From the fabulous Jenny D, word that Susan Cooper has a new book out, a sea-faring adventure starring Admiral Nelson. Victory sounds outstanding and what an excellent title for both girls and boys. Somehow I missed this one in the catalogs (can't imagine how) but I do have several others mentioned in the article. House of the Red Fish is slated for my November column at Bookslut (on war books) and I reviewed Black Duck a few months ago (loved it - great historical mystery especially for boys). A True and Faithful Narrative will be up next month, part of my salute to bookish girls.
How did I miss Victory?
Admiral Nelson has been on my mind lately as I just finished Ghosts of Albion: Initiation from Subterranean Press. Written by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden it's the first entry in a very cool series about siblings in mid century London who have just found out that their family legacy is one of magic and they must protect Britain from dark forces determined to destroy it. Along for moral support are the ghosts of Nelson, Lord Byron and the warrior queen, Bodicea. Del Rey has come out with a few other titles in the series - haven't got them yet but plan to. It's big time fun and I'm a huge Amber Benson fan - she and Willow were my favorite couple on Buffy. (Except for Willow and Oz.)
Booklist has a very cool blog online now and recently had an entry about war books that showed how little has been written of significance about the recent conflicts (post Vietnam). Nothing about Afghanistan, nothing about Desert Storm, very little about the current Iraq war. I'm sure the books are out there but when the folks at Booklist can't think of them, then we are all out of luck. It seems like our generation is still looking for the soldier/writer who will blow the doors off of our ideas about modern conflicts - no Hemingway yet, or Heller, O'Brien or Herr or St Exupery.
You get the idea.
It will take time to see if Anthony Swofford or any of his contemporaries will emerge as a voice of their war, but I'm not sold on any of them yet. So far, I just don't see it.
(Tyee Books does have some suggestions for titles on the Middle East. I have Rory Stewart's The Places in Between and Hadani Ditmars's Dancing in the No-Fly Zone on deck but I'm looking for more. The world is so fucked up right now - it seems like the least I can do is try to figure it out. Plus send money to Amnesty International so we can close Guantanamo.)
Sarah Weineman has a link to a fabulous Mata Hari article that you simply must read. Everything I thought I knew about the spy is now blown out of the water. I love this kind of article; I love having all of my misconceptions exposed by someone who has done the work to get history right.
