Review of Murder at the Mission by Blaine Harden

Author: Blaine Harden

Release date: April 27, 2021

Publisher: Viking

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mission-Frontier-Killing-American/dp/0525561668/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=blaine+harden&qid=1619541516&sr=8-2

In 1836, Marcus Whitman, along with a ragtag band of fellow missionaries and fur traders joined a wagon train to the Oregon Territory. He and his wife, Narcissa, along with Reverend Henry Spalding and his wife, Eliza, and William Gray, founded a mission at present-day Walla Walla, Washington. They had come to the area to convert local Indians to Christianity. For the next ten years, their efforts at conversion were met with only limited success and as more white settlers descended upon the region and intruded upon sacred Cayuses lands tensions between the settlers and tribal leaders began to arise.

Following the deaths of a large number of natives from an outbreak of measles (which was brought to the area by the white settlers), some of the tribal leaders accused Whitman of murder and in retaliation, a renegade group killed Whitman and 11 others on November 29, 1847, an event that came to be known as the Whitman Massacre. This event led to continuing warfare between settlers and native people for several years and reduced the indigenous population even further.

This massacre is known as one of the most notorious episodes in the US settlement of the Pacific Northwest and its shock and horror directly led to Congress establishing the Oregon Territory. The tragedy remains controversial and Whitman and other missionaries are regarded by some as heroes, while others view them as liars, cheats, and interlopers who attempted to impose their religious beliefs on unwilling Native Americans.

“If you think fake news started in 2016, think again. Alternative facts, self-mythologizing, and outright lies have long played a starring role in American history, nowhere more so than the expansion west in the 19th century.”

In Blaine Harden’s new book, Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, It's Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West, he takes a closer look at the Whitman Massacre and its enduring impact on the region and on the Native American tribe, it helped to destroy. Harden is a contributing editor for The Economist, PBS Frontline, and former bureau chief for the Washington Post. He is a New York Times bestselling author who has penned several works that include A River Lost (1997), Escape from Camp 14 (2012), and The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot (2015).

“They traveled west into . . . the thick darkness of heathenism . . . during a peak season of godliness in the United States. Called the Second Great Awakening . . . Their quest, as they described it, was to convert the benighted Indians to Christianity and civilize them so that they might survive a looming stampede of westbound white people.”

In this fascinating well-written exposé, Harden has done a brilliant job of not only looking at the life and legacy of Marcus Whitman but also examining the context in which his tragic death begot “one of the great hoaxes in the history of the American West.” A lie that led directly to the ruin of the Native Americans of the Columbia River Plateau. For nearly 175 years the Whitman massacre victims were celebrated as martyrs, but Harden reveals that this was all just an elaborate tale spun to raise money and found a college.

In Murder at the Mission, Harden skillfully brings to life the collision of myth and reality. He has managed to write a fittingly timely book that fits well into the post-Donald Trump era of false narratives, conspiracy theories, and cries of fake news in which a large segment of the Naïve American population was deceived into believing utter nonsense by destroying others in order to make themselves feel good about themselves.

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on April 27, 2021 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/murder-mission-frontier

Review of Fires in Our Lives by Kathleen Cushman

Authors: Kathleen Cushman, Kristien Zenkov, and Meagan Call-Cummings

Release date: March 2, 2021

Publisher: The New Press

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fires-Our-Lives-Teachers-Students/dp/1620975432/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=fire+in+our+lives&qid=1615846075&sr=8-1

In 2003’s Fires in the Bathroom Kathleen Cushman shed light on what children needed most from education. In this perennial bestseller, students from across the country provided perceptive and gave realistic answers to questions of how their teachers could go beyond the barriers of adolescent identity and culture to reach an urban setting of rapidly expanding diversity within schools. It provided a fresh and articulate view of challenging subjects such as increasing engagement and motivation, teaching difficult academic material, and at the same time creating a classroom culture of respect and success.

Eighteen years since its publication the environment in which young people are learning has shifted radically. Their world is changing at an alarming pace, and classrooms are simmering with unease and concern. To address these changes, Kathleen Cushman, along with co-authors Kristien Zenkov and Megan Call-Cummings, has written a sequel in which high school students again offer their blunt advice to teachers on how to expand bonds.

