A Book, A Book - My Kingdom For A Book

Home Library - Houzz

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love to read and the thought of having an actual library in my home is a big dream. Our current home is small therefore my books are being stored in plastic buckets, I take out several at a time to re-read, put them back to be replaced with several more (very annoying at times).

Anyway it's been about four months since the first book review so I thought it's time for another one. The following are just a few more of my favorites and as before some you may already know but perhaps there will be one or two that might peak your interest.

Seabiscuit - An American Legend -  I loved this book, talk about a Cinderella story and let's face it everyone could use one of those every once in awhile. Most people are familiar with the name "Seabiscuit" I was but there are so many details that make up this rags-to-riches story that you may not know. Start with the one man who saw something in this undersized horse add in the efforts of two other men who would not give up and you end up with one of the most spectacular performers in sports history.

Unbroken - A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption -  Another book by the author of Seabiscut and another winner in my opinion. The true story of Louis Zamperine who developed a talent for running that led him to the Olympics in Berlin. World War II began and in May of 1943 airman Zamperini began an odyssey that most of us could not imagine never mind survive. Starting with the crash of his B-24 in the pacific ocean, 47 days adrift on a shark-encircled life raft, rescued by the Japanese, spending the remainder of the war as a POW, subjected to cruelty and inhuman conditions and finally ending with his journey home. If your looking for inspiration from a book this ones for you.

 

In Harm's Way - As you have probably figured out I love history and this book was one of those rare ones - You know, can't put down, got to read a little more. It's the 30th of July, 1945 the USS Indianapolis is hit by a torpedo launched by a Japanese submarine, close to nine hundred sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean. And here begins the extraordinary story of survival, after four days and nights of battling a savage sea, sharks (this is considered the worst shark attack in history), hypothermia and dementia help finally arrives, sadly only 317 men survived.

 

The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville - If you are interested in The Civil War I highly recommend Shelby Foote's comprehensive history of the Civil War. There are three volumes: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, and Red River to Appomattox. My husband and I became aware of Shelby Foote while watching the Civil War documentary produced by Ken Burns, where he was a featured expert. We found him fascinating to listen to and I knew right away I had to read his books (which by the way took him twenty years to complete). I will tell you ahead of time these books are not an easy read (you won't breezes through them in a night), there is a lot of detail but well worth the time.

I finished my last book review post with a Chinese Proverb that I though was so appropriate I'd like to repeat it once more.  

"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket"

                                             So grab a book and watch your garden grow.

Just in case you were wondering -  yes, this post title is a play on words. The original line is from Shakespeare's "Richard III" and reads "A Horse, A Horse My Kingdom For A Horse".