The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
Douglas Preston, 2017
Grand Central Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781455540013
Summary
A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle.
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God.
Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.
In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location.
Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest.
In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.
Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes.
But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease.
Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, The Lost City of the Monkey God is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the 21st Century. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 31, 1956
• Raised—Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Pomona College
• Currently—lives in Maine
Douglas Jerome Preston is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child (including the Agent Pendergast series and Gideon Crew series), he has also written six solo novels, including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney. He has authored a half-dozen non-fiction books on science and exploration and writes occasionally for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and other magazines.
Life and career
Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts. A graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, Preston began his writing career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
From 1978 to 1985, Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History as a writer, editor, and manager of publications. He served as managing editor for the journal Curator and was a columnist for Natural History magazine. In 1985 he published a history of the museum, Dinosaurs In The Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History, which chronicled the explorers and expeditions of the museum's early days. The editor of that book at St. Martin's Press was his future writing partner, Lincoln Child. They soon collaborated on a thriller set in the museum titled Relic. It was subsequently made into a motion picture by Paramount Pictures starring Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, and Linda Hunt.
In 1986, Preston moved to New Mexico and began to write full-time. Seeking an understanding of the first moment of contact between Europeans and Native Americans in America, he retraced on horseback Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's violent and unsuccessful search for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. That thousand mile journey across the American Southwest resulted in the book Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest.
Since then, Preston has undertaken many long horseback journeys retracing historic or prehistoric trails, for which he was inducted into the Long Riders' Guild. He has also participated in expeditions in other parts of the world, including a journey deep into Khmer Rouge-held territory in the Cambodian jungle with a small army of soldiers, to become the first Westerner to visit a lost Angkor temple.
He was the first person in 3,000 years to enter an ancient Egyptian burial chamber in a tomb known as KV5 in the Valley of the Kings. Preston participated in an expedition that led to the discovery of an ancient city in an unexplored valley in the Mosquitia mountains of Eastern Honduras, which he chronicled in a nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story. On that expedition he and other expedition members contracted an incurable tropical disease known as mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, for which he received treatment at the National Institutes of Health.
In 1989 and 1990 he taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. Currently, he's an active member of the Authors Guild, as well as the International Thriller Writers organization.
Writing
With his frequent collaborator Lincoln Child, he created the character of FBI Special Agent Pendergast, who appears in many of their novels, including Relic, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Brimstone, and White Fire. Additional novels by the Preston and Child team include Mount Dragon, Riptide, Thunderhead, and The Ice Limit. Later, the duo created the Gideon Crew series, which consists of Gideon's Sword, Gideon's Corpse, and The Lost Island.
For his solo career, Preston's fictional debut was Jennie, a novel about a chimpanzee who is adopted by an American family. His next novel was The Codex, a treasure hunt novel with a style that was much closer to the thriller genre of his collaborations with Child. The Codex introduced the characters of Tom Broadbent and Sally Colorado. Tom and Sally return in Tyrannosaur Canyon, which also features the debut of Wyman Ford, an ex-CIA agent and (at the time) a monk-in-training. Following Tyrannosaur Canyon, Ford leaves the monastery where he is training, forms his own private investigation company, and replaces Broadbent as the main protagonist of Preston's solo works. Ford subsequently returns in Blasphemy, Impact, and The Kraken Project.
In addition to his collaborations with Child and his solo fictional universe, Preston has written several non-fiction books of his own, mainly dealing with the history of the American Southwest. He has written about archaeology and paleontology for The New Yorker and has also been published in Smithsonian, Harper's, Atlantic, Natural History, and National Geographic.
In May, 2011, Pomona College conferred on Preston the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa). He is the recipient of writing awards in the United States and Europe.
Monster of Florence
In 2000, Preston moved to Florence, Italy with his young family and became fascinated with an unsolved local murder mystery involving a serial killer nicknamed the "Monster of Florence." The case and his problems with the Italian authorities are the subject of his 2008 book The Monster of Florence, co-authored with Italian journalist Mario Spezi. The book spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list. It is being developed into a movie by 20th Century Fox, produced by George Clooney, who will also play the role of Preston.
The Amanda Knox case
Preston has criticized the conduct of Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini in the trial of American student Amanda Knox, one of three convicted, and eventually cleared, of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007. In 2009, Preston argued on CBS's 48 Hours that the case against Knox was "based on lies, superstition, and crazy conspiracy theories." In December 2009, after the verdict had been announced, he described his own interrogation by Mignini on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°. Preston said of Mignini, "this is a very abusive prosecutor. He makes up theories. He's ... obsessed with satanic sex."
