Review: Blood of Tyrants: George Washington and the Forging of the Presidency, by Logan Beirne

BLOOD OF TYRANTS: George Washington and the Forging of the Presidency

Logan Beirne

Encounter Books

April 23, 2013 Kindle Edition

438 pages print version

$27.99 US, $14.99 Kindle

ASIN B00AUZS12E

When Independence Day approached this year, I searched my backlog of TBR books and without hesitation selected BLOOD OF TYRANTS.  Skeptics may question whether another book about our first president would offer new insight.  Logan Bierne has written a dramatic and entertaining history of George Washington pulled from his research.  It is a completely enveloping read,  with lesser known anecdotes and stories about George Washington to satisfy the curious. For example, Did you know his teeth were made from hippopotamus ivory and human teeth, not from wood?  

As our country struggled to emerge as a united collection of states, Congress wanted to micromanage the war through Washington’s leadership. This approach failed miserably.  It became clear to Congress that they needed to delegate full control for the armed services to George Washington, their Commander in Chief. With this decision, the American Revolution changed direction with the outcome destined for success in the hands of George Washington.  That Congress would grant such absolute power to one individual is surprising.  Just imagine how difficult it would be to change the Commander in Chief’s job description today, in the middle of a war.  Had Washington faced our current divisive partisan politicians on Capitol Hill what results might the country have suffered?

BLOOD OF TYRANTS shows how the Presidency of the United States and the role of Commander in Chief  merged as a result of the American Revolution.  When deciding the role of America’s President, the people looked to the brilliant leadership shown by George Washington, a proven success.   According to Bierne, some believed Washington had an immortal bullet-proof  shield of protection that kept him safe.  He was known to be an active inspirational commander, brave and fearless who wanted to protect all Americans, Patriots and Loyalists for the good of the new nation.

Logan Beirne has a deliberate purpose as he presents a focused approach specifically on the role of Commander in Chief in America’s early political theater.  BLOOD OF TYRANTS will astound readers with new awareness. Without a doubt it promises to provide much discussion and reflection among readers, both students and  historians.  One of my best pick reads for 2013.

Wisteria Leigh

July 5, 2013

DISCLOSURE: I obtained a copy of this Kindle edition on Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2013]. 

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

Review: A Soul's Calling, by Scott Bishop

 

A SOUL’S CALLING
Scott Bishop 
Wanderlust Publishing House
January 4, 2013
Print Version: 341 pages
0615695353
List Price $14.95 Paperback





Once in a great while a book lands in my lap that is breathtakingly beautiful and at the same time personally illuminating. Such is the case with A Soul’s Calling by Scott Bishop.  
This is the story of Scott who has the ability to communicate with the Other Side.  It is during his encounter with the Spirit World that he realizes his soul is in jeopardy.  As he grapples with this revelation, he makes a choice to travel to Nepal.  He expects a mythical adventure that will take courage, but his soul beckons him to go. He must face Mount Everest in hopes that the Spirits will help to mend his soul.

Scott is an attorney who is not exactly your typical experienced mountain climber.  He describes himself as conservative, predictable and responsible. Undaunted, he researches the feasibility of the trek and physically trains for the arduous journey.  He gathers a melange of symbolic objects and prayers with obvious personal significance.  He believes he will need these things when he reaches Base Camp.  Along with the requisite guide, (reticent and wary of the American) Scott is eager to begin the climb.  Soon he realizes his preparations have fallen very short of his actual needs and he must adjust.  The challenges begin early on as he must overcome his fear of heights and acclimate to breathing at high altitude.  On the ascent, each stage of the climb gets harder, with seemingly endless stairs and rugged terrain. Each day he feels weaker with increasing doubts and an ominous outlook.

A Soul’s Calling will take you where most will never go. The author builds drama and captures the nuances of the sweeping resplendent landscape.  He allows all senses to experience this man’s pilgrimage, the natural rhythm of his journey unfolds with fluidic imagery. The prose is rich with visual brilliance, words so carefully blended together. Scott Bishop captures the majestic and graceful soul of these virginal peaks.  He unveils the simple serenity and spectacular attraction of the Himalayan Mountains.  A Soul’s Calling is a humbling and reflective novel that will polarize most readers. 

Visit Scott Bishop's Homepage


Note:
Amazon Current Promotion
Currently $9.54 @ Amazon
Kindle $6.95,
Note: Prime Members may borrow Kindle Version at no cost.

