It has some interesting material on the society created in a part of Madagascar by European pirates and Malagasy natives. The local population had a lot of mixture of which the pirates were the latest. However, it suffers from a lack of sources and flaws within them. However it reads like an incomplete essay and relies on a great deal of surmise. The author sets out a proposition which he is ultimately unable to sustain.

Thoroughly enjoyable, well paced and well written. I liked the fact that the history of the Russian revolution is addressed only tangentially. The lead is articulate, kind, and deals positively with his very straightened circumstances.

Immensely detailed and comprehensive. If you‘re interested in the topic then you will enjoy this book. It can be quite dry and suffers from a disinterest in pacing. It‘s clear that the authors did an enormous amount of research and want to share it all

Great book on how people deal with a shipwreck. Who sticks to the old authority, who emerges as a leader, who tries to rescue themselves and who wants to party until they drop. Ship disappears for two years, then 40 guys in a raft show up 3000 miles away. Tell their story. 6 months later 3 more guys show up on a different side of the continent, tell a different story. 6 months later 3 more guys show up. Who is telling the truth and what is truth?

what was the perspective and experience of indigenous people of North and South America who travelled to Europe in the first 50 years (or so) after Contact? The author relies heavily on the research that was done in Spain (England and France are an afterthought). The travellers were a wide mix of kidnap victims, slaves, ambassadors, litigants, artists and students. The difficulty is the lack of primary sources. Nevertheless, well worth a read.

Mary Beard is the greatest living scholar on Ancient Rome. This book is yet another triumph. She delves deep into the day-to-day lives of the emperor but is clear that there are great limitations on the available information. She does a great job of explaining how the assessment of each ruler is so dependent on the attitude of the successor. As well as exploring the grave limitations of our available sources.

Excellent work from the pre-eminent Jesus scholar. Although it takes awhile to get there, his conclusions are easily summarized. Jesus was revolutionary for two beliefs, 1) that healing should be free for everyone and 2) that one should eat with everyone. Essentially, share your gifts and talents and be welcoming to all people.

Really really good. At one level it tells the story of his grandparents. On one side of the family they were Canadians of Japanese descent who were interned in Alberta in WWII. On the other side his grandfather was a soldier captured in Hong Kong who spent 4 years in a Japanese pow camp. At another level it‘s about forgiving ourselves.
“Forgiveness has nothing to do with the past”.

Very well written history of 4 women who ruled England before Elizabeth. The section on Matilda is excellent. Very informative. The section on Eleanor of Aquitaine was absolutely fascinating. The latter two are not of the same level of interest but are still good.

This is a great history of the birth of the renaissance in Florence. The author chooses to illuminate the era through a real life bookseller who produced some of the greatest manuscripts of all time. Along the way he makes the acquaintance of various noblemen, artists, authors, theologians, thinkers and manufacturers. The book is essential reading for historians of books, Florence or the Renaissance.

I thought it was an excellent book, not only about a professional hockey career, but also about trying to reconcile life on a First Nations reserve with that career. Nolan turns a spotlight on the explicit and implicit racism during his time in hockey while also acknowledging improvements. It‘s also a great book on coaching. How to do it, what it really means, and the profound effect it has both on the person and on the mentor.

An excellent history of the late Viking Age. The author focuses on telling it through the career of Olaf (later St Olaf) as well as Cnut the Great. He has fine touch and tells the stories with the right amount of detail.

I expect that there‘s little to say that hasn‘t been said. The form is brilliantly executed, the language brings you right in to the story, and the characters are clear and relatable. Accolades for this work are deserved.

Excellent book on the NHL draft. A quick history of how it came to be and what it is. Lots of great stories from someone who was assistant coach, assistant GM and a long term GM and then broadcaster. Relevant and current.

The difficulty with this work is that it is a collection of lectures. As a result, there is some repetition as King has some repeating manners of introduction. The lectures themselves are interesting and the topic of how we are our stories and how much of our lives are stories is quite illuminating.

Fantastic! I will definitely be reading more Michael Lewis. Factual, humorous, insightful. A great book by an engaging author. If you have any interest in Wall Street, junk bonds, financial markets, larger-than-life characters or traders v salesmen, this book is for you.

I really liked it. Short and really well written, the author does a nice job of switching perspectives between stories. Done in the style of a saga where you jump from critical period to critical period. Only criticism is that the opening is a bit long, but once you get to the sagas, the pacing is excellent.

Excellent history. Presents the new and the known in an exciting and illuminating way. French brings together various economic and historical strands to tell a far more comprehensive story of Africa and Africans in the creation of the modern world. A must read!

I like the Sharpe series and I like this book. Cornwell does a lot of research into the time period and it shows. He also writes combat brilliantly. If you wanted a rollicking adventure in the Napoleonic period, you could do far worse than Sharpe. As an aside, Sean Bean played Sharpe in a BBC miniseries, so when he touches a sword in Fellowship of the Ring and says,”still sharp “ it‘s an homage to Sharpe

Great two book set. Vast amount of information but the author does an excellent job of incorporating it into a compelling story.

Exquisite! Absolutely exquisite! Each character is perfectly imperfect and drawn perfectly. I felt I knew all of the characters and had my eyes opened to their pain. Each reveals themselves in language and thought that is exclusively theirs. The writing is perfect.

Excellent work. If you want a journalists take on both the Yugoslav civil war and (to a much lesser extent) Chechnya, this is the one. He looks at the incalculable cost of war on everyone while tying the horrors to particular places and times. In the vein of Herrs “Dispatches “.

Wonderful! Very well written, the passages from childhood are written as from a child‘s perspective. Visceral and moving. Very well paced, read it in two days.

