APRIL WRAP UP: What I Read This Month

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in April. This month I caught up with my history readathon and nonfiction book club. So, quite clearly, there are more nonfiction than fiction books in this month’s wrap-up: 

1. NONFICTION AND BIOGRAPHY: The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World by Edward Shawcross

This book is a biography of Maximilian I, the Emperor of Mexico, and it provides a “fascinating look into the peculiarities of 19^th century international politics” (Historycamp, The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross). After the Spanish Empire in the New World broke apart, Napoleon III, the Emperor of France and nephew of the Napoleon Bonaparte, saw an opportunity. The opportunity to create a monarchical state in the Western Hemisphere that would significantly reduce the United States’s preeminence in the continent. After all, Washington was too busy fighting the American South, after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, to worry too much about foreign affairs with its southern neighbor.  So, under the pretext of Benito Juárez, the president of Mexico, refusing to pay him the money he owed him, Napoleon III organized “an invasion of Mexico to install his own supporter as head of the country’s government. That supporter was Maximilian, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and a Habsburg archduke from one of Europe’s most prestigious dynasties” (Historycamp).

In 1862, Napoleon III invaded Mexico. He did so with two things in mind: to assert French power across the Atlantic and to push back against the Republican tide that had been sweeping the Continent since the United States gained its independence from the British Empire in 1776. So, as the American Civil War was happening in the North (the United States), a second civil war broke out in the South (Mexico) between Republicans (liberals) and Monarchists (conservatives). 

As someone who grew up in the Mexican education system, this period of Mexican history is shaped around the conflict between liberals and conservatists; between Juárez and Maximilian. But why is it important that France attempted to create a monarchy in Mexico? Because unlike other countries in the continent that became Republics after their independence, like the United States, Mexico didn’t. Mexico gained its independence as a monarchy in 1821. The first emperor of Mexico, Agustín Iturbide, however, was killed. And so was the second one. But Maximilian will also be the last emperor of Mexico.

The French invasion of Mexico is an “episode of history that was, until recently, buried in official Mexican accounts” (Historycamp). Few people in the United States know that Cinco de Mayo celebrates the defeat of the French army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5^th, 1862. Many think that we celebrate our independence. But no, and this isn’t their fault. They were just not taught this at school. They learn about the American Civil War. And I see this in my own daughters’ education. They come home with Cinco de Mayo printables but they don’t know or understand clearly what Cinco of Mayo is. It is up to me to teach them the history behind it. I picked this book up because I am an advocate of Mexican-American history and think that it should be taught more in schools of both countries. In my opinion, it is important to teach the people about the historical and political background between Mexico and the United States. I highly recommend this book.

2. NONFICTION AND TRAVELOGUE: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes

This book is a journey throughout the Ancient World to visit the Seven Wonders of human architecture built before 500 AD. These seven wonders are the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylonia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria. Today, only the Great Pyramid of Giza is standing.

The book consists of seven chapters, one for each Wonder; in them the author addresses how each one of these Wonders was built, why they were deemed Wonders, where they (once) stood, how they withstood (and in most cases didn’t) the ravages of time, natural disasters, and war, and, in the case of each one except the Great Pyramid of Giza, what caused them to come down or what destroyed them.

This book is the story of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and if you like history and architecture, you’ll love this book. There are lists of Wonders for just about anything; I only knew about this one and the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, where you can find the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall of China listed and I would definitely pick up a book that talks about those too. I picked this book up to learn more about the history behind these constructions and I wasn’t disappointed. I Liked this book and Will Probably Read It Again.

3. NONFICTION AND SCIENCE: The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey

I was born on the Pacific coast. My hometown is 30 minutes away from the ocean, and I grew up in a family of fishermen. So, as a young kid, we would frequently go to the beach for lunch and a quick swim. But, as I grew up and after a few scares on those swims, I learned to respect the ocean. I realized that it is a formidable unknown.

