Empire of the Blue Water

Its the 1600's. Spain has taken control of all the land in the New World. Now England wants some of it back. Oliver Cromwell, along with Thomas Gage draw up a plan for attack. Henry Morgan, along with many other misfits and drop outs of societies, sail to the new world along with Thomas Gage, the author of the novel that spitballed the plan of attack on the Spanish. After failing to take Cartagena, the English settle on the Island of Jamaica in a small town of Port Royal. There Henry Morgan starts his bloody reign on the Spanish. Henry Morgan now in his late twenties gets appointed a captain of his own ship. In order to make a name for him self. He sails from port Royal and attacks Granada, a city that sits in the southern end of present day Mexico. After brining in a huge load of pieces of eight, now captain Morgan gets his name on the list of people wanted by the Spanish. After three more attacks, Portobelo, Maracaibo, and Panama (in that order), the English and the Spanish draw up a peace treaty. Since Morgan attacked Panama after the treaty the English are forced to arrest him. Morgan ends up getting out of prison but then dies in 1688 of dropsy.

Throughout the Novel Stephan Talty creates a atmosphere that keeps the reader locked in on the novel until the very end. The novel really puts the reader right inside the sixteen hundreds on a ship sailing throughout the New World. Talty captivates a great picture of who the West Indies Pirates actually were.

-Moses-

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli was written in 1513 but not published until 1532. This book analyzes political power in the western world during the 16th century. Machiavelli discussed ways an aspiring prince can take the throne. He emphasized the need for stability in a prince’s principality, and also the need for acceptance from the prince’s subjects. Machiavelli justified rule by force rather than by law, and The Prince displayed Machiavelli’s actions. The Prince, overall, was an interesting book, but was merely a guidebook on how to rule according to Niccolo Machiavelli. It went into great depth on all of the aspects a prince must have to be a good prince, according to Machiavelli. Machiavelli stated that a prince must have a good reputation, have a strong army, and cannot be too generous. Machiavelli discussed many other things that must be exhibited by a prince. I didn’t like this book very much because it wasn’t exciting, and there was no story line to it. It was basically just a “how-to ” book.
-Harriet Tubman

The True History of Chocolate

The True History of Chocolate covered over thousands of years of history with the simple connection of chocolate. Although it was many years, the book was not very long and for the most part was very interesting. Learning that chocolate was originally served only in liquid form, hot or cold was a lot different from now where most of us think of Hershey's chocolate bars when one says chocolate. Starting with the Olmecs and Mayans was also different, then moving on to the Aztecs and eventually Europe.

This book covered not only chocolate, but the slave trade, the fall of the different mesoamerican empires and the conqistadors that conquered the Aztecs. Moving on from there was the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Reason. It was fun to see how chocolate adapted and survived through all the different years and now is thriving. Also, I learned the different chemicals in chocolate and why it used to be used for medicinal purposes and different ways to grow it, under certain and very specific climates. Overall this book covered years of history and taught me lots of new facts about chocolate and I probably never would have known.

Evita