The History Book Club discussion

Just started reading a book that contains a selection of Plutarch's Lives, specifically some of the Noble Greek lives. It is just an old paperback that I inherited. I'm only on page 33, but I'm already wishing I had the Roman Lives as well. Evidently Plutarch wrote them in pairs. Interesting to read biographies that are almost 2,000 years old.

Lives of the Noble Greeks

(Funny. For once we have no picture of the cover, but we do have a "picture" of the author.)

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome has some typos (Silla for Sulla, for example), but is so far very interesting.

For mindless reading I have picked up a couple:

Kathryn Stockett

and for my curiosity:

Andrew Young

Patricia is reading the following (moved from another thread):

Patricia, we have a rule on this site that the book cover and the author's link must be added. If there is an author's photo, please add that as well. This helps our Goodreads software populate the site correctly.

Patricia stated:

I am currently reading Death in a Prairie House about Frank Lloyd Wright and have been struck by how much FLW and TJ had extremely contradictory personal lives. Each seemed to espouse one thing and live another.

Really enjoy getting all the different takes on Jefferson.

William R. Drennan

I'm about half way through "Leningrad: State of Siege" by Michael Jones. Its OK but I think his last book "Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat" was better.

by Michael Jones

by Michael Jones

I have several books going right now. The main ones for this week are:

Jacques Barzun which I have been working on for quite some time. I put it away for several months and now am starting it over. Its going well.

Jack Turner

War for the OaksEmma Bull

Michael Maas

That is good Angie..we still have the Barzun threads open.

When adding a book without a cover followed by the author's name; put a space between them and write in the word by. However, I discovered that the book cover was available as well as the photo.

Emma Bull

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I've just started reading "The Bloody White Baron" by James Palmer. I'm a bit worried that after reading Procopius's excellent "History of the Wars: Books I-II" that I might feel let down by my cur..."

How did you like "The Bloody White Baron"? I read halfway through but the author's voice got on my nerves. I'm going to try to finish it though. Russian history is truly bizarre sometimes.

by James Palmer

I'm on a Wars of the Roses kick, so I'm reading the Allison Weir version...

by Allison Weir

and for fiction Slaughterhouse 5

by

I started "In the Company of Heroes" by Michael Durant last night and got through about 150 pages. Mr. Durant's narrative of his experiences during and after the Battle of Mogadishu is clear, honest and humble. I have always been inspired by what those soldiers did that day.

Michael J. Durant

When I was in New Mexico, I picked up:

Herman Agoyo

It is really fascinating. Po'Pay led a Pueblo revolt against the Spanish in 1680 and got them out of N. Mexico for about 10-12 years. Pretty amazing.

Lynda wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I've just started reading "The Bloody White Baron" by James Palmer. I'm a bit worried that after reading Procopius's excellent "History of the Wars: Books I-II" that I might f..."

Hi Lynda, I was disappointed in "The Bloody White Baron", it seemed to drag on and was full of fillers. I read Alison Weir's "War of the Roses" many years back and I liked it so I hope you are enjoying it as well.

by James Palmer

by Alison Weir

I'm almost halfway through Robert Caro's 3rd volume on LBJ, "Master of the Senate." Like all of Caro's books, it is compelling. My takeaway so far is that except for a couple of brief periods, for most of the nation's history the Senate has done more harm than good. I'll never view it again with the level of regard that I once had.

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

P.S. Caro's first book, The Power Broker, is one of the best books I have ever read. I recommend that book to anyone, especially those with any familiarity with New York City.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

Bill wrote: "I'm almost halfway through Robert Caro's 3rd volume on LBJ, "Master of the Senate." Like all of Caro's books, it is compelling. My takeaway so far is that except for a couple of brief periods, fo..."

Bill, we have a group rule that book covers and author's photos (if available) and links must be added for any book recommended. This allows the Goodreads software to populate all of the fields throughout the group site and be able to provide powerful links with a variety of information for our group members.

by Robert A. Caro

by Robert A. Caro

The above is how the books recommended should look when added. In the case of both of the books recommended by you there wasn't a photo available for the author.

Let me show how a book recommended which does have an author's photo should look:

Winston S. Churchill

Here we have first added the book cover for the book My Early Life, then we added Churchill's photo which was available and then we add the author's name. All three are powerful links which connect the group member to a lot of valuable information not only as a link but to a variety of other discussions within the group.

Bentley, thank you. I thought I had added those properly via the HTML link, but obviously not. I'll try again next time.

Thank you so much Bill. I appreciate your acknowledgement.

Jeff wrote: "Erick wrote: "I started "In the Company of Heroes" by Michael Durant last night and got through about 150 pages. Mr. Durant's narrative of his experiences during and after the Battle of Mogadishu ..."

Black Hawk Down is also an excellent book. The book, more than the movie, shows how the Delta guys are really the ones who kept things together. Does anyone recommend any other books on Delta? I am sure there are not very many out there. I will also make the request in the "Looking for a book on..." thread.

