Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames by Lara Maiklem, 2019

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A lyrical and evocative narrative history of London and its people, told through objects found on the banks of the Thames by the city's most prominent mudlark
For thousands of years human beings have been losing their possessions and dumping their rubbish in the River Thames, making it the longest and most varied archaeological site in the world. For those in the know, the muddy stretches provide a tangible link with the past, a connection to the natural world, and an oasis of calm in a chaotic city...
For fifteen years, Lara Maiklem has walked the Thames foreshore, spending innumerable hours peering into the mud for items discarded by past generations of Londoners. The list of things Lara has rescued from the river is long and varied: from Neolithic flints, Roman hair pins and medieval shoe buckles to Tudor buttons, Georgian clay pipes, seventeenth-century love tokens and discarded war medals.
Mudlarking is the story of the River Thames and its people, told through the objects that Lara has eased from its muddy clutches over the years. Weaving her story through and around the history of the River, from prehistory to the present day, she uses her finds to bring the ordinary lives of long forgotten Londoners to life.

(295 pages)

I moved to London last month. I've been looking forward to this for six months, and it seems like there are a million reasons to be excited to be here. One of the biggest to me, however, is the history of the city. I love the idea that I live somewhere people have been making history for literally thousands of year. I've been fascinated with the idea of mudlarking the Thames since I learned about it several years ago on a VlogBrothers video, and it was one of the first things I wanted to try once I arrived.

That's why I snagged a copy of this book when I was at a bookshop in my first week here. And I'm glad I did. Because Maiklem's love and knowledge of the Thames leaks through every page, heightening my own excitement to discover the history that's "up for grabs" every time the shore recedes. It's a delightfully meandering exploration of some of her favourite mudlarking spots, complete with descriptions of the items she's found in specific spots (and the history she's either researched or imagined for each one). Some of her exploits sound more appealing to me than others - I don't think I'm quite as hardcore as she is as far as miles of mud and fast-moving tides are concerned - but overall I finished the book feeling super pumped to go out there and find some items of my own.

I've only gone out once yet so far, and that was just for twenty minutes. But I found some nails and bits of pottery that lit up my imagination and left me excited for more. The history of London is insane, and I'm obsessed with the idea that the tangible pieces of its past have been left behind in the Thames for me to find them. Mailkem's narrative has enhanced my excitement for this. I just bought her Field Guide to Larking, which I'm looking forward to using to learn how to mudlark myself.

In the Shadow of Denali by Tracie Peterson and Kimberly Woodhouse, 2017

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Cassidy Ivanoff and her father John, a wilderness guide, work at a prestigious new hotel outside Mt. McKinley. John's new apprentice, Allan Brennan, finds a friend in Cassidy, but the real reason he's here--to learn the truth about his father's death--is far more dangerous than he knows.

(320 pages)

I hadn't read a "chick flick" book in a long while, so I thought I'd shake things up a bit. I always like books about mountain climbing, and I've never read a book set in Alaska before, so In the Shadow of Denali had all the makings of a unique and grabbing read for me.

And for the most part, it was that. The characters were slightly flat, it's true, and the romance was truely cringe-worthy (and the villain ridiculously stereotypical), but those things honestly didn't bother me as much as they probably should have. The fact is that I really loved Cassidy, who was a good mixture of sweet optimism and realistic emotions. I didn't like the men quite as much (they were all a little too perfect for my taste), but reading about Cassidy's time in the kitchen, all the foods she makes and her growing friendship with the head cook Mrs. Johnson, was what kept me stuck to the story. Mrs. Johnson is probably my favorite character, actually. I can't say much about her backstory, but I really loved watching her gruff outer shell peel away over time!

It does have to be said, though, that the discussions of both romance and religion are almost uniformly hard to read throughout the book. The characters are so obnoxiously slap-you-in-the-face Christian (and so obsessed with making sure everyone thinks exactly the way they do) that it got a little old for me–even though I actually am Christian! It's not like they act like God makes life one big rose-fest, because all of the main characters grapple with some pretty scary/hard things throughout the book, but something about the discussions of faith just felt cheesy and unrealistic to me. There's also a fair bit of instalove, which anyone who has read this blog for long knows is a big pet peeve of mine. Cassidy and Allan barely know each other at all when they start having feelings for each other that they'd never had for anyone else in their entire lives. Despite the fact that they only spend minimal amounts of time with each other and don't really seem to have anything in common, we're supposed to believe they're perfect for each other. Meh. I'd rather have seen Cassidy wind up with Thomas, the seventeen-year-old kitchen boy who has a crush on her–I honestly liked him better than I did Allan, and the age difference could have easily become negligible if the authors had made Cassidy just a year or two younger!

