DENALI'S HOWL

I am an adventure-adrenaline junkie. Okay, let's amend that: I am an adventure-adrenaline junkie....from the comfort of my couch. In other words, I love true adventure books. Especially ones about mountain climbing. I have no idea where this love came from given that I've never climbed a mountain in my life, nor do I intend to. I've even been known to avoid small inclines while taking a stroll around the neighborhood. Reading about these adventurous souls who tackle the world's most dangerous peaks, however, stirs something in my soul. Probably a little smugness that I'm not the one who fell down an icy crevasse in sub-zero temperatures and ended up a frozen mummy abandoned on a mountain side. 

Whatever the reason, a well-written climbing story will always find it's way onto my bookshelves. This summer, the book I couldn't resist was Andy Hall's Denali's Howl, the riveting story of the ill-fated 1967 Wilcox Expedition on North America's tallest peak, Denali.

The Wilcox Expedition (1967)

Formerly known as Mt. McKinley, Denali dominates the Alaska Range. At 20,237 feet high, Denali isn't the highest peak in the world, but the climb from the base of the mountain to the peak is 18,000 feet and that is the largest of any in the world. 

In July of 1967, twelve young men set off to conquer Denali. Most of them had enough climbing experience that it should have been a routine ascent. They had planned and conditioned themselves for this climb for months and months. What they hadn't planned for was an unforecast super-storm that bore down on the mountain just as the Wilcox Expedition was approaching the summit, trapping them in far-below freezing temperatures and hurricane force winds in the matter of minutes, conditions that continued for ten days.

Of the twelve men who left the base of Denali, only five were to return. What happened up on the summit of that mountain has been shrouded in mystery for over forty years. Reluctant and conflicting accounts from the survivors over the years have only added to the confusion as survivors and those who watched from afar passed around accusations and blame.

Alaskan author Andy Hall's account of that fateful expedition is masterful. Despite his obvious meticulous research he never once allows the narrative to bog down with onerous details. Facts are presented where known and where they aren't, Hall provides plausible scenarios based on the evidence that is known. He provides first-rate biographical background on each member of the expedition, making it easy for the reader to keep track of each team member as the doomed party makes their way unknowingly towards disaster. Throughout the fast-moving narration, he also intersperses an excellent geological history of the imposing mountain as well as the fascinating climbing history over the past one hundred years.

Overall, Denali's Howl is so well-written it certainly rivals Jon Krakauer's blockbuster climbing hit Into Thin Air. If you enjoyed the one, you'll certainly appreciate the other.

Highly recommended non-fiction.

*******************

Title: Denali's Howl

Author: Andy Hall

Publisher: Dutton Adult

Date:  June 12, 2014

Pages: 368

Source: Review copy courtesy of publisher

Five Non-Fiction Books for the Fiction Reader

Dedicated fiction bibliophiles often shy away reading non-fiction. And who can blame them? The most lauded non-fiction tomes are often by their very nature laden with academic sources, thousands of footnotes or endnotes, and some of the longest sentences ever committed to paper. If you suffer from insomnia, last year's National Book Award winner is generally a guaranteed cure.

