Tag: nonfiction

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#BookReview: The Case For Kringle by Kent Holloway

Hitler In Heaven, Pope Francis In Hell, And The Surprising Connection To Why Santa Claus Is The Best Missionary In The History Of Christianity. Got your attention with that title, right? And I know you’re asking, seriously, dude? Hitler? THAT Hitler? In Heaven???? And the recently deceased Pope Francis, the freaking POPE, the HEAD OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH POPE, in Hell????

And what, by God, does either one of those things have to do with Santa Claus AT ALL?????

Well… you need to read this book. 😀 (Though to be clear, I *did* modify Holloway’s premise for purposes of this review. In the text, Holloway actually uses Mother Teresa rather than Pope Francis, but I thought Pope Francis was more relevant to the current moment while serving the exact same purpose. 🙂 ) I fully cop to the simple fact that the title of this review and indeed most of it to this point is openly written to attempt to trigger the Outrage Machine (as Tobias Rose-Stockwell called it in his book of the same name almost two years to the day before this book is released) / Algospeak (as Adam Aleksic proclaims it in his book of the same name releasing on the same day as this book). My duty as a reviewer is first to be completely honest about my thoughts on a given book, but second to do everything in my power to help promote my review of the book (and thus the book itself), so this is an experiment in that line of thinking.

Seriously, this book is all about the pros and cons of Santa Claus, as seen by an ordained Baptist minister who actively dons the red and white suit every year and openly professes his love of (nearly) all things Christmas and Santa.

Yet even though Holloway is quite open with his natural bias here, he is also quite thorough in looking through the common complaints of Santa and examining each in turn – both from the left (“shaming isn’t cool, y’all, and we need to protect the feelings of the young flowers”) and from the right (“Heresy!!! There is NOTHING about Santa in the Bible!!!”). And Holloway truly does a pretty even handed look at all aspects of the complaints at hand, writing as both defense lawyer and prosecutor of both sides. Truly, it works quite well and since he uses a very conversational tone, it also reads quite easily.

Further, at barely 150 pages, this is also a very *quick* read – I read it in under 3 hrs, and that included getting a few chores done around the house preparing for my sister in law to arrive later today as I write this review.

Truly, anyone interested in any form of Christmas – even the secular, Santa/ Rudolph only version – will appreciate the overall discussion here, as while this *is* an explicitly Christian book and Holloway explicitly talks about using his time in the suit to spread the Christian message – part of the whole “best missionary in the history of Christianity bit”, though read the book to see what Holloway does with this and how carefully and sensitively he approaches it – this is truly a book that looks at several non-religious arguments for and against Santa as well, and these discussions could be beneficial to even the most ardent secularist/ anti-Christian.

Indeed, the *only* reason for the star deduction is that even though Holloway does include at least some footnotes at the end of each chapter, they’re all brief enough that I daresay they wouldn’t quite get to the 15% or so of the text that even my recently relaxed bibliographic standards require in order to get the full amount of stars in the rating.

Truly an well written quick read that does everything it sets out to do… and maybe a bit more.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Case For Kringle by Kent Holloway was originally written on June 6, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Dark Pattern by Guido Palazzo And Ulrich Hoffrage

Not So Hidden, Yet Authors Explain In Ways Perhaps Others Have Not Considered. This is one of those books that reads as though you’ve always known exactly what the authors are presenting… you just never considered actually breaking it out exactly like this. Part Corporate Leadership, part Corporate Ethics, and part Self Help, it is a guide to thinking ethically even in tough situations – lest you find yourself and your company embroiled in scandals as infamous as the ones detailed herein (and others far less famous, yet impactful).

