Blogcritics Category: Books: History

Book Review: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Jon Sobel — Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:10:54 EST

An imagined history of a real book comes to life in this beautifully written historical novel.
In the hands of a great craftsperson, a humble volume of story and prayer may be re-conceived as a priceless illuminated masterpiece. Witness the Sarajevo Haggadah, a centuries-old volume now counted as one of the most valuable books in the world.Similarly, in the hands of a fine writer, a slim set of facts about an unusual object can become a...

Book Review: The Fall Of Troy by Peter Ackroyd

Philip Spires — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 04:16:36 EST

Juxtaposes ancient gods with archaeologists who seek them. Parallels are closer than the intervening centuries might suggest.
In The Fall Of Troy, Peter Ackroyd explores some grand themes against a backdrop of a grander history, but always from the narrowed view of an obsession that denies experience. The story is set in the early twentieth century, a period of great and fast discovery of ancient sites. It is also a time when archaeology is being transformed from a...

Book Review: Need to Know - UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence by Timothy Good

Glen Boyd — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 03:41:43 EST

Timothy Good follows up Above Top Secret with another classic study of the UFO phenomenon.
For those familiar with the subject of Ufology (the study of UFOs and aliens visiting our little blue marble), British researcher Timothy Good stands out from the rest of the pack. Good's 1988 book Above Top Secret is widely regarded as one of, if not the definitive volume on a subject where because of its very nature, the crackpots, hoaxsters,...

Book Review: Please Please Me by Gordon Thompson and Dusty! Queen of the Postmods by Annie J. Randall

Holly Hughes — Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:20:32 EST

Two college professors dissect the music of the 1960s British Invasion, with varying results.
I’ll admit it, there’s always at least one book about British pop culture on my bedside table, whether it’s a tell-all Beatles bio or some esoteric volume of Kinks arcana. We navel-gazing boomers love to read about our own pop past, which is probably why the normally sober Oxford University Press has seen fit to publish these two...

Book Review: St Pancras Station by Simon Bradley

Natalie Bennett — Sun, 4 Jan 2009 04:42:55 EST

An odd little book, mostly an architectural history, but with some great snippets of social anecdote about one of the great train stations of Europe.
You might describe my reading interests as catholic (very definitely with a small "C"): I read history, science, politics, philosophy, and bits of fiction. I would have given you good money that railway station architecture was not particularly likely to feature on my reading list, but I'd have lost that money.When I saw a little paperback entitled...

Book Review: The Enchantress Of Florence by Salman Rushdie

Richard Marcus — Fri, 2 Jan 2009 18:53:17 EST

A historical fantasy that's both a pleasure to read and an education in its recreation of two of history's most fascinating cities.
In our chauvinism the West puts Florence and its renaissance as a place of arts and learning, at the centre of the world when it comes to cultural achievements in the 15th and 16th centuries. Our bias has prevented us from seeing that while supposedly civilized Europe struggled through dark ages of ignorance and plague in the years prior to that...

Book Review: I Believe In Yesterday by Tim Moore

James Carson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:18:36 EST

The author steps joins Roman re-enactors and Viking retromaniacs, and discovers they're not just playing for time.
Modern life getting you down? Feel like getting away from it all? Perhaps a week as a Roman legionary will put the colour back in your cheeks. Or maybe you'd prefer to pillage a village in the company of rampaging Vikings. Historical re-enactments may not be the most relaxing form of relaxation, but for many time travel beats Benidorm on all...

Book Review: Ted Williams At War by Bill Nowlin

Charlie Doherty — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:28:46 EST

This is simply the best and most comprehensive book on Ted Williams' heroic wartime experiences. Period.
Most biographies on Ted Williams (a.k.a. the "Splendid Splinter") focus relatively little space -- a chapter or two -- to the man's life outside of baseball. The prolific author Bill Nowlin's terrific book Ted Williams At War however, at well over 360 pages, devotes plenty of space to Williams' time in the armed forces, including the political and...

Book Review: The King's Daughter - A Novel of the First Tudor Queen by Sandra Worth

Wisteria Leigh — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:07:31 EST

An Elizabethan page-turner that offers realistic melodrama, intrigue and suspense, plotting and murder, love and hate.
Sandra Worth has written a gripping dramatic historical novel based on the ruthless rise to power of the Tudor court. The King’s Daughter is a complex history that is presented through the eyes of Elizabeth of York, the King’s Daughter who became the first Tudor Queen upon marrying the usurper Henry Tudor. Bewitched from the beginning,...

Book Review: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Jessica Schneider — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:01:35 EST

Ultimately readers are given tons of facts to digest and little on character development.
The Devil in the White City is a book that my stepfather recommended to me, and my stepfather is someone who reads Jimmy Buffett books, so I did not have high hopes. Yet this is more a disappointment than it is a bad book. It had the potential to be an excellent one, but falls short. I have no choice but to give it an A plus when it comes to...