told in their own words drawn from many hours of interviews. These men, drawn form a wide variety of backgrounds were put together at a camp in North Georgia in 1942 and trained to be paratroopers, As a unit, they led combat forces across Europe from D-Day to VE Day, from Normandy to Bavarian concentration camps to Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden, suffering starvation, freezing cold, and an extremely high casualty rate along the way. The book was made into the HBO series of the same name that first aired in 2001 and is still widely considered to be the best HBO series ever produced.
author talk
The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn. Amrita Chakrabati Myers. The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. 296 pages.
Even the buffest of history buffs outside of Kentucky have probably never heard of Richard Mentor Johnson, the ninth Vice President of the United States and presidential contender who was a US Representative and Senator for years and whose political career was enhanced by stories that he was the man who killed Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. His family was among the first white settlers of Kentucky and was a prominent family in the area of Georgetown for decades. However, Johnson's story goes much deeper, and it is an incredibly important and quintessential part of southern history and the legacy of slavery.
For six months each year, Johnson lived in a boarding house in Washington while doing the young nation's business by day and attending the young society's most exclusive society affairs by night. As far as Washingtonians knew, he was a lifelong bachelor. His Kentucky neighbors knew different, and, later, political opponents used that knowledge to tarnish his career and to thwart his presidential aspirations. The secret? He was married. To an enslaved woman that he "owned," a woman named Julia Chinn. He and Julia had two daughters who were legally his property as well. He never officially freed wither Julia or his daughters. Julia died enslaved, and her daughters weren't freed until the ratification of the 13th amendment. That doesn't make Johnson that unique. The history of American slavery is the history of interracial sex, consensual and not consensual. Slaveowners viewed enslaved women as their sexual property, and that view was universally accepted even if it was not stated aloud. Slaveowners raped, cajoled, bribed. Some treated their concubines as wives. Some freed their lovers and children. Some sold them when there was too much gossip and people started noticing resemblances. A few left their property to their enslaved or freed wives or children.
Johnson stands out because he called Julia his wife. The preacher of the church that Johnson's family co-founded married them. He gave Julia complete and total authority to run his plantation and the Choctaw Academy (a federally funded school for young Choctaw men that provided a major income for Johnson) that was located on his property. His daughters married local white men, and they and their descendants have "passed" ever since, with the vast majority of their descendants never knowing their family history until the last few years. In this book, Myers digs deep to tell Julia's story for the first time. Because there isn't much of a paper trail, (Johnson's papers are sparse for such a political man. It is thought that his brothers destroyed most of his letters and documents upon his death due to shame.), there is a lot of "could have," "probably," "possibly," and the like, and a lot of references to similar stories, but she does an excellent job of telling the important story and bringing it to light. Important and extraordinarily complicated. Spoiler alert: don't go thinking Johnson was heroic.
