The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Read: 16 March, 2012

The Road Hill House murder shocked Victorian England. The crime itself was brutal, of course, but what really shook the foundation of Victorian assumptions about social class and safety was that the murder took place in an otherwise ordinary middle class household and that the murder was evidently one of its inmates.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher follows the investigation of the murder and its aftermath, focusing on the lives of the Kent family and on Mr. Whicher, the detective, himself.

Summerscale does an amazing job of contextualising the murder and its aftermath. While she does go a little overboard in painting the Road Hill murder as the catalyst for change in Victorian society, she does at least make her argument rather convincing. Her writing style is approachable even for those unfamiliar with the era, and her frequent mentions of books and historical figures added extra fun to the reading for me because it brought back so many of my lessons from when I studied Victorian literature in university.

I highly recommend Mr. Whicher if you have an interest in the Victorian era, issues surrounding the interaction of law enforcement and privacy, or simply enjoy mysteries and want a little more background on real life detectives.

Buy The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher on Amazon.

The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black

There are a few "medieval" cookbooks floating around, but this is the best I've seen so far. It's the kind of cookbook that you can actually sit down and read through.

The recipes are divided by era, social class, and function. There's a chapter on foods that were primarily associated with the cloister, for example, and a section for remedies. There are simple dishes with few ingredients that would be most appropriate for a side-dish or breakfast, and there are elaborate meals that belong more properly to a great feast.

Each recipe comes with a short introduction or with a contemporary passage describing the dish, followed by the ingredients list and instructions. Some license is taken with substitutions - sometimes multiple substitutions are indicated for choice - to deal with the fact that many of the ingredients are hard to find these days or no longer exist at all.

illustrations from contemporary sources are plentiful and printed in full colour, making this book a lovely source of medieval art as well.

I've tried a couple of the recipes over the years and enjoyed them. I'd love to throw a "Period Party" someday to really make use of this book.

The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson

Read: 7 July, 2011

I really want to categorize this book as fiction; and, in a sane world, I would. Unfortunately...

It begins in 1983,  when Major General Albert Stubblebine III (a truly Dickensian name), upon realizing that both his body and the wall are made up of atoms and that atoms are mostly made up of empty space, tries to walk through a wall.

Starting from Stubblebine's sore nose, Ronson takes the reader through a brief history of the US military's more insane moments. He lulled me into a sense of "oh, that happened in '70s, but it would never happen today" with stories of men staring at goats to make their hearts stop (and, when goats aren't available, the odd hamster would do) and a First Earth Battalion that could end conflict with their "sparkling eyes."

But then he gets into the 'War on Terror' and the horrific acts at Abu Ghraib.

The most difficult part of reading The Men Who Stare At Goats is to remember that this is only, as the subtitle says, about a "small group of men" who happen to be placed in some key positions. It isn't representative of the army as a whole. The problem is that each of these "highly placed" men have subordinates in a culture that does not tolerate dissent - even when the orders are quite obviously insane.

Throughout, Ronson remains very objective. He allows his subjects, and their beliefs, to speak for themselves. This is an amazing feat when writing a book about men who believe that they can walk through walls or stare goats to deaths.

The tone of the book seems somewhat rambly - jumping back and forth through time and skipping from subject to subject - but it all makes sense by the end, when the whole is tied together and the influence of Jim Channon's First Earth Battalion Operations Manual is made clear. And, really, this is the story of that book - of its history and its legacy.

Men Who Stare At Goats appears to be meticulously researched. Certainly, it comes through in Ronson's writing just how difficult certain people and facts were to find. And, although some of the connections he draws are speculative (or based on "wink wink" statements from his informants), he does make the case that it's all at least plausible if not factual. I found it to be a very interesting and thought-provoking read, even if my faith in humanity requires that I remain somewhat provisional in my trust of Ronson's depictions.

Assuming that it is all (or mostly) true, though, I'd be very interested in a follow up in coming years as to the effect of the book on military policies and strategies. Has Men Who Stare At Goats embarrassed the leadership sufficiently to cause a change? Will it spell the end of First Earth Battalion's influence? Or will it increase its popularity?

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

Read: 28 September, 2010

It is often said that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God. But which Bible?

In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman takes the reader through some of the changes that have been made to the Bible over the years, both deliberate and not, and the techniques scholars can use in an attempt to uncover what the original might have said. He does an amazing job of making some pretty complex material accessible to a lay reader.

My first encounter with Ehrman was through his textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. I was a Christian at the time, and, while I knew that the Bible had been translated and that it was therefore subject to the manipulations inherent in translation, I had no idea just how deeply the transmission errors lie.

As I read through Ehrman's textbook and studied the material in class, I found my faith deeply challenged. Just as Ehrman describes in his introduction, our way of knowing God is through scripture. And if scripture is flawed or inaccessible, what can we truly say we know about God?

This thinking put me on a path that eventually led to my deconversion.

Misquoting Jesus is every bit as challenging as The New Testament. I find it rather interesting that the most damning argument against Christian belief comes from the Bible itself - from reading it, from understanding it within the context of its writing, and from learning just how fragile texts can be.

But Ehrman never argues against the Christian faith. He is by no means a Dawkins or a Hitchens. Rather, he simply presents the research and allows it to stand, or fall, for itself.

Welsh Princes #1: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

Read: 18 March, 2010

Joanna, King John's illigitimate daughter, is married to prince Llywelyn Fawr of Wales to secure an alliance. But John didn't count on his daughter falling in love. When the relations between the two men start to deteriorate, Joanna is caught between her love for her father and her love for her husband.

As Wikipedia points out, one of the draws of Here Be Dragons is that it's virgin territory; there are very few novels out there about historical Wales and, I confess, it was a milieu that I knew almost nothing about.

The historical aspects of the novel were fabulous, but it did occasionally cross into the territory of romance. Fair enough, I realize that many do like that sort of thing, but I found it rather boring and frustrating. Apparently, it's a staple of the romance genre that people who are in love absolutely refuse to communicate with each other and, instead, simply assume the worst of the other person. I'll never understand how this sort of thing came to be called "love" in our culture, but there you have it.

I realize that I'm not one to complain given how wooden and choppy my own writing style is, but I found Penman's style in this book to be rather difficult to read. She has the awful tendency to force what should have been several sentences into one, joining them awkwardly. For example, she writes: "He even tried to forget the atrocity stories that were so much a part of his heritage, tales of English conquest and cruelties." It works fine for effect now and then, but she uses it nearly every other sentence!

The book is meticulously researched and Penman is able to really bring the setting to life. The story, although about a class that is all-but extinct living lives that are so unlike anything we are familiar with, is, at the same time, very accessible. The conflict of allegiance between one's parents and one's spouse is something that I think most readers would be able to sympathize with.

Despite it's flaws, I'd put Here Be Dragons as one of the better historical fiction novels on the market, well worth the read for anyone interested in the Middle Ages.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Read: 18, May, 2011

In 1984, Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, were murdered in their home in American Fork, Utah. Eighteen years later, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. In both cases, the crimes were committed by Mormon fundamentalists who believed in the doctrine of Celestial (plural) Marriage.

In Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, Krakauer investigates these two crimes, splicing in the Mormon story and the events that lead to the schism between the Fundamentalist church with the more mainstream LDS church. He also takes a hard look at some of the Mormon scriptures that the Lafferty brothers and Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, used to justify their actions.

In particular, Krakauer condemns the idea of continuing revelation, saying that it makes it possible for individuals to justify any action as revealed commandment from God. With this idea firmly entrenched in Mormonism, it is almost impossible for the more mainstream leaders to rein in the crazies. In the background, throughout all the narratives, patriarchal polygamy looms.

The book is very strong in its narrative, but doesn't set out to make a point or place blame. As a result, Under the Banner of Heaven couldn't legitimately be called an anti-Mormon book. It also meant that there wasn't a good sense of scale - How many women are currently in polygamous relationships? How many children are being raised in these families and, potentially, being forced into marriages themselves? How often are crimes relating to Mormon polygamy committed?

Overall, I found it to be a very good read. Krakauer is a great storyteller and the stories themselves are interesting (albeit difficult to stomach). And, while Under the Banner of Heaven does give a fairly clear picture of the specific individuals and events covered, it's hard to extrapolate that into any kind of knowledge about Mormonism or patriarchal polygamy.

Most quotable line: "If you want to know the truth, I think people within the religion, people who live here in Colorado City, they're probably happier on the whole than people on the outside. But some things in life are more important than being happy - like being free to think for yourself."

