The History Book Club discussion

Just for sharing:

Have you learned anything new from reading or listening to your book today? Here is a place for sharing.

I've learned alot about my beautiful home town and its changes during centuries but it's all a jumble in my head right now...too much info :D

Checkpoint two is a break from non-fiction for me. Reading a John D MacDonald novel. My other book I am focusing on today Six Armies in Normandy is teaching me some new early war information as the US began to gear up for war.
by John Keegan

I am reading my first David Mitchell book, and I am not sure if I like it yet. I am on pg. 170 but the story is jumping all over the place between different time periods and different characters. Not sure where this is going, but since the book is 600 pgs I guess he has time to get there.
David Mitchell

That sounds very interesting Michael - we have done a couple of books here by Keegan.

John Keegan

Kathy you are making me laugh.

Kathy wrote: "I am reading my first David Mitchell book, and I am not sure if I like it yet. I am on pg. 170 but the story is jumping all over the place between different time periods and different characters. ..."

Mitchell can be hard to follow when he does things like that, but if you have the patience to get through it, his writing is amazing. I read Cloud Atlas last year.

by David Mitchell
by David Mitchell

Here's something funny I read in the book I'm reading. This is a weather forecast from Zagreb's first newspaper from the 19th century called Luna. It goes as follows:

"Here is a weather forecast that will put our estimated readers at ease. Make a larger snowball and hold it with both hands above a candle. If the snow starts to drip, then in a few days we can hope for a mild weather. But if the flame only makes a hole in the snowball without melting it, then we have to patiently endure winter for a few more days."

Quite a scientific approach, eh?! :D :D :D

Well that is a weird one but somehow as close to accurate weather forecasts that we sometimes get,

In 1854 Zagreb was considered a small town with only 13 440 inhabitants, but now, 160 years after it counts 800 000 inhabitants (2011 population census). I don't know about other cities but that is a major increase in such a small time frame.

very much so in the same general area.

A Moveable Feast is much more than I expected it to be. My reading has slowed because I have taken notes on some great anecdotes. I also have had to stop at times to simply appreciate Hemingway's great writing.

I knew that Hemingway spent time in Paris in the 1920s and was influenced by people he spent time with there, such as Gertrude Stein. I have learned from this reading the influence of the painter Cézanne. Looking at Cézanne works at the Musée de Luxembourg apparrently helped him with his infamous commitment to write sentences and stories that were "true." It also, perhaps, influenced his theory of omission, leaving out important pieces of a story to enhance its effect on the reader: "They will understand the same way that they always do in painting. It only takes time and it only needs confidence." This is a fascinating and inspiring peek into Hemingway's life and his creative processes.

by Ernest Hemingway

Very interesting Douglass

This is a slow read but pretty interesting. I know a good bit about Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII but little about her sister, "Mad" Juana of Castile. This book follows their "careers" as Queens, both tragic.

by Julia Fox

Very good Jill

Douglass wrote: "Kathy wrote: "I am reading my first David Mitchell book, and I am not sure if I like it yet. I am on pg. 170 but the story is jumping all over the place between different time periods and differe..."

I am definitely intrigued by each of the separate parts of this story. Like a Louis Lamour book, the characters from previous plot lines keep popping up for guest appearances in new sections. The author is going to be brilliant if he can weave all these separate stories together to make a coherent whole. This is how I got so sunburned . . . I kept reading just one more chapter!

Kathy wrote: "Douglass wrote: "Kathy wrote: "I am reading my first David Mitchell book, and I am not sure if I like it yet. I am on pg. 170 but the story is jumping all over the place between different time pe..."

He is very clever in how he ties the characters together. He even shares many characters between books. So if you read another of his books, you may recognize a character or two.

I actually did read a short manual, so I did learn a little bit about a new gadget.

Louis Lamour - I read him so long ago, So Mitchell has finally got you hooked.

Louis Lamour (no photo)

David Mitchell

That is interesting Douglass.

Teri you make me smile - you even read a manual for the readathon (lol)