All posts tagged nonfiction

Killing Patton

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Killing Patton cover

I recently read Killing Patton, one of the books in Bill O’Reilly’s Killing series. These books always talk about the death of the main person in the book’s title. They also say a lot about the times in which the book was set. George Patton’s death was one that I’ve seen the history channel talk about before, and it seemed interesting.

Prior to reading this book, I didn’t know a lot about Patton, other than he was a famous general. I also knew he was buried in Luxembourg, because I saw his grave when I went on vacation in Germany. World War II happened before my parents were even born. It’s one of those world events that is slowly receding into the mists of history. This book provides a lot of insight into that war. The section covering Patton’s death is a very small fraction of this book.

Killing Patton, in addition to discussing the general’s military genius and his insensitivity towards people with PTSD (back then known as “shell shock”) talks about other aspects of the war as well. It discusses some of the battles that led to victory in Europe, Hitler’s demise, and some of the horrific things that happened to people in the concentration camps (even after their release). It even talks a little bit about Stalin and why the Russians celebrate New Years’ with Christmas trees, even to this day.

The style of this book is similar to the other Killing books, with a close third person perspective. It sticks to the facts, while trying to bring the story to life.

If you’re interested in George Patton, World War II, or enjoy Bill O’Reilly’s other Killing books, you might want to read Killing Patton. If you’re already an expert on the European theater during World War II, this book might not bring any new information. It’s also a book solely about Patton’s death and it’s associated conspiracy theories. If you’re looking for a book that pushes conspiracy theories, O’Reilly’s books are not for you. I enjoyed it, and maybe you will as well.

Killing Kennedy

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Killing Kennedy cover

Recently, I’ve started to put more audiobooks into my life. I haven’t been reading as many non-fiction books as I would like, so I decided to read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy as an audiobook. It was really good and I learned a lot.

If you’re not familiar with O’Reilly’s Killing series, he takes a topic and writes all about the events that lead to the person’s death. The books are written in a narrative style, so they’re fairly entertaining. In the past, I’ve read Killing Lincoln, Killing Reagan, and Killing the Rising Sun.

Killing Kennedy starts off during World War II, where Kennedy is first tested as a leader. After his boat sinks, he saves the people on his crew through quick thinking, a lot of swimming, and a little bit of luck. If it wasn’t for this incident (and the death of his older brother), we might not have ever heard much from the Kennedys.

Most of the book focuses on the time when Kennedy was president. O’Reilly discusses some of the major events of his time in office, such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis. The book also discusses Kennedy’s personal life, including his dalliances outside of his marriage to Jackie, the loss of his child Patrick, and his love for his children. It also covers some of the major social movements of the time, such as the civil rights movement.

Of course, since this is a Killing book, Kennedy has to die sometime. We’re introduced to the character of Lee Harvey Oswald long before he makes his fateful shots. Killing Kennedy follows Oswald from his days in the Soviet Union, where he meets his wife Marina, all the way through his death at the hands of Jack Ruby.

Although there are conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy’s death, O’Reilly makes no judgement about them one way or another. Just as he does in Killing Lincoln, O’Reilly states the facts and lets you come to your own conclusions. He goes into a lot of detail about what happened that morning, including Jackie’s reaction and what some people noticed prior to the shooting.

If you’ve ever wondered about Kennedy’s time in office or about his assassination, Killing Kennedy is a great book. I highly recommend it and will be reading more books in the Killing series in the future.

Are You Addicted to Outrage?

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

Addicted to Outrage coverLast Tuesday was an amazing day for new releases.  One of the new releases that I was looking forward to was Addicted to Outrage, the new release by Glenn Beck.

As with all of my political reviews, I first need to state my views.  I am a conservative libertarian.  I voted third party in the last election, mostly because I think that character matters.  I’m willing to listen to everybody though.  Somebody who was really smart once suggested that you should never be the smartest person in the room.  I don’t necessarily think that’s talking about IQ.  I think that it means that you should realize that other people know things that you don’t and you can learn from them.

If you want to get the book in a nutshell, I’ll give you a quote from the first chapter: “We many times — not always, but much of the time — are saying almost the same exact thing, just with different words.”  Since we have so much in common, why are we arguing with each other?

Our words can make a difference in other people’s lives.  This is why, lately, I’ve tried to send compliments to authors when I love their books.  I’ve also tried to focus on sharing articles that are less divisive, that more of us can agree with.  I’ll leave the more divisive issues to other people.

Addicted to Outrage is a book that encourages us to calm down and try to treat each other civilly.  There might be things that we disagree with, but arguing with people and calling people names is not going to make them change their minds.  Being respectful of people might actually allow us to get along and help repair this broken country.

We need to look at ourselves.  I love how in chapter 7, Beck calls out both sides on their hypocrisy.  His words contain humor, making the book interesting.

