Author: Jeff

Posted on

#BookReview: Nations Apart by Colin Woodard

The BlueSky Crowd Will Love This Goldmine. “Clashing regional cultures” didn’t shatter America. America is strong and survived this for generations. What has shattered America in these past 20 ish years has been the hyper partisanship and doomerism that Nate Silver now calls “BlueSkyism” – which is why that crowd will love this book. Everyone else, don’t waste your time.

With that TL;DR already dealt with, let’s dive into the details. First, “goldmine”, above. My personal worst possible rating for a book. It means you’re shifting through a ton of shit to find something redeemable… but at least there *is* a fleck or two of something approaching redeemable here.

Second, backing up and briefly mentioning my own background, Woodard himself will probably just excuse this particular review knowing that I am a Son of the South who grew up at the border of what he calls “Greater Appalachia” and “Deep South” according to his own maps, directly along the path of that war criminal terrorist bastard William Tecumseh Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign – and my home County literally still bears its physical scars to this day, in places readily seen even as their history isn’t as readily known anymore.

Now let’s truly discuss the book. To get to a one star rating means I had four major issues with the book, in this case and in no particular order:

-dearth of bibliography
-shoddy “journalism”
-elitism
-doomerism

The bibliography here, calculated as the point when the “Acknowledgements” section begins, is just 14% of this text, which falls short of my expectation from reading many nonfiction books over my over seven years as a book blogger of between 20-30% documentation. Further, given the rather extreme nature of this book generally, the Sagan Rule – extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence – applies, meaning even more documentation is actually needed… which this book failed to supply. So there goes one star.

Next, shoddy “journalism”. For one, Woodard cites in at least one incidence that Donald Trump claimed the people at the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA were “very fine people”. This has been resoundingly debunked… simply by showing the entire transcript of that very speech in question. Furthermore, Woodward speaks quite often of “voter suppression” and (accurately) proclaims that the right’s fears of “voter fraud” are excessively rare so as to be near 0 actual incidents… except that the actual evidence of “voter suppression” turns out to be just as scant, despite Woodard openly proclaiming it happening quite often. In areas where his side is losing, of course. Note that even here, Woodward is blatantly and openly lying as he claims that Georgia does not allow people to be given water while waiting in line to vote. And these are only the things I have direct and personal knowledge of myself. So there goes another star.

Next, elitism. Simply put, Colin Woodard thinks he knows everything about every political issue… and even a lot of non-political ones. Colin Woodard needs to learn a bit of humility… and this is coming from someone often accused (at least earlier in life) of exactly what he is accusing Woodard of here. Let me be clear here: The general theory of the twelve nations is revolutionary and seems to have quite a bit of merit. It is why I was interested in this book to begin with. But when Woodard leaves this theory to comment on things such as climatology or virology, among many others, he inevitably winds up simply repeating extreme leftist talking points rather than actual history or science. And yet he makes these claims openly proclaiming them to be absolute fact and openly mocks those who disagree… even when he is blatantly wrong and, as a scholar, *should* be aware of just how wrong he actually is here. But again, blinded by his elitism. So there went another star.

Finally, doomerism. I mean, the subtitle of this book really does give that part away, I’ll grant that. But particularly in light of the two attempted assassinations of now President Trump in 2024 (which happened as Woodward was still writing this book), followed by the assassination of former Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman in June 2025 and then the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in September 2025 (admittedly barely a week before I write this review), the doomerism in politics must end.

To do my part in helping end this scourge, I will do the one thing I can as a book reviewer, the one tool I actually have: I’ll remove one star every time I see this in a nonfiction politically oriented book, beginning here.

There never was a place for such doom and gloom as “my opponents will end all elections!”. It was wrong when the right did it, and I called it out back then. It is equally wrong when the left does it, and I call it out now. Elections for both Congress and President were held during the most trying times in US history – the US Civil War from 1861 – 1865 and World War II from 1941 – 1945. If we as a country can hold elections even in those circumstances, we’re going to keep holding them in every peacetime circumstance, no matter what Woodard and other doomerists claim.

No, the only outcome of such doomerist proclamations is that more people will die both from suicide – as suicide is almost inevitably from a loss of hope for one reason or another – or from murder, as more and more people begin to believe that the only hope remaining is if their political opponents are dead. THIS. IS. WRONG. It is 100% unacceptable, and we as a society must verbally oppose this ideology with as much force as our words can possibly carry.

