Thursday, May 12, 2022

River of the Gods












River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, & Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile- Candice Millard

Doubleday

Release Date: May 17, 2022

Rating: ðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“š

Synopsis: For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was  a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe – and extend their colonial empires.

Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, and was a decorated soldier. He was also mercurial, subtle, and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton’s opposite in temperament and beliefs.
 
From the start the two men clashed. They would endure tremendous hardships, illness, and constant setbacks. Two years in, deep in the African interior, Burton became too sick to press on, but Speke did, and claimed he found the source in a great lake that he christened Lake Victoria. When they returned to England, Speke rushed to take credit, disparaging Burton. Burton disputed his claim, and Speke launched another expedition to Africa to prove it. The two became venomous enemies, with the public siding with the more charismatic Burton, to Speke’s great envy. The day before they were to publicly debate,Speke shot himself.
 
Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured by imperial annals, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. This was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was enslaved and shipped from his home village in East Africa to India. When the man who purchased him died, he made his way into the local Sultan’s army, and eventually traveled back to Africa, where he used his resourcefulness, linguistic prowess and raw courage to forge a living as a guide. Without Bombay and men like him, who led, carried, and protected the expedition, neither Englishman would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile, or perhaps even survived.
 
In 
River of the Gods Candice Millard has written another peerless story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers.

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Candice Millard's (Hero of the Empire) newest book delves into the search for the source of the White Nile by British explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke and their invaluable, extraordinary guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay. Over multiple trips and many years the men traveled hundred of miles and encountered endless dangers together. With other expedition members, porters, guides, and guards they used (then) Zanzibar as their jumping off point to search for rumored lakes believed to be the source of the Nile River, often nearly starved, died of diseases, insects, and worse. On their second trip, with Burton too ill to continue, Speke and Bombay reached Lake Nyanza (which Speke renamed Lake Victoria), where Speke believed the Nile to originate. Speke didn't prove this to Burton's satisfaction and this doubt was one of the many instances that came between the two explorers to create a rivalry that would last the rest of their lives. 

River of the Gods shows mid-nineteenth century British exploration in all of its complexities: the positive, the negative, and every political, emotional and ethical shade in between. Millard does a good job of balancing Richard Burton and John Speke in the same way. Neither are complete heroes, neither total villains, in their own minds each are completely right in the actions they take and justify themselves along the way. In hindsight we know that the exploration of Africa by England of other countries isn't "just" about the need to fill in blanks on a map- it is leading to complete colonization and further exploitation of people and resources across the continent. We see the contrast of places like Zanzibar: a beautiful paradise of white sandy beaches and clear blue waters, while at the same time one of the worst slave auction sites that bothers even many slavers. Burton is generally someone who takes people as they are, interested in their customs, cultures and languages for what he can learn (whether or not he should) while at the same time being European enough to look down on Africans as a lesser race until the end of his life, while Speke looks down on everyone. What I appreciated about Millard here is that she put everyone's thoughts and actions in the context of their time and not in our modern day sensibilities. We know what we find racist and abhorrent today, so I'd rather know what was the cultural norm at the time and how it changed over the time frame Millard covers, which I thought she did well.   

It is toward the end that she reminds us that there was a third main explorer who deserves as many accolades as Burton and Speke: Sidi Mubarak Bombay. Enslaved as a child, he returned to Africa as an adult and was a trustworthy guide, interpreter, and friend to European explorers like Burton and Speke- and later helped the famous journalist Stanley find Dr. Livingston. Bombay helped shine a light on the native guides and interpreters that Europeans needed to succeed in being "the first" to do so many things, from finding the source of the Nile to climbing Mt. Everest, and that today historians must try to discover the little told stories of these men and women and celebrate them just as much as their more famous (or infamous) European counterparts.

Millard's brilliance for a truly riveting, engaging writing style is evident from page one in River of the Gods, drawing the reader in and refusing to let them go until the final page.  Every step in the exploration, every twist in the bitter verbal sparring between former friends, keeps you emotionally engaged and waiting tensely to see what will happen next.  It isn't just the adventures in Africa that read like adventure stories, it is the entire book.  

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Friday, May 6, 2022

Something Wilder


 










Something Wilder - Christina Lauren

Gallery Books

Release Date- May 17, 2022

Rating: ðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“š

Synopsis: Growing up the daughter of notorious treasure hunter and absentee father Duke Wilder left Lily without much patience for the profession…or much money in the bank. But Lily is nothing if not resourceful, and now uses Duke’s coveted hand-drawn maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts through the red rock canyons of Utah. It pays the bills but doesn’t leave enough to fulfill her dream of buying back the beloved ranch her father sold years ago, and definitely not enough to deal with the sight of the man she once loved walking back into her life with a motley crew of friends ready to hit the trails. Frankly, Lily would like to take him out into the wilderness—and leave him there.


Leo Grady knew mirages were a thing in the desert, but they’d barely left civilization when the silhouette of his greatest regret comes into focus in the flickering light of the campfire. Ready to leave the past behind him, Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily Wilder is all business, drawing a clear line in the sand: it’s never going to happen.

But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn’t a gimmick after all. There’s a chance to right the wrongs—of Duke’s past and their own—but only if Leo and Lily can confront their history and work together. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they’ll risk their lives and hearts on the adventure of a lifetime.

From the author of the “heartfelt and funny” (
Publishers Weekly) sensation The Unhoneymooners, this page-turning adventure full of second chances, complicated relationships, and the breathtaking beauty of the American Southwest will take fans on one wild ride.
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Something Wilder is a delightful new Christina Lauren (The Honey-Don't List) romance: a desert adventure turns treasure hunt with Leo and Lily getting a second chance at life and love when neither expected it and both might be exactly where they need to be for it. Ten years after they first meet, Lily is down on her luck and leading tourists on desert adventure trails to make ends meet. Leo, a NYC computer coder, is going on a vacation with friends and gets the surprise of his life when he sees his old flame Lily again. The trip takes a turn sideways and Leo and Lily find themselves in a race for hidden treasure against some people definitely prepared to kill to get it first. 

Lily is fantastic: she needs no help from anyone, has learned not to expect help, or in fact anything, from anyone, and to stand stubbornly on her own two feet as her world crumbles around her. Her mother abandoned her, her father would rather look for treasure and play with codes, and the one guy she thought was hers took off and never contacted her for ten years. She and her friend Nicole are fully capable of being the only women in this part of the 'man's world' and holding their own, standing up for each other, and too bad for anyone who says otherwise. Her dreams of buying back the family ranch and having a life that is her choice and not the result of other people's poor choices is admirable, and you feel terrible for her as we go through the book and learn that maybe her father kept things from her that he really should have shared. I did like how Christina Lauren explained that in the end (I'm not giving anything away with spoilers here so will be purposely vague!) but I still felt bad for the emotional trauma Lily's father caused her. Poor choices, poor planning, and Lily was left thinking neither of her parents cared for her at all and she had to face the world by herself. No wonder she tries to protect herself from loving Leo when he comes back into her life!

Leo blossomed into a man you could count on in the worst of circumstances and trust to have your back through thick and thin- just what Lily needs. He loves codes and puzzles, works with computer codes in NYC and only realizes when he's out in the desert how empty his life has been without Lily in it. Fortunately, he's also brave enough (and smart enough) to figure out quickly that he wants Lily in his life and he's willing to be flexible enough to do whatever she needs so he can be part of her life.  He's so completely and simply in love with Lily (not again, not back, but always) that you melt with it and want to beg her to give him another chance even while the other part of your brain is agreeing with her that how in the world do they work?

This is definitely one of those books where the less you talk about the plot the better for the next reader- the fewer spoilers the more fun!- but let's say it is both like and unlike any other Christina Lauren book I've ever read and I loved it for that. Action, adventure, beautiful and deadly deserts, possible treasure and potential disaster. The higher the stakes the more we see the best and the worst that can be seen in people. Somehow Christina Lauren manages to pack in high-stakes adventure and fast-paced plot while also expertly unwinding enough insanely complicated emotional bombs to make a team of therapists weep. Lily and her obviously complicated emotional relationship with bother of her parents, her trust issues; but also Leo and his parent issues, being a parent to his little sister, having to grow up faster than he expected; and friends with let's just say some issues of their own. How that can all fit into one book and work really well I don't know, but it it did.

Something Wilder is fast-paced, witty, and entertaining, with sparkling writing, delightfully quirky characters, and just the right level of slow-build, smoking hot romance. Just the sort of fun, rom-com adventure to read over the summer (or winter, or on vacation, or ever, and really one you'd love to see on the screen someday . . .) that makes you appreciate true friendship, the occasional gun to the head moment, and outwitting the bad guys who deserve it in so many ways. Possibly my new favorite Christina Lauren book, Something Wilder is a second chance romance full of action, adventure, surprises, friendship, and love.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review