A telling tale on several eyewitness accounts, Susan Ronald, a biographer, shares her knowledge and research on Queen Elizabeth I. Ronald's account is written with hope that readers will see Elizabeth better as a result. Susan wants to take her readers into what it is like to live in the Elizabethan England.
1554, the execution of Lady Jane Grey is underway at the order of Queen Mary I or Bloody Mary who faces her untimely death four years later. Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is the next heir to the throne. Elizabeth's coronation as a Protestant savior was heavily supported by England's people. The days of Bloody Mary were gone and a young new queen is introduced. Queen Elizabeth I, intelligent, prepared, and "heretic," is ready to face the wars of religion. Elizabeth's uses her notable political tools to navigate her reign and support England's future.

I picked this book due to my knowledge of Henry VIII, Elizabeth's father. His famous six wives is what enticed me to read this book. Surprisingly, I was met with rather two mentions of him in the entire book. I realized Elizabeth's life isn't defined by her father and her famous mother Anne Boleyn, but by the decisions she made during her forty four years as queen of England. I enjoyed hearing about her decisions for marriage and her desire for Sir Robert Dudley. Elizabeth's years as a virgin queen was very interesting too. The book cannot be totally predictable since it is history. This is the best nonfiction book I've read this year.

Every once in a while, I come across a book that feels like it's way above my head, but changes how I think about the world. Their analysis calls into question the known understanding of something and references plenty of famous individuals who have written on the topic. Unfortunately, a neophyte like myself does not know who any of these people are. The Dawn of Everything is very much one of these kinds of books for me.

Not knowing much about anthropology or ancient human civilizations, I came in with an open mind and found some intriguing points put forward in this book. We often look at history through modern lenses, but how often are we merely adopting the modern lenses of those before us? If the common thinking cannot support the physical evidence, should we continue to believe it? I learned a ton by reading this book, and I don't even feel like I was grasping everything that it was trying to convey because I wasn't as intimately familiar with the standard model it was trying to deconstruct.

While I think The Dawn of Everything can be approachable for anyone looking to educate themselves about how humans used to interact, it suffers from being occasionally overly academic. There are tons of examples brought forth in this text that merely reinforce the main thesis, each time trying to discredit some previously held belief that I wasn't aware existed until I read it for the first time here. At a certain point, it gets redundant. Still, there were many ideas it presented that made sense enough for me to consider that the authors were onto something big.

A mildly bloated re-thinking of the structure of early human societies, I give The Dawn of Everything 4.0 stars out of 5.

In doing research for book based on the Ancient Puebloan society that used to inhabit the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, I came across this book. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed was an eye-opening examination of the factors that can lead to the destruction of a society that could have continued being successful if it weren't for poor resource management. What's frustrating is seeing some of these things becoming prominent in modern society, 20 years after Jared Diamond wrote this book.

While the book covers some case studies where the society identified the problem and moved to fix it, some examples Diamond gives are based on speculation—which one has to do with limited information surviving from those eras. And even though there is an emphasis on environmental factors, sometimes a string of bad years of drought is just the luck of the climate. Unfortunately, while there were hopeful stories of communities who turned away from their destruction, these examples all had one thing in common: the leaders chose to save their society.

I appreciated how relatable Diamond made this text. It wasn't overly academic, but it provided enough details to weave a story that was easy to follow. The cause-and-effect scenarios he presented made sense and provided sensible explanations that the limited data set appears to support. The problem is, even with this knowledge, seeing the path our current society is headed down does not instill the confidence that humanity has what it takes to save itself at the individual level. Of the societies on the brink that survived, their leadership needed to step in to stop the poor resource management. When there's no financial motivation to save the world, the current system seems on track to collapse sooner rather than later.

An approachable and eye-opening look at the factors that brought down empires, I give Collapse 4.0 stars out of 5.

Charter Schools and Their Enemies eloquently lays out statistics that show the difference between charter and public schools.
It talks about the reasons why charter schools produce better school-wide academic success based on statistics. It also covers the many pieces of sweeping legislation that have been introduced to prohibit charter schools from being implemented in different states.
Moreover, it explores the future of the educational system with charter schools competing for students with public schools.
Overall, this book was very insightful and compelling about how the education system is expanding, so that parents can have more options about how they choose to educate their children.

