Sorry I’m Late

I have been travelling over the last week and a half, a combination of business and pleasure. I’m afraid I just ran out of time to sit down and write this week’s review until after we got home.

Our trip (my husband went with me) took us over to Sault Ste Marie, the twin cities that straddle the US / Canada border at the eastern end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We spent time on both sides of the border before heading down into lower Michigan for a few days of meetings, after which we headed to the Lansing area for a visit with my mother.

One thing I almost always have time to fit into our travels is a stop at the local bookstores. Here is a picture of the three books I picked up on this trip. The bookstores visited were Island Books & Crafts in Sault Ste Marie Michigan, and Schuler Books in Okemos.

The author of The Wage Standard (on the right) was interviewed by Paul Krugman last week and that discussion of this brand-new book was fresh in my mind as I walked into Schuler Books. I am expecting to do a full review later in the year - tentatively slotted in for September.

The other two are used books I spotted at Island Books, and I cannot promise when I will get around to reviewing them. They are additions to my ever expanding To-Be-Read list.

The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank into the North Atlantic on Monday, April 15, 1912. News spread quickly about the sinking, along with the rescue of some of the passengers, and the great loss of life at sea. Within weeks folk songs about the Titanic began to be heard on the streets, and recordings of some of those songs date to early 1913.

In 1924 Ernest Stoneman recorded The Titanic for Okeh Records. The song was written by the husband-and-wife songwriting duo William and Versey Smith, about whom little is really known. The main line in the chorus is the title for today’s review.

Some sources say Stoneman’s original unreleased recording had to be re-done in 1925. Once finally released the song became one of the biggest hits of the 1920s, and the first country song to sell over a million copies.

Stoneman himself went on to record over 200 songs in the 1920s and is credited with helping to discover the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, early country music recording pioneers like himself. He fell on hard times during the Depression. In the 1950s and 1960s his grown children gained popularity as recording artists The Stoneman Family. The group, along with father Ernest, appeared at folk festivals in the early 1960s. Stoneman passed away in 1968. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Today’s book tells the true story of a shipwreck and its aftermath, though not as titanic an event as the shipwreck Ernest Stoneman sang about.

Listen to Stoneman’s song for Okeh Records here on YouTube. Learn more about Ernest Stoneman on his Country Music Hall of Fame web page.

If you happened to be watching the Today Show on Tuesday morning, October 11th back in 2022 you may have seen the segment about the “miraculous rescue” in the Gulf of Mexico of three fisherman whose boat had sunk. Michael J. Tougias takes us behind the scenes of that brief TV news segment to tell the story of what led up to that rescue.

The three men on the boat were fishing for pleasure. They set out onto the Gulf on October 8, 2022, in a 24-foot boot. With its black hull and hardtop cover, the Pro-Line vessel had just been bought by Paul, one of the fishermen. It was his birthday gift to himself.

On board with Paul were friends Sunny and Lu. It was meant to be an afternoon on the water to celebrate the new boat. Arranging the trip as soon as he got the boat, Paul and his two friends left without telling anyone where exactly they intended to fish.

All three men were more than just avid, experienced fishermen. Besides fishing its waters for pleasure each had spent plenty of time on the Gulf. Paul had spent time working on oil rigs. Sonny had experience earlier in life working on a shrimp boat. Lu, like Paul, had worked on an oil rig before going to college.

When their boat sank that day, it happened with so little warning that all the three friends could do was don life jackets. They clung to coolers from the boat that were left floating in the water. It would take all of their collective experience, along with the sense of comradery they shared, and a little luck, for the three of them to face down the ordeal that awaited them.

Tougais takes their story and spins it into a gripping narrative nonfiction book. It is a great summer read, preferably on shore and not in a boat. The author does an excellent job weaving together the storyline with facts and background information that shed light on what is happening. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

OVERALL COMMENTS: Author Michael Tougias spins up a gripping true story that makes for a great summer read — preferably onshore and not in a boat!

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advance reviewer’s copy of the ebook through NetGalley, and courtesy of the publisher St. Martin’s Press. The book is available to the public as of this Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026.

CURRENT BOOKS & STUFF

WHAT’S NEXT

Next week I’ll be reviewing On the Origin of Sex by Lixing Sun. The author is a research professor and the author of The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars and The Fairness Instinct.. Here’s the publisher’s summary of the book: