FRANKLIN PIERCE: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Biographies of U.S. Presidents) (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2025 by Hourly History.

Hourly History's biography of Franklin Pierce offers a concise but comprehensive telling of Pierce's life. He was a politician, but his wife hated Washington, D.C. and spent as much time away from the capital as possible. 

He had two major foreign policy successes - the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico and opening Japan to foreign trade, but I was really interested in his policies that helped lead to the Civil War.

Franklin Pierce is one of that group of 8 Presidents in a row from Van Buren to Buchanan that did not serve more than one term (two died in office) leading up to the Civil War. Some were stronger than others, but, as a group, these Presidents didn't show the kind of leadership needed to push the nation away from Civil War. 

Pierce was a New England Democrat that vociferously took the side of Southern Democrat slaveholders. His working theory was that there needed to be unity in the country and uniting behind slavery was a way to be unified. 

This was unpopular with his New England neighbors and didn't really generate trust among Southern Democrats because they saw the pushback, especially in Kansas. The fighting grew so severe among pro- and anti-slavery forces that it became known as "Bleeding Kansas."

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: FRANKLIN PIERCE: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (Biographies of U.S. Presidents).

DEADWOOD: A HISTORY from the BEGINNNG to PRESENT (Old West) (kindle) by Hourly History

Published in 2025 by Hourly History.

There are a few towns whose names are synonymous with the Old West, such as Dodge City, Kansas and Tombstone, Arizona. Deadwood, South Dakota is one of those names. It keeps on coming up in novels and movies. It brings to mind smoke-filled bars with poker games, gold rushes, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. 

This was Deadwood's wild and turbulent beginning and this short e-book covers that well. But, it also covers the part that no one ever mentions - what does a small, out of the way city do when the gold rush is over and the saloons and casinos have moved on?

To be honest, I hadn't really thought much about post-gold rush Old West cities. But, I have seen the same problem back in the Midwest where I live. Instead of gold mines that petered we had a manufacturing boom that has been in steady decline for 60 years. Factories close, the supporting businesses follow, and a dying town is left in their wake.

What happened to Deadwood is not all that much different than what happened to Detroit, Michigan, Janesville, Wisconsin, or Anderson, Indiana.

The steps that South Dakota has take to revitalize Deadwood have largely been along the lines of leaning in to the Old West past. They brought back gambling and they really pushed the idea of making Deadwood a destination for people interested in Old West historical tourism.

All of this sounds kind of boring, but I thought it was presented quite well. 

I rate this e-book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Deadwood: A History from the Beginning to Present. 

AMERICAN HERITAGE NEW ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES: VOLUME 8: THE CIVIL WAR by Robert G. Athearn

Published in 1971 by Fawcett Publications, Inc.

This book was part of a series intended to be a supplement to a history curriculum as part of a classroom library or in a school library. It is part of a multi-volume series. When I was a kid, I would see books like this used for extra credit (outline chapter X, etc.) when I was a kid.

Positives:

The pictures are great. The book title says it is illustrated and it does not lie. There are pictures on almost every page and many of them are the most famous photos, paintings, and drawings of the war.

There is an "Encyclopedic Section" at the end of the book. It has biographies of prominent people of the war and explanations of some of the big ideas, and events of the war. Before the internet, these little encyclopedias about a dedicated topic were extremely helpful.

There is an essay from Bruce Catton between the regular text and the Encyclopedic Section. It is excellent.

Negatives:

There is literally no explanation of the events that led to the Civil War. The first sentence of the book is: "The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked a great military conflagration that was to blaze in America for four bitter, bloody years." Then, it proceeds to talk about the post-Sumter military build-up. Page 2 discusses Bull Run and page 3 talks about Fort Donelson. Iti is almost like the war just happened. 

Slavery is almost entirely ignored. Because of this, I would describe this book is a "Lost Cause" lite history. The facts that are presented are accurate, but when you ignore the role slavery played in the Civil War, you are slanting things towards the Confederacy. It's not advocating "Lost Cause" points, but it lends itself towards that interpretation. This is not surprising for a book written in 1971.

The Reconstruction section is also tilted to the side of the former Confederates. 

I rate this mixed bag of a book three stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: AMERICAN HERITAGE NEW ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES: VOLUME 8: THE CIVIL WAR by Robert G. Athearn.

LULA DEAN'S LITTLE LIBRARY of BANNED BOOKS: A NOVEL (audiobook) by Kirsten Miller

Published in 2024 by HarperAudio.

Performed by January LaVoy.

Duration: 10 hours, 13 minutes.

Unabridged.

Synopsis

Troy, Georgia is, on the surface, an idyllic small town. But, the book banners have gotten active and removed a whole list of books from the school libraries and the public library. 

The school board president, Beverly Underwood, was surprised at the arrival of this committee of book banners and how they manipulated social media to scare the town led by the local lady curmudgeon, Lula Dean. As a compromise, the school board president agrees to store all of the disputed books in her basement until things can get sorted out.

Meanwhile, Lula Dean has set up one of those "little free library" boxes in her front yard with alternative books that she considers wholesome. It features titles like The Art of the Deal, Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and "Lost Cause" histories of the Civil War that she purchased at a Goodwill store in a nearby store in the bargain section. 

The trouble begins when Underwood's daughter steals the banned books from the basement and switches the dust jackets on the banned books with the dust jackets on the books from Lula Dean's little free library. She puts the banned books back in the little free library but Lula Dean is none the wiser because she has never read any of the banned books nor has she read any of the books she is offering the town. 

