Bob's Books

Why this book;  I had read this book over 30 years ago and recall being moved and finding the story fascinating.  On my recent trip to the Inner Hebrides  with my son, my interest in this remote island, nearly 100 miles west of the outer Hebrides,  was renewed. So I purchased it and read it again. 

Summary in 3 Sentences;  This remote small Island has had isolated people living on it for thousands of years, barely surviving in an extremely austere environment.   Recorded history of the Gaelic speaking inhabitants and how they lived only goes back about 300 years and this book is the recognized best source on how those people lived, what led to the decision in 1930 of the 30 or so remaining inhabitants to leave.  And the book concludes with what happened to those who left, how they sought to integrate with a very different world, and how the British and Scottish governments and Trusts have sought to preserve the heritage of this unique island.

My Impressions: As noted, my second time reading this book – the first time over 3 decades ago and I only remember a few things.  – but I do remember how fascinated I was with the descriptions of this ancient Gaelic crofter culture isolated for centuries from the mainstream culture of Britain and Europe.  It was the last remaining hunter-gatherer society in Europe and there are scant records of how these people lived prior to the 17th century when the earliest chroniclers visited.  

St Kilda is the main small island in a grouping of rock outcroppings out int the Atlantic Ocean,  about 80 miles west of the closest land in the Scottish Outer Hebrides, and it’s population varied from at a high point about 140 to less than half that before the final decline and decision to evacuate the island in 1930.  This book describes the culture of St Kilda from the 19th century when mainstream Scotland became aware of St Kilda and Clan MacLeod of Skye assumed proprietorship over the island, which included Clan leader-like responsibilities for its inhabitants.  Archeologists are still finding evidence of human habitation on St Kilda going back a millennia before the first  appearance of St Kilda in Norse records a millennium ago 

The LIfe and Death of St Kilda begins by describing the sad and final exodus of the inhabitants in 1930.  Following chapters explore and describe the culture – how the people lived,  how they lived mostly on the birds they killed in their nesting grounds on the cliffs and rocks on the group of islands.  The author describes their social mores, how it was a very communal society, all sharing in the bounty and the sufferings that came with living on the island.  There are chapters on how the Church of Scotland sent severe ministers to live on the island to ensure that the inhabitants paid humble obeisance to an angry God, and forbade all forms of fun and joy – no dancing, singing, music, etc in the same way our Puritan forefathers forbade any activity that wasn’t working to survive or worshipping the Lord.  Life was hard enough – these ministers ensured that it stayed hard  

The author describes the slow influence that increased contact with mainland society during the 19th century, had on the islanders.  St Kilda eventually was provided a teacher to teach reading and English to the children, and this basic education was augmented by religious education (reading the bible) by the resident ministers.   Reading gave the islanders increased access to newspapers and other books that increased awareness of life beyond St Kilda, along with increasing visits from fishing trawlers, the factor from Skye and eventually tourists interested in this primitive Gaelic culture.  Eventually visitors wanted to buy their goods – knitting and other crafts and items with money, which the islanders had never needed in their barter culture.   Money and its value was new and had a subtle but profound influence.   And as the islanders learned of opportunities outside St Kilda – from stories that visitors shared and from the occasional emigrant from St Kilda who returned to visit, or shared stories in their letters, young people started to leave.  

One chapter that I remember most from when I first read this book was the very high child mortality rate – above 60%.  There were women who’d given birth to 10 babies and lose 8 before being a month old. When medical people on the mainland learned of this, they wanted to find out why and prevent these tragedies, but the islanders, led by their very conservative minister wouldn’t cooperate, believing that these deaths were God’s will, His plan to keep the population within what the island could support, and it was not for man to interfere.  Eventually it was determined that the deaths were caused by how they stored milk for the children, in containers unknowingly contaminated with the bacteria tetanus infantum, and as they gave babies milk from these containers, the children quickly developed tetanus and died within days.   The tragedy of so many babies dying so soon after being born is unimaginable, but it had been going on for centuries and was just assumed by the St Kildans to be simply the way it was supposed to be.  Just as tragic to me is the resistance the minister encouraged to finding out why.  

The book concludes with what happened to St Kilda after the last inhabitants left – the challenges they had in adapting to life on mainland Scotland.  Also,  during the 20th century the British Military built a small station on this remote outpost in the Atlantic for monitoring naval and air activity approaching the UK, and for supporting various exercises and equipment testing.  St Kilda and the ruins of the small village on Hirta has in the last half century become a tourist destination, and is now largely controlled by the National Trust of Scotland in cooperation with the military which continues to maintain a presence there.  The National Trust has refurbished many of the homes that were abandoned, and created a small museum to serve as a monument to the people and culture that once lived there.  Additionally, archeologists are exploring, and turning up evidence of people who lived there during the Iron Age and perhaps before. 

In the various bookstores I visited in Scotland, I found numerous books on St Kilda, but one of the booksellers told me this is the most comprehensive and the best.  Tom Steele first published this book in 1975 after doing extensive historical  research, and also was able to interview many people who had lived on St Kilda before it was evacuated.  He updated the book in 1988 and then, after his death, his relatives gave a final update in 2011.   For those interested in knowing more about St Kilda, there are some impressive videos and short pieces on St Kilda on youtube.

Why this book:  I was recently on a bike ride with my son Brad in Scotland and we rode on the Island of Raasay, and rode all the way out to Calum’s Road.  I heard the story from our guide, who then bought us this book  My son and I rode Calum’s road – wish we’d read the book beforehand. 

Summary in 3 Sentences:  Calum MacLeod lived in a small village at the north end of the Inner Hebridean island of Raasay with just a few other families.  These families over decades petitioned the Scottish government for a road to lead to their village – which the various bureaucracies involved refused to do. This book is about the life and death of those villages and how one man, Calum MacLeod as a statement of resistance, decided to build the road himself and it took him decades.  

My Impressions: Short and powerful.  Beautifully written – fascinating, sad and joyful to read.  Calum MacLeod and his road on Raasay are a prism through which the author looks at the demise of small villages and crofter culture on remote islands in the Hebrides.  Though the book provides background from the 1800s, this story takes place primarily between the mid 60s and the early 80s of the 20th century.

The story of Calum’s Road is an extreme example of an independent, and powerful personality choosing by his actions to defy a government which doesn’t seem to care about him, his family, his village and way of life.  In Calum’s Road, we learn about the history of Raasay over the previous two hundred years, how the crofters and small villages were repeatedly exploited and abused by wealthy absentee land lords who owned the island, only as a financial investment and cared little for the people who lived there.  Raasay experienced its own version of the Scottish Highland Clearances, when the the great land barons of Scotland drove people from their homes and crofts and depopulated huge sections of Scotland in order to make room for sheep and deer to graze – the deer were hunted by wealthy gentlemen from England, Wales, Scotland who paid well for the opportunity to hunt on the property of the landlords.  The sheep and the wealthy hunting patrons provided easier and more money than dealing with the problems of tenant farmers, and collecting their rents. 

The culture of Raasay was broken into the north and the south of the island – the north end was farthest from the standard ferry landing and received the least support.  Calum lived in the village of Arnish which lay approximately 1 1/2 to 2 miles beyond the one road on Raasay that went from North to South. Those in Arnish and the several villages beyond had to walk and carry their goods on their backs on a path from the end of the road up to several miles to their villages.  This and a number of other factors that made life in the northern portion of Raasay difficult and even untenable, over a several decades led to all of the people in those villages either dying or leaving.  By the time Calum finished his road, he and his wife were the only ones living there.

In Calum’s Road, we hear the voices of those who grew up in and lived in those villages, talking about their lives there, talking about how they purchased food and goods from Skye, worked to make a living by whatever means were available, how they survived, and why the finally left.  They also talk about Calum MacLeod as a man and his project to build the road, on his own, in his spare time.   Calum himself was one of the strongest characters and personalities on north Raasay, and was the one others  looked to for help when they needed it, and was the most engaged in trying to save the villages.  He felt  a strong sense of duty to his community and to his ancestors who had lived and thrived in that part of Raasay, and did whatever he could to preserve that heritage.  We  read about Calum’s unsuccessful efforts over many decades to get basic government services to the villages in that part of Raasay – to include the road. So finally, convinced that the large centralized bureaucracy of the government could not be counted on, he began to build the road himself. 

In fact his building of the road is just one example of his amazing character.  He not only ran his croft, but also had been postman, lighthouse keeper, and fisherman and had a number of other jobs.  He and his brother had previously built a different short road in north Raasay to support the families isolated on the island of Fladda, just off the coast of Raasay.  Calum was an autodidact – he had no education beyond his 14th year, Gaelic was his first and primary language – English he had to learn.   Yet he was widely read, in both languages, wrote many articles and letters to governmental bureaucrats  and the press (all in English) about how the people in North Raasay were not being given a fair shake,  and he rightly predicted that government policies and neglect would lead to the depopulation of a whole section of Raasay.  He twice won awards for his writing and was regularly sought out by journalists for his character and comment.  He became a recognized expert on the history of Raasay – especially of the exploitation of the crofters by wealthy outsiders. But Calum MacLeod was no socialist – had no trust of centralized government.  He was much more of a libertarian, though he would never have identified himself as such.

