How They Choked( Failures Flops and Flaws of the Awfully Famous)[HOW THEY CHOKED][Hardcover]

by GeorgiaBragg

How They Choked( Failures Flops and Flaws of the Awfully Famous) <> Hardcover <> GeorgiaBragg <> Walker&Company

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Humor, Middle Grade, Historical, Childrens

Hardcover

First published May 6, 2014

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are thumbnail biographies of over a dozen famous people that Bragg uses to make moral points of, so she's quite judgmental & over simplifies very badly at times. There is no balance or attempt to put many of their actions into historical context. I really noticed this with Benedict Arnold since I just read a biography about him not long ago. Her summary makes one wonder why he achieved the rank & standing he did. No mention of his heroics or how much of a popularity contest rank was in the fledgling country or what many of his peers were doing. Still, it's not awful & does bring to light some historically unpopular truths & lessons. It's also a quick read or, in this case, listen. Well read, too.

The historic figures covered:
Marco Polo
Queen Isabella of Spain
King Montezuma II
Anne Boleyn
Ferdinand Magellan
Isaac Newton
Benedict Arnold
George Armstrong Custer
Vincent van Gogh
Susan B. Anthony
Thomas Alva Edison
J. Bruce Ismay
Amelia M. Earhart
Joseph Jefferson Jackson ("Shoeless Joe")

Not a bad way to spend a few hours while doing chores, but hardly a definitive history. Very much like a twisted version of what we were taught in school.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways. I can't believe how long I've had this audio book sitting around. I popped it in for a listen while I was getting things ready for a garage sale, thinking it would be "OK" since it's considered a children's history book. I have to admit I really enjoyed it, partly because I love reading about/listening to historical disasters. The audio book is fairly short only 4 CD's, but it has some interesting basic information about things like the Titanic and Amelia Earhart's final flight. I feel adults as well as children could enjoy this book/audio book, I certainly did.

[Chris Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, I enjoyed it and the insight/facts put forth in it. Not too sure how much of the stuff is actually true, but the author does list many sources at the end, so I assume she did her research.
Each chapter is a mini-quickie-biography of a person from history who has made, in some way, a bad decision... or bad decisions plural. Even people I previously thought were great people messed up in some way, but the book doesn't bash everyone, only those who were most stupid and/or deplorable people...but a few, like Susan B Anthony and Amelia Earhart, the author admits were good people, but--like many in the world, pretty much everyone at some point---suffered from making some bad choices along the way that could have saved them or made their lives much better.

Another, closely related book in this series, by the same author, is HOW THEY CROAKED.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really disliked the tone of this book. The writing style is quick to judgment and turns a very disapproving eye towards its subjects. I couldn't stand reading so many articles that just felt overly sarcastic and negative.

Source info, further reading, recommended websites, and an index round out the back matter.

[Kyky More · Rating 3 out of 5]

How They Choked
How They Choked is an interesting book on the failures of the many people who are thought of as wise and famous. It knocks the people off their pedestals to reveal the true side of each story.
The book contains 14 cases including Montezuma II, Amelia Earhart, and the Captain of the Titanic.
After you read this, you’ll realize that all the famous have flaws.
I recommend this book to 6th to 8th graders and adults. It has a rich vocabulary and “hard to pronounce” names. The pages are jam-packed with complex history but even so, the author does a good job of explaining it clearly.

I learned a lot from this book.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgia Bragg does it again. This follow up to her fantastic "How They Croaked" is another set of biographies of famous people with an emphasis on their flaws, failures and flops. Some of greatest and most notorious people in history were not necessarily very nice people. George Armstrong Custer was horrible to pretty much everyone he knew. I wouldn't be surprised if his own troops cheered when they heard he'd been killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn. And Amelia Earhart was exceptionally brave but she wasn't a rule follower. Forms, check lists, safety rules... they all bored her so she didn't do them, with fatal results.

The writing is engaging and as humorous as it is possible to be when discussing psychopaths, narcissists, and manic-depressives. That's just my arm-chair psychology talking, not Bragg's words.

But because of the severe character flaws and violent tendencies that many of the highlighted famous people displayed, I would recommend this book for 5th grade and up. I do think adults would enjoy it maybe even more than students.

