J. M. Fenster

This review originally appeared on my blog at www.gimmethatbook.com.

Thanks to the author for gifting me this book for review!

ETHER DAY is meticulously researched; the characters are brought to life via the detailed descriptions of their lives and mental states.

To think that people were operated on with no care for their pain, yet Laughing Gas (ether) was used by non medical people for fun and escape, is mind boggling. No one made the connection between the two until William Morton, Horace Wells, and Charles Jackson “discovered” the other uses of this gas.

The fact that these three men’s lives overlapped was both good and bad: the discovery of ether as an anesthetic made both patient’s and surgeon’s lives better, but there was a lot of vitriol and ego involved as well. Each stood to make his fortune via ether, yet their lives were not always brightened by their actions.

Fenster has clearly done her research: there is both an index and endnotes, showing the comprehensive reading she did to recreate this story. She also includes a bibliography for further reading. The 1800’s come to life under her expert prose and background detail. I especially enjoyed the explanation of how the gas was delivered, and how the machines were tinkered with to provide a more accurate mixing of gas and air. The fact that these men experimented on themselves shows both folly and determination – in Chapter 14, Chlory, there is a section about scientists sniffing different concoctions of gases to figure out the best combination.

Every Thursday evening they would gather at the Simpson home, sitting around the dining table to inhale candidate chemicals. “I selected for experiment and have inhaled several chemical liquids of a more fragrant and agreeable odor,” Simpson wrote in a medical journal during the course of his research, “such as the chlorine of hydrocarbon, acetone, nitrate of oxide of ethyle, benzin, the vapour of chloroform, etc.”

One old friend, a professor named Miller, made a habit of dropping by at breakfast time every Friday, so he said, to see if anyone was dead.

The lengths these men went to in the name of science is unheard of today. As the book jacket notes, Ether Day is a little known anniversary, yet without the actions of these men there would have been greater suffering in this world. They were not heros, either – just men trying to make money or a name for themselves, who fell into a bizarre chain of events that would send them all down a crazy rabbit hole and eventually break them.

Author Julie Fenster has brought the memory of these men out of the past and placed it firmly into our awareness with ETHER DAY. I commend her for choosing her subject wisely and keeping this discovery relevant, in a new way.… (plus d'informations)

If you’ve ever watched the 1965 slap-stick comedy movie “The Great Race” with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood about a vintage car race overland from New York to Paris and thought it was a crazy idea. - Well it was, but it also happened.

In 1908, at the dawn of the motor age when paved road between cities didn’t exist, six cars set of to drive “the wrong way” around the world from New York to Paris. Six months later, after traversing snow, mud, floods, collapsing bridges, and dealing with bureaucratic nightmares, thieves, and armed bandits, three of the cars rolled into Paris.

This book tells the story of their travails, technical and personal, as well as their adventures. 2/3rds of it focuses on the crossing of the US as that is the most documented part, when perhaps the real heart of the story is the trek from Japan, across Siberia to the Russian border with Germany.

But it’s the Afterword that hits home the hardest. Their efforts literally changed the face of the planet (some may argue not for the better) as it raised awareness for quality road systems and sparked a road building boom that continues to this day.

The men who drove around the world , celebrities for six months, were swiftly ignored and their names and achievements forgotten.

How difficult was it to do what they did? Well, it’s never been attempted since.… (plus d'informations)

Lovers of American history, particularly the wild and woolly Frontier Era, will greatly enjoy "Jefferson's America". Author Julie M. Fenster writes with gusto and a real love of subject as she tells a true-life adventure tale that is more enthralling than fiction or film. Thomas Jefferson played a master's game of chess to block Britain, France, and Spain from gaining permanent control of the vast land to the West of the Continental States. His key chess pieces were an eclectic group of explorers whose eccentricities were as notable as were their brave proclivities. Along with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Jefferson also engaged William Dunbar, George Hunter, Thomas Freeman, Peter Custis, and Zebulon Pike to scout, map, and document the scope and range of the land to the West. The author imbues this factual account with descriptive details which bring to life the personalities and politics of the day, and a section of black and white art and photos gives a glimpse of this portion of the past. Most intriguing is the last photo--a view from Jefferson's home, Monticello, looking toward the West.

Book Copy Gratis via Blogging for Books… (plus d'informations)