JOHN DENVER: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in January of 2025 by Hourly History.

Hourly History specializes in biographies and histories that take about an hour to read. 

In this case, Hourly History has a history of a favorite in my household as I grew up - John Denver.

The book gives a good accounting of his early life, his early struggles as a musician, and his impressive drive that just kept pushing him forward until he made it. Once he made it, there was no one bigger than John Denver - He had a series of number one songs, number one albums, multiple awards, and movies and TV show appearances. But, it all seemed to come at the expense of his personal life.

This little biography covers the timeline of his life pretty well, but skimps on any sort of analysis on his uneasy position as a Country Music artist. For example, he won their official awards, but many mainstay country music artists considered him an interloper - a folk artist who was sort of assigned the title of "country artist."

Still, this was an enjoyable read for longtime fan. I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5.
This book can be found on Amazon.com here: JOHN DENVER: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END by Hourly History.

BEAT the REAPER (audiobook) by Josh Bazell

Published by Hachette Audio in 2007.
Read by Robert Petkoff.
Duration: 6 hours, 49 minutes.
Unabridged.

The premise of this book is very strong - what if a mafia hitman goes into witness protection, becomes a doctor in a hospital, and then runs into a former mafia colleague who has come to the hospital for a serious surgery. They recognize each other and deadly hijinks ensue.

Sounds good, but the follow through leaves a lot to be desired. The main character is unlikeable almost all of the time - deeply unlikeable. The more you learn about him, the worse he gets. On top of that, the parade of horrible events that happened to him is simply ridiculous - literally stuff stolen from a Timothy Dalton James Bond movie, except even more over the top.

The audiobook reader is great, but the text of the book - not so much.

I rate this book 1 star out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell.

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.