Thankfully, not all non-fiction reads like C-Span Television. Here are five non-fiction books that read better than most novels. Even if you never become a non-fiction aficionado, don't cheat yourself out of these riveting reads.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966). This is the book that created the "non-fiction novel." It is a classic. And I'm warning you right here and now: it is disturbing. This is the story of the brutal murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas which took place in 1959. Before the killers were captured, Capote and his best friend author Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) traveled to Kansas in order to interview both police and neighbors. After Perry Smith and Dick Hickock were arrested for the crime, Capote returned and interviewed both men at length. Eventually he spent six years writing this masterpiece of true crime, although critics would later charge Capote with certain fabrications. Regardless, the book is still considered a non-fiction classic and once you start reading it is easy to see why. 343 pages.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by John Krakauer (2003). Krakauer first hit the non-fiction best seller lists with Into Thin Air, his account of the disastrous 1996 Everest expeditions that ended in eight deaths. That non-fiction book could have been substituted on this list, but Under the Banner of Heaven was really the more relevant book. It contains two stories entwined together: the riveting history of the Mormon (Latter Day Saints) Church and the 1984 double murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby daughter by her two fundamentalist Mormon brothers-in-law. Krakauer is so incredibly brilliant at weaving these two narratives together that it is difficult to set this book down even for a moment. 432 pages.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (2011). Larson is another prolific non-fiction author. Pick any one of his books and they could easily be substituted in this list (and after reading In the Garden of Beasts you're probably going to want to run out and get all of his books). But In the Garden of Beasts is especially relevant. Here Larson relates the eye-popping story of William Dodd, the American Ambassador to Germany during the years Hitler was rising to power, and his family. Using Dodd and his family's personal correspondence and papers, Larson reconstructs what would be a fascinating story in and of itself given the extreme changes going on in Germany at the time. But what really makes this one a whopper is that Dodd saw what was coming with Hitler, was warning the U.S. State Department and all other powers-that-be at home, and they were poo-poohing him! Why? Well, you'll just have to read the book to find out. It is worth all 480 pages.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (1994). If you've only seen the Kevin Spacey movie version of this, you're missing out because this is one case where the book is ever-so-much better. John Berendt's non-fiction Southern Gothic masterpiece spent an amazing 216 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, a record that has yet to be beaten. Like Truman Capote's book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is considered a non-fiction novel. It tells the story of Jim Williams, a Savannah antiques dealer who was tried four separate times for the murder of a male prostitute. All sorts of eccentric locals make an appearance in the book which went a long way towards boosting Savannah's tourism and putting that small Southern town on the map. And it's easy to see why. Read the book and you'll want to book your next vacation down in Savannah. 400 pages.

Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris by Eric Jager (2014). Jager's work is as compelling as Erik Larson's but with a historical focus. His newest release, Blood Royal, is the story of what might be the very first recorded police investigation of a murder and a royal murder to boot. In 1407, the city of Paris was burdened with a king who randomly slipped in and out of madness (he occasionally fancied himself made out of glass, but hey, don't we all from time to time?) leaving a power vacuum that powerful nobles were all to keen to fight over. When one of those nobles, the king's own brother, is murdered in the streets of Paris the chief law enforcement officer of the city is charged with finding the murderer. What his investigation uncovers brings the entire country to the brink of civil war. It sounds like the plot of a novel and the book reads like one, too. History buffs will love Jager's work. 336 pages.

So there you have five of the best non-fiction books for fiction readers. Give them a try. You might find that you are more of a non-fiction reader than you originally thought.

A Tempest in a Teapot

Or rather, make that a tiger in a teapot.  For the past six months or so, mothers across the U.S. have been up in arms about Yale professor Amy Chua's memoir of motherhood.  You see, Amy is a Chinese-American who raised in the strictest of households and decided to continue that tradition with her own daughters.  Here's the game-plan she used:

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin.

Now don't mistakenly believe that Amy believes this was the *right* way to raise her children.  After all, this is a memoir and that involves a lot of introspection.  But she does it with humor and humility making this one of the most fascinating (and laugh-out-loud funny) memoirs we've read in a long, long time.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother simply oozes controversy.  A lot of controversy.  But we've found that most of that stems from mothers judging other mothers.  Amy has been lauded as an example to parents everywhere, but she's also been accused of child abuse.  When taken as the memoir was intended, you'll get a glimpse into another parenting style....one that it's hard to argue with the results, but you question whether the results are worth it.

And when we get right down to it, who amongst us parental-types hasn't reflected whether or not we were furthering the best interests of our child?  A Reader's Respite refuses to judge, lest someone (say, for example, child protective services) come along and judge us.

Rarely does a book so controversial live up to all the hoopla.  If you're a parent, we'd call it a must-read.