Cushman is a co-founder of the nonprofit What Kids Can Do and has written numerous articles that raise the voices of adolescents. Kristien Zenkov is a professor of education at George Mason University and his many writing have focused on teacher education, literacy training, and social justice instruction. Megan Call-Cummings is an assistant professor of qualitative methods at George Mason University specializing in participatory action research.

Fires in Our Lives is a carefully crafted and concisely arranged assortment of diverse interviews of high school students in which they attempt to explain the challenges of circumnavigating a rapidly transforming world where unimaginable change, socioeconomic inequalities, and cultural barriers are causing them extreme anxiety and how their teachers can better help.

Reinforced by classroom examples and supplemented with helpful conclusions, Fires in Our Lives is divided into two parts. The first area of discussion explores student interviews of “What Makes School Matter.” Each chapter is organized on themes of individual and group strength, identity and purpose, expectations for the future, and current challenges. These interviews are followed by an in-depth discussion of what teachers can do to better implement these types of ideas into their classrooms.

“As tectonic changes—political, cultural, social and personal—alter the trajectories of their lives, these young people are finding ways to take action in the larger world.”

The second part, “What Youth Can Do,” examines how students can improve their own engagement on issues such as climate change, violence in their communities, gender identity, and immigration. These chapters include both case studies which feature effective student activism and how to incorporate these type of themes into lectures.

“Recognizing . . . in their students’ lives, teachers rightly ask how they can make a difference . . . every school has good teachers doing good work—both in their content areas and in social and emotional areas. By integrating behavioral and academic skills, they are fostering the connection and self-reflection on which deeper learning depends.”

Fires in Our Lives is not simply a compilation of interviews and if the reader only gets one thing out of it, that should be that students have a lot to say about what can better serve them in education. Within its pages are contained straightforward and common-sense approaches to concepts of how teachers can improve navigation within a rapidly changing classroom that involves challenging outside environmental factors. In its simplest form teachers can best serve their students with interpersonal relationships that help them find passion and purpose in the modern world.

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on March 15, 2021 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/fires-our-lives

Review of Walk in my Combat Boots by James Patterson & Matt Eversmann

Author(s): James Patterson & Matt Eversmann

Release date: February 8, 2021

Publisher: Little Brown & Co.

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Walk-My-Combat-Boots-Americas/dp/0316429090/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=james+patterson&qid=1612887115&sr=8-4

The sacrifices of service are indescribable—except by those who have made them. Their personal stories of battlefield life reveal: the goal to be ready every day, every single day, and how that can quickly descend into chaos. The realization that every soldier must be okay with dying, consciously or subconsciously, to be good at this job. How we all need to serve something bigger than ourselves.

Men and women from every branch of the US military and every occupational specialty—armor technicians and tank commanders, combat medics and flight nurses, psychological operatives, and weapons truck drivers—tell exactly how it feels to jump out of airplanes, to be boots on the ground, to shoot and be shot at, and to recognize that they might never get back home. The dedication of these men and women to overcoming tremendous obstacles and achieving everyday victories, in combat and on the home front, is profound.

Walk in My Combat Boots: True Stories from America’s Bravest Warriors by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann takes an authentic look at what it's really like to be a member of the US military. Patterson is the bestselling author of countless works that span numerous genres and his books have sold millions of copies. Matt Eversmann is a former Army Ranger of Black Hawk Down fame. In 2004 he co-authored the gripping narrative The Battle of Mogadishu: First-Hand Accounts from the Men of Task Force Ranger.

In this broad and captivating assemblage of firsthand experiences, Walk in My Combat Boots includes before, during, and after wartime stories. It is told through the words of military veterans of varying backgrounds and expertise. Patterson and Eversmann have complied and created a suspense-filled, heart-pounding narrative that succeeds in painting a picture of what it is really like to serve on the frontlines of the US armed forces.

“Ten of our twenty patients are stretched out on litters . . . some of them are all shot up, and some have lost limbs . . . We have to treat patients while dealing with the stresses  . . . Someone screams to use the restroom . . . Someone screams for narcotics . . . another patient sits quietly, staring . . . I want to go back . . . I’m good, I want to go back, I’m ready. He’s not the only soldier who says this to me . . . All the guys on board want to go back. Every single one.”

