What I'm Reading: Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade

Medieval Cities, by French professor Henri Pirenne, was published in 1952 but is the synthesis and culmination of lectures he had been building on since the 1920s. I believe Dr. Pirenne was the one who came up with the theory that it was not the fall of the western Empire after Rome was sacked in 470 that caused the decline of urban civilization in western Europe. He believe the Ostrogoths and Visigoths who took over from the Romans largely left the old economic structures in place. They didn't want to destroy the Roman empire, they wanted to share in its prosperity, and in fact, did so.

Rather, it was the spread of Islam across north Africa in the eighth century that disrupted the ancient trade routes, cut western Europe off from its grain and luxury sources, and caused the real "fall" of the old Roman empire (in the west). It was in the eighth and ninth centuries (not 200 years earlier) that trade ebbed to almost nothing and economies, such as they were, became dominated by a feudal system where great lords ruled over estates and everything the people lived on, rich or poor, was produced locally on those estates.

I believe attributing the decline to the spread of Islam is fairly standard now in medieval studies, but at the time it was revolutionary. Dr. Pirenne builds up quite a convincing argument, even if he's a bit breezy with the evidence at times. Moreover, that's just the first couple chapters. In the rest of the book, he continues the story of the re-sparking of urban life in the tenth and eleventh centuries, after the threats from the Vikings and other barbarian invaders had receded. He traces the origins of merchants, the middle class, market towns, and medieval economic institutions in, initially, the Netherlands and northern Italy, and spreading during the High Middle Ages into England, France, and Germany. He explains his particular view that for security purposes, the new trading centers developed at first as suburbs of the episcopal and political centers of the feudal age, but gradually supplanted them in population and wealth.

This book was right up my alley, with some of my favorite subjects--cities and European history--and told in a grand sweep by an author who seems to know everything possible about the topic. There are interesting observations or opinions on practically every page. Of course, it's an academic work written in an elevated style, but for those who share my particular fascinations, I highly recommend this classic work of history.

What I'm Reading: Roundup

Let's do some of the books I've been reading lately, hitting the comics this time.

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid The latest in the long Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, about a middle-schooler named Greg who keeps a journal. My kids love this series--if we don't have all of them, we're pretty close. And I've been known to pick up copies left around the house and giggle my way through big chunks of them. Greg is always getting himself into ridiculous situations, usually because he tries to find the easy way out of a chore or homework assignment or a quick way to make money, only to find his shortcut has backfired on him.

This is the latest one, and is a little different than the others in that it's supposed to be written by Greg's best friend, Rowley. Rowley's a smart student in school, but not so much when it comes to reading other people--he always believes they have the best of intentions, and others, especially Greg, are always getting the better of him. I don't think this book worked quite as well as the books from Greg's point of view. In those books, we know what Greg's thinking, and he comes across as sympathetic. Here, he mainly comes across as manipulative, always trying to take advantage of his friendship with Rowley to get Rowley to do his homework or take the fall in their latest misadventure. Still, there were several funny scenes. If I were to recommend a book in this series, though, I think it would be The Long Haul, when Greg's family goes on vacation. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid would probably be near the bottom of the list.

Batman in the Forties A collection of Batman stories from the 1940s (duh). Part of a series of Batman decades--the seventies one is probably the one I'll get next, if I do get another. It's amazing to me how much more readable stories from Batman's first decade are than various Batman stories I've read from the 1950s. The Comics Code, imposed in 1954, really did a number on the comics industry--just ripping the heart out of depictions of evil, and thus, adulterating the heroism of the protagonists as well. Here, even though these stories are aimed at kids or early teens, there's no shortage of gruesome murders and ruthless gangsters, plus those great macabre Batman villains. The introduction of Robin (from Batman #38) is surprisingly violent. It's easy to see why kids loved this!

The early Catwoman story titled Your Face Is Your Fortune (because Catwoman has disguised herself as a beautician to rob high society women) is probably the best one here, with Alfred, Armchair Detective, a close second. Lots of other good stuff too, though.

Detective Comics #1000 The anniversary issue, just out last month! Not a book in format, as it's the regular "floppy" comic style, but thick enough to be a book with 96 pages. Also, I feel compelled to point out, it's not really a Batman anniversary, as he didn't appear in this title until issue #27. No matter, it's the title he's been associated with since 1939.

