All Purls. No Swine.
In which my friend Seawriter calls his own number. My new book hits the bookstores today: The Vanished Texas Coast. (You can get it at Amazon or Arcadia Publishing if you cannot find it in your local bookstore.) It is a collection of short essays about incidents in Texas maritime history, linked by the theme that they are all… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: An Historian’s Search for Truth
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries London, England was the world’s greatest city. Even today it ranks in the top ten. London and the 17th Century: The Making of the World’s Greatest City, by Margarette Lincoln examines London’s most formative years; between the death of Queen Elizabeth I and the reign of King William III.… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: London During its Launch to Greatness
In the far future, civilization experiences a catastrophic collapse in the centuries-ago past. Jon of Dun Add is re-forging isolated pockets of human habitation into a unified and civilized whole. His Hall of Champions is a tool in this effort. This fellowship enforces justice across Jon’s realm. Pal is one of Jon’s newest knights, and… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: An Arthurian Tale in a Science Fiction Future
It is 1927. Prohibition is on and the stock market crash is in the future. Joe Rath is a catcher for the National League Baltimore Beacons. Pickoff, a novel by GP Hutchinson, opens with Joe heading off for the ballpark to join the team for a road trip to Chicago. Joe is a family man,… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Baseball and Bootleggers in the Roaring Twenties
A personal favorite: Sure Sure's cover of "This Must be the Place." Originally recorded by the Talking Heads (who I also love) I particularly enjoy this breezy summery cover. My favorite lyrics? "Never for money, always for love," "Home is where I want to be, but I guess I'm already there," and "Out of all… Continue reading Musical Mondays–“This Must Be the Place”
The European discovery of the Americas and the subsequent colonization of that land by Europeans was the most consequential occurrence of the last millennia. Two men prominent in that discovery’s opening events were Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortés. Sword of Empire: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas from Columbus to Cortés, 1492-1529, by Donald E.… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: The Rise of the Conquistador
The British police procedural is one of the most popular forms of detective fiction. The twentieth century brought Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse and P. D. James’s Adam Dagliesh. There are many others, including some set in the nineteenth century. Queen of Swords, by Robert Mills, brings the genre into the twenty-first century. Senior nurse Jenny… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: A British Police Procedural Updated for the Present Time
Railroad rivalries played a significant role in nineteenth-century US history. No rivalry was as intense or bitter as the one between the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and the Denver and Rio Grande railroads. At times it erupted into actual gunfire. From the River to the Sea: The Untold Story of the Railroad War That… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: From The River To The Sea–A Tale of a Real Shooting Railroad War
Rear Admiral Terrence Murphy is the son of a famous admiral who died winning a critical battle in a decades-long war between the Terran Federation and the Terran League. Recently, Terrence Murphy won his own battle. That minor success does not erase his reputation as a clothes horse and a fop, but it is enough… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: An Unconventional Admiral in a Critical Assignment–Governor, by Weber & Fox
During the decades humans first reached outer space, they were also reaching for the ocean’s uttermost depths. They even managed to reach those depths before placing a man in orbit. Opening the Great Depths: The Bathyscaph Trieste and Pioneers of Undersea Exploration, by Norman Polmar and Lee J. Mathers tells that story. It is a… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: To the Uttermost Depths and Back