The History Book Club discussion

This will be a fun way to get together as a group and enjoy history via audio.

Drop in again for additional details.

May I bold and suggest by Winston S. Churchill. The version available on Audible is excellent it is though old Winston is reading it himself.

Michael, we did Volume I of the Second World War as a spotlighted read some time ago. But listening to Winston would be quite another thing. It is a great suggestion. Possibly the second volume.

Although so many people have joined the group since Volume I was spotlighted (myself included), that maybe it would be nice to have a quick listen to Vol 1 first, or even simultaneously, as an option for those who want to. I'm sure those who already read Vol 1 are eager to move on, though.

BE WARNED Elizabeth listening to Volume I will take you around 10 hours of listening. Though I might point out it is a enjoyable way to pass the time.

All good ideas. It is not too much hardship for me since I love Winston Churchill.

Michael wrote: "BE WARNED Elizabeth listening to Volume I will take you around 10 hours of listening. Though I might point out it is a enjoyable way to pass the time."

Which is a lot of the reason I have avoided audio books in the past--I'm too impatient. :)

All good ideas indeed - I am going to work on this this week and try and get our first title selection firmed up for us, but suggestions are of course always welcome.

We are eagerly looking forward to it.

Another good one might be the one by Tony Blair:

Tony Blair

Tony Blair is also the narrator.

Synopsis:

Tony Blair is a politician who defines our times. His emergence as Labour Party leader in 1994 marked a seismic shift in British politics. Within a few short years, he had transformed his party and rallied the country behind him, becoming prime minister in 1997 with the biggest victory in Labour’s history, and bringing to an end eighteen years of Conservative government. He took Labour to a historic three terms in office as Britain’s dominant political figure of the last two decades.

A Journey is Tony Blair’s firsthand account of his years in office and beyond. Here he describes for the first time his role in shaping our recent history, from the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death to the war on terror. He reveals the leadership decisions that were necessary to reinvent his party, the relationships with colleagues including Gordon Brown, the grueling negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland, the implementation of the biggest reforms to public services in Britain since 1945, and his relationships with leaders on the world stage—Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush. He analyzes the belief in ethical intervention that led to his decisions to go to war in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and, most controversially of all, in Iraq.

A Journey is a book about the nature and uses of political power. In frank, unflinching, often wry detail, Tony Blair charts the ups and downs of his career to provide insight into the man as well as the politician and statesman. He explores the challenges of leadership, and the ramifications of standing up, clearly and forcefully, for what one believes in. He also looks ahead, to emerging power relationships and economies, addressing the vital issues and complexities of our global world.

Few British prime ministers have shaped the nation’s course as profoundly as Tony Blair, and his achievements and his legacy will be debated for years to come. Here, uniquely, we have his own journey, in his own words.

Source for write-up: Goodreads

What about this one, I'm currently listening to it and it has some great history of Al Qaeda and where they came from, as well as being a great story!

by Jon Krakauer

I this doesn't fit into what we are allowed to nominate, let me know and I'll take it down.

I think it fits fine Kristi. It looks like a great choice.

I'm hoping to announce the title selection tomorrow (Fri. 10/9) as I am waiting to hear from a publisher.

Great, I am excited...any hints what it might be?

Bentley wrote: "Great, I am excited...any hints what it might be?"

I can't say anything yet in case it falls through with the publisher. But, as always it will be an exciting nonfiction topic - how's that?

Very good. Understood.

This is for a discussion starting November 1, 2010?
If so, I would to nominate by Nathaniel Philbrick and narrated by George Guidall.

Disclaimer: I receive no compensation (goods, services, monies or good will)from any persons or party associated with this title or production.

Thank you Tanya...I loved that book but I have read it from cover to cover for a book discussion. Other folks might enjoy it. Guidall does great narrations.

George Guidall

Hello Jason...all of us are very excited and are looking forward to a history read together.

And how will this evolve Jason. You were going to try to get copies Is that happening? If not that - then we will have to send out an event notification and set up a thread for the listen which I would be happy to do once I know the details.

