Musings of a Snickerdoodle

  Several years ago my family and I watched the movie Night Crossing by Disney, about two families, living in the 1970s, who escaped from Soviet West Germany in hot air balloon.  I was looking around for any books about the escape and came across this account written for kids Flight for Freedom by Kriston Fulton is written giving a child's perspective.  Little 6 year old Peter Wetzel knows about the plan to try to escape East Germany in a hot air balloon.  He understands the seriousness of the situation as he watches his parents and the other adults plan and orchestrate the escape.   It is written quite simply, conveying the story simply enough for children to follow along. "Each morning when Peter woke, he expected to find proof that his parents were building a balloon. But, the house was exactly as it had been the day before.  Everything hidden.  Everything quiet.  Peter wondered if it had been only a dream.  Would he ever escape East...

The Ship of Dreams:  The Sinking of the Titanic: and the End of the Edwardian Era by Gareth Russell. This book gives another look at the sinking of the Titanic, focusing in in on The Countess of Rothes, Thomas Andrews, Isidor and Ida Straus, the Thayer family, and Dorothy Gibson. I read this aloud to one of my sisters.   Sadly, we didn't particularly like this recounting of the sinking. First, though I completely understand giving background to characters you are introducing in the book, I wasn't used to how long the character introductions were.   I suppose they were probably not really much longer than any other historical introduction of characters in any given book, but they seemed longer because they kept interrupting the narrative of the time of the passengers on the Titanic.   I would have preferred that the biographies had been placed at the beginning, before getting on the Titanic.   But then, I suppose there wouldn't have been as much tim...

This book is being released in a paperback edition on September 10th, so I figured I'd re-post this review (I've been wanting to read it again and am planning on doing that with one of my sisters who I think will enjoy it as well):  I don't know that I would have EVER thought that a book about the Kings of Saudi Arabia and an oil company would have been interesting. But this book is! I don't just mean that the book is well written (it is) but Wald actually seems very enthusiastic about the topic and that carries over to the reader.  Or at least it did to me. I almost want to laugh at myself for how interesting and intriguing I found this book, " SAUDI, INC. The Arabian Kingdom's Pursuit of Profit and Power"  by Ellen R. Wald . Abdul Aziz, or ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia (never realized where the name came from, sort of a 'duh' moment when I found that out: SAUD-i Arabia) was quite an interesting guy.  He started out by conqueri...

This book is the first of a trilogy of the American Revolution.   I am reading it aloud with my sister, we haven't finished it yet (are halfway through), but I want to write a review now as I know the book is just being released and I want to recommend it.   We are really enjoying it.     The book takes you chapter by chapter through the war, each usually focusing on a different place either in America or other countries (Canada and Britain).   The book takes you, in a detailed way, through the war.   Focusing on various battles, moving you around the scope of the war so that you can observe the various conflicts, battles and political discussions and decisions in various places and on both sides of the conflict. The author introduces you to various people involved, Including Franklin, Washington, Adams, and men on the other side, like King George III, Generals Gage, Howe, Carleton and Burgoyne. And you don't just get acquainted with the fam...

I first heard of William K. Harrison Jr. on the radio some time ago.  He was being used as an example of someone who made sure he read the word of God every day, even when things got really busy; and things were really busy in his life, as it was noted that this man was a general in World War II.   Not a lot of information was given, but that piqued my interest. But I was sort of afraid he'd be some sort of nominal Christian guy who just read his Bible for just for the sake of 'morality', rather than being the real deal. I tried to find more information about him, and discovered some articles that he had written One was " Professional Excellence for the Christian Officer " And the other one is "May A Christian Serve in the Military ".   I'll give an excerpt from that one here:   From the section in that article,   " The Real Cause of War". "From a Biblical standpoint the answer is simple. The world is dea...

Want a book about mankind's challenging journey to the Moon that will interest kids? Moon Mission: The Epic 400 -Year Journey to Apollo 11 by Sigmund Brouwer is a very interesting book.  I read it with a couple of my sisters and we were all very interested in it.   The book is divided into eleven "Episodes" ( they're basically Chapters), Episode One: Countdown, Episode Two: Liftoff, Episode Three: Escaping Earth…etc.   Each Episode has three sections, or "Stages".   The First Stage of each episode puts you on Apollo 11 as one of the astronauts.   It addresses you as an astronaut, explaining what you are experiencing in each stage of your journey, and what you know and do.   "The three of you are in bulky space suits in the CSM, still strapped into position, flying upside down.   Except now there is no up or down…."   Stage Two introduces you to various historical people that made it possible for 'you' to travel to ...

Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 by James Donovan is a truly riveting book. I read it out loud to one of my sisters and we were both pretty glued to it. We read it over the space (no pun intended) of about three or four days.  We have never really read a book about the race to space and this book was a good introduction to it all. As the title implies, it details the space race between the Russians and Americans to get someone into space, and on the moon, first and thus doing it as fast as possible. The timeline is a little mixed up, but it works.   Generally speaking, the account is heading toward the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. But first, you are going to learn how this all got started.   You learn how NASA came into being and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, and details about the efforts of both the Russians and the Americans just to get out of our planet's atmosphere. It is quite inte...

When I heard that there was a new biography coming out about Charles Spurgeon's wife, Susannah, I was quite interested, eager for it to come out.  I've read a short biography of Susannah before, but this one, Susie: The life and legacy of Susannah Spurgeon by Ray Rhodes Jr. Is a larger and  I thought it would be  neat to know more about her.   The cover is beautiful looking, is hardcover (which to me is quite a plus), and it feels like very good quality. I read it out loud with my sister, thinking that we would enjoy it together…not so.  It dragged, and the timeline just seemed all over the place.  I was very disappointed with this biography. I am very sorry to have to sound harsh, but this is probably the worst written biography I've ever read. I don't think I've ever read one written like this before.  It just seemed like a book that recycles some facts over, and over, and over and over again.  Past events are repeatedly (not just onc...

Did you know that homing pigeons were used in world war II? I didn't. I thought they were only used in the first world war. But they were used, and quite creatively. At the time, using humans to get messages and vital information gathered about the enemy and the placement of weapons, locations of bases..etc. to England was taking about 1/3 of a year from the time it was collected to the time it ended up in British hands. Using pigeons, one could get the message in a matter of days after it was written instead of weeks or months. This way the intelligence was fresh, not outdated. Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera is the story of how these pigeons were used, the organization who controlled their usage, and those in occupied territory who risked their lives in sending Britain information via the pigeons. An idea was implemented, to drop British homing pigeons into occupied territory by means of baskets (with parachutes attached), included in the b...

Originally I was looking for a biography that would tell about General William K. Harrison, as I had learned some things about him and wanted to know more.  There is no biography that I could find that was in print about him, but I came across this recently published book about the division he was assistant commander of, "Old Hickory: the 30th Division by Robert W. Baumer This account of the 30th division was interesting in and of itself.   These guys were quite tough, and determined.   Made up of National Guards, they remained vigilant with their duties even when, in preparation for them to be trained to join the fight, higher ups demanded that their national guard commanders be replaced with regular army commanders. They were not a part of the first wave of D-Day, they were in a following wave some days later, but they were a big part of Operation Cobra, which was to break through further into France. Before I read this book, I had never really considered ...