The Presidents' War – Chris DeRose

The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them       Chris DeRose (Book 18 of 2015)

 
Through the years,I have read many books about the Civil War. Most of those books center around the battles and the Generals. Until I saw the book The Presidents’ War I never thought or knew about the former Presidents who were alive during the conflict. As a matter of fact, the book’s author Chris DeRose writes in the Acknowledgments of the book
….I had never known of the former presidents who lived to see the Civil War until a visit to Seattle in 2012 and a conversation with my friend.
It was that friend Rob Peck, who inspired the book! Anyway, the point is if Mr DeRose author of two previous Congressman Lincoln: The Making of America’s Greatest President(2013) and Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election That Saved a Nation ( 2011) and  a visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Arizona Summit Law School, where he teaching Constitutional Law, International Law, and Election Law/Voting Rights hadn’t heard about the presidents alive during the Civil War until 2012, I don’t feel so bad about not thinking about them until after reading his book!!
The five living ex-President’s alive at the start of the Civil War were John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, Millard Filllmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.  Each of those Presidents faced the underlying causes of the War and did little to avoid the coming conflict. Here’s a little about each of those Presidents from DeRose’s website…. Read More

The Presidents’ War – Chris DeRose

The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them       Chris DeRose (Book 18 of 2015)

Through the years,I have read many books about the Civil War. Most of those books center around the battles and the Generals. Until I saw the book The Presidents’ War I never thought or knew about the former Presidents who were alive during the conflict. As a matter of fact, the book’s author Chris DeRose writes in the Acknowledgments of the book Read More

Island of the Sequined Love Nun – Christopher Moore

Island of the Sequined Love Nun – Christopher Moore – Book 17 of 2015

So the question of the night is: Who is Your Favorite Author of humorous books?? Janet Evanovich? Carl Hiaasen? Terry Pratchett? Douglas Adams? Tim Dorsey?? Dave Barry??  The question arises because one of  my goals for April was to read a book on happiness or a funny book. I chose to read a funny book and one book that fit that description that was on my TBR pile was Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore. Read More

Albert King – A “King of the Blues”

Albert King  “The Velvet Bulldozer”  (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992)

On April 25th in 1923, alphabetically the first of the “Three Kings” of Blues Albert King was born. Albert had a major impact on the blues and rock music. On December 11th, 2012, it was announced that King would be posthumously inducted into the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I was never a big Abert King fan in the 70s or 80s. It has only been in the last several years that I really became aware of  his impact on blues and rock music. I think that he gets lost in the shadow of B.B. King,  Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. And that is kind’a hard when you’re big as he was! From Wikipedia: Read More

Dreamless – Jorgen Brekke

Dreamless (Book 2 – Odd Singsaker Series)

Dreamless is the second book  from Norwegian author Jorgen Brekke and it’s a good one. The setting of the book is Trondheim Norway and the main character of the series is Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker. The book follows up where book one Where Monsters Dwell left off. Odd is still recovering and ,dealing with the effects of his brain tumor. He is now married to former American police officer Felicia Stone. All of the characters are still dealing with the aftershocks of the prior murder investigation, only to be immersed in an even more bizarre investigation, The new investigation starts when a young woman is found murdered,  her larynx has been removed and a music box stuffed in its place!!  The music box is playing a beautiful lullaby that no one has ever heard! Read More

Mel Carter – “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”

Mel Carter (born April 22, 1943, Cincinnati, Ohio)

There was one thing I knew for certain when I was growing up in the early Sixties, when It came time for a yearly countdown of the greatest songs of all time there among the top would be Mel Carter’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me“. Every year it would take a year to get that song out of your head and, then, it get put right back into it for another year, but what a great song it was!! Well, today Mel Carter celebrates his 72nd birthday. From Wikipedia: Read More

Morning Kundalini with R Carlos Nakai soundtrack

 Kundalini to Master Your Domain – Music Feather, Stone & Light – R Carlos Nakai

This morning has been a kind of throwback Tuesday. It all started when I used one of my all-time favorite R. Carlos Nakai albums Feather, Stone and Light as the soundtrack for my morning yoga routine.If it wasn’t the first R Carlos Nakai album that I bought it was certainly among the first and it has been a favorite since the first time that I brought it home! The album features the string work of Will Eaton and the percussion of Will Clipman along with R. Carlos wonderful Native American flute artistry. Read More