Bourgeois Book Club

I've been reading a lot of nonfiction lately, and extremely fortunate to have read some really, really good nonfiction, so I thought I'd share in case anyone was headed to the beach and wanted to pick something up to read.

A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz

A book about the early European explorations and attempts at the colonization of America, with particular attention paid to the period between 1492 and 1620 that is so often ignored or glossed over in conventional American history. Alternating between colorful travelogue and primary-source-grounded history, it's a humor-filled trip through the country's early days, warts and all. It's also a fascinating meditation on the construction and propagation of myth. What collective we's choose to remember, and to forget, and why is really as interesting as the history itself.

Happy Endings by Jim Norton

You may know Jim Norton from his many appearances on the late night talk shows, the Opie & Anthony radio show, or from the show I first saw him on, the late, lamented (by me about five other people) Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. As one website I read put it, Jim Norton is at the forefront of the "cringe comedy" movement, and I find that a pretty good description of his style: un-PC, shocking, and a little gross. It's also incredibly insightful, intelligent, and poignant. The poignancy comes from its confessional quality: Norton makes vicious fun himself and his friends more than anyone, gleefully regaling readers with stories of his insecurities and sexual proclivities. Written as a series of short diary-like entries, Norton mines his past days as a teenage alcoholic, his stand-up career, his insecurities about his body, his celebrity encounters, his disasters with women, and his propensity for hookers and happy-ending masseuses to leave you alternately laughing uproariously and cringeing uncomfortably.

The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong is a British ex-nun, well-known and respected for her writing on religion, particularly the history of religion. This book deals with the historical epoch some call the "Axial Age," a period of intense religious and philosophical effervescence that formed all the major religions and philosophies that dominate the world today. The book basically examines some of the great themes Armstrong sees among the different Axial traditions and their formation during this time. The historical and religious background is fascinating, and the writing superb and backed by prodigous research, but I did find Armstrong a bit too strong in emphasizing what she believed was the "spirit" of the Axial Age and what wasn't. Frankly, at times it felt like she was repeatedly hitting you over the head with a large frying pan to make her points and argue her theses, particularly her constant call for the world to go back to the "authentic," and in her view almost entirely tolerant and peaceful, traditions of the Axial Age as a way to deal with some of the sectarian strife, particularly between Islam and Christianity, going on today. It's a nice thought, but I think she oversimplifies things a bit, and emphasizes too much the peaceful, conciliatory aspects of the Axial traditions, with everything warlike and intolerant being later excrescences added by people who she thinks just didn't get it. Still, it's a great read, and extremely educating.

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

I actually bought and started this book about a year ago, but only just picked it back up and finished. A well-deserved Pulitzer Prize winning book, it tells the story of the Pilgrims and Plymouth, going far beyond the old "shoebuckle-hats and turkey" song and dance we learn in grade school, and paying particular attention to the complicated interactions with the Native tribes. Relations with the tribes were marked by a remarkably high level of cooperation and friendship for decades, but even from the beginning there were currents and strains that ultimately blew up into the bloody (and almost completely forgotten) King Philip's War that decimated the New England tribes and signaled the triumph of English settlement.

God, I'm such a nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd!