Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
“Thirteen Ways of Looking” is the latest from Colum McCann. I have prevously written about his novel “TransAtlantic” which made me a fan of McCann’s writing. Continue reading “Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann”
First my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to download an advanced reader copy of “Crimson Shore” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I have enjoyed some of Agent Pendergast books previously.
Most of the ones I’ve read have been very good. I see this is number 15 in the series and as I only have read a few earlier ones, I was eager to get re-acquainted. Continue reading “Crimson Shore by Preston & Child”
I had read two previous books by Joseph J. Ellis about the founding of the United States several years ago . I had liked these books and when I saw he had written a new book with emphasis on the transformation into a nation or the Second American Revolution, I was eager to read it.
The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution , 1783-1789 actually begins in 1781 when the final state ratifies the Articles of Confederation. This loose confederation of the states had many problems due to the supremacy of states and lack of power in the weakly united confederation that pretended to be the United States.
For example, under the Articles the confederation called the United States had no way to force the states to honor the terms of the peace treaty which ended the American Revolution. They could ask the states but some chose to ignore the request. There was no way to raise money to pay our national debt. The United States was deeply in debt from the war but could only ask the states to give it money. The requests were frequently ignored. Continue reading “The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution”
This is an enjoyable book. I had requested an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library by Wayne A. Wiegand because I like libraries. I got the ARC from NetGalley and thank them for the chance to read this book on my Kindle before publication.
I claim neither special knowledge of nor interest in librarianship, just an interest as a library user and occasional supporter. I think I may be part of the target audience since the subtitle suggests this is a “people’s history” rather than one aimed primarily at professionals. Continue reading “History of the American Public Library”
Not quite a joke -just a misunderstanding with myself.
A few days ago I wrote that I was re-reading “TransAtlantic” by Colum McCann. I had read the book before my vacation in Ireland this summer. We spent our first vacation night in Cobh. I remembered a beautifully written line from TransAtlantic about Cobh. I thought now that I had been to Cobh, I would enjoy re-reading the book. It seemed to me there were quite a few great descriptions in the book in addition to the one I remembered so well.
So here is the misunderstanding. Continue reading “TransAtlantic by Colum McCann”
I was driving and the show on the radio interested me. An author was being interviewed about his book. I missed part of it. The interview had started before I got in my car. I picked up on a show in-progress but I heard enough that I was definitely interested.
Has the United States always been a Christian nation? I believe the answer is “No”. Why do many others think the answer is “Yes”?
In “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America”, Kevin M. Kruse delves into the question of why so many believe that the United States always been a Christian nation.
I think the evidence is quite clear Continue reading “One Nation Under God”
Before reading “The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett” by Nathan Ward, I knew very little about Dashiell Hammett. I had seen “The Maltese Falcon” and maybe another movie or two based on his books and knew he was an important figure in crime fiction but I did not know much more.
This book briefly describes a childhood in rural southern Maryland, Philadelphia and Baltimore. After leaving school and failing at several jobs, he found his niche with Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Continue reading “The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett”
The full title is Restoring the Consent of the Governed: How Americans Can Hold Congress More Accountable for Serving the National Interest by Bill Bridgman. The title and subtitle are a mouthful but it does summarize the book nicely.
The book is neither long nor expensive. I think it is interesting, well done, and important. The problem it addresses is one I think most Americans can agree with. There is wide spread agreement that the U.S Congress is just not doing a very good job. Continue reading “Fix Congress”
The Forgotten Room: A Novel by Lincoln Child was an enjoyable book.
The opening chapter got my attention. Then I thought the next part was just interesting enough to keep me turn pages. Since I read this on my Kindle Fire, I kept touching the screen to advance to the next page. This would be about 20% of the book or about 60 pages since the hardback is a bit over 300 pages. Continue reading “The Forgotten Room”
1920 was a bad year for Cork. Well, a bad year for Ireland. But this is about what happened in Cork.
Ireland was fighting the British for its independence and the fighting in Cork was intense. The Burning of Cork by Gerry White and Brendan O’Shea is a rather detailed account of that fighting. Continue reading “The Burning of Cork”
I’ve spent a good amount of time the past few weeks reading this book, thinking, re-reading, and re-thinking my ideas about politics. Although far from being a believer in the right-wing of American politics, I thought this was a very good book.
The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future by Charles C.W. Cooke presents his beliefs that neither conservatives nor libertarians have a coherent solution to good governing. Continue reading “The Conservatarian Manifesto reviewed”
I just read Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Philip Moeller, and Paul Solman. It was an enjoyable experience.
Yes, I used the words “social security” and “enjoyable” in the same paragraph.
Imagine my surprise when I read this book that I thought would be important but dull and found it enjoyable. The authors not only convey the basic facts about social security and discuss how to maximize your benefits but do so in an entertaining fashion.
If you are unconvinced, Continue reading “Social Security – Get What’s Yours”
I think it appropriate to begin the review of a mystery with another mystery. Robert Goldsborough has done it again. Well, what has he done?
Robert Goldsborough is writing new Nero Wolfe mysteries in the style of the originals by Rex Stout. The two I have read before are very good . (See 2 Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Robert Goldsborough). I just finished another titled Archie in the Crosshairs and it was also quite good. Continue reading “Archie in the Crosshairs”
The full title, Climate Peril: The Intelligent Reader’s Guide to Understanding the Climate Crisis, gives you a better idea of what this book is about and who it is aimed at.
The author is John J. Berger, a Ph.D. with expertise in ecology and and climate science. He has written this book not for other experts but for intelligent readers who wish to understand the current debate about climate change and the likely consequences.
I am in the process of reading this book but there is much to it and I suspect this is going to take awhile. So this is both a progress report and a review of the book as far as I have read and what I see coming based on on chapter titles.
By the way, if you look at the Amazon site you will see many favorable reviews. In fact when I looked all who reviewed the book gave it 5 starts (the highest rating). You may also notice the Kindle version is considerably less than either the hardback or paperback editions.
Dr. Berger starts us a brief picture of what will likely happen as a result of climate change in the next 90 years or so. That is, the life time of those being born now and in the very near future. It is an alarming picture and it could be worse if greenhouse emissions continue to increase.
The next chapter reviews the evidence that climate changes are already occurring. But climate does change naturally. The next 2 chapters explain the normal climate alteration process and then the unnatural process which is occurring now.
This is where I am now. So far, I am very impressed. Dr. Berger does a great job in explaining the complex issues in normal climate fluctuations (why we have ice ages and warming periods) and why most scientists believe we are now abnormally warming the climate.
Of course, weather varies. We have hot days and cold days. But based on yearly averages, 2014 was the hottest year on record. And the past few years have been pretty warm too. See Bloomberg for a great animated graph.
But back to the book. So far I think it does exactly what it set out to do. That is, it is an explanation of climate change and climate peril for the intelligent reader. And so far, the book looks very good at it. I look forward to reading the rest which looks like it lays out various climate perils in greater detail.
I’ve been doing a bit of family history myself so when I saw the title How to Do Everything Genealogy, my first thought was that covering everything in genealogy in a a book was certainly an impossible task and perhaps the author was some sort of charlatan. However, I soon discovered this was not the case and it actually was a very good book.
Continue reading “How to Do Everything Genealogy”