Free books: History & Biography
Empire and Honor (2012)
I read the audio book, in no small part because Scott Brick is the reader here. Like the really great readers, he can use his voice to clearly portray the characters distinctly. And in this case there are lots of characters, most of them with German or Spanish accents. I did not know that this ...
Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (2009)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which combined scholarship with readability. I found it very interesting to read a book on Jane Austen which explored her changing influence after her death, as opposed to focussing simply on her life. Harman's ideas on why Austen's novels have stood the test of ti...
The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure (2008)
Obsession is right... even the writing rushes forward obsessively. It's almost like watching an Indiana Jones movie; the frantic pace never lets up. Gollner includes some howlingly inaccurate science but, after a while, I realized he was just laying out every bizarre notion that folks have about ...
Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain (2011)
Behind the Palace Doors was certainly a fun read, but it was also a disappointing one. Michael Farquhar is a plucky writer who takes you on a whirlwind tour of British monarchs and the various crises (not scandals) that have beset them for generations. He keeps up the pace, unlike some otherwise ...
Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say (2012)
My father called this the scariest book he'd ever read. I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but it certainly is a sobering look at how the future of free societies everywhere hangs by a slender thread.From the title, I expected that much of this book would consist of Beck attacking or exposin...
Pemilik Cintaku Setelah Allah dan Rasul (2000)
Pemilik Cinta Setelah Allah dan Rasul mengisahkan tentang perjalanan penulis mencari cinta yang membawanya lebih dekat dengan Cinta kepada Rabbnya. Sesuai dibaca oleh mereka yang sedang merancang untuk mendirikan mahligai cinta ataupun melayari bahtera rumah tangga dalam usia yang muda. Sesuai j...
Secretele monarhilor. Cinci secole de sex, aventură, viciu, trădare şi nebunie in monarhia britanică (2012)
A fun peek into a part of history not many people are aware of. It was fun to see people were as celebrity mad centuries ago as they were then. The author started with the Tudor era and continued all the way until the modern royal family. What stopped this from being a five star book was the leng...
Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives (2012)
'I cannot believe that I had this conversation with somebody who was elected to Congress.'-Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, on hearing a Tea Party freshman Congressman tell her that it was acceptable for the United States to default on its debtThis book is very insightful, if sometimes gossipy,...
When the Tea Party Came to Town (2012)
This is a nonfiction book with a clear focus. Though he does provide some context with anecdotes from further back American history, this book is really about the upstarts in the House of Representatives who have worked to dismantle the "size and scope of government." Allen West comes of favorabl...
Odette Secrets Maryann MacDonald 9781599907505 (2000)
3.5 Bittersweet tale of a young Jewish girl who pretends to be Christian when she and her mom are banished from Paris during the German occupation of France during WWII. Told In the first person, the story is told in verse, poetry being one of the things that brought Odette comfort while they wer...
Het Interessegebied (2014)
This is the first book I have read of Martin Amis and I found it to be wonderfully written. At times the style reminded me of Pynchon. It takes a while to get used to it, but it is well worth the effort. Set during the middle of the Second World War, the story is told primarily from the viewpoin...
The Big Thirst: The Marvels, Mysteries & Madness Shaping the New Era of Water (2000)
A veritable deluge of facts about water. Too many in fact - I reached information overload before the end. I might have given a shorter version five stars, but it became fairly repetitive.This book seems very well researched, not alarmist but full of well laid out warnings about water availabilit...
500 Days: Decisions and Deceptions in the Shadow of 9/11 (2012)
I listened to this on tape and it took me across the great states of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and ND. It's long. It's very good. I learned a lot about the internal machinations of the post 9/11 moments. I always wondered about Tony Blair and this makes his story more clear.There were s...
Os Anagramas de Varsóvia (2009)
Probably one of my favourite of Zimler's work this is a gripping story, centred around the murder of a boy. As if life in the ghetto was not grim enough, the murder is gruesome and stirs up the emotions of the comunity. In the following investigation Zimler shows us another great set of character...
La logica di potenza. L'America, le guerre, il controllo del mondo (2001)
[Disclaimer: This is a snapshot of my thoughts on this book after just reading it. This is not meant to serve as a summary of main/supporting points or a critique – only as some words on how I engaged with this book for the purposes of building a theoretical framework on strategy.]Mearsheimer, c...