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Author Topic: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions  (Read 67125 times)

JNev

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2014, 02:59:12 PM »

I believe 'Finding Amelia' can be had through the 'company store' here at TIGHAR - and I for one hold it as a terrific read, well worth the specialty item price, IMO.  Ric is a thorough researcher and excellent writer who recounts things-past in an easy and fascinating way to follow, as I see it.
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Bruce Thomas

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2014, 04:12:24 PM »

Can anyone tell me how the book Finding Amelia is? I love the book Amelia Earhart's Shoes, I have read it twice. I am finishing up the second time as we speak. Is Finding Amelia as good as Amelia Earhart's Shoes or better.?

Matt, I've read all 3 (including Dr. King's based-on-fact novel Thirteen Bones), and so the first thing to note is that they represent three very different genres.

The quartet of King, Jacobson, Burns, & Spading turned out a very entertaining book with Amelia Earhart's Shoes. The reader gets a nice all-encompassing review of the facts about Amelia's flight, the history of Nikumaroro, and the ongoing TIGHAR saga of testing the Nikumaroro Hypothesis. I can't wait for the next revision that picks up where the updated edition left off (in 2004). Like you, I pick up Shoes periodically and enjoy it again and again. It's light reading, even though it's so full of facts. King and his co-authors have produced a work that easily captivates anyone looking into the mystery of the disappearance of Amelia and Fred. The authors sure know how to entertain their readers.

Dr. King's Thirteen Bones is, as I said, a novel, which allows him to incorporate fictional characters and events surrounding the colonization of Nikumaroro not many months after the disappearance of Amelia and Fred. But it's all blended so well with known facts that the person steeped in those facts can have a good time nodding the head and acknowledging that, "Yup, it could have happened that way." But I'd reserve reading that until after tucking into both Shoes and Finding Amelia, ideally multiple times each  -- and reading reams of Earhart Forum postings from over the past 15+ years -- above all, be able to always remember that Thirteen Bones is a work of fiction, cleverly written by Tom King.

Finding Amelia is a fine historical telling of the facts of Amelia and Fred's stories and the planning and execution of the two World Flights. Then there follows a thoroughly well-researched telling of the facts of all aspects of the search that began when they failed to arrive at Howland Island on July 2, 1937: details about USCGC Itasca; the aerial search of the Phoenix Islands by the aviators flying off the battleship USS Colorado, led by Lieutenant Lambrecht; and, the following search by the planes off the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The details about the radio signals are laid out in detail, including the story about Betty's Notebook and other instances of people who said they heard Amelia calling for help. What you will not find is the plethora of detail about Nikumaroro that you'll find in the other two books. In that sense, the title can be misleading, since the bulk of it is about Amelia and Fred going missing, followed by the intense search for them that took place in 1937. I'm sure that the next companion volume will lay out in similar detail the latter day efforts of TIGHAR to test the Nikumaroro Hypothesis over the past 25+ years. Ric Gillespie (assisted well by his wife, Patricia Thrasher, I'm sure) is a first-rate writer of history. And if you're lucky, your hardcover copy of Finding Amelia will contain the DVD with lots of important documents, such as the deck log of USS Colorado.
 
So there are the three genres: Amelia Earhart's Shoes is light reading of the story of Amelia and Fred, with emphasis on TIGHAR's years of expeditions; Thirteen Bones is an enlightened fictional account of colonial life on Nikumaroro, written by a man with impeccable academic credentials to do so; and Finding Amelia is a very enjoyable but serious historical accounting of the story of the loss of Amelia and Fred and the 1937 search for them.
LTM,

Bruce
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« Last Edit: June 25, 2014, 04:15:01 PM by Bruce Thomas »
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2014, 04:50:33 PM »

Can anyone tell me how the book Finding Amelia is? I love the book Amelia Earhart's Shoes, I have read it twice. I am finishing up the second time as we speak. Is Finding Amelia as good as Amelia Earhart's Shoes or better.?
Finding Amelia is a very different sort of book than Amelia Earhart's Shoes.  FA is a history book.  Shoes is Tom King's personal take on the early years of the Earhart Project. You might also enjoy his novel "Thirteen Bones."
As to which book is "better," you'll need to form your own opinion.
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matt john barth

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #18 on: June 27, 2014, 10:03:21 AM »

Thanks for all of the replies, very good detail about the books. I am just finishing up shoes for the second time. When I finished the first time I kind of thought that I wouldn't want to read another AE book just because I thought the book burnt me out for a while. Which it did and then I started to pick that book up again and before you know it I was reading it a second time. You know I have found things I missed in the first read, a lot of things. I figured I better find a knew book or people in my family are going to start thinking I am strange. I got one of the promotional books of 13 bones on like google books and started reading it. I did notice it was fiction, I kind of started to see where it was going but then stopped for what ever reason. I think summer came along. I really got the wrong impression of that book from the first pages of what they will let you see for free. I figured when I first got the book, that it was interesting and I kind of had a direction I thought I would need the book to go because it is fiction. I'm not such a big fan of fiction. Now that you guys have given your input, I see that, Thirteen Bones was going the direction I thought it should to hold my interest. I just didn't read enough pages, also I think the tryall google book didn't give any help. I seem to remember there was a lot omitted. I do understand why, everyone has to make something for their efforts. I love history, I might try finding Amelia next. One thing is for sure, now that there has been good remarks on all three books, I'll pick up Thirteen Bones again. I really do like the style in which King writes. I'm sure Ric's will be more than satisfactory as well.

