SBL - Book Reviews - Hodgepodge of Summer Reading

Hodgepodge of Summer Reading - Bev Russell, Library Director

(This column appeared in the June 22, 2008, Star-Herald)

Today’s article is a hodgepodge of some of my reading this summer. Let’s start with "Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway".

Wednesday, June 25^th is a big day for the folks at the Wildcat Hills Nature Center as they dedicate a new mural, "The Innocent Assassins; Beardog Kills a Three-toed Horse; and Prosythetrocears (slingshot horns)". As a special treat Dr. Kirk Johnson, Vice President and Head Curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science will be present. Dr. Johnson will be autographing copies of his new book, "Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-mile Paleo Road Trip.

"Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway" is a book for us non-paleo types. Dr. Johnson and artist Ray Troll take the reader on a wild journey across the fossil West and along the way inform and entertain. This is no dry, stuffy academic text. It is a fun travel book with an educational intent that uses bright, creative art to teach. Dr. Johnson includes anecdotes and sketches of the offbeat characters at some of the paleo sites to keep the reader’s attention. "Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway" is painless learning and a fun read.

"Moyers on Democracy" is a compilation of speeches and essays, written by Bill Moyers over the past twenty years. Moyers organized his book around the topics of service, history, politics, media and religion. Bill Moyers began his adult life, studying for the Baptist ministry. His career diverted to that of a public servant and then a renowned career in journalism. Moyer’s insightful thoughts warn us that today’s assaults on the Constitution undermine our democratic ideas.

"1421: The Year China Discovered America" by Gavin Menzies argues that the Chinese discovered America 70 years before Columbus. Menzies is a retired submarine commander from the Royal Navy. He has scant hard evidence for his theory because later Chinese empires destroyed almost all of the records of voyages made by Chinese fleets in the early 1400s. Many of his conclusions are based upon his speculation as someone experienced in maritime navigation. Frankly, he lost me on more than one occasion, but as someone interested in history, the idea of the Chinese as the first to circumnavigate the world is a fascinating idea. This book is for history buffs with open minds, and who don’t mind following a convoluted argument.

"This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil Way" by Drew Gilpin Faust is a serious study about the impact of Civil War deaths on the nation. Dr. Faust is President of Harvard and a historian. She has written widely on the Civil War, and her book is heavily researched and footnoted. The following facts bring into perspective the enormous effect of deaths from the Civil War:

620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War. Proportionally, to the population of the United States today that would be six million deaths.
Those 620,000 are more deaths than in wars from the American Revolution through the Korean War.
One in every five southern men of military age did not survive the war.

"The Republic of Suffering" is not light reading but is an important addition to the annals on the Civil War. All these books are available at the Scottsbluff Public Library.

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