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If we are going to quibble, Americans and Europeans were kidnapped into slavery. The western European countries could not have any towns located on their coastlines because of predation by the Barbary pirates, taking captives for slavery and the United States was involved in two separate wars to stop the Barbary Coast countries from taking Americans into slavery by capturing American ships.
And the British took Americans into slavery by capturing American ships and putting the American sailors into their military crews, where they were prized as captives because they could already sail and already spoke English.
The Viking and German and Roman slave takers capturing Europeans were all before the US was a country, so Europeans captured in America before that don't count as US citizens taken as slaves. But there was plenty of widespread kidnapping of US citizens for slave purposes.
It is a little disingenuous to say western countries in Europe had no towns located on their coastlines because of the Barbary pirates—
And pirates also attacked locations on the English coast especially Cornwall, the Scottish and Irish coast and stole people into slavery from land assaults as well as stealing from ships https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryU...nglish-Slaves/
Towns existed before the Barbary pirates were active—people didn’t abandon them
And it wasn’t just Barbary (North Africa) but Dutch and English privateers who were slavers
And they stole from many countries—including the Netherlands and Iceland
Any country could experience slave raids but yes—most were on the coastline for expediency of access and escape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade
I am listening to A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. Was not sure I wanted to, but she reads it herself. It's the voice of a child, but her will to survive even as an 11-year-old shines through.
I read the book when it first came out. I think I still have it around. It's a great book. What a story.
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This book centers on Canadian women. I appreciate that the inclusion of women in rural areas. These women had abandoned self-loathing and I applaud that.
@ladyvibrant, it's nice to see your words about the books. I just find the pictures take up so much real estate but I appreciate that you are adding reviews and information about the books.
Am now reading The Ensemble, an engrossing book about four people united by the music they love, and the peculiar bonds made by their mutually dependent need for artistic cohesion while being very different individuals.
Bonus if you ever played classical music in any consuming way, but such a background isn’t required to understand the human conflicts.
I am reading Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit which was mentioned in the article about benefits of reading that JGUSA posted. It's definitely quite different, and was included in the "uplifting" or comforting list of books.
It's also very British. I'm enjoiying it. Sometimes though I get amazed with how it's the same language but I haven't a clue as to the meaning of several words. (clearly slang and sometimes spelled more phonetically).
Overall though it's a nice nice diversion.
Reading a series by Marc Cameron set in Alaska about a Deputy US Marshall, Arliss Cutter—
Read the first two “Open Carry” and “Stone Cross” very good—well-plotted, good characters, interesting info about Alaska and insight into Native culture—-his working partner is a female part-Moari who can bring the hurt…
He has a lingering teen-crush on the girl who married his brother and moved to Alaska to help out his sister-in-law and her children when his brother was killed in drilling accident
Likely more related to that death will show up as another investigation in a later book…
If you enjoy the novels about Kate Shugak by Diana Stabenow, you would probably like these
These are very much action novels but Arliss is not the stereotypical US Marshall—
Thinking it would make a great series except I haven’t seen much luck with novels going into video with Joe Pickett being a waste, Reacher’s barely pallitable….
Haven’t seen the new Will Trent series
I just started Cloud Cuckkoo Land by Anthony Doerr (he wrote All the Light You Cannot See). I didn't know what to expect because the reviews are excellent overall, but several readers said it was just way too many story lines, way too many words, way too many characters, way too many descriptions..... However, I'm enjoying it so far (page 48) and look forward to picking it up each evening!
The timeline is massive and weird - 1500s, present day and some time in the future. I am catching on the the thread that is tying these eras together and enjoy the characters that have been introduced so far. Doerr is a talented, ambitious storyteller and I just hope I can keep up with this massive story! More to come!
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