Category Archives: History

How Iceland Changed the World: The Big Story of a Small Island by Egill Bjarrnason

Posted on October 6, 2023 by bseat

Iceland was fascinating. At first it looks barren and god-forsaken, but it grows on you! Soon you can see the little sprigs of growth, the green and yellow moss, the low lying bushes sheared by the wind, the small trees … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged | 1 Comment

A trip to Finland, Norway and Iceland (Part 2)

Posted on September 29, 2023 by bseat

Last week I shared the books I was planning to read in Finland and Norway so this week I will share the books I plan to read in Iceland. Iceland seems like such a small country tucked in the corner … Continue reading →

Posted in Books to take on vacation, Detective novel, Fiction, History, Non Fiction, Series | 1 Comment

The Map of Knowledge by Violet Moller

Posted on January 10, 2020 by bseat

I have been sick since Christmas Day with a terrible hacking cold and cough. Yesterday, after being sick and tired of being sick and tired, I declared myself well and tried to get back to my normal schedule. Today I … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Non Fiction | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Posted on December 6, 2019 by bseat

In 1973, Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet intelligence agent became a double agent working for the British intelligence service, MI6.  Gordievsky was an unlikely spy since his parents were both KGB agents and he had lived a fairly affluent life with … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, History, Non Fiction, Spy/Covert Operatives, Thriller | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics by Stephen Coss

Posted on November 15, 2019 by bseat

I love history when original documents are used to tell the story, letting us see what people were thinking, saying and letting us see how those thoughts played out in their actions. In The Fever of 1721, Coss does just … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, History, Non Fiction | Tagged | 1 Comment

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston

Posted on March 1, 2019 by bseat

When Zora Neale Hurston came to Plateau, Alabama in 1927, Cudjo Lewis was eighty six years old.  He was one of the last living slaves who remembered crossing the Middle Passage from Africa to the United States on the last … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, memoir, Non Fiction | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Posted on October 14, 2016 by bseat

J.D. Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. Looking at just the outline of the author’s personal story:  His grandparents, “dirt poor and in love,” move to Middletown in order to escape the poverty … Continue reading →

Posted in History, memoir, Non Fiction | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Posted on February 26, 2016 by bseat

After her father died, Helen Macdonald seemed to die a little too. A naturalist and historian, she was completing her research fellowship at a university in England when her father’s unexpected death throws her off course, overwhelmed by her fierce … Continue reading →

Posted in History, memoir, Non Fiction, Prize winner, Spiritual | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Posted on January 22, 2016 by bseat

On July 20, 1910, two suspects wanted for murder, boarded the SS Montrose in Antwerp.  The ship was bound for Quebec City, Canada and   three hours into the voyage, as Captain Henry George Kendall was making his rounds, he … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Mystery/Detective, Non Fiction | 1 Comment

The Black Count: Glory Revolution Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

Posted on May 29, 2015 by bseat

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction and no where is that more thoroughly proven than in this book about the life of General Alex Dumas. Dumas was born in the Caribbean to a mulatto slave woman and a aristocratic Frenchman, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Non Fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment