Best Historical Study Reference
“This is history on a grand scale, with a sweep and ambition that is rare… A proper historical epic of dazzling range and achievement.” —William Dalrymple, The Guardian The epic history of the crossroads of the world—the meeting place of East and West and the birthplace of civilization It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. For Frankopan, the brutish West owes its more enlightened traditions to the lands east of Italy and west of China, which were, for centuries, 'the centre of the world'… Frankopan marshals diverse examples to demonstrate the interconnectedness of cultures, showing in vivid detail the economic and social impact of the silk and the slave trades, the Black Death, and the Buddhist influence on Christianity.”. — The New Yorker “In his new book, The Silk Roads , Frankopan has created something that forces us to sit up and reconsider the world and the way we've always thought about it… The book takes us by surprise right from the start.”. —Nishant Dahiya, NPR “This is deeply researched popular history at its most invigorating, primed to dislodge routine preconceptions and to pour in other light. “One of Mr. Frankopan’s gifts as a storyteller is his ability to draw unusual connections across his vast canvas… [he] packs his tale with fascinating trivia… Frankopan has written a rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.”. —Sadanand Dhume, The Wall Street Journal “Frankopan casts his net widely in this work of dizzying breadth and ambition… Those opening to any page will find fascinating insights that illuminate elusive connections across time and place… Frankopan approaches his craft with an acerbic wit, and his epochal perspective throws the foibles of the modern age into sharp relief”. — Publishers Weekly (starred review). “A glorious read. “In his new book, The Silk Roads , Frankopan has created something that forces us to sit up and reconsider the world and the way we've always thought about it… The book takes us by surprise right from the start.”. —Nishant Dahiya, NPR. “Superb… Peter Frankopan is an exceptional storyteller… The lands of the Silk Roads are of renewed importance, and Frankopan’s book will be indispensable to anyone who wants to make sense of this union of past and present.”. —Philip Seib, The Dallas Morning News. “This is, to put it mildly, an ambitious book… By spinning all these stories into a single thread, Peter Frankopan attempts something bold: A history of the world that shunts the centre of gravity eastward… Mr. Frankopan writes with clarity and memorable detail… Where other histories put the Mediterranean at the centre of the story, under Mr. Frankopan it is important as the western end of a transcontinental trade with Asia in silks, spices, slaves—and ideas.”. — The Economist. “It’s time we recognized the importance of the East to our history, insists this magnificent study… The breadth and ambition of this swashbuckling history by Peter Frankopan should come as no surprise… A book that roves as widely as the geography it describes, encompassing worlds as far removed as those of Herodotus and Saddam Hussein, Hammurabi and Hitler… It is a tribute to Frankopan’s scholarship and mastery of sources in multiple languages that he is as sure-footed on the ancient world as he is on the medieval and modern… Deftly constructed… The Silk Roads is a powerful corrective to parochialism.”. —Justin Marozzi, The Sunday Times (U.K.). Frankopan upends the usual world-history narrative oriented around ancient Rome and Greece and the irrepressible rise of Europe… In a series of brisk chapters—The Road of Faiths, The Road of Furs and so on—studded with state-of-the-art research that is sourced from at least a dozen languages, the author brings wondrous history to vivid life… In The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan has provided a bracing wake up call.”. —Matthew Price, The National (AE).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Schools teach its students of the Roman Empire, the subsequent Dark Ages, the Norman conquest in 1066, Henry VIII and the Tudors, the American War of Independence, the Industrial Revolution and the First and Second World Wars. As the author states: “For centuries before the early modern era, the intellectual centres of excellence of the world, the Oxfords ad Cambridges, the Harvards and Yales, were not located in Europe or the west, but in Baghdad, and Balkh, Bukhara and Samarkand”. We are seeing the signs of the world’s centre of gravity shifting – back to where it lay for millennia”."