Operation Thriller USO Tour
In 2010, Preston participated in the first USO tour sponsored by the International Thriller Writers organization, along with authors David Morrell, Steve Berry, Andy Harp, and James Rollins. After visiting with wounded warriors and giving away books at National Navy Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the group spent over a week in Kuwait and Iraq, marking "the first time in the USO’s 69-year history that authors visited a combat zone." Of the experience, Preston said, "As always, we learn a great deal from all of the amazing and dedicated people we meet."
Authors United
In 2014, during a disagreement over terms between publisher Hachette Book Group and Amazon, Preston initiated an effort which became known as Authors United. During the contract dispute, books by Hachette authors faced significant shipment delays, blocked availability, and reduced discounts on the Amazon website.
Frustrated with tactics he felt unjustly injured authors who were caught in the middle, Preston garnered support from authors from a variety of publishers. In the first open letter from Authors United, over 900 signatories urged Amazon to resolve the dispute and end the policy of sanctions, while calling on readers to contact CEO Jeff Bezos to express their support of authors. Not long after, a second open letter, signed by over 1100 authors, was sent to Amazon's board of directors asking if they personally approved the policy of hindering the sale of certain books.
Describing the motivation behind the campaign, Preston explained:
This is about Amazon’s bullying tactics against authors. Every time they run into difficulty negotiating with a publisher, they target authors’ books for selective retaliation. The authors who were first were from university presses and small presses.…Amazon is going to be negotiating with publishers forever. Are they really going to target authors every time they run into a problem with a publisher?
The Lost City of the Monkey God expedition
In 2015, Preston took part in an expedition into the Mosquitia mountains of Honduras that penetrated one of the last scientifically unexplored areas on the surface of the earth. The expedition, led by Steve Elkins and sponsored by Benenson Productions, the Honduran government, and National Geographic magazine, explored a previously unknown pre-Columbian city built by a mysterious civilization that had been influenced by the Maya, but was not Maya itself.
The city was discovered in an area long rumored to contain a legendary "lost city" known as La Ciudad Blanca, the White City, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. The extensive archaeological site, in a remote valley ringed by mountains, had been discovered in 2012 in an aerial overflight by a team using the powerful technology of lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), able to map the terrain under dense, triple-canopy jungle.
The 2015 expedition explored and mapped the city’s plazas, pyramids, and temples. It also discovered a cache of stone sculptures at the base of the city’s central earthen pyramid. When excavated in 2016 and 2017, the cache revealed over 500 sacred objects which appeared to have been ceremonially broken and left as an offering at the time the city was abandoned.
Preston wrote about that discovery in his 2017 nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller.[34] Preston was one of many on the expedition who contracted an incurable tropical disease, called mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, in the lost city. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/8/2018.)
Book Reviews
Preston builds a compelling case for the scientific significance of what the expedition unearthed.… The year may still be young, but I would wager a small fortune that Douglas Preston has already written the best snake-decapitation scene of 2017.… The book's most affecting moments [center] on the otherworldly nature of the jungle itself.… Memoirs of jungle adventures too often devolve into lurid catalogs of hardships [but] Preston proves too thoughtful an observer and too skilled a storyteller to settle for churning out danger porn. He has instead created something nuanced and sublime: a warm and geeky paean to the revelatory power of archaeology.… Few other writers possess such heartfelt appreciation for the ways in which artifacts can yield the stories of who we are.
Brendon Koerner - New York Times Book Review
Breezy, colloquial and sometimes very funny.… A very entertaining book.
Wall Street Journal
Deadly snakes, flesh-eating parasites, and some of the most forbidding jungle terrain on earth were not enough to deter Douglas Preston from a great story.
Boston Globe
A swift and often hair-raising account.… Preston pushes The Lost City of the Monkey God well beyond the standard adventure narrative.
Chicago Tribune
A well-documented and engaging read.… The author's narrative is rife with jungle derring-do and the myriad dangers of the chase.
USA Today
This nonfiction thriller about plunging into the interior of the Honduran jungle is actually true and a perfect read for armchair travelers or would-be adventurers who bemoan the fact that there's nothing left to discover...Douglas Preston's true-life tale includes everything from the latest technology to ancient curses to scientific backbiting and a mysterious illness that came out of the jungle and is headed your way.
Huffington Post
The Lost City of the Monkey God is a superior example of narrative nonfiction, an exciting, immersive tale of modern science and ancient mythology. Preston captures the complexity of his subject without bogging down in the details, presenting scenes with clarity, purposefulness and wit. It's a great story for a snowy day, an action-packed journey into a hot zone of scientific intrigue.
Portland Press Herald
(Starred review) Irresistibly gripping… [and] reads like a fairy tale minus the myth.… Preston explains the legendary abandonment of the [city]… and provides scientific reasoning behind its reputation as life-threatening.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) This modern-day archeological adventure and medical mystery reads as rapidly as a well-paced novel, but is a heart-pounding true story.
