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Reviews by Rick Waltonsmith

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Sugar in the Blood: A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire
by Andrea Stuart

Barbados History - Caribbean History (5/27/2015)

This is a family history from the viewpoint of a slave. Not pleasant much of the time; but an effort to show what life was really like for the planters and slaves on Barbados. Each of the Caribbean island countries has their own story; but this story is connected with …more

Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm
by Monte Reel

Good book, bad title (5/7/2015)

This is a biography of an important but obscure explorer named Paul Du Chaillu. In the mid-nineteenth century, the era of Darwin, Livingstone and African exploration, Du Chaillu introduced the gorilla to British eyes and ears with his daring exploration of Gabon in western …more

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
by Marilyn Johnson

A new look at an old profession (5/4/2015)

The author investigates, interviews, evaluates and then speculates on her subject. Archaeologists have complex motives for their work, and she delves into those motives to explain the profession in a fresh way. Since I have always been interested in pre-history, and the …more

Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day
by Carrie Gibson

Sunshine and slavery (4/28/2015)

This is an ambitious book, that could have easily been 3 volumes. It is an overview of this region's history, so it is appropriate to have it in one book. The writing is chronological, which makes sense; but it hops quickly to another island, another narrative. Read this …more

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (Liberation Trilogy)
by Rick Atkinson

WWII in Western Europe details (1/26/2015)

Do you want to know how many Panzers were involved in such and such a thrust in the Battle of Bulge? Montgonery's opinions about everyone? Number of sorties on December 12th, 1944?
This is the book for you.

Atkinson makes is so real, that I have bad dreams about being cold, …more

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Book Jacket — Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Praised by *Parade* and *The New York Times Book Review*, this debut features a 1960s scientist turned TV cooking star.

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