Spanning nearly 50 years of US military actions from Vietnam to the present day, each of the over three dozen stories are divided into four parts. Written in clear and matter-of-fact style that keeps the reader engaged the narratives take an evenhanded look at individual military service experiences in an honest and frank manner. It avoids unnecessary analysis and description while succeeding in assembling an absorbing and truthful picture of what war was really like for those who have served. Although the true strength of the book lies in its contrasting experiences, which allow the reader to interpret each unique and individual story for themselves on its merits. This collaboration is sure to be a bestseller.

This review first appeared in the New York Journal of Book on February 9, 2021 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/walk-my-combat

Review of Bag Man by Rachel Maddow & Michael Yarvitz

Author: Rachel Maddow & Michael Yarvitz

Release date; December 8, 2020

Publisher: Crown

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bag-Man-Audacious-Cover-Up-Spectacular/dp/0593136683/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=bag+man&qid=1607468584&sr=8-5

Is it possible for an American vice president to direct a vast criminal enterprise within the halls of the White House? To have one of the most brazen corruption scandals in American history play out while nobody's paying attention? And for that scandal to be all but forgotten decades later?

The year was 1973, and the vice president in question was Spiro Agnew. Long on firebrand rhetoric and short on political experience, Agnew as governor of Maryland and a Baltimore County executive had carried out a bribery and extortion ring in office for years. Then at the height of the Watergate investigation, three federal prosecutors discovered his crimes and launched a mission to take him down before Richard Nixon's own downfall made way for Agnew to ascend to the presidency.

“The crowds who came out to his rallies reveled in Agnew’s unapologetic take-the-paint-off-the-walls partisanship. His increasingly confrontational taunts became a constant presence on the network newscasts . . . Agnew’s political brand was built around the idea that he was an outsider . . . and if he didn’t actually appear to care whom he had offended, that became a feature of his candidacy . . . Rather than hurting him, his ‘slip ups’ seemed to solidify his support with the Republican base.”

Does that sound familiar? Decades before Donald Trump entered politics and began regularly making inflammatory remarks at his rivals. Agnew used this same style of impetuous name-calling and bullying tones to gleefully mock liberals and anyone who stood in his way. He did everything he could to bury the investigation: dismissing it as a "witch hunt," riling up his partisan base, making the press the enemy, and, with a crumbling circle of loyalists, scheming to obstruct justice.

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz is based on her Peabody Award-nominated podcast of the same name. In this wildly entertaining and informative investigation, Maddow and Yarvitz detail the probe that uncovered Vice-President Spiro Agnew's sordid crimes attempted cover-up and plea bargain that eventually forced his resignation. Maddow is the Emmy Award-winning host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the New York Times bestselling author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power (2012). Yarvitz is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning television producer and journalist.

“And yet, for all his real impact. Agnew’s story is largely forgotten today . . . what exactly promoted Agnew’s resignation from office in 1973. It was some pennyante tax evasion back in Maryland, right? Part of the reason for the lost history of Spiro Agnew is the simple factor of time.”

Bagman is the story of Spiro Agnew’s crimes. It is a saga that played out in the shadows of Watergate, and although most of Agnew’s misdeeds such as criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and tax fraud occurred prior to his time as vice president he did continue to receive kickbacks from contractors while in office. On October 10, 1973, after months of maintaining his innocence, Agnew appeared before the federal court in Baltimore, and pleaded no contest to one felony charge of tax evasion, and resigned from office. Because of this, he has the dubious distinction of being the only sitting vice president to be convicted of a felony and only the second to resign. In 1832, John C. Calhoun resigned after being elected to the US Senate from South Carolina.

Spiro Agnew was crooked long before he arrived in Washington, and the history of his efforts to cover-up his wrongdoings make a fascinating tale. Maddow and Yarvitz are wonderful storytellers and capably engage the reader by expanding on her podcast with even more details and expert analysis of Agnew's numerous criminalities. Most notably, they convey the scandal’s lasting impact on American politics and the media. Bag Man is a thoroughly consuming reexamination of one of the most shameful scandals of American political history.

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on December 8, 2020: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/bag-man-wild-crimes

Review of Sex with Presidents by Eleanor Herman

Author: Eleanor Herman

Release date: September 22, 2020

Publisher: William Morrow

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Presidents-Outs-White-House/dp/0062970569/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=sex+with+presidents&qid=1600982506&sr=8-2

Why are so many Americans obsessed with the sexual transgressions of their elected officials? On one level, it’s quite simple to see because it’s just another version of the old saying that sex sells; on another level, it’s just weird. Each time a new scandal breaks it seems to shock the public and there are new ones surfacing practically daily; and the question at the center of it all is character: What was he or she thinking? How could they have taken the risk? But what if, before people judged, they could see inside the person, see the humanity, see what it feels like to be them? Why do we put our political leaders on a pedestal only to tear them down? This is one political issue that everyone seems to have an opinion about, and yet people still ask: Why did they do it?