Shelf Awareness
Replete with informative archaeology lessons and colorful anecdotes about the… expedition, including torrential rains and encounters with deadly snakes, Preston's uncommon travelogue is as captivating as any of his more fanciful fictional thrillers.
Booklist
(Starred review) [A]nother perilous Preston prestidigitation.… A story that moves from thrilling to sobering, fascinating to downright scary—trademark Preston, in other words, and another winner.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The legend of the Ciudad Blanca has been around for more than five centuries, and in that time, generations of adventurers have risked their lives in search of it. What do you think the appeal is of this kind of quest? What is it about the idea of discovering a lost city that maintains such a perennial grip on the human imagination?
2. Preston offers a colorful history of the men who had tried to find the Ciudad Blanca over the centuries—many of whom came back with vivid accounts of their discoveries. Do you believe that any of them came across the same city that Preston and Elkins and the expedition found in T1, and if so, who?
3. In 1940, The New York Times ran a front-page article announcing that "City of Monkey God Is Believed Located" by swashbuckling explorer Theodore Morde. However, Preston’s research reveals a shocking new twist to this seventy-five-year-old story. How does this new information change our understanding of the history of the legend of the lost city? Why do you think Morde’s original account remained unchallenged so long?
4. Do you think the team underestimated the challenges that they would face, by themselves in the jungle? Why or why not? If offered the opportunity to go on a similar adventure, would you want go yourself?
5. After Elkins, Preston, and the team emerge from the jungle and announce their findings, a conflict breaks out in the archeological community. What is the source of the disagreement, and do you think either side is correct?
6. What can the discovery of the city at T1 teach modern-day archeologists about the past? What are the biggest surprises that surround this discovery? Does it change the way we understand any of the history of the New World?
7. Do you believe in the curse of the Lost City of the Monkey God? Why or why not?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty
Tracy Borman, 2016
Grove/Atlantic
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802125996
Summary
England’s Tudor monarchs—Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I—are perhaps the most celebrated and fascinating of all royal families in history. Their love affairs, their political triumphs, and their overturning of the religious order are the subject of countless works of popular scholarship. But for all we know about Henry’s quest for male heirs, or Elizabeth’s purported virginity, the private lives of the Tudors remain largely beyond our grasp.
In The Private Lives of the Tudors, Tracy Borman delves deep behind the public face of the monarchs, showing us what their lives were like beyond the stage of court.
Drawing on the accounts of those closest to them, Borman examines Tudor life in fine detail. What did the monarchs eat? What clothes did they wear, and how were they designed, bought, and cared for? How did they practice their faith? And in earthlier moments, who did they love, and how did they give birth to the all-important heirs?
Delving into their education, upbringing, sexual lives, and into the kitchens, bathrooms, schoolrooms, and bedrooms of court, Borman charts out the course of the entire Tudor dynasty, surfacing new and fascinating insights into these celebrated figures. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1972
• Where—Scothern, Lincolnshire, England (UK)
• Education—Ph.D., University of Hull
• Currently—lives in London, England
Tracy Borman is a historian and author from Scothern, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. She is the author of several histories, many but not all of which are centered on the Tudor Dynasty. Her most recent work is The Private Lives of the Tudors (2016).
Borman was born and brought up in the village of Scothern, near Lincoln. She was educated at Ellison Boulters Academy, William Farr School, Welton, and Lincoln Castle Academy. She taught history at the University of Hull, where she was awarded a Ph.D in 1997.
Borman is perhaps best known for Elizabeth's Women (2010), which was serialized (before publication) as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week in September 2009. That same month, Borman appeared on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
In 2013 she was appointed Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces alongside Lucy Worsley. She is also chief executive of the Heritage Education Trust.
Borman and her husband, whom she married at the Tower of London, live in New Malden, south-west London.
Books
♦ 2016 - The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty
♦ 2014 - Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
♦ 2013 - Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction
♦ 2011- Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror
♦ 2011- The Ring and the Crown: A History of Royal Weddings, 1066-2011 (with Alison Weir, Kate Williams and Sarah Gristwood)
♦ 2010 - Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen
♦ 2007 - Henrietta Howard: King's Mistress, Queen's Servant
(From Wikipeida. Retrieved 1/2/2017.)
Book Reviews
For Borman, the intimate particulars of everyday life are what help the past come bracingly, stirringly alive. Her full-quivered social history of the Tudor monarchs—Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I—who, beginning in 1485, constituted one of the most celebrated royal families of all time, furnishes readers with a "Hey, did you know...?" on almost every page.... Social history lives and dies in the integrity of its details, and this authoritative work teems with well-sourced material, presenting the Tudor world with a particular focus on the personal habits and strengths of its women, making the claim that "the art of majesty was as evident behind closed doors as it was in public."
