The Progress of Fiction

Alice Munro
taken from IMDB

I've always enjoyed Alice Munro's stories. They're about ordinary people, usually women, dealing with the circumstances of ordinary life. They're quiet stories, generally, with little to no "action," as we've come to think of it. The stories in her 1987 collection, The Progress of Love, are no exception.

However, having read these stories several months ago, I cannot recall a single one of them, though I do recall enjoying them. Maybe that's a good thing--the mark of a story that seems to be about people you know, that fades into the background of your life. I guess I'll have to read them again. I'm looking forward to it!😉

The Bone Detective

Robert Mann
taken from William & Mary University Alumni Site

Dr. Robert Mann, the author of Forensic Detective: How I Cracked the World's Toughest Cases, is a forensic anthropologist and "director of the Forensic Science Academy at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, the largest forensic skeletal lab in the world." It is where they work to uncover the identity of remains of U.S. military members killed in wars. But he's also worked for the Smithsonian and the Memphis morgue. The book describes what he considers to be his most interesting cases. And indeed they are interesting.

Chapters in this book deal with a range of situations requiring forensic detection: from Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim, to the tragedy of 9/11, to the Body Farm, to the jungles of Vietnam. I'd like to say I have a favorite, but all were fascinating and worth reading.

I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in forensics or detective fiction or non-fiction.

The Wright Brothers Flies Right!

First Flight,
taken from Wikipedia

The Wright Brothers was an excellent book--no surprise, I'm sure, to McCullough's many fans. Everyone thinks they know something about these icons of aviation, but the mark of a truly great book of popular history, especially a biography, is that when you're finished reading, you know much more than you ever imagined you could about the book's subject.

This book was rich and meaty, filled with details about the two brothers, their family, their business and their neighborhood. McCullough managed to make a well-known and seemingly simple story complex, nuanced, and even suspenseful. It was amazing to me that at each turn of events in the saga of first flight, I was worried about how it was going to come out. And yet all of it had already taken place long ago!

Not only were there many facts, but there were documents and photos, letters and diaries to support the facts given. And McCullough didn't overstep the natural boundaries of non-fiction by venturing off into imagining thoughts and feelings he was not privy to, as many non-fiction writers will do. Instead, he qualified his speculation about what was not evident, basing his opinion on what was known about the brothers.

Because I felt as if I'd gotten to know these people, I was sad by the end of the book when I learned how they died. That's as it should be for a great biography. Well done, David! I'm looking forward to your next book.