I have kept my distance from the ocean for a long time now, but I still have a huge amount of respect for it and I try to let it know that whenever I can. And one of the ways that I do that is to read about it and the creatures that live in it. I am never going to go to the deepest trenches of the ocean. I am very much a land creature, but this book gave me a small glimpse of the life of marine biologists, geologists, oceanographers, and ocean explorers. In this book, we learn about the expeditions that discovered the Titanic and the Spanish galleon San José, which sunk in 1708 loaded “to the gills with gold, silver, emeralds and other treasures” and had been lost for more than 300 years. Or how the ocean is the “dumping ground” for dangerous materials, including World War II-era bombs that failed to detonate during the conflict, were lost under the waves, found decades later and left alone to prevent unknown environmental and ecological disasters. The author also shares with us her own experience of descending into the abyssal and hadal zones of the ocean and witness life in another element, water instead of earth. At the same time, she tries to highlight the importance of the deep sea to our existence and how taking care of it is in our best interest. However, the ocean faces the threats of climate change, pollution, and mining.

This book is thus a call to action to us to help protect the deep sea.

4. MYSTERY AND CRIME: The Crypt Thief by Mark Pryor

I found a discarded copy of this book at my library sale last March, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. This is the second cozy mystery series set in Paris that I pick up in the last couple of years so I am noticing a trend. Nonetheless, mystery and thriller are still one of my least read genres in fiction. And though I see myself picking up another one of this author’s books in the series, I think I will space them out so I don’t get burned out and end up DNF’ing the entire thing.

5. NONFICTION AND ANCIENT HISTORY: Assyria by Eckart Frahm

Eckart Frahm is a highly respected Assyriologist and this book is one of the most comprehensive studies of Assyria based on archeological evidence that has been published in the last three decades. But archeology “is a highly interpretative undertaking, a constant balancing of probabilities and alternatives. One can speculate with varying degrees of confidence, but it is not always possible to be sure” (Neil Peirce, Children of Ash and Elm, p. 13).  And when you study a civilization that lived at least two thousand years before the birth of Christ, that uncertainty is higher. A lot of what archeologists aren’t sure about is their best guess. The most well-known period of the Assyrian Empire, and of which archeologists are more certain, is the Neo-Assyrian Period. This period started in 934 BC, so there are at least 1086 years in between the Old and Neo-Assyrian periods of Assyrian rule in Mesopotamia; 1086 years about which archeologists can only speculate.

I witnessed some of the treasures of the Assyrian Empire archeologists have uncovered when I visited the Louvre in 2015 and saw first-hand the winged lions and the Laws of Hammurabi. I was floored in awe. I also remember planning my wedding when I saw the news that same year of ISIS destroying relics of the Assyrian Empire in Mosul. I watched the video and experienced physical pain, as I am an avid reader of history. But going back in time (ca. 2020 BC) in a book is hard for me. And that is why it took me more than expected to read this book. However, this is a work of scholarship worth reading. Despite the hard time that I have in transporting myself 2020 years BC (quite literally, more than 4000 years now), I will keep trying because I will not stop reading about ancient civilizations.

6. LITERARY FICTION: La amortajada (The Shrouded Woman) por María Luisa Bombal

I first talked about this book here in 2022 and if you have read my review for it in my October Wrap-Up of that year, you’ll know that it was one of my favorites books of the year. This is still true. I love this book, but every time I pick it up, I find that I love it for a completely different reason. Last time, I was gutted by the last sentence of the book and how the writer took us inside Ana María’s head despite the fact that she is dead and lying in her coffin.

The theme of this short novel is memory; every time a person comes up to her coffin to say goodbye, Ana María recounts her memories of that person. And by doing so, she is letting go of that person. They are saying goodbye too, but they are saying goodbye to her body. And it is this death, the death of those that were once alive, that the wake is for; when Ana María recounts her memories, she is letting go of the living and she realizes that this is the only way that she can die the death of those who are already dead. A second death with which she can go back to the earth and finally be embraced by it again.

I highly recommend this novel.

7. NONFICTION AND NATURE: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

This book was a surprising read for me, and it has made me look at nature in a different way. Written by a botanist who is part of the Potawanami Nation, she blends her scientific knowledge and training with the teachings of her People about Nature to highlight the importance of paying attention to Mother Earth and what it can teach us about life and surviving.  However, it’s not only important to stop and listen, but also to watch and learn what the Earth and all of its beings, both flora and fauna, have to teach us.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to (re)connect with the Earth, for it is indeed a “hymn of love to the world.”

That is everything I read in April. Thank you for stopping by.