Jean Zimmerman - New York Times Book Review
[A] fascinating, detailed account.... Borman ranges far and wide in her quest to throw light on what the Tudor kings and queens ate, what they wore, what they did with their days and how they spent their nights.... This is a book of rich scholarship. Tracy Borman...knows her Tudor history inside out.
Daily Mail (UK)
Borman approaches her topic with huge enthusiasm and a keen eye.... All good fun. And there is plenty of it.... Borman really succeeds when she uses her store of homely tidbits to recast our perceptions of Tudors we thought we knew.... This is a very human story of a remarkable family, full of vignettes that sit long in the mind.
Sunday Times (UK)
Tracy Borman’s eye for detail is impressive; the book is packed with fascinating courtly minutiae.... [Borman is] a very good historian and this is a wonderful book.
London Times (UK)
Like Alison Weir...Borman is an authoritative and engaging writer, good at prising out those humanizing details that make the past alive to us.
Guardian (UK)
[T]he amount of detail about the rarefied world that the Tudors inhabited can be overwhelming, but she does unearth some obscure and intriguing tidbits that have been overlooked by other historians.... Borman’s fine book goes far toward humanizing [them].
Publishers Weekly
[T]his work uniquely focuses on the minutiae of court life and the personal, behind-the-scenes details of Tudor royals.... Borman's history expands well beyond public knowledge to the definite delight of Tudor fans. —Katie McGaha, County of Los Angeles P.L.
Library Journal
Amusing, well-researched.... A mostly entertaining mixture of esoteric social history and well-known details of the personal lives of Tudor monarchs.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Private Lives of the Tudors...then take off on your own:
1. What surprised you most about Tracy Borman's personal history of the Tudor royalty? What did you find, well..."over the top" in terms of self-indulgence? How coddled were the Tudors in terms of their personal habits? After reading her book, does medieval royalty seem particularly romantic or attractive as perhaps you once thought?
2. Borman's title is titillating: uncovering secrets heretofore unknown (or revealed). Does the book live up to its tempting title? Or is the focus of the book something else entirely?
3. Talk about the 15th and 16th century concept of privacy, especially in terms of the royal families. How different was their idea of privacy from today's?
4. Follow-up to Question 3: Talk about how the primary duty of royalty—which was to produce an heir—affected the sense of privacy. What does Borman mean when she writes, "The art of majesty was as evident behind closed doors as it was in public"?
5. Discuss Borman's descriptions of the era's medications and medical treatments. Funny? Horrifying? Positively "medieval"?
6. Borman writes, "for a person of royal blood, private desires could have deadly outcomes." Consider, then, the dire consequences of Lord Seymour's indiscretions with young Princess Elizabeth.
7. Would you have wanted to live in the Tudor era considering its level of sanitation, disease, and bodily odors?
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Columbine
Dave Cullen, 2009
Grand Central Publishing
443 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780446546928
Summary
The tragedies keep coming. As we reel from the latest horror . . .
So begins the epilogue, illustrating how Columbine became the template for nearly two decades of "spectacle murders."
It is a false script, seized upon by a generation of new killers. In the wake of Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech, the imperative to understand the crime that sparked this plague grows more urgent every year.
What really happened April 20, 1999? The horror left an indelible stamp on the American psyche, but most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about jocks, Goths, or the Trench Coat Mafia.
Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on scene, and spent ten years on this book-widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen, he draws on mountains of evidence, insight from the world's leading forensic psychologists, and the killers' own words and drawings—several reproduced in a new appendix.
Cullen paints raw portraits of two polar opposite killers. They contrast starkly with the flashes of resilience and redemption among the survivors. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Dave Cullen is a journalist and author who has contributed to Slate, Salon, and the New York Times. He is considered the nation's foremost authority on the Columbine killers, and has also written extensively on Evangelical Christians, gays in the military, politics, and pop culture.
A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Boulder, Cullen has won several writing awards, including a GLAAD Media Award, Society of Professional Journalism awards, and several Best of Salon citations. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Columbine is an excellent work of media criticism, showing how legends become truths through continual citation; a sensitive guide to the patterns of public grief, ... a fine example of old fashioned journalism . . . moving things along with agility and grace.
Jennifer Senior - New York Times Book Review
Exhaustive and supremely level-headed.... The ways in which the Columbine story became distorted in the retelling make for one of the most fascinating aspects of Cullen's book.... Hopping back and forth in time, Cullen manages to tell this complicated story with remarkable clarity and coherence. As one of the first reporters on the scene in 1999, he has been studying this event firsthand for a decade, and his book exudes a sense of authority missing from much of the original media coverage.... Cullen strikes just the right tone of tough-minded compassion, for the most part steering clear of melodrama, sermonizing and easy answers.