America can survive as a federation of twelve nations. We have for 250 years in just a few more months – and yes, we will absolutely make it to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence next summer. We’ll also make it tot he 250th anniversary of our current Constitution first being ratified on June 21, 2038, when we will have at least one and possibly two Presidents post-Donald Trump.

We just have to have hope. We have to believe in the processes we have created, and that we can make the changes within them to continue to make ourselves a “more perfect union”.

No matter the doomerism of Woodard and others.

Not recommended. (But you already knew that if you got here. 😉 )

This review of Nations Apart by Colin Woodard was originally written on September 19, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Don’t Say A Word by Allison Brennan

Solid Second Stage. The easiest way to describe this series, for those who haven’t read the first book, is to imagine the TV show Blue Bloods… but instead the family is Hispanic and lives in Phoenix. If you’re even vaguely familiar with that show (and to be clear, I’ve never watched a single episode of it, just seen several ads and a few clips over the years), that gives you a reasonably solid idea of what to expect in general with this series.

In this installment in particular, we get what appears at first glance to be just an accidental overdose… except, well, it comes to the Angelharts’ attention and Margot in particular smells a rat.

Over the course of 400+ pages, Brennan never really lets the story drag at all. There is enough mystery and danger here to carry the tension, and enough familial interaction to give the tale depth, heart, and even a touch of humor at times.

This noted, the 21 Jump Street (both movie and, at least according to my understanding – the show came out when I was still a young kid – the show) parallels are so obvious here in this particular mystery that Brennan actively leans into them, openly having her characters talk about the show at a point or two.

Overall this really is a solid second outing for these characters, and it will be interesting to see what Brennan comes up with for them next.

Very much recommended.

This review of Don’t Say A Word by Allison Brennan was originally written on September 15, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Whisper Place by Mindy Mejia

Solid Book Three Is So Different From Others In Series That It Can Serve As An Introduction. This book is very different than most third books in a series in that it is *so very different* from the first two that if two of the main characters didn’t also appear in the prior books, you would almost say these books weren’t in the same universe at all.

And yet, the book still absolutely works – and even works as a way of a more “real world” type introduction to these characters before you dive into the more paranormal-ish realism of the prior two books. Apparently several other Advance Review Copy readers didn’t realize this was Book 3 of the series – a series I’ve been reading since the beginning, though with on average 200 ish books read between reading installments of this series, even as I’ve read them all as Advance Review Copies myself – and they all claim that this book works well as a standalone, so there’s that perspective as well. 🙂

Overall, even with the toned down paranormal aspects here – and perhaps *because of* the toned-down paranormal aspects here, Mejia has crafted a particularly compelling missing person/ found family thriller that doesn’t bend your mind the way the prior two books do… but perhaps makes your pulse pound that much harder because of it. Particularly through one sequence late in the text, my own heart was racing enough that I actually glanced at my smart watch to make sure I was actually fine and didn’t need to call 911. Seriously.

In the end, truly a creative and compelling third book in the series that leaves open the possibility for more books without explicitly setting anything up, it will be interesting to see where Mejia chooses to go from here.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Whisper Place by Mindy Mejia was originally written on September 15, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Life And Death And Giants by Ron Rindo

The Dust In The Room Slowly Builds Up. This is one of those books where the first half in particular is rather slow… but you can feel the room getting slightly dustier the entire time you’re reading the book. By the end, the room will be quite dusty indeed and it will be difficult to read due to the water your eyes are producing to try to protect themselves from the dust.

Truly an amazing tale well told, with great respect to the Amish community it uses as part of its base and also of rural America it uses as most of the rest of the base of the tale.

This is the story of how one life can impact so many people, of how one community can both shape and be shaped by one extraordinary person… and how even small rural communities cope with the secrets in their midst.

This is one of those tales that will give you hope. That will restore your faith in humanity… and maybe even higher. One where you’re going to laugh. You’re going to cry. You’re going to stare into the void in wonder and amazement. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find a degree of peace.

Very much recommended.

This review of Life And Death And Giants by Ron Rindo was originally written on September 15, 2025.

Posted on

#BlogTour: A Killer Motive by Hannah Mary McKinnon

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a masterful thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. For this blog tour, we’re looking at A Killer Motive by Hannah Mary McKinnon.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Masterful Thriller That Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat. McKinnon has become a true master of the kind of suspense/ thriller where you’re still on the edge of your seat and trying to figure out what comes next… when their suddenly is no more “next” to be had in the book.

