Book Description
It is a treasured Charm City tradition. Every year on Edgar Allan Poe's birthday a figure wrapped in a dark cloak visits the renowned author's Baltimore gravesite and leaves behind three roses and half a bottle of cognac. No Baltimorean worth his or her salt would ever dream of trying to determine the true identity of the "Poe Toaster," thereby possibly destroying a cherished ritual. That's why Tess Monaghan refuses to help the odd, piglike man who wants to hire her to unmask the Visitor, who the Porcine One claims has deceived and cheated him.
If nothing else, the rejected client's story has whetted Tess's curiosity—and so the following evening she and her enthusiastic boyfriend, Crow, are braving the winter chill and the graveyard dark to observe the strange, beloved rite from a respectful distance. But on this particular January 19, two caped figures approach Poe's resting place. One leaves the tribute and escapes into the night. The other dies there, felled by an assassin's bullet.
Tess sees nothing that the other witnesses didn't see. She isn't working for anyone at the moment—and the homicide detective who caught this particular "red ball" is an old and dangerous nemesis—so it might be worth her while to avoid this case like the plague. But someone else wants Tess involved in the worst way. A stranger is surreptitiously leaving her roses and cognac and bizarre, cryptic clues—someone who knows Tess's habits, someone who knows who she knows and where she lives. And suddenly home is a safe haven no longer.
Like it or not, Tess Monaghan is now a prime player in the murderous drama. And as the body count rises even higher, she uncovers links in a chain of greed, lies, false histories, and deadly acquisitiveness, a dangerously twisted mystery worthy of Poe himself.
Download Description
Private investigator Tess Monaghan witnesses a local tradition turn deadly at the gravesite of Edgar Allan Poe. Now someone's leaving cryptic clues on her doorstep...someone who knows her every move. Someone who must be stopped.
Customer Reviews:
Nevermore.......2005-10-12
Every winter on the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, a mysterious cloaked figure pays a visit to the renowned author's gravesite, bearing gifts of three roses and and half bottle of cognac. PI Tess Monahan is amonst the onlookers at this annual pilgrimage, when two caped visitors approach the gravesite... a shot rings out and one figure falls to the ground while the other escapes. When Tess recieves a visit from a strange, round ,little man who wants her to locate some mysterious missing goods connected with Poe, she and her boyfriend Crow become involved in a case of murder, theft, stalking and obbsessive collecting, all of which revolves around the life of Poe. I didn't really care all that much for this book, as I found it to be very muddled and rather difficult to follow. I've loved the previous books featuring Tess and Co., so hope that the next one is more appealing.
Man was I wrong!.......2005-02-23
Laura Lippman took me by surprise, I have to admit. I saw an interview with her on CBS' Sunday Morning a couple of years ago and bought her most recent book for my dad. He's a mystery fan who likes his crime novels on the lighter side than me. I like Lehane, Connelly, Rankin - the noir stuff. How could this woman from Baltimore be writing stuff as good as the guys above? Not being sexist, here - I just couldn't see it. I should have thought of Laurie R. King who's Kate Martinelli series is as dark and good as the guys above. But, I didn't. I'm a moron! I just plowed through a litany of other books to read until I came upon this book. I asked my dad if he liked her and he replied, "Yes. A lot!" It dealt with Edgar Allen Poe and the Poe Visitor. Seemed interesting. So I gave it a try.
Man, was I wrong! Laura is great! Strange City is witty and dark and quick-paced and has characters that are real and fantastic. Tess is one hell of a woman and I'm okay to admit that I'm a little in love with her. She's smart and sexy and tough but still vulnerable. I totally underestimated Laura and I promise that I will never to do that again.
Keep at it Laura - Spenser ain't got nothing on you!
A Fun, Smart Page-Turner.......2003-01-01
`In a Strange City' is my first experience reading Laura Lippman, but I hope to have many more. You should too.
PI Tess Monaghan turns down a would-be client who wants her to unmask the "Poe Toaster," a mysterious person who visits Edgar Allan Poe's gravesite each year with three roses and half a bottle of cognac. Although she refuses to take the case, Tess can't help being curious. On the anniversary of Poe's death, Tess expects to stand at a distance and see a strange caped individual visit the cold Baltimore grave site. But she sees two caped figures. One dies from a bullet, the other escapes. Then things get really creepy when Tess receives cryptic notes at her door...along with three roses and a half bottle of cognac.
`In a Strange City' is a pleasure to read because it works on so many levels. Lippman writes a very smart tale with wonderful descriptions of Baltimore and its people, but that's only part of what makes the book work. She not only knows how to write great characters, she also pens believable dialogue. Her examination of Poe devotees and collectors is nothing short of fascinating. Many excellent mystery writers are capable of presenting readers with an entertaining, intriguing story, but Lippman takes it a step further. When I closed the book, I knew I had finished a great story, but I also knew that I was going to be forced to examine the possessions I cherish and ask myself how far I would go to protect them?