We will also need to give folks time in advance to get a copy if they are not getting one here.

We can discuss via PM. The selection is not a bad one and I am sure that folks would enjoy it; but I think the other choices seem to have broader appeal. Also, if there are copies that are being made available, we should go with those selections if at all possible.

I think it will have to be later. Let us start this on January 10th since we have so much going on right before Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We can start this on January 10th with the schedule already in place.

Via PM you can let me know what titles you might be successful in getting for next year and when; and then we can set up a schedule in advance for the year even; so that folks and the publishers can plan. Also this will give the publishers the advance time they need and we will get responses from those folks who are interested in the titles so that we have some solid numbers.

Right now everything is too much in the air.

Bentley wrote: "I think it will have to be later. Let us start this on January 10th since we have so much going on right before Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We can start this on January 10th.

Via PM ..."

Okay - why don't we leave this thread open for suggested titles, and we can work on a schedule of title, dates, if I can get copes, etc. and then put it out there.
I think that would be better?

Please feel free to delete my previous announcement thread and leave this for suggestions.

Good idea. Done.

I'm really stupid-tired so bear with me a moment while I try to sort this out:

So, the titles we suggest are just that, suggestions (not nominations?)
And what we suggest may or may not be taken into consideration, depending on whether or not Jason makes a deal with a publisher?
And suggestions may cover fiction, non-fiction and/or biography and are not related to what is being discussed on other threads?
And you are looking for a whole year's group listens, starting in January (not now?)

I realize the answers may be self-evident to everyone else, but I just want to make sure I understand what's going on here.

Hi Tanya,

I was using suggestion sort of interchangeably with nomination. Actual titles will be picked by polling.

Publishers aren't a factor, and won't play into the decisions. I had mentioned that I had someone (from a publisher) offer some titles for book clubs and was hoping that included their audio titles - in the process of confirming whether or now so as to include the info with the title nominations.

I was limiting my nominations to just non-fiction, but historical non-fiction is okay.

The first group listen/discussion would take place after the new year.

Bentley can speak more about the planning out (time wise) process better than me.

I hope that helps.

Hello,

First, we need to give the membership time (enough advance notice) for any selection. And this thread was set up because Jason believed that he could do the above and that would introduce folks who might otherwise not be an audiobook connoisseur to audiobooks and this whole new art form.

We also on every other thread give folks the opportunity to nominate what they will read. They nominate, we vote on all of the nominations and then the selection is made democratically. At that point we set up the table of contents and syllabus, the start and finish date, the thread with the book introduction and we send out the event notification. From the event notification, we know how many folks are going to participate and who they are. We give the members about two months notice to be able to finish up books they are reading, get the book, etc.

Now for the audiobook, what we assumed and hoped is that Jason would get some way to access the history book selected at no charge for folks who wanted to sign up for an audio listen.

Since the title would be a surprise and the group membership would be getting to listen for free; then we were bypassing the selection process.

I also made the suggestion to Jason that he might be able to get copies more easily if they were older historical classics and that would work well too in order to help him out.

If folks are on their own to get their own materials then we have to give them advance notice and follow the normal procedures.

My suggestion to Jason is that together and off line that we discuss what options he can bring to the table and try to start putting together a nomination list which can be polled by the membership so that we have a list to go by and enough advance notice.

As you can see we are offering three selections right now to the readership, we have one starting November 1st and already three in January and two in February.

We are very well organized and have procedures in place to handle all of the above and the audio books if they were provided for us would have been a step outside of those normal processes already in place.

Nominations should be historical, biographies, memoirs or possibly historical fiction and of course can be a book that is related to the threads.

If we cannot get advance audios or free listens, then yes we need to set up a list in advance and vote on it and follow the group's procedures for books that the group must secure. I hope this helps since I know Tanya you are new to the group.

Since it appears that publishers aren't going to be a factor or play into the decisions; then we need to put together a list to be voted for. I think that folks should first make sure that their nomination is an audio book and then place it on this thread for nomination.