I also picked up Action Comics #1000 a few months ago and found a few good stories, but a lot of filler, too. Not 'Tec #1000. Nearly every story in here is solid, with some great creative teams at work. I'm not normally a fan of writer Brian Michael Bendis, but I think his contribution was the best, with an elderly Penguin, who we learn has known Batman's secret identity for decades, using this knowledge for a final act of revenge against the frail, wheel-chair bound Bruce Wayne. However, Bruce Wayne still has a final counter-stratagem of his own....

Another good one was Batman's Longest Case, by Scott Snyder, about a case Batman has been following for years. Whenever he gets some free time, he'll work on the latest clue, which inevitably leads him to some exotic new location--an archeological dig in Egypt, a plane wreck in the Amazon--until finally leading him back to an abandoned tenement house in Gotham, where he discovers the source of the clues is....but that would be spoiling it.

A highly satisfying anniversary issue, entirely worthy of the Dark Knight.

Ranking: Captain Marvel

A few weeks ago while visiting Nashville, my family went to see Captain Marvel. In the comics Captain Marvel, alter ego Carol Danvers, is a character I don't follow too much, but I think the movie kept pretty close to her character. She starts the movie off as a warrior of the Kree, a fierce warrior alien race that are humanoid but with blue skin (although Captain Marvel looks perfectly human). Captain Marvel herself, known as Vers to her Kree companions, is superstrong and can direct energy blasts. On a mission to Earth to track an escaped Skrull, an alien race who are the enemies of the Kree, she starts to have human memories. During her time on Earth, more and more memories return to her, and she gradually realizes she actually is human, and that the incident that took her memory gave her her superhuman powers.

One big difference between the comics and the movie I did notice was (spoiler alert!) in the comics, the Kree and the Skrulls have been at war with each other for centuries. Both sides I think are seen as the bad guys, but the Kree are maybe seen as more a civilization whose morals have decayed from fighting for so long, while the shape-shifting, but in their natural form, green-skinned, Skrulls are considered definitely and inherently evil. In the movie, however, it is the Kree who turn out to be truly evil, with the Skrulls, at least the group we meet, being misunderstood victims.

This was a fun and highly watchable movie but not earth-shattering, so I'm putting it near the top of the Okay category.

I have previously ranked Ant-Man and the Wasp, Aquaman, Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers movies, the Batman movies, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Logan, Man of Steel, the Man-Thing, the non-Marvel and non-DC comic movies, the other DC movies, the Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the summer 2015 comic movies, the Superman movies, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder Woman, and the X-Men movies.


As ever, my ranking system is
Green=excellent  Blue=pretty good  Black=Okay  Red=avoid
_______________________________________________________________________________

Here's the master list of all comics movies I've rated so far, in order from best to worst:

Crumb
American Splendor
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Iron Man
Heavy Metal (1981)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Avengers
Superman (1978)
Captain America
Wonder Woman (2017)
Batman Begins (2005)
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
Spider-Man (2002)
Aquaman
X-Men 2: X-Men United
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Superman II
Batman (1989)
Ant-Man
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Dr. Strange
The Dark Knight (2008)
Logan (2017)
Iron Man 3
The Wolverine (2013)
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Sin City (2005)
X-Men: First Class
X-Men (2000)
Captain Marvel
Black Panther
Man of Steel (2013)
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Swamp Thing (1982)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Iron Man 2
Watchmen (2009)
Batman Forever (1995)
Superman Returns (2006)
Thor 2: The Dark World
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Mystery Men (1999)
Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Man-Thing (2005)
Superman III
Supergirl (1984)
Thor
X-Men 3: Last Stand
Hulk (2003)
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Batman and Robin (1997)
Batman Returns (1992)
Superman IV

Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (Haven't seen)
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (Haven't seen)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) (Haven't seen)
Batman (1966) (Haven't seen)
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Haven't seen)
Catwoman (Haven't seen)
Constantine (Haven't seen)
Deadpool (Haven't seen)
Green Lantern (Haven't seen)
Hellboy (Haven't seen)
Judge Dredd (Haven't seen)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Haven't seen)
V for Vendetta (Haven't seen)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Haven't seen)

Ranking: Ant-Man and the Wasp

Missed Ant-Man and the Wasp in the theaters, so I watched it with my family at home a few weeks ago. (I reviewed the original Ant-Man back in 2015 here.) In it, we revisit Scott Lang, who is now under year-long house arrest following the events in the first movie, with his parole officer Randall Park eager to catch him breaking the rules so he can send him to prison for a long time. Throughout the movie, various complications come up with inventor Hank Pym and his daughter Hope van Dyne, who Scott is kind of in love with, that require Scott to leave the house in the Ant-Man costume, only to try to rush back to the house before Randall can notice his absence.

