Reader’s Diary

Jim Steinmeyer

The Chinese magician Chung Ling Soo died on a London stage in 1918, victim of a bullet-catching illusion gone horribly wrong. The shot that killed Soo also killed the man who had become Soo: William Robinson, a white 57-year-old American who had performed as a Chinese man for nearly two decades. Robinson spent years as an assistant to the great magicians Harry Kellar and Alexander Herrman. Though known as an inventor - and sometime thief - of illusions, his success as a performer in his own right was limited by his close-mouthed speech, the result of his embarrassment about his poor teeth. Since Chung Ling Soo spoke no English, Robinson was able to perform silently. Soo’s success exceeded anything Robinson could have achieved as Robinson and the popular act eventually consisted of about two dozen people and tons of equipment.

This is a vivid, fascinating book. In the process of telling Robinson’s story Jim Steinmeyer, himself a member of the magic fraternity, brings to life the world of stage magic from the post Civil War era up through World War I.

Simon Goldhill

While the first part of the book provides a concise overview of the history of the temple of Jerusalem, the remainder of the book is too small to contain Goldhill’s themes of the temple in history, art, and politics.

Sadly, Goldhill doesn’t mention that some misguided people deny the temple’s very existence:

The former mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has made the claim that there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall was really part of a mosque. (Jerusalam Post, Oct 25, 2007)

Edward McPherson

I’m not a bridge player, nor even a card player, but McPhereson’s account of the world of bridge held my interest. He’s a minor-league George Plimpton of bridge and the outsider/insider approach works well. The book starts with his introduction to the game, continues with stories of famous and not-so-famous players, and concludes with his entry - along with his unlikely 83-year-old partner and classmate - in a national tournament.

Mary Beard, Keith Hopkins

Most books on Rome’s Colosseum are big books full of colorful pictures and certainties. This is a small book modestly illustrated which points out how little we really know about the Colosseum and the way it was used. For example, Christians were almost certainly not martyred there, and gladiator fights were not always to the death. It may or may not have been filled with water for mock sea battles, and some of the structure you can see today dates from long after the building’s original construction while other parts, two porch-like entrance structures on each side, for example, have vanished without a trace.

I’m lucky enough to have visited the Colosseum twice and have had the opportunity to stand on the partially rebuilt arena floor and felt both the vastness and odd intimacy of the arena. I wish I had read this book first because I would have appreciated the experience even more. I was surprised to learn that the remains of a gladiators’ school have been identified near the building, that there is an underground passage to the presumed emperor’s box, that the foundations are remarkably deep and wide, and that the unknown architects designed an extensive system of deeply-buried drainage tunnels to prevent the building from flooding.

This is the first book I’ve read in the “Wonders of the World” series edited by Mary Beard; it’s so good that I’ll definitely be reading more.

(BLDGBLOG recently published an interesting two-part interview about the “Wonders of the World” series and other topics: Part I, Part II.)

David Weber

Honor Harrington returns from political exile to take command of a Royal Manticoran Navy Q-ship. This entry in the series has a fairly simple plot but Weber’s fictional universe continues to become more complex.

David Weber

In this book, Weber’s hero Honor Harrington, her career in the Royal Manticoran Navy on the skids after the events of the previous book in the series, is an admiral for the allied Grayson Navy. The book features some interesting details of Grayson’s society and a large helping of Weber’s trademark space combat action.