History – Carol's Notebook

The Plaza by Julie Satow

February 22, 2024February 22, 2024 by Carol2 Comments

The Plaza was a fascinating look at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, its history, its owners, and some of the people who lived here over its history. The original hotel opened in 1890 and then reopened as the luxurious hotel we know in 1907. We follow its story from the Gilded Age, through the Jazz Age and Prohibition, two World Wars, to 2018. I loved the people's stories, from the construction workers to the rich and famous, even the fictional little girl, Eloise. It's a little bit like reading the society papers over the years. I didn't care quite as much about the real estate deals in more recent years. I listened to the audio though and the narrator, Jefferson Mays, kept me engaged throughout. The book is well-researched and I enjoyed it. I do think it might have been a bit tedious in print for me, but mostly because I cared more about the anecdotes and less about the...

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

June 2, 2022June 1, 2022 by Carol5 Comments

Two things first. One - this is the first book by Klosterman I've read. Two - I, like Klosterman, am firmly a Gen X-er. I graduated high school in '93, college in '97. I got married in '99 and had Amber in 2000 (which counts because Klosterman doesn't consider the '90s officially over until 9/11). If I'm an adult, that was the decade I became one. I don't know if you have to be a member of my generation to enjoy The Nineties, but I'm sure it helps. If it was part of the culture during the '90s, it's in here: Nirvana, Reality Bites, American Beauty, Pulp Fiction, Seinfeld, Friends, Columbine, Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, the Clintons, Dolly, Garth Brooks, Clarence Thomas. It covers TV shows I watched, bands I listened to and rappers I didn't, news stories that feel different when you look back at them than they did at the time. Klosterman talks about why the person and/or...

Putin’s People by Catherine Belton

March 8, 2022March 23, 2022 by Carol6 Comments

Putin's People is a clearly well-researched, possibly slightly biased, history of Putin, the KGB, and Russia from the fall of the Soviet Union to a couple of years ago. This was obviously published before the current war, but you can still see it coming. Honestly, the war is why I picked it up. I don't read much history or politics or economics, but then something happens and I wish I had more background to draw on. I am probably not the best audience for this book. There are tons and tons of people, places, companies, very few of which I'm familiar with. It's a dense book and I won't remember many of the details, but it's also well laid out and at times almost reads like a thriller. The Russia of today isn’t much different from the Russia before 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Not only are the viewpoints, world views, and goals for the most part...

Four Hundred Souls edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

February 19, 2021February 19, 2021 by Carol1 Comment

In Four Hundred Souls, Kendi and Blain have assembled an outstanding group of 90 writers and poets to tell the history of African Americans. The collection begins with Nikole Hannah-Jones's essay on the 1619 arrival of 20 Africans in Virginia and ends with an essay by Alicia Garza on the Black Lives Matter movement. The essays and stories tell of history we know, but many writers focused on stories and people I didn't know, like Elizabeth Keyes who was the first Black woman in the American colonies to petition for her freedom, Lucy Terry Prince the poet who argued for her family's freedom before the Supreme Court, and David George who established the first Black Baptist church. Others touch on laws and events but they fit together, telling a history that we don't know well enough. Like any collection, Four Hundred Souls is uneven, but I don't think that's a negative here. Each of the writers has their own style, their...

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 by Carol10 Comments

Generally, I don't read emotionally heavy books, and I don't know if I would have picked up The Radium Girls if I had known that it would have me in tears on almost every page. That being said, it was an excellent book, one I would definitely recommend. At the beginning of the 20th century, dozens of healthy, young, working-class women (some as young as 14) were employed in a newly-born business: painting watch, clock, and other instrument dials with a luminescent paint containing radium, both for consumers and the military. At the time, this fluorescent wonder was believed so beneficial for the body, that medications, aesthetic treatments, and even toiletry items had started to employ it. Everyone who came in contact with this miracle of science was amazed by its property to make everything it touched glow, even the skin, teeth and clothes of the girls who worked with it. Painting with radium was a highly desired job, as it offered...

The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan

November 12, 2019November 12, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

David and I spent a day at Biltmore on vacation a couple of weeks ago. It's a gorgeous house and estate and we happened to be there when it was mostly decorated for Christmas inside; the big tree hadn't arrived yet though. I just wish it hadn't been raining. At that time I was over halfway through The Last Castle. I had picked it up to read before we left and had hoped to have it finished by our trip, but time doesn't always work like I want it to. I had finished the most important parts about the building of the house, the life George and Edith Vanderbilt had there as newlyweds, the early growth of the village around Biltmore and Asheville itself, and the loss of important people in the couples' lives. The Last Castle is thoroughly researched and reading it definitely added to my enjoyment of my visit to the estate. I loved seeing the rooms and views...