Gary Krist - Washington Post
Cullen's book is a nerve-wracking, methodical and panoramic account.... Columbine has its terrifying sections, particularly during Cullen's minute-by-minute rendering of the chaotic 49-minute assault. He puts us inside and outside the building, and he captures the disbelief viewers experienced in 'almost witnessing mass murder' live on television.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
A staggering achievement.... Rather than burden the deftly written prose with excessive footnotes, Cullen wisely includes a detailed timeline, bibliography and lengthy notes in the back of the book. The 417-page Columbine tears open old wounds but does so with an aching, unflinching clarity that's only possible with hindsight.... [An] admirable, harrowing work...one of the finer nonfiction efforts thus far in 2009.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Comprehensive.... It's a book that hits you like a crime scene photo, a reminder of what journalism at its best is all about. Cullen knows his material from the inside; he covered Columbine, for Salon and Slate primarily,
''beginning around noon on the day of the attack.'' But if this gives him a certain purchase on the story, his perspective is what resonates.
Los Angeles Times
A remarkable book. It is painstakingly reported, well-organized and compellingly written.... For any reader who wants to understand the complicated nature of evil, this book is a masterpiece.
Seattle Times
While the details of the day are indeed gruesome, Cullen neither embellishes nor sensationalizes. His unadorned prose and staccato sections offer welcome relief from the grisly minutiae.... Cullen's honor and reporting skills propel this book beyond tabloid and into true literature.
Newsday
Comprehensively nightmarish.... Cullen's task is difficult not only because the events in question are almost literally unspeakable but also because even as he tells the story of a massacre that took the lives of 15 people, including the killers, he has to untell the stories that have already been told.... Should this story be told at all? There's an element of sick, voyeuristic fascination to it—we don't need an exercise in disaster porn. But Columbine is a necessary book.... The actual events of April 20, 1999, are exactly as appalling as you'd expect, and Cullen doesn't spare us a second of them.
Time
The definitive account, [of the tragedy] will likely be Dave Cullen's Columbine, a nonfiction book that has the pacing of an action movie and the complexity of a Shakespearean drama.... Cullen has a gift, if that's the right word, for excruciating detail. At times the language is so vivid you can almost smell the gunpowder and the fear.
Newsweek
A chilling page-turner, a striking accomplishment given that Cullen's likely readers almost certainly know how the tragic story ends.... I knew Cullen was a dogged reporter and a terrific writer, but even I was blown away by the pacing and story-telling he mastered in Columbine, a disturbing, inspiring work of art.
Salon
From the very first page, I could not put Columbine Dave Cullen's searing narrative, down.... How the killings unfolded, and why, reads like the grisliest of fiction. Would that it were not true.
Entertainment Weekly
Leveraged for political ends by Michael Moore on film and adopted for convenience by the news media as shorthand for teenage violence, Columbine has begun to feel as impenetrable and allegorical as Greek myth. So the intensive reporting of Denver-based journalist Dave Cullen is welcome.... Cullen creates more than a nuanced portrait of school shooters as young men. He writes a human story—a compassionate narrative of teenagers with guns (and bombs, too), and the havoc they wreak on a school, a community, and America.
Esquire
(Starred review.) [R]emarkable.... Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen?.... Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill..
Publishers Weekly
Library Journal
Comprehensive, myth-busting examination of the Colorado high-school massacre.... Poignant sections devoted to the survivors probe the myriad ways that individuals cope with grief and struggle to interpret and make sense of tragedy. Carefully researched and chilling, if somewhat overwritten.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
These questions were written and graciously shared with LitLovers by Jennifer Johnson, MA, MLIS, Reference Librarian at Springdale Public Library in Arkansas. Thank you (again), Jennifer.
1. Do you remember where or what you were doing when the Columbine massacre occurred? What were your thoughts about it?
2. How did Columbine impact your life?
3. As a reader, what was the hardest part to read? Did you skip any sections?
4. Teenagers often hide or conceal things about themselves from their parents or their friends. Given that, how are Dylan and Eric different from average teenagers? What were Dylan and Eric hiding from each other?
5. Of the many myths debunked in the book, what surprised you the most? After almost 18 years, why do those myths still exist and are assumed to be true?
6. What is the impact of this book? Did the author succeed in providing a comprehensive, candid portrayal of the events leading up to and after Columbine?
7. Looking at the various levels of trust and relationship, is there a pattern to how Eric and Dylan behaved and interacted with others?
8. How are men and women depicted in the book? Are there any stereotypes that can be identified in the book?
9. Did the author, at any time, glorify Eric and Dylan? Did the killers leave the legacy they had intended?
10. After reading Columbine, it is obvious that Eric Harris was the primary force behind the attack, but how did Dylan participate? Was his participation in the attack similar to his participation in the friendship with Eric?