A very satisfying read - 310 pages
Poe's Visitor and the Gold Bug.......2002-10-29
"These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air..." (from Shakespeare's "The Tempest"). This is one of the best mysteries I have read in recent years. It is an intriguing tale that revolves around the mysterious Visitor to Poe's grave who, every year, leaves three red roses and a half bottle of cognac. It is January 19. Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan and her boyfriend, Crow, are among the spectators keeping watch at Poe's grave. A cloaked figure appears, and then another. A shot is fired and a cloaked figure falls, mortally wounded. The second cloaked figure escapes in the commotion, fading into the shadows.
The case becomes complicated. There are people trying to identify and find the visitor for personal agendas. There are charges that the murder was a hate crime - the victim identified as a ... waiter. Tess is drawn into the case, willing or not, because other players think she may have information. Mysterious notes appear, along with roses or rose petals, from an unknown individual attempting to enlist her aid. There are questions about thefts of rare books and memorabilia. And there is collateral damage.
Along the way there are tidbits of information about Baltimore, and about Edgar Allan Poe including a pertinent poem ("From childhood's hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring." - from Poe's "Alone"). The case gradually unfolds as information develops about various players. Some people become unlikely allies, and relationships between people are revealed as the case is solved. Tess becomes the guardian of another dog, a friendly doberman named Miata.
But that is not the end of the story because the Visitor is still involved, a mysterious cloaked figure of many faces, and there must be a meeting before the visitor fades into thin air. And will the Visitor be back next year? You might have to go to Baltimore next January 19, if you are willing to spend a cold night at a graveyard.
Can't wait for the next one!.......2002-07-28
SOOOOO good, I can't wait until October. If Lippman could put out a book weekly, I still wouldn't be able to wait for the next installment of Tess Monaghan's adventures! As a Marylander and former Baltimorean, every book feels like home.
Book Description
If, like many Americans, you believe the ongoing tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, you need to read this book. In the coming years and decades, the safety of your region, your town, your home may depend on the warnings you'll encounter on these pages. That's because the exact same conditions that created the Katrina catastrophe and destroyed New Orleans are being replicated right now along virtually every inch of U.S. coastline.
In The Ravaging Tide, Mike Tidwell, a renowned advocate for the environment and an award-winning journalist, issues a call to arms and confronts us with some unsettling facts. Consider:
- In the next seventy-five years, much of the Florida peninsula could lie under ocean water.
- So could much of Lower Manhattan, including all of the hallowed ground zero area.
- Major hurricanes like Katrina, scientists say, are becoming much more frequent and more powerful.
- Glacier National Park in Montana will have to change its name, as it is rapidly losing all of its thirty-five remaining glaciers.
- The snows atop Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, so memorably evoked in the Hemingway story, have already disappeared.
The fault, Tidwell argues, lies mostly with the U.S. government and the energy choices it has encouraged Americans to make over the decades. Those policies are now actively bringing rising seas and gigantic hurricanes -- the lethal forces that killed the Big Easy -- crashing into every coastal city in the country and indeed the world. The Bush administration's own reports and studies (some of which it has tried to suppress) explicitly predict more intense storms and up to three feet of sea-level rise by 2100 due to planetary warming. The danger is clear: Whether the land sinks three feet per century (as in New Orleans over the past 100 years) or sea levels rise three feet per century (as in the rest of the world over the next 100 years), the resulting calamity is the same.
Although Mike Tidwell sounds the clarion in The Ravaging Tide, this is ultimately an optimistic book, one that offers a clear path to a healthier and safer world for us and our descendants. He writes of trend-setting U.S. states like New York and California that are actively cutting greenhouse gases. And he heeds his own words: In one delightful personal chapter, he takes us on a tour of his suburban Washington, D.C., home and demonstrates how he and many of his neighbors have weaned themselves from the fossil-fuel lifestyle. Even when the government is slow to change, there are steps we as families can take to, yes, change the world.
Customer Reviews:
Climate Change is Real .......2007-02-21
The flooding of New Orleans resulted from a combination of effects: subsiding land, sea level increase, destruction of protecting wetlands, and of course a violent storm. Tidwell's thesis is that sea level will continue to rise and tropical storms and hurricanes will increase in intensity, all as a result of climate change. The entire East Coast of the United States will be as vulnerable as was New Orleans. Most of Miami and the rest of Florida average just a few feet above sea level. While New York City is mostly on higher ground, the author observes that the infrastructure, the subways system for example, is well below ground.
As world temperatures rise, melting or collapsing glaciers will add water to the ocean. Higher world temperatures will also mean that the water already in the ocean will expand and cause an additional rise in the sea level. Thus, land that is today at or slightly above sea level will become land that is below sea level. Certainly, whether or not storms grow more intense (this is still being debated in the scientific community), global warming will increase the level of the ocean. All of our coastal cities may go the way of New Orleans.
Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in which it stated that the Earth is warming and that most of the warming is a result of human activity. This is also the overwhelming view of the scientific community. My first encounter with the effects of global warming was a hike in the 1980s to the foot of the Paradise Glacier on Mt. Ranier to visit the ice caves. I was disappointed to find that the famous caves were mostly gone. The caves had disappeared because the glacier itself was retreating. We now know that glaciers all over the world are melting. A recent headline caught my eye; "Iceberg off New Zealand becomes tourist mecca," AP, November 21, 2006. The residents of New Zealand could look out their windows to see pieces of Antarctica floating by.