When I was a kid no one knew I had ADD. So I never had read a book all of the way though from front to back. I had always been embarrased about this. About 5 years ago the doctor noticed I had symptoms of ADD. They put me on meds and it worked overnight like magic. I could finally read a book like other do and enjoy it. I could never get my mind to imagine along with the book. "Shoes" was the first book that I got to experience this with. Now I am hooked on books. I could never understand as a kid how people got hooked on reading books and now I have finally found out why. I keep going back to shoes because of the fond memories of finally being able to comprehend what I was reading. Now I'm always reading this site and looking for good reading, I really don't even watch videos on the computer anymore, I do more of this sort of thing, thanks to you guys.

Sincerely yours
Matt Barth
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JNev

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #19 on: June 27, 2014, 12:16:10 PM »

Thanks for all of the replies, very good detail about the books. I am just finishing up shoes for the second time. When I finished the first time I kind of thought that I wouldn't want to read another AE book just because I thought the book burnt me out for a while. Which it did and then I started to pick that book up again and before you know it I was reading it a second time. You know I have found things I missed in the first read, a lot of things. I figured I better find a knew book or people in my family are going to start thinking I am strange. I got one of the promotional books of 13 bones on like google books and started reading it. I did notice it was fiction, I kind of started to see where it was going but then stopped for what ever reason. I think summer came along. I really got the wrong impression of that book from the first pages of what they will let you see for free. I figured when I first got the book, that it was interesting and I kind of had a direction I thought I would need the book to go because it is fiction. I'm not such a big fan of fiction. Now that you guys have given your input, I see that, Thirteen Bones was going the direction I thought it should to hold my interest. I just didn't read enough pages, also I think the tryall google book didn't give any help. I seem to remember there was a lot omitted. I do understand why, everyone has to make something for their efforts. I love history, I might try finding Amelia next. One thing is for sure, now that there has been good remarks on all three books, I'll pick up Thirteen Bones again. I really do like the style in which King writes. I'm sure Ric's will be more than satisfactory as well.

A lot of people are apt to think we who search for Earhart are strange anyway, I'm afraid.  :P

When I was a kid no one knew I had ADD. So I never had read a book all of the way though from front to back. I had always been embarrased about this. About 5 years ago the doctor noticed I had symptoms of ADD. They put me on meds and it worked overnight like magic. I could finally read a book like other do and enjoy it. I could never get my mind to imagine along with the book. "Shoes" was the first book that I got to experience this with. Now I am hooked on books. I could never understand as a kid how people got hooked on reading books and now I have finally found out why. I keep going back to shoes because of the fond memories of finally being able to comprehend what I was reading. Now I'm always reading this site and looking for good reading, I really don't even watch videos on the computer anymore, I do more of this sort of thing, thanks to you guys.

Sincerely yours
Matt Barth

Don't be embarrassed - I used to read them from back to front, and just skim the content after fixing on the outcome... still do when I want to know the conclusion and can consider all leading to that to be 'nice to know'...  ;)
- Jeff Neville

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matt john barth

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2014, 12:05:32 PM »

My ex wife thought I was strange because I would spend time on this forum. She would make fun of me a lot. She did that with Ham Radio as well. Now my new girlfriend understands, I think. She has listened to me tell the story the best I can. That is why people don't understand is that really the mystery is so big. I have tried so many different ways to tell the story to people who don't understand and I just can't break it down and keep the right points inserted to hold one's interest. I get frustrated because I want someone to sit and speculate with in person about the whole story. I just threw this out there to see if anyone feels the same.

Matt Barth
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Monty Fowler

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Re: Matters of FAQ: distilling the essence of discussions
« Reply #21 on: June 28, 2014, 02:39:58 PM »

I get frustrated because I want someone to sit and speculate with in person about the whole story. I just threw this out there to see if anyone feels the same.

Matt Barth

Only every other day or so, Matt ... this journey towards the truth can take hold of you, sometimes to the exclusion of just about everything else. It's because of what TIGHAR is and how it does things that has made it such a long running, emotionally-gripping saga.

LTM, who is just about ready to move on from dry paint,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP
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