Doves of War by Paul Preston is a book about four women who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Even if you are not interested in the subject, reading about them might be very interesting. There are some war-related details, they are there to create…
Centuries of Change by Ian Mortimer – Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us – sounds like a very interesting book and it was. Each chapter dealt with the changes happening in a century, starting from the 11th. The focus…
The Spanish Civil War: 1936–1939 by Frances Lannon is a very good introductory book. At only 96 pages and with lots of maps and pictures, it offers an insight into the war. Because each chapter has only a few pages and the pictures help create…
Total Undersea War by Aaron Stephan Hamilton*, with the subtitle The Evolutionary Role of the Snorkel in Donitz’s U-Boat Fleet 1944-1945, is a book about U-boats. At ~350 pages (excluding the appendix and bibliography) this is a very detailed book on U-boats developed in the…
Next month I’m starting my second year at University and I picked for my optional subject the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. I received a long list of books from my tutor and I searched for books on my own. Here is the initial list of…
Aesop’s Fables translated by Laura Gibbs contains 600 fables, aetiologies, paradoxes, insults, and jokes. First published in English by Caxton in 1484, Aesop is known even today and his fables are even more well known. This translation is the first to represent all the main…
When it comes to war, and especially WW2, I think of food shortages and mass destruction, but I did not consider how much life changed. Women’s Lives and Clothes in WW2 by Lucy Adlington* deals with a less thought-off aspect of everyday life during wartime:…
I loved The Heat of the Moment by Sabrina Cohen-Hatton – Life and Death Decision-Making From a Firefighter. It was a bit hard to pinpoint where this book should be included, if in the Psychology section or memoirs. In the end I’ve decided to go…
I was curious to know more about the Flying Squad after seeing it mentioned in a book I read previously, and so, I was very pleased to receive Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad by Dick Kirby* for review. I imagined it would be a book on…
I wanted to read Flight Risk by Stephanie Green for a while, but the libraries were closed and so I couldn’t borrow it. Luckily I did not buy it, because I would have been annoyed, considering the low rating I gave this book. The subtitle…
WW2 From Above by Julian Thompson* gives an aerial view of the battle sites. The satellite images are annotated with details of the battle and the forces involved are marked on the image too. It is similar to a battle map, but made on a…
I have to admit that I was not sure what rating to give to The Battle of the Atlantic by Bernard Ireland*. It is a good history book, with plenty of facts and details. At the same time, it is quite dry. In the end…
I know that one of my readers is keen to read the review for Little Book of US Presidents*, mainly because she mentioned it to me, even before I received it from Welbeck Publishing. So, I was very curious about the book. After a very…
I’ve read a history of salt last year and found it fascinating, so I imagined that The Dark History of Tea by Seren Charrington-Hollins* would be just as interesting. I was right. Unlike salt, where my knowledge prior to reading the book was limited, I…
30 Seconds Climate by Joanna D Haigh* proved to be a fascinating book, like all the ones I read in this series. I was expecting to learn a few things, of course, but I was surprised by some of the details included, like who observed…
Rendezvous by Amanda Quick is the love story between the impulsive and fashion loving Augusta Ballinger and the dull, classics loving Earl of Graystone. It is a lovely story, very interesting because it is unusual. It involves a murder or two, spies during the Napoleonic…