Title: 

Five Days At Memorial is a reconstruction of the time following Hurricane Katrina that survivors spent at the hospital, largely without electricity and with decreasing supplies of food and water. Horrific mismanagement led to a situation so desperate and chaotic that later some doctors and nurses were accused of having euthanized some of their patients. The second half of the book deals with the investigation and trials following that accusation.

The first thing the author did right was pick a captivating, if horrifying, story to tell. This book was intense! Everyone was constantly making tough decisions. Sometimes I wanted to scream I was so frustrated by administrators who were obviously (in hindsight) making very poor decisions. At other times I was deeply moved by people’s compassion. Even the second half, detailing the investigation and trials, was emotionally engaging because of the number of people whose lives were going to be affected by the outcome.

I think the main reason this story had such an impact was because the author did such a great job making people come to life for me. The primary focus of the story was on only a few of the many individuals trapped at Memorial. This made it easier to keep track of who was who and what was going on. However, even characters who were mentioned tangentially were often fleshed out with some small details about their personal life. I was very impressed by the author’s ability to share just enough to make me remember that these “secondary characters” were real people without distracting from her main narrative. Given the emotional impact of the story, the ending felt like a bit of a let down, but I think that’s simply one danger of telling a true story. Not everything always works out in a satisfying, this is the end of the narrative kind of way in real life.

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Musing Mondays

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

This week I’m thinking about the fact that I’m still discovering new genres and genres I’m surprised I like, despite having always been an avid reader. Here are a few genres that I’ve recently fallen in love with…

magical realism – I was surprised to find I liked the genre of magical realism because

1. I don’t really like fiction books that are realistic and
2. what does magical realism even mean?!

For those of you who don’t know, it includes books that are very close to something that could actually happen but with some small element of magic. The books I’ve read in the genre overlap highly with the category of books I would call “literary”. And by literary, I don’t mean high-brow literature everyone should read. I mean it’s weird (because I’m just classy like that). And by weird I mean that the author often uses the work to address larger themes, like questions of human nature, by using the magical elements to do mind-bendy things with the plot. I’ve really enjoyed how much they make me think.

narrative non-fiction – narrative fiction was not a genre I was surprised to like, but surprised (and thrilled!) to learn existed. I was enjoying non-fiction before I found this genre, but I love it even more now. Basically, the genre blends the best story-telling style of fiction with the extra bit of interest because it’s all true!

microhistories – I don’t love and adore mcirohistories the way I do narrative fiction and magical realism. However, it’s definitely a genre that deserves a nod for saving me from reading boring books during my progress through the dewey decimal system. Many sections would otherwise have books only likely to be of interest to specialists and nothing else if it weren’t for microhistories written for the outsider. The best of these even relate the topic to a broader context for bonus awesomeness.

This may just be me, but I’m curious – have any of you ever been surprised to discover the existence of a particular genre? Or surprised to discover you like a genre you thought wasn’t for you?

The post Monday Musing on Discovering New Genres appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Although many of you have probably read or watched The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, few people know that many of the adventures in these classics were inspired by the author’s father, also named Alex Dumas. From exciting sword fights to wrongful imprisonment, this true story has it all. Why did Alex Dumas have so many exciting adventures? In the name of “liberty, fraternity, and equality” of course! That’s right… Alex Dumas was a hero of the French Revolution, one who embodied the best qualities of that revolution. Not only did he take advantage of the unparalleled racial equality it caused, his stunning rise through the military never lead him to stop treating all others with the respect and human dignity he believed they deserved.

This was an amazing story which reminded me why I love narrative non-fiction. I always enjoy a good adventure story, but the fact that these adventures actually happened adds another layer of awesome to the reading experience. However, the author didn’t just happen to have a good story to work with; he did a great job with the writing. The writing style was typical of scholarly popular biographies, clearly well-researched and informative without the language becoming too scholarly for a fun read. It was sometimes funny and even included the occasional pop culture reference. This writing style, in addition to the engrossing story, made The Black Count a very accessible read.

Something that’s very important to a good biography is the use of primary sources and the author does a great job with those as well. Snippets of letters by and about Dumas are seamlessly worked into the story told by the author. The sources added a lot to the narrative, including support for the author’s inferences about Dumas’ feelings and character. By the end of the book, I felt like we’d really gotten to know him. In addition to the personal anecdotes about Dumas, the author introduces broader social issues of the time and details of life during that time period. This context, as well as Dumas’ interaction with famous historical figures such as Napoleon and Robespierre, really helped me understand how he fit into his time period. This mix of personal anecdotes and exciting adventures with historical details exemplifies what I look for in narrative non-fiction. If you also love narrative non-fiction or swash-buckling adventure stories, you should definitely check this out.

