Dan's 2015 Books

4. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is definitely my kind of book. I love the author. I love the subject. I love the style and learning all about how it really happened. I really did learn a ton about the infancy of aviation and the role the Wrights played in it. They were two pretty amazing guys who had little backing and a lot of ingenuity. It's amazing neither of them died in airplane crashes! I would venture to say that they changed the world as much as Henry Ford and Bill Gates have. Pretty impressive individuals. Totally recommend the book if you like other McCullough writings.


3. The Candy Bombers by Andrei Cherny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a book that opened up a chapter in history that I didn't even know existed. Nor did I think it was an important time in history as the beginnings of the cold war are often glossed over between two glamours book ends of WWII and the Korean War. My biggest complaint of the writing is that is Cherny is too verbose. I would have preferred about 2/3 of the length. I think it was 29 CD's or something. He did a good job weaving several converging stories together and showing how they changed the history of the world. Pretty interesting. And I know the Candy Bomber personally, so that helped keep my interest too!


2. American Sniper by Chris Kyle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Good book, but I didn't think it was quite as well written as Lone Survivor, nor quite as compelling a story. Perhaps the saddest part is that he was murdered back home in America after safely returning from such treacherous places. I'm not sad I read it, but would only give it two stars.



1. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nelson Mandela was someone I have heard about my whole life. I knew he was the president of South Africa and was in prison for something before he was president, but I really had no idea what he was all about. He lived quite a life. One that I would have been uncomfortable with. Nonetheless, a very honorable man (at least from his telling of his own story) and one who was vitally instrumental in the downfall of apartheid in South Africa. This is not a book for the faint of heart (23 CDs!) but I enjoyed most of it and it kept my attention. It was well written and worth reading.