Addicted To Outrage tells us why it’s so important at this time in history to get along with others.  There are a lot of problems that this world will be facing in the next 5, 10, 20 years.  For example, as artificial intelligence is able to do more and more, jobs are going to be lost.  How are we going to deal with this?  Conservatives and liberals have different ideas.  Can we be absolutely sure that our “side” is right?  Rather than fighting about it, we need to get together and try to understand one another in order to try to come up with a solution.  As Glenn states, “we are not talking to each other or growing more compassionate toward our fellow man at a time when we need it most.”

Learning Something

There are some pretty scary things coming along.  The machines that we will be programming to drive our cars (as one example) are going to have to make life and death decisions.  Should it hit the bus of school children, or hit the bus containing Bill Gates and Elon Musk?  China already has a social scoring system; will our AI give priority to the lives of people with higher social scores?

Not only do many of us demonize people on the “other side”, we also demonize historical figures.  The world is a complex place, and our opinions are not always derived from simple facts.  For example, some of us criticize Washington and Jefferson for owning slaves, but it was actually against the law to free your slaves, except upon your death (and you couldn’t even do that if you were in debt, like Jefferson was).  Are we any better?  Almost all of us use some sort of electronics that were created under slave-like conditions.  There are more slaves today than in the days before the Civil War.  I’m sure that none of us like that, but probably a lot of people feel as helpless as I am about doing something about it.

As you read Addicted to Outrage, you might learn about other things, like the tragedy that occurred in “Black Wall Street.”  Or that even though Churchill was a great war hero, he was also a flawed individual that did some not-so great things (maybe the same is true about us).  There are good and bad things about the United States, and this book touches upon a little of both.

Doing Something

We might not be able to end slavery (as an example) but we can do something to reduce the anger in our lives.  It has to start with us, after all.  The last section of Addicted to Outrage talks about what we can do about our problems with anger.

Part of it is to try to acknowledge when someone is trying to find common ground with you, and take what you can get.  Beck tells the story of how his grandfather, who grew up in an age where blacks were discriminated against, once told him00 in the early 1970s “No matter what anyone says about coloreds, they are just like you and me.”  Almost nobody talks like that anymore.  If one did, it would probably seem offensive, but in this case, Glenn’s grandfather was trying.  I love this quote: “Can we not look into one another’s heart and see how hard we are trying?”  We don’t need to vilify people that are trying to understand our point of view and don’t quite grasp what we mean.

I love one of the quotes towards the end of the book:  “We must not become what we say we are against.”

It might be difficult to change, to become nicer people.  Some people might not even like it.  It might not feel good, at first, to be kind to others and bite back a snarky retort, especially if they are not nice to us.  But maybe, like many risks, it’s one worth taking.  As Glenn says on page 303 “Risk big, win big — do whatever homework is necessary, but don’t let your fear prevent you from rolling the dice!”

Back to School with Nonfiction: Top Ten Tuesday

By Brookelorren on 25 Comments

So it’s time for the kids to go back to school.  My daughter started public school for the first time about two weeks ago, my boy started his homeschool coop last week, and our “Lastname Christian Academy” officially starts the Monday after Labor Day.  For today’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) we are doing a back to school edition.  This week, I will be posting some of my favorite nonfiction books.  They’re in no particular order.

The Fourth Turning coverThe Fourth Turning has got to be one of my favorite nonfiction books.  It was my favorite book that I read for the first time in 2016.  It came out in 2007, but it’s very relevant today.  I just love how this book describes how history runs in cycles, and it is so amazing how this book is laid out.  If you like this book, Pendulum is also a good book with the same idea, but I liked this one immensely better, even though this one is older.

The Discoverers CoverI first read The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin in college, and not for an assignment; it just looked interesting.  The book details the history of discovery, from things as simple as the clock and the calendar to more modern inventions, like navigation.  I’ve read this book twice, but it’s been a while since I’ve read it last.  I’ve also read a few of his other books; they’re also outstanding.  A couple of years ago I was able to find a copy of The Creators in hardback at a library book sale and I had to get that one too, even though I had already read it.

History of the Ancient World coverIf you are a homeschooler, then you are probably familiar with Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World series (they’re very popular).  She also has written a set of history books for adults: The History of the _______ World (she has books for the Ancient World, Medieval World, and Renaissance World).  They’re all great.  If you think you know history because you studied it in high school, you probably are missing a lot.  Some of the stories in these books are quite brutal, and I don’t think that they’d get taught in high school just for the brutality factor alone (history can be pretty nasty at times).  These are really thick books, and  you probably won’t finish it in a day or two like you can with most novels, but you can learn a lot from them.

