something for everyone

Your Maryland: Little-Known Histories from the Shores of the Chesapeake to the Foothills of the Allegheny Mountains by Ric Cottom
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: non-fiction, history
Review: I grew up in Maryland, and had Maryland history in 4th grade, so a few of these stories, such as Frederick Douglass's early life and the battle that prompted Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner, were already familiar to me.  But Cottom really delves deeply into Maryland history to justify the "little-known" part of his title.  For example, who knew that John Wilkes Booth was present at John Brown's execution?  Or the story behind the grant for the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins?  Who's ever even heard of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, or knew that the very last man to die in battle in WWI was from Maryland?  Or, my personal favorite, who knew that Cab Calloway and Thurgood Marshall went to high school together?

Well, obviously somebody knew, and I'm glad that Ric Cottom put so many little gems together in this volume.  With tales ranging in time from the exploration of the New World though the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, these stories cover a wide variety of topics, from battles to baseball.  Although originally written for radio, these pieces have been well-adapted for print, and if some are too short for your taste, there's plenty of source material given for further reading.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this e-book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

couldn't care less

The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: science fiction
Review: Imagine that we have allowed the Internet to literally take over our brains, so that we don't even need to think about wanting information or remembering anything.  Everything we could ever want to know or remember is simply available with the hint of a thought question.  But what happens when "the Feed" collapses?  Supposedly, that's the question behind this book, but the real story takes place 6 years after "the Collapse" and we only see glimpses of the immediate aftermath.  We're to understand, though, that many people were so completely undone by the lack of the Feed that they couldn't function and died.  This premise is believable, since the Feed stored everyone's memories of everything and had even supplanted most verbal language.  So fine, population decimated, cities ruined, everyone left majorly traumatized, ok.  But Tom and Kate have found a haven, though a tenuous one, with a few other survivors.  That's all background.

The story really begins, or at least I think it's supposed to really begin when Tom and Kate's daughter is kidnapped and they go off in search of her.  Except that all that really happens is that they walk.  A lot.  Don't get me wrong, things do happen, some of them fairly dramatic, except the drama feels like mere blips in a boring landscape, and is so disconnected from everything else that I couldn't bring myself to care much about what was going on.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.