Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larsen and Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larsen

I was waiting to read Dead Wake, Erik Larsen's most recent (2015) best seller. This one is on the sinking of the Lusitania.  But I was at the bottom of the request list for the library's copy.  Dead Wake would be a long wait.  So, I read an earlier Larsen story, Isaac's Storm, of an even earlier disaster.  Then, when my turn arrived, I read Dead Wake.

The earlier book, Isaac's Storm, was published in 1999, and it was Larsen's first best seller.  The Washington Post hailed it "the Jaws of hurricane yarns."  The Great Galveston Hurricane reached landfall on September 8, 1900, becoming the deadliest hurricane in U. S. history.  At the time, Galveston, located on little more than a Texas sandbar, was a boom town.  Trade made it prosperous, and success made it complacent.  Coincidentally, the National Weather Service, which became a civilian agency in 1890, didn't like to alarm the public.  Information sharing was severely tested, and tragedy was the result.  The "Isaac" of the story was Isaac Cline, who was the bureau's resident meteorologist in Galveston.

Larsen likes to tell parallel stories and personal stories too, enriching the narrative.  One parallel story in Dead Wake is how information was amassed by Room 40, a secret group under the British Admiralty, one with access to a German naval code book.  The last voyage of the British-owned Lusitania, we remember, takes place in the first year of World War I.  It was a time when the United States was still neutral.  Larsen asserts that the British were able to track the whereabouts of U-20, the German u-boat that would eventually sink the massive ocean liner with just one torpedo.  Again, the lack of shared information was catastrophic.  Still, the resultant death and destruction was a shameless act of war, certainly a horrific act of terrorism on a civilian populace.  By the way, the term, "Dead wake" is that fading disturbance of water made by a torpedo.

Both tales, both tragedies, are all the more wrenching and inspiring because of the personal stories that Larsen shares.  His research, as always, captures the imagination.  You get to know people: children at play, families together, people and their professions - all at the cusp of a life shattering event.  These individuals accept fate or fight against it, and luck always has a role to play. Both stories read like fiction and are told with detail, insight, and compassion.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

It's the last year of school at Watford School of Magicks, and nothing is going the way it should. Simon Snow's mentor is ignoring him, and in turn, Simon is avoiding his girlfriend, or maybe she's his ex-girlfriend now. To top it all off, Simon is more preoccupied with his missing roommate and nemesis, Baz, instead of worrying about how he can barely perform spells or any magic at all without exploding like a bomb. And yet, Simon knows he is the "chosen one" who must defeat the Insidious Humdrum, a monstrous creature who is literally sucking magic out of the world. So why is he only ever concerned about Baz?

Carry On continues the fan fiction begun in Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, and although it closely resembles J.K. Rowling's world of Harry Potter, Rowell's characters, monsters, spell casting, and numerous other details are utterly unique. Readers who are unfamiliar with Harry Potter and other fantastic universes may feel unsettled by the lack of explanations and background, but for aficionados of fanfic and fantasy literature in general, this book is a welcome addition.

Lincoln: A Novel by Gore Vidal

I had been thinking about this older book this year for two reasons. The year 2015 was an important anniversary, one that was memorialized in Springfield, as the subject of the book was assassinated 150 years ago. A second point of interest was that the author was the subject of a documentary released this year. The documentary is Best of Enemies, and the author in question is Gore Vidal.

To be frank, I was concerned how Gore Vidal would portray Abraham Lincoln. Adding to the concern is the full title of the portrayal, Lincoln: A Novel. It is a fictional account of our sixteenth president. Why read fiction when there are so many acclaimed biographies on this subject? Also, I was well acquainted with Gore Vidal's reputation for being irreverent. Would Lincoln and Vidal be a good fit? Not to worry. The novel offers adroit storytelling and is largely based on fact.  It's drawn from historical accounts: letters, diaries, memoirs, and contemporary newspaper stories. Also, no less a Lincoln scholar than  David Herbert Donald was a consultant. But it's Lincoln. There was criticism along with the acclaim when the novel was published thirty years ago in 1984. 

I enjoyed it immensely. It is skillfully written and, at 657 pages, it's a quick read. Lincoln:  A Novel covers the years of the presidency, 1861-1865. The rich cast of secondary characters (Nicolay and Hay, Seward and Chase, Mrs. Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley) are richly brought to life. Much of the exposition is in the memorable dialogue that drives the story along. But it is Lincoln, as he should be, who leaves the deepest impression. Vidal creates a multi-dimensional man. And, through one of his characters, the author makes a case for the greatest of presidents, one who was handed a civil war and still managed to remake "an entirely new country, and all of it in his own image." At story's end, Lincoln's good and melancholy company, so human, enlightened, humble and playful, is deeply missed.