Lists of Note, Lone Star, Troy, and In the Kingdom of Ice

What I Read Last Week   It doesn’t get better than this: a collection of memorable and not-so-memorable lists, clever and pedestrian lists, surprising and poignant lists from the famous and the infamous. I lingered over these lists for days on my first read and then turned back to the front and reread my favorite lists. Here are some you must take a look at: a list scribbled by JFK’s secretary of possible suspects in his murder...fifty suggestions for the names of the seven dwarves...Sir Isaac Newton’s list of sins he has committed...Marilyn Monroe’s list of dream lovers….Oh, you must read Lists of Note. Lone Star is seven hundred sixty-seven pages of fascinating stories about Texas. It’s all here---the original peoples, the Spanish explorers, the Mexican settlers, the American settlers, the wars, and Texas as part of Mexico, Texas as an independent nation, and Texas as part of the United States. As I read along, I kept thinking how much reading these stories explains a lot about the way Texas is now---the conflicts on the border today mirroring conflicts on the border many years ago, the desire of Texans to be independent of a central government, the way the rainfall on the land has shaped the agriculture and ranching of the state. A compelling read. I started out a little hesitant about Troy. I wasn't sure what I thought about the oh-so-human gods popping into the story, but it gradually wore on me until I really began to love this feature of the book. The characters (Helen, Paris, Hector, Aphrodite, Eros) are mostly familiar to me, though I'm not sure if some of the young people (Marpessa? Xanthe? Alastor?) were present in the original story. It's all well done, I think. The almost-Shakespearean romantic mixups between Marpessa and Alastor and Iason and Xanthe and Polyxena are intriguing and sad and tragic (I don't remember that being part of the original story either, but I could be mistaken) and the ongoing story of the Trojan War is riving. I think I like best how characters suddenly fall in love or act erratically and it's all because of the gods' interferences...certainly would be a good explanation for me for some of the crazy behavior I see in our world. Troy is a story that has been told and retold for centuries and I believe modern readers will love this modern adaptation of the classic tale. Is The Kingdom of Ice the best nonfiction you've read this year? you ask. It just might be. But how can that be? you continue. Didn’t you also read the amazing Dead Wake? And Being Mortal? Yes. And yes. You prod me, You just can’t leave it at that. Tell me more. Kingdom of Ice is the incredible true story of some of the bravest men who ever lived, men who tried to take a ship to the North Pole in the 1870’s, get trapped in the ice, have to abandon their ship when the vessel sinks, and attempt to travel over sea and land to Siberia in one of the coldest places on earth. Yes, you say. I see. Now that’s a story. Yes. That’s a story. What Arrived in the Mail Oh happy day! Rising Strong, the new book by Brene Brown! Woo hoo!

What are you reading today?!

And I hope you'll stop by and throw your name in the hat

to win a finished hardback of Eight Hundred Grapes 

along with a clever little EHG coffee mug. 
Stop by here to win!

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.