Patrick's review
Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures by Matthew Bogdanos
I had high expectations after hearing the author speak at a local art museum. The book is good toward the end but the first several chapters are a disaster.
Very early in the book the author indicates that he doesn't want to involve politics in the book. Politics is what made the whole host of events happen. Maybe not all of them but the invasion most definitely de-stabilized the museum much more than it ever had been. To want to disregard politics as a cause and effect is like an author of a book of tires saying that he/she doesn't want to involve rubber as part of the history of tires.
One reviewer mentioned "too much bravado" and I must agree except he/she should have said "way too much bravado". Over and over the author reminds the reader that he's A. ) (highly) intelligent and B.) a hard-ass. It's unfortunate that a high-ranking Marine Corps officer/successful prosecutor would try to portray himself as an action hero whose destiny it is to end up in the &quo...more
Very early in the book the author indicates that he doesn't want to involve politics in the book. Politics is what made the whole host of events happen. Maybe not all of them but the invasion most definitely de-stabilized the museum much more than it ever had been. To want to disregard politics as a cause and effect is like an author of a book of tires saying that he/she doesn't want to involve rubber as part of the history of tires.
One reviewer mentioned "too much bravado" and I must agree except he/she should have said "way too much bravado". Over and over the author reminds the reader that he's A. ) (highly) intelligent and B.) a hard-ass. It's unfortunate that a high-ranking Marine Corps officer/successful prosecutor would try to portray himself as an action hero whose destiny it is to end up in the &quo...more
