This was not the next biography on my list. I had engaged, the day previous to starting this book, in a heated exchange with a co-worker over who would comprise a list of the five most important Americans (I live an exciting life, folks). My off-hand suggestion of George Washington was dismissed with disdain, and countered with George Mason. This led down a rabbit hole which I won’t bother venturing again, but the salient point here is that I was driven to pursue greater understanding […]
Funny History
This book is filled with comic strips that make fun of history and literature, LOVED IT. Are you a snarky nerd? I’m betting you will love it too. Comparing beat poets to hipsters? Dude watching with the Brontes? Jules Verne has a crush on EA Poe, Wonder Woman is a little jaded, spam pigeons, the Church of Bros, 15th Century Peasant Romance comics, Austen mania, Sirens with duck-face. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this book. I finished it in one sitting, […]
I’ve seen Fire and I’ve seen Reign
It is only fitting that perhaps the most contentious presidency of my lifetime gets a second look in my quest to read a biography for every president in US history. And while Decision Points was shockingly insightful and somewhat changed my opinion of George W. Bush, Days of Fire is far deeper and considerably more thorough. In many ways, this is for Bush what Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals was for Lincoln: an interwoven narrative exploring the characters of the particular administration being studied. […]
Deception! Scandal! Intrigue!
How can you not want to read a book with a title like that? And the book doesn’t disappoint. This thing is 352 pages chock-full of late 19th century sensation, intrigue, and occasional bouts of madness. This story combs through the entirety of the bizarre Druce-Portland affair, a famously strange set of legal cases taking place in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. The press and public obsessed over it for more than a decade. It’s hard to imagine any case finding the same level […]