Author talk
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.
Co-author talk
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.
author talk
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.
documentary
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.
CBS Sunday Morning
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.
Author talk
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.
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