Speaking as someone who *has* worked in one of the largest companies in the world (a global megacorporation generally in the lower half of the Fortune 50 the entire time I worked there), this is one that corporate leaders are going to *love* so that they can claim they are doing something about corporate ethics/ education… so we’ll see how much those same companies really take to heart the actual message of this text and truly make changes across the board, rather than just dictating to crew dogs some (usually not completely thought out, at least at the lowest levels) written in stone and just as hard to adapt rules to follow that will change with the next corporate ethics book Leadership reads. Hell, maybe they can even save some money and just buy a lot of copies of this book rather than hiring expensive “consultants” to tell them the exact same thing… *because they read this book*.

But seriously, having been involved in the mentorship program at that employer as a mentor to more junior colleagues, this is absolutely a book I would have recommended they read, and indeed even in my current role where I also help mentor a junior colleague, I’m absolutely going to recommend this book to both my boss and my colleague. It really does lay things out quite clearly, at least so far as its framework goes.

The one criticism I have, though not rising quite to the level of a star deduction, is that its application of its framework can feel at times forced and at other times a touch too heavy handed or even myopic. Yes, it *technically* fits with both Enron and Theranos as described… but there were absolutely other factors in both of those situations that were just as critical to their scandals that *don’t* fit the overall framework as neatly which were ignored or explained away with essentially a hand wave.

But read this book anyway. It really is quite solid, and it absolutely gives off the “I always knew this” impression… even when you clearly didn’t think of it in these exact terms or framework, and these exact terms and framework may indeed help you to be a more ethical worker and leader.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Dark Pattern by Guido Palazzo and Ulrich Hoffrage was originally written on June 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Hiroshima Men by Iain MacGregor

Among The More Complete Histories Of The Nuclear Bombing Of Japan. Clocking in at nearly 450 pages, with only about 10% of that bibliography – and hence the star deduction – this account really is one of the more complete accounts of the entire event I’ve yet come across in all my years both reading books generally and studying WWII in its various facets more specifically. It was also the last of three books about the bomb and/ or the use of it that I read over the few days of US Memorial Day Weekend 2025 or in the days immediately after, the other two being Evan Thomas’ 2023 book Road To Surrender and Frank Close’s June 2025 book Destroyer Of Worlds.

Specifically, in tracking exactly who it does – including several key US personnel involved with both war planning and the Manhattan Project itself, the pilot of the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, the reporter who really opened America’s eyes to the horrors of nuclear fallout, and even the Mayor of Hiroshima himself – this book really does give a complete all around picture of all aspects of the creation and use of the atomic bomb and the repercussions for both American leadership and Japanese civilians.

Reading almost like a Tom Clancy or perhaps Robert Ludlum war thriller at times, this text *also* manages to have the emotional heavy hitting of Hersey’s original Hiroshima report, which it covers in nearly as much detail as Lesley MM Blume’s 2020 book Fallout – which told the story of that report exclusively. Leaning more towards the American position that as horrific as this event was, it very likely saved lives – American, Japanese, and even Russian – this is one of those texts that largely doesn’t speak of the efforts in both America and Japan by several key, yet not quite highly ranked enough, leaders to at least consider trying to end the war through dialogue (ala Evan Thomas’ 2023 book Road To Surrender), but instead seeks to offer the reader a more complete understanding of the men who *were* making the decisions in these moments, from the President of the United States all the way to the commander of the airplane that actually dropped the bomb itself.

Ultimately a thorough yet sobering account, and with its release intentionally timed just barely a month before the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, this really is one of the most complete books I’ve ever encountered on the topic, one that at least attempts to strive for a balance in understanding *all* involved in this event. Thus, all -American, Japanese, and everyone else interested in discussing the event with intelligence and facts – would do well to read this particular accounting.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Hiroshima Men by Iain MacGregor was originally written on June 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Road To Surrender by Evan Thomas

History In All Its Complexity. This is one of the better histories of the nuclear bombings of Japan that I’ve come across over the years in that it isn’t “hoo-rah we didn’t drop *enough* bombs on Japan!”, but it also isn’t “nuclear weapons are an absolute abomination and their use made the term “war crime” seem like stealing a piece of gum, it was so much worse than that”. (The second there being closer to my own position on the matter, for what that’s worth.)

Instead, Thomas takes pains to show the complex realities on both sides of the war, both in what the leaders at the time knew and in the various pressures each was facing in trying to lead nations during a war. This is a Western-based book, and thus ultimately comes down on the side of the deployment of these weapons being “necessary”, but Thomas really shows effort to show that at least some of the American leaders that ultimately selected the targets and ordered the strikes did at least attempt to consider other alternatives – but again, given their own intelligence estimates, planning, and pressures, ultimately concluded to issue the orders they did.

One thing that becomes crystal clear when reading this text, however, is that while there may not have been (apparently clearly were not) actual communications regarding this between the governments, there absolutely were people – high ranking people – on both sides that were seeking ways to avoid this fate. There were those on the American side high enough up to know what was being built in top secrecy but low enough to not be able to countermand the order to actually use them that wanted to avoid civilian deaths at *all* costs – even if it meant not dropping these bombs at all. There were those on the Japanese side that were striving, as early as late 1944 in particular, to find some way to end the war and still allow Japan to retain its Imperial system, or at bare minimum its Emperor. (Which, to be clear, despite the US “insisting” on “unconditional” surrender, *was* ultimately allowed – and yes, Thomas goes into detail here too about what the terms actually meant to both sides.)

Truly one of the better histories of the topic I’ve ever come across, and I’m glad I finally read this text on US Memorial Weekend 2025, as we begin to go through the 80th anniversary of many of the final events detailed in this book.

Very much recommended.

This review of Road To Surrender by Evan Thomas was originally written on June 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Fuji Fire by Chas Henry

Mass Effect. September 11. Small Exurban Atlanta, Georgia. A Blimp Commonly Seen At Major US Sporting Events. All Connected By One Event. Many, many years ago – nearly as far back as the fire at the heart of this book, though I’m not quite *that* old – I attended a Family Day (or whatever they called it at the time) at the Goodyear plant in Rockmart, Ga, just outside metropolitan Atlanta at the time. My dad and several uncles all worked for Goodyear at one of their two plants in my hometown of Cartersville, just up the road, and for whatever reason this year (and maybe one other?) Goodyear was combining the event for all three plants. Little did I know that in attending that event, I would have a direct – if extremely remote – connection to a fire that killed 13 US Marines and injured nearly 50 other people when my dad was 19 and just before my mom’s 19th birthday, nearly a year before they wed and within 5 yrs before my birth. To the level that given my family and community connections, it is at least somewhat likely that I actually know people who know the people who likely never even knew that something they had made had unfortunately indirectly caused so much devastation.

And little did Henry know that in including the tiny detail of who made the fuel bladder that leaked the fuel that burned and caused these casualties, he would instantly make this tale that much more personal to a reviewer who had never heard of this tragedy before seeing this book.

But there are wider connections here, both more in the aftermath than the setup. One issue Henry dives into for a page or two (of just barely 230 pages of actual text here) actually connects directly to an issue explored early in the first Mass Effect game in an encounter that is almost unavoidable, but to reveal which one would be a major spoiler for the discussion at this point of the book, as they are in fact identical, with identical reasonings if not identical particulars.

The other, perhaps even most surprising connection of all, is actually that this 1979 USMC tragedy along the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan is directly connected to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City – and directly helped save lives in 2001. All because one doc in particular was there in 1979 trying to save the lives of as many of these Marines as he could and learned lessons that became directly applicable that Tuesday in New York.

Read this book to learn of the Marines tragically lost over those two months in late 1979. Their stories have rarely been told outside of Marine circles, and everyone deserves to be remembered and have their stories known. Read this book to learn of the mistakes that were made that caused this calamity – or certainly exacerbated it, at minimum – and what we can do better both in the military (which *has* updated and clarified the relevant regulations over the intervening decades) and as a society in response to emergency and traumatic situations. Read this book to learn of the selflessness and heroism of so many working to save as many people as possible, and of the Marines themselves who were so often so much more worried about their fellow Marine than their own body. Read this book because so few of us have ever heard these stories, yet the sacrifice and courage of so many truly deserve to be more well known by so many more of us.

And yes, after you read this book… leave your own review. Tell the world what you thought of Henry’s reporting here (reads like a thriller, even as you know it is all too real) or the events shown here (I think I’ve been clear on that point). Help get the word out about this book so that the world can see what happened in 1979… and since.

And then go hug a loved one, because as this tale so poignantly points out… you never really know when it will be the last time you have a chance to do so.

Very much recommended.

PS: The star deduction? Unfortunately there was no bibliography at all in the Advance Review Copy edition of the book I read, and while I understand that this is original investigation, even by my more relaxed bibliographic requirements of nonfiction books these last few years I still really need to see at least around 15% of the text be bibliography, as that does seem to be a rough industry standard and is the standard I’ve been judging nonfiction books by for quite some time.

This review of Fuji Fire by Chas Henry was originally written on May 30, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Projects by Howard A. Husock

Important History That Should Spark Needed Discussion. First up, I fully admit I am *far* from a public housing expert of any kind. I read books like this to learn about issues, not because I already know about them. The closest first hand knowledge I have of any of this is growing up in Exurban Atlanta and being generally aware of the Atlanta news… right as the Atlanta Projects were coming down and being rethought in the late 90s/ early 2000s around the time of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. And even then, even while working with a community service oriented collegiate honor society throughout my college years in this period, while we worked a lot with various “community revitalization” efforts, we never really worked in the Projects. Maybe some other Atlanta chapters did (Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Spelman, etc), but my school just in the suburbs (Kennesaw State) didn’t.

All of that tangential personal history dealt with, the actual text here is great for sparking discussion on a few different, yet mostly related, topics… but the text here is also written almost as a textbook. It *feels* like something you would actually take a class on with this as the text and expect to be quizzed and tested about the various people and dates and movements and philosophies and such, yet it isn’t as dry and formal as an actual academic paper tends to be. It is one of those University Press (NYU, in this case) titles that seems truly destined to be *most* read as a textbook, very nearly explicitly designed for exactly that… and yet it *should* be read by a much wider audience, particularly among the “leader” / “influencer” / “organizer” set, because it really does have some interesting things to say about the entire history up to 2023 or so – and, somewhat, of the potential future – of public housing in the United States.

Among the discussions relevant here are the Nazi-based origins of public housing as we now know it in the 2020s – literally, the leaders who first proposed the national laws that led to the Projects openly praised Adolf Hitler and many of his acolytes of the late 1920s/ early 1930s – when their antisemitism and violence was already clear, but well before their “final solution” began. How can we openly embrace the freedom and diversity we claim to hold so dear in the US in the 2020s while also advocating for ideas that are in places almost word for word out of Hitler’s own mouth?

Another discussion point that Husock actually does a truly phenomenal job of exploring, even if a touch tangentially, is reparations. No, not for slavery – by and large, clear records of that don’t exist and the people directly affected by it are long dead. HOWEVER, the black communities whose property was effectively stolen -via so-called “eminent domain”, where the government can dictate the price it will pay you for your land – … this happened in the 1930s and later. We have actual property records of those who owned that land at that time. While many of the owners themselves are now dead, as many of them would have been born around the turn of the 20th century, some of the later ones – the projects built more in the “golden era”, as Husock describes it, of the 1950s and early 1960s… some of those original owners *may* still be alive. In either case, it is very likely that direct legal heirs of many of these people – their kids, grandkids, or even great-grandkids – are very much alive today and could be more adequately compensated for what was taken from their near ancestor. In theory, this could be seen as a just remediation for sins that while in the past, are still recent enough to bear accurate justification. Obviously, this would have to be more completely thought through and debated by those with far more knowledge of the specifics than I have, and likely far greater philosophers and ethicists than I will ever begin to approach claiming to be, but I do believe that Husock lays the basic groundwork for such conversations quite well in this text, and it should be read for this if for no other reason.

