I read Nathaniel's Nutmeg by Giles Milton over the weekend while traveling. Amazingly enough, that's ALL I read over the weekend. I'd picked the book up out at the coast awhile ago because it looked interesting but hadn't gotten around to it until now. It was interesting. I'd really had no idea that the Dutch and British sailors making the runs to the spice islands turned into pirates along the way (much of the time but not all), nor had I known that England got the island of Manhatten from the Dutch in trade for a very small island named Run.

Parts of the book were very unpleasant reading however as various torture performed by these merchants and sailors were described.

posted by Kristin Buxton at 11:38 AM