Eventually his pressure, his notoriety, the positive attention his efforts got in the press had the intended effect, and the government chose to complete the  rough road he’d built with tarmac and other features of public roads, and completed it in 1982.  By that time Calum was in his mid 70s and was pleased that his efforts had paid off, but by that time, he and his wife were the only one’s living in northern Raasay.  Calum passed away in 1988.

The story of Calum’s road is well known in Scotland and a popular Scottish Strathspey is named for it.   On youtube you can meet Calum and get a good overview of Calum’s Road in a very short (4 mins) video  at https://youtu.be/LUh6ROorRUo?si=E6N3Imc_tGEAeipF   Another very short piece with some great pics can be viewed on TikTok at: https://youtube.com/shorts/n9KmJKDYat0?si=A86njZtkny_3Ezrmhttps://youtube.com/shorts/n9KmJKDYat0?si=A86njZtkny_3Ezrm

I really enjoyed this short book – it gave great insight into the how and why Scottish Highland culture has changed over the 20th century.    I just wish I’d read it before I actually rode that road that Calum built. I would have spent more time at the end visiting the abandoned crofts and village just a few yards beyond the end of the road.

Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group. Also I’d read three others of Hampton Sides’ historical narratives, and all were great (Blood and Thunder, Kingdom of Ice, and Ghost Soldiers.).  

Summary in 3 Sentences: The book begins with a background on James Cook and his previous 2 voyages to the Pacific and then how he was selected to captain this final most ambitious effort by the British Admiralty to explore the Pacific and find the Northwest Passage.  It covers the entire 3rd vosyage, of Cooks two ships, the  Resolution and the Discovery, around Cape Horn, Austraila and New Zealand, the encounters Cooks team had with the Polynesians of Tahite and what is now French Polynesia, and then their exploration of the north western coast of North America and Alaska and into the Arctic in search of the NW passage, and then finally returning to Hawaii where events took an unexpected turn for the worse.

My Impressions: Another fascinating historical narrative by Hampton Sides – revealing an important piece of history about which I was only vaguely aware.  I listened to rather than read this book, knowing from my previous experiences with the author that it would be captivating and easy to follow. The narrator had a British accent which was appropriate given that Cook not only was English, but his voyage was on behalf of the imperialist aims of 18th century England  The problem with listening is that I’m sure that the hard copy had maps which would have helped a lot – as it was, I had to remind myself when I got back to my computer to find maps which laid out his voyage. 

The main subject of the book, Cook’s 3rd and final voyage, begins with the long transit to the South Pacific around Africa, Cape Horn below Australia to Tasmania and then New Zealand before getting to the Tahitian Islands – and beyond.

But the book begins with a brief summary of Cook’s 1st and 2nd voyages which also serve as an introduction of Cook himself.  We learn of his background, how he came to be a highly regarded explorer before the 3rd voyage, as well as an introduction into how the Royal Navy functioned, how captains were selected and the preparation required for ambitious voyages of discovery and empire.

One of the key characters of the early part of the book was Omai who had been brought back to England from the Tahitian islands on Cook’s second voyage.  Sides goes into some length describing how he was received and feted in England, how he adapted and became a celebrity, wanting only to return to his home Islands to avenge his tribe after a war with another tribe. 

King George III directed that Omai be returned to his home islands on Cook’s 3rd voyage and the King also insisted that Cook bring a wide variety of animals and plants to help spread “civilization” to the Pacific Islands. Omai was indeed returned by Cook to his native Tahitian Islands, but that didn’t work out as well as had been hoped. Omai expected, in fact demanded that he be treated as a returning hero with privilges and power, which those in power in his native community resented. He alienated the people he returned to by “putting on airs,”  and his return was not as fortuitous as he’d desired. 

One of the key objectives and most interesting aspects of this book were the anthropological aspects of Cook’s contact – often first European contact – with islanders in many parts of the Pacific.  He was more respectful and sensitive than most to native cultures and endeavored to always build positive relations – which was often difficult, given that his crews did not share his same sensibilities.  This is perhaps understandable given the age of his crew, and the hardships of their voyage. When Cook and his crew  finally arrived in the islands, their primary goal was to somehow get something pleasurable from the natives – and that usually meant sex.  And in this, the natives were usually happy to comply, as the sailors were new and different, and the natives had no experience with Christian prejudices against recreational or transactional sex.  The native girls were often only too happy to trade sex for some of what the sailors had to offer that were valuable to them, such as nails, mirrors, cloth, etc. And the native men profited from these transactions as well, offering up their sisters, wives, daughters. 

