Friday, May 13, 2016

History's Most Insane Rulers:

History's Most Insane Rulers: (the subtitle is to long to read off my kindle) by: Michael Rank
Non-Fiction: History, Bio, E-book
E-Book Count: 9
Book Count: 12

This book is a collection of short biographies of famous insane rulers.  This includes a number of the European monarchs that due to genetic issues suffered from mental health issues that where not understood at the time, and they didn't have ways to help treat then.  It also has the stories of dictators that just went crazy with power.  It starts out with Caligula and ends with Kim Jong-Il.  It was a very short book with only a couple pages for each person.  

Drinking in America:

Drinking in America: Our Secret History By: Susan Cheever
Non-fiction: History, 221 pages
Physical Book Count: 5
Book Count: 12


This book attempts to explore America's Love/Hate relationship with alcohol.  It starts with the way that a lack of beer helped cause the Pilgrims to land where they did to the founding of AA.  It deals with key points in the history of America and explores the highs and lows of how drinking shaped the country.  It includes how America could in one century go from the most drinking country in the world to outlawing drinking completely, and where the pendulum is swinging today.  It was written by a person that was a child of an alcoholic and also had addiction issues, so that might have colored  some of the book. (It wasn't a major issue in any way, just that they saw the connection between alcoholism and people's behavior even when they weren't drinking, while someone without that background would more likely see the people as jerks, who also happened to drink at times.)