Of course, Ant-Man can get small and talk to ants (and so can Hope Van Dyne, in her own costume as the Wasp), and back in Captain America: Civil War, we also learned he can reverse the sizing process to get really big. The movie also introduces Bill Foster, an African-American inventor who was once partners with Hank Pym before they had a falling out. (Comics fans know that Bill Foster is the alter-ego of hero Goliath.) Though he's not himself evil, Bill Foster has allied himself with the movie's main villain, Ghost, who can alter her body's molecular structure and walk through walls or any other object, solidifying parts of her body--say, her fist--to pummel an enemy. But she doesn't have total control of her abilities and is slowly disintegrating, something Bill Foster is trying to help her avoid.

So I'm not sure I have a lot to say about it, except it was a fun movie! Fast-paced, funny, kids enjoyed it. I put it in the Pretty Good category, ranked right about where the original was.

I have previously ranked Aquaman, Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers movies, the Batman movies, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Logan, Man of Steel, the Man-Thing, the non-Marvel and non-DC comic movies, the other DC movies, the Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the summer 2015 comic movies, the Superman movies, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder Woman, and the X-Men movies.


As ever, my ranking system is
Green=excellent  Blue=pretty good  Black=Okay  Red=avoid

_______________________________________________________________________________

Here's the master list of all comics movies I've rated so far, in order from best to worst:

Crumb
American Splendor
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Iron Man
Heavy Metal (1981)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Avengers
Superman (1978)
Captain America
Wonder Woman (2017)
Batman Begins (2005)
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
Spider-Man (2002)
Aquaman
X-Men 2: X-Men United
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Superman II
Batman (1989)
Ant-Man
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Dr. Strange
The Dark Knight (2008)
Logan (2017)
Iron Man 3
The Wolverine (2013)
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Sin City (2005)
X-Men: First Class
X-Men (2000)
Black Panther
Man of Steel (2013)
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Swamp Thing (1982)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Iron Man 2
Watchmen (2009)
Batman Forever (1995)
Superman Returns (2006)
Thor 2: The Dark World
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Mystery Men (1999)
Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Man-Thing (2005)
Superman III
Supergirl (1984)
Thor
X-Men 3: Last Stand
Hulk (2003)
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Batman and Robin (1997)
Batman Returns (1992)
Superman IV

Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (Haven't seen)
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (Haven't seen)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) (Haven't seen)
Batman (1966) (Haven't seen)
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Haven't seen)
Catwoman (Haven't seen)
Constantine (Haven't seen)
Deadpool (Haven't seen)
Green Lantern (Haven't seen)
Hellboy (Haven't seen)
Judge Dredd (Haven't seen)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Haven't seen)
V for Vendetta (Haven't seen)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Haven't seen)

What I'm Reading: Roundup

I've fallen behind on updating the blog. I have a couple superhero movies to add, but let's start with the reading I've been doing lately--a pair of middle grade novels.

The Unwanteds This is the first in a series of seven by Lisa McMann. It's a favorite book of my kids' and we listened to the book on tape during a recent car trip. In this book, the highly-militarized kingdom of Quill every year sorts its thirteen-year-olds into three groups: the Wanteds, the Necessaries, and the Unwanteds. The Wanteds move to various desirable positions in the Quillitary or the government administration, the Necessaries take on menial labor jobs, and the Unwanteds are driven to a spot just outside the barbed wire-surrounded Quill territory where they are supposedly to be executed.

The main thing that makes someone Unwanted is to have shown creativity. In the hierarchical and rigid society of Quill, creativity is considered a threat, while a sort of Spartan disregard for one's own feelings and others' is admired. When Alex Stowe and this year's batch of thirty or so Unwanteds (the biggest group ever!) arrive at the place of execution, the executioner, Mr. Today, leads them off...and into a hidden magic kingdom named Artime, existing side-by-side (but invisibly) with Quill. Artime is  a place where creativity and imagination are valued. All the kids are assigned artistic specialties to study, such as painting, drama, or singing. What's more, in Artime, they learn to use their artistic skills to perform magic--perhaps singing a spell to put someone to sleep, or painting a door to escape through. This will prove very useful, for if Quill ever discovers that Artime exists, it is sure to declare war on the nearby threat.

I got a strong Harry Potter-vibe from the Unwanteds. Kids at the beginning of their teenage years whisked off from their mundane existences to a fantastic land where they study the magic arts? Yeah, sounds familiar.  However, where I had mixed feelings about Harry Potter--finding it to have a subtle humor and charm in its writing style and a fun first half, but a by-the-number fantasy plot in its second half (I reviewed the first Harry Potter book here)--the Unwanteds struck me as fresh throughout. Harry Potter relied on well-worn fantasy tropes like trolls, dragons, and magic mirrors, while the Unwanteds consistently came up with original and interesting magic creatures, spells, and so forth. I liked its use of art as a basis for magic, and its healthy encouragement of creativity.

So, if your kids (or you) like Harry Potter, here's a book that's similar in a lot of ways, but that I found to have fresher ideas and a nice over-arching message. Having said that, I didn't like it so much that I feel the need to read the whole series.

Elephant Secret This book, by Eric Walters, is just fantastic. It's truly when of the best books I've read in the past year for any age group. It's aimed at middle schoolers but I think anybody who likes animals would enjoy reading it.

Sam Gray is thirteen years old and lives with her dad at a 200-acre elephant sanctuary with a herd of a dozen elephants. There's tons of work and not much money involved, but that's okay, because Sam has grown up with the elephants and relates better to them than to other humans. Still, it would be nice if the sanctuary had the funds to buy a new tractor, because the old one keeps breaking down and when it's on the fritz, that means Sam and her dad have to exhaust themselves pitching the hay out of the barn by hand. Maybe the sanctuary's mysterious new backer, who provides a much-needed infusion of funds every few months in exchange for being allowed to have the sanctuary's female elephants artificially inseminated, will be willing to spring for a new one.

Sam has some other problems too--like her father's girlfriend, a lawyer who he's getting serious about, much to Sam's dismay. Or the sanctuary's newest arrival--an abused elephant who is currently in the isolation pen because he killed man at the private zoo where he previously lived. And after the elephant Daisy Mae dies giving birth (in the saddest scene I've read in a long time), Sam and her dad are so busy bottle-feeding baby elephant Woolly every couple hours there's hardly even time to move Daisy Mae's carcass.

Still, it's pretty special having a baby elephant. And when the mysterious back finally shows himself one day, he reveals that Woolly is even more special than they thought.... Okay, I'll stop here. This is a book that's tough to discuss too much because giving away the main twist would really spoil it. Suffice it to say, if what I've written so far sounds at all intriguing, you are likely to love this emotionally powerful book.

What I'm Reading: Ten-Seven

Ten-Seven is the second Penns River Crime Novel I've read by Dana King (I reviewed the first one, Grind Joint, here) and it's a special pleasure for me to read it not only because Dana is a fellow member of my writer's group, but because he has one of the sharpest eyes and ears of any author I've ever read.

Penns River is a decaying old industrial town north of Pittsburgh, short of jobs and money, but not, unfortunately crime. "Doc" Dougherty is a skilled homicide detective who could easily have moved to a bigger city but has too much pride in his hometown to leave. He takes it as a personal affront when a murder is committed in his town, and lately, he's been affronted a lot. At the beginning of Ten-Seven, an apparently random shooting has just taken place in the parking lot of the casino, and Doc is determined to chase every wispy lead until he catches the perpetrator. This time he has help: Teresa Shimp, a young officer trying to prove she really deserves to be on the force, and is more than simply a hire to keep the department from being sued for discriminating against female police candidates.

Through the course of the novel, we also check in with the crime-associated friends we've met in previous novels: Mike Mannarino, the head of the small-time local mafiosi; and Wilver Faison, a black teen-ager on the rise in the local drug-dealing business. They have less to do directly with the plot this time around than they did in Grind Joint, but I like how Penns River is such a small town that the criminal element almost can't help rubbing against each other. The interdependence of drugs, muscle, and weapons means that one can't act without it affecting everybody else in the web.