It is not clear what it will take to get our US government to take steps to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. We have already lost one major city. Will we have to see a few more go before we take action? Tidwell does a good job of presenting the need for individual and governmental action.
I also recommend "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce. a book about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming.
A Great, must-read book.......2006-12-30
I loved this book so much that I've read the first chapter aloud to three appreciative people on the phone, and I'm also planning to buy a copy for every Maryland state legislator. (Let me know if you do the same in your state.)
Mike Tidwell writes beautifully. Even though I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and heard Bill McKibbon speak, I learned plenty from The Ravaging Tide that I hadn't already heard before. Tidwell shares history, science, policy, despair (when we don't act on clean energy policy), and promise (when we do).
Yes, it may be odd, but I was walking (not driving!) down sidewalks while reading this book. I couldn't put it down, until the very last page.
Mike Tidwell is a former journalist and travel writer for the Washington Post and the National Geographic Traveler.
Not the Best Book on the Subject.......2006-12-09
When I ordered this book, I had great hopes for its contents. I was looking for a good "summer project" book that dealt with global warming and alternative energy. It was to be used by a high school environmental class.
What I wound up with was a book that dealt with both subjects, as well as with the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but it was so poorly written and biased that I would not be able to use it in a classroom setting. The writing in the book was extremely redundant; repeating the same information over and over again. I think the book could have been written without the redundancy in about half the number of pages. And, that change would have made the book much more readable and enjoyable.
In addition, the author clearly has an agenda and, while he may think he is presenting his case objectively, he falls far short. It is easy to agree, for the most part, with much of the science presented. It is his premise that falls short. I am a dedicated environmentalist, and found many of his solutions to be totally unworkable.
He describes his work with his own home to reduce his carbon footprint. One method he used was to heat his home with a corn burning stove. It sounds good, but how many Americans, who drive three blocks to a store, will put up with hauling 5 gallon buckets of corn to their stoves on a regular basis. Not many I would propose, unless they have a lot of free time. Some of his other suggestions, as well, are equally unworkable on a large scale.
Finally, I have a problem with his bashing Bush constantly. I am no fan of Bush, but he is not the sole reason that the US has done little to nothing about its carbon footprint and global warming. Bush is a part of the problem, but lets put the blame where it needs to go. Clinton did little during his term and the same can be said for the elder Bush. Also, the Congress has been woefully inept at dealing with the issue.
There are a number of books about this subject that are well written and objective. This is neither. I would suggest you save your money and buy one of the more comprehensive books available.
Hard to Believe.......2006-11-27
Sorry ... this book is neither a parable nor a polemic - it's just another eco-manipulator at work. Tidwell says that Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Of course it did not. It was the levee failures, not the surge tide, that doomed the city. This point is apparently far too subtle for Tidwell to understand, and yet it is crucial. Perhaps we need to change the world to prevent future surge tides, but we definitely need to improve the levees - and the disasterously corrupt local political atmosphere that allowed the city to drown - if we want to save New Orleans.
And of course, this is one of the many examples of Tidwell's raging hypocracy. He never asks the basic question, why save New Orleans at all? If Tidwell is right, it makes no sense to repopulate it. If the city has subsided to the point where it basically replaces the marshes it once drained in a move that accelerated the Katrina disaster, why not simply let nature take its course and allow the flooded land to become the new buffer? We are not lessening any human tragedy by helping people move right back onto the "landing strip" (Tidwell, demonstrating his utter lack of imagination, uses this metaphor a dozen times in the book) for the next Katrina.
And by the way, where was the 2006 Katrina? Tidwell virtually guarantees a cycle of doom, with each year bringing more and more devastation caused by global warming. And yet, why wasn't New Orleans swamped in 2006? Why weren't Miami and Savanah and New York destroyed too? What's that? You can't use climate changes to predict the weather? But that's virtually the entire basis for Tidwell's book.
That and, as noted above, his shameless hypocracy. Another small example (there are too many to count) - throughout the book, he cites reports by insurance companies that say the cost and impact of bad weather are increasing because of global warming. But then, when he wants to have a corn granery built in his town to make his life easier, he discovers that insurance companies won't cover the risk without a huge premium. This decision - shared, Tidwell tells us, by every company he contacted - threatens his green goodness.
What would a hypocrite do? Of course - when the insurance companies agrees with Tidwell's premise, they are right - in fact, they are unimpeachable proof of his agrument. But when they don't do what he wants, the very same paragons of truth suddenly become idiots.
If you want to know how Tidwell ultimately prevailed (by having his fellow-citizens assume the cost of the risk that he, in his eco-purity, could not possibly be expected to pay), you will have to slog through the book on your own.
Good luck. But that's not all you will live through, in all liklihood.
In just the last 30 years, we have survived so much that the eco-manipulators have claimed would kill us - global cooling, nuclear power, nuclear winter, nuclear war, nuclear waste, the loss of the ozone layer, DDT, swine flu, avian flu, the Ebola virus, "hot spot" viruses, "Frankenstein" foods, and mercury in tuna, in tooth fillings and in vaccines, to name just a few - that either global warming will be the BIG ONE, as we were assured very positively that all the others were as well, or we'll use our inventiveness and imagination to find a solution that doesn't kill us ... as Tidwell and his kind move onto the next disaster waiting to be uncovered and sold to a gullible public.
Alarming Yet Hopeful.......2006-09-20
This is a highly emotional work. Mike Tidwell predicted the disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita several years before they happened, and he is justifiably angry that his warnings were not heeded. In The Ravaging Tide Tidwell expands on his earlier work to explain why human activities such as building levees actually increased the destruction at New Orleans, and to warn that other coastal areas now face the same sort of threat.
At times Tidwell waxes somewhat repetitive, making the same point over and over again, but this stems from the overwhelming frustration he feels over public and government inaction. He also relies heavily on secondary sources such as Jared Diamond's Collapse (to which he refers repeatedly) so that those of us who have read that work feel Tidwell's own work is little more than a condensed version of other books.
Tidwell is strongest when he concentrates on explaining how so much of what we face from climate change can be alleviated or even avoided through common sense measures, such as using more energy efficient appliances or requiring energy using companies to upgrade to already existing and far more environment friendly technology. He is also at his most eloquent when condemning the fecklessness of the Bush Administration on energy policy and climate change.
Tidwell's work, like those of Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery, Eugene Linden, and Elizabeth Kolbert, should be read by everyone concerned for the future of our world.
Book Description
Every city has its urban legends, its tall tales, and even its outright lies, and Hollywood and Los Angeles have enough to fill a book--and Paul Young has done just that.L.A. Exposed includes the facts behind the myths surrounding everything from the tall tales of tinsel town, to the legend and lore of LA landmarks, to rock n' roll rumors, to Southern California's unnatural history, to the city's crime lore, to tales of corruption and conspiracy in the land of sunshine and health; LA Exposed dares to ask the hard questions. Does L.A. really have earthquake weather? Did Alfred Hitchcock ask Grace Kelly to do a strip teast in her front window? Is there treasure buried in the Watts Towers? Are there still opium dens in Chinatown? Was Barbara Streisand ever in a porn film? Young gives readers the lowdown on the city's most enduring myths, exploring their origins, and whether there is an ounce of truth to any of them.L.A. Exposed, inventive, witty, and addictive, is sure to be a hit in L.A. and beyond.
Customer Reviews:
L.A. Crazy.......2007-06-04
There are some really crazy stories in this book; the LAPD history is most interesting and a bit scary. I would have liked a few more murders and not so many 'monster' stories, but I still really enjoyed it and loved that each story was only a few pages long. Lots of great photographs too.
If you love the seedy underbelly..........2007-04-02
If you love the seedy underbelly of all things that glitter (I know I do!), you GOTTA get this book! Great history!
HARD TO PUT DOWN.......2006-07-08
Covers most anything of mystery about L.A. and then some. From the extremely weird, to Hollywood scandals. No one is spared here; from Barbara Streisand to Keanu Reeves. But the one highlight for me was the mention of one of my most frightening childhood memories, the strange appearance of what we in South Central commonly referred to as "The Wolf Woman." You don't find much on this eerie phenomenon of the early 1960s. Mr. Young has done his homework well. You won't find it easy to put down, especially if you're from L.A.
everything you REALLY wanted to know about LA.......2004-07-18
If you like your scandal mixed with history, or vice versa, you will like this chatty book of scandals and the true story of what makes LA tick. Some times the author uses a tad to much pschyo-speak, but a throughtly enjoyable book for those who want to look behind the red carpet, and into the bedrooms.
Now the truth. Mysteries in Hollywood, L.A. and Lancaster.........2003-08-30
This book contains 297 full pages of the truth you want to know. Los Angeles and Hollywood are full of rumors, gossip and mysteries. This book will tell you a little history, what people are saying, what happened, and THE TRUTH. Now you will know the truth of...Is Tom Cruise Gay?, Is John Travolta gay?, Did Barbara Streisand do porno? Who does now!, What happened to Marilyn Monroe, Sam Cooke and Jayne Mansfield. Did Dennis Hopper contact a UFO?, Which actors and rock stars are big or hung? The story of the tiki god (fertility god) with the three-foot hard on at Trader Vic's. Also included is the Elizabeth Lake creature at the lake located 15 miles west of Lancaster, California. Indians once claimed the lake to be a passageway to the underworld, a passageway designed by the devil himself. Also, does Southern California have earthquake weather? There are 98 mysteries in this book, the story and the truth will be revealed to you. Also the truth of Jimmy Hoffa's death is on page 278.