Anyway, you wouldn't guess it from all the negativity in this review but I really did spend a few happy hours reading In the Shadow of Denali. Now that I'm writing out my thoughts I'm realizing just how many little things bugged me about the book, but when I was actually reading it I was sucked in nonetheless. I love Cassidy, Mrs. Johnson, and Thomas, and I have pretty neutral (though certainly not negative) feelings toward Allan and Cassidy's father John. I liked the basic premise of the story and the conflicts that came up, and I loved getting a look at what life was like in Alaska during the 1920s. We even get to read about President and Mrs. Harding staying at the hotel on their 1923 trip to Alaska right before the president's sudden death! I'd never even heard of President Harding, let alone known that he traveled to Alaska.

Basically, I can't recommend In the Shadow of Denali as fine literature. If you're looking for some clean, fluffy (and slightly preachy) entertainment set in a rural Alaska setting, though, then this might just be the book for you. If you do give it a try, comment below to let us know how you like it!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my review.

Our Man in Charleston by Christopher Dickey, 2015

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Between the Confederacy and recognition by Great Britain stood one unlikely Englishman who hated the slave trade. His actions helped determine the fate of a nation.
As the United States threatened to break into civil war, the Southern states found themselves in an impossible position: Their economic survival would require reopening the slave trade, banned in America since 1807, but the future of the Confederacy could not be secured without official recognition from Great Britain, which would never countenance such a move. How, then, could the first be achieved without dooming the possibility of the second? Believing their cotton monopoly would provide sufficient leverage, the Southerners publically declared the slave trade dead, even as rapacious traders quickly landed more and more ships on the American coast.
The unlikely man at the roiling center of this intrigue was Robert Bunch, the ambitious young British consul in Charleston, S.C. As he soured on the self-righteousness of his slave-loving neighbors, Bunch used his unique perch to thwart their plans, sending reams of damning dispatches to the Foreign Office in London and eventually becoming the Crown's best secret source on the Confederacy—even as he convinced those neighbors that he was one of them.
In this masterfully told story, Christopher Dickey introduces Consul Bunch as a key figure in the pitched battle between those who wished to reopen the floodgates of bondage and misery, and those who wished to dam the tide forever. Featuring a remarkable cast of diplomats, journalists, senators, and spies,Our Man in Charleston captures the intricate, intense relationship between great powers as one stood on the brink of war.

(400 pages)

I actually read this over the summer, but I was just so busy working on applications and starting my classes that I couldn't find time to review it. Then I got a bunch more books to review, with actual deadlines staring me in the face, that kept distracting me from doing Our Man in Charleston. I'm finally getting more organized now–I put all the books I have for review into a calendar, and I force myself to methodically go through and read/review them in that order–and it's made me actually efficient at something for once, so now I'm reviewing Our Man in Charleston.

And honestly, I loved it. Every single word. This is the sort of historical nonfiction I adore, full of character studies and firsthand quotes and vivid descriptions that make it feel like a fictional novel. Books like Our Man in Charleston (and The Family Romanov, and A Night to Remember) are so amazing, because they really make the events they describe feel real. When I put down Our Man in Charleston, I not only finally understood the American Civil War (the motives, the conflict, the nature of the fighting), but I also saw how it fit into a grander global context. Before reading this, I had no idea that the rest of the world was even watching the Civil War, let alone how close Britain came to coming into it on the side of the South.

It's a horrible book at times, though. Bunch lived in Charleston, the heart of Southern rebellion, and some of the stories he tells about the way Southerners treated their slaves are absolutely sickening. Also, one of the biggest conflicts that sprung up between the North and the South, and one of the most hotly debated ones inside the South, was the question of whether or not America should reopen the slave trade with Africa. I kid you not, there was a shortage of slave labor and the most common Southern reaction was "okay, let's just go capture fresh Africans and ship them here. That will solve all of our problems!" I just . . . can't even think of anything to say about that. It takes a special kind of evil to think like that.

I don't know what else to say, besides read this! If you're at all confused by the forces behind the Civil War, read it. If you're a Civil War geek looking for an intimate, international angle, read it. If you're still trying to argue that the war had nothing to do with slavery and was really just about the right to secede, then please read it–and I dare you to come out the other side still talking about the "War of Northern Aggression."

I don't usually quote specific lines from the books I review, but I'll do it just this once because there's a quote I want to end with that perfectly encapsulate's South Carolina's attitude at the onset of the Civil War:

"Other nations, especially those enlightened and more old-fashioned in their notions, rebel, fight, and die for Liberty," wrote Bunch, while South Carolina "is prepared to do the same for slavery."

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review.