Details, just the Gorey details

Dery, Mark.  Born to be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey. 
          New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2018.

How well do you know Edward St. John Gorey?  How many of his little books have you read?  Or are you a fan of his book covers and art work?  Maybe you only know him from the credits to PBS's Mystery program.  But if you want plenty of details, you have the right book in hand.

Mark Dery provides plenty of details in his biography of Gorey.  He starts with his childhood in Chicago, followed by his stint in the US Army which he spent mainly at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.  After his discharge, Gorey used his GI Bill benifits to attend Harvard majoring in French, but mainly spent his time writing and drawing while hanging out with the likes of Frank O'Hara and John Ciardi.  After graduating and haning around Boston for a couple of years and getting caught up in the Poets' Theatre, Gorey moved to New York City to work in the art department of Anchor Books.  There he created book covers, did illustrations, all while working on his own material.  While in NYC, he perfected and published a number of small books and then got the stage-bug when he designed the set for John Wulp's Dracula which got him fame, notice, and royalties!  Then his books started selling and he moved to Cape Cod in 1985.  For the last 15 years, he wrote some, illustrated some and had fun putting on plays until he died in 2000 from a heart attack.

Mark Dery does a good job of documenting Gorey's life and his work.  He also does a commendable job of placing Gorey in context to the society and culture.  He does have a tendency to focus on particular aspects of Gorey's life that tends to distract from Gorey's life rather than explain it.  But overall, a very decent read of Gorey and his work.

Is it a crime?

Chase, Mike.  How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring
          Offender.  New York: Atria Books, 2019.  ISBN: 9781982112516

Have you cut off a mattress tag and sold the mattress to someone?  Have you communicated with pirates?  Or have you drawn too large a mustache on a dollar bill?  If so, you are a Federal criminal! Is Congress not wonderful?  It has provided so many laws that can be broken!  And Mike Chase is here to help you know when, where and how to do it!

In eight chapters, Mike Chase walks the would-be criminal through what you would need to do to be come a Federal criminal.  Chapter 1 discusses becoming a criminal by mail.  Chapter 2 deals with animal criminality.  Chapter 3 concerns money  crimes.  Chapter 4 allows food to be criminalized.  Chapter 5 brings alcohol into the mix.  Chapter 6 sorts through crimes on Federal property.  Chapter 7 entertains thoughts of pirates and the sea.  Chapter 8 is the catchall - i.e.  anything not covered in the other chapters.

Mike Chase actually comes by his knowledge legally since by day he is a white collar criminal defense lawyer while at night he puts out the @CrimeADay Twitter feed.  How to Become a Federal Criminal is his attempt to share the fun he has had in dealing with crime with a wider audience.  So if you have an interest in the law, in crime, in what not to do so you do not get caught as a criminal, or any combination there of, do read this title!   

Monster Gazetteer

Offutt, Jason.  Chasing American Monsters: Creatures, Cryptids and Hairy Beasts.  Woodbury,
          MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.  ISBN: 978-0-7387-5995-1

Are you interested in what might be going bump in the night near you?   Or are you just curious about what folks around the United States claim to have spotted?  Or  maybe you just need something to keep you entertained while it is dark and stormy outside.  Jason Offutt has you covered in Chasing American Monsters no matter what your reason may be.

 Jason Offutt is providing a monster gazetteer of the 50 United States, opening with Alabama and meandering down to Wyoming.  The format is simple - a brief introduction of the state with geographical features and famous people from the state followed by monster sightings from that state.  Also included in each chapter is an illustration of one or more of the monsters found in the state.

Do not read Chasing American Monsters expecting to be convinced by mountains of evidence that monsters are real as that is not provided.  Instead, Jason Offutt writes entertainingly about the accounts he has uncovered from around the country.  So enjoy each brief chapter and wonder what you might see in your neck of the woods, or swamp, or city block.

Indian Wars in New England

Warren, James A.  God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the
         Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England.  New York: Scribner, 2018  ISBN:
         978-1-5011-8041-5

 What do you know about early New England history - say 1635 to 1675?  Were the Puritans the same as the Pilgrims?  Why did folks brave the rough Atlantic to come to a rocky coast and settle?  What did the early settlers do to survive and then thrive? In God. War. and Providence. James A Warren works on shedding light on this little studied history of the relations of English settlers and and their Native American neighbors in the 1600's.

James A. Warren opens the book with a key attack on the Narragansett Indians during King Philip's War.  He then goes back to set the stage by building from 1635 when relations between Indian and Puritan were peaceful to the 1670's when war was waged to crush the local Indians once or all.  Along this journey of exploration comes Roger Williams who plays a crucial role in the evolving relationship of settlers and natives.  The colony of Rhode Island was settled after he was cast out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony for preaching his conscience.  By establishing a colony based on freedom of religion that also cultivated good relations with local Indian tribes, Rhode Island proved an obstacle to the United Colonies plans for dominating New England.  Roger Williams had to make two trips to England to totally secure the rights and boundaries of Rhode Island against the depredations of the Puritans. Roger Williams also did what he could to defuse the brewing conflict between the Puritans and Narragansetts, but ultimately failed.

James A Warren wrote a very readable, yet scholarly examination of early New England history that is skimmed over in most histories.  He skillfully uses the sources available while discussing the shortcomings of each.  So if you are interested in secret or hidden American stories, read God, War, and Providence.