11. Since Columbine, there have been many school shootings. Has society’s reaction to such events changed since Columbine? How does the response to Virginia Tech or Sandy Elementary differ from Columbine?
12. How are the killers’ parents depicted in the book? Does the author portray them fairly and equally or is there an undertone of parental blame?
13. Given the digital age and current privacy issues, how different would this attack have been if committed in 2016 instead of 1999?
14. Can any of the participants be considered heroes? Are any considered scapegoats? Is anyone else responsible for the killings, other than Dylan and Eric?
15. What lessons have we learned since Columbine?
16. Why do you think the Harris family has refused to publically discuss the actions and death of their son? Why do you think the Klebold family has actively and publically discussed the actions and death of their son?
(Questions courtesy of Jennifer Johnson, Springdale Public Library. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Captured by the Nazis
Elizabeth Letts, 2016
Random House
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345544803
Summary
The riveting true story of the valiant rescue of priceless pedigree horses in the last days of World War II.
In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing find—his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines.
Hitler has stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine—an equine master race. But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food.
With only hours to spare, one of the U.S. Army’s last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decision—with General George Patton’s blessing—to mount a covert rescue operation. Racing against time, Reed’s small but determined force of soldiers, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines in a last-ditch effort to save the horses.
Pulling together this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters: Alois Podhajsky, director of the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a former Olympic medalist who is forced to flee the bomb-ravaged Austrian capital with his entire stable in tow; Gustav Rau, Hitler’s imperious chief of horse breeding, a proponent of eugenics who dreams of genetically engineering the perfect warhorse for Germany; and Tom Stewart, a senator’s son who makes a daring moonlight ride on a white stallion to secure the farm’s surrender.
A compelling account for animal lovers and World War II buffs alike, The Perfect Horse tells for the first time the full story of these events. Elizabeth Letts’s exhilarating tale of behind-enemy-lines adventure, courage, and sacrifice brings to life one of the most inspiring chapters in the annals of human valor. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— June 23, 1961
• Where—Houston, Texas, US
• Education—B.A., Yale University
• Currently—lives in southern California
Elizabeth Letts was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up in southern California. As a teenager, she was a competitive equestrian three-day eventer. She attended Northfield Mount Hermon School and Yale College where she majored in History. She served in the Peace Corps in Morocco.
Letts is the author of several books: Quality of Care (2005), Family Planning (2006), The Butter Man, a children's book (2008), The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman the Horse that Inspired a Nation (2011), and The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis (2016). The latter two books, both about horses, reached the New York Times Bestsellers List—at #1 and #7, respectively.
Letts's younger brother, John, is a retired professional tennis player. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 12/12/2016.)
Book Reviews
Winningly readable.... Letts captures both the personalities and the stakes of this daring mission with such a sharp ear for drama that the whole second half of the book reads like a WWII thriller dreamed up by Alan Furst or Len Deighton.... The right director could make a Hollywood classic out of this fairy tale.
Christian Science Monitor
Hard to put down.... One need not be an equestrian or horse lover in order to appreciate this story.
New York Journal of Books
The Perfect Horse raises the narrative bar. Applying her skills as a researcher, storyteller and horsewoman, Letts provides context that makes this account spellbinding.
Culturess
A truly fascinating chronicle of a dedicated group of horsemen and the risks they were willing to take to preserve the equine icon that is the Lipizzane.... I was hooked from start to finish by Letts’s incredible attention to detail and her gripping account of the events surrounding and leading up to the rescue mission.
Horse Nation
A wholly original, illuminating perspective on the war The Perfect Horse tells a fascinating story of bravery and benevolence that has gone far too long without reaching an audience. Full of action, heartbreak and well-developed characters, it has everything needed to be adapted into an outstanding war movie. To anyone with a love of horses or other animals, Letts’ fantastic, almost humanizing characterizations of some of the horses will make this book an instant favorite. And to history buffs, The Perfect Horse provides a totally fresh look at WWII that can’t be found anywhere else.
Bookreporter
An absorbing history of an unusual rescue mission in the closing days of the war in Europe . . . Letts does an excellent job of bringing the various players to life.
BookPage
Letts...eloquently brings together the many facets of this unlikely, poignant story underscoring the love and respect of man for horses.... The author's elegant narrative conveys how the love for these amazing creatures transcends national animosities.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Alois Podhajsky said, "Equestrian art is, perhaps more than any other, closely related to the wisdom of life." What does he mean by this? Is the relationship between horse and man fundamentally different from the relationship between humans and other animals, or is it similar?
2. The Spanish Riding School of Vienna has survived for five centuries in spite of wars and changes of governments that have toppled many more mighty institutions. What was special about the Spanish Riding School that helped it survive?
