Happy Tuesday all! I was under the weather yesterday so I’m gonna pretend it didn’t happen. 😁 Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! They are just never long enough for me. I managed to finish a book but did not manage to finish any of my backlog of reviews. Just keep swimming. 🐟
However I did receive this book mail that I am so excited for! Thank you St. Martin’s Press!
Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival Tom Clavin Nonfiction, Biography Publication Date: 11/2/21
An American fighter pilot doomed to die in Buchenwald but determined to survive.
I received a perfect book for this special day of remembering those that lost their lives protecting us.
Bury Him: A Memoir of the Viet Nam War by: Captain Doug Chamberlain Pub date: 10/28/2019
Thank you Mr. Chamberlain for this gifted copy!
Blurb: A first-person account of what life was really like for Marine infantry units during this formative time of American and Vietnamese history.
Ordered to take command of a company of Marines, Capt. Doug Chamberlain endured many challenges. One challenge was a direct order to bury the remains of a Marine that had been left behind by another unit and be forced to participate in the following cover-up. The order was in direct contraction of United States Marine Corps Policy and the Warrior’s Honor Code of never leaving any Marine behind. Following this order meant committing an act of incomprehensible betrayal and dishonor.
In this captivating new book, Capt. Chamberlain explains in detail the events that transpired as he was forced into playing the role of a political pawn in a massive wartime cover-up. Capt. Chamberlain expertly paints a picture of deceit and military malfeasance, sharing with the reader the moral and mental struggles that ate away at him in the decades that followed this horrible act.
I chose this book for my May #dyrc21 History read. Thank you Grove Atlantic for the gifted copy!
How do we become better when we are always pretending the past never happened?
When reading a book full of hate, I use a bookmark about love.
Back Cover Blurb: From Pulitzer Prize winner David Zucchino comes a searing account of the Wilmington massacre and the coup of 1898, a rare violent overthrow of an elected government within the United States. By 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a shining example of a mixed-race community. But across the South, white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by black citizens. In North Carolina they devised a coordinated campaign of intimidation and violence that culminated in Wilmington on November 10, 1898, when 2,000 heavily armed white nightriders swarmed through the city, forcing city officials and leading black citizens to flee at gunpoint, terrorizing women and children, and shooting at least sixty black men dead in the streets.
This brutal insurrection halted gains made by blacks in Wilmington and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another seventy years. Wilmington’s Lie weaves together individual stories of hate and brutality, resulting in a dramatic and definitive account of a forgotten chapter of American history.
“Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night.” – Terri Guillemets
“It takes but one person, one moment, one conviction, to start a ripple of change.” – Donna Brazile
Josh is a college student at the University of Florida, as part of his American History class they are assigned to read Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King, learning of the gross injustice done to the Groveland Four. A year later, as he was driving, he passed a sign for Groveland. That moment sparked a conviction to do everything he could to right this wrong.
When I was younger I used to only read Stephen King, R.L. Stein, Dean Koontz, you get my drift, pretty much thriller and horror only. When I was in High School, I stared my first job as a barista and found my co-worker’s copy of Nora Robert’s novel Lawless. That was my intro into great Romance novels. I very rarely left that comfort zone of those authors though. I had no idea the books I was missing out on.
The past several years I have made changes in the way I choose what books to read and I have been picking up ones that I normally wouldn’t. I join reading challenges that prompt me to choose books outside my comfort zone. We are two months into the year so far and my genre resume has already been so vast, Literary Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, New Adult Romance, Literary Fiction, Crime and Comedy Thriller, Poetry, and Non-fiction Memoir.
Here are a few that I have thoroughly enjoyed recently:
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – Literary Women’s Fiction, Dark Academia
I hope that this will give you the push to expand your reading beyond your comfort zone as well. There is a whole world out there to explore. Don’t be afraid to check them out.
