Mother Tongue: English

THE MOTHER TONGUE

English and How It Got That Way

BILL BRYSON

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Are you a linguist, or do you care to know where the words in the UK and American English came from? Then, this book gives you the history you are looking for.

Swearing, Spelling, and Names are three chapters that piqued my interest. Mr. Bryson delves into all areas of the language - some boring and others interesting.

There are boring parts, such as when he over-explains an item after making a point. His understanding of word origins and how he explains them is fascinating.

Reading THE MOTHER TONGUE will take time. Unlike the dictionaries he describes, Bill Bryson packs a lot into a 274-page book. It could have been a shorter narrative with an index.

THE MOTHER TONGUE is a good non-fiction book to read—however, not Mr. Bryson's best.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3UlHNiC

KILLING the WITCHES

KILLING the WITCHES

The Horror of Salem

Massachusetts

BILL O'REILLY

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of my high school's excursions was to visit Salem as part of our history class. Reading KILLING THE WITCHES brought alive that trip and the memories embedded in my brain.

The Puritan witch hunts stained the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the original colonialists. This story-telling book details how they started and ended, naming the culprits and victims.

Also, at the time, many cities in the rest of the world had the same problem. They hung or burned people to death for what they considered witchcraft.

In KILLING, it is noted how those witch trials and killings produced part of the Bill of Rights attached to The US Constitution. This process included debates about church and state function in government by people whose names you should know.

This discourse and the effect on the development of the United States would not have happened if it were not for the KILLING of WITCHES. Well-written book for the Inquisitive Mind.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/4f4FwjC

Review of MEG

MEG

Coffee & Dessert

in Key West Series

Book 1

JAN ROMES

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Romance is in the air, but not for Meg Matheson, who is thirty-five and works as a professional in a law office. Her boss directs her toward a matchmaker at a coffee shop owner named Riley.

Meg finds a new life because of circumstances at the office. She goes with the flow, which leads her to evaluate her current state—finding love in the wrong places.

The conversations between Meg and her girlfriend Kris are the fun part of Jan Romes's Hallmark-story-type romance, which ends with a kiss. The reader will laugh throughout and be satisfied, having purchased this novel.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3BbpQwe

Black Readnecks & White Liberals

Black Rednecks & White Liberals

THOMAS SOWELL

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Sowell's Historical thesis on slavery brings to light many facets of how humans treat each other. The reader will get a learning experience from his narrative as to how the British and America's unique developments eliminated most of the world’s enslavement.

He explains human worth and non-worth in terms of how many countries used slavery for gain or as accessories. These norms were commonplace for centuries before arriving in North America/USA, which was the only country in the world to fight a war over it, killing more white people than the negros in the country.

Thomas Sowell's intelligent discourse will keep the reader turning pages thinking,  'I didn't know that.' For Liberals, this is a wake-up call, but for Conservatives, this education needs to be used in conversations against Liberals’ reparation demands.

To round out his book, Sowell's opinion of other human relations is in discourses on Germans, Jews, and the middleman.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/4bzXfxa

Review of "god is not Great."

"god is not GREAT."

How Religion Poisons Everything

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Review by Author Roy Murry

This book, penned by a renowned atheist, delves into the problematic aspects of all ORGANIZED RELIGIONS, a stance I agree with. I became a reformed Roman Catholic at the age of thirteen.

Hitchens attempts to destroy the collective illusions of monotheist organizations by describing their histories, hierarchy, and dictatorial systems. His arguments are full of realism, demonstrating that living a good life without these faiths is possible.

His narratives are long and interwoven with examples of Religions' poisonous edicts to control humans countered with logical results. Hitchens uses the books/stories of those organizations to show how ridiculous they seem.

His conclusions are worth reading if you have an Inquisitive Mind. This long, detailed read will stimulate your mind.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3QRiFhL

DANNA

DANNA

JAN ROMES' 

Coffee & Dessert in

Key West Series Book 2

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

Riley and Meg own the Coffee & Dessert Cafe in Key West, Florida, USA (Book 1), where they met and married. The cafe is a front for a matchmaking enterprise.

Meg is DANNA's friend. DANNA is a blond, outspoken dynamo who wants to get married and does not connect with Meg's matches.

It is comical how DANNA finds her match, who is not what he seems to be. The highs and lows of their commingling and their friends' participation and comments, especially Erin's and Jorge's, make up the romantic adventure.

Ms. Rome's prose and characters' conversations are fun to read, making readers want to turn those pages. It is not the first nor last of Ms. Romes's works I have read.

You should also. Have fun; read all three in the series.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/4cH2rRI

BLOOD MONEY

BLOOD MONEY

PETER SCHWEIZER

Review by Author Roy

The composition of this non-fiction is so well-developed that the reader will come away thinking - Wow, I did not know that. And, most likely, the reader is correct.

I am well-read and knew many of Schweitzer's topics just by the headline theme. Thank you, MSM and the press, for the information.

According to detailed information by the author, China is attacking our young through social media (TikTok), the motion picture industry, and video games. Using cut-outs, China has already killed Americans with drugs (Fentanyl derivatives) and did control their information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

This propaganda war by the CCP is, in some respect, payback for the Opium Wars - Please look it up. And the CCP believes that the West's, especially America's, decadence will destroy the world.