Book Description
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the subsequent destruction of the thriving Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum are historic disasters of monumental proportions, resonating across millennia and remembered to this very day. Now Dr. Charles Pellegrino -- the acclaimed author who unearthed Atlantis, returned readers to Sodom and Gomorrah, and revealed startling new secrets about the most fabled sea tragedy of all in his superb New York Times bestseller Her Name, Titanic -- takes us back to the final days of an extraordinary civilization to experience an earth-shattering catastrophe with remarkable and unsettling ties to the unthinkable disaster of September 11, 2001.
Through the modern wonders of forensic archaeology, astonishing facts about the everyday lives of the doomed citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum have been brought to light, revealing a society that enjoyed "modern" amenities such as central heating, sliding glass doors, penicillin, hot and cold running water -- and a standard of living and life expectancy that would not be achieved again until the 1950s. But these thriving twin cities would be buried along with every hapless citizen in less than twenty-four hours when Vesuvius came frighteningly alive, sending a fearsome column of smoke and fire twenty miles into the sky.
Employing volcano physics, Pellegrino shows that the Vesuvius eruption was one thousand times more powerful than the bomb that leveled Hiroshima, bringing to vivid life the frightful majesty of that volcanic apocalypse. Yet Pellegrino digs deeper, exploring fascinating comparisons and connections to other catastrophic events throughout history, in particular the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. As one of the world's only experts on downblast and surge physics, Pellegrino was invited to Ground Zero to examine the site and compare it with devastation wreaked by Vesuvius, in the hope of saving lives during future volcanic eruptions. In doing so, he offers us a poignant and unforgettable glimpse into the final moments of our own "American Vesuvius."
A stunning combination of science, history, humanity, and riveting storytelling, Charles Pellegrino's Ghosts of Vesuvius is an extraordinary accomplishment, an electrifying, edifying, astonishing, and powerful work of literary art.
Customer Reviews:
An engrossing look at Vesuvius (79 AD) ... and 9-11 (2001).......2007-08-18
[Review of Hardcover edition]
This is a tremendously interesting and engrossing book, on many different levels. "GoV", contrary to what the title might lead one to suspect, is NOT just a book about Mt. Vesuvius - it's a tour de force exploration of the effect of volcanic forces on people, on civilizations, on religion(s), on species and evolution in general, on the landscape, and even on the very formation of life itself ... and the author draws upon a wide array of scientific disciplines in order to tell the tale effectively.
In similar fashion to Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", the book opens with a bang ... or more specifically, with the origins of the universe, the formation of heavier elements in the hearts of stars, the evolution of solid matter (planets, asteroids and dark matter), the formation of volcanoes on those planets, and the role that volcanic forces play in the formation of life. From there, the author gives the reader an introductory taste of some of the possible connective threads between volcanic calamities of recent millennia, their appearances in (and possible influence on) religious accounts & beliefs, and how the tripartite aspects of creation, destruction, and preservation directly mimic the aspects of certain deities recurring throughout human history in various different religions ... a theme touched on indirectly by Fritjof Capra's Hindu-slanted poetic paradigm for viewing physical reality "The Tao of Physics".
From there, the authors pauses (in Chapter 3, "The Time Gate") to neatly tie together a broad range of different fields of human study into a single and innovatively coherent view of time. In it, the author telescopes backwards, in accelerating fashion, as he zooms further and further outwards - from recent history, through archeology (deep history), past paleontology (biological history), past geology (planetary history), and onward into astrophysics (stellar history) ... with major volcanic events as the connective thread every step of the way. A larger and more robust treatment of this material is also covered in a stand-alone novel entitled "Time Gate".
Next, the author reels the reader's time focus back in closer to home again, and delves into the heart of the book, and the author's chief love: archeology. In this case, the primary focus are the twin cities destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum. The author treats us to a veritable smorgasbord of some of the written accounts dating near, relating to, or directly affected by the eruption:
* Historical accounts (ex: the Plinys, Democritus, Josephus, Spartacus the Gladiator, etc),
* Biblical references (ex: the Council of Nicea that originally collated, edited and winnowed down the scattered accounts of the time into "The Bible" as we know it today),
* Legal records (ex: the legal case of the ex-slave Justa who was suing to retain her freedom at the time of the eruption) recovered from the carbonized remains of a large cache of library scrolls.
Reading those accounts drives home in dramatic fashion the terrible and lasting impact Vesuvius had on both the personal lives of the people nearby, on the surrounding nations and empires, and on the bible itself ... effects that are being felt even today, in ways that we're only just now beginning to understand.
From classic archeology, the author then re-focuses closer still into the subtle nuances and intimate details offered by forensic science, and the oh-so-human stories that the latter is allowing to emerge from the archeological strata. The bones can literally speak to us now ... telling us their exact age & gender, their most likely profession and social status, their dietary habits, wounds and diseases they suffered from, and so much more ... details that truly reinforce that archeology is not just about biology or dead civilizations - it's also about individuals.