And It was Caught on Film!

Makos, Adam.  Spearhead: The World War II Odyssey of an American Tank Gunner.  New York:
           Ballantine, 2019.  ISBN: 9780804176729

Tank versus tank!  Pershing versus Panther!  And caught on film?  No, this is not a war movie, rather this is a World War II tale worth making into a movie.  Adam Makos met with Clarence Smoyer in 2012 and that launched a journey that led to this book.

Clarence Smoyer was a tank gunner in the 3rd Armored Division lead by General Rose.  He came ashore in France 3 weeks after D-Day as a loader and was promoted to gunner in a Sherman tank in August.  As the book opens, the 3rd Armored Division was laying an ambush for the German army trying to escape France at Mons, Belgium.  A German tank pulled in next to Clarence's tank during the night and the fight was on.  The fight continued through the Battle of the Bulge, receiving a Pershing, the conquest of Cologne which included a one on one between a Panther and a Pershing, and the attack at Paderborn against the German Panzer Training Cadre.

But this is not just the tale of Clarence and his exploits.  It is also the tale of Gustav Schaefer (German tank crewman), Buck Marsh (infantry scout in 3rd Armored Division), and Chuck Miller (officer from 3rd Armored Division).  Their stories are entwined with Clarence during the war and afterwards when in 2013 all four met in Cologne, Germany, to discuss what happened there and the influence that had on their lives since.

In Spearhead, Adam Markos delivers a well written World War II account of action from the 3rd Armored Division illustrated with pictures of the participants and maps of the battles.  the author also researched the details given by the individuals to verify details.  A very interesting read!

Act in Haste, Disaster Awaits!

Beevor, Antony.  The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II.
           New York: Viking, 2018.  ISBN: 978-0-525-42982-1

How many books on Operation Market-Garden have you read?  Have you read Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far or seen the movie based on the book?  How many books do you need to read on about the heroic struggle by the British 1st Airborne and the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions?  Well add another book to the pile.  Antony Beevor has turned his pen to this subject in The Battle of Arnhem.

 Antony Beevor opens the book with British and American forces in hot pursuit of the disorderly German army retreating east. Allied commanders were convinced that the Germans were on the ropes and one good jab would take them out for good.  Montgomery was ticked off at Eisenhower's decision to continue a broad front attack rather then let Montgomery attack in the north.   So Montgomery kept concocting schemes to use the Allied airborne forces to land behind German lines and dash forward to meet with them.  But the speed of Allied armies negated the need for airborne attacks until Montgomery came up with Operation Market-Garden which involved three airborne divisions seizing multiple bridges from German forces before they could be destroyed.  The XXX Corp of the British Army would then dash up a single highway over those bridges to relieve the British 1st Airborne at the Arnhem bridge over the Rhine River.  The whole operation was planned in haste.  The Netherlands's military academy would have given a failing grade to any student who had presented this plan to the the academy.  And Operation Market-Garden turned out to be a disaster dues to optimism, enemy quick reaction, and lack of resources.

While Antony Beevor adequately covers the whole of Operation Market-Garden, he focuses the book on the battle for Arnhem conducted by the British 1st Airborne Division.  He examines in detail the plan to take the Rhine Bridge, laying bare the flaws.  He follows the different units as they seek to execute the plan and improvise new plans as contact with the enemy keeps altering circumstances.  He also presents some of the events from the German point of view.  He ends the book not with the end of fighting, but with the final liberation of Arnhem in April 1945.

Overall, Antony Beevor has written an account of the British and Polish struggle for Arnhem that rewards the discerning readers. 

Why a Naval base in the California desert?

Piper, Karen,  A Girl's Guide to Missiles: Growing Up in America's Secret Desert.  New York:
         Viking, 2018.  ISBN: 9780399564543

 Karen Piper won awards for writing on water and climate issues, but in A Girl's Guide to Missiles, she delves into her past to try and make sense of her present.  She had hit a point in her life where a trip down memory lane would help her make sense of why she is where she is, why she thinks as she does, and make sense of several mysteries that have bugged her for years. 

Piper frames her biography with a trip back to China Lake Research Base to visit the petroglyphs found in the desert with her mother.  She provides a brief history of China Lake which opened as a rocket design base during World War II.  In 1973, the Pipers moved to China Lake from Seattle (WA) which was quite an adjustment especially since they moved into base housing.  Life got better later when they moved off-base to a local town.  But the base was the focus of their lives, especially since both parents worked there (One worked on the Sidewinder while the other worked on the Tomahawk missile).  Later Karen works at the base during summer vacations as a teenager and college student.  She provides a sense of what life was like in China Lake during the Carter. Reagan, and Bush years with details that will remind baby boomers of those times.

But what about the mystery she wrote the book to solve?  In the end she does come to a conclusion when she finally gets the courage to visit her father's grave site.  She spent her life hunting for her father's back story, especially what he had done during World War II.  During the course of solving that mystery, she also found out the backstory of China Lake, the part it played in missile development, the Cold War, and every war since WWII.   And she thinks she got a grasp on her life, so she can move forward.

In a meandering, but ultimately mesmerizing story, Karen Piper uses her family as a way to use the reader's sense of place and time to discuss issues of history, geography, religion, and education.  Baby boomers will wax nostalgic at reminders of their past while others will shake their heads over secrets hidden in plain sight.