Monthly Wrap Up

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in August. I read 6 books this month. Here are my thoughts on them: 1. NONFICTION AND HISTORY: How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr Keenaga-Yamahtta Taylor, in the foreword to Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America by Saidiya Hartman, writes: “In the United States, we like to discuss the distortions of the nation’s history as amnesia, when it is more appropriate to understand our affliction as selective memory clotted with omissions intended…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in July. I read 4 books this month. It was a slow month and I apologize for posting my monthly wrap up so late into August, but here goes: 1. NONFICTION AND HISTORY: A Little History of The United States by James West Davidson This book is a condensed (as the title implies) history of the United States. It is a good (re)introduction for the general reader; that is, for someone who has not read about the topic in a long time or for someone…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in June. This month I read 8 books. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. NONFICTION AND BIOGRAPHY: Porfirio Díaz, su vida y su tiempo: La guerra 1830-1867 (Porfirio Díaz, His Life and Times: The War 1830-1867) por Carlos Tello Díaz This book is the first volume of a comprehensive and detailed biography―written in three parts―of Porfirio Díaz, a controversial figure in the history of Mexico who lived and fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the Mexican Civil War between the liberals (led by…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in May. This month was definitely a slower reading month for me; I only read 4 books. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. NONFICTION AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY: 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley This book is an account of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Setting the stage by introducing the main actors―the Emperor Constantine XI and the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II―this book is a good introduction to the history…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in April. This month I caught up with my history readathon and nonfiction book club. So, quite clearly, there are more nonfiction than fiction books in this month’s wrap-up:  1. NONFICTION AND BIOGRAPHY: The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World by Edward Shawcross This book is a biography of Maximilian I, the Emperor of Mexico, and it provides a “fascinating look into the peculiarities of 19th century international politics” (Historycamp, The Last…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in March. I apologize for such a late post, but here it is. I read 8 books last month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. HISTORICAL FICTION AND WWI: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque This novel, written by Erich Maria Remarque and first published in 1928, “follows young German soldiers during World War I, focusing on the brutal reality of trench warfare and the profound disillusionment and trauma these young soldiers experience, stripping away patriotic ideals to…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in February. I read 7 books last month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. NONFICTION AND SCIENCE: Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green When I picked this book up, I was expecting a (short) scientific account of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB), and the history of how medicine has worked hard to combat it but this is not we get. What we get, instead, is a glimpse (a very small one but nonetheless very affecting glimpse) of the lives…

Hi everyone! Welcome to a new year of reading. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in January. I read 6 books this month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC IN SPANISH LITERATURE: Las batallas en el desierto por José Emilio Pacheco (English translation: Battles in the Desert by José Emilio Pacheco) First published in 1981, this book is the story of Carlitos, a young boy who falls in love with Mariana, his best friend’s mother. Meeting Mariana is pivotal in Carlitos’s life; in the before, he is still a child. In the after, his…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in December. I read 6 books this month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. HISTORICAL FICTION AND ROMANCE: The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch This book is a historical fiction romance with a twinge of mystery that takes place from 1916 to the end of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The story focuses on “an epic love story” that affects the lives of three generations of Russian women, Rosie, Katya, and Tonya, whose narratives are all interconnected by Russian fairy…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in November. This month I’m also going to start posting my end-of-the-year reviews. I read 5 books in November. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. CLASSICS AND HORROR: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Dr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson This novella is one of the most famous and celebrated horror stories in literature and its renown and prominence are well-deserved. The story is that of a lawyer who investigates his friend Dr. Jeckyll’s transformation into the evil Mr. Hyde. Such…