Unfamiliar Territory

I'm off in unfamiliar territory -- British history. I just finished a book called The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. It's great, you have to read it. The subtitle of the book is "A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective." It's essentially a murder mystery in the style of the classic "country house" crime -- a bunch of people are at a house in the middle of nowhere, someone is killed, and one of the people at the house is the culprit. The detective just has to figure out whose story doesn't wash. It's like the game Clue, only in a spooky British setting. It's a true story, did I mention that? Summerscale not only describes the crime but also includes a ton of literary references which show that Victorian England was fascinated with crimes and the detectives who solved them. She includes details of other crimes that happened at the same time. Grisly stuff. Very fun to read.

I've just started reading The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodward. Apparently, there was a brief time in the early 1700s when pirates had a sizable amount of territory in the Caribbean that they fashioned into an independent nation. Their rule was more egalitarian and democratic than the other Western civilizations represented in the area, and they became the heroes of sailors throughout the British empire. I've only just started the book, but it's very good.

I'm also working on The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. (It is so nice to be at the pool now that my kids can really swim!!!) So far, I've read the chapters on Holland, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, and Iceland. The author is trying to figure out where people are the happiest, and why. So far, he's revealed that wealthy people are marginally happier than poor people, but wealth is defined as having more than $15,000/year. Healthy people are somewhat happier than sick people, but not always. Lottery winners -- after a few years -- are less happy than people who have become disabled. Culture matters when it comes to being happy. So does work (not so much leisure -- that doesn't make people happy if they have too much of it). Religion matters, sometimes. Feeling connected is the best way to be happy. You have to feel connected to your family, your friends, your country, your creative and productive capabilities, your purpose in life, your surroundings, your government, everything. Marriage makes people happy, but children are a wash as they provide joy but also unparalleled amounts of stress and anxiety.

I'm also reading (if you can believe it) a book on auditory hallucinations. It's by Daniel B. Smith and it's called Muses, Madmen and Prophets; Rethinking the History, Science and Meaning of Auditory Hallucinations. Smith's father heard voices all his life and kept it to himself, thinking it was a terrible secret. His grandfather, however, heard voices all HIS life, but thought they were pleasant company. ((I guess it depends what kind of voices they are.)) Smith's contention is that voices used to be understood to be messages from God. Now, they are a sign of a pathological condition that requires immediate pharmaceutical attention. Hmm.

Plus, I've just started Steve Coll's The Bin Ladens. It's very good. I just don't like how it ends.