RTT Quarterly - Apr-Jun 2022 - 19th Century North America

Our focus turns to North America, where the new nation of the United States and the colony Canada have plenty to offer in terms of historical events. The War of 1812, Canadian rebellions against British rule, abolitionism, the American Civil War and the Gilded Age are examples. Immigration stories that focus on building a new life in North America also belong in this quarter.

Please note that next quarter we will be focusing on the Old West. Books about Native Americans (including the Indian Removal Acts), westward expansion, gunslingers, pioneers, explorers and the Californian Gold Rush – while also fitting in this quarter – might be saved for the July-August theme.

Here's a tagmash of books that fit 19th Century and North America: https://www.librarything.com/tag/19th+century,+North+America

Please update the Wiki here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Quarterly_Theme_Rea...

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do for this quarter yet. I have Shelby Foote's Civil War Trilogy (Civil War NF), a couple of things by Stephen Sears (Civil War NF) and, the first three books in Gore Vidal's Empire series; but I'm not "feeling" any of them right now.
I've read most of Edith Wharton and Mark Twain, the fiction & poetry of Edgar Alan Poe.... but, honestly not a fan of the Transcendentalists-- so I'm hoping to gather some inspiration from what others are reading.
In the meantime, I do have something fun on hand which fits, the mash-up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith; narrated by Scott Holst)!

According to my "to read" list with 19th century parameters, I have 40 books from which to choose. I will start with The Sisters Brothers which is about the Canadian goldrush.

I actually have a lovely copy of the lady's life in the Rocky mountain Ive read it before and remembering it being one of the few pioneer stories I enjoyed. Probably won't read it now, bu others might be
interested

But there is Little Men which I loved as much if not more than little women. I have fond memories of reading that book ,think thats what Ill go with

I’ve started listening to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith; narrated by Scott Holst) - A mashup of history and horror, this fills in the blanks of Lincoln’s young adult life with tall tales of vampire slaying. It’s more horror than fun but at least the core history is correct.

ETA: I finished listening to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (by Seth Grahame-Smith; narrated by Scott Holst) this morning! This is a Historical Fiction + Fantasy Horror mashup which fills in the gaps of Lincoln's life with tall tales of vampire slaying. The core history is actually solid and the scenes of predation, whether from the vampires' or the hunters' parts, pretty gruesome; but the whole lacked cleverness or humor which would have made this alternative narrative really sparkle. As is, it's a bit heavy feeling. The audiobook narrator is from the Midwest and delivers a very sincere, if directionless, reading.... Now that I know what to expect, I don't think I'll be picking up any more of Grahame-Smith's mashups, but since they're no longer trendy, the point is rather moot! :-D

It's a toss up between Battle Cry of Freedom and Team of Rivals. I have both of them on my shelves and tried to see which one was bigger thinking I would go with the slimmer one. They're both the same size.

>6 Familyhistorian: I really enjoyed Team of Rivals, but it is long.

I just finished the audio version of Centennial by James A. Michener, a 50 hour audiobook. The first 8 hours moved from prehistory geologic and fossil records up through the 1600s. The 1700s were covered in about 2-1/2 hours. The 1800s took up about 26-1/2 hours of narration. And 1900-1974 was 13 hours worth. Since the 19th century portion was more than half of the book, I am going to claim it for this quarter's read.

I have finished The March by E. L. Doctorow which I knew to be a 5-star read by the end of the first chapter. Doctorow’s fictionalized account of Sherman’s devastating march through the southeastern states after the fall of Atlanta swept me right into the midst of the action, sharing the hopes and sorrows of some characters, despising others. And the writing is just so fine, scenes rendered in gripping detail, and setting and landscape described in language of breathtaking beauty. When I turned the last page I wanted to go back to the beginning to start all over again.

I did the same thing, what amazing writing. It was up for the Pulitzer prize that year and was surprised it didn't win. What did was March which I thought was a very poorly done novel about the father of little women. Really disappointed, he certainly deserved it more in my very humble opinion

I just finished The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett (1896). Our unnamed narrator, a woman writer of a certain age, spends a summer in small fishing village on the Maine coast. She introduces us to the wonderful and varied characters in the town, mostly through the eyes of her landlady Mrs Todd. This serene and lovely little collection of pieces was exactly the right book at the right time for me. It also reminded me in a way of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, where women seem to play a larger role in daily life. So glad to have found this quiet American classic, full of simple truths and wisdom, and a wonderful picture of small-town life in America at the end of the 19th century.

