Men to Match My Mountains

I like Irving Stone. He was in his heyday when I was in my youth, and so I always equate him with the blockbuster. I read his The Agony and the Ecstasy, a fictional bio of Michelangelo, before I went to Italy in 2015, and I've had his Men to Match My Mountains on my TBR shelf for years.

Men to Match My Mountains is non-fiction, published in 1956, and chronicles the story of the American West, 1840 to 1900. Bascially, there are 5 main story threads--the pioneer experience (including the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Santa Fe trails), the railroads (and all the backstabbing, manipulation, false advertising, backbreaking labor, and engineering that went into them), the growth of the major metropolitan areas (San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver, Salt Lake, and Los Angeles), the mines (gold, silver, god) and mining camps, and the Mormons (from polygamy to statehood),

Stone uses the stories of the men and women who starred in these main threads to paint a detailed account of the grit, heartache, and dreams it took to go create the American West so aptly portrayed in Hollywood's vision. While Stone doesn't completely ignore the Native American story, and he does give a fair account of the disgraceful Sand Creek Massacre and the string of broken treaties--it is not one of the main story threads that he follows completely.

Apart from the Native American part of the story, Stone really does recount virtually every story you've ever heard about the American West - the doomed Donner party, the explorations of Zebulon Pike and John Fremont, the scouting prowess of Kit Carson, the infamous Alferd Packer,  the California 49ers, the Colorado 59ers, Horace and Baby Doe Tabor, Leland Stanford and his cohorts in the Southern Pacific, Pikes Peak or Bust, the crazy land rush of Los Angeles, the ties to Mexico, and on and on.

It is a long book, crammed full of details and stories. It is a product of the mid-50s, though progressive in its time, I believe, it is a bit dated. Nevertheless, it was a fun book to read--as a Westerner, I loved reading about so many places that I know well, have visited often, and have wondered about.

This is definitely one of my 2020 Big Book Summer books.

August, September, and October Reading

Between getting ready for my trip to Italy (I just got back after 2 glorious weeks, more on that soon), traveling, and lots of family activities, my book posts have dwindled dramatically.  This is not to say that I haven't been reading, though!  I actually have a host of finished books to report on, and so I decided to get caught up in one fell swoop.

Here's what I've been reading...

Recent releases
The Girl on a Train (audio), by Paula Hawkins - I succumbed to the hype and totally loved this book.  I thought the triple narration worked, and the mystery keep me guessing until near the end.  Can't wait for the movie, though disappointed to hear it is set in the U.S. and not the UK.

The Oregon Trail (audio), by Rinker Buck - Loved, loved, loved this memoir of a 60-something writer and his brother doing a modern crossing of the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon and mule team.  I learned so much about the trail itself, the lives of the pioneers, western history circa 1840-1860, and modern middle America.  I couldn't help but think of it as similar to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, but with mules.  Rinker's brother Nick was definitely in the Katz role--larger than life, irreverent, impulsive, but essential.  It was also quite a nostalgic read for me--while Rinker is about 10 years older than me, I have brothers his age, and the parts in which he reminisced about his childhood in the 1950's and 60's made me think of my own family.

Reading Italy
Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes - I thought I had read this book, but in reading it I realized I had actually only seen the movie, which deviates quite a bit from the actual storyline of this memoir.  I enjoyed it and plan to read more of Mayes's books about life in Italy.  Easy to read, interesting, and well-written.

The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone - I loved this book about the life of Michelangelo Buonarotti and thought it an excellent way to familiarize myself with both Florence and Rome before visiting them this month.  It's well-written and fascinating and definitely a classic of fictionalized historical biography.

The Italians, by John Hooper - Overall a pretty good book that attempts to explain how a country that gave us the Renaissance and Opera also gave us the Mafia.  Until I embarked on my Reading Italy project, I confess that I really didn't know that much about the history of the country itself, apart from the big things like the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, and Silvio Berlusconi.  Hooper is an American journalist who has lived in Italy, so it's pretty much all opinion, but interesting and informative nonetheless.

Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, illlustrations by Sara Faneli - Recommended by Lucy Pollard-Gott of The Fictional 100, and definitely an interesting read given my only knowledge of Pinocchio before reading this original story was courtesy of Walt Disney.  Like the Grimm Fairy Tales, the original is darker, more complex, and definitely less cute than Disney's version.  I read that it is actually a satire on 19th century Italian politics, but I'm too ignorant to get what was actually being mocked. I'll have to reread Lucy's chapter on Pinocchio now that I've read the original!

From Pompeii: the Afterlife of a Roman Town, by Ingrid D. Rowland - This turned out to be a bit less interesting that I had hoped.  It was about the discovery of Pompeii in the 18th century and the efforts to excavate it, and some info on various visitors to the site over the past couple of hundred years.  I found it a bit tedious at times, but stuck with it.

Falling in Love, by Donna Leon - I read this on the plane to Venice and loved it.  The latest in Leon's Guido Brunetti mystery series, and all about opera (Tosca again--The Uncle from Rome also was about a production of Tosca).  These mysteries aren't heart-stopping but they are so enjoyable to read--Guido and his family, life in Venice, work within the Venetian and Italian bureaucracies, detailed descriptions of food and meals and markets and life!

Roma, by Steven Saylor - I read this for the two weeks I was touring Italy and finished on the flight back to Denver.  Very much in the style of Michener and Rutherford, Saylor's Roma starts with the earliest settlers along the Tiber and follows a couple of families through time, ending with the assassination of Julius Caesar and the rise of Caesar Augustus.  Saylor isn't quite as good as Michener and Rutherford, but I will definitely read more of Saylor novels set in Ancient Rome.  Overall, fun to read and easy going.

