Category: Books/Museum Reviews
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The Escape Artists by Neal Bascomb
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Escape Artists: It’s Hogan’s Heroes, only it’s set in WWI and it’s real. Quick synopsis: Story of various POWs in WWI German prisons and their attempts to break out. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: One of the escapees immediately sent a telegram after making it to neutral territory. It…
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In the Enemy’s House by Howard Blum
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for In the Enemy’s House: Spying sounds exhausting. Quick synopsis: An espionage story about breaking Russian code after WWII in an attempt to stop the leaking of nuclear secrets. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Military recruiters lying their asses off! Who knew? Not a bunch of women during World War II…
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Dannemora by Charles Gardner
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Dannemora: This was a hell of a lot more like Shawshank than I expected. Quick synopsis: The prison escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Seriously, it’s just like Shawshank! The two guys dug out of their…
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The Shipwreck Hunter by David Mearns
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Shipwreck Hunter: It is really hard to find old shipwrecks. Who knew?! Quick synopsis: Selected shipwreck findings of celebrated explorer/shipwreck hunter David Mearns. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Shipwrecks are sometimes so easy to find it’s kind of embarrassing. The Esmeralda, a 500-year-old ship was found in about 5…
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Brendan by Morgan Llywelyn
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Brendan: I hate this book so much. Quick synopsis: A biography of Brendan of Clonfert and his legendary voyage. I guess. Not sure I can really tell for reasons outlined below. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: St. Brendan discovered America. No, I will not entertain arguments and facts to the…
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The Impeachers by Brenda Wineapple
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Impeachers: Worst. President. Ever. Quick synopsis: The story of the only ever impeachment of a sitting president, Andrew Johnson. Seriously, he sucked. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: By the end of Andrew Johnson’s term, both political parties hated him and wanted him to go away. This may also be…
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Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Bad Blood: How Elizabeth Holmes made very smart people look very dumb. Quick synopsis: A full investigation of the Theranos scam by the reporter who discovered the corruption. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Elizabeth Holmes’ voice is probably fake! Henry Kissinger got pulled into this! Walgreen’s almost went under because…
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Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Killers of the Flower Moon: Damn, white people look really bad after reading this one. Quick synopsis: Investigation into the Osage Indian murders of the 1920s. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: The Osage Indians in the 1920s were the richest people per capita in the world because they were settled…
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The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Radium Girls: This is why you shouldn’t eat radioactive materials. Quick synopsis: The story of the “Radium Girls.” Two groups of women who worked at plants painting materials with a mixture containing radium. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: File this under, “how can people be so stupid?” Radium was…