Scott's Updates en-US Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:28:53 -0700 60 Scott's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg GiveawayRequest730607987 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:28:53 -0700 <![CDATA[<a href="/user/show/3096318-scott-martin">Scott Martin</a> entered a giveaway]]> /giveaway/show/416012-who-banged-the-big-bang-trans-scientific-mysteries-decoded-simplifie Who Banged the Big Bang! by Prabha Karan
100 copies available, ends on July 10, 2025
Enter to win ]]> GiveawayRequest728334213 Mon, 30 Jun 2025 04:23:18 -0700 <![CDATA[<a href="/user/show/3096318-scott-martin">Scott Martin</a> entered a giveaway]]> /giveaway/show/411360-bricks-and-clicks-how-we-drove-sonic-into-the-digital-age Bricks and Clicks by Clifford Hudson
100 copies available, ends on July 14, 2025
Enter to win ]]> Review7692444557 Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:32:35 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America’s Best--and Worst--Chief Executives']]> /review/show/7692444557 The Presidents by Brian Lamb Scott gave 3 stars to The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America’s Best--and Worst--Chief Executives (Hardcover) by Brian Lamb
(3.5 stars) It is one of the more common, but least important, aspects of presidential history…the ranking of US Presidents over history. We’ve now hit 47, with 45 men serving in that office. When the book was published, Biden’s presidency was not accounted for, nor the second season of Trump: The Presidency. Thus, the work go through the game of ranking presidents. Like any rankings, there will be debates and arguments. Same with sports team’s power rankings. Fun for reading/debate, but having no real bearing on the study of the office. The work starts in order of 1st to worst (Lincoln leads off, with Buchanan bringing up the rear). Trump is not rated, but the last chapter is spent trying to assess where he would stand. Imagine what the follow-up will be after this Trump term.

I won’t get into quibbles with where presidents are ranked. For what it is worth, I am not sure you can really rank a president until they have been out of office for at least 10-15 years, so rankings of Obama are probably a bit premature. Also, how can you really rank Garfield and William Henry Harrison, as they barely served for 6 months and 1 month, respectively. Although, the account of Garfield spends as much time on his assassin as it did on the man. The accounts by the various writers are solid and can offer some good insight, but even then, there is not a lot of consistency in the writing, so that is a drawback.

Worth a read and if it get people talking about Presidential rankings, it will do its job. However, it is one that could have been pulled off a bit better, or at least, could have been more talking about the men in office vs. what some of the accounts provided. ]]> Review7692432811 Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:27:25 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'John Hancock: First to Sign, First to Invest in America's Independence']]> /review/show/7692432811 John Hancock by Willard Sterne Randall Scott gave 4 stars to John Hancock: First to Sign, First to Invest in America's Independence (Hardcover) by Willard Sterne Randall
(Audiobook) A solid, if not spectacular, biography about one of the more famous, but least known, of the Founding Fathers. Most know him as the President of the Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence came into being, and that his was the 1st and largest signature on that document. Yet, there is more to his life than just that one document. He was one of the leading businessmen in Massachusetts in the lead-up to the American Revolution, and became a force in the Massachusetts delegation, even if he lacked the fire of Sam Adams or the political acumen of John Adams. He would go on to be a leading political figure in Massachusetts as a governor in the last years of his life, usually as a moderate. However, there isn’t a lot of direct correspondence for historians to sort through, so the author had to do a lot of research of other documents/sources to try to get information on the man. Was Hancock the braggart of his reputation? Not necessarily, or at least, no more or less than any other figure in the founding of the American Republic. Still, worth the read just to try to get some insight into a known, but not really known/understood figure in US History. ]]> Review7676376128 Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:10:57 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'Hawkgirl: Once Upon a Galaxy']]> /review/show/7676376128 Hawkgirl by Jadzia Axelrod Scott gave 2 stars to Hawkgirl: Once Upon a Galaxy (Paperback) by Jadzia Axelrod
(2.5 stars) An interesting take on a comic character that doesn't get much run. Perhaps if the DC movie universe was more solid, this might be worth a picture or streaming series. However, as most comic movies are on the wane, this may only be an intriguing comic. Not a bad read, but maybe not one that will be a future collector's item. ]]> Review7676372997 Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:10:35 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'Torpedo 1972']]> /review/show/7676372997 Torpedo 1972 by Enrique Sánchez Abulí Scott gave 2 stars to Torpedo 1972 (Hardcover) by Enrique Sánchez Abulí
Seemed like a 1970's gritty/noir type comic. It sort of was, but it may have taken more a darker turn than I was expecting. Not a huge fan, and definitely not for the kids. ]]> Review7676372997 Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:09:42 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'Torpedo 1972']]> /review/show/7676372997 Torpedo 1972 by Enrique Sánchez Abulí Scott gave 2 stars to Torpedo 1972 (Hardcover) by Enrique Sánchez Abulí
Seemed like a 1970's gritty/noir type comic. It sort of was, but it may have taken more a darker turn than I was expecting. Not a huge fan, and definitely not for the kids. ]]> Review7676354443 Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:02:08 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'Taking Midway: Naval Warfare, Secret Codes, and the Battle that Turned the Tide of World War II']]> /review/show/7676354443 Taking Midway by Martin Dugard Scott gave 3 stars to Taking Midway: Naval Warfare, Secret Codes, and the Battle that Turned the Tide of World War II (Hardcover) by Martin Dugard
(Audiobook) (3.5 stars) How you rate this book depends on how much you know and follow the other histories of Midway. If you know little to nothing of the actual battle, then this work would rate far higher in your evaluations. If you do know about the history of the battle and more of the details, then this one might rate as mostly treading over old ground and for the actual battle/WWII aspect, you don't gain as much. Perhaps the biggest thing that you will get out of the work is the history of Midway Island itself, and what role the island played before its central role as the decisive battle of WWII (yes, I hold it as more decisive than D-Day). The island played a role in British/American/Japanese ventures in the Pacific long before 1942. That is something to consider.

Granted, the work does jump around a lot on themes, from Midway's history, to the history of US naval leadership to other topics that can make this a little difficult to follow. The narrator is solid with the audiobook, but there are times when the flow of the work itself is hard to manage. For a history buff, this one is probably not going to be on the shelf to read. Not a bad starter work for someone with no real knowledge of the battle, but probably not one to dwell on much after the fact. ]]> Review7596288413 Fri, 20 Jun 2025 11:38:14 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War']]> /review/show/7596288413 Lincoln's Peace by Michael Vorenberg Scott gave 5 stars to Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War (Hardcover) by Michael Vorenberg
Got a lot more out of this book than I originally thought I might when I first started reading. This one analyzes the end of the Civil War. While most hold that the war ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in April 1865, the actual “end” of the war is a harder question to answer. Given communication limitations and the conditions of the war, aspects of the fighting went well beyond that early April date. There were other surrenders in the Eastern US, and fighting out West towards Texas lasted into the summer of 1865. The pursuit of a Confederate raider went all the way to November 1865. Then you have the fight over the “peace”. The integration of the former Confederate states did not go super smoothly, primarily as the fight between President Johnson and the Republican Congress over what constituted that integration and what level Reconstruction should take spanned beyond 1865, thus, opening the door to further debate over the “end of the war.” The status of men like Jeff Davis and other key Confederates also spawned debate and questions. Then you have the question of the end of slavery and the treatment of African Americans. Even with the end of the war and a Confederate defeat, the idea that Blacks were no longer slaves did not sink into the Southern white mindset. So many loose ends from the war remain, and that gets explained in this well-written volume. Highly recommend, as it offers good insight into how difficult the question is to answer about the ending of the Civil War, a conflict that still resonates over 160 later. ]]> Review7657650580 Sun, 15 Jun 2025 19:00:20 -0700 <![CDATA[Scott added 'Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television']]> /review/show/7657650580 Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties by Foster Hirsch Scott gave 4 stars to Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television (Kindle Edition) by Foster Hirsch
(Audiobook) Not sure if there has ever been an attempt to distill the critical period of the 1950s into one volume, but this one comes to closest to actually doing that. This incredibly through work covers Hollywood as it moved from the studio system to the era of independent producers, free-lance actors/actresses, TV, and dealing with a constantly evolving social-economic environment that dictated how movies were made. No shortage of topics/movies/issues to cover, from the Red Scare, the fall of the great studios, the various filming and acting conventions…it is all there. There is a LOT to take in, so give yourself a lot of time to read this work, cause it will take a long time to get through it all. Perhaps it can get a bit too into the weeds on film-making, and the editorialization can be a take-it-or-leave-it situation. Still, it is worth a read for the major film buff. ]]>