Feeling Presidential

Title: Washington: A Life
Author: Ron Chernow
Publisher: Penguin Press
904 pages
ISBN: 978-1594202667
Source: Publicist
Grade: B+


If A Reader's Respite has been a little quiet in the blogosphere lately, we blame it entirely on renowned biographer Ron Chernow.  The wretched man has gone an written another epic-sized biography, this time covering the life of George Washington.

Now you might think that at 904 pages, Washington: A Life caused A Reader's Respite to slip into a coma.  But it didn't and that is why we call Ron Chernow a wretched man.....the book was fascinating.  Long, to be sure, but utterly fascinating.  Chernow didn't content himself with regurgitating the same old biographical information here.  Instead, he went after new information and insights contained in a slew of newly released letters and journals written by the Old Man himself.

Still, in the hands of any other biographer the information might be coma-inducing.  Thank the book-gods that Chernow is never boring.  His respect for America's first President is evident throughout the book, but he doesn't hesitate to reveal Washington's innate flaws:  the man was petulant, ambitious and arrogant to the extreme with an inferiority complex borne out of his Colonist background.

We think you can somewhat see Washington's lazy eye in this portrait

In other words, he may have turned out to be an idolized figure of American history, but he wasn't a likable man.  Chernow paints a portrait of a brash young man who matured into an astute military leader...one that was needed for America to emerge as a country.  In many ways, this portrait of Washington is a portrait of who we are as a nation today (that petulant, ambitious and arrogant thing again).

Don't be intimidated by the books length and scholarly presentation.  You do not have to ensconce yourself in a leather chair by the fire, wearing a worn tweed jacket and smoking a pipe to get the most from this biography.  Like all of Chernow's remarkable biographies, it's accessible and highly readable for anyone who has ever wondered about our first President.  (No, he didn't cut down a cherry tree.  Yes, he did have false teeth, but they were ivory, not wood.)

Eeeeeewwwwwww!

And if you've never heard of the U.S. Presidents Reading Project, go check it out.  It's a perpetual reading project challenging bibliophiles and history buffs to read one book about each of our U.S. Presidents.  Washington: A Life happens to be a perfect way to start.

Earth Day 2010

A Reader's Respite has been taking a short vacation from the blogging business, but what better day to return to the fray than Earth Day 2010!

This year we eschewed our traditional promises of recycling and starting a compost bin.  Instead, we decided to edu-ma-cate ourselves about the planet we inhabit.

That's right....A Reader's Respite has gotten sick and tired of having to change the channel every time the talking heads on CNN start babbling on about global warming and all the intricacies thereof.  This year, it was time to sort the whole thing out.  How else, after all, were we ever going to have an intelligent argument with the television?

But making sense of the controversy that surrounds global warming is, at best, a daunting task.  There are thousands of books available on the topic and they run the gamut  from Impending Doom  to Giant Hoax.  Additionally, the myriad of facets that make up global warming are enough to make the average person's head spin:  greenhouse gases, polar ice caps, solar variation, carbon sinks, El Nino, global dimming, and renewable energy are just a few of the terms bandied about during any discussion of climate change.

Pass the Tylenol.  It's enough to induce a headache.

So it was fortuitous that we recently made the acquaintance of author William Stewart who has successfully endeavored to make sense of it all.  Climate of Uncertainty is a uniquely accessible, balanced explanation of what the brouhaha is all about.  Stewart easily breaks it down, explaining not only the science of it all but why it's important - environmentally, financially and politically - and how all of these parts come together and effect our world.

Most important, however, is Stewart's ability to remove partisan politics from his work.  Because very little about climate change is known for absolute certain, the topic is consistently skewed by business and media to their own ends.  Reading Climate of Uncertainty is your weapon against misinformation.  Armed with solid climate change basics, it's then up to you to formulate your own opinions and keep yourself informed.  Trust us, this little book (it's only 192 pages) packs a big punch.

And really, what better present could you give your planet on Earth Day?




Where on earth (pun intended) did we find this little gem of a book?  Courtesy of the author who, in addition to being pretty darned smart about this climate change stuff, but also happens to be a nice person.

Riveting subject matter, poor execution

At the beginning of the 20th century many parts of the Pacific Northwest were still, by our standards, still wild and unsettled.  Across the Puget Sound from Seattle, a few small settlements had begun but with no ferry service across the water to the bigger towns, life was extremely challenging.


But in 1910, a woman calling herself "Doctor" Linda Hazzard founded a wellness retreat in the wilds of Olalla, Washington and began treating patients with her so-called "Fasting Cure."  She then proceeded to systematically starve her patients to death whilst maneuvering herself into sole executor-ship of their estates.

the main house at Starvation Wilderness Heights

Dr. Hazzard's retreat, called Wilderness Heights, was one of many alternative medicine establishments that were so popular with the wealthy and restless at the end of the Victorian era and it promised relief for a myriad of imagined ills.

Starvation Heights, a non-fiction work about the sensational trial from Western Washington that gripped the attention of the world, tells the story of Dora and Claire Williamson.  Wealthy heiresses from England, Dora and Claire arrived at Wilderness Heights excited about the latest fad cure.  

the infamous "doctor" herself

Unfortunately for the Williamson sisters, one of them would wind up dead of starvation and the other barely escaped with her life.  "Dr." Hazzard would eventually be convicted of the murder of Claire Williamson, although how many patients she actually killed may be as high as forty or more.


While this book is centered around some fascinating local Western Washington history and lore, the delivery was so disjointed that it distracted from the subject. While the subject of Linda Hazzard and her "Starvation Heights" spa in Olalla, Washington at the turn of the century is riveting material for locals like myself, the author and editors left much to be desired. 

Claire and Dora with a friend before their "treatment"

Dora after her "treatment"

The book relies far too heavily on quoted legal correspondence, almost as if the author was trying to flesh out a much shorter book. A good half of the book could have been cut to it's great benefit. Often times, the author will drop a historical tidbit, but leave out it's explanation, driving us to Google too many times to count. 

Unless you are well-versed in Washington State history and must read everything ever printed on the subject, I'd recommend you skip this entirely. Instead, google old newspaper articles on Linda Hazzard and you'll find a better historical picture of the event and likely come away more satisfied.





Dear Mr. FTC:  We paid a whopping $9.99 to download this disappointing book on to our Kindle.  Can you arrange a refund, please?

Notable Non-Fiction

Reading memoirs can be a tricky proposition.  The author simply has to have some sort of compelling experience that makes you, the reader, want to pick up the book and learn more.  Generally, a reader wants to learn more about the author if

a.  they are some sort of celebrity (this is especially true in American culture); or
b. they overcame some sort of adversity and serve as an inspiration to others.

Mary Karr's latest installment of what has become a trilogy of memoirs falls into that last category.  She overcame a horrendous childhood (she chronicled that in her best-seller The Liars' Club in 1995), struggled through adolescence (that part was covered in Cherry in 2000), and triumphed over alcoholism in later life - and this is the subject of her latest best-selling memoir, Lit.

Being neither an alcoholic (okay, yet) nor suffering an abusive childhood, A Reader's Respite simply didn't see  where we had anything at all in common with Mary Karr.  In fact, we might not have even turned the first page had the book not made The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2009 list.

But we did turn that first page.  And then another, and another.  And while we had no frame of reference with Karr's alcoholism and childhood demons, we did find a common ground in an unexpected place:  religion.  In a big way, Lit is about the role that religion/God/a higher power played in Mary's recovery.  A self-proclaimed agnostic, one of Mary's biggest obstacles in recovery was figuring out all of the God stuff.  All of a sudden, she had A Reader's Respite's attention in a vice-grip.

She relates her struggle with spirituality in a way we've never quite experienced before.  Soul-rendering observations mixed with humor and a healthy dose of common sense make the latter part of the book (or the God Part, as we like to call it) riveting.  We couldn't put it down.