Disclosure: The author provided a free digital copy of his book.  This review is submitted without bias.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2013].

Review: Lenin's Harem, by William Burton McCormick

Lenin's Harem

William Burton McCormick
Knox Robinson Publishing
(2012) Edition: Reprint
Hardcover,  400 pages
190848344X
Historical Fiction

Lenin’s Harem takes place between 1905 and 1941 during the turbulent political and social struggles of the Russian Empire. The story begins with the Russian Revolution. Wiktor Rooks is the youngest son of a Latvian aristocrat with Baltic-German heritage. As a factory owner of considerable wealth, his father is a natural target for the local peasants. His older brother Otomars unsuccessfully tries to convince his father to hire guards. One night Wiktor’s home is set afire, and they must flee to safety.

In 1915, Wiktor, now 21, is forced to fight in the Russian Army against the Germans. One night, he steps in to save a couple of Latvian citizens from renegade soldiers and is critically injured. While recuperating, he is coerced by the Russian Army to act as a liaison and spy. His ability to converse in Latvian, German and Russian has not gone unnoticed. During this time he becomes a member of the Red Riflemen, otherwise known as “Lenin’s Harem.”

McCormick’s battleground scenes prove to be a gruesome lesson in man’s inhumanity to man. As Wiktor walks through the aftermath of destruction, the skillful, sobering imagery is equal to the best of any horror show. His observations of chemical warfare are detailed with grim precision: lifeless, stiff corpses, with gas seeking to hide in every crevice. Lenin’s Harem is an important historical fiction work that offers clarity to a complex and tumultuous time in Russian history. A prodigious and gripping read.

This review appeared in the February 2013, Issue 63 of Historical Novels Review .

Disclosure: Kindle edition was provided by HNR to furnish this candid review.

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2013]. 

Review: Smuggler Nation, by Peter Andreas

SMUGGLER NATION: How Illicit Trade Made America
Peter Andreas
Oxford University Press
February 14, 2013
472 Pages
Hardcover
$29.95
978-0-19-974688-0






Really? America was made through smuggling and other illicit trades? Peter Andreas presents a fascinating view of history in his book SMUGGLER NATION. His purpose is to tell how smuggling and the endless quest to police it have made and continued to remake America through our present day. Perhaps a shocker to many Americans, this compelling narrative is backed up with extensive research and the writer’s skillful logical well planned chronology of events. From the early days of our nascent nation smuggling was inherent in its growth. Beginning with the infamous triangular trade routes to the recent history of drug smuggling, arms smuggling and human smuggling, the evidence is certainly convincing.

Andreas pens a historical narrative of violence, crime, war, greed, corruption and that is a storyboard for an action big screen movie. For example, he documents the stories of smuggling guns and supplies for the American Revolution, smuggling and busting through blockades during the American Civil War and the smuggling of industrial technology from Europe. Astor, Brown, Hancock names of some of the first successful and often multi-millionaire merchants were smugglers or relied on illicit trade to gain advantage. The author notes the irony. “that a country made of smuggling has now become the world’s leading anti-smuggling crusader.”  

SMUGGLER NATION is a remarkably candid history, naked in fact without cover-up, that will undoubtedly stimulate discussion and reflection. Peter Andreas excites his readers with an unexpected and atypical history. Highly recommended as an essential read for American History scholars as well as the curious.  Smuggler's Nation is well written and captivating. The author puzzles together the history of America that makes so much sense, peppered with stirring stories of clandestine operations and rebellious adventure.


Disclosure: A kindle version of this book was provided by Net Galley and the publisher at no cost.
My review is submitted without bias. 


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2013].


 Wisteria Leigh February 14, 2013

Review-Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: LIFE, DEATH, AND HOPE IN A MUMBAI UNDERCITY

Katherine Boo

Random House,
February 12, 2012
$28.00, Hardcover
288 pp, 978-1400067558
Genre: Non-fiction




Sixteen year old Abdul is a collector of garbage, an astute teenager who makes a success of his trade. He deals and competes for small economic gains in the Annadawi slum. Located just beyond the financial capital of Mumbai, it is owned by the Airports Authority of India, yet travelers heading toward the international terminal are greeted by a concrete wall of sunny yellow. A corporate slogan weaves along the wall, “Beautiful Forever Beautiful Forever Beautiful Forever, yet the irony is what is just on the other side. 

