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Q2 blog post #9

Now I am about halfway through Mayflower. The book is starting to move from more about the pilgrims trying to find a spot to settle and them surviving the boat ride to trying to live in the woods. The landscape they settle in is barren from the disease that had struck the area in earlier years making the indian population low. They also did not bring the right crops and things. They were planning to settle hundreds of miles to the south of Plymouth. While they are trying to survive one small tribe devastated by disease decides to help them in exchange for protection from a larger tribe. They teach them how to plant crops in the infertile soil and bring food for them. Squanto the main translator between the Pilgrims and the small tribe of indians was actually trying to organize a power grab to be the most powerful tribe leader in the area. He planned this for months by creating tension between the tribes, and to set it into action he got a family member to tell the pilgrims to attack the larger tribe and to kill the leader of the tribe that was helping the pilgrims. It almost worked but instead of attacking like expected the pilgrims prepared themselves to defend the village. Eventually Squanto's plan came into light with everybody and the smaller friendly tribe with the Pilgrims wanted Squanto killed for his treachery, yet the Pilgrims did not want to relieve themselves of their translator. Reading this  surprised me, Squanto the good Indian that lived in Europe for a couple of years, the good Indian that helped teach the Pilgrims to plant crops was actually a scheming evil person who planned to start a war so he could take over as the leader of the most powerful tribe in the region.

blog post Q2 #9

Unlike my past two books that I just read, that were quick and easy my new book I just started will take a little longer, its name is Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Already from just scratching the cover it strikes me how different the story is compared to the traditional, Pilgrims landed at plymouth rock in 1620 and the Indians taught them how to plant crops, then they had the first thanksgiving. I can already tell that this story of the pilgrims will be way different. After the pilgrims landed and had Thanksgiving almost fifty years later their friendship broke apart and a terrible bloody war happened between the pilgrims and Indians. Even when I was reading about the boat ride over on the Mayflower they were plagued with diseases such as scurvy. I found it especially funny that Squanto the famous indian in the Thanksgiving story, the one that helped the Pilgrims learn how to plant crops and grow food, considered it a joke helping out the Pilgrim men because planting crops and food was considered women's work. So far what I have read about Squanto has been interesting. Squanto escaped from english clutches by telling them there was gold on a certain island that was near his tribes territory, and when the english got there, Squanto jumped off the boat and swum ashore. I am very excited to read this book, but I am certain I will not finish it by next Wednesday.

Q2 outside reading post # 8

The second book I read over break was a quick fun history read named Resolute by Martin W. Sandler. Its all about the explorers searching for the northwest passage. A fabled trade route connecting the Pacific ocean and Atlantic ocean. It then goes on to talk about the ordeals of sailing through the Arctic Ocean, telling stories of how ships would become frozen in the ice and how they would get lost because the ice would move and block off the way they got there or just trap them. The amazing thing is that there was always expeditions going out to find the fabled Northwest Passage for hundreds of years, they never found a way to cross the passage put they kept  on trying. The book ends on a lighter stranger note, the last fourth of the book is about a funny strange story where one of the prized ships sent to find the Northwest Passage disappeared and was thought lost, not only to have wailers near Greenland find it a year later, when the ship was presumably released from the ice with its crew missing. It was a exciting news story in England and America for a while, The Queen when the ship was found had two desks make from the ship and the desks were called the Resolute desks. England kept one desk and as a present gave America the other one. To this day the Resolute desk is in the Oval Office. Resolute was a fun easy history read that I would recommend. 

Outside reading blog

 This  Winter break one of the books I read was called Flyboys by James Bradly. Flyboys was a great but disturbing book about World War 2 and some of the pilots that fought in it. At the beginning of the book it tells the back round of how Japan came into World War 2 and the invasion of China in the late 30's. When I read the part of the book with the invasion of China by Japan I felt repulsed at the horrors Japan did. They destroyed towns and cities and did unforgivable things. Then the book moves into the war and it follows a few pilots and what happened to them when when they were shot down on a remote island  in the pacific. It then goes on to say how they died and how there fate was concealed until a couple years ago. Maybe the most horrific part of the book is the end, it tells the story of the bombing of japan and not of the atomic bomb but using napalm. The book tells horrible stories of how the cities would burn to the ground and the stories of the survivors. The book then goes on to tell that more people died and more damage was done by the napalm then the Atomic bombs. This book while interesting was repulsive and horrible. After I finished reading the book It put me in a horrible mood. It is difficult to recommend this book, while interesting it is dark reading.