The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Read: 17 August, 2008

Overall, I'd say that this book is fine if taken as fiction and read for pleasure. If you are interested in serious scholarship regarding the history of the occult, this book would really only serve to help you with modern/Wiccan perceptions of witchcraft. While it does touch on a number of older subjects, the articles are clearly written from a Wiccan perspective.

For example, "altar" is almost entirely defined in the context of goddess worship, never mind that plenty of patriarchal religions made use of altars in their devotion to male gods (Christianity being an obvious example). The book takes the theory that goddess worship was the norm before it was suddenly replaced by male-centred religion as a given.

Even the entries that don't display an obvious Wiccan/feminist perspective show dubious scholarship. For example, the entire entry for Patricia C. Crowther talks about her relationship with woman she had been in a previous life - Polly. Polly teaches her some spells. The book says that "Patricia had no knowledge of such spells, which experts determined were authentic." Well, that's just sloppy. Who were these experts? Were they experts of Elizabethan magical theory and could therefore say that the spells Crowther had learned did match up with what we know of what Elizabethan witches may have practised? Or were these experts in magic who could tell that the spells were true spells with real magical power? We are never told the type of expert and in what way the spells were deemed authentic, which would change the interpretation of the article a great deal.

And then there were some entries that I just have no way of explaining. For example, the entry on "Gypsies" explains that "their language, Romany, is related to Sanskrit," but it never says that the people themselves are not called "Gypsies." They are Romani. This is never mentioned in the entire entry - a very unusual little bit of bigotry for a book published in 1999.

This book isn't a waste in the sense that I did get quite a few story ideas from it. But if you are doing research for any purpose other than the writing of fiction, don't bother looking here. And, honestly, even if you are writing fiction, use it only as inspiration, not as an information source.

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

Read: 31 March, 2008

Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of short(ish) interwoven stories dealing in some way with the 60s, Vietnam, and the lives of two people named Carol and Bobby. The first and main story is about a kid named Bobby who finds himself just about to grow up. One day, an older man named Ted moves into the building and, in him, Bobby finds an adult he can be friends with. This is the only story that deals with the supernatural and Stephen King fans will find that it connects with his Dark Tower series.

The rest of the stories are considerably shorter and mostly deal with Vietnam - either with the fear of being sent or with the effects of having been there. Wrapping up the novel is a short story that finds Bobby returning to his home town, completing the circular path of the novel.

According to the book jacket, the novel is about Vietnam and the 60s, but it's done in a very circumspect way. Only the minor characters ever go, the heroes of the shorter stories crammed into the final few pages. The main characters, Bobby from "Low Men in Yellow Coats" and Pete from "Hearts in Atlantis," never go. Bobby, in fact, never even gets to hear about Vietnam, growing up before the war starts. But "Low Men in Yellow Coats" doesn't avoid the subject at all, it merely hides it. Bobby is given a copy of Lord of the Flies and becomes obsessed with it, using that novel to understand his world, a world that would be transformed into a scene from the novel in the following years. As for Pete, he comes close to Vietnam, almost touches it, but he manages to scramble back into humanity and away from the mentality of Lord of the Flies that he approaches when he laughs at a crippled classmate who falls and nearly drowns in a flooded path. He regains himself, saving the classmate and raising his grades so that he wouldn't be sent to war, he is spared the guilt and trauma that affects the main characters of the next two stories.

For a book that centres around Vietnam, Hearts in Atlantis somehow manages to stay off the soapbox. It's always something that's bothered me about Vietnam stories. It's such a raw subject that I've yet to see an author be able to handle it without becoming preachy. That's not to say that King doesn't show an opinion, but that opinion is not a moral judgement of the war, but rather an exploration of the mentality that led to what happened during the war - like Lord of the Flies, he presents us with ordinary people who were thrust into extraordinary situations and either did or saw things that they spend the rest of their lives trying to deal with.

The characterization is amazing. This is the first actual Stephen King book that I've read. I've read some of his short stories, but they've never appealed to me. Now I know why. His strongest ability is characterization, something that he creates and builds upon over the course of a long narrative. Despite the length, there was an economy of space too. Every scene served to advance character and the result was a lengthy book with very little action that I read quickly and excitedly.

