#englishcodebreakers

[joyfultunes]

Reading Adventures!

In October, I read four books:

From Pompeii by Ingrid Rowland

This book was four stars for me. I enjoyed it, except for one very long chapter full of some objectionable material. I do love history, and natural disasters are fascinating. I learned a lot in this book, and was interested to note all the famous people that visited Pompeii at one point or another.

Mendeleyev's Dream by Paul Strathern

Meh. This book was 3.5 stars for me. I felt the author had an obvious bias that was very annoying. The teaser at the beginning and then the long detour into the entire history of chemistry was unexpected and not entirely welcome. I did get some laughs out of it, though, with some funny quotes from famous chemists.

Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick

I loved this book. 5 stars. I almost always rate history books very highly, because I love history so much. This book follows Benedict Arnold during the early years of the Revolutionary War, and shows us his frustrations with Congress and his slow slide toward betrayal. I learned a lot. I didn't know much about him beyond his attempted betrayal of West Point. It was very amusing to learn that he was either dearly loved or bitterly hated, no in between.

The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming

4 stars. I liked this book a lot. I love to learn about codes and ciphers. This book follows five different young ladies and their roles during World War 2 in code breaking and intelligence. I did not know about this particular bit of history before, and I read practically the entire book in one sitting. This book is written for a younger audience, but that won't take away any enjoyment from older readers.