And we'd like to think that this book changed us in some small way.  Or maybe a large way.

There's a reason this one made the NYT list.  It's a book that once read, you won't forget.


Dear FTC Guy,
A publicist sent me this book.  Bite me.
Sincerely,
A Reader's Respite

********

If you'd like a chance to read a gently-used copy of this memoir, leave us a comment below and we'll draw a random winner on March 17th.  All entrants welcome!

A little non-fiction for variety.....

As historical fiction fans, how much do you actually know about the time periods that serve as a background for many of your favorite novels?

If you're like us, there are some historical periods we are frightfully ignorant, which is fine if you were, say, a finance major in college. But not so okay us history majors.

So when we stumbled across David Howarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest in an airport bookstore, we were intrigued enough to plunk down the cash (or in our case, the trusty Visa) and dive right in.



Our verdict? This little book (only 201 pages) is a must-read for the history buff. Howarth writes in a marvelously conversational style with none of the pompous, wordy, frustrating pseudo-prose that many historians adopt when writing historical non-fiction.

The result is a very readable, concise look at the Norman Conquest. The players, King Harold of England, William of Normandy, and Harald Hardrada of Norway, are each in their own manner empathetic while the Battle of Hastings is finally presented without all the mumbo-jumbo military strat-egery.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Norman Conquest and dates from the 11th century

Howarth, who passed away in 1991, was a historian for the average lay person. He wrote several books, including one about Waterloo, each imminently accessible and illuminating to read.

If you'd like to understand the real history behind those fabulous historical novels we all devour, do yourself a favor and pick up a Howarth book. You can read it in an afternoon and walk away a tad bit more edu-ma-cated that when you started.

Warhol, anyone?

A Reader's Respite is an admitted fool when it comes to art. Despite three art history classes, we never did understand the attraction of Jackson Pollck. Random splatters....hmmmm....perhaps you had to be part of the LSD culture of the 60's?

Pollock's Untitled (Green Silver), now in the Guggenheim in New York City

Nor have we ever understood the outrageous prices some of these pieces have sold for. This is where art dealer Richard Polsky comes in. He chattily brings the intricacies (and backstabbing) of the convoluted art market down to a layperson's level with his new book, I Sold Any Warhol. (too soon).




Polsky relates the tempestuous, oft-times greedy, heady business of high-end art collection. From the artists themselves to the dealers to the famous auction houses, Polsky chronicles the premature sale of his beloved Andy Warhol painting at auction (he needed the money to fund his wife's obscene shopping habit).

Warhol's Fright Wig Self-Portrait. Yes, this was worth a lot of money.

One forgives the occasional over-the-top, Chandler-esque metaphor ("....festered like a piece of rotting fruit") because Polsky is just so damned entertainingly informative. The art world reads like a soap opera run amok. Ever wonder how a piece of art comes to sell for millions and millions of dollars? What makes it "worth" that amount? Polsky explains it all and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

For those of you who are really interested in the behind the scenes art world, this book is actually a follow up to Polsky's first expose, called I Bought Andy Warhol, offers more insider snark.



Interested in the art world? Leave us a comment and on November 15th, we'll draw one random winner to enjoy the book. International entrants welcome!

We're feeling rather evangelical today....

While A Reader's Respite makes no religious claims whatsoever, we do enjoy reading some of the more *ahem* extreme ends of the theological spectrum. It may have to do with our evangelical upbringing (nothing like a Mormon family marrying into a bunch of evangelical Baptists for sheer entertainment value), but whatever the reason, here are a few compelling reads we've had our nose stuck into the past few weeks.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, by Kevin Roose.

We downloaded this book to our Amazonian Devil Device after reading a compelling review on At Home With Books. And it was worth it. Author Kevin Roose was a journalism major at Brown University when he decided to see what all the evangelical hoopla was about down at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, a four year college in Virginia and the largest evangelical university in the world, and he documents his experiences here.