A fun and unusual look at historical people.

[Kirsti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, snappy, somewhat moralistic biographical essays on people who experienced enormous failures. Subjects include Isaac Newton (for wasting so much time on alchemy), Benedict Arnold, J. Bruce Ismay (for building the Titanic but removing most of the lifeboats because he thought they were ugly; also for being an absolute horror of a person), Anne Boleyn, Amelia Earhart, Susan B. Anthony (for not achieving votes for women during her lifetime), and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. These essays are for kids, so don't expect a lot of nuance or context, but they're entertaining.

[Margaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a seriously funny read. Illustrations of spilled milk with feature highlights from the subject's life at the beginning of each chapter. This book is filled with great one-liners.

"Isabella created a society that systematically told some of it's people they were no good" (21)

"There's good news and bad news about Queen Isabella. She's admirable because she ran Spain when everybody told her a woman couldn't do it. And while she was running it she gave Christopher Columbus money to go exploring. She also believed in prayer. The bad news is she overdid everything. Isabella was the original get-out-of-my-way-and-don't-tell-me-what-to-do person. Those who didn't believe or want the ssame things she did had their limbs ripped apart, brinas rushed, or body fried in a slow-burning fire. Queen Isabella's reign of terror was called the Spanish Inquisition." (13)

Featuring Marco Polo, Anne Boleyn, Amelia M. Earhart, Susan B. Anthony, and many more, How They Choked is the perfect companion to How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. I'd recommend this to any of your run-of-the-mill morbidly curious children and teens who want to learn how other people ended up famously messing up. The pictures are perfectly placed and poignant. The end of each individual chapter has a facts section that not only includes more information on the subject but on the time period and other pertinent people from that area of thinking (Montezuma II has a table of "Eight Aztec Emperors and their Relationship to Montezuma II" featuring their title, reign and relationship to said emperor.)

The end of the book has sources, an index, and online resources for further reading on each person featured in the book. It's well-put together and actually an interesting read on a subject (biography) that I find very, very dry.

[Michelle Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of kids' book that I love to read: it gets right to the point, and it's irreverant without being too cute. I'm not sure that all the figures whose biographies appear here are quite on the same plane - Susan B. Anthony's failure is of a totally different nature than Benedict Arnold's, for example - and more squeamish parents might object to their kids reading about Aztec sacrifices and Anne Boleyn's sex appeal. Anyone who idolizes Custer and Edison will also be disappointed to see their character flaws so roundly criticized. But for those who hold with the author's premise - that no one's perfect, not even you - this is both a good overview of history and biography, and an entertaining read.

[Robert Risher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an immensely entertaining, if perhaps overly pessimistic, catalogue of historical failures perfectly suited for adolescents, yet still compelling enough for adults. I picked it up in a middle school classroom in a moment of boredom, and I just kept reading until it was done. The illustrations are as captivating as the writing, and both leave me curious for the creative team's initial venture. I would absolutely recommend this book to inspire historical research with the caveat that students not rest solely on the author's interpretation of the figures (even if she is pretty spot-on).

[Dianne Landry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on audio and loved it. It is amazing how, depending on how you look at it, anyone can be a screwup. We think of Marco Polo as this great explorer until we find out he completely messed up in later life when he joined the navy. Amelia Earhart is an aviation pioneer and then you learn she could have made it if she had just followed safety procedures and hadn't hired an alcoholic navigator who didn't know Morse code and used the navigation techniques from the days of Christopher Columbus. These are only two of the fascinating characters in this book. It was hoot.

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a lot of judgement of the historical figures Bragg highlights in this book. In the attempt to be breezy, light-hearted, and funny, she gets awfully snarky and judgmental in a way that ignores historical context.If this book was your first introduction to many of the historical figures highlighted, I don't think you'd walk away with a very accurate depiction of them.

[Jacob Venske · Rating 5 out of 5]

The books creamy but it has famous people and about there failures in life.

[Trey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not quite as good as the first book, however I still enjoyed it, and I finished my genre graph, so win win!

