Entertaining, That's All

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff
New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2013
337 p. ; 24 cm.

It's already been said, but this book echoes The Bourne Identity and James Bond.  The promotional material from Zadoff's website highlights a lot of the positive buzz around the book (and its sequels).  I can't help feeling that it's a bit over-hyped. (Though a movie and sequels may create more success for the book and series).

Yes, the book was entertaining.  It moves along, is well-plotted, and there's suspense, action, and interesting developments.  I'd feel fine recommending it to a student wanting a spy/assassin/action/thriller novel; it delivers...

But I just couldn't care about the characters very much.  I really felt no emotional connection to any of them, and frankly found the female characters more fitting a male-fantasy ideal than any connection to reality.  That said, if you want a fast, action-based clandestine thriller, then Nobody might be just what you want.

Nasty, Brutish, Short...and Helpful

Waterloo: June 18, 1815: the battle for modern Europe by Andrew Roberts
New York : Harper Perennial, 2006, c2005
143 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

Of course I've heard of Waterloo and had a vague idea of when and where it happened.  Also, I've encountered the battle of Waterloo in Les Miserable by Hugo and in Vanity Fair by Thackeray, but never read a history of it.  I enjoyed and appreciated this short book by Andrew Roberts.  This was a great, short and very clear account of the battle.  It really helps the reader appreciate the momentous stakes of the battle, the terrible violence of the conflict, as well as the ways in which the outcome of the battle could have well gone to the French forces under Napoleon instead of to the European forces under Wellington.

It is definitely a short, helpful history of Waterloo that would be useful to any high school student wanting to know more about the last, terrible battle that Napoleon waged - the outcome of which brought the Napoleonic era to a close.