Category Archives: History

Frozen in Time

Posted on May 4, 2013 by

“Greenland makes no sense,” writes author Mitchell Zuckoff in Frozen in Time. For one thing, it’s not green at all. More than 80 percent of Greenland is buried in ice. For centuries, the massive island has remained largely empty. During … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nonfiction | Tagged | 7 Comments

The Body and Society

Posted on March 15, 2013 by

When considering the past, especially the ancient past, I sometimes think we imagine the people as one large group—or just a few large groups, divided by region. It definitely feels that way to me when we talk about “the early … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nonfiction, Religion | 9 Comments

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

Posted on November 2, 2012 by

For much of the 19th century, the world’s two great superpowers of the time, Britain and Russia, were engaged in a struggle for control of the lands and, by extension the people, of Central Asia. On Britain’s part, the struggle … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nonfiction | 9 Comments

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

Posted on October 7, 2012 by

William Wilberforce was a great man. This book, however, is not a great biography. I’d even go so far as saying it’s a dreadful biography, but I do have to give author Eric Metaxas credit for telling the story of … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nonfiction | 8 Comments

Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace

Posted on June 27, 2012 by

In June 1858, the newly established divorce court in London heard the case of Robinson vs Robinson and Lane. Henry Robinson was seeking a divorce from his wife, Isabella Robinson, on the grounds that she had committed adultery with Edward … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nonfiction | Tagged | 25 Comments

Farewell to Manzanar

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

When Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old, she and her family, along with thousands of other Japanese Americans, were forced to move into Manzanar, an internment camp in Owens Valley, California. They lived at Manzanar from 1942 to 1945, ostensibly … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's / YA Lit, History, Memoir, Nonfiction | 13 Comments

Jack and Rochelle: A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance

Posted on February 15, 2012 by

Jack had always been taken with Rochelle. He used to see her around the neighborhood and wanted to ask her out, but her parents were strict and she couldn’t have said yes even if she’d wanted to.  He did ask … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Memoir, Nonfiction | 9 Comments

The Hare With Amber Eyes

Posted on December 22, 2011 by

I read Edmund De Waal’s family biography after seeing a rave review of it over at Eve’s Alexandria. Victoria loved this book about the Ephrussi family’s generations-long ownership of 264 Japanese netsuke, loved it so much that she didn’t want … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Memoir, Nonfiction | 4 Comments

Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock

Posted on December 20, 2011 by

Two 15-year-old girls, going to school at Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. For Elizabeth, it was a monumental day that she and her family and neighbors had planned for months. It was the start of a … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Nonfiction | Tagged | 15 Comments

Young Romantics

Posted on November 1, 2011 by

There is, I think, a myth about creative genius that it takes place in solitary glory. Picture an author, writing. Picture Hemingway, or Wordsworth, or Shakespeare; picture George Eliot or Mary Oliver or Isabelle Allende. In my mind, unless I … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Nonfiction | 27 Comments