Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for July 5–11

Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for July 5–11
Dustin Bass
Barbara Danza
Jeff Minick
Updated:
0:00
This week, we feature a veteran’s brave fight against vaccine mandates and the illuminating story of a long-forgotten restaurant chain from the era of train travel.

Nonfiction

By Col. Thomas L. Rempfer

In this valuable memoir, Col. “Buzz” Rempfer examines the military’s dangerous mandates of experimental anthrax vaccines for American soldiers, then connects the mistakes and deceptions of those incidents with the COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Tactics and lessons acquired as a fighter pilot helped him run this “marathon against illegal mandates” in his unyielding fight for justice. His goal is to prevent future malfeasance of this sort and restore America’s trust in its public health system.

Children’s Health Defense Books, 2024, 552 pages

History

By Stephen Fried

Fred Harvey created a company sharing his name: Fred Harvey, not the Fred Harvey Company. Once one of the most important companies in the United States, especially in America’s West, it is almost forgotten today. This book reintroduces both the man and company to readers. Best known for its Harvey House restaurants, it was the first national consumer brand. A deliciously appealing history, it lists all Fred Harvey locations and gives readers a collection of Harvey House restaurant recipes.

Bantam Books, 2011, 560 pages

Maritime History

By Roy and Lesley Adkins

Looking for nonfiction adventure on the high seas? Husband and wife historians, Roy and Lesley Adkins, channel history’s greatest era of maritime warfare between 1798 to 1815. This book covers the rise and fall of Napoleon, culminating in his defeat at Waterloo, and also includes the War of 1812 between America and Great Britain. As Napoleon dominates on land and Adm. Horatio Nelson leads the British Royal Navy to dominance of the seas, America witnesses her own rise as a naval power.

Penguin, 2008, 576 pages

Urban Fantasy

By Tim Akers

Knight Watch is back in a new account of their adventures. They stop weird-world intruders from coming into the Mundane World, keeping the monsters of the Unreal firmly where they belong. The Eccentrics, the steampunk counterpart to Knight Watch, need help dealing with a vampire outbreak in the Eccentrics’ world. A send-up of fantasy, role-playing games, and reenacting, this book mashes steampunk and high and urban fantasy together in a lighthearted read that will amuse fantasy readers.

Baen Books, May 2024, 304 pages

Classics

By David Jones

Poet, painter, and World War I veteran David Jones wrote this combination novel and poem as an account of his time on the Western Front and as a meditation on history, myth, and war. We follow John Ball and his fellow soldiers into the trenches, where they suffer the wet and the cold, the drill and the work details, and end in the horrific Battle of the Somme. Published in 1937 and praised by contemporaries as a masterpiece, the book still stands in the front rank of literature from that war.

NYRB Classics, 2003, 232 pages

For Kids

By Shirley Hughes

Gorgeous illustrations depict Lucy and Tom, along with their mom and dad, preparing and venturing out for a day at the seaside. Beautifully descriptive, readers will feel like they’re at the beach with them, swimming in the ocean, building sand castles, watching other people on the beach, eating ice cream, and more. A perfect picture book for summer.

Red Fox, 2016, 32 pages
Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]
Dustin Bass is an author and co-host of The Sons of History podcast. He also writes two weekly series for The Epoch Times: Profiles in History and This Week in History.