"The author's depth of knowledge and resource access, coupled with his polyglot skills, weave a centuries long tale of intrigue across a region of the world little known or travelled today. The story of the European debacle of the same time is repeatedly narrated, engrossing the reader in its internecine religious wars. Piles of skulls and cities entirely wiped off the face of the earth are ignored in favor of the administrative advantages of Mongol rule. Information is 'quickly transmitted' across the sands, mountains and rivers - this when 30 miles a day was the fastest a horse or man could travel. Other books in the vein of Central Asia would include The Poison King, Balthazar's Odyssey, The Ornament of the World, The Emergence of Modern Islam, Chasing the Sea, The Shied of Achilles and best, Millennium by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. The ridicule of Western advances coupled to dictatorial domination and horrific tortures could just as easily describe Islamic, Indian, Chinese or Russian worlds. As for his Palestinian views, well, they are biased, leave it at that... Can't wait to enjoy My Fair Lady, his Mediterranean yacht for charter..."
"I had assumed we would be learning about the history of the silk roads and the many dynasties that rose and fell along the route - the Songdians, the cities of the Tamir Basin for example. I thought this would be an Asian centric book showing the silk roads impact on Han Dynasty China and the steps that had to be taken to keep the route secure. Or perhaps how the silk road brought Buddhism to the west and mixed the artistic sense of the descendants of Alexander's army with the Central Asian Buddhist cave dwellers."
Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an “American” or “Canadian” culture, but rather into one of the eleven distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory. -- Publishers Weekly (Fall 2011 "Top Ten Politics" pick). "[American Nations'] compelling explanations and apt descriptions will fascinate anyone with an interest in politics, regional culture, or history" -- Publishers Weekly (starred review). "[A] compelling and informative attempt to make sense of the regional divides in North America in general and this country in particular....Woodard provides a bracing corrective to an accepted national narrative that too often overlooks regional variations to tell a simpler and more reassuring story. ".
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Whereas the first two-thirds were well-reasoned and well-supported, the last third devolved into stereotypes and generalities, and contained more than a few downright errors, particularly concerning the modern Deep South and Greater Appalachia. I could list at least a half-dozen factual errors in his presentation concerning the practice and influence of Evangelical Christianity in the Bible Belt, for instance, but would rather not bog down this review with nit-picking."
"One of the best books I've read on America and it's history."
"I have given it to at least 5 friends as a gift and the conversations it leads to are always fascinating."
"This is a fascinating, well-written book, introducing a conceptual framework that was completely new to me."
"The map on the "American Nations" cover showed me that I grew up roughly where the Deep South, Appalachia, and El Norte meet in eastern Texas. We said we were "Scotch-Irish" but seemed to have no knowledge of or interest in how we came to be there, nor did I ever know anyone who was aware that there were early Spanish missions in the pine woods of East Texas or that there had been a large Cherokee village not four miles from my home. Later I learned that my own family had entered the U.S. in South Carolina from Barbados in the 1680s; little is known about them except that they were poor whites, so now we know there is a good chance they were indentured servants to Barbadian slave lords. Now I have some insight into features of my county that have puzzled me for decades: why the tiny community where I attended school in the 1950s and 60s was clustered around its original plantation house, Cumberland Presbyterian church, and cotton fields (it was founded by a slave-holding family from Savannah, Georgia in the 1840s or 50s); why my neighbors had such casual contempt for blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Indians, Catholics, Chinese, and all other foreigners; why Ku Klux Klan actions were still fresh in older folks' memories; why blacks lived either in their own parts of town literally across the tracks or entirely separately in their own towns or isolated communities tucked away in the woods; why my parents were so puzzled that "our Negroes" seemed dissatisfied with our hand-me-down clothes and an occasional pig (I recall puzzled discussions of "What do they want?" ); why there was a deeply ingrained presumption that gentlemen rode horses and peasants walked, so any poor farmer that came into oil money bought horses immediately (Deep South cavaliers influence); why there was hardly any familiarity with or emphasis on attending college, and disdain for the (rare) "know it all college boy" (Appalachian ignorance and apathy influenced by Deep South resistance to education for the masses); why employers referred to employees as "hands"; why our relatives in far southwest Texas seemed to us to live in a different country (they did - El Norte), while relatives in Tennessee and business associates in Mississippi seemed to come from an earlier and more violent time; why Cajuns in south Louisiana and southeast Texas seemed like such an anomaly in the Deep South in their Catholicism and complete disregard of racial boundaries (New France egalitarianism); maybe even why some blacks in East Texas practiced a strange mixture of Southern Baptist services and voodoo lore - one local black church was even named the Voodoo Baptist Church, and the pastor roamed the area on foot wearing an animal skin cape and carrying a long shepherd's staff (West Africa via the West Indies). Lastly, I did not think Woodard unfairly favored the Yankees; his description showed the harsh, violent, and meddlesome parts of their Puritan cultural heritage along with the elements we still cherish (for much more detail see Fischer's "Albion's Seed"). The Deep South has been a reluctant participant in the U.S. federation and has routinely made threats to withdraw since the Articles of Confederation days; in the 2010 mid-term election we again heard southern politicians talk of secession."
"This book changed my basic view of American history."
From uncovering what happens to lost luggage to New York City's plan to crack down on crime by banning pinball, this book will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts. "Every story in the book is interesting, and Lewis includes a 'bonus fact' at the end of each story which is a mini mind bender on its own."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The story on the Bats considered for use in spreading fires in Japan during World War II hooked me, line and sinker. I’ve included a small excerpts below, so readers can peruse the style of presentation utilized by the author. EXCERPT. BAT BOMB. USING BATS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE. During the final days of World War II, the United States, apparently believing that Japan was unlikely to surrender otherwise, dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death toll from these two bombs numbered as high as 250,000 when one factors in those people who died up to four months later due to burns and radiation sickness. If the United States Army could figure out a way to start fires in a large number of buildings spread out over a wide area, the Japanese infrastructure and economy would suffer but the direct loss of life would be relatively small. But a few months before the Manhattan Project got underway, a dental surgeon named Lytle Adams came up with the idea to use bats— those nocturnal flying mammals— as part of the strategy. As he would later tell Air Force Magazine, after seeing millions of bats flying around caves in Carlsbad Canyon in New Mexico, he immediately thought that they could be used as a way to spread firebombs throughout Japan. He collected a few of them himself, did a little research, and found that even tiny bats weighing well under a pound could carry three times their weight in explosives. The timer ticks down and shortly after, without obvious explanations, hundreds of thousands of Japanese buildings start to burn to the ground. By March 1943, the U.S. military had identified a suitable population of bats, having located a series of caves in Texas that were home to millions of the flying critters. But the final report on the bat bombs issued in mid-1944, though positive, noted that they would not be ready for combat for another year. A fish lodge owner named Richard Perky built the Sugarloaf tower in 1928 with much fanfare— and one big problem. According to Atlas Obscura, when Perky put the bats into the tower, they flew off to find some bugs to eat— and never came back."
"As the owner of an extremely popular "interesting fact" website (TodayIFoundOut) and someone who runs a similar newsletter to Now I Know, I've read or at least skimmed pretty much every major interesting fact/story website and book out there, so I can tell you from vast experience that Dan Lewis is one of the best in this genre."
"For example and this is not in the book; Do you really think the American Civil War was fought because the North felt that no person should own another person? Romantically this is what is implied with every American history lesson but the full truth is that the North could not compete in an economy where the South had free labor."
"to his site/newsletter, so I was happy to get the book, which meant I could actually know more than one thing a day."
"A fun read to dip into a few minutes at a time as time allows."
"I've been subscribed to Dan Lewis's daily emails of fascinating facts for about a year, so I was very excited to see he was releasing a book."
"Wife is a trivia and useless facts nut."
"Quick reads, no plots to remember, and some amazing information."
Best Historical Geography eBooks
“This is history on a grand scale, with a sweep and ambition that is rare… A proper historical epic of dazzling range and achievement.” —William Dalrymple, The Guardian The epic history of the crossroads of the world—the meeting place of East and West and the birthplace of civilization It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. For Frankopan, the brutish West owes its more enlightened traditions to the lands east of Italy and west of China, which were, for centuries, 'the centre of the world'… Frankopan marshals diverse examples to demonstrate the interconnectedness of cultures, showing in vivid detail the economic and social impact of the silk and the slave trades, the Black Death, and the Buddhist influence on Christianity.”. — The New Yorker “In his new book, The Silk Roads , Frankopan has created something that forces us to sit up and reconsider the world and the way we've always thought about it… The book takes us by surprise right from the start.”. —Nishant Dahiya, NPR “This is deeply researched popular history at its most invigorating, primed to dislodge routine preconceptions and to pour in other light. “One of Mr. Frankopan’s gifts as a storyteller is his ability to draw unusual connections across his vast canvas… [he] packs his tale with fascinating trivia… Frankopan has written a rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.”. —Sadanand Dhume, The Wall Street Journal “Frankopan casts his net widely in this work of dizzying breadth and ambition… Those opening to any page will find fascinating insights that illuminate elusive connections across time and place… Frankopan approaches his craft with an acerbic wit, and his epochal perspective throws the foibles of the modern age into sharp relief”. — Publishers Weekly (starred review). “A glorious read. “In his new book, The Silk Roads , Frankopan has created something that forces us to sit up and reconsider the world and the way we've always thought about it… The book takes us by surprise right from the start.”. —Nishant Dahiya, NPR. “Superb… Peter Frankopan is an exceptional storyteller… The lands of the Silk Roads are of renewed importance, and Frankopan’s book will be indispensable to anyone who wants to make sense of this union of past and present.”. —Philip Seib, The Dallas Morning News. “This is, to put it mildly, an ambitious book… By spinning all these stories into a single thread, Peter Frankopan attempts something bold: A history of the world that shunts the centre of gravity eastward… Mr. Frankopan writes with clarity and memorable detail… Where other histories put the Mediterranean at the centre of the story, under Mr. Frankopan it is important as the western end of a transcontinental trade with Asia in silks, spices, slaves—and ideas.”. — The Economist. “It’s time we recognized the importance of the East to our history, insists this magnificent study… The breadth and ambition of this swashbuckling history by Peter Frankopan should come as no surprise… A book that roves as widely as the geography it describes, encompassing worlds as far removed as those of Herodotus and Saddam Hussein, Hammurabi and Hitler… It is a tribute to Frankopan’s scholarship and mastery of sources in multiple languages that he is as sure-footed on the ancient world as he is on the medieval and modern… Deftly constructed… The Silk Roads is a powerful corrective to parochialism.”. —Justin Marozzi, The Sunday Times (U.K.). Frankopan upends the usual world-history narrative oriented around ancient Rome and Greece and the irrepressible rise of Europe… In a series of brisk chapters—The Road of Faiths, The Road of Furs and so on—studded with state-of-the-art research that is sourced from at least a dozen languages, the author brings wondrous history to vivid life… In The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan has provided a bracing wake up call.”. —Matthew Price, The National (AE).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Schools teach its students of the Roman Empire, the subsequent Dark Ages, the Norman conquest in 1066, Henry VIII and the Tudors, the American War of Independence, the Industrial Revolution and the First and Second World Wars. As the author states: “For centuries before the early modern era, the intellectual centres of excellence of the world, the Oxfords ad Cambridges, the Harvards and Yales, were not located in Europe or the west, but in Baghdad, and Balkh, Bukhara and Samarkand”. We are seeing the signs of the world’s centre of gravity shifting – back to where it lay for millennia”."
"The author's depth of knowledge and resource access, coupled with his polyglot skills, weave a centuries long tale of intrigue across a region of the world little known or travelled today. The story of the European debacle of the same time is repeatedly narrated, engrossing the reader in its internecine religious wars. Piles of skulls and cities entirely wiped off the face of the earth are ignored in favor of the administrative advantages of Mongol rule. Information is 'quickly transmitted' across the sands, mountains and rivers - this when 30 miles a day was the fastest a horse or man could travel. Other books in the vein of Central Asia would include The Poison King, Balthazar's Odyssey, The Ornament of the World, The Emergence of Modern Islam, Chasing the Sea, The Shied of Achilles and best, Millennium by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. The ridicule of Western advances coupled to dictatorial domination and horrific tortures could just as easily describe Islamic, Indian, Chinese or Russian worlds. As for his Palestinian views, well, they are biased, leave it at that... Can't wait to enjoy My Fair Lady, his Mediterranean yacht for charter..."
"I had assumed we would be learning about the history of the silk roads and the many dynasties that rose and fell along the route - the Songdians, the cities of the Tamir Basin for example. I thought this would be an Asian centric book showing the silk roads impact on Han Dynasty China and the steps that had to be taken to keep the route secure. Or perhaps how the silk road brought Buddhism to the west and mixed the artistic sense of the descendants of Alexander's army with the Central Asian Buddhist cave dwellers."
Best Reference eBooks
Now a major motion picture from Lionsgate starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts. MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST The perennially bestselling, extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” ( Entertainment Weekly ) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor. But I have a very vivid memory of this tough, leathery woman; she sang, she danced, she shot guns, she’d play honky tonk piano. Half Broke Horses is a compilation of family stories, stitched together with gaps filled in. A: Several years ago, the abandoned building on New York’s Lower East Side where Mom had been squatting for more than a decade caught fire and she was back on the streets again at age 72. She doesn’t live in the house with us-- I have not reached that level of understanding and compassion-- but in an outbuilding about a hundred yards away. Mom is great with the animals, loves to sing and dance and ride horses, and is still painting like a fiend. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bit of a drinking situation," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing. While Walls's father's version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Arizona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful, he wasn't so dear when he stole the kids' hard-earned savings to go on a bender. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I felt that I could relate to this book because I grew up in poverty and had to adjust to society when I left home."
"Read it!"
"Amazing story."
"Well written, but I wanted to strangle her parents."
"Great book."
"Beautifully written but hard to imagine."
"Very dysfunctional story."
"I give thus book as a gift to my friends who have never read it."
Best Paraguayan History
The Chaco War was massive territorial war between Bolivia and Paraguay, which cost almost a 100,000 lives. - Scott Van Aken, Modelling Madness "Throughout the book are a superb collection of period photos and illustrations.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bolivia and Paraguay battled for control of a vast wasteland in the interior of South America, thought to possess petroleum reserves. The book opens with an introduction to the conflict, followed by brief descriptions of the forces of each, and an extended narrative of the military operations."
"Infantry, artillery, aircraft and armor followed the same patterns used in the Spanish Civil War. The author breaks down the war into its three phases; Bolivian assault on the Paraguayan fortified line anchored on Nanawa, Fortin Boqueron and Lopez. I have suggested both the Bay of Pigs and the Chaco War at the Website since they started asking for suggestions."
"Anyone who is familiar with Osprey's Men-at-Arms series knows exactly what this book looks and reads like. The book is divided into the following sections: Introduction, Paraguayan Forces (including a section on the Navy), Bolivian Forces, Military Operations (which breaks the war into 3 phases: 7/32-12/33, 1/34-12/34, and 12/34-6/35, with a 1/2-page insert on the Mennonite Colonies), Weapons (broken out by Infantry, Artillery, and Armored vehicles), Air War (divided into Combat operations, General air support, Naval air operations, and Wartime procurement), and Foreign Involvement. It may not be very deep but it is very broad, covering pretty much every significant aspect of the war except for the home fronts. All of the other primary books in English are either out of print (e.g., Zook), very expensive (e.g., English's recent The Green Hell or Farcau's book from the 1990s), or limited to a single aspect of the conflict (e.g., Hagendorn & Sapienza's Aircraft of the Chaco War)."
"As the title states, this was South America's greatest war, and introduced the use of modern weapons there, and although I respect the bravery and toughness of those who served in it, which in some instances staggers belief, it was a cruel, ruinous and basically pointless fight, as you'll see if you buy this book."