Captain Cook only sought to inhibit these transactions when he realized that his sailors were spreading venereal disease (primarily gonorrhea) where it had been previously unknown. He tried, often unsuccessfully, to keep sailors on board who his surgeon knew had “the clap.”  

Cook was the first European to have recorded a visit to the Hawaiian Islands, though there is some scant evidence that perhaps a Spanish vessel may have visited, or been shipwrecked.  Cook’s expedition stumbled on the Hawaiian Islands on their way to the Northwest Coast of America in search of the Northwest Passage. They stopped to get supplies and fresh water and rest, then headed for what is now the coast of Washington State and Vancouver, and they continued sailing northwest, exploring every inlet they found in an unsuccessful effort to find a through passage.  They went north to Alaska, proceeded along the southern coast of Alaska through the Bering Sea and into the Arctic Sea before turning around, after hitting an impenetrable wall of ice.  Along the way they met with Inuit and other native tribes, many of whom had had contact with Russian traders, or knew of Russian ships which had been in the region.  

Cook then turned his expedition around and returned to the Hawaiian Islands to refit, recover, and spend the winter.  Cook planned to return to the Arctic the following summer in hopes of finding a passage before the ice closed in. But his arrival in Hawaii inauspiciously coincided with a major religious ceremony, and the native Hawaiians believed Cook to be a god returning to help and serve the people. This led to a series of misunderstandings and a series of bad decisions and bad judgement calls that Cook made,  culminating in a fight that led to Cook’s death and that of several of his crew.  The expedition’s second in command took over and reluctantly decided to carry out Cook’s plan, and returned to the Arctic the following summer, again hit the ice wall and then headed  the thousands of miles back to England. 

One of the sub-themes that Sides returned to frequently was that on this voyage, something didn’t seem right with Cook.  He seemed to have become angrier, less tolerant, and impetuous in ways that he had not been on previous expeditions. He had previously been known as a calm, steady, and dispassionate man of good judgment and a rational demeanor. On this expedition,  those who knew him were surprised when he regularly behaved or made decisions inconsistent with his previous character.  Anger, and bad judgment were instrumental in leading to the confrontation at which he lost his life. 

The Wide, Wide Sea was not only very engaging to read, but was informative and insightful, as have been the other historical narratives I’ve read by Hampton Sides.  I just read another book that I would recommend before reading this one – The Wager – about an incident in the Royal Navy that happened 40+ years before Cook’s 3rd voyage.  This book sheds light on some of the practices of the Royal Navy that would add to the appreciation of Cook’s voyage, and Sides’ account of it.  

Why this book: Proposed by my friend Ernie in my literature reading group, but not selected by the group.  It looked interesting to me and as a short read, I decided to read it.  

Summary in  4 Sentences:  A Russian conscript in modern times (everyone has a cell phone)  is on a train with other conscripts to do their initial duty assignment in Siberia, but he truly dreads the experience and decides to desert along the way.  On the train he has a casual encounter with a French woman a bit older who is running away from her lover.  Events lead to the French woman reluctantly choosing to help the young Russian hide from his Sergeant and ultimately desert.  They reach Vladivostok, and though they have no common language, they feel connected – they have both escaped into an unknown and uncertain future.  

My Impressions More a novella than a novel – a very short read  (127 pp of large print on small pages), but very engaging.  The Russian conscript – a confused young man of 20  – is on a train to Siberia with  other conscripts to begin their obligated time in service,  and he decides he REALLY doesn’t want to do this, is afraid, and decides to desert – somehow.     On the train, he has a chance and fortuitous encounter with a somewhat older (35ish?)  French woman running from what she fears – a committed relationship and all that entails with a Russian man she loves. She has no plan – she is just running away.

This is not a love story – the conscript and the French woman don’t even have a common language  to communicate with each other – but come to a non-verbal understanding. Reluctantly, the French woman chooses to help the young conscript desert by evading the Russian sergeant.

The story is about their visceral connection on the train, his ham-fisted attempts to escape, how she is drawn into his dilemma, how she is also struggling with her own escape – emotionally from her lover.  It was clear to me that both of them had made rash decisions to run from their fears, without thinking through the consequences.  The books concludes with uncertain futures for both of them.  

