Some serious summer reading

Addiction is a serious issue here at home and around the world. In my case, thankfully, my addictions are to chocolate, coffee, ice cream and reading. I will admit that my doctor suggests that I go easier on the first three! Over the years, in this column, I’ve taken one early summer column to suggest some summer reading. People do read less, we are told, these days, although the publishing industry is booming. And for some people, summer is the time to get away from school and work and do some reading, while for others, summer is gardening, hiking and swimming time, and winter is when the reading gets done.

I’m going to suggest some more serious reading this time, although I’m happy to admit that I also read spy novels, murder mysteries and general fiction. In our household, we’ve read all the Louise Penny “Three Pines” mysteries and political dramas, all the quirky Anthony Horowitz murder stories, all the Tony & Ann Hillerman Navajo mysteries set in the American Southwest, and all the No. Ladies Detective Agency novels set in Botwsana by Alexander McCall Smith.

Here are three books that I’ve read in the past year that are historical, or historical fiction and connect in many ways to today’s headlines. For the person who is dedicated to “Canada First” and therefore reading about our country’s history and place in the world, I’d recommend “The Great Halifax Explosion” by John U. Bacon, which came out in 2017, a hundred years after that tragic event. En route to support allied troops fighting in the First World War, highly dangerous materials heading to Europe entered Halifax harbour on the Mont-Blanc.

This book is a page-turning account of the accidental and irresponsible factors that led up to a ship carrying six million pounds of explosives unleashing their fury and, as a fellow south of us likes to say, obliterating that city and its people. It is also a story of how the remaining population and those who came to aid them dealt with the situation in heroic ways. As a bonus, it tells us a lot about the experiences of Maritime Canadians fighting in Europe and about the history of Canadian-American relations up to that time.

If you like a good mystery, or a true crime exposé, or a look at today’s world of international finance, fraud and oligarchy, I strongly recommend the new book, “London Falling” by Patrick Radden Keefe, subtitled “A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth.” My wife read a recent review and instructed me, as only she can, to buy it and read it. And it was hard to put down. Why is a 19-year-old youth found dead by the Thames River in a posh district of London? Was he pushed or did he jump? What was the double life that he was living unknown to his family, and who were the people he was connecting with? How do his personality traits relate back to his own background of past generations? Why don’t the police seem to make (or want to make) any progress in the investigation? As they say in the comic books: ‘Nuff said! Read it!

Staying with the London location, my third suggestion is a book by Edward Rutherfurd written way back in 1997. Rutherfurd is famous for a series of books he wrote that tell the story of generations of families starting in ancient times and proceeding right up to the present in different locations around the world. So, for example, he wrote one about New York, another about Moscow, another about China, and one about Salisbury/Stonehenge. These are 1,000-page books and my favourite so far is called “London.” You get a history of the city, its culture, politics and high or low points, while also getting the drama of how a few families, generation by generation, fared over the centuries. While these books are not recent, they are easy to find through online ordering or via your favourite bookstore. If you’ve spent extra time in any of the places that Rutherfurd covers, whether in London or New York or Paris, you get a chill when you can see in your mind’s eye a location he is describing.

Knowing that you have enough ice cream in the freezer, coffee in the canister and chocolate in the cupboard will set your mind at ease. Knowing that you have enough (whatever “enough” is) books in your shelf, on your dresser and desk, and piled on the floor by your bed will do the same. Enjoy some good reading this summer!

» Zack Gross is president of the Marquis Project, a Brandon-Westman based international development organization.