Once we get enough nominations we will next vote on the list through a poll.

Thank you for taking the time to explain all that. I had been poking around the other threads and saw the events/polls that we were expected to participate in, so that's why I was a little shocked when I saw the now-deleted post (and hence my confusion.)

No that was at the suggestion of Jason. No worries.

The new year is approaching!

To kick this segment off; I am thinking that we need a very interesting selection to get folks interested in audiobooks per se. And those that are; frequently are members of audible. To gain new interest, Jason's idea about getting publishers to give out a few free audible copies was a great one. I think frankly it is great advertising and it creates many new customers and listeners.

So my idea is to sign folks up for a first audio read of the book Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Hilary Mantel

If Jason wants to lead this audio book, that is great; if not I will chart a new course with this one.

This is an unabridged historical novel but probably a good first choice for us who want to maintain some historical roots.

Here is the summary:

Winner of the prestigious Man Booker prize for fiction (2009), Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction (2010), National Book Critics' Circle Award for Fiction (2010), Costa Book Award Nominee for Novel (2009)

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political powerEngland in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage.

With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

Audible has the unabridged version available and members can listen to it there and/or you may be able to get an audible version from the library. We are going to listen to this selection but that does not mean that some of you who want to read the selection can't follow along.

I have also attached a link which has a reference guide pdf:

http://download.audible.com/product_r...

Let us say that we begin this journey on February 21st. Once we get some lists together for potential audiobook reads we can vote on the next one. This is sort of going off our usual guidelines; but in order to get this off the ground; we need to avoid any additional time and just jump in. We will vote on the next one.

Here are some of the plans available on audible.

http://www.audible.com/pap/1402861021

Folks we did have an audio listen some time ago and that was Wolf Hall. Garret did a terrific job.

by Hilary Mantel

We would like some recommendations for an upcoming audio listen. Please recommend and select an audiobook that you think the group would like to do a group listen for.

Folks we did Wolf Hall awhile but that was in 2012 - would folks like to do a history book club listen - What are the titles you might like us to consider - we could do this like a buddy read only with an audio book?

by Hilary Mantel

Let us know if there is interest and give us your suggestions. Maybe we could do a series of books or tackle something that folks have always wanted to do but found it daunting alone.

I'd like to suggest:

by Nathaniel Philbrick

by Deborah Blum

Both good ones thanks

I would like to suggest

by A.J. Baime (no photo)

by Nikolaus Wachsmann(no photo)

by Winston S. Churchill

All good ones

We have not had any good suggestions for a group listen recently - nominate a book for a group listen below.

This will be an audiobook that as a group we will select and listen to together.

I would like to recommend Lincoln in the Bardo. I think it has about 166 different narrators. I think this might be a great History Listen

by George Saunders
Note: Novel - Historical Fiction with some liberties

Synopsis:

The captivating first novel by the best-selling, National Book Award nominee George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War

On February 22, 1862, two days after his death, Willie Lincoln was laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. That very night, shattered by grief, Abraham Lincoln arrives at the cemetery under cover of darkness and visits the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son’s body.

Set over the course of that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently passed and the long dead, Lincoln in the Bardo is a thrilling exploration of death, grief, the powers of good and evil, a novel - in its form and voice - completely unlike anything you have read before. It is also, in the end, an exploration of the deeper meaning and possibilities of life, written as only George Saunders can: with humor, pathos, and grace.

Right now I am listening to two books that you can join in on for Free Reads.

by Andrew G. McCabe (no photo)

Link to Free Reads and this book discussion: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and

by Mark Kurlansky

Link to Free Reads and this book discussion:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I am reading and listening to a lot of books simultaneously:

by Rick Atkinson

by Madeleine K. Albright

by Erik Larson

I do both the Kindle version and the Whisper sync on books that I am moderating for the Spotlight books, Buddy Reads and the BOTM. For Free Reads I am using straight audiobooks from Audible or the library or downloads from other library sites. A little bit of everything.