The young man had been from a broken home and poor family, but was blessed with good looks and physical strength, but damn little self-confidence  The French woman is a sympathetic character who wanted and needed love but was afraid of it.  We don’t get to know her past – only that she’d met her Russian lover in Paris and had agreed to return with him to Russia, and then, as he began what clearly would be a good career that would keep him there, she panicked.  She was cowardly in how she left him, but she showed courage in  choosing to help the young conscript, which entailed risk to her.  Both she and the conscript were taking big chances – we are left to wonder whether and how those courageous decision might transform their lives. 

The book is very well written and sparse.  The protagonists are sympathetic characters but found themselves in a dilemma as a result of their own weakness-of-will and inability/unwillingness to take responsibility for their own decisions.  Then, their rash decisions and circumstances forced them to deal with the consequences – which were yet to be determined.  

The book offers other perspectives.  We get to see how the other passengers on the train react to Siberia, passing by the spectacular Lake Baikal and then we see their resonse to some of the drama on the train and at the stops.  Some of the key take-aways for me were to remind me of the basic humanity of the Russian people and Russian soldiers, as well as the broad and long expanses of Siberia – recall the train scenes in the movie Doctor Zhivago – I’d love to make that train ride when/if  US-Russian relations thaw.   And how young people the world over, so often make decisions they don’t think through based on fear and lack of self confidence,  and then are left facing new and perhaps scarier challenges as a result.   

It was a short book that made an impression on me.  It was worth my time. 

Why this book. Selected by my Sci Fi book club and it is the sequel to 2034,which I’d previously read (my review of it here.)

Summary in 5 Sentences: The setting is the United States 20 years after the nuclear exchange between the US and China described in their novel  2034.  The US government is strongly divided between the left and the right, and a constitutional crisis is erupting, exacerbated when the President suddenly dies.  The government lies about it and the opposition party assumes he was assassinated by a secret bio-tech capability under development to do “remote gene editing.”  The remainder of the book bounces between the effort to track down the bio-technicians developing remote gene-editing, and the explosive crisis developing in our government – reminiscent of 6 January 2022.  Current longevity guru Ray Kurzweil plays a role as the genius working to achieve “the Singularity” – the merging of biological and technological evolution to create the next generation of humans. 

Impressions;   A quick and fascinating read – though it starts out a bit confusing early on, as each section introduces new characters in new settings – I initially had trouble keeping track.  But soldiering on, I knew (from having read 2034) that eventually they would all somehow be connected and I’d be able to follow the multiple converging stories.  And indeed, that did happen. 

The political dimension is an important part of the story – something of a cautionary tale about the direction the US is heading.  In 2054, the increasingly extreme measures that the left and right ends of the political spectrum resort to in order to retain power are painfully reminiscent of the news today.  2054 takes them to an ugly extreme – certainly driven by the authors’ perception of events of Jan 2022. I thought it was a shortcoming that the book failed to explain changes in our political process – for example, multiple (more than 2) terms of a charismatic, populist President who would not give up power, and the President simply naming his VP. 

In parallel with and connected to that drama, is the effort to find out who and how someone on the cutting edge of bio technology was able to remotely edit the President’s genes to engender a fatal heart attack.  As that international crime conspiracy develops, we find players in China, Japan, Brazil, India and  Nigeria and ultimately learn that the assassination of the President thru remote gene editing is not the most important issue at stake.  As those who’ve followed the development of AI  have certainly read, the country that first is able to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) often called “the Singularity”  will essentially rule the world.  “The Singularity” is when “computer programs become so advanced that AI transcends human intelligence, potentially erasing the boundary between humanity and computers.” (from Google definition of “the Singularity”) 

Ray Kurzweil  – a real human being and bio tech scientist in Silicon Valley (look him up) has been on a quest to find the cure for aging and thus extend human life indefinitely.   In 2054, that quest has led Kurzweil to eventually finding (or approaching) ‘the singularity,’ but he is also fully aware of the power it holds – and he goes into hiding.  Finding Kurzweil becomes a sub-theme of the story. 

2054 was a page turner, once I got through the initial chapters during which I was a bit disoriented,  and I very much enjoyed reading the book. 

That said, in addition to the constitutional shortcomings I previously mentioned, there were a couple of other times I had to suspend disbelief.   Ackerman and Stavridis had two legitimate and very compelling warnings to convey in this book, but I thought their effort to combine them into one novel was a bit strained.  Those two messages/themes were:  the dangers US faces as the vitriol between our political extremes increases;   and the very political and international implications and threats that accompany the accelerated development of AI toward AGI and “the Singularity.”