Mini Book Review: “The Feather Thief” by Kirk Wallace Johnson

“Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century” 

One of the great things about traveling is the conversations you have with fellow travelers about everything, ranging from other interesting places to visit, their hobbies, their careers and/or educational backgrounds, and, of course, books. Never mind that I already have a huge to-read pile (of both books and magazines) but I’m always on the look out for recommendations, especially when they fit with my own interests like history, anthropology, or museums. 

So, when Susan (I think it was Susan – possibly it was Andrea or Marina) mentioned “The Feather Thief” while we enjoyed a meal aboard National Geographic Orion back in January, my ears perked up. This book follows the crime of a young American musician who, deeply obsessed with the art of salmon fly-tying, plots and executes a brazen burglary of the Tring Museum in the U.K. (a small extension of the British Museum outside London). Why the Tring? Because, as the book cover tells us, it held the “largest ornithological collection in the world.” The specimens, many collected over a hundred years earlier and carefully preserved, were extremely rare, and many of those bird species are today endangered (such as the many varieties of Birds of Paradise located in New Guinea). The attraction: their gorgeous plumage. 

Edwin Rist, the thief, had specific goals in mind, mostly related to his obsession with salmon fly-tying, but he was also motivated by the money he could acquire by splitting his stolen booty into smaller batches to sell to other collectors. You can probably guess what that means – the decimation of what once had been a coherent, organized, and labeled collection and the loss of any knowledge its study could have brought. 

While I’ve never considered myself a birder, I do love seeing the beautiful and wondrous variety in which they come. And, from an admittedly snooty point of view, I enjoy being able to brag that I’ve seen birds that you can only see if you travel to certain places, like one specific island in the Marquesas, or one specific island in the Galapagos. I hope I still have a chance to see some of the magnificent birds that are mentioned in this book in their native habitats. 

Ultimately, the book does leave you unsatisfied, but not through any fault of the author. It’s purely a result of the thief’s actions and the maddening limitations of investigation and recovery. Still, if you love history, museums, birds, or fly-tying, this book will be of great interest. 

Mini Book Review “Man, Fuck This House”

If you know me, you know that I picked this book because of its title. 

I hadn’t read anything written by Brian Asman before, but he’s one of several horror writers I follow on Twitter, looking for new and interesting books, movies, etc. And how could a title like “Man, Fuck This House” for a haunted house story steer you wrong?  Isn’t that what you wish one of the characters in such a story would say as they heed the house’s warning to get out? 

Not that this house wants the Haskins family to leave. No, it has something else in mind. Maybe.

Asman’s characters aren’t quite the typical dysfunctional family. There’s something a little off about each of them and my initial reaction to son Damien’s character was a flashback to the “Safe Haven” episode in season six of Criminal Minds. But I’m not going to tell you if I was right or wrong in that assumption. You’ll have to read the book for yourself. 

The book definitely has dark edges and takes off (literally) in directions you’re not expecting. It’s not particularly gory but it is unsettling as you watch this family navigate their new home and their changing relationships to one another. Is Mom insane? What’s up with Damien? Is Dad just as boring as he appears? And what about sister Michaela – is she complicit in her brother’s shenanigans? 

There’s a few typos here and there, and one death that I didn’t quite “buy” (not enough set up, I felt), but these nitpicks can be overlooked if you’re seeking a haunted house story that breaks a lot of the tropes and expectations of that sub-genre. Besides, how can you resist that title? 

“Collision on Tenerife” by Jon Ziomek

In keeping with the non-fiction theme I started with my previous mini-review, I recommend “Collision on Tenerife” by Jon Ziomek. 

This is one of those books that you probably shouldn’t read while you’re actually sitting on an airplane. Especially if it’s a foggy day. 

It is a detailed account of the world’s worst aviation accident: two fully-loaded 747s collided in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, killing 583 people. 

It was a devastating culmination of a series of bad decisions, bad weather, bad geography, and bad luck. One of the planes was behind schedule. The KLM pilot unnecessarily had his plane’s fuel “topped off” (increasing the plane’s weight). The airport on the other island was temporarily closed due to a terrorist bombing. Delay after delay meant Tenerife’s notorious afternoon fog settled against the mountains that abutted the airport, reducing visibility to near zero. 

Ziomek masterfully combines survivor accounts, news stories, and official reports to give us a thorough understanding of what happened and why, and lets us get to know the survivors and victims. Some reviewers complain about the time Ziomek spends examining the psychology of disasters (the “why” behind people’s reactions or non-reactions) but out of a nearly 300 page book [the 2020 Post Hill Press paperback] it’s not that many pages, and I found it interesting. Some reviewers also complain about the technical aviation details, but some of those details are crucial to understanding what went wrong in the communication between pilots and control tower. It wasn’t until after this tragedy that international aviation adopted the very specific terminology (for taxiing and departing aircraft) that was already in use in U.S. aviation. 

The one detail that sticks in my mind the most, several months after I read the book, is “three minutes.” 

Only the people who climbed out of the burning Pan Am plane within the first three minutes survived. The people who froze in fear and indecision, or who waited to be told what to do, died. [Survivors, of which there were about 70, estimated there were another 30 individuals who survived the initial impact.] Only those who moved, who helped themselves, who sought an escape route survived. There were no survivors from the KLM plane, and there was no survivor from the Pan Am plane past the three minute mark. 

In that vein, one of those survivors, David Alexander, has written his own book: 2015’s “Never Wait for the Firetruck” – I’m adding that to my reading list. 

Mini Book Reviews: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Mini Book Reviews 

Now that I’m retired and can catch up with my pile(s) of books to read, I thought I would throw some mini-reviews into my blog. (By the way, don’t ask how many piles there are – or how high they are. I seem to be blessed – or is it cursed? – with an interest in everything from horror to history to archaeology to science-fiction to mystery to fantasy to disasters to creative writing to to photography to screenwriting to computer/software manuals to…. You get the idea.) 

So you never know what you’re going to get when I post my mini-reviews!

So let’s start off with true crime/recent history in “The Devil in the White City” where Erik Larson weaves together the stories of Daniel H. Burnham (famed architect) and H.H. Holmes (soon to be famous serial killer) in the burgeoning city of Chicago as it prepares for the 1893 World’s Fair. As other reviewers note, Larson is a master of making non-fiction read like fiction – an entrancing story you will want to keep reading. Depending on your interests, the chapters of Burnham, the other architects, and the actual construction (and re-construction after various mishaps) of the “white city” will flow a bit slower than the more scintillating tales of a charming, handsome murderer and his unfortunate victims. I appreciated the way Larson presented those victims as more than just one-dimensional showpieces for the extent of Holmes’ depravity. 

Should you read this book? Yes! Especially if you love history in “bite size” chunks. (Definition of “bite size” – as in not the hundreds of years they try to teach you in a single semester at school.) You’ll also want to find a copy of Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember” after you get to the end of this book and discover Burnham’s surprising connection to the 1912 Titanic disaster. 

Do you have any recommendations for me? (Not that I need to add to my to-read pile.…) While reading this, I realized I haven’t read any other works about serial killers. Even Jack the Ripper – what I know of him I’ve only glimpsed in movies or t.v. shows like the 1967 “Wolf in the Fold” episode of “Star Trek.” [I used to be pretty good at imitating Mr. Hengast’s “Die, die, everybody die” dialogue.] So let me know what Jack the Ripper tomes I should read. 

Speaking of murderers, I really want that outfit that Christine Redfern (Jane Birkin) is wearing at the end of Agatha Christie’s “Evil Under the Sun” (the 1982 film).  

Hmm…this wasn’t such a “mini” review after all, or was it?