It was shortly after the author finished writing the draft of this book that history and fate played a cruel joke ... on September 11th, 2001, hijackers crashed two passenger jets into the Word Trade Center in New York City. The buildings subsequently imploded and down blasted into the Manhattan Bedrock, and massive debris clouds radiated throughout southern Manhattan, burying, damaging and destroying much in it's path. The resemblance to Pompeii and Herculaneum was uncanny ... and that brings us to Chapter 10, the final chapter of GoV, in which several archeologists (including the author) converge on NYC to study the still-fresh archeological record.
Central to Chapter 10 is the story of NYFD Ladder 4 that emerged from the archeological evidence, and subsequent attempts (by certain unscrupulous people) to censor/delay/suppress the publication of this very book for daring to tell the truth ... a truth that exposed an earlier journalistic claim (of looting) as a slanderous hoax. For the details on that matter, I refer interested readers to the author's official discussion forum, which contains a thread on that subject, with additional information by the author.
To conclude, GOV is a must-read for anyone who's interested in the sciences in general, in history (both real and biblical), and in the ongoing efforts by determined researchers to carry forward the bright torch of knowledge & truth across the dark wastelands of time, superstition, ignorance ... and sometimes across the barbed wire boundaries of 'accepted theory', through toxic pools of opportunistic lies, and through suffocating clouds of censorship.
To quote Dr. Pellegrino: "History [and Truth] will eventually have it's way ... it always does."
I enjoyed it immensely, and I was engrossed throughout, from cover to cover.
I'd also like to compliment the author for his steadfast commitment to "Keep faith with the dead", regardless of the risk to his career as a published author. I've seen some of the consequences of that decision, first hand.
Self-important Jumble.......2007-05-08
Charles Pellegrino's stream-of-consciousness ramblings about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the collapse of the Twin Towers offer excellent descriptions of just how such catastrophes play out, but little else of interest. Reading the book is an exercise in frustration; just when the author throws out juicy tidbits regarding Pompeii or Herculaneum, he veers off into discussions of conditions on Earth in 1,000,000 B.C. or Gnostic philosophy. Pellegrino clearly possesses an active, imaginative mind but, just as clearly, has difficulty focusing it on something as mundane as maintaining focus. In this manner he reminds one of Tim Robbins' baseball pitcher Nuke LaLoush in "Field of Dreams," who possessed a phenonomenal fastball but was just as apt to hit the team mascot as the strike zone. In "Ghosts of Vesuvius," Pellegrino throws a few strikes. Unfortunately, these are overshadowed by his spectacular wild pitches. Mascots, and readers, beware.
Going To and Fro In The Earth, and Up and Down.......2007-04-12
Ghosts of Vesuvius
by Charles Pellegrino.
Harper. 496 pages.
I picked up this book after listening to the author on a talk radio show. He impressed me, holding forth on the universe in a distinct Long Island accent, so I thought why not? What I got was an incredibly ambitious work that takes the reader back, literally, to the non-time before the universe was born, then barrels forward faster than the speed of light to the non-time post-omega of the universe, and then drops the reader on the edge of the pit left behind after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center after lengthy disquisitions on Pompeii, Herculaneum--the incredible forces unleashed there--and how they were repeated at various intervals of volcanism through the eons. Not content with this, Pellegrino dove-tails these dynamics with the collapse of the Twin Towers and shows how various fire fighters and rescue workers met or survived their fates through the phenomenon of "shock cocoons"--the uncanny interventions that appear in the midst of disasters and which allowed paper documents to survive the searing heat in Herculaneum as well as one fire-fighter to glide on his back for hundreds of feet through the closest equivalent to hell on earth this side of the atomic bomb. A less capacious mind would be content to call it quits after these feats of mental gymnastics, but Pellegrino plows on, Diderot-fashion, to consider, simultaneously, rustcicles, the sinking of the Titanic, the Book of Thomas, Josephus and the early Christian church, the Stoics, the history of Rome, Roman technology and hundreds of other subjects. This man Pellegrino, if he ran a pizza parlor, would most probably offer the Pellegrino Special, which would be the very embodiment of abundanza!--all conceivable toppings, plus a sprinkling of star dust--and all for a reasonable $15.95, U.S.D.! (And, by the way, it appears that the folks of Herculaneum and Pompeii actually had a pizza-like dish, as well as their own hamburgers, hotdogs and a great-tasting fish topping--facts I learned from the author in question.) In addition Pellegrino succeeds in putting a human face on these tragedies--both natural and man-made. We are taken through the last nano-seconds of the life of a beautiful Asian-European slave girl of 14--16 years of age, who was lying on her side with her mistress' baby in her arms trying to comfort it when the searing gasses from Vesuvius caused her brains to boil and explode. We stand on the deck of the Titanic watching an officer with a pistol in his hand holding off the surging crowds of desperate passengers as women and children find seats on the final life boats, the freezing water lapping around their ankles. We are taken into the private hell of a man buried with his dog under tons of volcanic dust, who managed to live for weeks after Pompeii's extinction, yet still died far from the picks and shovels of potential rescuers.
