Review: Three books for your stocking
By L.D. Meagher
CNN
(CNN) -- Some books are like Christmas stockings -- filled with treats that can be savored a little at a time. Here are three that fit the bill.
"Twin Tracks: The Unexpected Origins of the Modern World" by James Burke
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| "Twin Tracks: The Unexpected Origins of the Modern World" |
• By James Burke
• Simon & Schuster
• History/Science
• 288 pages
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"Twin Tracks: The Unexpected Origins of the Modern World" is the latest offering by science explainer extraordinaire James Burke. As always, he finds strange and delightful links between seemingly disparate people, places and events.
Each of Burke's 25 tales begins with an event that leads to two very different historical sequences. One plays out on the left-hand pages of the book, the other on the right-hand pages. The two paths then converge in a final event. This technique requires the reader to do a certain amount of flipping back and forth, but the way Burke writes -- with enthusiasm, wit, even joy -- makes it well worth the effort.
For example, one of the connections between 17th-century maritime disputes and the development of spectroscopy is "a French theatrical failure named Caron de Beaumarchais."
Burke writes, "Beaumarchais was a success in other, more important ways (as in: funding the American War of Independence). Just before the tea hit the water in Boston, Beaumarchais had spent time in London on a spying mission, from which he reported back that the Brits were secretly desperate to get rid of the thirteen colonies and all that was needed was a slight shove from France. The shove (millions in laundered money, a fleet of ships, thousands of soldiers, and more armament than the Americans needed) ended up bankrupting France and causing widespread chaos and anarchy knows as the French Revolution. But in the meantime, it allowed the French to flip the bird to the Brits -- which, from the French viewpoint, was the original purpose of the whole exercise."
"Twin Tracks" is crammed with such juicy bits, while at the same time stringing together the historical twists and turns that led from "Smallpox to Big Bang" or "Boston Tea Party to Contact Lenses." Each of the journeys is a double delight.
"Braving Home" by Jake Halpern
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| "Braving Home" |
• By Jake Halpern
• Houghton Mifflin
• Nonfiction
• 256 pages
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Thomas Wolfe may have insisted, "You can't go home again." Jake Halpern begs to differ. In "Braving Home," he profiles five places people insist on inhabiting, despite being uninhabitable. One is underwater (well, it was for a while), another is an all-but-inaccessible high rise in the Arctic, yet another routinely catches fire.
Halpern, a magazine writer, spent time in all of them and learned something about the people who stay there.
Like Jack Thompson. His house sits in a shrinking oasis, surrounded by the lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. Halpern describes crossing a smoldering moonscape to reach what might literally be a small slice of paradise that Jack calls home.
Thompson is not a fool. He understands how precarious his existence is. During the writer's visit, "Jack discovered a small note tucked into the front door. The note was scrawled hastily across the face of a business card from a local helicopter pilot named Richard Gruno. It read: 'Jack, stopped by to talk to you about lava.' ... Jack shook his head, chuckled, then pondered aloud, 'Why didn't he just say, "Run like hell"?'"
The people who live in isolation, even desolation, have much in common. Halpern got to know them well enough that he can spot characteristics that seem to drive men and women to put down roots on the edge of a precipice.
What he found may surprise you. In Halpern's hands, their stories are not about survival. They are tales of determination, courage and just plain orneriness.
"Will Shortz's Favorite Crossword Puzzles" edited by Will Shortz
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| "Will Shortz's Favorite Crossword Puzzles" |
• Edited by Will Shortz
• St. Martin's Press
• Games
• 96 pages
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A lot of people count on Will Shortz to get their brains started each day. For the past decade, Shortz has been in charge of the New York Times crossword puzzle. From the 2,600 grids he has edited come "Will Shortz's Favorite Crossword Puzzles." (Full disclosure: I'm an acquaintance of Shortz's, but don't let that stop you.)
The editor selected 75 he considers exceptional. Some have clever themes, others have unusual construction and they all meet the editor's definition of "fun." In his brief introduction, Shortz sheds some light on the puzzling process: Monday's is always the easiest; daily puzzles are always 15x15 squares; no answer may appear in the same puzzle twice.
"My favorite puzzles tend to have more gimmickry than the puzzles in The Times as a whole," Shortz explains. And there's no shortage of gimmicks in this collection, including one that set the all-time record for fewest black spaces.
Shortz also provides a short preface to each entry, explaining why it qualifies as a favorite. "Will Shortz's Favorite Crossword Puzzles" is a must-have for any serious puzzler, and jolly good fun for anyone else.