Sex with Presidents: The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House by Eleanor Herman attempts to answer some of these questions. She does a remarkable job of psychologically profiling and detailing the many sex scandals that have dogged nearly a dozen men who have held our nation’s highest office, as well as other high-profile politicians. Herman is the New York Times bestselling author of several books that include Sex with Kings (2004) and Sex with the Queen (2006). She is also the host of Lost Worlds for the History Channel, The Madness of Henry VIII for National Geographic Channel, and America: Facts vs. Fiction for the American Heroes Channel.

“It is a logical assumption that most sane people would not want to become president of a nation . . . Americans have a reputation for being straight-laced, many of the nation’s leaders have been anything but puritanical.”

In this fascinatingly humorous and surprisingly illuminating book, Herman does a terrific job of psychologically profiling and re-examining the sex scandals that shook the White House and the nation. She does a thorough and exceptional job of answering several tantalizingly provocative questions: What is sex like with a president? Does charisma, passion, and zest for power make it better than average? Does a strong sex drive has any relevance to political success or failure? And does rampant adultery show a lack of character needed to run the country?  

“The sex drive . . . is resistant to common sense. This primeval instinct overpowers us, causing us to lose all self-control. Such loss of control never has had more explosive consequences than when played out in the bedrooms of world leaders . . . They affect entire nations.”

Overall, Sex with Presidents is a delightfully shocking read, and like with her previous books on sex with powerful people, Herman maintains both her sense of humor and commitment to research. With loads of spicy tidbits that include riveting insight into the past, Herman brings sympathy and kindness to those who deserve understanding, explaining that it isn’t easy to stand next to a person in power who displays despicable behavior while keeping your head held high.

She also declares, “Given that so many men who seek high office suffer from hubris syndrome, bipolar disorder, narcissistic disorder, and a superfluity of testosterone, it is likely many of them will continue to seek sex on the side, in ways both dignified and sordid.” Thus if you find yourself mesmerized by the private sex lives of public figures such as US Presidents then this is the book for you!

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on September 24, 2020 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/sex-presidents

Review of Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

Author: Gill Hornby

Release date: April 7, 2020

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Purchase at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Austen-Gill-Hornby/dp/1250252202/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1586561626&sr=8-1

England, 1840. For the two decades following the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen has lived alone, spending her days visiting friends and relations and quietly, purposefully working to preserve her sister’s reputation. Now in her sixties and increasingly frail, Cassandra goes to stay with the Fowles of Kintbury, family of her long-dead fiancé, in search of a trove of Jane’s letters. Dodging her hostess and a meddlesome housemaid, Cassandra eventually hunts down the letters and confronts the secrets they hold, secrets not only about Jane but about Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world, or commit her sister’s legacy to the flames?

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby is a touching and exceptionally well-researched fictionalized account of Cassandra Austen’s life, both before and after her famous sister’s death. Hornby is the critically acclaimed author of several novels that include The Hive (2013), All Together Now (2015), and the young readers biography Who Was . . . Jane Austen: The Girl with the Magic Pen (2009). 

Alternating between the past and present, Miss Austen begins with an aged Cassandra Austen, as she travels to the tiny village of Kintbury in West Berkshire. There she visits Isabella, a family friend and niece of her late fiancé Tom Fowle. Isabella's own brother, a local clergyman has recently died, and its learned that she has to vacate the home they shared. Feeling sad and depressed, Isabella doesn't know what to do and is not overjoyed to have to entertain an unannounced visitor. Nonetheless, Cassandra is determined to stay and help Isabella pack and move. But her real motivation in visiting Isabella is to search for and destroy any letters that were written by her famous sister that might be damaging to the literary legend’s legacy.

“She was tired from the day, and quite exhausted by Isabella. But there was little sleep that night. Work must be done . . . All correspondence had been individually arranged, tied into packets with pale blue ribbon . . . She took them out, and there below—a rich rush of love flooded through her—was the writing of Jane . . . There had been a time when Cassandra—grief raw and still smarting—would stumble across some little trace, and the slow-healing wound would break open. . . . But all that had passed. The pain had abated. The practical was here her concern . . . First, and as soon as possible, she would deal with the letters of Jane . . . She unfolded the paper and began to read.”