History of Modern Europe CoverOne of my favorite history books is A History of Modern Europe by John Merriman.  I bought the third edition (pictured in the photo here) because if you buy the brand new edition, it’s really expensive.  There’s over 1400 pages of text here, so you won’t get this one read in one sitting either, but the book is very readable.

After the Flood by Bill Cooper is a lot shorter and a lot less academic, but I found it to be really interesting nonetheless.  I think it’s fairly typical for people living today to think of the ancient world being full of unintelligent people who didn’t know much, but I’m pretty sure that was not the case.  This book talks about some of the ancient records that shows that more than likely, ancient people in places like modern-day Britain already had knowledge of the Judeo-Christian God before the arrival of the Roman missionaries that started showing up there after the time of Jesus.  I found the ancient geneological records to be fascinating.

History of the FranksI read The History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours in college, but I also reread it once after that.  The stories here are pretty fascinating.  It’s hard to tell at times what in this book is real and what was exaggeration.  Whether some of the tales are made up or not, what is apparent is that there was corruption in the early medieval period just as much as there is now.

Decline and fall of the roman Empire Gibbon coverIf you’re looking for a reading challenge, then you might want to try tackling Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (unabridged edition).  My Kindle says that I still have about 75 hours left in this book, and I’m 2 % of the way through (probably part of that is chapter indexes though).  I read the abridged edition years ago, but I’d like to one day read the entire thing, because there’s some fairly interesting stories here (although the reading is not the easiest).

There are several different Kindle editions of this book floating around, some free, some you have to pay for, but I’ve found that this particular edition is the best, because 1) the footnotes are all there and linked, and 2) all six volumes of this book are all together.  I’ve downloaded a few copies of this book and have decided on reading this particular edition because it seems to have the best formatting.

1421 CoverI love 1421: The Year China Discovered America, because there is so much about the ancient and even medieval world that we don’t understand.  If you like the History Channel shows where they go look at unexplained evidence and try to figure out what it all means, then you might be interested in reading this book too.  I’ve always wanted to read his other book, 1434:  The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance, but I could never remember the title, but I finally found it.  Now that it’s on my Goodreads TBR, I’m more likely to read it.

Freakonomics coverSo far, all the books I’ve put on this list have been history books, which is most of the nonfiction that I read (well, that and political fiction) but I do read whatever nonfiction looks interesting.  Freakonomics is a thought-provoking non-history nonfiction book.  It explores the economic factors behind things like drug dealing, danger, abortion, and other subjects, but not in a boring way.  I haven’t read this book in a long time, but now that I’m talking about it here, I want to read it again.

The Dark Net coverWildcard seems to be one of the most anticipated books of the year, and if you’ve read Warcross already, then you probably remember that there’s a place that Emika goes to that is the dark side of Warcross.  It’s actually based on a real thing called The Dark Net.  While I was reading Warcross, I was reminded about the things that I read about in this book, including the Assassination Market (which is a real thing).  If you find those sorts of dark things interesting, you might be curious to read this book.  It’s a fairly easy and enjoyable read.

So that’s this week’s Back to School edition of Top Ten Tuesday.  Stay tuned for next week where I talk about books that that were made into movies, and which one was better (because I don’t really watch too many movies or TV shows and I’m certain that most of you aren’t interested in watching something like Кухня, so I’m straying off topic a little).

George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire Paints a Realistic Portrait

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

I recently was given a copy of George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire, written by Peter Y. Choi.  Like a lot of people who know a lot about the history of the American colonies or of religious history, I knew who George Whitefield (pronounce WIT-field) was.  Whitefield is often portrayed as a preacher who played a huge part in the Great Awakening.  He’s often painted as a saint.  This book seems to paint a more balanced portrait of the preacher.

George Whitefield:  Evangelist for God and Empire tells of the life of Whitefield, not just as a preacher, but as someone who also was a flawed individual, like all of us.  Yes, he preached to the masses during the Great Awakening, but he also owned slaves, had questionable practices with regards to his orphanage, tried to found a college, and involved himself in politics during the War of 1812.

Even though I knew some things about Whitefield before reading this book, there was a lot more to this book that I didn’t know.  Although a lot of things in this book (looking from a 21st century perspective) were not good, like pushing for slavery in Georgia, it was good to learn about these other aspects of his life as well.

The book was a fairly scholarly book, so it wasn’t one that I could read straight through.  It wasn’t a book that I couldn’t put down, and I did read a few other books while I was working on this one, but the information in this book was interesting.  The book is worth reading if you want to learn more about this preacher.

I realize that there have been several non-YA book reviews over the last week and a half, and unfortunately, that’s just how it worked out… I really couldn’t move the dates of my reviews because I wanted the ARCs to get out in a timely manner, and I also wanted to keep my upcoming Throne of Glass and Red Queen reviews together.  On Thursday, we will resume our normal YA reviews with Strange the Dreamer.