You just can't escape the humor in a secular student of the world being thrown into what he calls "Bible Boot Camp." Roose's biblical knowledge was scant as best, "...I knew the basics of the Genesis story (Adam names the animals, Eve bites an apple, and we all break into jazz squares), I could probably have named the four Gospels if you have me a minute or two, but that's where my Bible knowledge ended." Suffice it to say that his learning curve was pretty steep.


But rather than approaching the experiment with malice (satirist P.J. O'Rourke is credited here with comparing making fun of born-again Christians to "hunting dairy cows with a high-powered rifle and scope"), Roose makes a concerted effort to open his mind to new experiences and the payoff is a big one.


While he doesn't experience any kind of religious epiphany while at Liberty, he does learn the value of reserving judgement and practicing compassion. Despite taking biology classes that spend all their time refuting evolution and attending groups like Every Man's Battle (to combat the sin of masturbation), Roose strips away the stereotypes to reveal young, college-aged students just trying to find their place in this world, much like their secular counterparts.


Highly recommended for the humor and the compassion, A Reader's Respite heartily encourages you to read this one.

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed, by Kyria Abrahams

Switching denominations here, we moved on to Kyria Abrahams hysterical account of growing up as a Jehovah's Witness. Abrahams goes less for insight and more for the humor (of which there is apparently endless fodder in this particular religious sect) in this memoir, poking fun at her childhood and young adult years spent in bewildrement over the myriad of rules and regulations set forth by doctrine.

Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Elie Wiesel were all considered bad associations. Not only did they not worship Jehovah, but they were activists, which meant they didn't trust in God to make changes on this earth and felt the need to take matters into their own hands. They were turning people away from Jehovah.

My father said this is probably why John Lennon was shot, becase God knew he was too close to bringing peace to the whole world.

The point was, if someone wasn't a Jehovah's Witnesses, he was going to die at Armageddon, and there was no point in befriending the condemned.

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed, by Kyria Abrahams

While you won't find any great philosophical revelations here, you will find slapstick comedy that will keep you in stitches. Light-hearted and irreverant, Abrahams bears no obvious malice over her upbringing, she simply sees the humor in it. And there's definately something to be said for that.

Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer

One last book, here, this one written by Jon Krakauer (he of Into Thin Air and Into the Wild fame). For those of you who like your religious exposes on the more serious side, Under the Banner of Heaven is not to be missed.

Part true crime, part Mormon expose, this book focuses on the pockets of fundamentalist Mormons that have flourished in years past in Utah, Idaho and the Four Corners area. Wrapped around the murder of a young Mormon woman and her infant daughter committed by fundamentalists, the more sordid side of this sect is uncovered in this compelling book.

Although heartbreaking in it's details, this book is difficult to put down once you turn the first page and since the capture of fundamentalist leader Warren Jeffs in the years following publication of this book ,there is much follow-up available on the internet for those who find this tale as riveting as we did.

We're happy to be able to offer a copy of Kyria Abrahams' memoir I'm Perfect, You're Doomed to TWO lucky winners. Just leave us a comment telling us why you'd like to read this one and on July 13th, we'll announce two random winners (international peeps are welcome, too!).

Review: Columbine

Review: Columbine, by Dave Cullen

A Reader's Respite is lately addicted to our Ipod. Actually, we have an entire laundry-list of neuroses and addictions, but that's not important right now. The one we are talking about here is our newest obsession with listening to non-fiction on audiobook.

To be completely honest, A Reader's Respite doesn't really have any music on our Ipod anymore. We have audiobooks instead. And the newest neurosis to manifest itself around here is that we simply cannot fall asleep at night without a good non-fiction audiobook. That's not to say that non-fiction is so boring as to put us to sleep. Rather, it has become a ritual as comfortable as a favorite blanket.

Audiobooks have a lot of pressure on them: not only does the writing have to be good, but the narration does as well. There's been more than one excellent book out there that has been ruined by perfectly horrid narration. But when you find a good book told by a good narrator, well that, my friends, is priceless.



