Category: political-intrigue
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Here in the fourth book of the series, I find myself continuing to enjoy the Matthew Shardlake series. With Revelation, author CJ Sansom has crafted another historical fiction mystery novel that kept me reading nonstop. And yes, there was a lot of reading to be done, with the book clocking in at almost 600 pages.…
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Books like All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer are considered essential reads at the beginning of 2026. With the United States having attacked Iran, it is especially important to have some understanding of the history between these two countries and how that relationship has soured since the 1980s and earlier. To my surprise, All…
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Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church by Philip Shenon is an appropriately named investigative novel that delves into the lives of the previous six or seven popes and how their winning the conclave election to become supreme rulers of the Roman Catholic Church have created an uproar,…
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The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre tells the story of how six Arab gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London in 1980 while the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran was happening simultaneously. Not only did it change London forever afterwards because of…
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The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison is the third and final book in the Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy. I’m definitely sad that this great trilogy is ending but also can’t wait to see what the author has in store for her fans with whatever project she has upcoming next. In this last novel of…
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Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang goes over the last few decades of China’s last dynasty, The Great Qing. Focusing squarely on the Empress Dowager Cixi, it covers the early days of her life to how she became the de facto ruler of China despite all odds. All roads…
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The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll helps readers understand, as the title implies, the war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and how the continuous search for weapons of mass destruction ultimately led to their invasion by the United States. The Achilles Trap presents us…
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Sovereign by C.J. Sansom is the third book of seven in his Matthew Shardlake Mysteries series. After having been a bit disappointed with Dark Fire, Sovereign puts the series right back on track to my liking. At almost 700 pages, I found myself quite surprised, yet once again, at how fast I devoured it in…
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Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age by Stephen Platt goes over one of China’s most embarrassing moment in its imperial history that still plays a role today in how modern China behaves. The Opium War fascinates me so much because I’ve seen it play a role is so…
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The Chinese Phantom: The Hunt for the World’s Most Dangerous Arms Dealer by a group of four German journalists aims to unveil to the world one of the planet’s most wanted criminals. With almost a $5 million bounty on the successful information leading to his whereabouts and capture, one would think that someone of that…
The Mindless Catalog 