If you love books about the true American spirit, you must read Daniel James Brown's narrative-nonfiction book The Boys in the Boat. The book follows the life of Joe Rantz who was abandoned by his family during The Great Depression. It follows his journey as a teen going to the University of Washington and becoming a member of the 1936 Olympic rowing crew that won the gold medal for America. They were boys from working-class backgrounds who beat the odds and beat the very elite team of Adolf Hitler. The book is immersed in intriguing details of Joe’s life. This can be attributed to the fact that Brown was able to interview Joe in his frail, elderly years. He spent many hours listening to Joe’s daughter tell stories of her father’s experiences. Brown was also able to acquire diaries and photos from the boys on the rowing crew. Joe Rantz was very hard-working and optimistic. My favorite quote showing his optimism was: “The only time you don't find a four-leaf clover is when you stop looking for one.” The book is an irresistible account of teamwork, overcoming pain, trusting in others, endurance, and driving spirit. I chose this book because I like other books that this Author made. What I enjoyed about this book the most is how inspirational it is to the readers. It shows you can accomplish what you set out to do if you work hard at it. There isn’t a part of the book I enjoyed the least. I can relate to Joe Rantz because I work hard to achieve my goals just like he did. This is a good book and I recommend a readthrough.

“The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon” is one of the most interesting books ever written! Bea Uusma Schyffert’s unique scrapbook style presents the story of Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 astronaut who faithfully piloted the spacecraft as his two teammates became the first men on the moon. Perfectly capturing every thought and detail through pictures, infographics, and prose, “The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon” pulls the reader into the story and lets them see it through Collins’ eyes. It even includes notes written by Collins himself. This is by far the best account of the forgotten hero in the history of astronomy.

“The Zoo on the Mountain” is an inspiring historical tale of The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. This book follows the famous Coloradoan zoo and its owners through the highs and lows of its existence. Starting with Spencer Penrose’s first bear and carrying through the disastrous flood from the mountain above, the impeccably accurate accounts of this book portray the humble mountain zoo in its true light. “The Zoo on the Mountain” is a interesting and mentally moving piece of literature. It’s a zooful of knowledge!

Nazi Saboteurs is a book about this group of boys who try to stop the evil of the nazis. Through this novel they face many difficult situations that they overcome with the support of others. The book includes pictures that assist the reader to grasp a better understanding of the text. Nazi Saboteurs was released in December of 2019 and has two hundred twenty-four pages that tell of hardships, action, and suspense. It is important to not forget the past, even if it was not ethical. This story shows the light in the darkest times. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

With the success of comic book movies in the last decade, it's sometimes hard to forget that these films don't explore all of what the pulpy medium offered. The rise in popularity of comics in a few different "eras" inevitably led to saturation in the medium. When something becomes saturated, creators don't care as much about what they're putting out, since everything sells. This is how a book like The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains can collect quite a few foes that were better left forgotten.

If there's anything this book does well, it's showing how simple and bland the early years of comics were. Perhaps I'm just used to the modern era that's had decades to figure out which superheroes and supervillains work best. Many of the early comic villains are forgettable, indicating a lack of imagination on the part of their creators. Unfortunately, since this book collects a lot of these villains in one place, it is boring to get through. After a few pages of supervillain puns, I got the "joke" this book was trying to make. And it just kept going.

While I understand organizing this book chronologically showed how these regrettable supervillains evolved over the years, I think it might have had more variety if it just stuck to being exclusively alphabetical. After all, it would have kept my attention a little better if I learned about a villain like Lepus before being reminded that M.O.D.O.K. exists. Perhaps my surface-level interest in comic books (especially the classics) is why it took me a while to get through this book. Still, if you want to be a super-fan of this medium, you might already know about Doctor Voodoo, which might make this humorous commentary on him a moot point.

A slightly amusing gimmick that highlights the lack of early comic book creativity, I give The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains 3.0 stars out of 5.

Into Africa, written by Martin Dugard, details the epic adventures of Stanley Livingstone and his trek across Africa to find the source of the Nile River. Livingstone battles disease, unfriendly tribes, and stubborn porters (the people who help carry supplies) in his journey. The brutal, but beautiful march encompasses Africa from it sweltering hot savannahs to it thick rainforests. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure because this book is about the exploration of Africa. I enjoyed this book because it taught me a lot more about Africa and it's people.