Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor by Gregory S. Aldrete

This is another review done as a member of Amazon Vine, so I'm posting a description of the book with a direct link to my review on Amazon.

Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor by Gregory S. Aldrete ISBN-13: 9781421408194 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Released: March 1, 2013

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Alexander the Great led one of the most successful armies in history and conquered nearly the entirety of the known world while wearing armor made of cloth. How is that possible?

An extensive multiyear project in experimental archaeology, this pioneering study presents a thorough investigation of the linothorax, linen armor worn by the Greeks, Macedonians, and other ancient Mediterranean warriors. Because the linothorax was made of cloth, no examples of it have survived. Combining traditional textual and archaeological analysis with hands-on reconstruction and experimentation, the authors unravel the mysteries surrounding the linothorax. They have collected and examined all of the literary, visual, historical, and archaeological evidence for the armor and detail their efforts to replicate the armor using materials and techniques that are as close as possible to those employed in antiquity.

By reconstructing actual examples using authentic materials, the authors were able to scientifically assess the true qualities of linen armor for the first time in 1,500 years. The tests reveal that the linothorax provided surprisingly effective protection for ancient warriors, that it had several advantages over bronze armor, and that it even shared qualities with modern-day Kevlar.

My Review: Link to my review on Amazon.

Bird Homes and Habitats by Bill Thompson III

This is another review done as a member of Amazon Vine, so I'm posting a description of the book with a direct link to my review on Amazon.

Bird Homes and Habitats by Bill Thompson III ISBN-13: 9780618904464 Trade Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Released: September 10, 2013

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Which birds use nest boxes? What’s required to maintain a birdhouse? What kind of habitat will attract which birds? What does it take to be a bluebird trail operator? What does it mean if baby birds or eggs disappear from their nest?

It’s easy enough to hang a birdfeeder. But there are plenty of other things that can attract birds to a landscape—and, in fact, birds need four essentials: food, water, shelter, and a place to nest. The more of these elements a yard has, the more attractive it is to birds.

My Review: Link to my review on Amazon.

"Marketplace of the Marvelous" and "Kill or Cure"

I realize I haven't been posting many nonfiction book reviews lately, but I have been reading them. I've been getting them as a member of Amazon Vine and, if I understand the terms correctly, I'm not allowed to post my review of the Vine books anywhere except on Amazon. I have read some interesting books, though, so I thought maybe I'd post a description of a book (or two) with a direct link to my review on Amazon.

Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern Medicine by Erika Janik ISBN-13: 978-0807022085 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Beacon Press Released: January 7, 2014

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Despite rampant scientific innovation in nineteenth-century America, traditional medicine still subjected patients to bleeding, blistering, induced vomiting, and sweating. Many patients ran with open arms to burgeoning practices that promised new ways to cure their ills. Hydropaths offered cures using “healing waters” and tight wet-sheet wraps. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby experimented with magnets, while Daniel David Palmer reportedly restored a man’s hearing by knocking on his vertebrae. Lorenzo and Lydia Fowler used their fingers to “read” their clients’ heads. Samuel Thomson introduced a range of herbal remedies for a vast array of woes.

Bizarre as these methods may seem, many are the precursors of today’s notions of healthy living. We have the nineteenth-century practice of “medical gymnastics” to thank for today’s emphasis on regular exercise, and hydropathy’s various water cures for the notion of regular bathing and the mantra to drink “eight glasses of water a day.” Though many of these cures were discredited by advances in medical science, a surprising number of the theories and ideas behind the quackery are staples in today’s health industry. Janik tells the colorful stories of these "quacks."

My Review: Link to my review on Amazon.

Kill or Cure by Steve Parker ISBN-13: 978-1465408426 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: DK Adult Released: October 21, 2013

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Telling the compelling stories behind mankind's never-ending quest to cure every disease, Kill or Cure uses a text-rich narrative combined with DK's beautiful visual design to trace the extraordinary history of medicine. Using panels, timelines, and thematic spreads, Kill or Cure tells the dramatic tale of medical progress.

My Review: Link to my review on Amazon.

How To Draw What You See by Rudy De Reyna

How To Draw What You See by Rudy De Reyna ISBN-13: 9780823023752 Paperback: 178 pages Publisher: Watson-Guptill Released: 1972; September 1, 1996

Source: Bought through Half.com.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
How to Draw What You See shows artists how to recognize the basic shape of an object—cube, cylinder, cone, or sphere—and use that shape to draw the object, no matter how much detail it contains. Part One discusses the fundamentals of drawing. There are clear, concise and lavishly illustrated projects. Each project is arranged so that one is slightly more complex than the one before. In Part Two, the author explains the use of media not usually described in a drawing book--wash, opaque, acrylic, and ink. He provides exercises to help the student gain proficiency in handling each of them.


My Review:
How To Draw What You See is a basic-level drawing book. I don't draw, but a girl that I mentor spends a lot of time drawing. I thought it'd be fun to take drawing lessons together, but the instructor isn't very good at explaining WHY we are doing the various exercises that he gives to us. I noticed that he was basically following the lesson plan in this book, so I bought a copy. The book does a much better job of explaining the concepts than my art lessons instructor, and I have the feeling that I could have learned just as much by using this book instead of taking lessons. (Hopefully you have access to a better instructor.)

