A few years ago I read an entire book before realizing I had already read it. I looked back at my Goodreads read list and realized I had no memory of about half of the books on there. So I built a new habit – (almost) every time I finish a book, I word-vomit my thoughts and emotions into a note on my phone. Sometimes they’re brief, sometimes they’re long-longwinded, sometimes they just ramble…and now I’m putting them here. Please enjoy the madness.
This is book was incredible and terrifying. It made me yearn for adventure while also making me swear off visiting south/central America (or any warmer climates) ever ever again.
The imagery was vivid. This is a great example of the way I like to read history. It seemed to me to be well-researched and based in fact while still holding my attention with a narrative. I know that the expedition came up against a lot of protest but I can’t decide whether I feel that was justified. The author sensationalizes a little bit but that’s to be expected. It really sheds like on some fascinating bits of history that I would like to learn more about. And it touches on something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately – the true history of the Americas. When you go abroad and visit places like Rome or Scotland, they have all of this wild, ancient history all around. And America just feels “new” by contrast but really we’re not…we just don’t show off our actual history that way because (as the book discusses) the indigenous people and their cultures were killed off. I think this book mixes the exciting with he historical while also sprinkling in some important thoughts on the “New World” (even if it did try a little too hard to scare me into a lesson at the end).
Full disclosure – this was a book club pick.