The History Book Club discussion

The Politically Incorrect guides are a fun series. They got some great authors to do many of the books, I have bought some for people as gifts but haven't actually read any of them through yet.

I've read a two so far:
by Kevin D. Williamson and
by Robert Spencer

Both of these were very good and informative.

Another on my list to read is:
by Robert P. Murphy

While I think I know a lot about Capitalism, I know I don't know enough.

Yes, I think that Grant was underestimated

by Jean Edward Smith

The above book is excellent if you want to learn more.

I already have that book on my shelf waiting to be read. I also have a few other Grant Books I've picked up:

I'm looking forward to reading it. I have a lot of books to get to.

by Ulysses S. Grant
by William S. McFeely (no photo)

The Politically Incorrect guide I am most looking forward to read is the American history one. Thomas E. Woods is one of my favorites. The others you mentioned look pretty good too.

by Thomas E. Woods Jr.

12. by Phil Kiver (no photo)
Finish date: August 31st, 2020
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This is not like other books I've read on the War, as they tend to be books by Special Forces personnel with a lot more combat experiences. This was a book of a wartime journalist whose job was to do stories on Iraq's rebuilding and the coalition's efforts in Iraq. So, because of his job, he wasn't in any direct combat. The author provides an honest assessment of his service and others he worked with. He does provide a good look at Iraq through the eyes of the people he interviewed including many in the coalition and local forces.

All in all, this book does get tedious as it is literally his day-by-day journal of his service. It is still an interesting look at the daily life of a soldier.

SEPTEMBER

13. by John W. Campbell Jr.
Finish date: September 6th, 2020
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: It took me awhile to get into the story, but once "The Thing" escaped, tensions mounted and I was hooked. Some things are a bit dated, but some other predictions were almost spot on.
I can see how John Carpenter took the best of this story for his film. His version is by far the closest in spirit to this original story. If you loved the movie, you'll enjoy the story it was based on.

DECEMBER

14. by Glenn Beck
Finish date: December 26th, 2020
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B
Review: First, I am a fan of Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck uses his own journey as examples of where the media and Social Media has moved to divide us by encouraging hosts to further separate us from each other. This includes Academia and other institutions. Beck himself owns up to where he has contributed to this environment and why he felt he needed to leave the Media complexes and create something new. Beck had successful shows on both CNN and FOX News before starting TheBlaze Media long before the thousands of streaming networks/companies we see emerging now.

The last section of the book details how this political turmoil is also an addiction and that we have become "Addicted to Outrage". So, he applies the tried and effective Step programs of AA, Religious and Non-Religious step programs to help readers to break our "Addiction to Outrage".

The reader is encouraged to look at themselves and face some hard truths and admit that they too have been part of the problem. I certainly had to grudgingly admit where I have contributed and alienated people in my circle that do not agree with me. Admitting you have contributed to this is only the beginning. As with any addiction, it will take time and being honest with yourself as you move through the steps to truly break your own addiction and learn how to better create dialog with those who disagree rather than devolving into heated shouting matches. As is often said by Glenn Beck, it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.

David, you need to add the link to the authors in messages 57 & 58. And Happy New Year!

Fixed and added my review for my last book for 2020.

Have a Happy New Year!
Thanks,

JANUARY

1. by Kyle Mills
Finish date: January 14th, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: I really enjoyed this book, it had a really topical story line involving ISIS, which was overrunning the Middle East at the time when this book was published. It is interesting how fast things are changing in the World with ISIS having a far smaller footprint today while still being a threat. Who knows what will happen tomorrow.

This was a great action thriller that took some predictable turns, but also took some unpredictable turns which was great. When these books become too often predictable, they become too dull. This certainly was not dull and setup a great and unpredictable ending.

FEBRUARY

2. by Glenn Beck
Finish date: February 27th, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This book is a very interesting thriller based on the concept of the Overton Window. On one hand it's just a interesting thriller than can be enjoyed and soon forgotten, on the other it's a political books that makes you question what you know or think you know about a lot.
A great example of the Overton Window is getting the public to submit to searches before getting on an airplane. The public would have never frequented an airline that required TSA-style security checks before 9/11, but afterward, the public willingly accepted and even demanded it from all airlines. What was once onerous and unnecessary became reasonable and necessary.
This story weaves together documented facts and conspiracies together to tell a story where you will begin to question what you know and what you think you know. We believe the media tells us the whole truth, but that is not always the case. Later as more facts are revealed, we learn that the story we were told may not have been the whole truth after all. This book will make you suspicious and sometimes angry.
The one thing that is guaranteed is that this book will make you think! This book came out in 2010 long before "Fake News", but is more relevant today than ever before.