Part One of this book covers 19 lessons which are progressive projects that build skill and confidence. He covered drawing basic shapes, perspective, shading, tones, drawing still life (indoors), drawing outdoors (which covered the differences from still life more than how to draw trees, etc.), and drawing people and faces. I wasn't as impressed with the instruction in the drawing people section, but it certainly gave some basics to start from.

Part Two gave the basics on how to use watercolor, opaque watercolor, acrylic, and ink. He gives projects using black, greys, and white paints. This section had less instruction, but I think it's mainly intended to introduce the idea of "drawing" using other media.

Overall, I felt that this book was very helpful and developed my skill at creating realistic-looking drawings. I'd recommend it to those wishing to learn this skill.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

How The Settlers Lived by George Laycock

How The Settlers Lived by George & Ellen Laycock ISBN-13: 978-0679206842 Hardcover: 113 pages Publisher: Random House Children's Books Released: May 12, 1980

Source: Bought in a library used book sale.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Describes the living conditions, homes, clothes, and recreation of early Western settlers. This fascinating account of frontier days is accompanied by many detailed drawings and depicts settler's daily lives--how they reached the West, how they cleared and cultivated the land, how they built and cultivated the land, how they built and furnished their log cabins, how they made their clothes, weapons, and utensils, and more.


My Review:
How The Settlers Lived is a children's book about how the American frontier families in the early 1800s lived. The book appears to be aimed at juvenile readers. The text gave an overview of a number of topics but, while interesting, the details within a topic were brief. I remember my mother reading the Little House on the Prairie series to me when I was young, and I learned much of this information and more from those books.

Young readers interested in the topic will probably find this book interesting and informative. About half of the pages are drawings illustrating some aspect of daily live that is talked about in the text.

The book covered how they traveled West, how they made their homes (and described several types of homes, like a log cabin and a soddy house), how they furnished their homes, how they cleared and farmed the land, hunting, what they wore, doctors and illness, and what they did for fun.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Grapes of Canaan: Hawaii 1820 by Albertine Loomis

Grapes of Canaan: Hawaii 1820 by Albertine Loomis ISBN-13: 9781881987123 Mass Market Paperback: 338 pages Publisher: Ox Bow Press Released: June 1998

Source: Borrowed from my mother.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
This book is an important chronicle of the early years of the first Protestant mission in the Hawaiian islands. It is based upon the journals of Elisha and Maria Loomis, other missionary journals, and other historical sources. Their great-granddaughter, Albertine Loomis, remarked that the book was meant to be "an authentic and accurate story, using some of the techniques of fiction to give it pace and vividness for the general reader. Even the conversational passages are based on documentary accounts of what was said, and oftener than not...they are almost word for word as Elisha or one of the others recorded them."


My Review:
Grapes of Canaan: Hawaii 1820 is a biography about the first Protestant missionaries to the Hawaiian islands based on letters, journals, and other documents from the time written by the people described in the book. It covered a period from 1819 to 1827.

The book described the difficulties the missionaries faced and the changes that occurred in the islands as the missionaries developed a Hawaiian written language, taught it, started translating the Bible, and spread the Good News about Christ. The account ends with the author's grandparents, Elisha and Maria Loomis, returning to America, and so some questions about what happened next are left unanswered. Still, a lot happened in that time.

The book was a fairly easy read--the Hawaiian names were tricky, but there's a glossary in the back for the other Hawaiian words. The book felt like an accurate portrayal of what happened. I don't agree with a few of the missionary's theological stances, like they controled who was baptized and apparently felt this meant that they largely decided who was granted salvation. However, I was impressed by how genuine they were in their faith and how they cared for the Hawaiian people. Overall, I'd recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Princess by Jean P. Sasson

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean P. Sasson ISBN-13: 9780688116750 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow & Company Released: September 1, 1992

Source: Bought at a library used book sale.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Sultana is a Saudi Arabian princess, a woman born to fabulous, uncountable wealth. But she lives in a gilded cage. She has no freedom, no control over her own life, no value but as a bearer of sons.

Sultana tells of her own life, from her turbulent childhood to her arranged marriage--a happy one until her husband decided to displace her by taking a second wife--and of the lives of her sisters, her friends and her servants. They share a history of appalling everyday oppressions, like thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age and young women killed by their own families by drowning, stoning, or isolation in a padded, windowless cell until death claims them.

By telling her story to Jean Sasson, Sultana has allowed us to see beyond the veils of this secret society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money, and power reign supreme.


My Review:
Princess is a memoir about a woman who was born a princess in Saudi Arabia and what it was like to grow up, marry, and have children as a woman in that culture. She also relates stories about non-royal or poor Saudi women as well as women who come to work as maids in the Saudi homes.

It's a very sad story in many ways, and it's hard to read how cruelly people can treat one another. The author wrote the story of the princess' life for her based on diaries and conversations. The story has a very readable style that allows the personality of the princess to come strongly through, both the good and the bad. Overall, I'd recommend this book to those interested in women's lives in Saudi Arabia. Keep in mind, though, that things have changed some since this book was written.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: A link to Amazon so you can read an excerpt using Look Inside.