It’s June! Joe was right. It’s very hot. It’s very hot but, for the most part, our air conditioning works in Lemuria, making the store the perfect place for you to shop for…Father’s Day presents! Father’s Day is on June 20th this year and so I’ve gone and picked – fathers in mind – some new books that have been doing well.
This first book, Parisians, is number one on my blog because I want to read it. Badly. It got such a good review in the New York Times a few weeks ago and if that doesn’t do it for you, then the sub-title of “An Adventure History of Paris” should. I get the impression that it’s this very readable, exciting account of all sorts of characters who lived in Paris at various points in the city’s history – Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Hitler, Proust, Zola, Charles de Gaulle…It’s like a people’s history of Paris. It looks great. From the review:
“Robb is no stranger here. The acclaimed British author of biographies of Hugo, Balzac and Rimbaud, he first experienced the city as a boy, when his parents treated him to a week’s holiday as a birthday present. But, as Robb learned, Paris is too volatile and complicated, too historically dynamic, to be illuminated by any one person’s life. His solution: to write, as he explains it, “a history of Paris recounted by many different voices,” a series of character studies arranged to commemorate the shifting streets and sundry plot lines that give meaning to the city.”
Book number two has also been selling well: Winston’s War, by Max Hastings. It also got a good review in the New York Times. There are so many books about Churchill out there – he’s got his own shelf in the history section – that it can be overwhelming. This book is a portrait of the man exclusively during World War 2 (it begins in 1940), glorious moments and awful blunders and all. Hastings “rejects the traditional Churchill hagiography”, and, as the review puts it, presents some interesting food for thought:
“In the end, the war went well for freedom and the survival of civilization, and for that we must ever after thank the Winston Churchill of 1940. Had Churchill died in January of that year, Hitler might not have been defeated at all. Is it possible that, if Churchill had died in January 1942, Germany might have been defeated sooner?”
Book three is a brand new book on the Hoover Dam that’s already being compared to work by David McCullough, who has written books about other feats of mankind such as the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge. Colossus, written by Pulitzer-Prize winner Michael Hiltzik, is a grand saga of the dam’s conception, design, and construction – it is also, by default, an account of the effect the Depression had on American culture. The Wall Street Journal, in their review, said:
“Mr. Hiltzik clearly explains the technological and physical difficulties posed by the dam project, but he also fixes the endeavor in its time and captures the personalities of the people involved. … With the U.S. lately facing ever more difficult challenges and the can-do spirit apparently on hold, “Colossus” may inspire in readers a longing for a new building project on the Hoover’s scale, something that will summon up once again America’s famous self-confidence and daring.”
The last book I’ll mention is by Nathaniel Philbrick, whose name might be familiar because he wrote Mayflower, which did (and continues to do) really well. The Last Stand is about the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and promises to be just as readable as Philbrick’s other works. He’s a good storyteller, it’s a fascinating story, and it promises to be an interesting read.
There are, of course, many many other good Father’s Day gift ideas: Matterhorn, The Pacific, The Passage, The Imperfectionists, The Marrowbone Marble Company… come in and have a look!
Susie
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