When the town starts taking books from the little free library they are surprised and delighted at the books they really get to read. They are also surprised at the changes these books bring to the town.

My Review

This is a fun book to read. It has its serious moments and sometimes profound moments, but it mostly reads like a fun novel. I was reminded of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. 

The reader, January LaVoy, was excellent. She created many, many unique voices and they sounded authentic. She is very talented.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.  It can be found on Amazon.com here: Lula Deans Little Library of Banned Books.

THE TOY CAR: A SHORT STORY (kindle) by Rose Tremain

Published in 2025 by Amazon Original Stories.

The Toy Car is a coming-of-age story of Petros, an attractive 17 year old boy who lives on a sunny Greek tourist island. His life is mapped out for him - his father owns a popular taxi service and eventually he will inherit the business. 

It's a good life by most standards. 

But, his English mother is worried that Petros hasn't seen enough of the world so she convinces his father to send him off to live with her sister and her husband in London for a year abroad.

Petros brings along a toy version of his father's taxi, which is where we get the name of the story.

Up to this point, the story is pretty good.

When Petros arrives in London, his aunt and uncle seem very surprised about everything about him. They have not prepared for his arrival. Everything about the very existence of Petros confounds them.

I have no idea why they are acting this way, but it makes for a very poor experience for Petros. He spirals out of control with homesickness and bad experiences with girls and, eventually, he runs home.

What are the lessons learned in this coming-of-age story? 

Don't try new things?

London's weather is bad compared to the weather of a Greek island?

Better to be a taxi driver than to meet a girl in England?

Who knows what the point was supposed to be - all I know is that this book failed to deliver one except for the four I mentioned above.

I rate this story 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Toy Car: A Short Story by Rose Tremain.

WE LIVE HERE: DETROIT EVICTION DEFENSE and the BATTLE for HOUSING JUSTICE (graphic novel) by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer

Published in 2024 by Seven Stories Press.

The 2008 Financial Crisis and the Great Recession that followed led to a myriad number of local problems all over the United States. In some places, major projects slowed or stopped. In others, manufacturing came almost to a halt. In others, there were so many subprime mortgages issued in that area that the housing market practically collapsed.

Detroit is famously home to tons of auto-related factories and they all slowed dramatically. It was so bad during the Great Recession that the American auto industry had to be bailed out by the federal government. Those job losses left the Detroit economy in a shambles.

On top of that, Detroit was one of the places with simply too many subprime mortgages. It wouldn't have been a problem if Detroit's economy didn't have any hiccups. The problem is that the Great Recession was much, much more than a hiccup - it was like a financial bomb went off in the city.

This graphic novel details the financial troubles that Detroit faced and how many of the subprime loan programs worked, including government supports that simply dried up when the property tax started to dry up. All of these led to an eviction of foreclosure crisis that snowballed across the city.

The best part of the book are the stories of neighbors banding together to prevent foreclosures. They literally blocked streets and called banks day and night urging them to negotiate with their mortgage customers. This should have been a no-brainer - the banks already had a glut of homes in the same neighborhoods. When too many homes are for sale, the prices are driven down so low that the banks may never get their money back. 

I do like the idea behind this book - using the graphic novel format to preserve local history. It was a lot more interesting than reading an article about the topic. It was quite effective in telling the story of neighbors that defended their homes because, as the title says, "We live here!"

I did have one complaint - the simple pencil illustrations are fine, but some of the characters look the same and it was hard to tell whose story we were reading about.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: WE LIVE HERE: DETROIT EVICTION DEFENSE and the BATTLE for HOUSING JUSTICE by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer.

SUPERMAN / WONDER WOMAN VOLUME 2: WAR and PEACE (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Written by Charles Soule
Art by Tony S. Daniel

Published in 2015 by DC Comics

Synopsis

Superman has fought and defeated Doomsday, but during the fight he was infected with a Doomsday virus of some sort that is slowly merging into his genetic code and changing him into Doomsday.

Superman can hold it off simply by will and the sheer strength of being Superman, but Earth-based planetary defenses have released Kryptonite into the air around the world to drive the Superman/Doomsday hybrid away. Good enough, except that Brainiac has unleashed an attack on Earth and the Justice League really needs Superman's help...

My Review

This graphic novel was confusing and unnecessarily complicated. It seemed like it was an attempt to bring every possible character into the story and it was missing a key component - the fight with Doomsday.

The reason for that is simple - the story of that fight is not included in the Superman / Wonder Woman series. It is actually in a stand-alone volume called Superman: Doomed. The Doomed book is actually part of 3 or 4 different DC Comics story lines that all come together to meet in that story. However, there is no reference to the existence of that volume anywhere in the Superman / Wonder Woman cover art or in a prologue. They simply did not tell the reader that they should have read another story first.

That means this reader went in blind and felt like I was playing catch up the entire time. 

This quote from my review of Volume 1 of this series certainly applies to this volume in spades:

Almost everything about this story feels rushed. It's as if Soule had a 12 or 13 comic's worth of story that he had to tell in just 7 comics. Even worse, the story keeps gliding back and forth in time in a series of flashbacks that are labeled with a little blue box at the top of the first page of the current flashback. "Two hours ago." "Eight hours ago." "Now." They bounce around so much that it just confuses an already rushed story. Also, it ruins the drama because when they are in the "Now" timeline you can see how it all ends up.

I rate this graphic novel 1 star out of 5. Too many flashbacks, too rushed, and, most importantly, they should have told the reader that they were missing a key element of the story if they didn't read a stand alone volume. 

The Superman / Wonder Woman series continues on, but it continues without me.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman / Wonder Woman Volume 2: War and Peace.