I'm trying to think of labels for the book, but I'm finding myself at a loss. There are elements of suspense and horror, but these are merely vehicles for exploration and not the subjects of it. Not to mention that the supernatural elements of "Low Men in Yellow Coats" are abandoned entirely until the final few pages.

Medieval Pottery in Britain by Michael McCarthy and Catherine Brooks

Read: 22 December, 2007

A survey of Medieval pottery divided into two parts. Part one deals with shaping, firing, and decorating techniques as well as the uses for pottery in both the domestic and industrial settings. Part two has an in-depth look at each area of England and the pottery styles common to each.

Part one is very interesting and a fun read. The writing style isn't too dry and it's full of great information. If you're looking for something to just pick up and read one afternoon and have some interest in pottery or Medieval life, it's a great choice.

Part two is a much more in-depth study. It's mostly sketches of pots with explanations that are written for brevity rather than readability. Basically, part one is the read bit and part two is the reference bit.

The Medieval Garden by Sylvia Landsberg

Read: 31 October, 2007

This book covers the three types of gardens (for medicine, for food, and for beauty) present in the Medieval era. It lists the sorts of plants that would be used and which are still available to the modern gardener. It also contains a chapter on how to recreate a Medieval garden of your own.

All in all, I found it a pleasurable read with lots of useful diagrams and illustrations. It is a good choice both for fans of gardening and for fans of Medieval history.

Life in a Medieval Village by Joseph & Frances Gies

Read: 31 October, 2007

With very little information available about peasant life, I can imagine that it must have been difficult to stretch out an entire book. Certainly, I felt that it was the chapter on the village from Life in a Medieval Castle with only a few extra details. I did find those extra details interesting and I made good use of the images. All in all, I think that if you are doing research on Medieval life but are strapped for time, read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel, City, and Castle, but skip this one. If, on the other hand, you have plenty of time, by all means give it skim through.

The book covers what it can about the daily life of peasants, usually from criminal records and so the book is full of amusing stories about drunken farmers hacking at each other with sickles. It also talks about marriage traditions and the church's efforts to control that. The interaction with the manor, both in law and in harvest feasts, dominates much of the information in the book. There is also a good deal of information on farming - the plants, the seasons, the methods of sowing and reaping, bylaws about grazing, and so forth.

Medieval Games by John Marshall Carter

Read: 20 October, 2007

Discuss the role of games in Medieval society, including its role in gender and class barriers and the way in which games reflected a society that was organized for war (Carter discusses the three estates as being formed around war). The book also touches on the cult of reputation (identified as a remnant of the Greco-Roman tradition) nurtured by sportspeople.

The purpose of this book is to argue rather than inform. If you would just like to read about the types of games people played, what they looked like, what the rules were, etc... this is not the book for you.

Fashion in History by Marybelle Bigelow

Read: 20 October, 2007

I'm not sure how well-researched this book is. It made a few statements that set off my warning bells. For example: In explaining the term 'barbarian,' she says "[t]his name was given to them by the Romans because of the fierce and loyal way in which they fought in battle." I had always been under the impression that the name was given to them because their language sounded like "barrbarr" to the Romans. Details like this made the history sections questionable, but, knowing very little about clothing, there isn't much I can say about those sections. however, I would recommend using this as a source of inspiration rather than as primary research.

The illustrations were inconsistent. Some were sketches, some pictures of art or statues, and they didn't always make it clear what parts of the costume we were meant to notice. I found explanations rather lacking as well, often having only a vague sense of what the costume piece would have looked like or what the term referred to. Different sections (17-20th centuries, for example) received far more coverage than other sections.

All in all, I was fairly disappointed. As research, I found the book questionable. In terms of inspiration, I found the images lacking. Read en masse with the other books I've gone through, it works fine. It filled in a couple cracks, gave me a few more decent pictures to work from, and so forth. But I wouldn't recommend it to read alone or as a primary source of research/inspiration.

Life in a Medieval City by Joseph & Frances Gies

Read: 19 October, 2007

Another fantastic Gies to add to my collection, this one dealing with life in the cities. It covers life for richer women, education, crafts, medicine, trade, religion, and law. The writing style is easy to read and loaded with information. There isn't much that I can say except that I highly recommend this book. In fact, if you plan to write historical fiction or Medieval fantasy, I think that this (and the Castle and Village books) is a great starting point.

