Amazonia Book Shoppe

NEW HOME! Check out AmazoniaBookShoppe.com!

Steve Dowell — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 06:19:52 +0000

Amazonia Book Shoppe now has a brand new home, a self-hosted version which can be found at http://amazoniabookshoppe.com.

The WordPress.com site will be kept public, for a while at least, but will eventually be re-directed to the new location. All new posts will be at the new domain.

Hope to see you there!

Steve D.

2014 – A Retrospective

Steve Dowell — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 21:41:42 +0000

2014 Reading Challenge

Steve has
completed his goal of reading 25 books in 2014!

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25 of 25 (100%)

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Having risen up to yet another Goodreads Reading Challenge (25 this year), it’s time to reflect over the memorable reads of 2014. Ironically, I only read one book actually published this year and that was the most recent, Killing Patton by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, hence my pick for the best of 2014 in History & Biography.

Steve’s 2014 Book Montage

Steve’s favorite books »

Share book reviews and ratings with Steve, and even join a book club on Goodreads.

There are still nine more days remaining, so I may exceed my quota this year. And if not, I’ve got a good head start on the 2015 Reading Challenge.

Thanks for visiting and Happy Holidays!

Steve D.

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General by Bill O’Reilly

Steve Dowell — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 02:38:56 +0000

When I saw “Patton” at the theater in 1970, I never suspected anything malicious about the General’s death. I thought it was ironic that he had survived the front-line battlefields of two world wars unscathed, only to meet his fate in a freak accident. But over the years, having become better read regarding all the circumstances of the times and having learned more about the world in general, I’m now convinced that the death of Patton was no accident.

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General by Bill O’Reilly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like Bill O’Reilly’s books, I don’t care what anyone else thinks! In fact, of the 3 I’ve read – Killing Lincoln, Killing Jesus and this one, I think this is the best – possibly because the information sources are more current.

I think O’Reilly and Dugard do a good job in discovering and reporting the facts without emotional bias.

I’ve always felt that Patton was taken out. Usually when there is “smoke there is fire” when it comes to government in my opinion.

My only disappointment is that nothing new came up to shift the weight towards one side or the other as to a conspiracy. In fact if anything, it made me think that perhaps it was an accident that occurred during a convoluted time in history.

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This is my favorite, and I believe only, book published in 2014!

Steve D.

The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss

Steve Dowell — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 06:18:43 +0000

Having read Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” as a youth, the heroes of those poetic epics have remained embedded in my psyche for decades. Barry Strauss, History and Classics Professor at Cornell University, uses his knowledge and background to discern between what is real, what could be real and what would in all likelihood be pure myth in his book “The Trojan War: A New History”.

The Trojan War: A New History by Barry S. Strauss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A quick, enjoyable read, Strauss retells the ancient story, creating images in the mind based on how things probably or could have happened.

The Trojan War: A New History attempts to logically explain the fantastic mythical descriptions of Homer’s classics The Iliad and The Odyssey. Since a large part of Homer’s work about the conflict are poetic, the author has to speculate on much of it, to the point where the book could probably be considered more of an historic novel than a work of non-fiction.

It’s not difficult to sense the author’s passion for the subject matter, in fact, it can be rather contagious.

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Steve D.

Edison; A Life of Invention – Paul Israel

Steve Dowell — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 01:29:00 +0000

Thomas Alva Edison was a prolific inventor and an iconic American figure. I only wished I had chosen a different biography of the man. The book wasn’t bad necessarily, it was just… well read my review.

Edison: A Life of Invention by Paul Israel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was a major chore for me and I’m technically inclined. The first half was like eating a box of saltines it was so dry, however, it did become more reader friendly as it progressed. Israel is extremely detailed technically in this account of the life of Edison, too much so I believe. Unless you are schooled in electrical engineering, you would probably agree with me.

Thomas A. Edison was a model of persistence which resulted in his becoming an American icon respected around the world, but he did have some undesirable traits such as his being self-centered, jealousy of others getting any credit and the poor treatment of his children by his first wife. He was indeed a true capitalist and prolific entrepreneur.

I’m glad I finally finished this one.

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Steve D.

The Fall by Albert Camus

Steve Dowell — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 03:03:20 +0000

My second Camus, The Fall is considered by many to be one of his top 3, the other 2 being The Plague and the one I read earlier this year, The Stranger. Like The Stranger, this short work sends the reader into deep thought of its meaning and innuendos upon its conclusion.

The Fall by Albert Camus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The entirely self-absorbed lawyer turned “Judge Penitent” Jean-Baptiste Clamence is ruthlessly honest in this diatribe to his newly found “client” through out a five day bender in Amsterdam.

At the end, you have to wonder if the audience was actually another human being at all or if it was his own conscience.

The Fall eerily reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters in that Clamence could be seen as the evil one except that he is all too human and, unfortunately, too much like many if not all of us.

The stolen panel of the Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece is based on fact and still has not been recovered.

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A definitive leader of the “Absurdism” school of philosophy, Albert Camus has now inspired me to read other authors of the movement such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Søren Kierkegaard. In fact, my very next project is Sartre’s The Wall.

Steve D.

Hiroshima – John Hersey

Steve Dowell — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 03:42:05 +0000

John Hersey

We were assigned John Hersey’s “The Child Buyer” in High School English, but being the juvenile delinquent that I was in those days, I probably shirked it off and scanned the Cliff’s notes instead. That would explain my lack of recollection of anything about the book or its author.

