WHAT DOES ISRAEL FEAR from PALESTINE? (audiobook) by Raja Shehadeh

Published by Tantor Audio in June of 2024.
Read by Khalid Abdalla.
Duration: 2 hours, 26 minutes.
Unabridged.

Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer, human right advocate, and author. Shehadeh grew up as a Christian and Palestine has been occupied his entire life. This short book is an extended essay of sorts on the state of Palestinian/Israeli relations. 

The book is often critical of Israeli policy and actions, especially under Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is hardly a justification of the October 7 attacks.

Shehadeh does question the sincerity of Israel's attempts to work out something with Palestine - be it a two state solution, a common government with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, or some other system. Ignoring the situation does not make it go away. There are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees and they are not going anywhere - mostly because they are not really allowed to.

It was an interesting listen, providing a lot to think about. It was read very well by Khalid Abdalla.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?

CHESTER NIMITZ: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2024 by Hourly History.

Hourly History publishes short histories biographies and histories that are designed to be read in about an hour. Most are pretty good, but this one came up as a middling biography for me.

Chester Nimitz was the Admiral of the Pacific Fleet during World War II. He was appointed to the position just 10 days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and he led the Navy throughout. 

This biography is excellent when it comes to personal details of his early life and even details of his early career. That is great, but this book is too sparse when it comes to the controversies and strategies of World War II. He was there for all of the important decisions and events from 10 days after Pearl Harbor until the signing of Japan's formal surrender on one of his ships and this book just gives the bare facts details that anyone can find on Wikipedia. They aren't incorrect, but they don't tell any sort of compelling story.

I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Chester Nimitz: A Life from Beginning to End. 

KURT VONNEGUT: THE LAST INTERVIEW and OTHER CONVERSATIONS (Last Interview Series) edited by Tom McCartan

 

Published in 2011 by Melville House.

The Last Interview Series is a collection of 42 books that collect interviews with various artists, celebrities, and political figures. The book includes the last interview given by the featured person.

In the case of Vonnegut, his last interview is very short because he was ill at the time so he cut it short.

There are six interviews here. The best is a co-interview with fellow author Joseph Heller (best known for Catch-22) from Playboy (turns out their interviews were a good reason to buy the magazine!) Heller helps Vonnegut focus a bit - he tends to go off on riffs and some interviewers don't know what to do with that (the first one seemed annoyed by this tendency.)

If you like Vonnegut's essays, you will enjoy these interviews. I love his collections of essays so I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview and Other Conversations.

WILD BILL HICKOK: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History in November of 2024.

Hourly History offers free e-books every week. Each of the books take about an hour to read and the smaller topics are really quite good. The series is good for things you want to know more about, but you don't want to read a 400 page book on the topic.

There is probably a large book about Wild Bill Hickock (1839-1876), but I don't want to read it. This length made for a perfectly enjoyable and interesting read.

Hickock started out fighting in the pre-Civil War Bleeding Kansas conflict on the anti-slavery side, worked as a guide, a hunter, a sheriff, and eventually ended up being shut in the back of the head while playing poker in Deadwood in the Dakota Territory by a man who was too afraid to fight Hickock in a duel.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Wild Bill Hickock: A Life from Beginning to End. 

YEAR WITHOUT SUMMER: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in July of 2024 by Hourly History.

In April of 1815, a volcano called Mount Tambora on an island in Indonesia erupted in a massive explosion. It was one of the largest explosions in human history. It obliterated most of the volcano, buried nearby villages and causes tsunamis. There were more eruptions that followed. It was a massive local problem, but the rest of the world had no idea it had even happened.

But, the rest of the world soon was affected by these explosions. Debris from the explosion got into the stratosphere and spread all around the world. There was so much ash in the upper atmosphere that 1816 became known as "The Year Without a Summer." 

This short e-book details some of the results, including snowfalls well into what are popularly regarded as summer months in regions of North America that rarely see snowfall after March. There were crop failures across North America, Europe, and Asia and political instability soon followed, especially in the Old World with its larger, more densely crowded populations. 

