Books Completed Since November 1

  Battle of Ink and Ice, Darrell Hartman
On September 1, 1909, Dr. Frederick Cook announced he had reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. He immediately cabled the New York Herald, which had already underwritten other explorations--it was James Gordon Bennett who had sent Henry Stanley on his search for Dr. David Livingstone. In April of 1909 Robert Peary claimed he had reached the North Pole first; The New York Times took up his cause.

This is the story of "the race for the pole"--and also the rise of New York newspapers from reporting the news to actively making news: sponsoring or even initiating events like Stanley's search for Livingstone, the Spanish-American War, and polar exploration. It's a study of James Gordon Bennett, the editor of the Herald. bon-vivant and not usually in the United States, and Adolph Ochs, the southern native who bought the Times on credit and developed the reputation it has today.

If you think "fake news" is a new thing, this book will disabuse you of that opinion immediately. More truth: neither Cook nor Peary ever reached the North Pole (although it appears Peary got closer than his opponent), and neither of them come off as sterling people in this recounting of the history; heck, even the National Geographic Society comes off as rather shabby. A sobering look at how publicity and money can corrupt.

  Band of Sisters, Lauren Willig
During World War I, a group of Smith College graduates, organized by a tireless alumnus, volunteered to go into the war zone that was Europe, to help in some way: go to villages and bring books, education, helping hands, food, and any other succor they can manage. Surely as college graduates they can manage these simple things!

But when they hit the battlefields, meet the people displaced by combat, and their supplies are delayed or don't come at all, they are forced to rely on teamwork, grit, and invention to help the children and women they have bonded with and have made promises to. It's also the story of the conflict between scholarship student Kate and wealthy, open-hearted Emmie, who had been best friends at Smith until some of Emmie's patronizing friends made Kate feel like a charity case.

This is based on a true story, told in a book written by one of the Smith graduates after the end of the Great War. I really enjoyed it more than I thought it would.

  Hooked, Emily McIntire
This was my first foray into "dark romance" and I'm not sure I'll be back. The sex scenes certainly are...spicy and graphic, though.

This is a riff off Barrie's Peter Pan in McIntire's "Never After" series (all based on fairy tales), in which James "Hook" Barrie runs a criminal drug empire along with his mentor, Ru, and has already killed the uncle who raised him, who he hated. Soon he meets a desirable young woman in his club, Wendy Michaels, who he discovers is the daughter of wealthy businessman Peter Michaels, someone Hook hates as much as he loathed his uncle, so he plans to seduce and discard her as a thumb of the nose to his enemy. But instead he finds himself falling for Wendy and starts to believe she loves him, until she appears to have betrayed him.

No soft-soaping here: there are murders, torture, drug use, child abuse, rough sex, the works. If you feel like dipping a toe in, feel free, but know what you're getting into.

  Lyra's Oxford, Philip Pullman
Pullman has written about a half dozen short stories as companions to his "His Dark Materials" trilogy. This is a 2021 special edition of the first story with illustrations by Chris Wormell, in which Lyra tries to help a raven that is to lead her to a certain alchemist. The illustrations carry this story; it's worth having just for the art.

  Fabric, Victoria Finlay
I hate sewing. I don't even like hemming pants. Occasionally I do hem things, or darn holes. So why did I buy this book? Well, because it's Victoria Finlay and I loved her books about Color and Jewels so much that I knew I'd love her writing if nothing else.

I loved this book, which tells of Finley's travels around the world to trace the history of the fabrics human beings have been using to cover themselves for hundreds of thousands of years, starting with the simplest, barkcloth, where Finley meets some of the last women in the world who still make the traditional item and utilize the original designs. Cotton, wool (and tweed), linen, silk, and others also get their due as we follow Finley around the world: Micronesia, New Guinea, the birthplaces of the cotton empire, England's wool empire, India, the fairy-tale realm (where you find out Sleeping Beauty's spindle isn't what you think it is), and so much more, centuries of different cultures, customs, and designs.

As she travels the world Finley also copes with the aging, illness, and death of both her parents. The combination of stories is unforgettable.

  Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
The Osage tribe of Indians were driven onto land that white men did not want late in the 1800s, where they kept to themselves and raised families. Then the discovery of oil and the need for petroleum products on their tribal lands made the Osage the wealthiest persons in the world (although the government felt they still had to be "looked after" like children). Until they began dying one by one. Until the deaths became so blatant that the newly-organized FBI and their dynamic new director J. Edgar Hoover took notice and sent a former Texas ranger, Tom White, to investigate.

Told is a chilling tale of greed and white privilege in an era that treated Native Americans as incapable of conducting their own affairs.

Grann has won book awards and the story he tells is compelling, but his narrative seemed a bit flat to me.

  Dead Dead Girls, Nekesa Afia
Louise Lloyd at sixteen was kidnapped, but was able to escape and bring other kidnapped girls home. Alas, she could never make her exacting father, a minister, happy by being the perfectly behaved daughter, so she lives in a rooming house with, among other people, her love Rosa Maria, and finds solace in dancing at Harlem's hottest dance venue in the 1920s, the Zodiac.

Until she gets herself arrested and ordered by a white police officer that she will help them solve the murder of a Black girl that she knew—or else.

Louise is a great, spunky heroine who's in over her head as an amateur investigator (and the police detective knows it). You sometimes want to tell her to wise up. You also feel for her and her love for her sisters, and her awkwardness with her rigid father. And although the author tries hard to give it a 1920s vibe, I never quite believed it took place during the Harlem Renaissance, and I guessed the murderer way too early.

  A Cornish Christmas, Tony Deane and Tony Shaw

  Christmas Past, Brian Earl