With any such massive undertaking there will be of course some problems. Even War and Peace has arid passages that one would like to tear out and feed to the swine--especially when Tolstoy the philosopher begins to lecture us about history. With the Ghosts of Vesuvius the problems involve structure and editing. Towards the end of the book Pellegrino seems to be writing under the old rule of so many cents a page. We've seen the results in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi when what begins as an excellent book is buried, in part two, under so much filler. I believe that the author simply had a space requirement that was assigned to him by his agent and by hook or crook, he managed to fill it. In addition, Mr. Pellegrino sometimes needs a fact-checker. However, having said these things, I recommend both the author and his book. Obviously the man is brilliant in the best possible sense of the word, and the book is the near-barbaric yawp of an American original.
Judith Petres Balogh.......2007-03-01
I embraced this book. It is informative, sensitive and superbly written. The paralell Mr. Pellegrino draws between the tragedies of Vesuvius and the Towers in unique, and there is so much information contained on the pages, that at times I had to slow down my reading, in order to fully absorb all the details. I read this book while in Europe, in a Hungarian translation, and it lost nothing through this process; the language is still powerful, even as translated into a language that is not related to any other modern language. As soon as I returned to the USA, I bought his other books.
Rambling........2006-10-30
If this book had a coherent topic I might have enjoyed it. It doesn't. It is supposedly about the explosion of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the social and cultural disruptions that followed. For reasons that are quite obscure the author rambles on for the first 127 pages about the origins of the universe, the origins of life, evolution, the appearance of the Big Dipper, panspermia, and more or less everything in between. Why? Who knows? Not me, and I read the book. He then prattles on about the slave revolt of Spartacus, which is at best tangentially relevant - but I guess he has a sense of humor, this chapter is called "Then listen, Josephus, for I digress"- never a truer word. The sections on Vesuvius are gripping and follow a coherent narrative line, until Pellegrino wanders off into yet another massive digression in a disjointed discussion of Gnosticism in the early church. I think the point was that the apocalyptic vision of early Christianity owed its origins to the calamitous explosion of Vesuvius, which is ingenious but he doesn't get even close to proving it, if only because nowhere are his arguments stated, it is all implication, imprecation and hand waving. We are then hurled through time to the sinking of the Titanic, an event that has nothing to do with Vesuvius, the Roman Empire, or volcanoes. The single point of comparison is the loss of life, and nothing in the Titanic chapters serves this book in any way whatsoever; pointless verbiage. Pellegrino then sets off on a gratuitous discussion of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. The only link to Vesuvius that Pellegrino could muster was the shared physics of the collapse column in both a volcanic cloud and a falling building. I'd call that a stretch. Perhaps a more valid comparison would have been to talk to survivors of the atom bombs in Japan. Surprisingly, given that the book is about a volcanic explosion, there is no discussion of volcanic events in recent times- Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens, Etna. It is not even clear from the book that Vesuvius is still active, or that the Bay of Naples has been devastated by earthquakes in living memory. This is just lazy. There are errors of fact; a message in a bottle thrown into the Atlantic seems to have washed up in Surrey, England, which is not a small feat since Surrey is a landlocked county with not an inch of shoreline (perhaps it floated up the river Thames?). Pellegrino appears to place the fall of Constantinople to around 535, which is nonsense. This is in the middle of the reign of Justinian I (527-565), who expanded the Byzantine Empire to include all the Mediterranean including Southern Spain, and who between 532 and 537 oversaw the building of the Sancta Sophia- one of the greatest churches ever constructed. These are hardly the signs of a dieing civilization. With inevitable ups and downs Constantinople remained the centre of a major Christian civilization until it fell to the Turks in 1453, whereupon it became the centre of a major Muslim civilization. Finally, the style is clumsy with the same phrase frequently repeated in the same sentence, as in, (just one example of many) "her first officer had (in a manner of speaking) given me a promise to keep and pointed me (in a manner of speaking) toward..." It could have been a good book, it isn't.
Average customer rating:
- Hard lessons learned in a timely release
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The Wizard of Sun City: The Strange True Story of Charles Hatfield, the Rainmaker Who Drowned a City's Dreams
Garry Jenkins
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
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ASIN: 1560256753 |
Book Description
The story of the West is in many ways the story of the quest for water. Faced with widespread droughts in the late nineteenth century, serious minded men became convinced that artificial rain would be the next great scientific breakthrough. Professional rainmaking companies sprang up, and cities and towns began hiring rainmakers to “milk the skies.” Most were glorified confidence men, but one—Charles Hatfield— appeared to be the real thing. He erected enormous towers and burned a secret mixture of chemicals atop them, and more often than not, the skies obeyed. Before long his work was celebrated—and his secret sought—on four continents.
Hatfield’s career reached its zenith in January 1916, when he was hired to create rain by the booming city of San Diego. Within a month, the city suffered the worst floods in its history, with dozens of deaths and damages in excess of $4 million.
Filled with firsthand research and the flair of a thriller, The Wizard of Sun City is a biography of a visionary scientist, a chronicle of a virtually unknown subculture, and ultimately the story of the tumultuous events of January 1916 that gave Charles Hatfield a reputation as the West’s most controversial rain wizard.
