Skip to main content

Staff Picks Spotlight - Frank S.

By
Frank

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
A tragic mix of evolutionary development of submarine technology, politics of neutrality, and personal insights to the lives of her passengers.

 Interesting Factoid: After the Titanic sank, new and safer life-jackets were designed. While they were installed on the Lusitania, there were no drills held that required the jackets to be used. The torpedoed ship sank within sight of Ireland, and many died because they stepped into the jack  rather than putting their arms through the armholes. Many ended up flipping upside down in the water and couldn't escape. 



A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Rostov the ever gentleman versus the Bolsheviks, all while sentenced to be a prisoner inside the Metropol Hotel. Great character, pathos and twists contained within while the outside world changes over a thirty-year period.

Early utilization of the Marine Corps and the refined definition of the role of the U.S. Navy- combination of bravery, piracy, and deception. What's not to like?

Interesting Factoid: Master Commandant Richard Somers, USN, for whom Somers Point, NJ is named, lost his life in the Barbary Coast War and is buried in Tripoli along with his shipmates. An aside-reparation of their remains is an ongoing saga with Senator John McCain, (R-AZ) a leading antagonist. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

By
                       Fans of science fiction, video games and pop culture should add New York Times Bestseller “ Ready Player One ” by Ernest Cline to their list of must-reads.   USA Today has referred to it as "Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.” Although this may seem to be a strange comparison, nothing could be quite so accurate. On planet Earth in 2044, real life is pretty dismal. Most of society, including teenager Wade Watts, spends its waking hours plugged into the OASIS, an immense & fully interactive virtual world. OASIS users can be anyone and do anything that they choose. Think of the OASIS as a giant role-playing game…except the main character is you . Users can explore countless planets, purchase real estate, slay monsters and even attend school (as Wade does).   Wade's life changes when James Halliday, the enigmatic & reclusive creator of the OASIS, dies...leaving behind an enormous ...
2 comments
Read more

"A Banquet of Consequences" by Elizabeth George

By
      Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley mystery series is probably one of my favourites in the style of English detective stories. It's the series that I keep returning to, when I slip into a reading rut and can't focus on reading something new, particularly to the first book in the series A Great Deliverance. While there are lots of decent mystery series circulating now, the first book in George's Lynley stories has a certain grim insistence about it that keeps drawing me back to it. And in her latest contribution to the series, George has written a story that in many aspects parallels her first--however, these parallels did not become immediately apparent until the climax of the story.       One of the things that I like best about Elizabeth George's writing is that she realises that a lot of times, the supporting characters can have better story potential than the main title character. She uses this to her advantage in almost all of the Lynley seri...
3 comments
Read more

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

By
This is the selection for the upcoming March book club. I had originally read TTW several years ago and fell in love with it (oddly enough, before I became a librarian). Henry and Clare have had an unorthodox relationship to say the least. As one might infer from the title, Henry is a time traveler (and a librarian!). Clare met Henry when she was a little girl when he traveled there as a middle aged adult. They meet again when Clare is 20, but Henry has no idea of their relationship, though she has known him all her life. And so, a passionate affair begins between the 2 of them as they struggle to work out a relationship that is plagued by Henry's absences and Clare's former knowledge. It sounds confusing, but things make sense after awhile. On reading this a second time around, I wasn't as captivated by the romance as I was before - if anything, the book (and Henry/Clare's relationship) seemed more depressing than anything else (I wonder what that says about me?). Ther...
2 comments
Read more