MOSES LAKE — Ah, summer. Long lazy evenings, vacation, perfect for chilling with a good book. Now, each person’s definition of a good summer read is going to be different. Maybe it’s a romantasy set in a faraway world. Or maybe, those long summer days, when the living is easy, are a good time to set up on that challenging stuff that’s just too grim for the cold and dark of winter. (Third volume of the Stalin biography, anyone?)
These books aren’t either of those. They’re history about interesting times and places, but not really in the sense of the old Japanese curse about living in interesting times. A good way to spend a summer evening, or even time at the beach. All of them can be found at used bookstores, those with doors and windows or those on the internet.
“A Time for Gifts” by Patrick Leigh Fermor. Patrick Fermor had trouble finding a job, so he decided to leave Great Britain and walk across Europe. Hey, he was 18. His timing was pretty good in a way – he landed in Holland in December 1932. Europe was about to get very weird. Fermor saw a little bit of the weirdness; in the 1970s he wrote about it in a book that carried the story as far as April 1933. “Between the Woods and the Water” and “The Broken Road” tell the rest of the story.
“Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best” by Neal Bascomb. Formula One racing has been around almost as long as there have been cars, and it’s always been a deadly serious business to the people involved in it. Back in the 1930s, it was no place for women, but Lucy Schell begged to differ. She had the money for a racing team, but not much interest from established competitors. So Lucy, an American expatriate, found a company that wanted to get into the car business and a driver who was having trouble staying with a team, despite his talent. Even before Nazi Germany overran Europe, its influence was felt far and wide. No team wanted Rene Dreyfus because he was Jewish, and Charles Weiffenbach, manager of the failing truck manufacturing firm Delahaye, needed a way to get his company some attention. The German drivers and cars dominated Formula One, but not always – not at Pau in 1938.
“Germany 1923,” by Volker Ullrich. The year 1923 is remembered for the first appearance of Hitler on the national stage that November, but a lot happened in Germany in 1923 – Hitler’s was the last of three attempts to overthrow the government that year. Chaos reigned and inflation was so bad people got paid every week and immediately went shopping before the money became worthless. All the chaos had terrible consequences 10 years later.
“December 1941: Twelve Days that Began a World War” by Evan Mawdsley. The first two weeks of December 1941 changed the world forever. A big war expanded to engulf the world and the fortunes of armies changed overnight. Momentous things happened everywhere, from Moscow to Hawaii to North Africa. It was a different world by Dec. 13.