Best Modern World History eBooks
Sally Bedell Smith returns once again to the British royal family to give us a new look at Prince Charles, the oldest heir to the throne in more than three hundred years. This vivid, eye-opening biography—the product of four years of research and hundreds of interviews with palace officials, former girlfriends, spiritual gurus, and more, some speaking on the record for the first time—is the first authoritative treatment of Charles’s life that sheds light on the death of Diana, his marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne one day. It follows him through difficult years at school, his early love affairs, his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his intense search for spiritual meaning. Ranging from his glamorous palaces to his country homes, from his globe-trotting travels to his local initiatives, Smith shows how Prince Charles possesses a fiercely independent spirit and yet has spent more than six decades waiting for his destined role, living a life dictated by protocols he often struggles to obey. [She] makes many telling, shrewd points in pursuit of realigning the popular image of Prince Charles.” —William Boyd, The New York Times Book Review. Until his accession to the throne, Smith’s portrait will stand as the definitive study.”— Booklist (starred review) “[A] fascinating book that is not just about a man who would be king, but also about the duties that come with privilege.” —Walter Isaacson. “[Sally Bedell Smith] understands the British upper classes and aristocracy (including the royals) very well indeed. Smith makes many telling, shrewd points in pursuit of realigning the popular image of Prince Charles.” —William Boyd, The New York Times Book Review “[A] masterly account.” — The Wall Street Journal “Thoroughly researched and insightful . The Charles that emerges is, as the subtitle suggests, both a paradox and a creature of his passions.” — The Washington Times “[A] compellingly juicy bio . Smith writes about [Charles’s life] with a skill and sympathy she perfected in her 2012 biography of Charles’s mother.” — TheChristian Science Monitor “A multidimensional portrait of a complex, sensitive, and often visionary man (his ideas about sustainable living were once considered eccentric), who has carved out a dynamic public role as he waits his turn to govern. Sally Bedell Smith captures his contradictions and his convictions in this fascinating book that is not just about a man who would be king, but also about the duties that come with privilege.” —Walter Isaacson “For all we know about Prince Charles, there is so much we didn’t know—until now. Her Prince Charles is a delicious blend of glamour and grandeur, jealousy and rivalry, greatness and human foible. Smith writes with wisdom and sympathy—and a sharp and knowing eye—about the struggles and maturation of the man who would be King.” —Evan Thomas “This great biography is an indispensable guide for anyone eager to understand Prince Charles and the British monarchy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Sally Bedell Smith is the author of bestselling biographies of Queen Elizabeth II; William S. Paley; Pamela Harriman; Diana, Princess of Wales; John and Jacqueline Kennedy; and Bill and Hillary Clinton.A contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 1996, she previously worked at Time and The New York Times, where she was a cultural news reporter.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My two primary take-aways from this book - and I've read all 600+ pages of it - regarding Charles is that self-pity may triumph over gratitude occasionally over his lot in life. The enterprise which fascinates me as a designer is the community which Charles has been involved with: Poundbury. You learn in this book that Charles has funded at-risk youth opportunities. Some other interesting observations gleaned from this book: * Charles kept asking Duchess Debo of Devonshire of Chatsworth for some art of Lucian Freud's until she gave in. * a PR initiative was undertaken to integrate Camilla into Charles' life publicly so that public opinion would finally approve of their marriage. * the experimental community in Scotland near Dumfries hasn't thrived as much as Poundbury due to the economy there. * Charles felt let-down when his parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, only stayed 20 minutes to view Poundbury, one of his most successful projects. * Charles lays on the floor at Highgrove by an open window to listen to folks' comments upon visiting his beautiful garden. * William and Harry approach philanthropy as a team focusing on three main categories: conservation, mental health and the military. * There is friction occasionally between Buckingham Palace and Charles' team. * Charles doesn't spend much time with Prince George - Charles is too busy. What you have to admire is that even though Charles was pretty much straight-jacketed into choices about his life by his parents - especially Prince Philip who is the opposite of his son and chose activities and experiences for Charles which would have suited Philip the best - Charles has eventually carved out a life which suits him. Rejection or criticism now feels like the original pain of criticism in Charles' early life when Philip may have wanted Charles to be more like him kind of thing."
"Sally Bedell Smith’s “Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life” will likely be the standard reference on Charles until the end of whatever reign he manages. Bedell Smith identifies two keys to Charles very early on: that as heir to the throne, once he reached 18 the income from the Duchy of Cornwall allowed him both a tremendous lifestyle and near complete independence from the control of the Palace, and just as significantly, that his childhood left scars. Her marriage to a serial philanderer (remarkably, both fathers took out an engagement notice in the Times to force a proposal) shocked Charles, who then engaged in a series of flings throughout the 1970s (when his popularity was nearly twice that of the Queen's), nearly died in a skiing accident, and lost the one close older male figure in his life when Mountbatten was murdered - who Bedell Smith notes rather pointedly would have warned him off of Diana, and whose grand plan to marry his granddaughter off to Charles failed as they grew up as acquaintances without a romantic connection. Diana self-harmed long before she became involved with Charles, kept doing so throughout the marriage and viewed the urging to get treatment for it as a sign that the Palace was lined up against her (despite the fact that Charles had very little coordination with them – he and Philip communicated by letters, and an interesting note is that Charles was in regular therapy throughout his marriage), and rather liked the fantasy of being married to him right up until she moved into the Palace and Charles left for a tour and found out what her day to day life would be like."