Last week, my husband and I watched Lincoln (directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Daniel Day Lewis), based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (by Doris Kearns Goodwin). I can't say I was particularly impressed, so I thought about getting the book. But the audio is narrated by someone I'm not keen on listening to for 41.50 hours and; as I was standing in the bookstore with the 950-page tome in hand, something inside of me just kind of "broke". I realized that my reading brain just isn't up for doorstoppers these days and trying to force this was going to make reading the Pulitzer Award-winning title a chore. So, I promptly went to the children's section and picked up a DK Biography of Abraham Lincoln instead! It's 120 pages of text and illustrations and, TBH, just my speed while the other part of my reading life is occupied with Shakespeare and a business book for work. I'll start reading Abraham Lincoln (by Tanya Lee Stone) this evening and probably finish it up on Friday. Then I'll start looking for another light/non-950-page Lincoln book for next month! :-)

>12 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I completely understand the aversion to tomes right now--anything over 300 pages I immediately put back on the shelf. However, if you are ever back in door-stopper mood, Team of Rivals is a very readable book. What is so different about it is the way Kearns paints the characters of the Cabinet, and how Lincoln used their strengths and weaknesses to his advantage. It's through these other personalities that you learn about Lincoln. It took me 2 weeks to get through it, but I never stalled; it was always engaging.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

I liked this book a lot, particularly enjoyed the presentation of upper class New York society in the 1880’s. This was my first novel by Edith Wharton (I’ve read many of her short stories), and I’m thinking of reading House of Mirth in June.

>14 dianelouise100: I liked Age of Innocence very much. Dont want to put you off but I could not get along as well with House of Mirth. My point of view probably shows some male bias, but Lily Bart drove me crazy by being so unrealistic, unable to reconcile her ambitions with the realities of the world.
I would rather have a more sympathetic female lead like Carrie in Dreiser's Sister Carrie, who survived and survived well almost in spite of her naivety.

>15 scunliffe: Thanks for the tip about Lily Bart. Wharton wrote a lot of novels, I might be better choosing something different.

I just finished Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser and was really impressed. Interesting to know that Dreiser became a pariah to American critics, still judging from a point of view of 19th century morality, whereas some contemporary European writers like Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford judged it to be a masterpiece.

I just picked up The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Crane). It's been since high school since I read the eponymous title! I'll probably start nibbling at it tomorrow and wrapping it up before I leave for some time off in mid-June.

Browsing The Criterion Collection last night, my husband & I came across "Young Abraham Lincoln" (1937), a John Ford film starting Henry Fonda. The movie looks at Abraham Lincoln's life as a lawyer, solving a couple of cases that I honestly don't know if they are true or part of some sort of invented folklore around the former President. Still, the frame compositions/cinematography are gorgeous (even in black & white) and Henry Fonda is quite remarkable (in a good way)!

Journey by James A. Michener is a wonderful adventure story taken out of his book Alaska. There is a Reflection section at the end of the book which details how this story came to be edited out of the larger work and published on its own which I thought really interesting.

Four English aristocrats and an Irish servant set out for the gold fields in Dawson, Canada, along the Klondike River, in 1897, at the height of the insane gold fever that swept the world at that time. It took them almost two years to get there. A great story by a great writer.

The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati

This novel, set in New York in the 1880’s, begins a new series by Sara Donati. It tells the story of two women physicians, cousins Anna and Sophie Savard, in a time when very few women were found in the medical field. Racism, sexism, the illegality of birth control and abortion, the plight of orphaned immigrants, and other social ills provide sources of conflict in the novel, as also does the developing relationship between Anna and police detective Jack Mezzanotte. And there is a mystery which is not resolved until the next installment. This novel held my attention, but ultimately frustrated me by its seeming lack of focus. And I do dislike “cliffhanger” endings.

July thru September thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/342091

I finished the whole of The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories (by Stephen Crane) last night. "The Red Badge of Courage" (Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1863), "The Open Boat" (Off the coast of Florida) and "A Self-Made Man - An Example of Success That Anyone can Follow" (NYC, New York) fit for this quarter's challenge. The other stories take place either in the 20th century ("The Veteran" is a follow-up to RBOC when the protagonist is a grandfather and; "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" and "The Blue Hotel" have "Old West " settings (technically Mid-West; but the impetus to The West via trains is "there") and; then there's Selected Poetry (just sort of slapped in at the end of the book). "The Red Badge of Courage" and "The Open Boat" are both very evocative of place and mood with painterly descriptions of the landscape, and succinct dialogue & internal monologue.

I just this morning finished James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. I had been reading Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative - Fort Sumter to Perryville, the first volume of his trilogy, for the May "Beginnings" topic but found the military history a little too overwhelming. I'm going to go back to Foote's entire trilogy now that I've gotten a better overview of the military history from McPherson's single volume.

McPherson @909pp also qualifies for the Big Fat Book challenge.

I picked up Battle Cry of Freedom for this quarter’s challenge but there was no way I was going to be able to finish it in time. Besides, I want to give it the time that it deserves. Instead I read another book about the US Civil War You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier. You can really learn a lot about a subject through a children’s book. This was a good one.

>23 CurrerBell: >24 Familyhistorian: I also have this on the TBR and there is no way I'm going to finish this in time. There are never enough hours in the day for reading all that I want to read.