America ... inventors and explorers

I just ordered a copy of America the Ingenious by Kevin Baker, an established novelist and historian, for a class which looks at American inventors and their contributions, especially during the Industrial Revolution.  In this new work, Baker profiles “76 World-Changing Inventions and the Visionaries Who Made Them Happen.” He organizes these few page descriptions within categories like communicating, apparel, or powering. There is even a section under building about inventing a city (Chicago). Choosing not to follow a chronological format adds uniqueness to Baker’s work as do many of the side bars and drawings which he includes. Throughout, Baker notes numerous facts and statistics – total investment of capital needed to build a railroad; cost of the original sewing machine in today’s dollars; number of people worldwide who already have brain implants. This is very interesting, but also disconcerting because at least in the pre-publication copy he does not provide footnotes and sources. Students will find much to explore and to verify. America the Ingenious investigates the very nature of America and a lengthy review (“The Character of Our Country”) appeared recently in The Wall Street Journal.

American mythology is also delved into by To the Bright Edge of the World, a historical fiction novel set in the Alaskan Territory during the winter of 1885.  Eowyn Ivey (The Snow Child) has crafted an amazing adventure featuring Colonel Allen Forrester of the U.S. Army who along with fellow officers faced starvation and danger as they attempted to map the Wolverine River Valley. His journal entries and letters to wife, Sophie, chronicle the many hardships.  Pregnant and left behind in Vancouver, Sophie, too, pushes boundaries – teaching herself photography and dealing with social restrictions of the time.

If you enjoy historical fiction and tales of survival, look for this book; Ivey’s To the Bright Edge of the World received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal AND Publisher’s Weekly.

Grunt by Mary Roach

Fabulous!  Mary Roach, a perennial student favorite, has done it again!  Her latest work is titled Grunt and deals with all things military.  With chapters on clothing and climate, Roach continues to surprise and fascinate readers with facts about the 22 pages of button specifications for the military or the tests on a treadmill in 104 degree heat inside the “cook box.” Continuing to appeal to reluctant readers, Roach also stays true to her modus operandi by covering the particularly bizarre, even including one chapter she herself labeled “It Might Get Weird: a salute to genital transplants.”

As her subtitle notes, she is exploring “the curious science of humans at war” and takes readers behind the scenes to the labs where tests and trials are run on “everything a soldier wears, eats, sleeps on, or lives in.” I particularly liked the section where she writes of the courage of the scientists themselves who during tests either flew blindfolded and upside down, were injected with cobra venom, or volunteered to test experimental equipment.  As Roach says, “Sometimes courage is nothing more than a willingness to think differently than those around you. In a culture of conformity, that’s braver than it sounds.”

Like those in her previous works (Stiff, Gulp, or Spook), Grunt‘s stories, stats and humor will be popular with our students.  Mary Roach’s Grunt was selected an Amazon Best book June 2016 and received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal.