by Alain Marshall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 22, 2016
Diverting historical stories hampered by garbled prose.
In short, anecdotal chapters, this conversational work profiles mostly lesser-known English separatists from the early 17th century.
Marshall (Tuck, 2016) focuses on new religious factions gaining power in Europe at the time, and especially on would-be passengers of the Mayflower. The book proper opens at Lincolnshire’s Gainsborough Hall in England, a recurring location. Henry VIII stayed here with his wife, Catherine Howard, who was later accused of adultery. After Henry came Edward VI’s short time in power, followed by Mary’s bloody reign. During all this upheaval, Gainsborough Hall came under the ownership of merchant William Hickman. He and his wife, Rose, were separatists and attended Robert Browne’s secret prayer meetings in London, at which they read Tyndale’s contraband English Bible. Rose remained a separatist into old age and widowhood, when she moved into Gainsborough Hall with her son, who had taken over his father’s business. An underground tunnel from the river to the hall allowed them to aid in transporting guest speakers, while postman William Brewster distributed religious pamphlets. The book also considers John Smith’s involvement with Jamestown, smallpox epidemics, the new Bourbon dynasty in France, and the Huguenots’ conflicts. A particular highlight is the chapter about navigator William Adams’ tumultuous journey to Japan, where he became a guest of the shogun. This little-known historical incident provides a welcome change of scene. By contrast, Smith’s experiences in the New World and relationship with Pocahontas feel like well-trodden territory. Luckily, Marshall’s passion for history comes through clearly in his relaxed style. Italicized archaic vocabulary words, some teasingly sexual language, and an (over)abundance of exclamation points reinforce this enthusiasm. His skilled portraits of more obscure figures like Rose Hickman and his eye for telling details help to bring history to life. Unfortunately, the writing quality generally fails to live up to the subject matter. Faulty punctuation, typos, problems with subject–verb agreement, and inconsistent use of tenses render the book choppy, hindering comprehension. For example: “Facts that’s hard to come by simply because, by necessity, they’re secretive! Meaning it’s tough to cross-reference local knowledge, concerning who’s who?” and “Apiece believing, they’re sharing fond solicitous memories? Whereas their multiple, albeit tender reminisces, wound Smith, like a knife!” Readers will likely need determination and a keen interest in the period to persist.
Diverting historical stories hampered by garbled prose.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5301-7454-6
Page Count: 276
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
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Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
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by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
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by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel
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