APRIL

3. by R. Karl Largent (no photo)
Finish date: April 24, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This is a very dated book but I've been reading all of the books by Largent. This entry wasn't as good as the prior novel, but did provide an interesting investigation into the activities of the Fifth Academy faction from China. As they ramp up attacks on the United States, it's up to Bogner to find and stop the5A operatives. With little to go on, he slowly assembles the clues and follows the difficult trail. The story started off slow, but picked up steadily up until the climactic finish.

MAY

4. by Vern (no photo)
Finish date: May 23, 2021
Genre: Movies & Entertainment
Rating: B-
Review: I am a fan of Steven Seagal and have seen every film, even a few minutes of the terrible direct to video films. But, even I found this book growing tedious as it entered the DTV-Era of Seagal's movies. Vern goes into great detail of every movie which is interesting, and provides some interesting stats at the end of each chapter. But after you've read lengthy chapters on ten bad DTV movies, it becomes tedious to continue reading lengthy discussions on the next twenty DTV movies too. As Vern enters the "Chief Seagal" era of work, where Seagal did projects other than just movies, the discussions gets more interesting. Vern provided good discussions for Seagal's other projects like his Lawman reality show and his True Justice TV series. Also, Vern covered Seagal's music projects and a concert Vern attended.

JUNE

5. by Helen Beede (no photo)
Finish date: June 5, 2021
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This was an interesting book that really opened my eyes to what happens behind the walls of the Nursing Home industry in New York State. After reading this, I would never want to put one my parents in a nursing home in a normal year, much less a pandemic year.
The struggles that these nursing homes and other long-term care facilities had to deal with in this pandemic were shocking. The state of New York's nursing homes and lTC facilities were bad before the pandemic.
The only drawback in this book was trying to keep the patients separated. Because the identities of the patients and the facilities had to be protected, numbers were used to identify the patients. This made it difficult to recall back who the author was talking about when these patients died or returned to the facility.
A disturbing and informative read for anyone. A must read for anyone who may need to use one of these facilities for their loved ones.

6. by Kyle Mills
Finish date: June 28, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This was a great book, as all of Vince Flynn's books have been. I wasn't sure how well Kyle Mills could pick up this series, but he has proven to be handling the character of Mitch Rapp very well. While the prior books did seem a bit predictable while being very enjoyable, I was hoping for more. In this book, I got more of what I wanted to see. And the change that Mills took the Rapp character in looks very promising and I'm looking forward to reading the next book!

Great progress, David.

JULY

7. by Dinesh D'Souza
Finish date: July 3, 2021
Genre: Politics
Rating: B+
Review: Dinesh states that this book has two purposes: to make the moral argument against what he has defined as "Identity Socialism" and then to make moral argument for Free Market Capitalism.
Dinesh explains very clearly why Socialism is so popular among the youth. The American version of Socialism is an unrealistic mythical version which is why arguing against it is so difficult. This book is the culmination of years of work that Dinesh has done explaining how the Democratic Party was formed, and then used race and Identity politics to gain and keep power. Now the party has pushing for Socialism using the Democratic racist identity politics to form an Identity Socialism.

8. by William Shatner
Finish date: July 20, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: The first book in the series very interesting but was a little slow to grab my interest.
I only read it because of my fandom for William Shatner. That said, I decided to read the second book in this series and it was much better. The story was fast-paced and action packed and it didn't take the predictable route. The technology in the book was plausible as we've seen things like it actually appear in recent decades. Namely Virtual Reality and Holograms. If only we could get something like the travel discs described in the book. Now, that would be awesome!
I really enjoyed many aspects of the story and new and strange alien races introduced in this book. I am looking forward to finishing the remaining books that were published in this series.
After having read a few non-fiction and fiction books by William Shatner, I think he is a very good writer and storyteller. Even though this book does feel a little dated, it largely holds up after twenty five years.

August

9. by Brad Thor
Finish date: August 13, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This book was not as interesting as prior Harvath stories at first. It seemed to involve a secondary political story that was not connected to the main story until much later in the book. This story involved political manipulation using spies, double agents and even triple agents. At first, I wasn't sure how the stories were connected until late in the book when it finally became clear how the two main story points were connected. This was also the first time the book ended with a shocking cliffhanger setting up the next entry in the Scot Harvath series.

