2 down, 19 to go..

of the 21 books recently purchased.

One, by Paul Manning discussed here in some detail by a reviewer, sorta fits into my field of historic interest.
I did question some of his reasoning in coming to certain conclusions following DNA and other scientific advances.  But the international ramifications of business propounded on by Manning  weren't exactly boring as they seem to be echoed in a book about IBM!
I did expect a more biographical treatment, not so much about economics of big business' covert wheelings and dealings.
Perhaps rather fitting in these times of  "too big to fail"  - just kidding! 
Enough said.
Go read both  and make up your own mind.

The other by an 'olden days' Author, Aphra Behn (1640–1689), published in 1688 !!!,

concerns the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Suriname in the 1660s

Historical Depiction of Suriname

and the author's own experiences in this new South American colony.

Her life reads like a suspense novel itself.  

She became a spy for Charles II during one of the Dutch Wars.

For which she was NOT paid properly and ended up in debtor's prison after returning to England.

She began to write to make ends meet (ha - Rowlands of Harry Potter fame seems a fitting heir to Aphra, eh?).

She truly had quite a success with publishing poetry, and many plays with large numbers of performances,  which already made her famous in her own lifetime.

Later on she wrote prose pieces of which "Oroonoko" is one of the earliest English novels and was published a year or so before her death. 

Interest in this woman author began to blossom in the 1970's who

is often said to be the forebear of British women writers,

with "Oroonoko" representing a - if not THE - crucial text in the history of the English novel!  Interesting for sure!

Go for it.

This was the annotated version to help with the background and antiquated,
albeit here a bit streamlined, style of writing.