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Comment by rapa on June 13, 2018 at 2:31pm

Yes, Apposite, you pegged him!

Comment by Apposite on June 13, 2018 at 2:17pm

George Pickett, I have nothing that comes off the top of my head and you may know more about him than I do. I am aware of his place in the Gettysburg story as he came to the battle late and his Division was held in reserve until Lee needed to use it to break the Union center along Cemetery Ridge. The commentary I've heard is that he was a bit of a dandy but liked by his men. His rep seemed that he was not the best general. However, again you may know more. He served in Longstreet's I Corps. After Gettysburg I am not sure where he served but I believe he lived out the war and was much in love with his wife. I can't remember where he was from. I have a book called The Generals of Gettysburg which is compendium of biographies all the way down to the brigade level. The author escapes me presently but no doubt Wikipedia could help get you started. Practically every general of notice has a biographer.

Comment by Apposite on June 13, 2018 at 1:53pm

I don't know if I will continue at Brevig after this year or not. It depends on the unforseen. I had a number of offers after signing on there. Back in life I began keeping a journal but it got to where it was taking up major time and I would put it off. I haven't done anything since for years but I admit wishing I had with my village teaching. I have garnef enough to write some general recollections, observations, and reflections however.

Comment by rapa on June 13, 2018 at 1:39pm

Apposite, I so enjoy following your adventures! Will you continue teaching in Brevig Mission?  Hope someday you publish your memoirs!

Any book you can recommend that includes the tragic life of Gen. George Edward Pickett during the Civil War?  He is a distant relative and I've visited his grave in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va. Many of his slain troops are buried near by. 

Comment by Apposite on June 13, 2018 at 1:09pm

Interesting comments on Michener. I was never a fan but I don't care much for historical fiction either. I love reading history and enjoy a good novel but not mixed. There was a time when historical novel we're popular when Dana Fuller Ross put the series on the states together. I think if a person has a good grounding in American history it might be interestingly to see how the plot line is weabec into the times. John Jake's did something similar with the Civil War. If I remember, Gore Vidal's "Lincoln" was well received. Newt Gingrich worked with a historian to do a Gettysburg novel. I read the first several chapters and it was accurate but my personal preference is to read it straight.

Comment by Apposite on June 13, 2018 at 12:30pm

Rapa, yes I live in Alaska; it is home. I was teaching fifth grade in Wainwright, an Inupiat Eskimo village up on tippy top of of Alaska along the Arctic Ocean. It is a whaling community as are all villages along that far north coastline. I am moving to another Inupiat village called Brevig Mission on the Seward Peninsula which is down along the the west coast. Nome, of 1901 gold rush fame, is the hub for that area. Russia is not far from there across the Bering Sea. At this point I am at home in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula near Anchorage and will go to Brevig on the 6th. Brevig Mission was visited by a Lutheran missionary from Indiana or Illinois about a hundred years ago and the communities in that area were all affected by the influenza virus of 1918. Anyway maybe information overload but many of the several hundred villages in Alaska were impacted by missionaries of our various Christian faiths. Other impacts to Native peoples were whaling, gold, commercial fishing, and fur trading. All these communities are still affected although one has to come yo understand that little by little.

Comment by Gloria Helmer / Datsunlvr on June 12, 2018 at 9:28pm

I did something this summer that I should have done a long time ago. Thanks to some of the comments here (and other places,) I have been re-evaluating some of my old favorite authors including Michener. I think one of the things that drew me to his work in the first place was my love of history. He had a way of building an entire world around certain historical places, people, and events. The reader had to keep in mind though, that his books weren't truly historical works but works of fiction. First and foremost, they are novels built around history. He thus provided me with many years of wonderful reading. That being said, it has been several years since I had the luxury of sitting for hours burying my nose in one of his generational stories. This past week, I decided to change that. I dusted off three of my favorites and decided to re-read them over the summer. Well, I barely got through the first few pages of the first one, The Source, when it dawned on me that he had a terminal case of had-itis, and-itis, and run on sentences. Why had I never realized that before? The only explanation that comes to mind is that before, I read merely for pleasure and such things didn't stand out to me then. My reading habit has changed. Since becoming a writer myself (and editing my own work,) I see books through the eyes of an editor not just someone that reads for the pleasure of it. I wish I could turn it on and off at will, but alas, it doesn't work that way. I am still going to finish what I started and read all three, but sad to say, it won't be quite as enjoyable as I anticipated. Here’s hoping his writing (or editing?) improves with the later ones I have chosen, Alaska, and Space.

Comment by rapa on June 12, 2018 at 6:25pm

Apposite, are you still in Alaska?  Hope your move went well!

Comment by Apposite on June 12, 2018 at 6:22pm

I have not been reading lately it need to start again as I am done moving.

Comment by Ursula on June 12, 2018 at 5:33pm

Tonight is rather bittersweet, my F2F Novella Group has decided to close up shop.  For the last 4 1/2 years, we have met for lively discussions about little books.  We have read old as well as new; classics as well as not so classic.  We haven't always agreed, but we have provided food for thought.  Tonight's book is Melville's Billy Budd.

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