Category: Books/Museum Reviews
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Be Free or Die by Cate Lineberry
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Be Free or Die: How is this not a movie yet?! Quick synopsis: A recounting of the life of Robert Smalls, Union hero during the Civil War. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Robert Smalls stole a Confederate ship and sailed it out to the waiting Union blockade right under the…
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The Finest Hours by Michael Tougias
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Finest Hours: Two shipwrecks for the price of one! Quick synopsis: The story of two oil tankers in distress off Cape Cod in 1952 and the effort to save the crew by the Coast Guard. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Both distressed ships split in half! And kept floating…
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A Great and Terrible King by Marc Morris
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for A Great and Terrible King: Braveheart was such a stupid movie. Quick synopsis: A complete biography of Edward I of England. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Other than the fact Edward I and William Wallace existed, Braveheart got everything else wrong. Fun Fact for History Nerds: Edward I effectively took…
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Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Dark Tide: You’ll never think of a sugar rush the same way again. Quick synopsis: A recounting of the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. You heard me right. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: In 1919, a giant vat of molasses in Boston burst, sending a flood of molasses through…
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Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Romantic Outlaws: Like mother, like daughter. Almost literally. Quick synopsis: A dual biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, a very famous feminist writer and her daughter Mary Shelley who wrote a little book called Frankenstein. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Basically, Frankenstein got written because Mary Shelley was on vacation and someone…
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The Girl on the Velvet Swing by Simon Baatz
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Girl on the Velvet Swing: A whole lotta crazy going on. Quick synopsis: A true crime story from the early 1900s. A famous architect rapes a woman and he is later murdered publicly by the woman’s husband. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Stanford White was a famous architect who…
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Nitro by Guy Evans
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Nitro: “He’s reviewing a professional wrestling book? I told you this guy was white trash.” Quick synopsis: A look into the rise of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) when it took on the Word Wrestling Entertainment (WWE formerly WWF). Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: You think wrestling is just for white…
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A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for A Night to Remember: Better than the movie. Certainly shorter. Quick synopsis: The classic retelling of the sinking of the Titanic. Enough said. This book was used as reference material for James Cameron when he wrote Titanic. Walter Lord wrote it in 1955. I believe that’s the definition of timeless. Fun…
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A Wretched and Precarious Situation – David Welky
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for A Wretched and Precarious Situation: Wretched and precarious for them, fun for us. Quick synopsis: The story of the Crocker Land expedition where Artic explorers went in search of Crocker Land first glimpsed but unexplored by a previous expedition. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Go to a map and find…