As Cassandra begins to examine these letters a highly personal journey unfolds in which she is forced to reevaluate her very own life choices. In this highly emotional and entertaining novel, Hornby successfully illustrates the many joys and heartbreaks of both Austen sisters. She does a terrific job of relating how these critically important events helped shaped them both, especially Jane’s literary works.

In Miss Austen, Gill Hornby had created an exceptionally entertaining addition to the Jane Austen legacy. In this exciting new interpretation of historical fiction, fans of the genre will not be disappointed and undoubtedly will cheer the opportunity to revisit the grandeur and anguish of the extended Austen family. With poignant intricacy and unique perspective, Hornby gives a voice to and brings to life an extraordinarily charming adaptation of one the most overlooked and most important people in Jane Austen’s life, her older sister Cassandra.

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on April 7, 2020

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/miss-austen-novel

Review of Murder in an Irish Cottage by Carlene O'Connor

Author: Carlene O'Connor

Release date: February 25, 2020

Publisher: Kensington Books

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Irish-Cottage-Village-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07R7RXMKQ/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=charlene+O%27Connor&qid=1582665693&sr=8-6

Family is everything to Siobhán: her five siblings; her dear departed mother for whom the family business, Naomi's Bistro, is named; and now her fiancé, Macdara Flannery. So precious is her engagement that Siobhán wants to keep it just between the two of them for a little longer.

But Macdara is her family, which is why when his cousin Susan frantically calls for his help, Siobhán is at his side as the two garda rush from Kilbane to the rural village where Susan and her mother have recently moved. Unfortunately, tragedy awaits them. They find Susan, who is blind, outside the cottage, in a state. Inside, Aunt Ellen lies on her bed in a fancy red dress, no longer breathing. A pillow on the floor and a nearby teacup suggest the mode of death to their trained eyes: the woman has been poisoned and smothered. Someone wanted to make sure she was dead. But who?

Devout believers in Irish folklore, the villagers insist the cottage is cursed—built on a fairy path. It turns out Ellen Delaney was not the first to die mysteriously in this cottage. Although the townsfolk blame malevolent fairies, Siobhán and Macdara must follow the path of a murderer all too human—but just as evil. . . .

Carlene O’Connor is the USA Today bestselling author of the Irish Village Mystery series. Murder in an Irish Cottage is the eagerly anticipated fifth installment of the wildly successful series. Other books in the collection include Murder in an Irish Village (2016), Murder at an Irish Wedding (2017), Murder in an Irish Churchyard (2018), and Murder in an Irish Pub (2019).

In Murder in an Irish Cottage, summer has arrived in the picturesque village of Kilbane, County Cork, where Siobhán and her brood are on a short 10-day vacation. We soon learn that she and fellow police officer Dara Flannery’s slowly evolving romance has now blossomed into a secret engagement. The action heats up when Dara receives a panicked call from his cousin, apparently his Aunt Ellen is in some sort of trouble. Distressed by the call, the pair heads off to find out what has happened and soon horrifyingly discover that his aunt has been murdered. We follow the pair as they try to unravel the mystery and find the killer.

Wonderfully captivating, Murder in an Irish Cottage does not disappoint. Interwoven with charming descriptions of lush green Irish landscapes and tales of folklore and legends, it is a thrilling addition to the murder mystery series. Readers have over time bared witness to Siobhán O’Sullivan’s personal growth from the beleaguered caregiver of five siblings to self-confident police officer.

“The meadow glistened and Siobhán could smell the peat and imagine how soft the ground would be beneath their feet. The sun was out now, and just as Siobhán had the thought, she turned and saw it; just behind the largest hill arched a magnificent rainbow. The colors were so bright and clear, it didn’t look real.”

Carlene O’Connor has continued to evolve the story lines of each of her characters into people that are likeable and engaging. She has done an outstanding job of crafting distraction and misdirection that is essential to any successful murder mystery. As the plot unfolds in this current tale, there are loads of twists and turns that keeps the reader riveted to their seats, guessing whodunit until the very end.

The review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on February 25, 2020 - https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/murder-irish-cottage