Pirates – You want to read this…

Title: The Princess Bride

Author: William Goldman

Page Count: 399

Series: N/A

Publishing Date/Publisher: 1999/Bloomsbury

Format: Paperback

Review:

It is unusual for me to find a book where the movie version of it is tied in terms of quality, but this one definitely done that. The asides Goldman (and his alter-ego S. Morgenstern) put in perfectly align with the grandpa/grandson parts of the movie and it’s just as quotable. I loved the background into Fezzik and Inigo, which really explained their motives and how they ended up with Vizzini, I thought that was missing in the mvie.

The only thing I didn’t like were the parts where Westley slaps Buttercup (happens twice), which really rubbed me the wrong way and dropped the rating from a 5 to a 4.

Reader: Kymberly

Rating: 4 stars

Title: Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates

Author: Brian Kilmeade

Page Count: 304

Series: N/A

Publishing Date/Publisher: November 2015/Sentinel

Format: eBook

Review: This was a very interesting book. I hadn’t heard about any naval battles the US took part in during its infancy, so I was surprised when I came across this book. Kilmeade goes into Jefferson’s struggles in keeping American ships from being taken over by pirates once the US lost the protection of the British Navy. No longer flying the British flag, the American ships were free game to the Tripoli pirates; no deal had been struck to pay the pirates off to assure ships could pass in safety.

No spoilers for the rest of it, you’ll have to read that for yourself.

I would have liked there to have been more discussion on Jefferson’s more problematic aspects in the beginning, but I understand that it probably wouldn’t have fit with the narrative flow very well. That, and given the author’s political stance, I don’t think he would have anyway.

I would still recommend it, that’s for sure. It was well written and engaging and I enjoyed reading it.

Reader: Kymberly

Rating: