I’m a pretty big Elmore Leonard fan. I have only read one of his books “Cat Chaser” but I adore “Justified,” which is based on some of his short stories. He creates amazing characters and dialogue and is prolific as a crime fiction writer. His books have been made into some exceptional movies: Out of Sight, Get Shorty, and Jackie Brown. I was excited to introduce him to my book club, as none of the other members had read anything by him, and to make […]
Here, Have a Black Spot.
When I first read Treasure Island, I was living in Georgia’s low country, an area embroiled in pirate history (in fact, the Benbow Inn is rumored to have been modeled on Savannah’s Pirate House). I like my reading to provide a little bit of local color. Anyway, perhaps it was my own location that made it easy to fall into Stevenson’s world. I can understand how Jim Hawkins might feel every time his little world is intruded upon by a pirate, those dual senses of […]
Captain Jack Sparrow’s World of Pirates
The Republic of Pirates explores the early 18th century of the American colonies and the Caribbean, which was the era of pirates like Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy, Charles Vane, and Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch. Although told in narrative style, most of the information comes from newspapers, letters, journals, etc. from the time, place, and people presented. According to a note on the cover of my edition, this book was the inspiration for the NBC mini-series “Crossbones”. I liked the tv show, so I picked up the […]
The Best Part of this Pirate Comic was the Aaaaaarrrrrt
I wanted to love Stokes’ and Herman’s Galveston. I am a die-hard Texan, so a Texas-set graphic novel based on the real life meeting of legendary Alamo defender Jim Bowie and pirate Jean LaFitte seemed like a definite winner. Unfortunately, the story just didn’t work for me. The wise-cracking, sassy characters seemed pretty one dimensional (or Jack Sparrow-y), weird misspellings took me out of the book (“Commanches” and “Comanches”, its vs. it’s), and not a lot seemed to happen in the story. Additionally, in real […]
A dark and witty novel about teenage alienation, strained relationships and the allure of the outlaw life.
Piracy used to conjure up visions of rabid men roaming the dark seas, festooned with tattoos and covered in facial hair. Now it’s more likely to bring up images of overweight young men sitting in basements in front of glowing computer screens. From Blackbeard to Neckbeard, if you will. Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler throws the older, vicious idea of the roving corsair into the modern day in this strange look at teenage angst and the life of an outsider. 14-year-old Gwen is angry. Angry […]
The Pirates’ Life is Not For Me
Under the Black Flag has been on my radar since way back in 2012. It may have even been on it before, but that’s when I joined Goodreads and am now able to track when I put things on the to read list. While certainly a comprehensive look at the actual history of pirates and not just the lore, the book unfortunately takes a topic which should be highly entertaining (there’s a reason I wanted to read it after all) and makes it a bit […]
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