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Curiosities of the Civil War: Strange Stories, Infamous Characters, and Bizarre Events by Webb Garrison

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Too scattered for this student of the Civil War. Webb Garrison's Curiosities of the Civil War: Strange Stories, Infamous Characters, and Bizarre Events is a well-researched , hefty book that does deliver what it promises - a collection of odd things about the Civil War. I read a lot of history and it seems to me that there are two main ways to organize a book about history. You can go with the more traditional timeline approach - tell the story in the order that it happened (narrative history). Or, you can go with themes - study the themes of the history as the writer sees them. For example, a Civil War historian can look into the evolution of military technology and techniques or focus on civil rights in the North and the South. Most historians try for a combination of the two and pick several themes and follow them as they tell a narrative history.  John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865)  Curiosities of the Civil War goes with the less popular "bathroom reader"

The Corruptible: A Ray Quinn Mystery by Mark Mynheir

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Interesting Characters. So-so mystery. The Corruptible is the second in the Ray Quinn mystery series. It is written by now-retired police officer Mark Mynheir who adds a touch of authenticity to his work (although he misses the most obvious clue at the beginning of this mystery). Ray Quinn is a former Orlando police officer turned Private Investigator who was forced to retire due to disability as a result of being shot through the hip. His replacement hip is painful and he needs to walk with a cane and he often deals with the pain (physical and emotional) with a few stout shots of Jim Beam. He has a partner named Crevis who is trying to pass the entrance exam to be a police officer and a parochial school teacher that also helps him keep his business records straight. In this story, Quinn is hired by an investment company to recover stolen client information by downloading it onto a portable hard drive. The number one suspect is a an acquaintance of Quinn, an employee of the co

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

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The controversial winner of the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for fiction Here we are, decades years later and The Confessions of Nat Turner is still in the news. Recently, Henry Louis Gates, Jr made comments (positive ones, now. Originally negative impressions, years ago) about the book. The primary controversy is quite simple - how can a white man, a southerner, and the descendant of slave owners write a novel about one of the few slaves who actually stood up and demanded his freedom by leading a rebellion? Some have even asserted that he did not even have the right to write the book in the first place - after all, it is not HIS history. But, is Nat Turner to be forever held apart? Is African-American history to be held apart? Can an African-American write about the Japanese Shogunate? Can an Asian-American write about the Alamo? Of course and of course. Gates makes this point in his comments (correctly). History is human history. Nat Turner (1800-1831) Styron's fictionalized

School Days by Robert B. Parker

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A throwback to the early days of 'Spenser'  Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) This edition of Spenser reminded me of the early days of the series - the days before Spenser would assemble a gigantic posse of bad guys and policemen (ie, Potshot ) in order to get the job done. Thankfully, this one is also basically Susan Silverman-free (not that I mind Susan, it's all of the repeated conversations about their relationship - it just gets old!) Unfortunately, School Days is also Hawk-free, so the experienced reader of Spenser books will definitely miss the witty banter the two often share. However, Spenser manages to get in a few good lines without the extra help and he does get a bit of outside help from some unusual sources from the past. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon here:  School Days (Spenser) Reviewed October 9, 2005.

Icon by Frederick Forsyth

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This is my first Forsyth novel and for the first 250 pages... ...I had determined that it would be my last. Forsyth spends the first half of of the 500+ page  Icon just setting the reader up for the real plot of the novel. Unfortunately, the setup consists of a series of disjointed flashbacks interspersed with seemingly unrelated tales of what is going on in the present of the novel (1999-2000 in the old USSR, now Russia). Frederick Forsyth Suddenly, once the flashbacks work their way up to the present time the real story starts and it is a great adventure story! The meandering story redeems itself. There is a lot of action, intrigue and a bunch of frustrated Nazis. Unfortunately, the ending is just too neat - it ends the book with everything too well resolved. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Icon by Frederick Forsyth . Reviewed on October 9, 2005.

Alexander - Director's Cut DVD

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YIKES! (NOTE: this is a review of the 1st re-cutting of this movie. Stone has since re-cut it into "The Final Cut.") Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) 20 minutes into this movie I was thinking that it had real potential. We get to see the ugly details of Alexander's childhood. We get an understanding of his need to conquer, the need to achieve more than his father and his fascination for the non-Greek world (thanks to his mother). An hour into the movie I was confused and disappointed. Confused because of the incessant flashbacks. I knew what was going only because I teach this stuff for a living. How could the average movie-goer possibly understand why Alexander invaded the Persian Empire based on the feeble information supplied by Stone? Stone has an oblique reference to Phillip's murder, but the average movie-viewer does not know even know who Alexander the Great is, let alone that his father was murdered(he shows it in detail in a flashback