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Title: 

If you ever had a question about the history of flight, this book has the answer. Spanning the entire twentieth century and then some, Wings also crosses the globe, covering major advancements made by all nations without being too US-centric. Black and white pictures and quotes by early observers capture the awe inspiring first years of flight. When I finished, I had an excessive list of fun facts I wanted to share with you. I picked the one I did because I simply can’t imagine being launched into the air in the flimsy, uncontrollable, open-cock pits of the first planes!

As you might imagine, this is a pretty hefty tome covering massive amounts of material – a fact that wasn’t always handled well. The organization of the book drove me a little nutty, jumping from topic to topic with little continuity and much back-tracking in the chronological order of events. Some chapters included information grouped by date and others included information grouped by topic. A lot of these sections were simply packed with facts and figures, with very little of the narration promised by narrative non-fiction. I felt jipped. Occasionally we’d stay with a topic long enough for the subject to become engaging, but this book mostly made me want to go read other books to learn more about specific people and events.

Later in the book, characters and companies begin to make repeat appearances, which helps with the continuity problem. But at the end of the day, this was not the book I was looking for. I intentionally chose the book for its’ broad perspectives on aviation (something it does quite well!) but it turned out that I’m not especially interested in the broader view. It’s possible more narration and less fact-listing would have helped, but I think I’ll be a little wary of choosing broad over-views in the future. I’d much rather read a book the tells a limited but engaging personal story.

Who should read this? cover to cover? only someone who is very interested in a broad history of aviation, not someone looking for engaging personal narratives

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Title: 

The Virtues of War is the perfect mix of fact and fiction to make a good book. The author clearly did his research and uses accurate details to form a fascinating picture of life around 320BC.  However, as he states in the introduction, he’s also able to take liberties with the facts and put battles and speeches in the order which makes the best narrative. Best of all, the book is told as though Alexander is speaking to a nephew, leading to what I think are some of the major strengths of this book.

First, this book is barely fiction and reads a lot like narrative non-fiction.  Alexander the Great was pretty awesome and it’s a lot of fun to get some insight into his motivation and emotions. It’s even more fun because the author’s speculation on Alexander is backed up by sources from Alexander’s time. At least that impression is given and an internet search supports that view, although no bibliography was included.  The author also does a good job of integrating Alexander’s past with the current point in his campaign, which makes it feel as though Alexander himself is talking and seeing relations between earlier events in his life and his present.  Something about it just makes the narrative feel natural. Finally, the actual quotes are worked in nicely and outside sources never make the narrative choppy.

The only problems I had with the book all relate to the battles, starting with the exacting level of detail in which they’re described. This is neat, but sometimes over done (unit listings, for example) and sometimes hard to follow (battlefield maps would have helped a lot). The battle descriptions don’t spare on the gore either, so to steal Jessica at Quirky Bookworm‘s question, no, I would not recommend it to your grandmother. It was barely this side of being too much for me to enjoy. Fortunately, unlike the battles, the gore was a small part of the book and everything else was superbly done.

Who should read it? history buffs, fans of narrative non-fiction, my friend with a man-crush on Alexander the Great, not your grandmother

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Title: 

Lost in Shangri-La was my first experience with narrative non-fiction and I think I may be in love. For those of you like me who haven’t read narrative non-fiction before, I would describe it as a novel in which personal lives are as well researched as the bigger picture and the whole thing is presented as a story.  In this particular story, we learn about a plane crash in New Guinea stranding three service men and women in the jungle with potentially unfriendly natives.  Due to their isolated location, finding them in the jungle was only the first challenge.  A daring and dangerous rescue mission was then required to get them out.

Thanks to the many primary sources included in the narrative, this reads as much like an adventure novel as a non-fiction account.  Unlike my experience with The Universe in a Mirror I never felt like the primary sources broke up the flow of the story.  They were incredibly well integrated into the author’s narrative and helped make me feel really invested in the people involved.  I also thought it enriched the story that we heard about the crash from the natives and got some explanation of the culture behind their reactions to the survivors.  My only complaint with the book is that sometimes these asides about the natives or a new character’s personal history did interrupt the main plot line.

This book was clearly well-researched and answered all the questions I could think of about the people involved.  I particularly enjoyed the pictures and the new post-script in the paperback edition I read which included letters from relatives of the people involved.  It was fun to get a little extra detail about their lives after the crash and to hear how their adventures were viewed by their families.  This was a nice, easy read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII as well as anyone who enjoys adventure novels.

This book review was part of a TLC book tour.  If you liked this review, you can find the many other reviews on the tour here, as well as Sophisticated Dorkiness’s review and author interview which initially sparked my interest in this book.

Amazon|Goodreads

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