Schweitzer's narrative includes how our leaders do not pressure China, knowing they are doing what they are doing. This is a mind-boggling financial circle.

This book is what readers, my followers, consider a book for the INQUISITIVE MIND. It is a must-read if you care about your children and grandchildren.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3Vrs5DZ

 

MELUSINE

MELUSINE

Book two of

The Heirs of Anarchy

 

G. LAWRENCE

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

"It mattered not my birth, experience, or my intelligence. What mattered was that I was less than them because I was a woman, not a man." Matilda, Lady of the English, 1135 AD. The Lady's Journey continues from Book One, which I read in 2020.

G. Lawrence's prose flows with these little nuggets throughout this novel of King Henry the First Daughter's battle to be Queen of England. In her mid-twenties, her father directs her to marry a newly knighted fifteen-year-old for political reasons - she is property, and her son is heir.

Matilda's fictional words include historical drama. Her psychological development moves into philosophy, which is sometimes wordy.

The novel is long but worth the historical adventure read.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3SQ5wXy

Great Delusion

THE GREAT DELUSION

Liberal Dreams and

International Realities

JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

Mr. Mearsheimer gives a clear and fluid explanation of Liberalism, Nationalism, and Realism in this thesis on how countries use them to place themself in the world hierarchy. The United States has been promoting liberal homogeny for years as its foreign policy, and it's not working.

Mearsheimer's arguments against liberal foreign policies are compelling. Reality needs to change how a unipolar power like the United States involves itself in other countries' business, which is how I read his hypothesis.

This dissertation goes into multipolar examples, which include China's and Russia's participation in global power struggles. The reader can decide whether the status quo of the United States's spreading liberal homogeny should remain.

Lastly, Obama and Trump bucked the foreign elites on the matter, but Hilary Clinton and Biden followed the elites' playbook. Obama gave in. Trump is still fighting for Nationalism in the country and Realism in foreign policy.

John J. Mearsheimer has written an engrossing description of how the modern-day political world evolves. GREAT DELUSION is a vital read you should notice if you care about the USA.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3OFQzVR

 

WALDEN

WALDEN and

Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

According to Henry David Thoreau, Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." Readers, think about this statement for a moment.

I read Thoreau's words in a Massachusetts High School, in an American Lit college class, and now at seventy-five years old. They resonate more now because one gets wiser with age.

However, you must read his words at any age. The simplicity of Thoreau's living philosophy at WALDEN, Massachusetts, in the 1850s, applies to many complicated situations in modern society.

The prose is uncomplicated to a reader who takes his time - a Thoreau axiom. Walden is an important story that every High School or college student should read, including us older adults.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3veLzR0

 

SEX TRAFFICKING

SEX TRAFFICKING

Inside the Business of Modern Slavery

SIDDHARTH KARA

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

The book SEX TRAFFICKING story ends earlier than its published date, 2017, and before the open border in the USA. Note: Eastern Europe problems and open EU borders enhance traffic.

According to the author, the global economy is one of the main reasons human trafficking has expanded. This book is not a thesis but written as a personal fact-finding journey.

The author adds individual narratives of young women's horrific lives as sex providers for drama - they are compelling, destroying faith in humans.

However, his solution crosses too many boundaries controlled by men who use those services. It is pathetic, but it is changing the world's individual countries' insurmountable economies.

Mr. Kara's detailed fact-finding is well-written, but he does not crucify the stupidity of some religions and cultures that help feed the trafficking. In his writing, I understood that governments are at fault, but religions run many.

SEX TRAFFICKING is an interesting read that needs updating but is a start.

 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/479uvck

Review of SOCIAL JUSTICE FALLACIES

SOCIAL JUSTICE FALLACIES

TOMAS SOWELL

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

I am neither an intellectual elite nor a full-blown conservative. Mr. Sowell is an intellectual conservative who writes convincing arguments against fleeting progressives on their fallacies of Equal chances, Racial differences, and the other pigeonhole placements of humanity.

FALLACIES is a thesis on how the wealthy and intellectual elite (UN, WHO, and WEF, three) vanguard manipulates humanity to believe and follow their dictates. Fifty percent of it has footnotes, clarifying Sowell's thoughtful positions.

Whether you agree with his stand on racial fallacy progression, as an example, the reader will have a hard time disagreeing with his opinion. This well-written and thought-provoking book is for the Inquisitive Mind, which many of my readers have.

If you want to clear the cobwebs out of your mind and think about how the world around you happened, SOCIAL JUSTICE FALLACIES is a good read for you.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3stsJoc

Review of LUCK OF THE WITCH

LUCK OF THE WITCH

Crypt Witch

Cozy Mystery Series

K.E. O'CONNOR

 

Review by Author Roy Murry

 

What could be better than a Witch in a Cozy Mystery? Not much for me.

This story was quick for me. Willow Tree Falls is a magic tourist trap where Tempest Crypt, her family, and her hellhound reside with other witches, demons, and angels.

Tempest has a demon living within her, and her hound can talk. The other characters of the town are also strange - angels are the police, and others are half one thing or another.

Tempest's sister Aurora is arrested for murder by an unruly angel, and her investigation begins. Then, all the weird twists and turns for who murdered the mayoral candidate develop into many laughs.

Tempest and the Angel Police Force only know who has done it once a secret comes out on election day.

Fun read. Purchase: https://amzn.to/3SjGKPO