Review: THE SKULKING WAY OF WAR by Patrick Malone

Matt’s Book Blog recently read and reviewed The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians by Patrick Malone for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge. Here’s a sample:

Malone also asserts that the Indians learned the way of total warfare from Europeans. Because of the harsh religious wars in Europe such as the Thirty Years’ War, it was usual for armies to make war against civilians by firing villages and destroying crops. The Indians were at first shocked by the new increased intensity of war and the larger numbers of fatalities, which were unexampled in their previous experience.

Read the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

Review: THE FORT by Bernard Cornwell

Jules’ Book Reviews recently read and reviewed The Fort by Bernard Cornwell for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge.  Here’s an excerpt:

While it seemed to be a good fictional account of the event, it lacked any kind of characterization, a protagonist or anything really concrete to make me want to read on. It really was just an account on a particular event during the war, and after a while the lack of all the other elements to make a good story, affected my overall impression of the book.

Read the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

Review: THE SHOEMAKER AND THE TEA PARTY by Alfred F. Young

Matt’s Book Blog recently read and reviewed The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge.  Here’s an excerpt:

The book is divided into two parts, Hewes’ life and times and an examination of the role that personal and collective memory play in influencing of understanding of history. This book is an interesting and accessible read for general readers who want a deeper insight into how is history is used by conservatives and progressives for their own social and political purposes.

Here’s the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

Review: THE TURNCOAT by Donna Thorland

The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader recently read and reviewed The Turncoat by Donna Thorland for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge.  Here’s an excerpt:

The author of this book has a background in screen writing and there are times you can tell, with some of the dramatic plot twists and turns. Sometimes that can be a bad thing because there is all plot and not enough focus on characters or the history, but in this case I think Thorland got the balance pretty much right, although there was a touch of melodrama.

Read the full review.

Diary of an Eccentric also read this for the challenge, check out what she said:

Thorland’s characters are well drawn and complex, especially Bayard Caide, who comes off as evil but has a story that makes you think twice about him.  I loved Kate and Tremayne, the passion and tension between them, and the obvious conflicts that arise between a Rebel and a Redcoat, a plain Quaker and an aristocrat.

Here’s the full review.

Bookworm’s Dinner read this one as well, and here’s an excerpt:

Donna Thorland fashions strong determined women characters pitted against men who exude the arrogance of entitled birth with enduring results.  THE TURNCOAT with plenty of sexual passion and perfidious turns promises plenty of hold your breath moments.

Read the full review.

The Maiden’s Court read Thorland’s book as well, and here’s a sample:

Four of the main characters were completely fictional, but engaged seamlessly with the historical characters. Within the first short chapter I was entranced with Kate and Peter. The pages flew and I couldn’t put the book down.

Here’s the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us

a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

Review: COMMON SENSE by Thomas Paine

Matt’s Book Blog reviewed Common Sense by Thomas Paine for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge. Here’s an excerpt:

Published in July 1776, he demonstrates the shallow stupidity of monarchial tyranny, hereditary privilege, patronage, and corruption. His irreverence was effective, calling William the Conqueror, “a French bastard.” His scorn is scathing when he asserts, “And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.”

Read the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

Review: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CAPTAIN N. by Douglas Glover

Matt’s Book Blog reviewed The Life and Times of Captain N. by Douglas Glover for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge. Here’s an excerpt:

With this war within a war as background, this 1993 novel is about the lives of three literal head cases. Captain Hendrick Nellis, a loyalist, suffers migraines due to anxiety. His severe stress is caused by battle and fear of his entire world being turned upside down. “It is a strange thing,” he thinks during a skirmish, “to fight a war over ground where you played foxes and hound as a boy and courted your wife and watched your children tumble in the hayricks.”

Read the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**

Review: THE MINUTEMEN AND THEIR WORLD by Robert A. Gross

Matt’s Book Blog reviewed The Minutemen and Their World by Robert A. Gross for the 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge. Here’s an excerpt:

In 1977, this book won the prestigious Bancroft Prize, given for histories about the Americas. From the viewpoint of social history, Robert A. Gross (UConn) analyzes the effects of the American Revolution on Concord, Massachusetts. Gross makes clear how the coercive acts of Parliament in 1774 exacerbated pre-existing social and economic problems.

Read the full review.

**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**