Still, likely to get the wind up for modern she-farers or armchair sailors. (B&w illustrations)
A m‚lange of tales of sea-going, or at least sea-connected, women, where the often fragmentary information can still pique
a yen to sign on for the voyage. New Zealander Druett (Hen Frigates, 1998) specializes in maritime history, and in this volume, presents a crew of adventurous women from around the world and through the centuries. Here are stories of Greek queen Artemis, who commanded the flagship of a small fleet against the Athenian navy; of the "bloodthirsty warrior queen" Teuta of Illyria, who terrorized the Mediterranean coast with her fleet of privateers, and even of Cleopatra, who commanded not only the hearts of Caesar and Antony, but the Egyptian fleet at Actium. Although accurate historical records are often thin, don’t forget Alfhild, a terrifying Danish marauder of c. 900 b.c.; Grace O’Malley, the Irish pirate queen of the 16th century; and Cheng I Sao, a 19th-century woman who organized a federation of pirates that dominated the China Sea. Anne Bonny and Mary Read were celebrated 18th- century Caribbean buccaneers, but more typical heroines were the women who backed their men financially, like Sarah Kidd, wife of the notorious Captain William Kidd, or ran their businesses. The exploits of the convict women transported to Australia are described, as are tales of women who donned men’s clothes and signed on as crew or as helpmates to their officer husbands. Among more sweeping contributions, Lady Jane Franklin virtually opened up the Arctic by sponsoring a ten-year mission to locate her explorer husband, lost in 1845, and Louise Arner Boyd made many voyages to the Arctic, preserving a remarkable photographic record of the flora, fauna, and geological conditions. A long chapter on Emma Hamilton and her relationship with Lord Nelson seems gratuitous, as do snapshots of other women whose connection to the sea seems remote.
Still, likely to get the wind up for modern she-farers or armchair sailors. (B&w illustrations)Pub Date: March 7, 2000
ISBN: 0-684-85690-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlanticsenior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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