A strong biography of a man who has inspired great love across the ages—a must for shelves and collections devoted to...
Jones (Bosworth 1485: The Battle that Transformed England, 2015, etc.) brings the Middle Ages—and one of England’s greatest knights—to life.
Leaving the final battle of the War of the Roses, the author thrillingly dives into the 100 Years’ War and its shining star, Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376), the eldest of Edward III’s sons. Edward was the epitome of a hero; he was pure of heart and soul and guided by the code of chivalry. He was a warrior, trained by his father in the tournaments and strong enough to lead his men at the Battle of Crécy at age 16. He watched as his father fought Scotland, carefully planning every battle and using the longbow to significant advantage. However, the prince showed his cruel streak as he rampaged from Bordeaux to the Mediterranean, devastating towns in a wide swath. He destroyed Carcassonne to impress his father rather than accept their monetary offer to spare it. With the prince’s help restoring Gascony and winning Aquitaine, Edward III regained almost the entire Angevin empire once held by Henry II. Unfortunately, the prince’s political acumen was lacking, and he treated the defeated Count of Armagnac poorly, a move that would bring him down in the end. An ill-advised raid into Spain—against all better judgment but on his father’s orders—produced a hollow victory and the beginnings of the disease that would debilitate him during much of the last decade of his life. The author discusses the evil legend fostered by Jean Froissart’s writings of the Black Prince at the Siege of Limoges, but the reality was that he was a man of courage, generous to a fault (always in debt), and loyal to his followers. Jones provides a refreshingly even portrait. Even the prince’s greatest enemy, the French king, honored him as no other foe with a solemn memorial Mass.
A strong biography of a man who has inspired great love across the ages—a must for shelves and collections devoted to medieval times.Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68177-741-2
Page Count: 488
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Honest, of course, but also surprisingly approachable and engaging.
W. has his say.
In a page-turner structured around important decisions in his life and presidency, Bush surprises with a lucid, heartfelt look back. Despite expected defenses of past decisions, Bush is candid and unafraid to say when he thinks he was wrong. Critics on both the left and right are challenged to walk in his shoes, and may come away with a new view of the former president—or at least an appreciation of the hard and often ambiguous choices he was forced to make. Aside from the opening chapter about his decision to quit drinking, the book is not chronologically ordered. Bush mixes topics as needed to tell a larger story than a simple history of his administration. Certain themes dominate the narrative: the all-encompassing importance of 9/11 to the bulk of his presidency, and how it shaped and shadowed almost everything he did; the importance of his faith, which is echoed in every chapter and which comes through in an unassuming manner; the often unseen advisor whom the president conferred with and confided in on almost every subject—his wife, Laura Bush; and the wide array of people who helped him rise to the White House and then often hindered him once he was there. The book is worthwhile for many reasons. Even if many readers may not agree with his views on the subjects, Bush’s memories of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and other major events are riveting and of historical value on their own. Additionally, Bush provides insight into the daily life of the president. The author accepts blame for a number of mistakes and misjudgments, while also standing up for decisions he felt were right.
Honest, of course, but also surprisingly approachable and engaging.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-59061-9
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlanticsenior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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