The final major discussion that Husock leads to here in the text is actually the very original discussion – what, if anything, should be done regarding public housing: Who should fund it, who should manage it, who should benefit from it, *is it possible* to truly benefit from it, under what conditions can it be successful, what is “successful public housing”, etc?

Husock makes clear that in certain times and places – even in this Millennium – public housing *has* worked and *can* work – but he also makes equally clear that the realities of public housing have rarely lived up to the ideals and goals of its proponents.

Read this book. Even if you yourself happen to be a public housing expert, you’re still likely to learn at leasta few things here. Write your own review of this book. And, perhaps more importantly, write to your governmental “leaders” at every level from your local City Councilman (as Housing Authorities are run by local leaders) all the way through your Congressman and even the President (as Federal policy is set in DC) and let them know your thoughts after reading it. Maybe, just maybe, we can actually get these discussions had in the manner than they are due.

Oh, and the star deduction? The bibliography clocked in at just 11% or so, which is short of even my recently relaxed standard of 15%.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Projects by Howard A. Husock was originally written on May 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Crossings by Ben Goldfarb

Well-Documented Examination Of How Roads Affect Animals. The subtitle of this book in particular is at least slightly misleading, as the book isn’t so much about all the ways roads impact ecology as much as how roads impact animals. It also isn’t so much about the “future of our planet” so much as it is about preventing extinction of migratory animals in particular.

But for what it *is*, this is actually a well documented (38% of the overall text) examination of how roads impact animals and how we can make them better for the wildlife around us… and thus ultimately safer for us. (As Goldfarb points out, at least at one point deer were the most deadly animal in America, far surpassing sharks or even snakes or even insect stings, due to the sheer volume of people killed in crashes wherein they either hit deer directly or swerved to avoid doing so.)

Indeed, much of the book is spent discussing largely three topics: roadkill, animal crossings, and to a slightly lesser extent, noise pollution and how it affects animal crossings and roadkill. Along the way we get sidetracked to a discussion of LA’s cougars, Tasmania’s world record roadkill, Interstates preventing deer migration in the Rocky Mountains, and even some discussion of salmon migration in the Pacific Northwest, among others.

If you’re looking for a book about the *totality* of how roads affect ecology… this isn’t that.

If you’re looking for a historical/ current look at how roads affect animal life… you’ve come to the right place.

And yes, Goldfarb has rather frequent leftist political rants sprinkled throughout the text, but none anywhere near as severe as the ultra leftist reviews eviscerating this book, so take that for what it’s worth – while annoying, I’ve read books with far worse rants with far fewer interesting facts, so I personally didn’t think it was *too* terrible – hence the reason I didn’t deduct a star for it. But your mileage will absolutely vary there, so just be aware of this before coming into this book.

Recommended.

This review of Crossings by Ben Goldfarb was originally written on May 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Proof by Adam Kucharski

Not As Bad As It Could Have Been. Quite honestly, if I had known up front that I was reading a book about proof and certainty written by a *COVID “scientist”*… I would never have picked the damn book up to begin with. Those fuckers have been more wrong than flat earthers, and the world learned from dire direct personal experience to not believe a word they say.

This noted, Kucharski does at least admit that even he was wrong in at least certain areas, so the fact that he wasn’t trying to defend everything he and his colleagues did to us and all of their blatant mistakes was at least somewhat refreshing and gave this review its title.

Kucharski actually does a good job here with writing about precise concepts in layman and approachable terms, and even raises great (and hitherto unknown even to me) points about how even Euclid’s Elements ultimately shaped decades of American politics… via one State Senator working himself through it in order to learn how to be a more convincing orator. That particular State Senator being none other than later President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

Similarly, other sections are also quite enlightening about other forms of proof, even going so far as to at least allow for the possibility of Bayes being wrong in his Theorem (a topic explored much more fully in the much more targeted work Bernoulli’s Fallacy by Aubrey Clayton) – which not many books about proof and statistics have ever done, at least in my experience as a former math and math related fields major and avid reader. (LONG story short, I came within a half dozen classes of getting degrees in Computer Science (the one I ultimately did get), Mathematics, and Secondary Mathematics Education at once… almost 20 yrs ago to the day as I write this review.)

