Tim鈥檚 Year in Books

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2023

23,026

pages read

books read

Tim Martin

Shortest Book

pages

Longest Book

pages

Average book length in 2023

295

pages

Most Shelved

4,502,028

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Tim鈥檚 average rating for 2023

4.8

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

it was amazing

5.00 average

Tim鈥檚 first review of the year

it was amazing

Very informative and entertaining account of the Pullman Strike or Pullman Crisis of 1894 as well as several related topics. The heart of the book is largely the saga of what was really two strikes that occurred in 1894, first the strike that was 4,000 Pullman Company employees in Chicago, Illinois that walked off their job on May 11, 1894 in response to being squeezed by both a reduction in pay and no corresponding reduction in rent in their hom Very informative and entertaining account of the Pullman Strike or Pullman Crisis of 1894 as well as several related topics. The heart of the book is largely the saga of what was really two strikes that occurred in 1894, first the strike that was 4,000 Pullman Company employees in Chicago, Illinois that walked off their job on May 11, 1894 in response to being squeezed by both a reduction in pay and no corresponding reduction in rent in their homes in the Pullman company town they lived in (or good sold there), where the rent was higher than places outside the company town, or any grace period to come up with the money. When company officials refused to deal with any organized group of representatives and in any event refused to budge on issues of pay, the workers walked off the job.

Following the walkout, the American Railway Union (ARU) launched a national boycott of all trains carrying Pullman passenger cars. The two events (but primarily the ARU boycott) caused a national crisis that practically paralyzed rail travel in the country, severely impacting if not eliminating passenger rail travel as well as travel of many goods to market and raw materials to factories (causing a number of food shortages as well as factory shut downs in various industries), and ended up resulting in violent protests that involved arson, riots, murder, the destruction of hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) of railroad property and a number of deaths and necessitated in several states the calling out of both state militia as well as a number of federal forces notably the U.S. Army not just in Illinois but in several other states.

In addition to a detailed account of the various aspects of the Pullman Strike, the author also treats the reader to dual biographies, that of Eugene V. Debs, who founded the ARU and was the one that decided to initiate the boycott of trains carrying Pullman passenger cars, and of George Pullman, designer and manufacturer of the Pullman car and founder of the company town of Pullman, a man as the author makes clear whose refusal to raise wages, meet with any worker organization, or agree to outside arbitration was the principal reason the strike went on as long as it did (into late July 1894) and was costly as it was in terms of disruption to the economy, damage to property, and loss of life. Though other historical figures are important in the narrative such as Samuel Gompers (founder and president of the American Federation of Labor or AFL), President Grover Cleveland, Clarence Darrow (who defended Eugene V. Debs in court), Richard Olney (United States Attorney General under President Cleveland), and John Peter Altgeld (governor of Illinois), it was Debs and Pullman who were the principal people behind the two sides of the conflict and the two people the author gives biographies of (including their lives before and after the Pullman Strike).

The author does talk about a number of issues, including the 1893 Chicago World鈥檚 Fair, the history of the Pullman company, the Great Northern Railway strike of 1893, the history of socialism as a political force in America (as relates to Debs), and the presidency of Grover Cleveland, the heart of the book is the Pullman Strike as well as Debs and Pullman.

Well-written, the pacing was really good and once the strike got rolling there was a good bit of action the author related, with the reader put into the shoes of people at various momentous events including a number of events that resulted in riots, arson, and deaths, making for vivid writing and a riveting narrative. I appreciated how the book wasn鈥檛 just a 鈥渁nd then this happened鈥� account but also had a good deal of analysis of the character and mindset of Debs and Pullman and analyzed in detail at the end why the Pullman Strike turned out the way it did and what its legacy was (extending into the 1980s). I think the book is an entertaining narrative history and useful to understand the Gilded Age, the coming of the Progressive Age, and the history of labor unions and of railroads in the United States. Also, a good bit on the history of Chicago of the time and the Supreme Court of that era (the same Supreme Court that ruled in 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson that racial segregation did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as things were 鈥渟eparate but equal鈥�).
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罢滨惭鈥橲 2023 BOOKS

it was amazing

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Killing Is My Business by Adam Christopher

I Only Killed Him Once by Adam Christopher

it was amazing

A Sea without Fish by Richard Arnold Davis

Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell

it was amazing

The Forgetting Machine by Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Terror of the Autumn Skies by Blaine Lee Pardoe

The Hole in the Moon and Other Tales by Margaret St. Clair by Margaret St. Clair

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

Remnants of Ancient Life by Dale E. Greenwalt

it was amazing

Dinosaurs Rediscovered by Michael J. Benton

Message from the Eocene / Three Worlds of Futurity by Margaret St. Clair

Saurian - A Field Guide to Hell Creek by Tom Parker

A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and other Winged Dinosaurs by Matthew P. Martyniuk

it was amazing

We, the Venusians / The Water of Thought by John Rackham

Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg

it was amazing

The Last Fighter Pilot The True Story of the Final Combat Mis... by Don Brown

Hunt at the Well of Eternity by Gabriel Hunt

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson

it was amazing

The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson

Crisis of Consciousness by Dave Galanter

Five Billion Years of Solitude by Lee Billings

it was amazing

Dark Matter and Dark Energy by Brian Clegg

Death in the City of Light by David King

it was amazing

The Mysteries of the Universe by Will Gater

All These Worlds Are Yours by Jon Willis

Tim鈥檚 last review of the year

it was amazing

Delightful travel essay and food book on French cheeses, very accessible, witty, well-researched, fun for someone wanting to know more about cheese in general, French cheeses specifically, to read a travel essay book where author Kathe Lison visits the places where the cheeses are made, giving a great feel for the area鈥檚 people, terrain, climate, and culture, talking with and profiling a berger (shepherd), several fromager/ fromag猫re (male cheese Delightful travel essay and food book on French cheeses, very accessible, witty, well-researched, fun for someone wanting to know more about cheese in general, French cheeses specifically, to read a travel essay book where author Kathe Lison visits the places where the cheeses are made, giving a great feel for the area鈥檚 people, terrain, climate, and culture, talking with and profiling a berger (shepherd), several fromager/ fromag猫re (male cheesemaker/female cheesemaker), and several affineur (professional cheese ager), showing how various famous and more obscure French cheeses are made, the history of them (sometimes going back to early medieval times, other times surprisingly recent), how they are marketed, how the French think of them, how they are perceived abroad, and visiting again and again reoccurring themes in discussing French cheese such as the role of tradition versus modernization, how much modernization either improves or ruins French cheeses, whether or not there was ever a golden age of handmade cheeses (to my surprise some cheeses were pretty much always industrial), why traditional methods are so important to some people, quite a bit on the debates over raw milk (and even how traditional raw milk even is), quite a bit on why some cheeses are so incredibly stinky, how important cheeses are to the French cultural identity, what cheeses people in France actually eat versus what they rhapsodize about, some on French and U.S. agricultural and trade policies as they relate to French cheese, the different breeds of cows used, some on how much of cheese and dairying lore is really just marketing, and tells fascinating stories about cheese as they relate to French history whether Charlemagne or Napoleon or World War II.

Though leaning a bit more to a travel essay about with various chapters devoted to visiting where various cheeses are made, visiting with those involved in making them, describing these places and people, and discussing the individual history of these cheeses, along the way the author does educate the reader a lot on the overall world history of cheese, the science of how cheese is made, and had a great section on the various types of cheeses, reviewing how 脡mile Duclaux, student of Louis Pasteur and 鈥渢he founder of dairy microbiology,鈥� in the 1870s created a classification system still in use today, dividing cheeses into p芒tes molles (soft cheeses, from p芒te for what鈥檚 inside the rind, la cro没te, and mole meaning 鈥渟oft,鈥� further divided into cro没te lav茅e, which are washed with various liquids to encourage a bacterial growth, or allowed to flower with various molds and instead are cro没te fleurie), p芒tes dures (hard cheeses, where the curds were pressed or pressed and cooked), and fromages bleus (the blue cheeses, which have been infected with various strains of penicillium), though the author also talks about fromage frais, 鈥渇resh cheese,鈥� basically curds and whey just like Little Miss Muffet ate. You learn about the things used to make cheese like faiselles (perforated cheese molds), about not only cow鈥檚 milk cheese but also goat鈥檚 milk cheese (ch猫vre) and sheep鈥檚 milk cheese (brebis) as well as cheeses made with a mixture of sheep and cow milk (tomme mixte as opposed to tomme de brebis), with the differences in production, taste, and usage, and of course specific cheeses, such as Camembert (鈥渁 cheese constructed of myth and romance and legend鈥�), Beaufort (鈥渙ne of the most marvelous cheeses of France鈥�), Reblochon (鈥渁 cheese born of tax evasion鈥�), Maroilles (with one variety nicknamed le puant 鈥� 鈥渢he stinker鈥� 鈥� for being 鈥渄eeply malodorous鈥�), Roquefort (cheese famed for being beloved by Charlemagne, widely imitated and the subject of the first ever rudimentary attempts to legally protect a French food product, way back in 1411 thanks to Charles VI), and Langres (鈥渢he only French cheese with a sunken top鈥� and a cheese promoted by a type of order of knights or brotherhood, a type of confreries, of which about twenty are dedicated to various fromage).

It is a charming and witty book and a great travel essay. No illustrations sadly, but there is an end list of selected Parisian fromageries (cheese shops) with some discussion of them, a very readable glossary titled 鈥渇romagespeak,鈥� a discussion of selected favorite cheese books, and some very readable end notes. No index.
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