Now, don’t get me wrong, she tells a complete story every time. She’s just also become a master of telling that story and then leaving *just* enough dangling *so* well that you want that story to continue, even though it has reached its final point for the story she was telling in this particular tale.

Arguably one “weakness” here – more something I’ve just never gotten into and don’t really understand the “appeal” of – is the podcast base of this tale. McKinnon uses it particularly well to tell her story, both in featuring actual podcasts within the tale and in using the relationships of the various personalities that create and work on and around podcasts to great effect.

For me though, the strength of this tale really is the relational. McKinnon creates here a woman with several crucial relationships… and one she isn’t aware of that is about to push her to her limits. Because the best relationship in this book isn’t the marriage or the friend or any of the other usual suspects.

It is the antagonist our leading lady finds out through this tale that she has. While our leading lady is no (Sherlock) Holmes or (Aloysious) Pendergast or (Charles) Xavier or even (Clarice) Starling, our antagonist here absolutely is one that fans of Moriarty or Diogenes or Lensherr or Lecter will absolutely love. Because yes, the antagonist McKinnon creates here *is* that good.

And yet… if our antagonist *is* that damn good and one way to measure someone is by the strength and ability of their enemies… doesn’t that mean that our leading lady actually *is* that damn good herself?

How about you read the book and write your own review on whatever platform you’re reading this review on and let us know. 🙂 Feel free to tag me in it, assuming that is possible on said platform.

Overall though, this book really is very well done, exactly as fans of McKinnon expect from her… and may even be her best yet.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: A Killer Motive by Hannah Mary McKinnon”

Posted on

#BookReview: The Last Hart Beating by Nattie Neidhart

Among The Best Wrestling Memoirs Ever Written. I’ve been reading wrestling memoirs roughly as long as Niedhart has been a professional wrestler – beginning roughly in 2001 when we were both in our late teens, maybe slightly earlier – whenever Mick Foley’s first book hit mass market paperback. And yes, I’ve read both of Foley’s early books. I’ve read at least one of Jericho’s books, I’ve read Batista’s book and at least one of HBK’s books. I even read The Rock’s dad (“Soulman” Rocky Johnson)’s book and Hornswoggle’s book. More recently, I’ve read Rousey’s 2024 book along with Lynch’s book released at nearly the same time. Earlier this year, I had a chance to do an Advance Review Copy of Killer Kross’s book that released about a month ago as I write this review.

In other words, I have a lot of experience reading wrestler’s memoirs, though there are still several I’ve yet to get to.

And y’all, I absolutely put this one right up there among the top.

This one is full of everything that makes a good wrestling memoir great – the history, the peeks behind the scenes at various points and from Niedhart’s view from whatever age she was at the time growing up, her own story from the first time she ever picked up The Anvil’s championship belt through becoming a multi-time Champion within WWE herself. We see more of her struggles with her dad than even Total Divas really had any capacity of showing. We see her fears – shared by fellow third generation Superstar who also wrote a forward to this book, “some kid named Dwayne” (as Soulman said in his book) – of whether she could live up to her family’s legacy. We see how that legacy shaped both the woman and the professional Neidhart has become – for good and not so great. We even get a friends to lovers romance for the ages that few even fictional romance authors can replicate, showing the first time TJ first showed up at Hart House through their struggles together when he broke his neck in the ring and beyond.

This book seems very transparent – yes, many of us thought we knew Niedhart particularly from Total Divas (though as with all “reality” shows, that one became quite obviously *barely anything resembling reality* rather quickly, particularly after the first season), but here we see even more of her story, particularly her absolute love and admiration for her dad… and all the heartache this caused as his mental condition deteriorated over the years.

Bookending with the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame Induction of Neidart’s uncle Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart and her dad Jim ‘The Anvil’ Niedhart as The Hart Foundation seems a deliberate editorial choice, a way to stop before the pandemic / “Thunderdome” era of WWE… and perhaps lay the groundwork for a later memoir to pick up exactly there, ala Foley, Jericho, and even HBK’s follow-up books?

