Why Geography Matters

Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, The Rise of China, and Global Terrorism
By Harm de Blij

I have always loved geography, so this title caught my eye.  Plus, I have been feeling a little guilty for all of the “fun” reading I have done lately.  This book is loaded with good information, although it’s a little like preaching to the choir.  People who really need to read it the most won’t.  But even though I took some geo in college, and can find my way around a map, I still learned a lot.  Banish the idea that geo is just about learning places names.  Geography can be worked into about every academic discipline there is.  De Blij spent a lot of time on political geography, which I find fascinating.

A few qualifiers:  The author is not above making a few cracks at religion, and the Bush administration.  He is definitely on the liberal side of the map (pun intended), but manages to sound reasonable about it.  Interestingly enough, although I could tell he has no love for Christianity, he is no Islamic apologist either.  The chapter on Islamic terrorism was sharp and insightful, with no attempts to sugar coat the danger it poses to the world.  Also, near the beginning, he spends some time on basic geography that I just skimmed over, being quite familiar with it.

So, read the book.  You’ll learn a lot in an enjoyable manner; it was actually a bit of a page-turner.  

The Subtle Serpent

by Peter Tremayne

A Celtic Mystery (Sister Fidelma)

More of the same. In fact, this series is starting to catch the dreaded "they're all the same" disease. But they are still good to read, mainly because Tremayne writes intelligently, with rich detail.

When the mystery was revealed at the end of this particular book, I thought it was a little too complicated to be realistic. It was nice to Eudulf back in the picture - we all know they'll get together; the question is how many books will it take?

The Squire's Tale by Margaret Frazer

A Dame Frevisse Mystery

Another good read.  As usual, Frazer presents these characters of rural England in 1444 with very little 21st judgment.  See other posts on works by the same author.

Suffer Little Children by Peter Tremayne

Having finally finished the books I received for Christmas, I went back to the library for a few familiar authors. This Sister Fidelma mystery is the best of the series that I have read so far, although a little more sad. I enjoyed reading about the feuds between ruling families and kingdoms in ancient Ireland. Tremayne is obviously setting the stage for a marriage or other romance between Fidelma and Eudulf (who is present only in Fidelma's thoughts in this book) -- a little too obviously. Otherwise I enjoyed it. See my other posts on his books for more info.

The Italian by Ann Radcliffe

See my post on The Romance of the Forest by the same author. Set in Italy, The Italian is more of the same - classic Gothic romance, full of suspense, darkness, undying love, deathbed revelations, and amazing coincidences. The anti-Catholic attitudes of Radcliffe's time are even more evident in this novel. The good characters are extremely good, and the evil ones are purely evil. The hero, Vivaldi, is the son of two awful parents. Both are haughty, proud, cruel, and unloving. One is even murderous. Radcliffe makes no attempt at explaining how two such parents could have such a paragon of a son, but that's half the fun of this genre! Paulo was the most annoying character. His constant subservience and attestations of love for his master are nauseating. In this novel, the British attitudes towards social class are crystal clear. Paulo loves groveling at the feet of his master (literally!), Ellena won't marry into a family of higher rank if they don't want her, and some characters actually insist that trying to marry out of rank is a crime. Overall, this is an amusing book to read for the crazy plot, but it also illuminates the opinions and social climate of Radcliffe's day.