3. In The Perfect Horse we see how ideas developed to improve animal breeding contributed to the pseudoscience of eugenics—an early 20th century movement to improve the human race that eventually contributed to the Nazi philosophy of racial purity. Are there any drawbacks to breeding purebred animals? What made people want to apply the theories of animal breeding to humans? Do you think this could ever happen again?
4. Several of the major players in this story had a connection to the Olympic Games. George Patton competed in 1912, Podhajsky in 1936. Reed was an alternate for the 1932 team. How did the Olympic experience shape these men and how did it influence their decisions during the war?
5. George Patton famously said that during peacetime, playing polo was the closest that an officer could get to real combat. Many of World War II’s most brilliant leaders were horsemen, and many believed that eliminating the training on horseback would be an irreparable loss to the Army. What was it about their devotion to horses that made them so successful in war? Does working with animals teach skills that are impossible to learn in any other way?
6. There were surprisingly few events during World War II in which men from opposing sides joined together in a common task. Why did the German horsemen risk treason to join with the Americans? What would have likely happened if the Germans had decided to stay put and wait for the end of the war? Given the circumstances, did everyone involved make the right decision?
7. Critics of Patton have said that he was more concerned about gathering up Lipizzaner horses than with saving human refugees and concentration camp survivors. Given the number of other atrocities going on in late April, 1945, was it worth the sacrifice of men and manpower to safeguard the horses?
8. The bravery and selflessness of Captain Tom Stewart, who followed orders to ride across enemy lines to negotiate the stud farm’s release, seems striking to a modern reader. As the son of a sitting senator, certainly he could have been spared being put into such a dangerous situation. What was it about Tom Stewart’s character that was exceptional? Were the morals and motivations of the World War II’s citizen soldiers different from the way people view their duty and honor today?
9. While the Lipizzaner were mostly returned to their native Austria, Witez was shipped to America, eventually sold off at auction, and never returned to his native Poland. The author, in her research, discovered that the Poles were actively trying to reclaim Witez before he was ever shipped to America, but the Americans were distrustful of the Poles and dismissed their claims to the horse. Should Witez have been returned to Poland or was his rightful place in America?
10. At Hank Reed’s funeral, more than twenty of the men who had served under him came to pay their respects. What was it about Hank Reed’s background, training, or education made his men so devoted to him.? What can we learn about leadership by looking at the lives of the men and women who were part of "The Greatest Generation?"
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
Julia Baird, 2016
Random House
752 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400069880
Summary
This page-turning biography reveals the real woman behind the myth: a bold, glamorous, unbreakable queen—a Victoria for our times. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, this stunning new portrait is a story of love and heartbreak, of devotion and grief, of strength and resilience.
When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place.
Revolution would threaten many of Europe’s monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public’s expense, and republican sentiment was growing. The Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape, and the British Empire was commanding ever larger tracts of the globe.
In a world where women were often powerless, during a century roiling with change, Victoria went on to rule the most powerful country on earth with a decisive hand.
Fifth in line to the throne at the time of her birth, Victoria was an ordinary woman thrust into an extraordinary role. As a girl, she defied her mother’s meddling and an adviser’s bullying, forging an iron will of her own. As a teenage queen, she eagerly grasped the crown and relished the freedom it brought her. At twenty, she fell passionately in love with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, eventually giving birth to nine children.
She loved sex and delighted in power. She was outspoken with her ministers, overstepping conventional boundaries and asserting her opinions. After the death of her adored Albert, she began a controversial, intimate relationship with her servant John Brown.
She survived eight assassination attempts over the course of her lifetime. And as science, technology, and democracy were dramatically reshaping the world, Victoria was a symbol of steadfastness and security—queen of a quarter of the world’s population at the height of the British Empire’s reach.
Drawing on sources that include fresh revelations about Victoria’s relationship with John Brown, Julia Baird brings vividly to life the fascinating story of a woman who struggled with so many of the things we do today: balancing work and family, raising children, navigating marital strife, losing parents, combating anxiety and self-doubt, finding an identity, searching for meaning. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1971 (?)
• Where—Sydney, Australia
• Education—B.A., Ph.D. University of Sydney
• Currently—lives in Sydney
Julia Baird is an Australian political journalist, television commentator, and author of two nonfiction books: Media Tarts: Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians (2004), and Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire (2016).
Early life and education
Baird was born in Sydney, the middle child of politician Bruce Baird and his wife Judy. Her older brother, Michael has served as Premier of New South Wales. The family lived in Rye, New York, in the U.S. during the 1970s while her father was Australian Trade Commissioner They returned to Australia in 1980, after which Baird attended Ravenswood School for Girls.