Wrestling fans of any stripe are going to love this book. There’s simply too much history here for you not to, including Niedhart’s own interactions with one Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Jr over the years. More than that though, this is going to be one for a lot more people. For the Millennial cat moms – yes, Niedhart briefly touches on why she chose not to have human children. For the woman afraid to stand up for herself in her own career – Niedhart shows that even with a legendary legacy in your industry behind you, standing up for yourself is still daunting, but sometimes absolutely must be done. For those interested in women in sports – Niedhart shows the path she made through some family connections but also several shit tons of hard ass work… and a bit of luck even, at times.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Last Hart Beating by Nattie Neidhart was originally written on September 6, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Killing Age by Clifton Crais

Flawed Premise And Weirdly Exacting Time Selection Move Interesting Premise To Garbage Narrative. This is one of those books that I *wanted* to like. I *strongly* believe, based on my own historical studies over the years, that there is a truly strong case to be made for how violence has shaped the modern world in ways that most humans alive today simply aren’t aware of. There is a case to be made for how violence and conquest shape almost literally every facet of everything we currently know, up to and including the most bleeding edge sciences all largely having their origins in military research and applications – including all of computing and very nearly everything we as humanity are doing both in astronomy and in particle physics.

Unfortunately, this book doesn’t even begin to attempt to make that case.

Instead, this is yet another anti-capitalist polemic wherein a “historian” attempts to reframe history… and yet provides a bibliography one would typically expect from a more mundane and well trod “this is what happened at this event” type history book. In other words, it is *far* from meeting the Sagan Standard of “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. And yet, at roughly 22% bibliography (in addition to several more pages of front matter listing many dozens of people and events covered in the text), this text sufficiently meets my 20-30% documentation expectations for nonfiction books generally, so actually doesn’t lose a star there. Note even here though that while there is technically enough bibliography, it is also extremely cherry picked to show exactly the narrative Crais is trying to frame without ever even hinting at other possible interpretations of the events at hand.

No, the two star deductions are distinct enough (in my mind at least) to warrant two separate deductions, but also linked in that they form the basis of how Crais approaches his entire narrative.

For one, Crais blames all of captialism’s rise on slavery… without even going into the 20th century to try to frame the various labor debates there as also slavery or even including the rise of mass incarceration or fast fashion or any other well known labor abuses as also slavery, choosing to instead end his narrative at the end of the 19th century. Thus, even though Great Britain ended slavery relatively early in the time period Crais does choose to focus on and the US fought a civil war near the end of it to force the end of slavery… Crais still blames all of capitalism’s ills on, according to him, capitalism being based on slavery and absolutely nothing else.

For another, and yes, I hinted at this above, Crais is oddly specific in his choice of time period and even areas of focus, choosing to examine only Great Britain and the United States and to begin specifically in 1750 with the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and end at the end of the 19th century, well before capitalism *really* took off… and yet also before communism caused the deaths of literally millions of people itself… often via direct State violence. This odd specificity allows Crais to openly ignore other violences even within the period he chooses to examine, such as the Napoleonic Wars.

There is great promise in a book that truly and fully explores the history of human violence in its totality and shows how that violence has created and shaped our modern world as we know it.

I simply wish Crais had made even a modicum of an attempt at writing such a history. Perhaps this book would have been better with a different title and more honest and specific premise?

Not recommended.

This review of The Killing Age by Clifton Crais was originally written on September 6, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Before We Say Goodbye by Boo Walker

Quite Possibly Walker’s Best Yet. I’ve been reading Walker’s books for several years now, finding him with An Unfinished Journey, which was apparently his next book after the Red Mountain saga. Because of my own reading schedule – 90% of which, including Unfinished Journey and every other book from Walker I’ve read, including this one, is Advance Review Copy based – I haven’t had a chance to go back and read that saga yet.

With this book… I *really* need to. Not because I needed it in order to understand this book, quite the opposite. This book is *so* compelling and *so* well told that it really makes you feel for Mr. Otis Till and all that he has gone through – stuff that apparently is largely history by the beginning of the Red Mountain books, as this is his “origin” story and apparently he is a key player in the rest of the saga.

Told in a dual timeline manner with a touch of the supernatural/ magical realism, this is one of those books that uses those components well enough that even people who claim to not like any book that uses them – and yes, I’ve seen some of those types of readers over the years – shouldn’t have any difficulty with this book and indeed, I would even go so far as to say that if you allow yourself to miss this book because of your own hangups on those types of issues, you’re doing yourself a great disservice and missing out on a truly terrific book.

This is one of those tales that so very many men can relate to – the same type of story that made The Greatest Showman so truly spectacular. A man struggling to attain his life’s desires, finding it… and finding what really matters after all. Many of us have either been there or are somewhere along that path and can identify all too well with these desires, and Walker captures that struggle across the decades *perfectly*.

And yet there is more than enough here for female readers as well, as we see how Till first meets the love of his life and how she shapes the life they lead together across all the years they have left together… and then some.

