I Wanted to Like This Book; I Thought I Would Like This Book, but, Not So Much...

Seriously people.  I love history, almost every kind of history poses some sort of something that I can latch my teeth on to.  But, come on.  When you write a book, please consider that even academic readers enjoy good books.  When you string together long lists of factual stuff, but don't connect it in any sort of meaningful way, I just think - God, please let me get out of this book ALIVE! 

What's worse is when the title, cover images, interior images, intro and conclusion, transition passages between chapters all tell the reader you are going to take them on an exciting, soulful, and passionate ride rich with human drama....and then you fall FLAT.  How does an author do all those things previously mentioned and then just sandwich it around long lists of facts, endless facts, boring, meaningless facts? Facts are just data, unless they are connected in some meaningful way. Ugh.

To that end, it has recently occurred to me that there is a distinct difference between writing a dissertation and publishing a book, even an academic one, that less than 5% of the country will ever read.  It appears as if this person wrote hir dissertation, then, in order to make it publishable, revamped the intro, conclusion, and transitions to make it more booklike.  However, the inside still forces the reader to swallow the author's research skills, without the advent of meaningful connection or theory.  I can't argue with hir argument, because I'm not sure ze had one, it seemed to just be a string of facts, graphs, and statistics. [Note: hir is the gender neutral pronoun combo for him/her and ze is the gender neutral pronoun for she/he; that way, ideally, it makes it more difficult to ascertain who one is speaking about]

Will not be recommending that one to anyone anytime soon.

PS - It is not whatever book the sidebar says I'm reading. :o)

**Miss Clio