Review by New York Times Review
THE HOUR OF LAND: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks, by Terry Tempest Williams. (Picador, $18.) After visiting 12 national parks, Williams examines their role in shaping the country's politics, history and people in these essays. Her writing can take on an activist's urgency: Williams's "alarm at humanity's calamitous impact on nature is indelibly imprinted in her writing," our reviewer, Andrea Wulf, said. NICOTINE, by Nell Zink. (Ecco/ HarperCollins, $15.99.) With her father in hospice, Penny returns to his childhood home in New Jersey, where she encounters a troupe of squatters who have overrun the homestead. She soon falls in love with their unofficial chief, Rob, and with their way of life. But when Penny's family moves to evict the squatters, she must act to protect their fragile community. REVOLUTION ON THE HUDSON: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence, by George C. Daughan. (Norton, $18.95.) As a central economic channel, connecting New England to the other colonies, the Hudson River was a critical strategic front for both sides during the Revolutionary War. But Britain's intense pursuit of winning control of the region during the conflict may have cost it victory, Daughan argues. MISCHLING, by Affinity Konar. (Lee Boudreaux/ Back Bay, $16.99.) In this affecting and occasionally lyrical debut novel, Konar draws on real-life figures from World War II, including Josef Mengele, who inflicted unspeakable horrors on prisoners at Auschwitz - and had a particular interest in twins. This story's central characters, Stasha and Pearl, twin sisters who are fiercely close, arrive at the camp when they are 12; Mengele's experiments on them threaten to distance one sister from the other. MAGIC AND LOSS: The Internet as Art, by Virginia Heffernan. (Simon & Schuster, $17.) The internet is too often hailed as simply a technological achievement, without enough attention to its creative foundation, Heffernan, a journalist and critic, says. She approaches the web as an artistic masterpiece, structuring her book around what she sees as its aesthetic building blocks: design, text, photography, music. SELECTION DAY, by Aravind Adiga. (Scribner, $16.) Two brothers in India are groomed by their poor fcv"' father to become cricket Jfc/' stars. The story "pulses with affection for Mumbai," our reviewer, Marcel Theroux said, praising the book's "broad sweep, accomplished with commendable economy and humor, in a sinewy, compact prose that has the grace and power of a gifted athlete."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
This is a solid naval history of America's war of independence from Great Britain, but its scope is far broader than the title suggests. Daughan, winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, successfully argues that the British strategy of isolating New England by claiming New York and the Hudson Valley ultimately backfired, but he also shows the roles Philadelphia, the Chesapeake Bay.the American South, and even the Caribbean played in the war. If the title is misleading, however, the book delivers an enlightening combination of military and regional history that will draw anyone interested in the naval side of the American Revolution.--Levine, Mark Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
The Hudson River-Lake Champlain corridor was a historic invasion route between the American colonies and Canada. Daughan (The Shining Sea) maintains that British ambitions to control this strategic passage were a fantasy, and that their efforts to do so contributed directly to losing the Revolutionary War. Yet, the title is a bit misleading. This is actually a brief survey of the war, with some focus on (and a thesis centered on) New York City and the Hudson River Valley region. While entire chapters are devoted to events in the Southern theater, the account contains solid analyses of the conflict, with appropriate emphasis on naval operations. British war crimes are a recurring theme. Gen. William Howe and Adm. Richard Howe, along with their associates Joshua Loring Jr. and William Cunningham, are repeatedly cited as being directly responsible for the starvation and deaths of American captives on British prison ships. VERDICT Readers wishing for a brief, casual history of the American Revolution should find this worthwhile. The field, however, is packed with competition. More in-depth studies can be found in works by Benson Bobrick, John Ferling, David Hackett Fischer, and David McCullough.--Matthew Wayman, Pennsylvania State Univ. Lib., Schuylkill Haven © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fresh view of Britain's attempt to quash an independence movement that didn't have to occur. The British defeat in America was as unnecessary as the war. The colonists never wanted to separate from England; they were willing to pay taxes and support the king. Leading from abroad demanded unrealistic goals and provided insufficient resources. Different strategy, improved leadership at home, and better field commanders would have made a world of difference. The king's fixation on gaining control of the corridor along the Hudson to Canada was an impossible task, illustrated by Gen. John Burgoyne's loss at Saratoga. Throughout the war, the English reliance on loyalist support was delusional; any who might have joined them were put off by English and Hessian atrocities. Daughan's (The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the U.S.S. Essex During the War of 1812, 2013, etc.) broad background in the naval history of the period and his inclusion of the English view comprises a portrait of a different revolution than the one taught in textbooks. The English leaders spent more time squabbling with each other than fighting battles. Too often, advantages were not pressed and defeats were snatched from the jaws of victory. Particularly absurd was the failure, without explanation, of Henry Clinton to press the attack on West Point after Benedict Arnold was exposed. It was scheduled within days, but he held back. George Washington had a similar amount of trouble, with subordinates undermining his authority and even, in the case of Gen. Charles Lee, ignoring orders. Throughout the war, Washington's troops were undersupplied, hungry, and unpaid, and he didn't even have a standing army until after the evacuation of New York. What Washington had was the ability to reinforce his army, something the British could not do. These stories are fascinatingegos run rampant, and myriad opportunities go by the waysideand Daughan brings all his subjects to vivid life. A stimulating look at the American Revolution by a diligent historian and talented writer. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