[Alex B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting nonfiction piece of writing.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 5 out of 5]

The snappy details about the famous are delightful to devour and a reader can't stop at just one.  This isn't your grandmother's history text; it is a light-hearted look at the foibles, errors and personality flaws of the rich and famous.  I developed a taste for Georgia Bragg's outlandish way-with-words while reading her "How They Croaked:  The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous."  My only unhappiness is that she doesn't seem to be writing fast enough for her fans.

Here's a listing of the 14 famous (who are delightfully skewered by the author): Marco Polo, Isabelle of Castille, Montezuma II, Ferdinand Magellan, Anne Boleyn, Isaac Newton, Benedict Arnold, Susan B. Anthony, George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Alva Edison, Vincent Van Gogh,  J. Bruce Ismay, Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, Amelia M. Earhart. The point of the book is not to remind you of what you know but entertain you with wildly-improbable, but actually (little-known) facts about various paragons. A really fun read.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brief biographies of famous figures including Marco Polo, George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Edison, and Amelia Earhart that highlight mistakes and misdeeds.

The tone of this was just mean. Didn't really like it. Formatting was nice. After biography was a fast facts spread of interesting things about each person.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved to get some history lessons with a fun way of telling the tales. Also liked the summary and listing of the highlights of their failures at the end of each person's story.

[Sara Melugin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite quote, "Fail the best you can."

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was awfully jam-packed with information, along with many I, history buff, did not know. The book, in my opinion was very short and did not know that I was even close to being done with it until I got to the last page. In other words, a very descriptive book that I ate up in a week.

[Rylan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It doesn't tell you really how they died but you can make out what he is trying to say.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read How They Croaked years ago. I borrowed this book soon thereafter, but never finished it, so I finally decided it was time to clear up some of the books in my 'currently reading' folder.

I hate it when I let that one grow too big, since I'm not truly reading all 30 books right now. I created my 'DNF or set aside for now' shelf just for this reason and I really need to clean up house a bit.

interesting quotes:

"If Marco Polo hadn't been a total failure as a soldier, and if he hadn't been tossed in jail with Rustichello, we never would have known he even existed." (p. 9)

"Driven by her perverse duty to God, Isabella was a dangerous fanatic." (p. 21)

"Not a lot of contemplation was involved for Montezuma because in his culture there was no forgiveness, understanding, or rehabilitation - every crime was punishable by death. Just wearing cotton clothes could do it, or if you fouled or erred in their athletic ball game, which was a blend of basketball and soccer, you would be decapitated." (p. 27)

"When you think you're always right, and everything is 'mine, mine, mine' - and you're past the terrible twos - it's time to rethink your life." (p. 47)

"During seven years of saying 'Je m'appelle Anne,' and eating snails and things smothered in mustard, she gradually became very French." (p. 53)

"His scientific findings prove his genius, but the other half of Newton's life marked him as a notable whack job." (p. 65)

"If your word is no good - you are nothing." (p. 85)

"Her male schoolteacher wouldn't allow her to learn long division because it was thought that if a girl used her brain too much her baby-making parts would die." (p. 91)

"After Custer died, the Indian women found his corpse and bored a hole in his eardrums because George Armstrong Custer was a man who never listened." (p. 107)

"Since he never learned math, basic physical science, and chemistry, he taught himself by the 'oops, that didn't work' method of experimentation, when he'd accidentally melt, explode, or disintegrate something." (p. 112)

"He is one of the greatest painters of all time. And for being such an original, Vincent van Gogh got bullied to death at thirty-seven." (p. 131)

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[Joella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved How They Croaked and was super excited to see this book come out. When I read How They Croaked I was sad that I didn’t see all the illustrations as I listened to the audio book. But I LOVED the audio book, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this book and miss all the audio fun. But I couldn’t wait for the audio and I read it.