Best Curiosities & Wonders
Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England. “Fair warning: It's addictive.” — NPR, “Cosmos & Culture” “In this gorgeous collection, the celebrated Atlas Obscura website is condensed into 480 pages of awe-inspiring destinations. “Odds are you won’t get past three pages without being amazed at something truly strange that you didn’t know existed.” — San Francisco Chronicle. “Richly illustrated, delightfully strange, this compendium of off-beat destinations should spark many adventures, both terrestrial and imaginary.” — Boston Globe. “Whether describing a Canadian museum that showcases world history through shoes, a pet-casket company that will also sell you a unit for your severed limb, a Greek snake festival, or a place in the Canary Islands where inhabitants communicate through whistling, the authors have compiled an enthralling range of oddities. Featuring full-color illustrations, this hefty and gorgeously produced tome will be eagerly pored over by readers of many ages and fans of the original website.”— Booklist (Starred Review). a wonderful browse [for] armchair travelers who enjoyed Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York and Frank Warren’s PostSecret .” — Library Journal. It's the kind of book that makes you want to pack in your workaday life and head out to places you'd never have dreamed of going, to see things you could not even have imagined. “ Atlas Obscura is a joyful antidote to the creeping suspicion that travel these days is little more than a homogenized corporate shopping opportunity. Here are hundreds of surprising, perplexing, mind-blowing, inspiring reasons to travel a day longer and farther off the path. Never start a trip without knowing where a haunted hotel or a mouth of hell is!”. —GUILLERMO DEL TORO, filmmaker, Pan’s Labyrinth “ What a strange and wonderful book! Each page reveals some hidden realm—a realm that is frightening, or funny, or magical, or simply mad, but that always leaves the reader in wonder.”. —DAVID GRANN, author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Be grateful when visiting the Karni Mata Rat Temple if one of the 20,000 venerated rodents runs across your bare foot—it is considered good luck.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Revel in the places that you've seen!"
"I read a short description of the book in the travel section of the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago, and made the purchase based on that. That said, there are items about things I have no interest in seeing, e.g., “Lake Monsters of the USA,” but there don’t seem to be many of that sort of thing included. As with "Lake Monsters," even if you (or a recipient) aren't likely to visit many of the places described, I think for many curious people this would make for an interesting read even without the travel element. It's not a perfect book, and I don't think any one book can be perfect for all readers, but I do think it's very good and I can easily recommend it for anyone who might be potentially interested."
"This book exceeded my already higher-than-average expectations."
"I think she is gonna love this."
"For all who love the obscure in life, this is your book."
"Wonderful book to have on table in living room where everyone can see it."
"WOW!"
"A lot of interesting and informative info."
Best Trivia & Fun Facts
From uncovering what happens to lost luggage to New York City's plan to crack down on crime by banning pinball, this book will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts. "Every story in the book is interesting, and Lewis includes a 'bonus fact' at the end of each story which is a mini mind bender on its own."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The story on the Bats considered for use in spreading fires in Japan during World War II hooked me, line and sinker. I’ve included a small excerpts below, so readers can peruse the style of presentation utilized by the author. EXCERPT. BAT BOMB. USING BATS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE. During the final days of World War II, the United States, apparently believing that Japan was unlikely to surrender otherwise, dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death toll from these two bombs numbered as high as 250,000 when one factors in those people who died up to four months later due to burns and radiation sickness. If the United States Army could figure out a way to start fires in a large number of buildings spread out over a wide area, the Japanese infrastructure and economy would suffer but the direct loss of life would be relatively small. But a few months before the Manhattan Project got underway, a dental surgeon named Lytle Adams came up with the idea to use bats— those nocturnal flying mammals— as part of the strategy. As he would later tell Air Force Magazine, after seeing millions of bats flying around caves in Carlsbad Canyon in New Mexico, he immediately thought that they could be used as a way to spread firebombs throughout Japan. He collected a few of them himself, did a little research, and found that even tiny bats weighing well under a pound could carry three times their weight in explosives. The timer ticks down and shortly after, without obvious explanations, hundreds of thousands of Japanese buildings start to burn to the ground. By March 1943, the U.S. military had identified a suitable population of bats, having located a series of caves in Texas that were home to millions of the flying critters. But the final report on the bat bombs issued in mid-1944, though positive, noted that they would not be ready for combat for another year. A fish lodge owner named Richard Perky built the Sugarloaf tower in 1928 with much fanfare— and one big problem. According to Atlas Obscura, when Perky put the bats into the tower, they flew off to find some bugs to eat— and never came back."