10. by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Finish date: August 24, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I really enjoyed The Ice Limit so I was eagerly looking forward to reading Beyond the Ice Limit. The book was interesting and fast paced enough that I didn't want to put it down. The story did take a very odd turn towards the end, but despite that it was a very enjoyable book with interesting characters and an interesting story.

11. by Brad Thor
Finish date: August 31, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: I really enjoyed this entry in the Scot Harvath series. It was a very fast paced story as Harvath was on the run from the Russians. The things he had to do to survive in the wilderness alone was truly amazing. This was a hard book to put down. It was a little predictable when Harvath was able to find a woman willing to assist him in his escape, but you have suspend some disbelief and every book needs some sort of love interest in it. In the end, this book did not end as predictably as I was anticipating, which was great. This series is consistently great and this book was better than the previous entry.

September

12. by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Finish date: September 14, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: A
Review: This was a great action packed adventure story. This story went back to an interesting, yet mysterious era of history, to craft a great story. I don't know much about the history of Egypt or of the Pharaohs but I find this era fascinating. The search for a possible lost tomb that may or may not hold a massive treasure is always a great source for a great story. Lincoln Child wrote a similar story using similar elements for his book called The Third Gate which was also very entertaining. I'm really enjoying the Gideon Crew character and this series. I also like the partnership between Gideon Crew and Manuel Garza. I think they make a great team and I hope they continue this pairing in future books.
**Minor spoilers for prior books in the series.**
I really hope this series will continue as Gideon Crew is nearing his end due to terminal condition detailed in the first book. We have yet to be told that this condition has been cured or changed. I had expected this cure to possibly come from the events in the prior book, The Lost Island, but it appears not to be the case. I also want to see what happens next with Eli Glinn.

Good progress - I look forward to reading your review on the book above.

October

13. by R. Karl Largent (no photo)
Finish date: October 8, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This had an interesting story searching for lost treasure in the Bermuda Triangle. But, as the mystery unfolded, the story became a little tedious until the events came to a head. I don't think the mystery made complete sense, but it ended interestingly, if rather quickly.

14. by R. Karl Largent (no photo)
Finish date: October 19, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: D+
Review: I enjoy most of Largent's work but this wasn't as good as others. Unlike the others I've read, this does not include either of his recurring heroes, TC Bogner or Elliott Grant Wages. The books I've enjoyed most have been the EGW books. Although, I also enjoyed Pagoda which was did not include either of these characters.
The main character was quite a despicable character who decides to make a deal with the Witch of Sixkill to exact his revenge on four people he's felt that has wronged him. As the story progresses, we see that these four people are also generally despicable characters, with maybe one arguable exception. So, you begin to not feel bad for these people's deaths. But, there are secondary deaths that result that are innocent so you hope that Charlie Frazier gets his comeuppance in the end of the book.
Because of my dislike for the main character, Charlie, this book did drag on a bit. The story diverted away from him to his four victims and you did not hear about Charlie for much of the book. It's not until the end that you see Charlie find out what the payment is for his revenge.

November

15. by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Finish date: November 21, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This was a great book. I was getting a little bored with the Pendergast family drama so I was happy that this book returned to a great crime mystery. Also, bringing Pendergast and D'Agosta back together to work a case was great. I've liked the books best where Pendergast and D'Agosta are working together to solve a mystery going back to Relic.
I do miss the William Smithback character, but Bryce Harriman does a decent job of picking up the media side of the story. This story provided a great mystery with a lot of turns and unpredictable events. This book was a return to form and sets up some changes for the Pendergast in the future after the shocking ending that this book gave us.
I look forward to the next book.

December
16. by Robert Hoskins (no photo)
Finish date: December 5, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I read this for purely nostalgia reasons as I've read many of these books back when I was young. I used to find these books at a local used book seller. I recently bought the complete set on ebay and decided to reminiscence by reading these again.
This book was a fast-paced story and still entertaining even now even though many elements are now very dated. After reading more recent books of this type by Brad Thor and the late great Vince Flynn, where the weapons and tactics are very accurate, this book does show it's age. But, I still recalled the basics of the characters on the team and enjoyed the mission elements and the twists in this book.

17. by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Finish date: December 18, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: A-
Review: This book brings Pendergast back to his roots investigating an interesting serial killer that is not connected to his family history. With the reverberation of the events of the ending of the prior book, Pendergast's place in the FBI has changed for the time being. With a new boss that is not on board with Pendergast's methods and being forced to work with a partner adds some great new elements to the story for the reader. I really enjoyed seeing Pendergast through the eyes of his new partner, Agent Coldmoon. I really hope that this character returns in future books.
I look forward to the reading the next book to see what happens next!

