About the Author
Image credit: Philip Weiss
Works by Brian Thornton
101 Things You Didn't Know About Lincoln: Loves And Losses! Political Power Plays! White House Hauntings! (2005) 58 copies
The Book of Ancient Bastards: 101 of the Worst Miscreants and Misdeeds from Ancient Sumer to the Enlightenment (2011) 37 copies
The Everything Kids' Presidents Book: Puzzles, Games and Trivia - for Hours of Presidential Fun (black & white) (2007) 31 copies
The Book of Bastards: 101 Worst Scoundrels and Scandals from the World of Politics and Power (2010) 24 copies
Paper Son 1 copy
Associated Works
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Common Knowledge
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Reviews
The Book of Ancient Bastards: 101 of the Worst… by Brian Thornton
Tedious and tiresome. In the hands of someone who could do more than a dull, rote list it could have been interesting.
Summary:
This book is about the 44 different presidents we have and the things they have done in their lives.
Personal Reaction:
This book is great for this time of the year. I loved how it had so many different facts about each president.
Creative Expression:
We are going to do pictures of the kids doing different president poses like chopping down a tree, or sitting as still as a statue.
We are going to make our own White House out of blocks.
This book is about the 44 different presidents we have and the things they have done in their lives.
Personal Reaction:
This book is great for this time of the year. I loved how it had so many different facts about each president.
Creative Expression:
We are going to do pictures of the kids doing different president poses like chopping down a tree, or sitting as still as a statue.
We are going to make our own White House out of blocks.
Meh. It was really hard for me to finish this. With only two to two and a half pages per person, a lot of times you didn't get a very clear picture of the "bastard"'s life, and in several cases I couldn't understand why these people have been labeled "bastards" because they didn't seem that bad to me.
Furthermore, the book was very limited in scope. There was page after monotonous page of Roman emperors (about 100 pages in all just for them), some European kings and popes, and not a whole lot else. Surely the rest of the world had bastards too? What about China, India, Africa? What about the New World; there were some very nasty European explorers there that definitely would qualify.
There are lots of other encyclopedias of bad people in history that are much better than this one. I would recommend Dorothy Johnson's The Bedside Book of Bastards.… (more)
Furthermore, the book was very limited in scope. There was page after monotonous page of Roman emperors (about 100 pages in all just for them), some European kings and popes, and not a whole lot else. Surely the rest of the world had bastards too? What about China, India, Africa? What about the New World; there were some very nasty European explorers there that definitely would qualify.
There are lots of other encyclopedias of bad people in history that are much better than this one. I would recommend Dorothy Johnson's The Bedside Book of Bastards.… (more)
Thornton writes historical noir set in 1889, when Seattle wasn’t exactly welcoming to its Chinese immigrants. One of them washes up dead on Mercer Island, and a rookie Treasury Agent investigates. Triads and prostitution and drug running and multiple missing people! And I definitely didn’t see where the ending was … er … going to end.
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Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 241
- Popularity
- #94,248
- Rating
- 3.2
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 21