[books 2009] PD James & non-fiction

[inulro]

53. The Skull Beneath the Skin by PD James

I've never read any of the Cordelia Grey mysteries before (I believe there are only two). It does stick to James's formula (the murder takes place on an island with only a handful of suspects who are all stuck there, the characters are all well-read people with little social contact outside work).

I really enjoyed this, quite possibly more than (at least some of) the Dalgleish mysteries.  I wonder why she hasn't written more Cordelia Grey books.

54. The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin

Another one recommended by nwhyte .

The Baltimore in question is a small village in West Cork, Ireland.  Who knew? 

In 1631 almost the whole village was kidnapped by pirates from Algiers and taken back there to be white slaves.  Although little is known about the fate of these people, there is enough documentary evidence from other Europeans enslaved by Barbary pirates (who were often Europeans converted to Islam) at the time that Ekin is able to write a convincing account of slave life in the Barbary states.

Additionally, this is a story where everything is more complicated than it first sounds (it's about Ireland in the 17th century, so that's not surprising) and Ekin makes a convincing case that the villagers were sold out by a corrupt landowner who wanted their land. 

He also makes claims that the captivity of so may Europeans in the North African states which had more social mobility than Europe had an important impact on the history of western civilization, which though I'm not entirely sure I buy, are something really interesting to think about.

This book is not that long (it's thick, but has the largest font I've seen in a book in a long time) and is an easy, quick read.  It's only when I've come to the end that I've realized just how much is packed into it.

If you read anything set in the 16th-18th centuries there's a lot of underlying fear of being taken slave by Barbary pirates; this is the first factual account of it I've read and the scale of piracy in the Mediterranean and off the Atlantic coast was tremendous.

Recommended.


I might slow down on the books front for the next few weeks; I've got my usual other books on the go too, but I finally started Neal Stephenson's Anathem this week so, as they say, I may be some time.

Comments

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

I'm picking Anathem back up this week. I'd gotten about 300 pp in and then decided to hold off, get the paperback, and take it to Europe as my one paper book. Like many of his later books, it starts a little slow, but it gets interesting.