Ultimately, the star deductions are for the long focus on COVID, which even 5 yrs later still warrants a star deduction in my own personal war against books focusing on that topic, and for trying to defend the scientists who were pushing so much of the damaging narratives – including, it seems, Kucharski himself. In a book about “proof” and “certainty”, where history has now proven that one group of scientists in particular was so *incredibly* wrong in their “certain” judgements, to defend that very group of scientists as correct is to actively deny reality, and this cannot be ignored in such a text as this. (I’ve since come to forgive/ be far more lenient about more passing references to that horrible period of the 21st century, by the way.)

Now, maybe your political positions align more with Kucharski’s. Maybe you still believe the blatant lies the world was fed about that period that ultimately caused far more harm and devastation than the actual virus ever did. In which case, you’re going to LOVE this book.

But for those like me who believe that every single one of those “scientists” should find a more appropriate job that suits their actual knowledge and skill level – burger flipper, maybe? – eh… read this book anyway. Kucharski really does have some great stuff here, when he’s not talking COVID.

Recommended.

This review of Proof by Adam Kucharski was originally written on May 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees

Solid Nonpartisan Examination Of The Psychology Of Nazism – And All The More Terrifying For It. This is one of those *detailed* looks at the full history of Nazism, all the way back into its origins in the 19th century, that uses different psychological concepts as the focus of each chapter and shows how both the leaders of the Party and even the German laypeople fell under its spell.

Even with most chapters being a detailed history of the Nazi period of Germany and with only the final “Twelve Warnings” chapter having really anything to do directly with life a century later, the parallels to political life now – on *all* sides – become quite clear, even without Rees having to explicitly detail them. Whether it be the anti-immigrant MAGA or the anti-white “Woke” Left, the parallels to the various psychological foibles of Nazism are quite clear in Rees’ history here – which makes it all the more utterly terrifying.

Because no matter what modern society wants to think, and as a great grandson of an American soldier who was a German POW during WWI and a grandson of two survivors of the Battle of the Bulge on the American side (one of whom earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for this actions in that particular battle) of WWII, I think I have some space to talk here: Nazis did utterly horrific things, this is clear. Things that would drive those who even witnessed them – even as liberators – to lifelong alcoholism after the war, and that was among the *better* effects. But Nazis were *not* some mythical monster. They were utterly, completely, 100% human – and we and our society – *any* of us – could fall into their depravities much easier than we like to think in the 2020s. Rees’ history here makes this all too clear, and should serve as a clarion call to *ALL* of us, no matter our political beliefs or reasonings.

Read this book. Apply it to your political enemies – that’s the easy part. Then critically look at those closest to you politically… and apply it to them as well. That’s hard. Then critically look into your own mind, seriously examine your own thought processes and how you believe what you believe, and apply this book to that as well. That’s the hardest part of all. Yet it may indeed be our only way of truly preventing the horrors of the past from becoming a prophecy of a future that could come again.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees was originally written on April 25, 2025.

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#BookReview: Life Is Fighting by Kevin Robert Kesar aka WWE’s Karrion Kross

On Par With Foley and Jericho RE: Best Written Wrestling Memoirs. Admittedly, my favorite memory involving Kross as a wrestling fan, one I actually repeat occassionally, was actually something his opponent said to him a few years ago. He was in a feud in NXT as the NXT Champion with the former NXT Champiom, Adam Cole (now working for rival promotion AEW) when Cole said to Kross “This brand has done everything in their power to make *you* feel special. You got the cool music, you got the lights, you got the fog machine, you got the girl. You know what they do to make Adam Cole feel special? They ring the freakin’ bell.” This was during the COVID, “Thunderdome” era of WWE/ NXT, when Kross had a shaved head and was tearing through any and all competitors – a period he does in fact discuss over the course of this book.

