The History Book Club discussion

Alisa wrote: "Taking a break from nonfiction and going with a best-selling mystery. Just started it, everyone seems to be talking about this, not sure what I think so far but too early to tell really. Anyone rea..."

I did - I thought it was meh. Ended up being predictable to me and I thought the woman was portrayed as weak. But I do know a lot of people that liked it, so I will be curious what you think of it.

Alisa wrote: "Taking a break from nonfiction and going with a best-selling mystery. Just started it, everyone seems to be talking about this, not sure what I think so far but too early to tell really. Anyone rea..."

I read it last year. I read some reviews and was intrigued enough to order a copy. It took a little while for me to get into it, but I did enjoy it. It's one of those books that people either love or hate.

by Paula Hawkins

Best seller fiction is always a hit or miss with me, I don't often seem to fall in line with the popular view. Will give it a go.

All, some great reading going on here. Very interesting posts.

I am so easily distracted by the shiny object. Tidying up the bookshelves at home last night unearthed this gem. The quote on the intro page grabbed me. Put down the best-selling mystery (which was getting off to a slow start) and cracked into this instead. Given the title I am bound to find some mystery in these pages too.
by Gary Krist (no photo).

That's on my TBR list Alisa. Looking forward to your review.

That's on my TBR list Alisa. Looking forward to your review.

That is also on my TBR list.
The weeds in my garden are waiting so I downloaded by Anthony Doerr so that I can't hear their squeals as I pull them out of the ground.

Wonderful book, Terry :)

I'm currently reading
by Dan Simmons
which is a fictional account of the Franklin expedition in search of the Nort-West Passage.
I wanna follow it up with a non-fiction book about the same expedition. Originally, I had
by Owen Beattie put on my TBR, but now - after looking through one of your threads - I'm actually not sure anymore. There are so many books about this expedition! If anyone can recommend one in particular, I'd be grateful!

Just finishing up Custer's Trials by TJ Stiles and about to follow that up with Destiny and Power by Jon Meecham

Bob, please put the citations of the book you are mentioning at the end of your posts. It makes it easier for other members to access the books if interested. Thank you! :)

by T.J. Stiles ( no photo)

by Jon Meacham

Detouring out of nonfiction for a suspense/thriller I found in the back of the bookcase.
by David L. Lindsey

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Finally got to reading the famous trilogy and I'm enjoying it immensely.

by John Mack Faragher is going to take me a while. I am only on page 67. Only 446 more pages to go!

Happens to me all the time, Michele. Don't drop it on your foot!!!

Alisa - Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World has finally made its way to the top of my to read list. Starting it tonight or tomorrow.

by Mark Kurlansky

On no!!!!! We have been talking about that for two years.... Alisa will be proud. I can't wait to see your review.

Whoohoo! Teri can't wait to see your review.

Looks like I am going to have to read that book!!!

I'm reading Savage Kingdom by Benjamin Woolley to get more educated on colonial history, a subject I have avoided since having to tediously memorize relevant names and dates in the second and third grades. That'll put you off an interesting subject!

I'm a little over halfway through it and it's great so far! Woolley does a great job at distinguishing between the different attitudes, actions, and opinions of the individual settlers, explorers, financial backers, and other figures involved in the founding of Jamestown, constantly quoting primary sources and discussing their credibility, so that it reads like a well-narrated story, though it also does feel like a very thorough history. Highly recommended, so far!

by Benjamin Woolley

Taylor wrote: "I'm reading Savage Kingdom by Benjamin Woolley to get more educated on colonial history, a subject I have avoided since having to tediously memorize relevant names and..."

Added that to my list. I have traced an ancestor back to his arrival in Jamestown. Thanks for posting that, Taylor!

Teri wrote: "Taylor wrote: "I'm reading Savage Kingdom by Benjamin Woolley to get more educated on colonial history, a subject I have avoided since having to tediously memorize rel..."

That's awesome! :) My husband has a Jamestown ancestor, too, and we were happily surprised to find him mentioned twice and quoted once in Savage Kingdom . Hopefully you'll get to read something in the book about your ancestor, too!

Happy reading!

Currently making my way though:

by James Mahaffey (no photo)

Really dense book. Lots of technical info. Not a book to read straight though, but very educational. I am a little over half way, right now.

Thomas R. Hargrove was an American warrior, agronomist, journalist and Texas Aggie, all rolled into one. While a young army officer during the Vietnam War, he was ordered alone into a dangerous area to advise the local farmers on new varieties of rice with higher yields. Years later, he returned to Vietnam and met the Viet Cong officer who had been in charge of that area. The former enemy told Tom they could have killed him at any time, but knew he was helping the people, so they left him alone.

Some years later, while working for The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, Tom was kidnapped by FARC rebels, who held him for ransom and starved him for 11 months, when his family worked with a hostage negotiator and secured the money to pay his ransom. From this experience, he wrote "Long March to Freedom, The True Story of a Colombian Kidnapping" The Meg Ryan/Russell Crow movie "Proof of Life" is based on Tom's experience.

My friend Tom Hargrove was quite a guy.

