Readalikes: If you enjoyed May's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South by Christopher Dickey, then you might also like these books and films suggested by our discussion group members:

Books--Nonfiction
Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey by Peter Carlson
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom by Walter Johnson
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert
Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union by Daniel W. Crofts
Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves by Charles L. Perdue and Thomas E. Barden
The Road to Disunion (2 vol.) by William W. Freehling
The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women's Rights and Abolition by Gerda Lerner
Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas

Books--Fiction
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson

Films
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North by produced and directed by Katrina Browne

May Not Fiction Book Discussions

Many of the world's great events are orchestrated as much by the quiet work of diplomats as by the heroic acts of high-ranking military and political officials. Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South by Christopher Dickey tells the story of one such diplomat, Robert Bunch, the British consul in Charleston, SC, as the South seceded from from the Union and the Civil War ensued.

Dickey is the Paris-based world news editor for The Daily Beast. Previously he worked for The Daily Beast and Newsweek as Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Editor, and before that for The Washington Post as Cairo Bureau Chief and Central America Bureau Chief. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Affairs. He is perhaps ideally suited to help readers identify with the work of foreign diplomats and correspondents, showing the adroitness, sensitivity, and forbearance required to represent the interests of one nation while living in another. Dickey portrays Bunch as "energetic and perceptive, with an acid wit when he was among those few people he genuinely took into his confidence, and his persistence could be annoying. An ambitious man, he had spent years maneuvering to get posted as Her Majesty's consul somewhere . . . " (p. 9). He landed in the hotbed of Southern secession, which was driven by the South's economic dependence on slavery and by its belligerent and maniacal insistence on the moral right of the institution of slavery. Bunch, "ever a mix of moralist and careerist" (p.99), possessed of a "sense of justice and of irony" (p. 326), despised the institution of slavery and his Charleston neighbors' complacent reliance upon it, yet he managed to live a double life, earning their trust and respect while sending intelligence back to Britain that would ultimately foil their plans to recruit the official support of Britain for the new Confederate government.

Regarding his choice of Bunch as his subject, Dickey told AMFM Magazine interviewer John Wisniewski,

In the person of Her Majesty’s Consul Robert Bunch, our man in Charleston, I discovered an outside observer writing secret and confidential dispatches that cut through the rationalizations about slavery, States’ rights and Southern civilization that many Americans still consider historical verities. He saw the mind of the South for what it was in 1860, and what he saw was deeply disturbing to him as, indeed, it should be to us.

What do you think? Did you come to understand something about the Civil War through Robert Bunch's point of view that you might not have learned otherwise? Does Bunch seem to you to be more of a moralist or more of a careerist? Would he have been as effective if he had been less of either? Did Bunch really make a crucial difference in the lead up to the Civil War? Boston Globe reviewer Matthew Price says,

On one level, Dickey has written a spicy historical beach read, chock-full of memorable characters and intrigue. But into this page-turning entertainment, Dickey has smuggled a thoughtful examination of the geopolitical issues of the day.

Did you enjoy reading Our Man in Charleston? What made it a good read for you?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, May 3, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, May 19, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed April's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell, then you might also like these books and television shows suggested by our discussion group members:

• Anything by Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, and Tina Fey for similar writing style.
• Young adult novels Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt and Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes.
• Narrative nonfiction history titles The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio, 1776 by David McCullough, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention by Catherine Drinker Bowen, Letters from an American Farmer by  J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur, Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts, Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust, and The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War by David Laskin.
• AMC drama TURN: Washington's Spies and HBO miniseries John Adams.

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan wins Pulitzer Prize

Last month's book, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan, one of our favorite books so far this year, has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. If you haven't read it yet, now would be the perfect time! You can join the discussion on the blog.

Learn more about this year's winners.

April Not Fiction Book Discussions

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell is not just a factual account of the Marquis de Lafayette's years as a General in George Washington's army during the Revolutionary War; it is also a reflection on the concept of America as a collection of united states.

Vowell, bestselling author of unconventional books that combine history and social commentary, and former contributing editor to the public radio program This American Life, uses American history as a lens through which to view American contemporary culture and society. In this book, she tells the story of the wealthy young French aristocrat who, at the age of sixteen, decided to join the Patriots in their fight for independence from the British monarchy. She covers as well his return visit to the newly united states, as an elderly man, to high acclaim from large crowds, in 1824. She says of Lafayette,

The thing that drew me to Lafayette as a subject--that he was that rare object of agreement in the ironically named United States--kept me coming back to why that made him unique. Namely, that we the people have never agreed on much of anything. Other than a bipartisan consensus on barbecue and Meryl Streep, plus that time in 1942 when everyone from Bing Crosby to Oregonian schoolchildren heeded FDR's call to scrounge up rubber for the war effort, disunity is the through line in the national plot--not necessarily as a failing, but as a free people's privilege. And thanks to Lafayette and his cohorts in Washington's army, plus the king of France and his navy, not to mention the founding dreamers who clearly did not think through what happens every time one citizen's pursuit of happiness infuriates his neighbors, getting on each other's nerves is our right.

This passage is pure Vowell, blending accurate historical facts, pop cultural factoids, and pithy commentary with a cheeky, constructively critical tone. An interviewer for Slate, Jaime Green, noted, "Sometimes people think that veneration of the Founding Fathers and the American past is what patriotism is. As if to be patriotic is to celebrate and to worship." Vowell replied, "But our founders were really crabby people who were angry a lot of the time. I find it weirdly reassuring to think about these founders not as this wise generation that went extinct. They had their moments, and they certainly could do a lot worse, but they weren't perfect. . . . I think it's good to think about these overachievers' failures--their failures and their failings as men. That's when I identify with them." What do you think? Do you enjoy Vowell's approach to American history? Would you even call her work historical writing, or is it some other genre? Where would you shelve it at the bookstore or library? Do you like her writing style? If you are a fan of her spoken This American Life pieces, how do you think her longer written works compare?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, April 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, April 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.

Reminder: Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, to speak tomorrow at the Sottile

One of the most troubling and yet inspiring books we read last year was Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He will be speaking tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. at the Sottile Theatre as part of the Race and Social Justice Series hosted by the College of Charleston and the Avery Research Center. The event is free and open to the public. Click here for information.

We hope to see you there!

Readalikes: If you enjoyed March's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Flannagan, then you might also like these other books recommended by our discussion group members: The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey, My War Gone By, I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and Moby Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville.