The Saturday Evening Post » Book Reviews http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com Home of The Saturday Evening Post Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:56:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 Bizarre History http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/04/17/art-entertainment/bizarre-history.html http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/04/17/art-entertainment/bizarre-history.html#comments Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/?p=35477 Experience a book-full of fun, scandalous, and strange historical anecdotes—with all the boring bits removed.

Bizarre History

The Saturday Evening Post

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Did you know that John Wilkes Booth’s brother once saved Robert Todd Lincoln’s life? Or that Michigan and Ohio went to war? Or that the 18th-century governor of New York used to dress up like Queen Anne?

History is full of bizarre people and events, and Joe Rhatigan chronicles them in his book Bizarre History: Strange Happenings, Stupid Misconceptions, Distorted Facts and Uncommon Events
. Rhatigan takes us through history, from ancient Egypt to the Middle Ages to the 20th century, revealing everything from strange wars to crazy rulers.

This book is everything that you never learned in a history class: early campaign mudslinging (John Adams’s people said that Jefferson would burn Bibles and outlaw marriage while the Jefferson camp claimed that Adams planned to start a new royal line as King John I), embarrassing family members (Jimmy Carter’s brother judged a world belly flop competition and endorsed a beer), presidential pets (including some alligators), the history of high heels (not just for women!), and more.

They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and Rhatigan proves it with this laugh-out-loud history of the world. Even the biggest history buffs are sure to learn something as the book travels from the American heartland to the steppes of Asia and back with humorous and completely true anecdotes.

Bizarre History is a must-read for everyone who thought that high school history was lacking a little something. This hilarious collection of historical footnotes certainly kept me turning its pages!

Bizarre History: Strange Happenings, Stupid Misconceptions, Distorted Facts and Uncommon Events by Joe Rhatigan will be released as a 157-page paperback from Imagine Publishing on October 1, 2011 at a list price of $7.95.

Bizarre History

The Saturday Evening Post

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Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/04/17/art-entertainment/tea-culture-history-traditions-celebrations-recipes.html http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/04/17/art-entertainment/tea-culture-history-traditions-celebrations-recipes.html#comments Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/?p=37295 Learn all about tea—its history, its health benefits, its influence on society—in Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More.

Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More

The Saturday Evening Post

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Did you know that tea was discovered 5,000 years ago? Or that “high tea” was originally an evening meal? Or that chamomile isn’t really tea?

In her book Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More, Beverly Dubrin covers many tea-related topics—from a brief history of the discovery of tea to information about different kinds of tea and their respective health benefits. Readers will discover a wealth of information about the drink and how people have consumed it over the centuries. Dubrin, a longtime tea fan, gives tips on how to steep different types of tea and how to get the best-tasting beverage.

In addition to fun informational snippets, Tea Culture includes dozens of full-page photographs with subjects ranging from 19th-century tea drinkers to tea plantation workers. Dubrin also includes recipes for different types of tea drinks as well as some sandwiches and snacks to make every tea party complete! For our own tea party here at the Post, we decided to try two recipes from the book—Spicy Apple Tea and Marion’s Dream Bars. They were both delicious! In fact, we liked them so much that we decided to include the recipes elsewhere on the site.

As someone who drinks tea in part to alleviate blinding headaches, I particularly appreciated the section of the book on the health benefits. Much is made of its miracle effects on such serious problems as heart disease and cancer, as well as its power in calming anxiety, aiding digestion, and lowering blood pressure; it’s good to get the true story and learn about which teas and tisanes help with specific ailments.

Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More, a 144-page hardcover from Imagine Publishing, is available now at a list price of $18.95.

Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More

The Saturday Evening Post

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Top 10 Beach Reads http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/06/25/art-entertainment/book-review-art-literature/top-10-beach-reads.html http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/06/25/art-entertainment/book-review-art-literature/top-10-beach-reads.html#comments Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/?p=88444 Amazon.com Editorial Director Sara Nelson sifted through hundreds of books to bring you the season's best.

Top 10 Beach Reads

The Saturday Evening Post

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Amazon.com editorial director Sara Nelson sifted through hundreds of books to bring you the season’s best.

Fiction

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver The Son by Philipp Meyer The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

(Crown)

The Son

(Ecco)

The Silver Star

(Scribner)

Elizabeth L. Silver Philipp Meyer Jeannette Walls
A smart and sassy novel about a young and very angry woman who refuses to fight to have her murder conviction overturned. A breathtaking, classic cowboys-and-Indians epic about the birth of Texas, is shockingly good. Fans of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle will love her new novel about two girls whose flaky mom inadvertently leads them to discover more and weirder relatives.
Joyland by Stephen King And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini  

Joyland

(Hard Case Crime)

And the Mountains Echoed

(Riverhead)

 
Stephen King Khaled Hosseini  
Steven King’s Joyland is for the author’s Stand By Me fans, and anybody else who likes good, old fashioned coming of age stories, horror or no. Khaled Hosseini does it again, with And the Mountains Echoed, an evocative novel that takes us from the Kite Runner author’s native Afghanistan to Europe and back again.  

Nonfiction

The Joker by Andrew Hudgins Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey

The Joker

(Simon & Schuster)

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

After Visiting Friends

(Scribner)

Andrew Hudgins Nathaniel Philbrick Michael Hainey
Hudgins’s latest is the life story of a guy whose upbringing was so harsh and joyless, he (and we) just had to learn to laugh. Bunker Hill tells a familiar American history tale with fresh eyes and clear voice. This is not your father’s term paper. After Visiting Friends Hainey’s investigation into the death of the father he lost years ago.
The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville by Clare Mully The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown  

The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville

(St Martin’s)

The Boys in the Boat

(Viking)

 
Clare Mully Daniel James Brown  
A meticulous account of a real-life Polish-Jewish Mata Hari, during WWII. Brown celebrates American can-do-ism through the story of the champion rowing team who took on the Germans at the 1936 Olympics.  

Top 10 Beach Reads

The Saturday Evening Post

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