Washington, The Making of The American Capital by Fergus M. Bordewich (author of Bound for Canaan) -   ****

From the title, this book sounds like something someone would have to be dragged into reading. Surprisingly, it is absorbing and leaves you wanting to know even more (which is one of my standards about how good is a non fiction book).  After reading Bordewich's account of how Washington became the nation's capital, one wonders that it happened at all. A swamp, a place strategically indefensible, and facing seemingly insurmountable political, financial, and social obstacles, it is simply amazing that George Washington was able to succeed in making it happen.

in many ways the book is more about a less well known part of American history than a detailed description of the actually building of the city. There are heroes and scoundrels galore; there is much about land speculation and unsavory financial deals; there is much about slavery (without the use of slaves the city would never have been built); and there is much to admire and learn about George Washington, not all of it pretty.

The book reads a bit like a novel.

Defiance, a movie, directed by Edward Zwick  (Glory)  -   ****

Adapted from the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, this is the story of three Russian Jewish brothers who find their parents massacred by the Nazis in Bellaruse and so escape into the forest.  What follows is their attempt to survive, their struggle whether to fight the Nazis or not, and how to manage and include the growing numbers of other escapees who find and join them.  There’s a good bit of Hollywood type shoot ‘em ups and drama, probably unnecessary as the tale itself should have been enough to carry the film. 

I was intrigued and interested in seeing the film as several years ago I made a trip to Lithuania with my father to visit Eisiske, the Lithuanian town from which his mother came to the US in the early 1900s.  As part of that trip, we were fortunate to be thrown together with partisans who had done something quite similar to what the Bielski brothers had done. 

I think I’ll try to find and read the book and suspect that it will be superior to the movie.

Update: For another, and much more polished review of the film, see my friend Mary Lincer’s review here.