Wyatt Blassingame (1909–1985)

When I was young, we could till take trains all the way from Toledo, Ohio to Bangor, Maine and we did it every year to visit my father's family. I have been fascinated with trains since I had this book as a small child. Unfortunately, all or nearly all the trains in this book are gone now. They include the 20th Century Limited, the Flying Scotsman, the Orient Express (my favorite), the Golden Arrow, and the Super Chief. I have taken a train to Scotland, though it was not called the Flying show more Scotsman. My favorite stories in the book were about the orient Express --one was about when Kemal Ataturk banned the fez in TUrkey, the train was loaded with hats to replace the fezzes. Another was about how after World War II they added carloads of soldiers to fight off Communist raiders in Greece. show less

This is a youth book, published by Scholastic. We unearthed a lot of books from my dad's storage building this summer and this was one of them. Of course, some of the information is outdated (as it was published in 1973), but I think the reason we held on to it was because Ross Allen's Reptile Institute and Silver Springs, Florida, figure prominently in it. My dad worked for Ross Allen during his younger years, and Dad was a big fan of alligators and other reptiles. I will likely release show more this book, but it was a fun read. It focused primarily on American alligators but touched on American crocodiles, Nile crocodiles, caimans, and gharials as well. show less

Mildly interesting. Some of these doctors did or discovered or learned interesting things; some... didn't. I'm not sure why the second army doctor is there, for instance - apparently what he did to be notable was keep a journal on a particular trip. And I was painfully amused at the patent troll. Worth reading, I guess, but I doubt I'll reread.

Good true story of what life was really like coming to an unknown island knowing that's where you've wanted to be before you even arrived...
not a book club book, read it in Exuma