Mark Bowden

I have just started reading Amin Maalouf's "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes". I have completed the first chapter and so far its a decent and engaging book.

by Amin Maalouf

I couldn't find an appropriate thread to post this so I figured it would be OK to mention here that Nathaniel Philbrick (author of many good books) is due to release a new historical account of 'Custer’s Last Stand', a subject I find immensely interesting.

by Nathaniel Philbrick

That is fine.thank you for telling us.

I've just begun reading


Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and Redemption by Jeremiah Workman (no separate photo of the author, but the book's front cover is an excellent portrait of him.) It's a memoir by a Marine who earned the Navy Cross (America's second highest medal) in Fallujah, Iraq, in the 2004 battle for that city. His platoon commander had nominated him for the Medal of Honor, the only award higher than the one he actually received along with a Purple Heart. The author was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 2009 as a staff sergeant (pay grade E-6.) So far, as of page 76, he's given a harrowing account of both his experiences in that battle and his struggling with PTSD afterward; sometimes it's confusing when he is relating some incident in a room-to-room fight with machine guns and grenades and interwoven descriptions of people talking to him in 2006, trying to break through his thousand-yard stare. At those points it has the feel of a nightmare in which things keep shifting like the perspective going through a house of mirrors: that is what things were like for him, and he's sharing that confusion, terror, rage, and sometimes helplessness both at being pinned down in a gunfight in 2004 and in being unable to tell what's real and what's a flashback in 2006.

This is one of the most articulate, insightful, intense, and haunting combat memoirs I've ever read, and terribly sad.

Thanks for sharing your book, James. You'll have to let us know what you think overall when you're done.

When linking the book cover and author's picture, it isn't just so we can see what the author looks like. It is also so goodreads' software links our thread with the book and author so people know what groups are talking about various books. So even if the author's picture is on the cover, please include the author link. In this case, it looks appropriate to include links for two authors:

by Jeremiah Workman with John Bruning

James wrote: "I've just begun reading


[book:Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and Redemption|..."

Hi James, sounds like a very good book and I'd be very interested to hear your final opinion of the book once you have finished.

Recently finished:

by James Shapiro
by Alberto Angela
by Hilary Mantel

and enjoyed all of them. Though I'm still trying to figure out the relation of the title Wolf Hall to the plot of the novel, and the ending, which was rather weird.

Currently reading

by John C. Waugh

Had to stay up late to finish Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and Redemption -

This is one of the most powerful memoirs I've read in a long time. The author shows a great deal of courage not only in telling the world about his combat experience in Iraq, but in following that up by recounting his struggle with PTSD and near-disintegration due to its effects. He concludes by describing the fairly extensive array of programs, help, and support now available for Marines who come home either physically disabled or haunted by trauma (one of the programs being where he now works.)
Excellent book, one I can't recommend strongly enough.

Hi James, thanks for the update and recommendation, I will have to seriously consider getting a copy!

I have started reading the third volume (Books V-VI.15) of Procopius "History of the Wars". This volume covers the wars against the Goths with the last of the great Roman/Byzantine Generals, Belisarius.

by Procopius

I am just about to start a nice big book by Jenny Uglow on Charles II. By all accounts this is a well researched and well presented account of Charles II and the Restoration. Over 500 pages of narrative, it has received some nice reviews to date.

by Jenny Uglow
Publishers blurb:
"Charles II was thirty when he crossed the Channel in fine May weather in 1660. His Restoration was greeted with maypoles and bonfires, like spring after long years of Cromwell's rule. But there was no going back, no way he could 'restore' the old. Certainty had vanished. The divinity of kingship fled with his father's beheading. 'Honour' was now a word tossed around in duels. 'Providence' could no longer be trusted. As the country was rocked by plague, fire and war, people searched for new ideas by which to live. Exactly ten years later Charles would stand again on the shore at Dover, laying the greatest bet of his life in a secret deal with his cousin, Louis XIV. The Restoration decade was one of experiment: from the science of the Royal Society to the startling role of credit and risk, from the shocking licence of the court to the failed attempts at toleration of different beliefs. Negotiating all these, Charles, the 'slippery sovereign', layed odds. Yet while his grandeur, his court and his colourful sex life were on display, his true intentions lay hidden. "A Gambling Man" is a portrait of Charles II, exploring his elusive nature through the lens of these ten vital years - and a portrait of a vibrant, violent, pulsing world, in which the risks the king took forged the fate of the nation, on the brink of the modern world."

I have started reading the fourth volume (Books VI.16 - VII.35) of Procopius; "History of the Wars". This volume continues with the wars against the Goths with the last of the great Roman/Byzantine Generals, Belisarius and joined by Narses.

[image error] by Procopius

I just started Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You

by Sam Gosling. Its theme is the art and science of figuring out what a person is like - personality, values, interests, etc. - by examining whatever is found in that person's home, office, car, trash, and so on. Some connections are simple and obvious - if someone has unfolded laundry mixed with paperwork, candy wrappers, and sticky notes on his/her desk, that person is probably kind of disorganized, whereas if his/her bookshelves are organized based on the Dewey decimal system and all CDs and DVDs are alphabetized, the opposite is true - and others are more subtle, like the difference in the significance of knickknacks on a desktop depending on which way they're facing. So far it's extremely interesting, funny, and thought-provoking. The author is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and this was the subject of his graduate school research and thesis.

