Rapid-Fire Book Club, Not Political Current-Events Edition

Right on cue, huh?

Today, we got a kitty. Or rather, a cat; she's 5 years old. Her name is Mooch, she's as heavy as a cat with that name might suggest, and her hobby in the first hour or so of life in our house seems to be crawling under things.

But this is not a cat blog.

While in Madison to get Mooch, I've added one book to the collection: History Lessons: How Textbooks From Around The World Portray U.S. History, by Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward.

By 'around the world', the table of contents mentions textbooks from Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

I bought it as it seemed a nice companion to Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen, which examines U.S. textbooks on their knowledge and portrayal of American history. That's the domestic portrayal; here lies the overseas portrayal.

I'm not expecting sunshine and lollipops.