David, what an admirable job that you have done reading so many interesting books, but somewhere along the way, you have lost an important part and that is Genre. It should be between Finish date and Rating. Please refer to your template by Bentley at the beginning of your thread and adjust your books accordingly. It appears that you will have to go back to Message 39.

Thank you so much. If it makes you feel better, I spent Sunday afternoon reversing my finish date with genre for two years, the pandemic has made us all a little distracted. Take good care.

Thanks. I didn't even realize I lost that. I've updated all of my postings going back to half of 2020.

Thank you so much, David. I appreciate it.
Happy Holidays!

Not a problem! Merry Christmas.

I love this site!

Thank you, David.

18. by Don Pendleton & Gar Wilson (no photo)
Finish date: December 22, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This book was an interesting story about a group of American executives kidnapped for ransom in Argentina. We used to hear a lot of these stories in the 80s and somewhat in the 90s before terrorism became more prevalent. This story wasn't as interesting and the team was largely separated until the final phase of the mission when the hostages were finally located.

19. by Don Pendleton & Gar Wilson (no photo)
Finish date: December 31, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This book was an improvement over the prior books and more topical even today considering the terrorists that the Phoenix Force were up against. It was interesting that Ghadaffi was the person who was funding this terrorist operation. He was very involved in terrorism throughout the 80s and 90s but then went quiet until his death in the uprising about ten years ago. This book was also interesting due to the naval aspect of this story, the first in this series!

January

1. by Kyle Mills
Finish date: January 17, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: A
Review: This book is very prescient where today we also have a Russian President trying to reacquire Ukraine into the new Soviet Union aka Russia. Like the President in this book, Putin would love to also add to his empire Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
In addition to this predicting the future issues we face, this story was a well told, fast paced action thriller that was really enjoyable.
At first, I wasn't sure how well Kyle Mills would be taking over the Mitch Rapp character. Even though his writing style is somewhat different from Vince Flynn's, he has done a good job continuing the character that Vince Flynn created. Mills' books so far have only improved since his first, The Survivor.

2. by Kyle Mills
Finish date: January 30, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C+
Review: This book was another action packed adventure with Mitch Rapp going undercover with a cartel in order to find the leader of a terrorist cell. While the book was good and enjoyable it wasn't as enjoyable as other recent entries in this series. Some of the things done in order to get Rapp undercover with the cartel seemed a bit implausible. I do wonder where the character will go from here, so I'm interested in reading what happens next.

February

3. by Douglas Preston
Finish date: February 19, 2022
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This was an interesting book. I read this book only because I'm a fan of Douglas Preston's novels. So, you know this book is very well written and will not be a dry read.
I have little interest in the mesoamerican era of Central America, but I do love history and this book was interesting. It was very interesting to read about the clash of the Old World and the New World, both the good and the bad. I appreciated that Preston didn't call Christopher Columbus as a mass-murderer who committed genocide as much of the media is currently doing. I fully believe that there was no way for Columbus to know what the Old World diseases would do to the New World. Who could know what would happen?
The author presents a very plausible case to explain what happened to the populations of these cities and why they disappeared without leaving much evidence in the historical record. The author's journey into the primordial jungle reveals to the reader the shocking dangers that still exist in our world.

David, great progress. This sounds like such an interesting book.

by Douglas Preston

March

4. by R. Karl Largent (no photo)
Finish date: March 6, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C-
Review: This was another mediocre book in the T.C. Bogner series that I've committed to finishing. This story is a bit dated as this was before the time of cell phones, but some elements are still relevant today. This time Bogner has to try to find prove that a military leader in Iraq actually possesses chemical weapons and stop him from using them. While Iraq has fallen the issue of rogue leaders using chemical weapons is still a very current issue that we see today. While not as good as modern thrillers, there was enough action here to keep interested to finish the novel.

5. by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
Finish date: March 23, 2022
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This was another great entry in the Killing Series. This was a very engaging read with a lot of great history about the War in the Pacific. The lives of the men involved were fascinating and the book does a good job of telling their stories. The book also does deal with the morality of dropping the bombs on Japan without getting too bogged down in the hypothetical. I really am enjoying this series.

April

6. by Kyle Mills
Finish date: April 5, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This book was probably the scariest entry in the Mitch Rapp series. I know the American electrical grid is highly vulnerable and everyone in Government has ignored the problem because it doesn't help them make money or get re-elected. So, our power infrastructure only gets older and more vulnerable to attacks and age.

