HAILE SELASSIE: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2021 by Hourly History.

Haile Selassie is one of those men that shows up here and there in a detailed histories of the twentieth century, but I didn't know much about him beyond his determined stand against colonialism before and after World War II.

This small e-book filled in a lot of blanks for me. The Hourly History series consists of biographies and histories that take about an hour to read and, to be honest, this book filled in a lot of those gaps for me - enough that I probably won't look into Haile Selassie any further.

The biography tells the story of Selassie's privileged, very connected upbringing in a monarchial Ethiopia. Selassie used those connections to push his way to the top, but also to tried to modernize his country in order to protect it from European colonization. Imperial Japan did something similar 50 years earlier (not a connection made in the book - just an observation from a history teacher that took a couple of Japanese history classes in college.)

Selassie's life was interesting and often quite tragic. He often was a symbol more than he was substance. He inspired the Jamaican Rastafarian movement, even though he ad nothing to do with it. His pleas to the League of Nations about Italian aggression proved it to be a great idea but an empty promise in the time of actual need. His attempts to modernize Ethiopia made people question the need to have an outmoded style of government led by a man who who wasn't willing to adept to modern times.

I rate this short biography 4 stars our of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Haile Selassie: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History.

SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

 

Published in 2024 by Hourly History.

Hourly History's telling of the events of September 11, 2001 is surprisingly well-told for a history that is supposed to take a person about an hour to read. 

Is this a complete history? Hardly. Why not? Read the first paragraph again.

But, it gets all of the elements across in broad strokes - the motives of the hijackers, the reasons for their targets, and the mass casualties - but not as bad as they could have been thanks to the bravery and professionalism of the NYPD and FDNY.

The book moves on to discuss the aftermath, including tearing down the remains of the buildings, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, beefed up airport screenings, and the invasion of Afghanistan in order to search for the Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists responsible for the attacks. All of it is tied up neatly in a bite-sized e-book that younger readers (not kids, but younger adults that simply don't remember 9/11) could read to grasp the basics.

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: September 11 Attacks: A History from Beginning to End.

A PAPER ORCHESTRA (audiobook) by Michael Jamin

Published in 2024 by 3 Girls Jumping.
Read by the author, Michael Jamin.
Duration: 9 hours, 39 minutes.
Unabridged.

Michael Jamin is a professional Hollywood screenplay writer. He works in television, working on comedy shows like King of the Hill, Just Shoot Me, and Tacoma FD.

In the afterword he talked about his desire to write something more than TV shows. He wasn't unhappy with writing screenplays, but he wanted to branch out. 

The stories in A Paper Orchestra are from Jamin's life. Some are funny, some wistful, some very sad. As a group, they all have the feel of NPR's Moth Radio Hour - but instead of having a variety of performers, it is all from the same man.

Jamin read the audiobook. In the afterword, he and his wife talked about how they worked together so that he could perform these stories live on stage. She is an actress and she helped him with presentation style - and I think she was successful at it.

I worked my way through this audiobook rather slowly. At the end of almost every story I stopped and let it marinate a bit rather than going on to the next story. For that reason, I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

A Paper Orchestra can be found on Amazon.com here.

TYRANNY, INC.: HOW PRIVATE POWER CRUSHED AMERICAN LIBERTY - AND WHAT to DO ABOUT IT (audiobook) by Sohrab Ahmari

Published in 2023 by Random House Audio.
Read by the author, Sohrab Ahmari.
Duration: 7 hours, 30 minutes.
Unabridged.

Writing about government overreach is a common theme among conservatives like Sohrab Ahmari. In Tyranny, Inc. he switches gears and writes about overreach from the private sector instead. 

He talks about predatory hedge funds that purchase reasonably healthy companies, load them with debt, and then let them die. He tells the pathetic story of the decline and fall of both Sears and K-Mart, but it's happened over and over again with multiple companies.

He also talks about a number of court cases, legal rulings, new laws, and relatively new interpretations of laws that have slid the balance of societal power to private corporations. He gives tons of examples like expansive Non-Disclosure Agreements, tracking software on employee's private phones because they are forced to use them for work, and hidden clauses in multi-page employment agreements that give employers perpetual rights to use their employees' physical likeness, speaking voices, and singing voices.