"As the owner of an extremely popular "interesting fact" website (TodayIFoundOut) and someone who runs a similar newsletter to Now I Know, I've read or at least skimmed pretty much every major interesting fact/story website and book out there, so I can tell you from vast experience that Dan Lewis is one of the best in this genre."
"For example and this is not in the book; Do you really think the American Civil War was fought because the North felt that no person should own another person? Romantically this is what is implied with every American history lesson but the full truth is that the North could not compete in an economy where the South had free labor."
"to his site/newsletter, so I was happy to get the book, which meant I could actually know more than one thing a day."
"A fun read to dip into a few minutes at a time as time allows."
"I've been subscribed to Dan Lewis's daily emails of fascinating facts for about a year, so I was very excited to see he was releasing a book."
"Wife is a trivia and useless facts nut."
"Quick reads, no plots to remember, and some amazing information."
Best Trivia
From uncovering what happens to lost luggage to New York City's plan to crack down on crime by banning pinball, this book will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts. "Every story in the book is interesting, and Lewis includes a 'bonus fact' at the end of each story which is a mini mind bender on its own."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The story on the Bats considered for use in spreading fires in Japan during World War II hooked me, line and sinker. I’ve included a small excerpts below, so readers can peruse the style of presentation utilized by the author. EXCERPT. BAT BOMB. USING BATS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE. During the final days of World War II, the United States, apparently believing that Japan was unlikely to surrender otherwise, dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death toll from these two bombs numbered as high as 250,000 when one factors in those people who died up to four months later due to burns and radiation sickness. If the United States Army could figure out a way to start fires in a large number of buildings spread out over a wide area, the Japanese infrastructure and economy would suffer but the direct loss of life would be relatively small. But a few months before the Manhattan Project got underway, a dental surgeon named Lytle Adams came up with the idea to use bats— those nocturnal flying mammals— as part of the strategy. As he would later tell Air Force Magazine, after seeing millions of bats flying around caves in Carlsbad Canyon in New Mexico, he immediately thought that they could be used as a way to spread firebombs throughout Japan. He collected a few of them himself, did a little research, and found that even tiny bats weighing well under a pound could carry three times their weight in explosives. The timer ticks down and shortly after, without obvious explanations, hundreds of thousands of Japanese buildings start to burn to the ground. By March 1943, the U.S. military had identified a suitable population of bats, having located a series of caves in Texas that were home to millions of the flying critters. But the final report on the bat bombs issued in mid-1944, though positive, noted that they would not be ready for combat for another year. A fish lodge owner named Richard Perky built the Sugarloaf tower in 1928 with much fanfare— and one big problem. According to Atlas Obscura, when Perky put the bats into the tower, they flew off to find some bugs to eat— and never came back."
"As the owner of an extremely popular "interesting fact" website (TodayIFoundOut) and someone who runs a similar newsletter to Now I Know, I've read or at least skimmed pretty much every major interesting fact/story website and book out there, so I can tell you from vast experience that Dan Lewis is one of the best in this genre."
"For example and this is not in the book; Do you really think the American Civil War was fought because the North felt that no person should own another person? Romantically this is what is implied with every American history lesson but the full truth is that the North could not compete in an economy where the South had free labor."
"to his site/newsletter, so I was happy to get the book, which meant I could actually know more than one thing a day."
"A fun read to dip into a few minutes at a time as time allows."
"I've been subscribed to Dan Lewis's daily emails of fascinating facts for about a year, so I was very excited to see he was releasing a book."
"Wife is a trivia and useless facts nut."
"Quick reads, no plots to remember, and some amazing information."