From the front flap: Poignant, funny, and utterly original, Ethel & Ernest is Raymond Briggs's loving depiction of his parents' lives from their chance first encounter in the 1920s until their deaths in the 1970s. Ethel and Ernest were solid members of the English working class, part of the generation that lived through the most tumultuous years of the twentieth century. … [Read more...] about Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs: B
History
The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir: B+
From the front flap: Despite five centuries of investigation by historians, the sinister deaths of the boy king Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, remain one of the most fascinating murder mysteries in English history. Did Richard III really kill "the Princes in the Tower," as is commonly believed, or was the murderer someone else entirely? In this utterly … [Read more...] about The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir: B+
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey: A
From the back cover: Confined to a hospital bed, Scotland Yard's Inspector Grant is engrossed with a portrait of Richard III. How is it possible, he wonders, that such a sensitive-appearing soul could have been the odious villain, the Wicked Uncle responsible for the murder of his own nephews to secure the British crown for himself? Grant reconsiders 500-year-old evidence and … [Read more...] about The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey: A
Firehouse by David Halberstam: B+
From the back cover: "In the firehouse the men not only live and eat with each other, they play sports together, go off to drink together, help repair one another's houses and, most importantly, share terrifying risks; their loyalties to each other must, by the demands of the dangers they face, be instinctive and absolute." So writes David Halberstam in this stunning book about … [Read more...] about Firehouse by David Halberstam: B+
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson: B
From the back cover: In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time. Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping … [Read more...] about Thunderstruck by Erik Larson: B