The cold conditions were less strong in North America the further one got from the Atlantic Ocean. It served as an inducement to to increase the population shifts towards the Western frontier (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.)

I enjoyed this short history, even if I think it overplayed the long-term consequences, projecting them out decades afterwards in Europe. 

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Year Without Summer: A History from Beginning to End by Hourly History.

WELCOME to PAWNEE: STORIES of FRIENDSHIP, WAFFLES, and PARKS and RECREATION (audiobook) by Jim O'Heir

Published by HarperAudio in November of 2024.

Read by Jim O'Heir, George Newbern, Eva Kaminsky, Janina Edwards, Roger Wayne, Jim Meskimen, and Adam Verner.

Duration: 6 hours, 24 minutes.

Unabridged.

Jim O'Heir has been knocking around Hollywood for years as a journeyman actor. He has had roles in dozens and dozens of TV shows and movies - good stuff and bad stuff - but always regular stuff. He was well on his way to becoming one of those character actors that you see so often that you say, "Oh! There's that guy! He was on that one show."

Then in 2009, he showed up on the new NBC show Parks and Recreation playing the bumbling and often befuddled lovable loser Jerry Gergrich. He kept playing this character for all 123 episodes of the show.

This book is a dual biography of sorts. It is the story of Jim O'Heir and how he came to the show, but it's also the story of the show itself. Jim interviews producers, writers, directors, and other actors to give us the story of Parks and Recreation itself. We learn about how it was conceived, how they cast the main characters, what life was like on the set, and more.

Indianapolis is my adopted hometown so I particularly was interested in the field trip episodes that were filmed in Indianapolis. I do have to point out that O'Heir incorrectly claims that the famed St. Elmo Steak House in downtown Indianapolis is not named after the 1985 Rob Lowe movie St. Elmo's Fire. The restaurant first opened in 1902.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It is a must read for fans of Park and Recreation. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation.

THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS (graphic novel) by Max Brooks.

Published by Del Rey in 2014.

Illustrated by Caanan White.

Synopsis:

The Harlem Hellfighters is Max Brooks' history of an all African American unit (the 369th Infantry) that fought on the Western Front alongside French units. They mostly came from New York.

This unit was allowed to fight precisely because they were assigned to a mostly French army. The American army would not let African Americans fight and had originally used the 369th as laborers, alongside civilian laborers.

The French were in need of immediate manpower. French white soldiers already had experience fight alongside regiments of soldiers from their African colonies and were eager to bring American troops to the front, no matter their color.

The 369th spent more time than almost any other American unit on the front lines. They may have spent the most time on the front lines. They were the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine River. 

Legend has it that the nickname "The Harlem Hellfighters" was given to the unit by their German foes.

They were among the first units to return to the United States and were given the honor of marching in a tickertape parade in New York City.

My Review:

The story that Max Brooks tells in this graphic novel is a little herky jerky. He tells the story with plenty of emphasis on individual soldiers, the terrible conditions on the front, and the racism they experienced. But, the overall plot of the war is rather poorly told.

The biggest reason that I am giving this book a rating of 3 stars is the illustrations. I truly dislike the art style. I found it distracting and hard to follow. There were details that are included that just filled the page and often made it difficult for me to figure out what I was supposed to be looking at. I bought this graphic novel from an online source without having seen the art. I hated it so much that I didn't read this graphic novel for nearly 7 months. 

Note: The publisher says that this book is aimed at children 8-12 years old. I believe that all of those ages are too young. It has graphic depictions of the violence of trench warfare. There are bullets blasting though heads, spraying bloods and brains across the page. There is a depiction of a bayonet going into someone's mouth and coming out the back of his skull. 

To be clear, I DON'T have a problem with showing the war as it really was. I DO have a problem with showing an eight year old a soldier being vaporized by an artillery shell. I would give this book a PG-13 rating.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks.