Title: The Bombers and the Bombed
Author: Richard Overy
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: DNF (★★★☆☆ at 36%)
I think objectively this book is very well done. The author includes a lot of very detailed statistics but mixes them in with fun facts, first-hand anecdotes, and fascinating stories. However, for me, this was just more detail than I needed on the topic. I felt the story got bogged down by details of exact numbers and dates. There were a number of people mentioned, but I couldn’t keep them straight because we were never given any personal information about any them and they all blurred together. The timeline was hard to follow because (at least in my ARC) dates usually didn’t include the year and in chapters that spanned multiple years, this could be confusing. I think had I finished this, I’d have given it three stars because I didn’t enjoy it, but I think someone very interested in the topic would. I made it through about a third of the book before deciding that it just wasn’t for me.
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It is a fine line sometimes between how much info is needed and what is too much. Or it’s just a matter of how it is all presented.
Jennine G. recently posted…Divergent
In this case, I think it was really just too many facts. The author did a pretty good job of working individual facts into the story in an interesting way. There were just so many of them, the story got a bit bogged down.
Hmm, too much detail in WWII nonfiction seems to be going around! I admit, the topic intrigues me, but I don’t know if the depth is what I would want on the topic right now.
Amanda recently posted…Giveaway: The House of Azareal by Erik Dreistadt (INTERNATIONAL)
Yep, I remembered your recent WWII read as I was writing this! It’s a topic I thought would be exciting, but it was just a bit too fact heavy for me.
The balance between facts and story in nonfiction is really hard! It’s too bad this one didn’t quite fall on the right side for you,
Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness) recently posted…Reviewletts: ‘Attachments’ and ‘A Tale for the Time Being’
It’s true! In this book, I think the author did a pretty good job working the facts into the story, but there were just too many facts. It really dragged for me! And while I hated not to finish a book I’d probably not rate that badly if I could have finished it, I felt very relieved to just be done with it.