Tag Archives: history

Napoleon: Life and Legacy

Posted on October 22, 2020 by

Napoleon: Life and Legacy© 2011 Alan Forrest403 pages Napoleon is an unavoidable figure of European history, and enjoys no shortage of admirers even today. For years he dominated a continent, using native talents given abundant opportunities opened by the revolution … Continue reading →

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COVID Reviews #6 Cleaning Up with gangsters, Navajo, politicians, and so many Germans

Posted on October 20, 2020 by

Back in September and early October when I was under quarantine, I didn’t have computer access, so I couldn’t take many notes or write reviews when things were fresh on my mind. I tried to post comments intermittently, but some … Continue reading →

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COVID Reviews #4: Persians, Nukes, and Bugs

Posted on October 5, 2020 by

On Wednesday I will have my COVID retest, annnnd I hope to have an answer by Thursday or Friday if I am fit for public consumption. I hope so: being in quarantine is a bit like being in a nursing … Continue reading →

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COVID Reviews #3: Romans, Dogs, and Saudis

Posted on October 2, 2020 by

I don’t know if anyone misses my usual chatty, sometimes florid reviews, but they’re impossible to do on a phone. More mini-reviews it is! Continuing my onslaught of the TBR pile, I finished Lives of Famous Romans, by Olivia Coolridge. … Continue reading →

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COVID Reviews #2: Afghans and Turks and Austrians, oh my!

Posted on September 30, 2020 by

Khaled Hosseini’s third book is also his most unusual. His previous two books followed friendships which which were forged, broken, and tested over the years as Afghanistan reeled from one chaotic event to another. And the Mountains Echoed is more … Continue reading →

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Wisdom Wednesday: The Great Tradition

Posted on September 9, 2020 by

This week features a quote from Will Durant, whose epic Story of Civilization, partially co-written with his wife, was a masterful review of western history — surveying literature, politics, philosophy, etc — from Mesopotamia to Napoleon. This particular quote comes … Continue reading →

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This Republic of Suffering

Posted on August 21, 2020 by

This Republic of Suffering:  Death and the American Civil War © 2008 Drew Gilpin Faust 401 pages     Oft in dreams I see thee lying On some battle-plain Lonely, wounded, even dying — Calling, but in vain Weeping sad … Continue reading →

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Shiloh 1862

Posted on August 18, 2020 by

Shiloh 1862 © 2012 Winston Groom 448 pages Although I’ve been aware of the small Winston Groom collection of Civil War books in my home library for years, I’ve never thought to read them because I invariably associate Groom with … Continue reading →

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American Illiad | Reluctant Voices

Posted on August 17, 2020 by

As part of my attempts to scale Mount TBR,  I read two smaller works on the Civil War this week. They may be later joined by This Republic of Suffering,  a survey of the war’s unprecedented death toll and its … Continue reading →

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In the Garden of Beasts

Posted on July 30, 2020 by

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin © 2011 Erik Larson 432 pages In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt needed a man for a post no one wanted to fill: US Ambassador to Germany.  … Continue reading →

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