This book's scenario of a concerted effort by bad actors to take down the grid and keep it down for a year feels very plausible. We've seen a major hospital locked out of their systems due to a cyber-attack recently. If that could be done nation-wide in a coordinated effort, the effects would be disastrous. As the situation in the book got worse the longer the power remained off, the more I wanted to see Rapp get into action to find the people responsible. This book was agonizing the longer it took for Rapp to be given a target he could after. I was so frustrated but I can just imagine how frustrated Rapp must have been to not be able to take action.

This book was a surprisingly different story than the usual Rapp stories I've read in the past. It does feel that Mills is taking the character into a new direction and I'm optimistic that it will be a good direction. So far I'm still on board to read every book.

7. by Damien Lewis
Finish date: April 17, 2022
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: C+
Review: I was looking forward to reading this as my first first-hand account of War from the British perspective. And, this book was good and fast-paced once the action started. The problem is the book felt like it was mostly filler building up the second half which actually related the events of the battle. This felt like there wasn't enough here to fill a 300-page book, when there should have been enough. We only get the perspective of one person and his direct subordinates in this book. And, once the unit is forced to split up into three smaller groups after the "wadi of death", then the reader never hears anything more from the other elements until we are informed they were rescued and returned safely to base. Since this is a first-hand account by an author as opposed to being written by one participant, I expected a more expansive book on the unit members of most of the unit and even some information on the results of the fighting on the enemy. Were there casualties among the Iraqis? I assume there had to have been based on what happened.

May

8. by Brad Thor
Finish date: May 8, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This was another good entry, but this book seemed a little lacking for action. There were some good action scenes but with the beginning of the novel setting up that multiple assassins were gunning for Harvath, I was expecting a book where Harvath is constantly dodging assassins ala John Wick. Instead we get a good story with less action with Harvath unraveling the mystery behind who is funding the assassins targeting him. We also get introduced to a new woman in Harvath's life that assists Harvath culminating with an action-packed finale.
I'm hoping for something new and out-of-the-box in the next book. I'm still enjoying this series, but I want more. I'm not sure what that "more" is but I want something new and surprising.

Great progress David. And a lot of interesting choices in books.

9. by Leonard Nimoy
Finish date: May 19, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: Having read Shatner's Star Trek Memories and Star Trek Movie Memories, much of this was previously covered. But, this was an interesting read about Nimoy's career along with the dialog he has with his alter-ego, Spock, along the way. While he has done work other than Star Trek, Spock was never too far from his mind. The most interesting parts of this book and those that were new to me was Nimoy's non-Star Trek work. This was a well-written book and is one of the best of the Trek biographies. Shatner's two Trek Memories books are still my favorite.
I also read Nimoy's "I Am Not Spock" written in 1976 which was also interesting despite people misunderstanding the meaning of the title.

June

10. by Kevin Maurer (no photo)
Finish date: June 7, 2022
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: D
Review: With a title like Gentlemen Bastards, I was expecting an action packed story of the War in Afghanistan. This is not what I got with this book. I've read No Easy Day also co-written by Maurer and that book was great. But that was the autobiography of a Navy Seal.
This book is the well-written story of Maurer and his time embedded with Special Forces in Afghanistan. Being a reporter, he wasn't allowed in too many combat engagements, so much of his missions were of the "hearts and minds" variety. While some of this is interesting regarding the different cultures that make up Afghanistan like Pashtun, Dari, and other ethnic tribes. Surprisingly, you'll learn that the Taliban isn't made up of one ethnic group and most are actually from Pakistan rather than native to Afghanistan.
This was largely dry with a few interesting stories of the soldiers he served with during his short time in Afghanistan before leaving for a more active theater..

July

11. by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
Finish date: July 25, 2022
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: A
Review: Having read a few books about the American Revolution, I knew most of the names in this book and the major events. O'Reilly did bring in other events I had not been aware of and new names I've also not encountered in other books.
This book was a very easy to read history of the American Revolution, albeit truncated. I wish this book was longer, but it moved at a good pace giving the reader the history and revealing to the reader some of the personal stories of the participants.
Another great entry in the Killing Series!

August

12. by R. Karl Largent (no photo)
Finish date: August 5, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This is listed on Goodreads as the seventh book in the T. C. Bogner series, but does not feature this character at all. That was the most disappointing about this book because I actually liked this character and was looking forward to see how the last book left the character. Instead we get T. J. Seacord which is a clone of Bogner. He works for a different Governmental agency, but has much of the same skills as Bogner.
That said, this book had an interesting story, but was weaker than the earlier books in this series.
I can see why this author faded away.