Jacob Shymanski

To be narrative, to be narratively engaging.

I think it's because it's hard to actually read out loud books that are written so factually in matter of fact.

When you write narratively, it's literally easier and more pleasant to read out loud, but also just to listen.

Another history book I want to highlight because it's written so narratively, like a movie almost.

I loved this book.

The Wager by David Grant.

I don't know if you've heard about this one.

Amazing book.

Amazing, right?

For people who don't know about it, it follows an expedition from the UK that was meant to go to the eastern Pacific Ocean to defend against Spanish ships or something along those lines.

But

One of the ships gets shipwrecked on an island off the southern coast of Argentina.

And the book follows and reports on the journey of these survivors and how they stayed on the island for months and eventually built a replacement ship, craft, raft, whatever you want to call it.

And they sailed all the way up to Brazil and found their way back home after months and an absolutely grueling journey.

And you learn about the people involved, their families back home, who they were, their jobs, the way sailing worked at the time, the way news traveled, and how it was an absolute sensation back in the UK.

And then there was this whole plot of whose story is real because it involved mutiny and murder.

It felt so dramatic, but again, is sourced in real history by consulting a bunch of really detailed ship logs from people who are on these ships and all these sailors who would write diaries and journal entries over the months that they were on the crafts and on the island.

Incredible book, The Wager by David Graham.

He wants to tell you the story, not the facts.

The story.