Five stars, of course. I read this book every couple of years to reignite the joy of reading fiction after a stint of nonfiction. The edition I like to read includes the famous “river raft scene” which Twain deleted from the novel but included in “Life on the Mississippi.” By far my favorite book to read, of all time. Every sentence is a joy, and Twain winks at us behind the curtain of each scene.

During this last reading I particularly enjoyed Twain’s wonderful use of metaphor in this passage:

So Tom says:

“What’s the vittles for? Going to feed the dogs?”

The nigger kind of smiled around graduly over his face, like when you heave a brickbat in a mud-puddle, and he says:

“Yes, Mars Sid, A dog. Cur’us dog, too. Does you want to go en look at ‘im?”

Although I have to assume a ‘brickbat’ is a brick, the image is striking.

I’m also reminded of how veiled the criticism of slavery is in the book, and how southern readers in 1885 must have blushed when reading it. The book was certainly controversial when it came out, but it seems obvious to me that some of the general embarrassment it caused had to do with Twain’s portrayal of white attitudes toward blacks. The book still makes readers feel ashamed that good people like Jim were treated the way they were.

I can’t think of a better testament to Twain’s consummate craft.

Buy it here: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

This one gets 4 solid stars. Written in sparse, funny tones, Martin tells a fun story of his rise as a comedian. Interestingly, He calls the book a biography rather than an autobiography, because he feels like he is telling someone else’s story. The result is an entertaining look at life growing up in the sixties and seventies, and how Martin’s early career led to the creation of the wild and crazy guy we know and love. I was surprised to learn how intentional his idea of humor became, and how he knew all along what sort of funny he wanted to create. I’d just assumed he was just a zany dude. In fact he was very well read in philosophy and approached humor with a discerning eye toward doing something truly new.

This book has made Steve Martin’s comedy all the richer for me.

Buy it here: Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life

This is a very thorough biography, well written and researched. I noticed that Professor Allen Gribben, my old literature professor at Auburn University at Montgomery, reviewed the book and noted how opinionated Loving is about certain things. He wasn’t lying. Loving intuits and surmises throughout the book about Twain’s life and writing, usually looking at events to determine how they affected his art. Not being a Twain scholar, his opinions didn’t bother me. They usually seemed plausible if not self-evident. I can imagine though that some take issue with his conclusions.

This book isn’t necessarily for the general reader, but if you’re curious about Twain you’ll appreciate it.

Buy it here: Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens

This is a good, thorough compilation of Twain’s writings on religious matters. Each essay or story is prefaced by explanatory test, which I found very informative. The editors take pains to refrain from classifying Twain as an atheist or deist based on the writings, which I think reflects the truth that his views were at best conflicted and often changed. Regardless of his personal views, he skewers religion and its fictional foibles in these works with little regard to their controversial effect. Of course, some of them were never published, but he knew they would be read someday.

The editors make the important point that the Bible had probably the greatest impact on Twain’s writings than any other book. The essays highlighted in this book show Twain’s wonderful struggle with the Bible and its effect, good and bad, on modern human culture.

Buy it here: The Bible According to Mark Twain: Irreverent Writings on Eden, Heaven, and the Flood by America’s Master Satirist

If you’ve seen the HBO series called The Pacific, you ought to read this book. It fleshes out many stories which aren’t included in the film but which deserve a hearing. The literary successes of Robert Leckie and E.B. Sledge, on which The Pacific series is based, become the backdrop for the lesser-know stories by Vernon “Mike” Micheel, Austin Shofner, and others who experienced unique parts of the war in the Pacific theater. Hugh Ambrose takes his fathers lead in telling the soldiers’ stories with grace and power.

Buy it here: The Pacific

I read this solely in anticipation of The Pacific, which is based partly on this and partly on E.B. Sledge’s book noted below.

This is a somewhat decent book, but I recommend Sledge’s.

Buy it here: Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific

If you are interested in World War I, you need to read this book. I heard about it after seeing the film Thirteen Days, which chronicles the Cuban Missle Crisis from inside the White House. At one point in the film, when JFK is under pressure by the Army generals to attack Cuba because they think Russia will back down, he refuses on the grounds that U.S. diplomacy should not be dictated by military strategy. JFK specifically quotes Tuchman’s book, citing the lessons learned in 1914.

