Category: Books/Museum Reviews

  • The Lost Founder by Jesse Wegman

    I’d like to start off this review with a slight tangent (because I am clearly a professional). One of the harder conversations to have as a history nerd is when people throw a random name or event at you, and become perplexed when you reveal you don’t know anything about it. “How could you not…

  • Defiance by Loubna Mrie

    Allow me to be ridiculously pedantic for a second. (If you just said, “Again?” then we are in a fight.) Memoirs worry me when I start them. I am always concerned that the author will make themselves either the eternal victim, or worse, the unsullied hero of their own story. If you call yourself the…

  • In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod

    Listen, none of us want to think about our parents and their intimacy issues. However, Tom Junod decided to write a whole book about it called In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man. It is almost every adjective you would expect. Parts are uncomfortable, enraging, awkward,…

  • Kingdom of Devils by Katherine Grandjean

    Quick, what do you think of when I say what happened after the American Revolution, and before the Civil War? The Louisiana Purchase? Yes! Ratifying the Constitution? Perfect! America’s first spree killers? Oh, didn’t see that coming did you? Well, don’t feel bad. Katherine Grandjean surprised me too with her excellent Kingdom of Devils. The…

  • The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef

    I don’t know. Maybe I am just a prude, but I have never looked at a toad and thought, “Man, I’d really love to ingest the secretions of this animal. Might just change my life.” However, Kimon de Greef is here to tell us that a lot of people did have those thoughts in his…

  • Empire of Ashes by James M. Scott

    I have a weird hesitation before I start James M. Scott’s books. There are thicker books while there are others which are going to be more emotionally fraught. It’s not either of those things, but rather that I know his books end up so immersive that I need to be in the right headspace to…

  • The Hardest, Longest Race by Eric Moskowitz

    Did you know Hitler had a portrait of Henry Ford in his private office? Well, on top of being an inveterate anti-Semite, Ford also rigged cross country car races! Ford may have been overall a very distasteful person, but Eric Moskowitz’s The Hardest, Longest Race is actually fun. Moskowitz tells the story of the first…

  • The Lightning Beneath the Sea by James Tabor

    I hate science (and engineering!). Mostly, it is because I’m not smart enough to understand it the vast majority of the time. So, I decided to read Lightning Beneath the Sea by James Tabor for two reasons. First, that is just a killer title. Second, the blue on the cover truly mesmerized me. I hoped…

  • Catch the Devil by Pamela Colloff

    I don’t know, but maybe someone is already in jail we need to use a bit more discretion in how much we trust them. This is basically the crux of Pamela Colloff’s excellent Catch the Devil. Paul Skalnik is a fraud, thief, sexual predator, pedophile, and serial bigamist. He was also the favorite pet of…