Baird earned her B.A. and, in 2001, her Ph.D in history from the University of Sydney. Her doctoral thesis was on women in politics. In 2005, she was a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University researching the globalization of American opinion in the lead up to the Iraq war.
Career
Baird started her journalistic career with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1998 and, by 2000, was editor of the Opinion pages. She was a campaigner for women in the Sydney diocese of the Anglican church and also worked as a religious commentator for Triple J and as a freelancer for ABC Radio. Her first book, Media Tarts was published in 2004.
In 2006, Baird became deputy editor at Newsweek in New York City, working there until it ceased print publication in 2012. She also wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her topics have included gender and politics, covering for example misogyny in Australian politics and transgender soldiers in the American military. She has also written about religious topics, and more recently about Donald Trump's political strategy.
She returned to Australia and currently hosts the The Drum, a current affairs television show. In 2016 she published her biography of Queen Victoria.
Personal life
Baird has two children. In 2015, she revealed in a New York Times column that she was recovering from surgery for ovarian cancer. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 12/11/2016.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Victoria the Queen, Julia Baird’s exquisitely wrought and meticulously researched biography, brushes the dusty myth off this extraordinary monarch. Right out of the gate, the book thrums with authority as Baird builds her portrayal of Victoria. Overturning stereotypes, she rips this queen down to the studs and creates her anew. . . . Baird’s Victoria isn’t the woman we expect to meet. Her queen is a pure iconoclast: emotional, demonstrative, sexual and driven. . . . Baird writes in the round. She constructs a dynamic historical figure, then spins out a spherical world of elegant reference, anchoring the narrative in specific detail and pinning down complex swaths of history that, in less capable hands, would simply blow away (Editor’s Choice).
New York Times Book Review
Victoria: The Queen is that rare bird of serious historical biography, a page-turner. Writing with grace and authority, Baird reaches well beyond the conventional image of a reclusive and compliant queen to reveal “a robust and interventionist ruler,” iron-willed, uncompromising and sexually charged—a most unvictorian woman. . . . As a writer and historian, Baird has a wonderful gift for compressing complicated personalities and historical events.
Dallas Morning News
In this in-depth look at a feminist before her time, you’ll balk at, cheer on, and mourn the obstacles in the life of the teen queen who grew into her throne.
Marie Claire
Victoria’s rich personal life makes for interesting reading, but Baird’s attempts to trace the beginnings of the suffrage and anti-slavery movements to the values embodied in Victoria’s reign are unconvincing.... Baird’s empathy for her subject is apparent throughout, however, and...she imbues the chilly figure of Victoria with welcome humor and warmth.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Baird convincingly reframes the public perception of Victoria as a mother, along with providing unprecedented insight into her relationships following Prince Albert’s death.... Baird crafts a comprehensive study of the monarch and others with whom she was involved in an engaging, smoothly rendered narrative.... [An] excellent biography.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Baird writes with such spirit and well-founded authority that readers will feel as though the story of the famous British queen is being told for the first time. . . . Baird does not turn a blind eye on Victoria’s darker sides, including her willfulness, selfishness, and self pity. But that simply adds dimensions to a significant character.
Booklist
Baird draws on previously unpublished sources to fashion a lively, perceptive portrait of the long-reigning queen.... Baird shrewdly assesses the quality of the queen’s family life and creates sharply drawn portraits of the major players in her circle.... A well-researched biography sensitive to Queen Victoria as a woman.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Victoria: The Queen...then take off on your own :
1. Talk about the surprising, indeed, ironic, ways that Queen Victoria defied the strict codes of decorum—standards of behavior that were encoded with her name for an entire era. In other words, how was Victoria not a Victorian?
2. Describe the Queen: her young self, and trace the ways in which she changed into her middle-aged and then older self—the public figure we are most familiar with: a short, round woman, draped in black and a frown.
3. How would you describe Prince Albert? What was the couple's marriage like? In what way did he undermine Victoria's confidence as a ruler or undercut her authority?
4. The Queen had nine children. What kind of mother was she?
5. How would you describe Victoria's "management skills" and treatment of the men who surrounded her? How did she manage to use her feminity to her advantage in that most masculine of worlds?
6. Victoria sought to endow the "primarily ceremonial and symbolic" role of her monarchy with power and influence. Was she successful?
7. The Queen's inner circle included luminaries such as Lord Melbourne and Benjamin Disraeli, to name only two. Talk about her relationship with Melbourne, for instance, as well as others. Who needed her, and whom did she need?
8. After reading Julia Baird's biography, what surprised you most about Victoria or the great events of her age? Before reading Baird's book, how much did you know about the politics of the age and the spread of the British empire? What new insights have you come away with?
9. For comparison (and for sheer fun) watch the new Amazon series on Queen Elizabeth II. Do you see any similarities in the situations of the two female monarchs?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)