A well-told duo of stories: a widow in 2022 and a cartographer in 1598. Their stories joined by a map. Both are interesting, though the Elizabethan one is more interesting as the modern one is fixed on declaring a lost spouse to be dead. I had hoped that it would also be a reflection on how we choose the lessons and interpretations of the past based upon our current needs but she chose to be more straight forward than that. Enjoyable.

The author has a curious love-hate relationship with his subject. He is relating their story but every so often briefly expresses his utter contempt. He is very thorough and detailed but (intentionally?) makes violence, drug trafficking, and bomb plots boring and mundane. It‘s a shame because he has a great ability to relate the characters. He just needs a subject that he likes.

Fantastic book! An absolutely wonderful work that challenges our notions about how and why society develops. Nothing in the development of our society was inevitable or is unchangeable. Masses of new information with unparalleled analysis. Brilliant!

I like Ron Mclean. He‘s interesting and informed. He has a wealth of great stories. Unfortunately, most of them don‘t make it into this book. There are long spells of talking about people important to him (producers, editors, executives) but who don‘t matter to the reader. There are a few bits and pieces (and the chapter on the lock-out was VERY interesting) but the story-telling is weak, drawn out, and lacks rhythm.

Full disclosure, I am a big fan of Gladwell and expected to like this book. It‘s well-researched and wee-written. The focus is on a long-standing issue about the most moral way to wage war. In this case it is precision bombing vs area bombing. It is a bit thin compared to his other books.

I found this fascinating. The focus is really on coaching, spiritual growth and team-building rather than basketball per se. Really enlightening

A very good read. Unfortunately, there are few reliable sources so the author is obliged to describe the circumstances and surmise the effect. Nevertheless, it was very informative and interesting. Certainly it also has a modern point to make in discussing refugees and immigration.

I really enjoyed the book. The author does a very nice job of placing Harald the Varangian in the context of the Byzantine court and campaigns. The detail is exquisite and the personalities are clearly drawn throughout. I would have preferred not starting at the finish but it was probably done to best appeal to an english audience. The author does a terrific job of neither idolizing nor demonizing him. He was a hard man in a hard world.

If you are interested in how the Allies dissolved after Germanys defeat in World War 2, this book is excellent. While they were united only in battling Nazism the how, where, and when of the collapse of a successful alliance was quite revealing. If you like the topic, read the book. If you don‘t, don‘t.

I love the topic. Freydis was the daughter of Erik the Red and led her own expedition to Vinland. The author does a great job of evoking the time period and the household politics of day to day life. She is an abused wife who is routinely frustrated in her search for fulfillment. It is a long slog through pain to get to any relief

The author is a very good writer. The characters are very clear and distinct and are complete people. My issue is that the book is almost relentlessly sad. The authors skill makes the book a journey of regret, remorse, frustration and grim anxiety.

A very interesting book about the amount of secret intelligence available to both sides in the latter part of the Cold War. I was amazed at the amount of detailed information each side possessed about the other.

If you are interested in the competing groups and players in occupied France during WW2 then this is for you. It focuses on the Bourdeaux region and is detailed and well-written. You get a real sense of the players.

Brilliant! Loads of new information and great analysis. I have raised this book with judges, prosecutors and police officers. A must read

The author does a good job of expanding the story to include the island itself as well as piracy in the South Pacific. I was very struck by two other people I know from other books. William Dampier (A Pirate of Exquisite Mind) is here a fool and Woodes Rogers (later scourge of the Bahamas against pirates in Republic of Pirates) is here a failed pirate himself. A solid effort and the author does what is possible as a biography of Selkirk himself.

Covers a wide range of forces and eras. Manages to be both in-depth and concise. Very readable short chapters.

I liked this book. Full disclosure, I like Conn Iggulden and expected to like this. He does a great job of immersing you in the time period and knows how to tell a good story.

This was a very interesting book. It tells the story of (primarily) American airmen recovered by Serb civilians. They then had to be recovered in a very dangerous rescue mission. There is a lot of information on the conflict between partisans and Chetniks. This was eye opening and something I was not aware of, in particular the outrageous treatment of Draza Mihailovic.

I was quite surprised by the finish. Much of the book is wading through page after page of statistics and other data. It becomes ponderous. However, the conclusions and legacies chapter is crisp, clear and controversial. The data is supportive of the conclusions, it just takes a long time to get there. I would recommend starting at the conclusions, and read the book if you want to see how he got there.

Excellent. It is clear, readable and entertaining. The author looks at Roman history from the final destruction of Carthage to the rise of Julius Caesar. If you ever wondered about the Gracchi brothers, Marius (the 3rd Founder of Rome), and Sulla, then this is the book for you! Excellent.

I haven‘t read much in this genre for a long time. This true story is superior to the best spy fiction. This was a terrific book for anyone who has any interest in espionage.

I really liked this book. Information is up to date and written in an engaging fashion. I particularly liked the information about the first few generations of the Kievan Rus ( which is often slighted in other Viking histories). I am well-versed in this area but this book provided lots of new and interesting information.

Excellent book on the politics of England during the Blitz

Very good settler history. A well-told story of ambition and hardship in creating a land of towns and cities where First Nations people had lived.

The author makes clear at the beginning that he is going to raise and explain problems that our species are facing but no solutions. His awareness is broad and his analysis is insightful. The problem lies in the initial conception. If you are only going to raise critical problems that require urgent innovative solutions and not suggest solutions, it rapidly induces depression in the reader. It is overwhelming.

The author clearly wanted to write a history of Rome but the subject is too vast. He does a great job of comparing and contrasting the Rome at the time of each sacking. Very readable at does provide an excellent glimpse of Rome at seven different times in her history. The epilogue would be a great walking tour

This book is a first class history of the Métis Nation. An absolute must-read for anyone interested in western Canadian history, current events, and the Métis. If you read only one book on this subject, make it this one.