Mysteries, Puzzles and Alchemy

The Jeffery Deaver book went fast, as all his do. He's a master craftsman of the clever twist, and there were plenty on offer in this novel. Check the synopsis at this link: The Mistress of Justice. I won't reveal any more than that because I really do recommend you read this book if you're a murder mystery fan.

The next book I started to read, The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws, by Margaret Drabble, was less engaging. Apparently a memoir, it started out well with the introduction giving me hope that I would learn about how jigsaw puzzles helped her with her depression. But I quickly got lost in a meandering, confusing journey through the history of games and the writer's childhood in England.  I gave up trying to make sense of it after only about 30 pages. I was disappointed, as I had hoped to learn something. The book got good reviews, so some people must like that sort of approach to telling a story. I've never read any of her novels, but this book left me wondering if her technique in those is similar.

Dr. Timothy Diamond

Now I'm reading a much more interesting book by another "D" author, Timothy Diamond: Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care, published in 1992. I bought the book some years ago when I was considering writing a history of nursing assistants and read a part of it. Taking it up again, I'm struck by how interesting and well written it is. The author, a sociologist, tells the story of the current state of nursing homes and the people who work and reside there. Part of his research involved actually working full-time for more than a year as a certified nursing assistant in a variety of care facilities, during which time he interviewed and collected stories from the workers, most of them fellow nursing assistants. He also visited many facilities to get a broader view of the industry. At the end, he gives his recommendations on how to improve care homes. I'm looking forward to that.

My recent experience with care homes makes me realize that some of his observations would still be accurate today. Nursing homes have changed for the better in many ways since 1992, but some things have gotten worse. Certainly the impending wave of baby-boomer elders will have a significant impact on how care homes evolve. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on what I learn!

The End of an Era - "At Last!" Say the Whales

Taken from the Whaling Museum website

Well, I've finally finished Leviathan, and I must say it was a very good book! The section about the Civil War was very interesting; not surprisingly, the war took its toll on the whaling industry. Dolin focuses primarily on how the whaling ships were subject to being raided and destroyed by Confederate ships tasked with disrupting shipping and damaging the economy of the North, since most whalers were based in the northern states. One captain in particular made it his special mission to destroy as many whaling ships as possible, although he did spare the crews, allowing them to be transported to a nearby island. He attacked whaling ships around the globe and did particular damage to those in the Arctic, as they had no where to go to escape the attacks. He even continued his destructive mission well past the end of the war, claiming that he didn't know it was over. (That claim is suspect; he saw the newspapers in California and heard reports from sailors, but supposedly didn't believe them.)

After the Civil War, whaling in the old way started a serious decline. Not only were lamps being lighted by the cheaper kerosene, but the discovery of petroleum left the whaling industry with no market. Even the market for whalebone was diminishing. The early 20th century, however, gave the industry a temporary boost. Women's corsets were still in fashion, and baleen was being used for other manufactured products, including practice bayonets for soldiers. World War I provided a market for a while, too--whale oil was used to lubricate machines and people began eating whale meat as a substitute for beef and other meats that were in short supply because of the war effort.

By the 1930s, though, whaling was over as an American enterprise. It was done on a more industrial scale after that, by countries such as Norway, but for the US, whaling fades to a memory, its glory days captured in films and novels--and history books like Leviathan.

I recommend this book highly.  It is well-written and very informative, although the stories of wholesale destruction of whales are sometimes hard to read.  The writer does warn us of this in the beginning of the book, saying that his purpose is to give us the history of whaling, and not the sad, bloody saga of the ill-fated whales. He leaves that task to another author.

Next:  back to fiction with an early Jeffery Deaver novel: Mistress of Justice.