Now that sounds like an interesting book, James!

I recently started

by

which is his loosely coupled sequel to

by

So far, it looks to be as good as the first book. Mr. Follett has done a lot of research into many aspects of the world during the time period. I also like how he portrays the people as pretty much the same as they are today, no better or worse. The only mistake I made is to get the audio version to listen to in my car. It is 47 hours long and I only have a 20 minute commute. The audio version is well read, however.

Erick..you should be at it for awhile but then when you are done it will be like an old friend (smile).

I'm still reading Iron Kingdom: The Decline and Fall of Prussia by Christopher Clark. It's a really dense book, super-informative but very dense. The fact that I only have about 30 minutes a night to read it makes it tough going. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

I also started reading this month's book club selection The First World War by John Keegan
The First World War. I'm enjoying it very much so far.

Christopher Clark

John Keegan

Hi JP, thank you for your add...so as to use the power of the goodreads software which populates the fields automatically after things are entered properly we always add the photo of the author if available so we can see what they look like too and always at the very least if a photo is not available the author's link.

We also always add the book cover so that folks can see the cover and it is bigger and provides a bigger and more distinct link. You may have noticed everybody doing this as we have placed this in our rules so that we have some consistency.

Here is the Mechanics of the Board segment which gives some directions:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Have just started

by

Starting well.

Alison Weir

Glad you are liking it:

Normally when the cover and photo is available we usually add also the link so the name shows.


Alison Weir

or



Alison Weir

However, because the cover and at least the photo is showing the goodreads software can do its work anyways.

I am just starting "The Dig Tree" by Sarah Murgatroyd which is all about the Burke and Wills expedition to explore Australia's interior in 1860.

by Sarah P. Murgatroyd
Preview:
"The history of Australian exploration is littered with the corpses of men who underestimated the power, the size, and the unpredictability of the outback," Murgatroyd writes. This book is the tale of one such group, the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition that set out in August 1860. Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish police officer who not only possessed no exploration experience but also was notorious for getting lost in his own neighborhood. Surveyor William Wills, third in command until Burke fired his deputy, was a copious note-taker and documented the 5,000-mile journey, which commenced in Melbourne and took the men almost up to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. Along the way the group splintered into three separate groups, with only Burke and Wills' small group reaching the northernmost point. Along the way, they encountered varied terrains--including grasslands and swamps--and Aboriginal people, many who brought the explorers food. Eventually, many of these explorers succumb to malnutrition and starvation. Both fascinating and tragic, Murgatroyd's book will appeal to those interested in expeditions or Australia's past." - Booklist

OK, I am starting the final volume of Procopius's "History of the Wars" (Books VII.36 - VIII). This volume continues with the wars against the Goths which apparently lasted for eighteen years.

by Procopius

Well I finally finished the final volume in Procopius's "History of the Wars", we have finally managed to banish the Goths and reclaim Rome. I decided to start on a recent acquisition and have just started Marshal Suchet's memoirs:

by Louis-Gabriel Suchet

I've just started The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. It's a read which I have been looking forward to because I have heard many good things about Tuchman's account of the opening days of WW I.

Angie, from everything that I have heard...you should love that book.

Hi Angie, I think you'll find the book a very good account of that period, hope you enjoy it.

I have decided to start reading Alan Palmer's classic account of the Allied campaign in Salonika during WW1. The book was first published in 1965 and is still considered one of the best books on this forgotten campaign.

[image error] by Alan Palmer

I have just started Jonathan Dull's latest book; "The Age of the Ship of the Line".

by Jonathan R. Dull

You are a marvel Aussie Rick.

I wish my wife would see it that way :)

This book could or may be considered a good primer for those taking their first venture into naval warfare covering the period of when "Master & Commander" takes place.
The author is outlining the development of the 'Ship of the Line', which by the time of the Napoleonic Wars had come of age and was the preeminent weapon on the Seven Seas.
He is also attempting to show the development of naval tactics using the ‘Ship of the Line’, basically the evolution of ‘The Line of Battle’, using examples from wars between European nations including England, France, Spain and the Dutch from 1650 to 1815.


by Jonathan R. Dull

by Patrick O'Brian

Well she is the one probably stepping over all of the books :-)

I have just started reading Ted Morgan's "Valley of Death" which is a 'new' look at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. It will be interesting to see how it rates against Bernard Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu" and Martin Windrow's "The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam".

by Ted Morgan

by Bernard B. Fall

by Martin Windrow

I don't know if it is just me but I found the directions for book postings very confusing. So bear with me if I get it wrong. I'm reading Rounding's Catherine the Great.

Virginia Rounding

Aussie Rick, those books look very interesting. I read a positive review on the Morgan book.

Lauren, good job on the links.

I'm reading:

by Barton Gellman