Dear Bookclub,
Perched at tables in "Trudy's" new restaurant, Harland Brewing, we braved new territory like a crew on Captain James Cook's HMS Resolution. Actually, the luxury of fresh salads, fish tacos, lobster roll, Japanese ale and carafes of fresh water hardly shadowed what Cook and his crews ate and endured. Enthralled by the vastness of the voyage, topics developed, cultures revealed and the beautiful, wild environment, we loved the book. Like flying fish on high seas in our minds, fascinating facts were tossed about page after page.
Cheers to Hampton Sides for crafting "The Wide Wide Sea" from his brilliant research. Wade Hampton Sides, named like a rugged fictional hero, sticks to the literary non-fiction as an American historian, author and journalist. Also having written about Kit Carson in "Blood and Thunder", Sides declares he is "drawn to these heroic characters that have become controversial in modern times". Please enjoy this Lorene Mills' interview of Hampton Sides on "Report from Santa Fe":
https://www.pbs.org/video/new-mexico-author-hampton-sides-crg7c8/
Mills is a character....
and Hampton Sides is just lovely....
Sides' other works presented here are enticing. Hope that we will read another. Also discussed in this program was the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. If we could ever concoct a week long trip, this would be awesome:
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Santa Fe Community Convention Center |
https://www.sfinternationallitfest.org/
Discussion of the atrocities that exploration brought about to the cultures and the environments through introduction of disease and non-native animals was disheartening. If it hadn't been Cook, perhaps another explorer would have been the troubling pioneer. However much is owed to Cook the cartographer.
Please excuse my share of, and admittedly enjoyable for its brevity and visual value, this three minute 'Daily Dose' video about James Cook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORa2QQlFzFA&t=4s
Trudy's selections for an upcoming read:
"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" Kiran Desai *chosen
"How to Read a Book" Monica Wood
"Emperor of Gladness" Ocean Vuong
Up next:
Happy reading,
LK