Abdul’s younger brother Mirchi says it best: 

“Everything around us is roses, and we’re the shit in between.” 

Katherine Boo reports the uncomfortable truth that several families must endure in the Undercity. The three thousand residents belong to all castes and sub-castes, Muslims, Hindus and the untouchables. They live in 335 huts that sit atop a landscape of slushy waste, toxic debris, unimaginable combinations of obnoxious odors, offal and filth laden with disease. Despite the pervasive dangers and keen competition, Abdul has acquired more than most, and his family’s future appears to be on the rise, but will this trend continue?

Survival is key with the hope that one day life will be better. Abdul has a theory for prosperity that speaks more to the randomness of his fate.

 “It seemed to him fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from the accidents and catastrophes they dodged. A decent life was the train that hadn’t hit you, the slumlord you hadn’t offended, the malaria you hadn’t caught.” 


Katherine Boo details everyday life, the repulsiveness, squirmy truth and the desperation of those who live in the Mumbai Undercity.  She shares what she has witnessed in her book as she follows the lives of several families.   Imagine living in this environment, let alone having to pay rent to a slumlord who oversees the residents small space carved out amid the detritus. The author manages to show the sorrowful sadness that divides the squalor of slum against the economic gains India has acquired as part of our borderless global community.  She is sensitive and frank with objectivity, although I imagine her subjectivity was hard to curtail. Without hiding behind the airport wall of shining yellow, Katherine Boo reveals the inhumanity and suffering that the people endure and despite the odds, somehow survive. Katherine Boo has received meritorious praise and notable awards, which as readers will discover, are well deserved Thanks to the author for writing an unforgettable book. BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS,  is a reflective book with global appeal, heartfelt and insightful with a promise to linger long after the end. 




DISCLOSURE: I PURCHASED THE KINDLE EDITION OF THIS BOOK.

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2012].

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

Blue Asylum
Kathy Hepinstall
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012),
$24.00, Kindle $15.50
Hardcover, 288 pages, 0547712073





Iris Dunleavy is the wife of a souther plantation owner. She is duped into the belief that her husband’s slave labor would be temporary, a “necessary evil”. However, she is a vociferous and recalcitrant partner in the marriage, an image contrary to proper behavior in Southern society. When she witnesses the brutal treatment of a young slave, she is unable to stand the torture. She throws herself in front of the bloodied youth to prevent further lashes of the whip. This does not bode well with her husband and he reprimands her. Later, when she helps a group of slaves to escape, her husband is infuriated and convinces a Virginia judge to declare her insane. She is sent to Sanibel Asylum, to be rehabilitated into a more compliant wife, cooperative and gentile.

While there, she meets many patients, some insane others questionable. Her friendship with her doctor’s son is sweet and helps her to manage the long days. Iris knows she does not belong at Sanibel and refuses to cooperate. and provides a constant challenge to her doctor and staff. Considered a modern, state of the art facility, Iris is not convinced. When she suffers an inhumane water therapy treatment given to uncontrollable patients she seethes with anger.While there she meets a Civil War soldier who suffers flashbacks and fits that are only soothed by the color blue. Iris falls in love with Ambrose and begins to think about a different future.

Kathy Hepinstall is brilliant with characterization and her novel offers a memorable cast. My favorite person is an older woman inmate who suffers from an unusual eating disorder. While this novel is intensely serious and provides a setting that is the dark reality common at institutions of this time period, Hepinstall manages to relieve the readers with short respites of humor. Without giving away too much, a much anticipated meal of lamb becomes a disappointment to all, except the doctor’s son. Hysterical moment with hysteria at Sanibel.

This was my first experience reading anything by Kathy Hepinstall, however after reading Blue Asylum I will have to catch up. She certainly captured my interest as Blue Asylum kept my Kindle in constant use. Anyone interested in the rights of women, and the social inequities that was prevalent during the late 19th century will embrace this with zeal. Kathy Hepinstall has a fluid style, a natural cadence to her writing with an intriguing plot.
Fabulous historical fiction that will satisfy anyone interested in the social reform movement of this time period and the freedom and rights of all. A novel deserving much praise.

Wisteria Leigh
Saturday, March 31, 2012

Disclosure: This kindle edition was made available at no charge to me via Net Galley at www.netgalley.com


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].