Now, years later, I am familiar with Hersey as being associated with a journalistic movement born from early 20th century realism writers such as Sinclair Lewis (Hersey’s onetime boss and a major influence), William Faulkner and Upton Sinclair (Lewis’s mentor), culminating to the later writers of the period such as Tom Wolfe, Guy Talese, Hunter Thompson, Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. The “New Journalism” style was a brutally honest approach of reporting which differed drastically from the previous, ultra-conservative schools of writing of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Though his 1944 work “A Bell for Adano” earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, “Hiroshima” is perhaps Hersey’s greatest work.

Hiroshima by John Hersey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As quoted on the cover of the edition by the Saturday Review of Literature “Everyone able to read should read it”. John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” is considered by many to be the greatest piece of journalism of the 20th century.

Hersey tells the story of 6 survivors of the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima by the first Atomic Bomb used as a weapon, creating a work more frightening than any non-fiction horror story. It makes the reader sad, angry, then sympathetic, though the real cause of the angst is not necessarily Truman’s choice to use the bomb, but that war itself is sanctioned and facilitated by governments, prompting the usage of such destructive measures.

What is really scary is that since the first bomb, every major nation in the world has the ability and most have tested nuclear weapons. Could it be just a matter of time before the “big one” happens, or can the human race keep the resulting chaos from disappearing from its collective memory?

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“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

– Albert Einstein

Steve D.

The Forgetting Room by Nick Bantock

Steve Dowell — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 19:29:31 +0000

A man inherits his estranged grandfather’s estate in Spain. Expecting to encounter the works of the deceased painter in the studio, the man becomes drawn into a conundrum which, in turn, guides him through his own growth as an artist.

In the beginning pages, reference to Ronda, a city in central Spain, brought Hemingway to mind. Having experienced only one Hemingway novel, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, I did a little side research to see if Ronda was in the area of Spain of that story and finally concluded that perhaps it was or perhaps it was not mentioned in the Hemingway novel and blew it off. Later in Bantock’s book, there is reference to Hemingway in regards to the bull fighting arena in the town which central to the story, verifying the Hemingway connection.

The Forgetting Room: A Fiction by Nick Bantock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes the value of a book is determined by the reader’s mindset at the onset of the read. In the case of Bantock’s “The Forgetting Room”, my particular circumstances at the time made it a perfect fit.

This is the kind of story that makes one think and on many levels. Letting go of blame, forgiveness, moving on, looking at the big picture without being distracted by the details and so on, I found many parallels applicable to issues in my own life.

Perhaps more suitable to one’s artistic side, I definitely recommend “The Forgetting Room” as a pleasant way of filling a vacant evening,

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Steve D.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin

Steve Dowell — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:56:54 +0000

Edward Bates, attorney general; William H. Seward, secretary of state; Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war; Salmon P. Chase, Treasury secretary.
Source: Mathew Brady/Corbis; Time Life Pictures/Getty Images; Mathew Brady/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Like American icons and Founding Fathers Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin are linked to the period of the American Revolutionary War, Lincoln is associated with the horrific growing pains experienced during the American Civil War, however, Lincoln’s feats extend far beyond the boundaries of our own nation, transcending to global proportions.

In describing Lincoln’s younger days, Goodwin makes reference to a well known work that I read last year, Edgar Lee Master’s “Spoon River Anthologies”, where she quotes the passage devoted to Lincoln’s first real and perhaps only true love in Ann Rutledge of New Salem, Illinois.

In the final chapter, Goodwin details an event where famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy describes Lincoln to tribal members in the distant Russian steppes where Lincoln is revered as much and more as the great military leaders Alexander, Julius Caesar, Frederick the Great and Napoleon, illustrating the world wide impact made by “Honest Abe”. Abraham Lincoln was not a military leader, of extremely high intellect or even a great individual politician, but the greatest humanitarian of the age.

By a biographer who is becoming a new favorite of mine, Doris Kearns Goodwin, I have yet to get my hands on her magnum opus, Pulitzer winner “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II”.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars“Team of Rivals” will most likely be the most memorable read of the year for me. I was pretty well read on the life of Lincoln beforehand, however, Goodwin’s masterpiece was like turning on the lights in a dimly lit room. Though we are all familiar with the chain of events leading up to the fateful evening at Ford’s Theater, Goodwin still was able to drag a drop or two from the eye.

This is a fantastic read for educational as well as entertainment purposes. It goes into my elite list of biographies over the last few years. All I can say to summarize “Team of Rivals” is “wow!”.

Now I can’t wait to see the highly acclaimed movie based on the work!

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First Family – Abigail & John Adams by Joseph Ellis

Steve Dowell — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:18:56 +0000

My second Joseph Ellis, I’ve come to enjoy his ‘to the point’, ‘no frills’ style of writing. Though McCullough’s “John Adams”, which is cited by Ellis, provides a more in depth and detailed version of much of the same material, Ellis tells it in fewer words, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is amazing that the correspondence between husband and wife has turned into such a valuable national treasure. Obviously, John Adams was aware of the fact, and who knows how much he tailored his letters for the sake of posterity, nevertheless, it is mind-boggling how the 2 maintained their unconditional love for each other from opposite sides of the globe for so long. In this day and age, with your partner merely a speed-dial away no matter how physically far apart you may be, it would be challenging to keep a relationship intact for so long at such a distance.

My second Ellis read, I appreciate his ‘no nonsense’ style of writing. He doesn’t fluff up the account merely to fill pages, he seems to be a true scholar. After reading McCullough’s rendition of John Adams, I assumed that it would be a tough act to follow, though I enjoyed Ellis’s account for the very reason stated above.

Perhaps, John and Abigail are finally getting the credit they so anticipated and truly deserve.

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Steve D.