Had this on my to-read list for awhile and started it recently. Great book, the author has put forth a compelling narrative that illuminates the story of Frances Perkins' life and the monumental role she had in FDR's administration. Compelling story on a number of levels. A little way yet to go, a lot to absorb.

by Kirstin Downey

I don't remember how this book came to my attention. I'm reading Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz. It's narrative grabbed me from the beginning and has lead me through his development from a British street kid to a recruiter for the Islamist movement.

by Maajid Nawaz

Post from Jayana, moved from another thread.


Fangirlin!
Just got acquainted with The Fray Theory by Nelou Keramati. This might as well be the Best Fantasy Fiction of 2016. I need people to fangirl with!

by Nelou Keramati

Posting this here for new member Dean:

An Important Street

I am about halfway through a delightful book of my favorite kind of history--small, personal, unexpected. The title is Inspiration Street: Two City Blocks That Helped Change America.

It is the history of Pierce Street in Lynchburg, Virginia, where the relations between the races and the flowering of creativity pre-dated the Civil Rights Movement by decades. The author, Darrell Laurant, writes in the Introduction:

"Indeed, it is the very ordinariness of the street as a whole that makes the 1300 and 1400 blocks of Pierce even more remarkable. Buried in old downtown like a gold nugget encased in a chunk of rock, they offer nothing less than magic.

Perhaps the best way to emphasize that is simply to list some of the luminaries who have set foot there:
Iconic black writer and activist W. E. B. Du Bois. James Weldon Johnson, founder of the NAACP. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Poet Langston Hughes. Singers Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson. agricultural pioneer George Washington Carver. longtime congressman Adam Clayton Pow- ell, who spent the first night of his honeymoon there. World-class tennis players Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson. Sen. Carter Glass, co-founder of the Federal Reserve System. Influential journalist H. L. Mencken. Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Lionel Hampton. Duke Ellington. Maya Angelou. and, not least, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

All part of the rich life story of an out-of-the-way street in an out-of-the-way city."

by Darrell Laurant

I'm finally reading a book that has been on my list for a while. It's a fascinating study of Charles and William Bent and their fort along the Santa Fe Trail. So far it's an extremely enjoyable read.

by David Lavender

I just started reading this book, recommended here on goodreads. This is a huge book, one that I am very glad is on my Kindle, and not one that I have to carry around.

by Vincent Bugliosi

Good book, Karen. BTW, please put you citation at the end of the text for easier reading.

Hello! I amo from Mexico living in Xalapa and I would like to share my current reading; even that It is in spanish, you may find an english versión following the autor link. Greetings everybody!

by Santiago Posteguillo

We have many Spanish speaker here at the HBC, Hector, so it is a good recommendation. Thanks so much and good job with the citations!

Hector that looks like an interesting book. I'm going to add it to my list in Spanish.

I'm about finishing "Air Power, insurgency and 'War on terror'". This book is a kind of collection of essays and lectures on the subject. The many authors are Air Power researchers from different institutions and the work is edited by Joel Hayward. A very interesting work.

Don't forget your book citations, Paulo. Thanks.

(no image)Air Power, Insurgency and the "War on Terror" by Joel S.A. Hayward (no photo)

John......on post 2469, don't forget to put (no photo) after the author's link if one is not available.

David Lavender (no photo)

Robert.......on post 2464, your book citation is just a bit off. It should look like this.

by Tom Hargrove (no photo)

Thank you Jill. I'm sorry for not being able to upload the cover picture of my book.

Began to read (spanih version of:
by Patrick Deville
Couldn´t find neither the english or spanish edition in GR but this will do.

Hector.....please put your book citation at the end of your text for better reading and don't forget to add the author's photo, followed by the link, as shown below. Thanks so much.

by Patrick Deville

I am sorry Jill.

No need to be sorry, Hector. It is an easy thing to forget.

I just finished reading Bent's Fort by David Lavender. I enjoyed it greatly and have a review up. I haven't written much since college many years ago so I'm a bit rusty and still trying to learn the review formatting here on Goodreads.

by David Lavender(No Photo)

John wrote: "I just finished reading Bent's Fort by David Lavender. I enjoyed it greatly and have a review up. I haven't written much since college many years ago so I'm a bit rusty and still trying to learn th..."

I use to live in Colorado and heard a lot about Bent's Fort but had not heard about this book. Thanks for the note about it, I'll add it to my list.

You might want to add this book to our Native American thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and our American Frontier thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We'd love for you to add your personal review on the threads (i.e. copy/paste there or write it there), but be sure not to link to any reviews as it is against our guidelines - see: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

Great job on the citation.

The Pelican Brief. John Grisham

Hello Roberto.

This is how we add citations here so that the powerful goodreads software can cross populate our site.

by John Grisham

Great read and great movie by the way

I am reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, which really adjusts your thinking from how history is taught in school, to looking at it in terms of struggles between the haves and the have-nots and all of the grey areas in between.
http://zinnedproject.org/wp-content/u... http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defco...

I'm on a trojka:
by Richard Overy
byCatherine Merridale(no photo)
by Christopher Bellamy