This is a fun, snarky collection of biographies that focus on famous people who choked when it was important or after they had done important things. From Montezuma II who couldn’t decide what to do and thus allowed all his people to be killed off thanks to his indecision to Vincent Van Gogh who ate paint and drank turpentine while in an insane asylum. These people and their stories aren’t anything new. But the way that the stories are presented are. There were many times that I chuckled out loud. And I loved being able to see the illustrations this go-round (though I still think I might need to listen to the audio eventually so I can laugh along with the narrator). I love how Bragg can get me to laugh about failures that famous people made…if only because then I realize that my failures aren’t quite as crazy or head-slapping.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

In trying to keep the tone humorous, the book strays instead into being overly snarky. I appreciate that there's a book for kids that doesn't just paint idolizing, perfected images of historical figures, but the chapters are so short that there's no time to give a decent balance to the parts they want to poke fun at, so that it ends up flipping entirely the opposite way and smearing them. Amelia Earhart ends up portrayed as someone who was too crazy about fame to be bothered to practice her flying, never got any good, relied on people to cover up all her failures, and recklessly picked an alcoholic to copilot her fateful flight...and really nothing more. It also states as fact things that I'm not sure can be verified, like how Sir Isaac Newton never loved anyone (following a theme that he was never treated with any love) and just grew increasingly to hate everyone.

Some chapters were better than others, but it just seemed to really have a lot of lost potential sacrificed for easy laughs (laughs that could've still been preserved with more careful writing).

[Alexa Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation featured different people in history, ranging as far back as Marco Polo, to prominent figures such as Isaac Newton, artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, the titanic ship captain J. Bruce Ismay, to Amelia M. Earhart and more. What these short stories tell of each of these people, is a summary of their life, what they were known for (hence why they made history), and also how they choked. How they choked is a nice reference for how they messed up, failed, aka made terrible mistakes but made history because of their mistakes. Captivating and hilariously written, this YA nonfiction book kept me reading on as if I was transfixed in time with each story I was reading.

This would be a great book to introduce in any segment where a class is study a certain part of history or a certain person (such as Amelia Earhart or Marco Polo), or Isaac Newton if the class was studying Newton’s Laws. Grade rang 6th-8th is ideal for this book.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

How They Choked explores the failures of fourteen historical figures. Obvious failures like Anne Boleyn and Benedict Arnold and George Custer are compared to some less obvious failures like Susan B. Anthony and Isaac Newton and Thomas Edison. I am not sure you can compare the failure of Montezuma to realize Cortez wasn't a god which led to the death of his people to the fact that Susan B. Anthony failed to get women the vote in her lifetime. Some of the facts were really interesting however. I knew Amelia Earhart hadn't learned how to read her instruments correctly, but I had no idea she wasn't really that great of a pilot and had crashed a lot. I don't think I even realized that Magellan hadn't actually made it all the way around the world but had died in the Philippines. I think fans of gruesome history will enjoy this one as well as those who like to learn obscure trivia about people. Definitely not as interesting as How They Croaked, but a fun read nonetheless.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a tad judgmental and a bit harsh, but it was so interesting to see how a lot of the people you admire were so messed up. It made me feel better for living a life that is sane but without achievement. There are some surprises in here. Amelia Earhart, if that is all true, how is she still such an icon? It makes you think to be sure.
I think I liked Susan B. Anthony best.
Liked this quote: Without equal rights, a country will not be a strong one, nor a wealthy and peaceful one. Nothing is more revolutionary than fairness and kindness, and the belief that human beings are linked but should not be ranked.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapters with titles like "Oops, there go the Aztecs" (Montezuma II) and "Stinker, traitor, soldier, spy" (Benedict Arnold) tell the stories of failures by famous folks well-intentioned (Susan B), not-too-bright (Shoeless Joe), delusional or damaged (van Gogh, Newton), or just plain terrible (Bruce Ismay, owner of the White Star Line).

I ran into Kevin O'Malley, illustrator of this book and its predecessor How They Croaked, the day after I read How They Choked and his comment was, "Thomas Edison - guy was a prick!"

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book because the author made it humorous and didn't exaggerate the stories. I also liked it because it was interesting to learn about famous people. I choose this book because I liked How They Croaked. My favorite story was Thomas Edison because it was funny that he patented everything he invented. I would recommend this book to another student because it is funny and interesting. I think the author wrote this book to inform about famous people's deaths. An important lesson I learned is not to take short cuts on safety like J. Bruce Ismay and Amelia Earhart did.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a pretty interesting book. Not only was it informational but I learned about people who I have never heard of before. It was really cool to learn about the people growing up but sometimes pretty sad to read how they died. With one exception. One of the characters in the book was on the Titanic as part of the staff. Will not spoil. Would recommend this book to everyone even if you don't like nonfiction stuff.