So it is to the non-fiction review blog Letters on Pages that A Reader's Respite owes our heartfelt thanks for recommending Dave Cullen's new book, Columbine, fabulously narrated by Don Leslie. (If you haven't checked out Adam's non-fiction reviews, you're missing out!)

For those who need a quick refresher: in 1999, Colorado teens Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire in Columbine High School, killing 13 students and faculty before turning the guns on themselves. The tragedy dominated the national news for months and the public was fed an enormous amount of mis-information, thanks to a botched investigation, gag-orders and grossly eroneous media reports.

Harris and Klebold, the little shits

Ten years later, Dave Cullen finally gives us the definitive story of the Columbine massacre, brilliantly written and illuminating. It was gratifying to finally learn the real story behind the tragedy: the victims, the motives, the history that led up to this horrific event. Don Leslie's narration is so compelling as to be almost addictive....you will not want to stop listening to his voice!

The unabridged version (and we'll just tell you right now, if A Reader's Respite ever catches you listening to anything abridged, we'll break your kneecap) runs a glorious 43 hours and 34 minutes. It is available on CD, but we highly recommend downloading it from Audible.com if you have an MP3 player ($15 a month gets you one free audiobook download each month...a steal!).

This is a highly recommended book in whatever format you prefer...read it.

Review: The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann

A Reader's Respite loves adventure books. We figured out a long time ago that reading about nasty bugs and deadly reptiles in exotic locales is far, far preferable to an actual encounter.


Yes, A Reader's Respite is a coward.

But that's why authors like David Grann write books like the recently released The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

No, not that Amazon (although it certainly can be applicable, in our opinion)...this Amazon:

nasty, mean critters live here

This is the story of Percy Fawcett, the man who spent most of his life exploring the Amazon for the Royal Geographic Socity in the early 1900's.


Over time, Fawcett became convinced that the Lost City of Gold, frequently referred to as El Dorado, did indeed exist deep in the Amazon. In fact, he felt that he had pinpointed the exact location of what he called the City of Z.

So in 1925, worn out from a lifetime of exploration and desperately lacking funds and personnel, Fawcett, his son Jack and Jack's best friend set off on their own to finally reach the City of Z.

They were never seen again.

the man himself

Using the previously unavailable private papers of Fawcett himself made available by the family, David Grann traces this last fatal expedition and finally provides some answers.

And while A Reader's Respite isn't giving anything away here, we will say that Fawcett's ultimate fate isn't the point of this grand adventure. Rather, the point of the adventure is the adventure itself.

Fawcett's entire life is laid out in this book: the explorations, the hardships, the incredibly deadly conditions in the Amazon and the toll all of this took on the man himself, as well as his family.

awwww, isn't he cute? yea, well, he can kill you instantly in the Amazon.

Far from pefect, Fawcett emerges as man who was addicted to the thrill of the hunt. The cost of this obsession was paid in his physcial and mental health, his dignitity, his legacy, and ultimately his life.

This is a grand tale, folks.


Who should read this? Anyone who has a taste for armchair adventures. Personally, I'm thinking Father's Day gift for this one.



Oh, and for what it's worth, the book rights here have been sold off and a movie is currently in production, due out in 2010 and starring (who else?) but:








Want to give it a try or know someone who would? A Reader's Respite just happens to have an extra copy and would love to give it away. Leave us a comment and our blog secretary will draw a random winner on Friday, March 20th. He's good like that.







Title: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Author: David Grann
ISBN-13: 978-0385513531
352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Date: February 24, 2009



Okay, we get it: you're thorough, you want another opinion. Here you go:

At Home With Books
Bookmarks Literary Blog
Vagablogging
A Bookworm's World
My Life in Books
Fresh Ink Books
Bookgasm
The Book Catapult
Fasionista Piranha
Books by TJBaff
A Writer's Pen