Category: Books/Museum Reviews

  • Contest for Liberty by Seanegan Sculley

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Contest for Liberty: We should have lost. Quick synopsis: A look at the American Revolution through how the U.S. military matured from the beginning to end of the war. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Inflation of U.S. currency was so bad by the end of the war that many veterans…

  • The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Republic of Pirates: The English are the reason we can’t have nice things like a Pirate Republic. Quick synopsis: The story of how pirates tried to create their own society and the man who destroyed it. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: The Golden Age of Piracy was relatively short…

  • Scholars of Mayhem by Daniel Guiet/Timothy Smith

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Scholars of Mayhem: PhD in killing Nazis. Quick synopsis: The story of Jean Claude Guiet and his team of saboteurs in World War II France. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Once France was liberated, you could tell which women collaborated with the Germans by their telltale shaved head which was…

  • Six Days in August by David King

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Six Days in August: Who wouldn’t fall in love with their kidnapper? Quick synopsis: The story of the Norrmalmstorg bank robbery in Sweden in 1973. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Why do you care about a bank robbery with a funny name? This is how “Stockholm Syndrome” entered the public…

  • In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park/Maryanne Vollers

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for In Order to Live: North Korea is worse than I thought, amazingly. Quick synopsis: The story of Yeonmi Park, who escaped North Korea only to end up being human trafficked in China. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Children are taught that Kim Jong Il wrote fifteen hundred books while at…

  • The Book Was Better: Catch and Kill

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Catch and Kill: Movie producers are perverts? Who knew? Except literally everyone. Quick synopsis: The story of how Ronan Farrow took down Harvey Weinstein. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Ronan Farrow is also a lawyer and clearly an overachiever. Fun Fact for History Nerds: Weinstein actually reached out to Woody…

  • Grant and Sherman by Charles Bracelen Flood

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Grant and Sherman: The ultimate Civil War bromance. Quick synopsis: A look at the friendship between Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman and how it shaped the Civil War. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: One of the best quotes of all time: “Grant stood by me when I was…

  • Lucky 666 by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Lucky 666: Sure, why not just build your own plane during World War II. Quick synopsis: The story of the Old 666, a B-17 bomber put together with scraps in Papua New Guinea in World War II. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: The main event of the book is the…

  • The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

    Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Woman They Could Not Silence: So, this is why no one wants to go to therapy. Quick synopsis: The story of Elizabeth Packard, who was forcibly committed by her husband for having an opinion. Yeah, really. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: In the 1860s, the leading cause of insanity…