A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

by Ishmael Beah


Rating: ***** (5 Stars)
Book Length: 229 pages
Genre: Memoir, War, Nonfiction, African Nonfiction

Imagine your entire world changing one day while you are going about an innocent childhood day. That is what happened to Ishmael Beah. One day he was working on a rap group with his friends. The next he was struggling to survive.

The story is one that everyone should hear.

Unfortunately, Ishmael's story is not unique. What is unique is his gift to share that experience with the rest of the world. He is clearly a highly intelligent and communicative young man. This was realized long before the book was released when he was chosen to represent his country at the United Nations. That experience gave him a way to get out of his country. Yet, how many children were left behind?

Once you read this book it will become a part of you. It is due to the topic, children as young a six picking up a gun to defend their country is not something that will leave your mind. Yet, it is also due to Ishmael Beah's gift with words.

As reviewed on The Book Recluse Review

All the President's Men

by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward



Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Page Length: 480 pages
Genre: Nonfiction, Politics, True Crime, Journalism

Sometimes books are situational. How you feel about them depends on the period of your life that you are in. I feel like this is the case with this book.

No matter when I would have picked it up it would have been well written with engaging storytelling. Yet, I do not think it would have held my interest as much as it has now.

I picked this book up because it is on Amazon's 100 Books To Read in Your Lifetime. Coincidently I started reading the same time the comparisons between Trump and Nixon began. I am not a history buff, and my knowledge of politics is confined to basic Political Science courses. None of these ever covered Nixon. Reading this book helped me to understand why comparisons were being made between administrations.

There is another amazing component about this book. It was fascinating reading about the journalistic pursuits of Bernstein and Woodward. For one, they had to put aside their differences in personalities to work together on a story of a lifetime. It was evident in the writing that both were aware of potential conflicts of personality and tried to create a clear picture without causing offense. It also showed how their relationship changed from conflict to check and balances, using each other's differences to make sure they did not cross a line in their story.

It also showed their journalistic integrity. They created rules about the number of sources they would have at a minimum when publishing. They held off on publishing when they did not feel there was enough evidence to support their claim. They also became the bad guys of D.C. for a while. It leads me to wonder how Journalism has changed with the increase of technology.

As reviewed on The Book Recluse Review