Books

I was browsing through Half-Price Books recently -- not intending to buy anything, just passing the time until parent-teacher conferences. But I ended up buying three books, all of which I was very excited about.

First, I found "Titanic: A Survivor's Story." The author started recording his experience immediately after the sinking (literally -- he was making notes while on the Carpathia). He attended many of the hearings and tracked down as many other survivors as he could to get their accounts. After recounting his own experience of being washed off the ship and spending the night on an overturned lifeboat, he gave an account of each lifeboat to leave the Titanic. For each boat, he listed who was known to be on it, and each of their accounts of leaving the ship and being on the lifeboat.

I've already finished this book and found it fascinating! Not just because it's a firsthand account of the Titanic's sinking, but also because the author was a Christian. He described his final day on the ship, how he repeatedly did not follow his customary daily routine, and how by doing so he had added rest and strength to endure the sinking. He also talks about his wife, who was in New York, feeling compelled to pray in the middle of the night. She opened her prayer book, which fell open to "Prayer For Those At Sea." A few hours later she learned of the sinking of the Titanic, and for some hours believed that her husband had died in the sinking.

All in all, it was a very interesting and thorough account. The book was largely written during the summer of 1912, and the author died in December of the same year, largely from the effects of spending a night in the freezing water.

I haven't read the other two books yet. One is an I've-identified-Jack-the-Ripper book. It's a subject I find interesting, and I read Patricial Cornwell's version a couple years ago. She fingered a particular artist, and she certainly makes a compelling argument. I don't think her theory is widely accepted, although I don't know what evidence is given to refute it. The book that I just got uses that same artist as a source for information, but doesn't name him as a suspect, so I'm interested to hear the author's perspective and compare his arguments to Cornwell's.

And the third book is called "Slaves in the Family." Slavery and/or the Underground Railroad is something that I've renewed interest in lately, mostly since watching C.S.A. When I bought this book, I thought it was written by a descendant of slaves, who tracked down descendants of other slaves from the same family to interview them. When I started reading it, though, I discovered that the author is the descendant of slave owners. He's seeking out descendants of slaves that his family used to own, to interview them and record their family stories, which is a far more interesting premise. I have only read a few pages of it so far, but I'm really excited about it.

On a purely trivial but interesting note: I fanned through the pages of "Slaves in the Family" yesterday to get to my bookmark, and it fell open to another page instead. There was a calling card tucked between the pages, which is not in and of itself very interesting. But the calling card was in Japanese, for use in Japan, which to me is very interesting.