I actually read the book on Wrestlemania 41 weekend in April 2025, specifically on Wrestlemania Sunday – when Kross wasn’t on the card, but would ultimately have a “run-in” during the AJ Styles/ Logan Paul match… and then go on to cut what is likely the defining promo of his main roster career after the event, in a 3 minute video that has already gone viral this week with many calling for now WWE Hall of Famer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Head of Creative for WWE, to give Kross a push the likes of which he hasn’t really seen since that run he was on when Cole made the comment above.

I mean, I already had the memoir of a current WWE Superstar in my hand on Wrestlemania Weekend, I needed something to do before the show started up Sunday night, this book is sub-300 pages and thus a relatively quick read… so… yeah.

And y’all, it really was an excellent look into the life of Kevin Kesar, both long before the Kross character ever came into being – and even a fair amount of how Kesar created Kross – and at least some about his new career as Killer/ Karrion Kross. Indeed, most of the text is actually spent on his pre-WWE days – while there is *some* discussion of his WWE colleagues, the singular most common one discussed is his now-wife, known by her government name of Elizabeth but known to wrestling fans as the character Scarlett, a witch who both empowers and is powered by Kross’ brutal warrior.

Those looking for a lot of behind the scenes name dropping are going to be sorely disappointed. Kesar keeps the book focused on himself, even when discussing Elizabeth/ Scarlett. Even when others are in the scene, such as when he is meeting Elizabeth those first few times before they really started dating, or when he finally gets the call from WWE, or even when he and Elizabeth get married on an Alaskan glacier after having both been recently “let go” from WWE (and before they were both ultimately brought back), throughout the tale we see much more of Kesar than anyone else… as s memoir should be, to an extent, but also not as perhaps some fans reading wrestling memoirs specificlaly would necessarily like as much.

Instead we get all of Kesar – at least as much as he is willing to discuss publicly, even/ especially in book form. We see his early days as a kid watching wrestling and knowing even then that he wanted to do that “someday”. We see his beginnings in what turned out to be a very “unsanctioned” dive bar bare knuckle fight. We see his first career as a bouncer and later professional bodyguard, in Vegas and beyond – again, without any name dropping and with quite a bit of channeling Patrick Swayze in Road House, specifically as it relates to professionalism, treating people well, and “being nice”.

And then… a scene that ultimately reads much as the church scene from the original Kingsmen movie played out. I don’t want to go into too many details and spoil the scene, but this scene will very likely be one of the most memorable scenes in the entire book for readers, perhaps even above and beyond even his wedding (which, as he mentioned in the text, he did put pictures of on Instagram, and they truly were absolutely stunning) or anything he has done to date (as of the writing of the book) in WWE. This scene is *BEYOND* bonkers, and it really shows Kesar in all of his abilities outside of WWE.

Overall a very easily read and very approachable book about a guy that even guys that consider themselves dangerous likely would at minimum pay extra attention to if they saw him on the street, and yet the text shows that Kesar’s mind is at least as skillful as anything he can make his large, muscular body do. A guy who is much more easily approached here, at the standoff distance of a book, than he ever is staring into a camera with that fire in his eyes. Kesar takes pains to make sure the reader understands that he knows 100% that Kross is a character, and that outside of WWE work, Kross prefers to be known as “Kevin” – even among friends he works with. Yet he also does a damn good job of showing that while Kross may be borderline (or even well beyond borderline) psychotic, Kevin is a very sane – yet also still quite dangerous, when he needs to be – man. One who is, despite his appearances (both intentional and not, at times), as much a philosopher as a fighter – and thus proves to be as adept at writing as he is at fighting… and breaking bats. (Check his Instagram for that last. 😉 )

Very much recommended.

This review of Life Is Fighting by Kevin Robert Kesar was originally written on April 23, 2025.