Historic Costume in Pictures

Read: 10 October, 2007

Put out by Braun and Schneider. This is a picture book (the only text being the copyright notice, a publisher's note, and a table of contents). It details a wide range of traditional and historic costumes from Europe, as well as Indian and Asian costumes from the last century or two.

I have no idea how accurate the images are, but they seem fairly consistent with images I've seen in the past. The images are in black and white and seem to have been redrawn from statues or paintings. A fun game was trying to identify where the images were redrawn from (some being famous enough that I could place them).

Because of the dubious accuracy and the lack of explanation, I wouldn't recommend this book for research. However, if, like me, you just want inspiration for designing your own clothes, this is perfect. It covers enough breadth that it should provide all sorts of ideas.

Life in a Medieval Castle by Joseph & Frances Gies

Read: 1 October, 2007

This book covers many of the aspects of castle life, including the daily routine of the lord and lady, their costume, their diet, and their hobbies. It begins and ends with a brief history of the castle in England. It also deals with the lives of some of the non-noble residents: talking about knighting ceremonies and life in the village that the castle depended on.

As usual, J&F Gies have written another amazing resource for anyone interested in the subject. Taking notes, I found myself practically transcribing the entire book simply because every single sentence is packed with so much information. This book is more than enough of a resource for anyone interested in the basics. Those who are using this as an introduction for further studies will find enough base material to spawn a great deal of ideas. This is a fantastic resource and the writing style is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend this and every other Gies book I've read to date.

The Origins of Courtliness by C. Stephen Jaeger

Read: 5 September, 2007

This book explores the relationship between the literature of court and the setting in which it was written. It includes a discussion of the tension between the old warrior ethic and the newer 'effeminate' court ideal, especially ecclesiastical criticism of courtliness.

As with most of the books I've picked up recently, it didn't really have what I needed. It's great if you want an in-depth look at courtliness, but not so good if you want a general idea of courtliness you can leap off from to great your own fantasy world. For this reason, I just skimmed the book looking for anything I could use. One thing I really liked is that it would provide historical or contemporary fictional examples throughout the book, many of which made for very interesting stories.

Knights at Court by Aldo Scaglione

Read: 24 August, 2007

This is a non-fiction book that deals with the interaction between knights and nobles, two classes that were far more different in theory than in practice. Scaglione tracks the rise of the knight and the eventual merging of the two classes.

I mostly skimmed through this book because the level of detail was far deeper than I needed. I mostly enjoyed the "art imitating life imitating art" portions in which the author discusses the place of the epic romance in the evolution of the knight.

I wouldn't recommend this book to a casual reader or to someone with a general interest in the Middle Ages. If, on the other hand, you would like a book specifically dealing with knights, epic romance, or the changing political scene near the end of the Middle Ages, this would be far more appropriate.

Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances & Joseph Gies

Read: 23 August, 2007

The book begins with a discussion of the technology inherited from Classical civilization and from the Dark Ages. It then discusses technology adopted from the East. Finally, it covers technology invented (or perfected) within Europe through the Middle Ages, the High Middles Ages, and the end of the Middle Ages (in a chapter titled "Leonardo and Columbus").

The language is easy to follow and the concepts, though detailed, are well explained. This makes Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel a perfect book for anyone interested in technology (both "domestic" and military) or in what life was like during that time period. In fact, the processes or production are well described and are invaluable to anyone who, like me, hopes to use a Medieval setting in creative writing.

I can't sing this book's praises loud enough. It took me a great deal of time to read simply because every sentence provided new information to write down in my notes or to help me jump into further study. I consider this a book anyone with even the most passing interest in history should read.

A Social History of the Fool by Sandra Billington

Read: 10 August, 2007

According to Billington, it had previously been assumed that the fool, disliked by the church, had been repressed in England while he had his public popularity in the continent. Billington argues that this assertion is not true and, rather, that those who kept records chose to omit references to the fool in a sort of protest through silence. As evidence, she uses brief references and images used in various works. From this Medieval beginning, she chronicles the changes the Fool underwent through the ages until its modern versions of the clown and the comedian.

Had my purposes been different, I might have enjoyed this book more. As it was, I merely skimmed all but the first chapter (the one that dealt with the Fool in Medieval England). I found it to be a perfectly good book; it simply did not address the questions I sought answers for.