He's not so keen on privatization of public services, like fire and ambulance services and tells some horror stories about those as well.

His answer is to empower the employee and the consumer through things like breaking the stranglehold of the NDA system, breaking up monopolies, and bringing back unions as a counterweight to corporate power.

This book is guaranteed to generate thought, even if you disagree with its conclusions. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: TYRANNY, INC.: HOW PRIVATE POWER CRUSHED AMERICAN LIBERTY - AND WHAT to DO ABOUT IT by Sohrab Ahmari.

FALKLANDS WAR: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END by Hourly History

Published in 2020 by Hourly History

Hourly History specializes in one hour reads about a historical topic. Giant events in history don't fare to well in this series, but a war that lasted 2 and 1/2 months is perfect for this format.

This little history tells the history of the Falklands (it keeps switching hands between the U.K., Argentina, and France with occasional periods pf complete abandonment) and continues on to detail the political situations in Argentina and the U.K. leading up to the war.

I was 14 years old during this war and one of my friends was very interested in this war while it was going on so I heard about it a lot. But, it turns out that I was about half right about everything I remembered. Surprise! 14 year old misses a lot of things!

I thought this was an excellent little history. I rate this e-book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Falklands War: A History from Beginning to End. 

ELEVEN NUMBERS: A SHORT STORY (kindle) by Lee Child

To be published by Amazon Original Stories in February of 2025.

If you have Amazon Prime, you get to choose from a limited selection of soon-to-be-published e-books every month. I am a big fan of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books, so I jumped at the chance to get this short story by Lee Child.

I believe I have read every book and every short story that Lee Child has written about Jack Reacher, but I don't think I've read anything he's written that didn't feature Reacher. In fact, I didn't know he wrote about any character but Reacher.

This is the story of a mathematician - a college professor. He's kind of a nobody, except that he has a specialty, some would say a gift, in an obscure little corner of mathematics. Not many people have even heard of it, let alone know anything about it. 

Then, one day, he gets a call from the White House...

My review:

This was a quick story. It is well-written and takes several twists and turns that I did not see coming.  It's quite good, just not a Reacher action-fest.

I rate this short story 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Eleven Numbers: A Short Story by Lee Child.

INCA EMPIRE: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in October 2024 by Hourly History.

Hourly History has published a large catalog of short histories and biographies. The idea is that each book can be read in about an hour. That's not enough to make the reader an expert, but it is enough to make the reader more knowledgeable than most people and it lets the reader know if this is a topic they want to delve into more deeply.

I thought I was pretty well-informed on the topic of the Incas when I started Inca Empire: A History from Beginning to End. I am a Spanish and a history teacher, so I know way more than most people. However, that's not saying much. Let's face it, the average American hasn't heard of the Incas and the ones that have are likely to confuse them with the Aztecs or the Maya.

A short history is not much of a problem when it comes to the Incas. Their Empire existed for only about 95 years before the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in 1532. The Spanish arrived with small numbers (less than 200 soldiers) but superior technology, including horses, a cannon, firearms, and armor. 

A strength of the Incan Empire also led to its downfall. The Inca understood the value of a dependable highway system to move goods, information, and troops. Unfortunately, European diseases spread to the heart of the empire before the Spanish even arrived. The emperor and his designated heir probably died from diseases brought from Europe, kicking off a brutal civil war that meant the empire was ill-equipped to meet a foreign threat, even a tiny one.

Until I read this short history, I was completely unaware that a rump Incan state survived the original conquest and continued on for another 35 years on the Eastern slopes of the Andes and into the Amazon basin.

Map by QQuantum

My review:

This e-book was in serious need of MAPS. It kept of referring to pre-Colombian locations and civilizations I had never heard of and that meant that I had no real idea of the geography of the relative locations. They might as well have been telling me that Group A took over Group B, Group B rebelled and then Group A destroyed Group B city and Group B stopped fighting. 

A MAP would have helped. 5 or 6 MAPS would have been very enlightening. I have included a helpful map that I lifted from Wikipedia. Just seeing the growth of the empire on this map gives the reader a better idea of the extent of the Incan Empire and how quickly it grew. Kindle can easily handle pictures, so not including a map is inexcusable.

The lack of any sort of map is why I rate this e-book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Inca Empire: A History from Beginning to End.