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2009 Reading #107: She Captains
Dec. 6th, 2009 05:11 pmBooks 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman.
102. Brown Harvest by Jay Russell.
103. Dab Neeg Hmoob: Myths, Legends and Folk Tales from the Hmong of Laos, Charles Johnson, editor and Se Yang, associate editor.
104. Summer of '49 by David Halberstam.
105. The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter.
106. Black Betty by Walter Mosley.
107. She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by Joan Druett. I was hoping for a lot from this book, so perhaps it's not surprising that my expectations were not entirely met. It's a combination of factors, I think: Druett's style, which is very just-the-facts, sometimes at the expense of a satisfying narrative; the understandable but frustrating fact that her stories are overwhelmingly of women from the English-speaking world; and the fact that so many of the women she profiles were not actually sailors, but sailor's wives or mistresses, lighthouse-keepers, and women with even more tenuous connections to the sea. It doesn't help that three chapters are devoted to the romantic shenanigans of Lord Nelson and his officers, which nearly ends up turning the premise here on its head. There are, of course, accounts of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, explorers like Louise Arner Boyd, and some (almost inadvertently) fascinating reflections on collective ship ownership in the 1800s. Occasionally fascinating, but overall disappointing.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman.
102. Brown Harvest by Jay Russell.
103. Dab Neeg Hmoob: Myths, Legends and Folk Tales from the Hmong of Laos, Charles Johnson, editor and Se Yang, associate editor.
104. Summer of '49 by David Halberstam.
105. The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter.
106. Black Betty by Walter Mosley.
107. She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by Joan Druett. I was hoping for a lot from this book, so perhaps it's not surprising that my expectations were not entirely met. It's a combination of factors, I think: Druett's style, which is very just-the-facts, sometimes at the expense of a satisfying narrative; the understandable but frustrating fact that her stories are overwhelmingly of women from the English-speaking world; and the fact that so many of the women she profiles were not actually sailors, but sailor's wives or mistresses, lighthouse-keepers, and women with even more tenuous connections to the sea. It doesn't help that three chapters are devoted to the romantic shenanigans of Lord Nelson and his officers, which nearly ends up turning the premise here on its head. There are, of course, accounts of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, explorers like Louise Arner Boyd, and some (almost inadvertently) fascinating reflections on collective ship ownership in the 1800s. Occasionally fascinating, but overall disappointing.