It turns out that Tuchman’s book is an amzing blow-by-blow retelling of the events which led up to the Great War, and how antiquated military ideas led to the horrific bloodbath and stalemate on the Western Front. She details the prevailing military thinking of the period, primarily influenced by Clausewitz and Shleiffen, and shows how both the Central and Allied powers were laboring under old perceptions of combat totally unsuitable to the realities of modern warfare. She recounts the mutilple instances of bad judgment, incompetance, and egoism that led to many tactical errors on both sides, all influenced by the stale concepts of military leadership which still prevailed in those years.

Tuchman is extremely knowledgable about her subject, but her readers may be less so. I had to have Wikipedia handy at all times to understand her frequent references to “Sedan” “Cannae” and other famous battles, but in the end I learned way more about the period than I expected. She is particularly adept at portraying the war on a continuum, linked inextricably with the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 (and later, with World War II). This is exactly the sort of history I like, which explains events not in isolation but as fruit and seed of other events. I would say this book is indispensable for anyone even slightly interested in modern military history.

Buy it here: The Guns of August

I started reading this book in college after learning that William Wordsworth was influenced by it in 1798 when he was composing Lyrical Ballads. Bartram was one of the first to celebrate the American wilderness from a botanist’s point of view, and his book was widely read in Europe. Of particular interest to me is the fact that he passed through Alabama, making his way up the Alabama River to the Montgomery region and then heading west to Augusta, Georgia. As historically relevant as his book is, it can be a difficult read. After all, it took me around ten years to finish it. Bartram was first and foremost a naturalist, and he describes the flora and fauna with minute detail. These sections of the book get dry very fast. However, he recounts many other fascinating things, such as his adventures with alligators, Indians and mosquitos, all with an easily understood language and perspective. It is interesting to hear his descriptions of encounters with bear and “tygers,” and of the rivers which he found clear and sparkling. It was a very different landscape back then.

I’m glad I read this book, but it is in not recommended for the general reader.

Buy it here: Travels of William Bartram

This massive tome counts among the great biographies I have read. After reading David McCullough’s book on John Adams and seeing the HBO series, I was wary of Hamilton, suspecting him, as Adams and Jefferson did, of being more harmful to the American experiment than good. I was wrong.

Not only was Hamilton an incredibly hardworking, brilliant political theorist, but he was instrumental in building a version of it that worked, allowed the United States to become a successful, powerful nation in a relatively short span of time. As a high federalist, he argued for greater federal power, placing him at odds with the southern gentry who wanted limited governmental intrusion. His views attracted the most viscious political (and personal) attacks in America’s history, yet time has shown again and again the prescience of his ideas. Far from being a perfect man, he was a brilliant architect of democratic government and its necessary departments. He single-handedly created the nation’s first bank, and developed the economic theory which was to propel America into world financial leadership; he was the first Secretary of the Treasury, guiding it through the shoals of its infancy; he drafted some of the most brilliant Constitutional interpetations in the country’s history, which were instrumental in its adoption; he was a brilliant lawyer, championing freedom of the press and other groundbreaking constitutional liberties. He did all of this amid humiliating scandal and excoriating attacks on his illegitimate birth.

Rising from a poor lad with no prospects to one of the greatest statemen of the age, Hamilton in may ways represented the nascent American Dream, ironically much more so than Jefferson, who was arguably the greatest champion of the common man in his time.

This book, more than any other I have read, gives a realistic description of the personal flaws of Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and the other men whose images have been handed to us gilt and graven. Chernow strips away the myth and explains why early American politics were so harsh, so difficult and taxing. This book makes it apparent how close the country came to foundering, yet was held together by compromise and sacrifice over and over. Hamilton’s contributions were arguably greater than anyone else’s, if certainly more controversial. Chernow does a brilliant job of bringing Hamilton to life, and highlighting his achievements amid so many incredible others of his day.

Buy it here: Alexander Hamilton