Review: The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America's Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919

The Polar Bear Expedition: The Heroes of America's Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919 by James Carl Nelson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting history of Americans fighting with their allies in Russia against the Bolsheviks through and beyond the WWI Armistice. And doing this in the frigid North of Russia. The book provides a combination of perspectives: the strategic perspective that shows how the fighting was perceived in Russia and by the military leaders of the Allies, and the personal perspective of the soldiers. Strangely, the most memorable part for me was that the strategic perspective wasn’t that memorable. This fighting didn’t seem to have much purpose, and had little historic impact. Many of the military leaders seemed to be, at best average and at worst, drunks. Also memorable were the individual stories of the American men, many killed, most all dealing with frigid cold. I’ll remember this as the “forty below” book – you knew you would hear of a temperature that low and of military action or hunkering down without shelter in that weather, time and again. I appreciated the ending, where the author continued the story to explain what happened to the remaining Allied soldiers and the continuing Bolshevik revolution when the Americans went home. I listened on audio. I found that it was difficult to follow the many place names without a map handy, and I would suggest an understanding of a battle map, or at least a map of the cities, towns, and rivers in the area of Archangel.

View all my reviews

View all my reviews

Review: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well written story of a light skinned black man at the turn of the century, seeing the world in turns as white and as black. The observations of our main character cover his entire life, from upbringing through schooling, his work in a cigar factory, becoming a famous player of ragtime music, and touring the world accompanying a very rich man. Although written around a hundred years ago and covering a time before that, this book seemed somewhat current in the way it described the ways people think and act when it comes to race, contrasting the perceptions of rich and poor, Europeans and Americans, Northerners and Southerners, partiers and businessmen. The writing had the feel of Twain, not in depth or pith but in descriptive voice. I felt like the author had a goal in what to present and put together a good plan in this book. I enjoyed the book, and I feel like I learned something. Cigars and ragtime – I’m in.

View all my reviews

View all my reviews

Review: One Year to an Organized Financial Life

One Year to an Organized Financial Life by Regina Leeds
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Given the title, I was hoping this would provide details in what to save in terms of finances, organization ideas, and record keeping requirements. I have read many magazine articles that offered advice on these same topics, but I figured that, given this was book length, I’d learn more detail. Instead of diving into the details of these topics, the author broadens the coverage to include topics beyond organization and record-keeping to general personal finance, including ideas on how to shop for the holidays, differences between IRA accounts, and the like. As a generic personal finance book, it was mostly OK, hitting most topics but missing a few. As for the organization of a financial life, I was surprised to see the author recommending destroying receipts early on, then mentioning later that some of those receipts might be required for recordkeeping for, say, real estate basis. And I was looking for suggestions on how to handle receipts and recordkeeping for product warranties. Not covered here, to my surprise. I also expected some coverage of information tracking, like tracking of net worth, as well as scanning and data organization. Not here. Overall, in many ways about what you’d expect if it had a broader title, but not quite deep enough for the title it has. If you haven’t read a magazine article on personal financial recordkeeping, this would cover it as a readable but incomplete introduction. If you already have a system or some knowledge, this isn’t necessary.

View all my reviews

Review: Saving Savvy: Smart and Easy Ways to Cut Your Spending in Half and Raise Your Standard of Living and Giving

Saving Savvy: Smart and Easy Ways to Cut Your Spending in Half and Raise Your Standard of Living and Giving by Kelly Hancock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I seem to read a book every year or two on couponing. They all seem to share the same basic information on clipping and using coupons. I found this one added on some more recent advice on organizing coupons and using web sites that catalog available coupons and coupon books. And there’s scripture added, along with the author’s repeated suggestion to donate from the bonuses you save via couponing and bulk/sale buying. If you haven’t read a couponing book and don’t mind the religious tact, this is a fine introduction. For experienced deal mongers, it’s a reasonable reminder or update.

View all my reviews

View all my reviews

Review: The Builders

The Builders by Maeve Binchy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having read many of Binchy’s earlier novels, I wondered what I would find in what looked to be a short story, where she didn’t have the luxury of many pages to weave her tale. She didn’t need it. Binchy tells the story of a housing contractor who visits the neighbor lady to the house he’s working on, and they develop a relationship. You meet the lady’s family and understand her story, and there is a plot tying the families together. While the basic story seemed quite similar to bits of others of Binchy’s novels, this worked well as a complete, stand-alone story. I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the way that Binchy told this story in a very simple manner, without much flowery language. I didn’t realize until after I finished that this was written for an Irish literacy project, providing stories by Irish authors to help people learn to read. Wonderful idea, and well done.

View all my reviews

View all my reviews

Review: Chicago's Wrigley Field

Chicago's Wrigley Field by Paul Michael Peterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you have a friend that has visited Wrigley Field many times in the past, and like to show you slides of his trips, you've had a preview of what this book has to offer. This is one of those books with plenty of photos. And you get mostly what you expect here - pictures from around Wrigley Field, mostly of the stands. While there are some historic photos, and some pictures of baseball professionals (players, and Bill Veeck), a good percentage of these photos are like family photos from trips to the park. My interest waned while going through this and seeing pictures aimed not at the park but at someone's kids. I'd have liked to see more of the behind-the-scenes locations within the park, like the press boxes, the ramps, the restaurants, the grounds crew storage. I don't recall even seeing a picture from inside the scoreboard here, and they show that a lot on TV. Hit and miss.

View all my reviews

View all my reviews

Review: Arkansas

Arkansas by John Brandon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just a strange trip careening through the lives of cornpone country drug kingpins and their affected underlings. What made this strange is the use of the kinds of characters you see in small towns, the go-getter, the guy with the odd hobby, the quiet tough, the guy who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and who must listen to opera/NPR. Lots of trailer parks and thrift stores, gas stations and old cars. There’s action, and plot, but it hangs very loosely together. Entertaining, but not entirely enjoyable.

View all my reviews

View all my reviews