Historical Fiction
Demelza (audio), by Winston Graham - My new favorite series.  Eager to get started on the next book in the Poldark Saga, Jeremy Poldark.  Wonder if it's available on audio yet?

World War I and II
The Monuments Men (audio), by Robert M. Edsel - I loved the movie and happened upon this at the library and decided to listen to it.  So interesting--now, I'm eager to read Edsel's second book about the Monuments Men, Saving Italy, which focuses on the recovery of stolen art in Italy.

The Guns of August (audio), by Barbara W. Tuchman - I have had this on my TBR shelf for so long that I figured the only way to actually get to it would be to listen to it.  Totally blew me away.  Basically a day-by-day, almost minute-by-minute analysis of the first month of WWI.  Tuchman's premise is that the events of August 1914, the decisions, mistakes, and assumptions shaped the rest of the war.  I am really trying to wrap my mind around WWI as a way of understanding the 20th century, and this approach (while incredibly dense) gave me a good foundation for learning about the rest of the war.  Truly a classic and definitely worth reading, but by no means easy reading.  It took me several months to finish this.

Classics
Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym - What a joy to read.  The more I read of Pym the more I like her.  Mildred is an excellent woman and while the kind of life she leads is pretty much dated, the portraits of the people in the Pym world are timeless.

Non-Fiction
The Brothers Grimm: Two Lives, One Legacy, by Donald R. Hettinga - I read this along with the GoodReads TuesBookTalk Read-Along group and enjoyed it for the most part.  It did seem aimed at a YA reading level and that made the scholarship seem a bit suspect, but that could be a personal bias on my part.  I found it interesting to read about how these two brothers came to collect and publish the German folktales that even in their late 18th century/early nineteenth century world were starting to fade from everyday life.

Meeting the Challenges...

The Guns of August, Pinocchio, and Excellent Women all count in my Back to the Classics challenge for 2015, bringing me to 8 out of 12 categories done for the year!

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Part of prepping for my trip to Italy, now less than two weeks away, was to slowly read Irving Stone's magnificent life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Agony and the Ecstasy.  Written in 1961, it is a sprawling book that taught me about the life and times and works of Michelangelo (i.e., Renaissance Florence and Rome).

It also taught me about fresco painting, sculpting marble, and provided an excellent orientation guide to Florence and Rome.  I really enjoyed the thought processes that Stone gave to Michelangelo for each of his works of art--why he chose to carve David or the Pieta or Moses as he did or why he chose the particular scenes from the Bible that he did for his Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes.

I also learned about the Popes and the Medicis and the Borgias, as well as fellow artists, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raffaelle, Brunelleschi, and a host of other Renaissance giants.

It was immensely readable, the pacing was great--a long book, it started with Michelangelo as an 11 year old apprentice, and ended with his death at 89.

Stone has written a number of historical biographies of artists and other notable figures--there are a number of them that appeal to me.  Here's the list, lifted from Wikipedia:

Lust for Life (1934) – Historical novel based on the life of Vincent van Gogh

Sailor on Horseback (1938) – A biography of Jack London

Immortal Wife (1944) – Historical novel based on the life of Jessie Benton Frémont

Adversary in the House (1947) – Historical novel based on the life of Eugene V. Debs and his wife Kate, who opposed socialism^[3]

The Passionate Journey (1949) – Historical novel based on the life of American artist John Noble

The President's Lady (1950) – Historical novel based on the life of American president Andrew Jackson and his marriage to Rachel Donelson Jackson

Love is Eternal (1954) – Historical novel based on the marriage of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd

The Agony and the Ecstasy – (1961) – Historical novel based on the life of Michelangelo

Those Who Love (1965) – Historical novel based on the life of John Adams and Abigail Adams

The Passions of the Mind (1971) – Historical novel based on the life of Sigmund Freud

The Greek Treasure (1975) – based on the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann

The Origin (1980) – Historical novel based on the life of Charles Darwin

Depths of Glory (1985) – Historical novel based on the life of Camille Pissarro

Now I want to want the movie version, with Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II.  I know the casting sounds hokey, but it's gotten good reviews!

Florence by Night

I'm currently slowly reading Irving Stone's 1961 best-seller The Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo.

The book is excellent--well-written, a great way to learn about Renaissance art before my trip to Italy this fall, and an excellent guidebook to Florence.

I've been looking up places on my iPad and learning about the geography as I go. Stone also has some lovely lyrical descriptions that make me catch my breath, and so I have lots of ear-marked pages.

Here's one from the first section of the book, entitled "The Sculpture Garden," where Michelangelo Buonarroti as an eleven-year-old begins working as an apprentice to Ghirlandaio's fresco studio.  He steals out one night and crosses the Arno and climbs up to the Belvedere fort and looks down on Florence:

Florence, luminous in the full moonlight, so close that he felt he could touch the Signoria or the Duomo with his fingers, was a sight of such incredible beauty that he drew in his breath sharply.  No wonder the young men of the city sang their romantic ballads to their town, with whom no girl could compete.  All true Florentines said, "I will not live out of the sight of the Duomo." For him the city was a compact mass of pietra serena, the streets cut through with a mason's chisel, looking like dark rivers, the cobbled piazzas, gleaming white in the moonlight. The palaces stood sentinel, a couple of ranges higher than the modest houses clustered so tightly about them; and piercing the creamy gold sky the spires of Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, the magnificent three-hundred-foot thrust of the Signoria. Making a little group of its own were the great red dome of the cathedral, the glistening small white dome of the Baptistery, the noble pink flesh of the Campanile. Around all was the turreted, tower-studded city wall.