Those looking for ghost pepper level spice won’t find that here, but also those looking for no more spice than a warm glass of milk may get quite red in the cheeks at times, or perhaps even get the vapors. There is nothing here that I would hesitate at all to put in front of a mid-teen or so, though it is likely a bit much for those younger than that. (To be fair, it is also one that those younger than that won’t be able to relate to as much either, but most any adult should be able to relate all too well to.)

Truly quite likely Walker at his absolute best to date, this is one that both makes me want to go back and read the Red Mountain Saga… and hope that there are more books in this particular series forthcoming.

Very much recommended.

This review of Before We Say Goodbye by Boo Walker was originally written on August 28, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Empire Of Deterrence by Michael Gardiner

Academic Meta-Analysis Of The Fall Of Nuclear Terror As Primary Societal Scare In The United Kingdom. First off, this is both quite short and quite well documented – clocking in at just 175 or so pages and 34% or so documentation in the Advance Review Copy I read weeks before publication. So it absolutely has that going for it, for any reader. 🙂

As to the subject, Gardiner does a remarkable – and remarkably focused – job of taking the reader through the last 70 ish years of British entertainment/ zeitgeist history and showing how while once (during the Cold War and its immediate aftermath) nuclear terror was a driver in the overall consciousness of the British people, of late those concerns have become a background as the populace is more focused on other issues, including immigration and difficulties caused by it.

Gardiner, appearing based on the text here to be a Scotsman and perhaps even a member of the Scottish National Party – whom he refers to favorably in several instances herein and with whom he seems to share a focus on the UK’s Trident nuclear missile program (apparently based primarily in Scotland?) -, clearly doesn’t like the lack of focus on the nuclear threat, seeing it as a looming threat even now that, according to him, eclipses all other concerns even today.

Even with the excellent documentation here, I don’t feel that Gardiner was convincing in his arguments, but that could well be a “me” thing. To me, it seems that he is glossing over quite a few very real concerns in his exacting focus on “the nuclear threat is *THE* primary existential threat we face!!!”.

(To be clear, I am an American from the Southern US whose every traceable-so-far ancestor was in the US for the last 150 or so years, but who largely came from either Great Britain or Ireland before that. (And yes, here I said “Great Britain” quite intentionally – to date, I’ve traced none of them to Scotland itself.) While I am very familiar with US politics, certainly this Millennium, I readily admit to being only extremely vaguely familiar with UK politics. To the level that a UK reader may find much more here to agree or disagree with than I have, and may quite likely find this review to be quite idiotic.)

Overall this is an interesting enough look into an area I hadn’t really considered beforehand, and with its brevity works well for those open to nonfiction who are looking for a rather short, rather quick read. Indeed, I seem to have read this book in barely a couple of hours, as a rough benchmark for what you might expect here.

Very much recommended.

This review of Empire Of Deterrence by Michael Gardiner was originally written on August 28, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Our Perfect Family by Nicola Marsh

Lots Of Moving Parts Combine For One Explosive Thriller. This is one of those books where you know from Page 1 that little is going to actually be as it seems… and yet Marsh is going to keep you guessing and keep the reveals coming all the way until almost literally the very last words of this just-shy-of-300 page tale.

This is one where pretty well every character has some dark secret they are trying to protect, which is where most of the tension throughout the text comes to bear. Everyone thinks they know everyone and everyone thinks this is a titular “perfect family”, except we know as readers that this is far from what is actually going on.

This does all happen in Australia, and apparently the narrators thus use Australian accents in their reading. I actually explicitly chose an Australian voice on my Text To Speech reader for this book because of the setting and Marsh herself being Australian, and it absolutely worked well for me.

There is also quite a bit of teen/ new adult drama to be had here, including one scene in particular that while some may find distasteful also is and has been far too common. Marsh actually plays the scene well both in what she chooses to actively show – and not – and in how she shows its impact throughout our “perfect” family, which drives a large portion of the narrative here.

Overall truly a fun, twisty family suspense/ thriller with oh so much going on on so many different levels, this really is a great end of summer/ start of the new school year read, and is thus fairly well positioned for its print release on the day after US Labor Day, when even Yankee schools start back. Southern US schools have generally been back for at least a few weeks already by this point, and indeed all of my nephew and nieces started school nearly a full month before the Kindle edition release of this book.)

Very much recommended.

This review of Our Perfect Family by Nicola Marsh was originally written on August 25, 2025.