094 - The Band that Played On

I don't know if you remember the movie Titanic, but it came out a few years back and every highschool/jr high girl saw the movie approximately a million times.  DiCaprio stole the show.  Soon afterwards the historic story fell off the face of the planet again, back into the cloud of history.  There was one thing that struck me from the clips of the movie I've seen.  Who were those guys who kept playing music on the sinking ship?  Where they insane?  Or genius?

The Band that Played On does an excellent job of retelling the story of those men.  The men who sacrificed their lives to try to bring peace to a hectic crowd.  The backstory of the men, who they were, how they got on the ship was all extremely interesting.  This book brings life to an old story that many people know, but don't know the details of.  The men featured in The Band that Played On are memorable and interesting.  I would recommend this book to any history buff who wants to know a little more about a unique feature of the Titanic tragedy.

I'm also supposed to let you know I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson in exchange for a fair and honest review.

088 - Curiosities of the Civil War

I'm a big fan of history.  I enjoy historic accounts and learning from the past.  I hate historical fiction.  It has nothing to do with history and probably confuses people more than helps them understand it.  This book was excellent though because it was as sensational as a fiction book, but as true as real history.  Garrison did an excellent job of retelling plenty of short stories about the Civil War.  Many were quite interesting.

I also loved the readability of this book.  I could pick it up, read a story and put it back down.  Then later I could come back, start a totally different story and read through it in one sitting.  It was an excellent quality considering I like most people am fairly busy.  I would recommend this book for anyone who loves history or loves historic fiction.  The history buff will love the interesting short stories, the fiction reader will love the stories.

I'm also supposed to let you know that I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.