Customer Reviews:
Hard lessons learned in a timely release.......2006-03-23
The cover of this book, line drawings of flood victims anxiously retreating in the advance of a wall of water, foretell the ultimate result of the efforts of professional rainmakers Paul and Charles Hatfield. What lies between the covers is a very fascinating tale, almost an inversion of the Pied Piper saga, in a time when faith in near-science and pseudo meterology was not only believed, but (at least for a bit) sanctioned by the powers that be. This story provides a cautionary tale for those self-styled business folk who unfortunately believe a man's word is his bond, and a handshake forms an unbreakable contract.
Author Jenkins recreates the time and the mood of Southern California in the early 1900's and recreates an atmosphere of a blossoming community pinning its hopes on a sophisticated businessman with a simple proposition: Hatfield will fill a resevoir to its 15 BILLION gallon capacity for $10,000, or San Diego owes him nothing. Surely a sucker's bet, since annual rainfall for the area is less than a foot, Hatfield is given tacit approval to proceed with his venture.
The results far exceeded the imaginations of all parties involved, and the aftermath surely challenges one's belief in pseudo science and the unpredictability of the atmosphere.
The book's release date of July 2005 (a mere month or so prior to Hurricane Katrina) is almost eerie in its timing, in describing a cataclysm seemingly unimaginable for a town with a bright future and numerous prospects.
I'd highly recommend this book to fans of the turn of the last century, to municipal engineers and officials, to weather spotters and emergency planners, or even to just plain folk who like an enjoyable tale that still has a few surprises and twists to keep things interesting. Happy Reading!
Average customer rating:
- Great story...Dry Telling
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From Nineveh to New York: The Strange Story of the Assyrian Reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum & the Hidden Masterpiece at Canford School
John Malcolm Russell
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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ASIN: 0300064594 |
Amazon.com
Indiana Jones, move over. In John Malcolm Russell, you have met your match. All right, so Russell doesn't roam the world with a bullwhip in his hand; nevertheless, the adventures outlined in From Nineveh to New York are the very stuff of fiction--except that they're all true.
Start with one forgotten city from ancient times, Nineveh, and the swashbuckling 19th-century archaeologist, Sir Austen Henry Layard, who discovered its ruins. Add a pinch of passion in the form of Layard's patroness and close friend, Lady Charlotte Guest, and her jealous husband, Sir John, and voila! A perfect romance. Now jump ahead a century and see what happens when modern archaeologist John Malcolm Russell, himself an expert on Assyrian artifacts, discovers a forgotten relief where nobody expected to find one, and you have the added bonus of a thriller. From the deserts of present-day Iraq to Lady Charlotte's country estate, then to America and finally to the hallowed halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Russell follows a particular set of stone reliefs, explaining as he goes the shifts in aesthetics, in art dealing, and in museums that have influenced their fate.
From Nineveh to New York is a history of Nineveh, of British and American artistic tastes, and of archaeology, all rolled into one entertaining package.
Book Description
This book tells the vivid story of Sir Austen Henry Layard`s nineteenth-century rediscovery of ancient Assyria and its fabled capital, Nineveh, and of the subsequent collection, dispersal, and frantic twentieth-century reacquisition of Layard`s huge collection of ancient Assyrian art. With previously unpublished photographs, illustrations from rare nineteenth-century sources, and first-hand accounts, the book sheds new light on the history and meaning of Assyrian art and on taste, dealing, and collecting over two centuries.
Customer Reviews:
Great story...Dry Telling.......2002-11-02
John Malcolm Russell has written some fine books on Assyria, one of them "Final Sack of Nineveh" is a superb tome on the history of the excavations and modern destruction of Nineveh. But unfortunately this work was terribly dry, rather boring, and most frustrating in that he spends way to much time going over Lady Charlotte Guest's diary and all the who-what-when and why of the time she lived in and not hardly enough time on Layard and the excavations. And as far as how the Met acquired the reliefs, it basically came down to agreements made with the Rockefeller family. Not very exciting. I suppose i'm more interested in the digs themselves and would have preferred more on them and less on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The first chapter on the layout of two key palaces was great, but after that it turned into a long, dull read. Great story...just not told so great.
Customer Reviews:
not the right book.......2007-05-15
people who like strange and different thing will like is book.it just wasn't my kind of book
Average customer rating:
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Strange Business
Rilla Askew
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Fire in Beulah
ASIN: 0670842591 |
Book Description
Vertigo takes a leading role in bringing to light the emerging architectural landscape of the industrialized world. The ten projects explored include Lake Vegas in Nevada, the new Reichstag and Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Tate Gallery in London, Hong Kong Airport, Ontario Mills in Los Angeles, and the Millenium Dome in London. Edited by Rowan Moore, with essays by Jacques Herzog, Paul Davies, Aaron Betsky and others. In contrast to the bland future-gazing seen to date, Vertigo sets out to evoke tangible urban experiences, not futuristic utopias.
Customer Reviews:
Very interesting........1998-08-30
Fascinating summary of some of the greatest legends and mysteries of America, though not very thorough. It does, however, provide an excellent starting point for further reading on the subjects.
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