Publisher: National Geographic (June 8, 2021)

Hardcover: 464 pages

In these gleefully gloomy pages, you’ll find a politically smeared George Washington, a cranky Colonel Sanders, a homicidal Saint Olga of Kiev, a cuckolded Napoleon, a flame-censored Steinbeck, a treacherous Douglas MacArthur, a weeping Einstein, an exasperated Charles Dickens, a humiliated King Henry II, and a faux-contrite Ted Kennedy. And that’s just in July!

From the decadent palaces of ancient Rome to the modern Halls of Congress, this illuminating (sometimes disturbing) narrative features an almost endless array of misbehavior, amusing mishaps, and breathtaking misfortune over the ages and across the historical spectrum. Each less-than-red-letter day of the year is recounted in Farquhar’s wry voice and comes with the enduring lesson The Wall Street Journal found in the first volume of this series: “Bad Days in History may offer consolation to the great mass of quotidian belly-achers . . . whose piddling misfortunes and regrets will snap neatly into perspective when set against [this] record of idiocy and disaster.”

This surprising and sometimes heartbreaking collection of mayhem and malady will leave you amused, intrigued, and horrified by day after day of hilarious catastrophe.

Review:

To my regret, I hadn't stumbled upon the preceding book. More Bad Days in History, is the sequel to Bad Days in History, continuing the entertaining highlights of some of the most unfortunate events in history. Delving through centuries, the book highlights a wide range of figures, personalities and events. Each date entry focuses on an event that happened on that day in history. Between the witty titles and the humor brought to each experience, it was a book that I found comfort in the cliché of someone else had a worse day than I.

The book is long but rich with humor, promising a good time for those who love history, politics, pop culture, religion and sports to name a few. There were laugh out loud moments and some leaving me shaking my head. The illustrations were such a bonus to complement some of the entries. Not sure if there are any more books planned for this collection in the future but I would love to see if there is what's to come.