As usual, Dana's eye for detail is what really makes the novel for me. In my review for Grind Joint I wrote that that book was as much a sociological study of a dying mill town as it was a crime novel, and that continues to be true. However, I do think the focus has shifted a bit--we get a better look this time around at the police force: new hires like Teresa Shimp and how they're fitting into the culture; the machinations of deputy Jack Harriger, who's gunning for Chief Stan Napierkowski's job when he retires; the daily work life of patrol cop Sean Sisler, who also has a secret which could endanger him but actually ends up leading to an important break in the case.

I'm not much of a mystery or crime fiction reader myself, but it's hard for me to believe this wouldn't be one of the best such novels even a hard core fan would come across this year. But this would be equally as good for anyone interested in reading a closely-observed portrait of a town that's hurting, and the crime and law enforcement institutions that play such an important part in corroding and sustaining that town.

What I'm Reading: Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series

Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series is one of the books my son is reading for his Battle of the Books team at school. (I recently read Re-Start, another of the books he's reading for BoB.) I can see why Virginia picked this one for the Battle of the Books tournament--it's about the Washington Nationals, and specifically it's something of an alternate history where the Washington Nationals made it to the World Series in 2009.

The book is about Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson, two 14-year-olds who work as sports reporters for Washington newspapers. They seem to have made a reputation for themselves as able to ferret out big stories in unexpected places, as they previously uncovered mysteries at the Final Four, the U.S. Open, and the Superbowl. (Apparently Change-Up is the fourth in a series.) In this book, they land an interview with Norbert Doyle, a 30-something journeyman pitcher who learns during the interview that, due to a series of injuries to other pitchers, he'll be pitching the opening game of the World Series for the Washington Nationals that night. Of course, Stevie and Susan Carol were lucky enough to be present so they're able to break this news in the national media.

Doyle lost his wife years before to a drunk driver and has raised his two kids by himself while bouncing around from city to city in the minor leagues. For him, his chance to pitch the big game is a dream come true--and after he wins the game that night, publishers and movie studios want the rights to his inspiring story. The problem is, when Stevie starts digging into Doyle's background, his version of the drunk driving incident doesn't seem to hold up. Meanwhile, Susan Carol meets with Doyle's son, an athletic 14-year old boy who appears to have a romantic interest in her--or is he trying to get between her and her co-reporter/boyfriend, Stevie, so they don't dig up any more on his dad?

This book was a lot fun, moved fast, and kept up a steady beat of snappy dialogue. It was also fun to read about all the players and coaches from a decade ago whose names I remember from attending games, reading newspaper articles, and listening to games on the radio. Only one player from that era remains--Ryan Zimmerman, then-third baseman, now first baseman, but still a pretty good player. (While there are many real people who pop up as characters in this book, all the main characters are fictional.)

Still, there were two things I found hard to accept. One, this maybe more of a quibble, but it's the idea of the 2009 Nationals making it to the World Series. Fun to think about--but it was never going to happen! The team that year simply wasn't good enough. They had Zimmerman and slugger Adam Dunn and... well, that was pretty much it. As much as I enjoyed reading about shortstop Christian Guzman or center fielder Austin Kearns or catcher Wil Nieves, those guys were decent but not great players and that's being generous. In fact, the Nationals won only 59 games that season--this is not a team that was only a hot streak away from the postseason. I believe that was the year I attended seven or eight games at Nationals Park and the team won none of them. (Maybe I was the problem?)

The other thing is that Stevie and Susan Carol do not act like fourteen-year-olds. My son is thirteen, and from observing him and his friends, as well as my own memories, Stevie and Susan Carol are not believable for that age. They are simply too mature in their romantic relationship with each other, their ability to write copy to deadline, their ability to keep their cool in stressful situations. I might have accepted them as sixteen-year-olds. But fourteen just doesn't work, and having them referred to as that age repeatedly broke my suspension of disbelief.

More because of the latter flaw than the former, I find I can't wholeheartedly recommend this book. Nevertheless, Change-Up would likely really appeal to a middle schooler interested in sports, and it has enough of an eye for detail and ear for dialogue that it would be a fun and quick read for a baseball-loving adult as well.