The History Book Club discussion

Hisham, you did a beautiful job with formatting. My only suggestion is that when there isn't a photo you may want to do as follows consistent with our guidelines:

by Mohammad Ayub Khan (no photo)
by Nicolas Martin (no photo)

Thank you for your comments.

Waqar wrote: "I am currently reading 'Zealot: Life and times of Jesus of Nazareth' by Reza Aslan. It reads like a thriller and is wonderfully written."

Thank you Waqar. That is an excellent book and I agree that it is wonderfully written. Just remember to format your book at the end of your post so that Goodreads may pick it up with their software. It should be like so:

by Reza Aslan

Thank you for your comments, David. It looks like you have been pretty busy with the Civil War biographies. I am sure that is very interesting reading.

Thank you, Elizabeth. You have done a magnificent job with your formatting. The only thing that I would suggest to be consistent with our guidelines is to put the author's photo first and their name following that.

by June Hur

Thank you again, Elizabeth.

I am reading…
Carrie Soto is Back Carrie Soto Is Back- Taylor Jenkins Reid Taylor Jenkins Reid
Jaws Jaws- Peter Benchley Peter Benchley
Twelve Days of Terror Twelve Days of Terror: Inside the Shocking 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks-Richard G. Fernicola Richard Fernicola
Mary Tutor in Her Own RightIn Her Own Right: A Novel of Lady Mary Tudor - Amanda Schiavo Amanda Schiavo

Yes, I'm all over the place. Lol

Thank you for your comment, Lynnie. However, to be consistent with our guidelines, please format your books as follows:

by Taylor Jenkins Reid
by Richard G. Fernicola (no photo)
by Amanda Schiavo (no photo)

Thanks, Lorna.
I used the “add book/author above the comment box, followed the search, clicked the book, etc, and the post is how it published. Is there another way to add the thumbnails other than the using the linked information?

Lynnie wrote: "Thanks, Lorna.
I used the “add book/author above the comment box, followed the search, clicked the book, etc, and the post is how it published. Is there another way to add the thumbnails other tha..."

Thank you, Lynnie.

When you go to "add book/ author" and you click on the book, go to the bottom of the page where you will have a choice of cover or link. If you mark cover, the bookcover will be published. And for author, you need to select photo and followed by link. It is important to make sure that the right selection is there. If you have been consistently using link, it will default to that unless you select "cover." It is the same with the author. You need to be sure that you select "photo" followed by the selection of "link."

I hope that makes sense. Please let me know if you have any more questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Lorna!

You’re welcome, Lynnie.

For Independence month, I've been reading "The Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence," a reprint of a book from 1848!

I love when a book and the language therein are historic artifacts themselves--the book becomes part of the story it tells.

This book is all about glorifying the signers, so there's barely any mention of slavery, except in the context of the colonists' slavery to the crown.

It includes the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the stamp act, as well as the Constitution with only its first twelve amendments.

by Benson J. Lossing [no photo]

Thank you, Jeff. It sounds like a very interesting and timely book. And your formatting is perfect!

I've been reading a book about how to format comments properly on a Goodreads group. I'm not finished yet though...

Lorna wrote: "Hisham, you did a beautiful job with formatting. My only suggestion is that when there isn't a photo you may want to do as follows consistent with our guidelines:


Thank you for the correction!

I'm now reading two books:

by Thomas Barthel (no photo)

by Dick Couch (no photo)

I usually have two or three books going at once. I read during my lunch hour, before I go to bed, and listen to a book on Audible during my commute to/from work.

Right now I am reading The Last Masterpiece by Laura Morelli (I actually won this book in one of Goodreads giveaways) and listening to The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden. I just finished The Collectors by David Baldacci (one of my favorite authors).

Not sure what I plan on reading next, but I need to start something!

Bethany wrote: "I usually have two or three books going at once. I read during my lunch hour, before I go to bed, and listen to a book on Audible during my commute to/from work.

Right now I am reading The Last Ma..."

Thank you for your comment, Bethany. In order to be consistent with our guidelines, the books you cite should be as follows:

by Laura Morelli
by Freida McFadden
by David Baldacci

Thank you.

This is a reminder to everyone. While this is the place to share what you are reading, please do not leave a link to your review as that is considered self-promotion according to the rules and guidelines of the History Book Club.

Thank you.
Lorna, Assisting Moderator (T) - Civil Rights and Supreme Court

The book starts with several quotes, one of which is by Churchill's daughter-in-law: "It was a terrible war, but if you were the right age and in the right place, it was spectacular." Olsen transports us right into the thick of all the excitement, of London during the Blitz, the draconian rationing, of being surrounded by constant death and privation, but also inside the raucous parties, the drama-filled inner circles of the Roosevelt and Churchill administrations, and the romantic acts of heroism, grit, and empathy shown throughout the war.

Winant, Murrow, and Harriman are lesser known but no less important actors in the European theater of WW2, and I'm so glad to know them through this book, which is leaden with first hand accounts, humanizing them even more. In fact, there are so many quotes pulled from the "people in the room" that better realize the various situations from both UK and US perspectives, from America's isolationist stance, to Britain's near breaking point in 1940-41, to the North African / French front, rise of Soviet power, and the post-war vie for dominance, etc. it really felt like I was looking at everything in real time.

Highly recommend for anyone who knows the general gist of WW2 timeline, but wants to delve deeper and follow a perspective not of your usual presidents or generals.


Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour

Thank you for your comment, Rosalyn. It sounds like an interesting book.
A good attempt at your citation of the book. However, it isn't necessary to link to the title. We also need to have the author's photo and a link to their name as follows:

by Lynne Olson

My first pull from a neighborhood free library (a.k.a. Little Free Library, but that is apparently a brand name) was a 500+ page political biography, which just happens to be my go-to.

Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright claims to be a memoir, but I'm going to go ahead and say autobiography. It's off to a great start--I'm on page 52, and she's a newlywed right out of college, enamored with JFK like many other women at the time. She has already had a remarkable life, and we're just getting to the good stuff.

I am still just beginning to read memoirs and biographies about historical women, after spending most of the last several years on US presidents 1 through 46. But I can already tell that women tend to be a little more open with their romantic history. With men, you typically get one teenage romance, and then they meet their future spouse. Let's just say women are a little more honest.

This isn't a book I would have ever purchased, but I'm glad someone in the neighborhood hooked me up! Mrs. Albright passed away in 2022, so there is also a timely element to my reading this now.

by Madeleine K. Albright

Thank you for your comment, Jeff. I agree that this was an excellent book by Madeleine Albright

I am almost finished with a fascinating work of historical fiction about Chaucer's Wife of Bath, from The Canterbury Tales, written in the first person by the Wife of Bath herself. It's a fun read and seems very well researched:

by Karen Brooks

That sounds like a good book, Glynn! I appreciate when authors do a considerable amount of research for their historical novels. Thanks for sharing.

Ladies, if you would like a more scholarly look at the same subject you might try:
by Marion Turner
Regards,
Andrea

I’m reading a book by Eric Larson called The Devil in the White City. It’s actually two books in one. It’s about the planning and construction of the Chicago worlds fair in the 1890’s and the the murders of H H Holmes at the same period. There is a merge of sorts between the stories as Holmes took some future victims to visit the fair shortly after opening.

The Devil in the White City https://g.co/kgs/aJpZWGp

Kevin, thank you for your comments about this interesting book by Eric Larson. However to be consistent with our guidelines for book citations, you should omit the link to the book and cite it in the following format:

by Erik Larson

Thank you.

Kevin wrote: "I’m reading a book by Eric Larson called The Devil in the White City. It’s actually two books in one..."

I loved that one--as much as one can love a book with such depravity. Some don't like the way the two stories are presented, but it's genius, really: Contrasting the incredible challenges of designing an entertainment event that will be a celebration of humanity with the absurd ease of a madman taking multiple human lives.

If you haven't heard, Larson has a new one due in April on the start of the US Civil War:

by Erik Larson

Andrea wrote: "Ladies, if you would like a more scholarly look at the same subject you might try:
by [author:Marion Turner|926..."

Thanks, Andrea! I appreciate the recommendation.

I've just began reading a book covering the little known "Galvanized Yankees". These were Confederate prisoners who were re-enlisted from prison camps into the US Army to defend against the American Indians in the West during the Civil War.

by Dee Brown

That looks interesting, David!

by Urszula Szulakowska (no photo) (BRILL)

by A Azfar Moin (no photo) (Columbia University)

My main language is German so is the majority of books that I read, but a few more English books I already have and will read sooner or later are:

by Jonathan Z. Brack (no photo) (University of California)

by Aziz Al-Azmeh (Tauris)

by Richard McCoy (no photo) (Columbia University)

by Massimo Introvigne (no photo) (BRILL)

by A. Azfar Moin (no photo) (Columbia University)

In fact I already read at least the introduction to all of them, here's from the last one:

This book brings into dialogue two major fields of scholarship that are rarely studied together: sacred kingship and sainthood in Islam. In doing so, it offers an original perspective on both. In historical terms, the focus here is on the Mughal empire in sixteenth-century India and its antecedents and parallels in Timurid Central Asia and Safavid Iran. These interconnected milieus offer an ideal window to explore and rethink the relationship between Muslim kingship and sainthood. For it was here that Muslim rulers came to express their sovereignty and embody their sacrality in the manner of Sufi saints and holy saviors.
The Mughal dynasty of India (1526–1857) and the Safavid one of Iran (1501–1722) exemplified this mode of sacred kingship. The early and foundational monarchs of these two lineages modeled their courts on the pattern of Sufi orders and fashioned themselves as the promised messiah.
In their classical phases, both the Mughals and the Safavids embraced a style of sovereignty that was “saintly” and “messianic.” Neither a coincidence nor a passing curiosity, this similarity resulted from a common pattern of monarchy based upon Sufi and millennial motifs. There developed in this period an ensemble of rituals and knowledges to make the body of the king sacred and to cast it in the mold of a prophesied savior, a figure who would set right the unbearable order of things and inaugurate a new era of peace and justice—the new millennium. Undergirded by messianic conceptions and rationalized by political astrology, this style of sovereignty attempted to bind courtiers and soldiers to the monarch as both spiritual guide and material lord.

I'm almost finished with the first-hand account of WWII by Audie Murphy, Medal of Honor recipient and actor. It's an amazing story.

by Audie Murphy

After finishing Murphy's autobiography, I'm hoping to learn more from this biography.

by David A. Smith

Hi I'm Jennifer. I'm new here and just introduced myself over on the Introductions thread.

I just finished Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan. I think the author masterfully humanized General Lafayette, who in the US is often revered as the legendary, almost mythic, figure of the Revolution.

My boss just heard Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speak at an Indy Bar luncheon so she loaned me her autobiography, Lovely One: A Memoir, that she picked up there so I'm looking forward to starting that soon.

I'm also working on finishing the print version of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and I just started The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro in digital format.

I'm looking forward to combing through this thread to learn which books you're all enjoying.

Thank you for your wonderful comments about what you are reading, Jennifer. However, to be consistent with our guidelines, the books you mentioned should be cited thus:

by Mike Duncan
by Ketanji Brown Jackson (no photo)
by Stuart Turton
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Thank you, again. Enjoy your books.