Review – Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to another instalment of Nessa reads and reviews! I’m starting the reviews for the month of April with a history book. 🙂 I was planning to review Catherine Hanley’s Matilda in March, since March is Women’s History Month, but my schedule didn’t work out, therefore I’m opening April with it. Actually, the whole process of acquiring the book, reading it and writing the review is going faster than I thought it would, and it’s definitely faster than usual. Most of the time I get a book, put it on my already too long “To Read List”, put the book on the shelf and then the book is judgmentally looking at me from its shelf for months. “You said you’re going to read me and here I am, sitting on your shelf twiddling my imaginary thumbs and waiting… So are you gonna read me today?” Yes, I am aware that books are inanimate objects that neither judge nor talk, but THERE IS METHOD TO MY MADNESS! 😀 Usually. 😀

 

Review: The New Silk Roads

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to the holiday edition of Nessa reads and reviews! 🙂 For those of you who were celebrating Christmas I (once again) with you a happy Christmas! I hope you spent some quality time with your loved ones, or at least that you had a good meal and some holiday cheer. For the folks not celebrating Christmas, I hope you had a lovely day with your loved ones and shared a good meal and had some fun. 🙂 But to get back to the topic at hand, today I’ll be reviewing another book from my December reading list: The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World by Peter Frankopan. This is his 2^nd book that I’m reviewing this month, and if you’re interested my review for the Croatian illustrated edition of Putovi Svile is here.

 

Review: A Million Years in a Day

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to another weekend instalment of Nessa reads and reviews! At the beginning of the month I posted my December reading list and Greg Jenner’s A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Daily Life has been one of my picks. Side note: if you’re wondering how that’s coming along – I’m actually doing rather well. I just have to finish one and a half book and I can cross everything of the list. The reviewing portion of the process is a little slower as usual. 🙂 Getting back to A Million Years in a Day, I finished it a few days ago and I finally have the afternoon off to type my thoughts about the book. Unfortunately, because I hurt my back a few days ago, there won’t be a lot of photos. And quite frankly the book looks like it’s been through 2 world wars 😀 because I’ve been lugging it my backpack for a week. So perhaps it’s better you don’t see the state of it 🙂

 

Review: The Uskoks of Senj

Hello dear reader(s) and welcome back to another instalment of Nessa reads and reviews. I’m really excited about this review because this is the 50^th book I’ve read this year for my Goodreads challenge! 🙂 It’s also the book that took me the longest to finish! I started it on May 1^st and finished it on November 21^st! That’s over 6 months! >_< The reasons it took me so long to finish wary from: I didn’t have time… I wasn’t in the mood… I got lost in the footnotes… However, that doesn’t imply that the book is dull or drudgery; on the contrary the subject is fascinating, well researched and marvellously written. Academic books simply take me longer to read because of the richness and complexity of the work. I’ll touch on that subject a bit later.

 

Review: Empires of the Sea

Hello dear reader(s)! We made it through January which, according to lore, is the most depressing month of the year. Bravo us! For the beginning of February, in this instalment of Nessa reads books and writes reviews (NRBWR),  I’m reviewing the last book I read in January: Roger Crowley’s Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580. It’s a mouthful. Have you noticed how all history books have gigantic (sub)titles? A single title is never enough, they just have to add a gigantic subtitle that explains where and when this is taking place. Can you imagine epic fantasy authors doing that? Game of Thrones: The Causes of Westeros’ Civil Wars 298-300 AC. OK, not my best work, but I tried though! 😀