The History Book Club discussion

Hello Janis, Joachim, and Sandra and welcome to the HBC. Jump right in.

Hi Barbara, Bruce, Janis, Joachim, Sandra, welcome to the group.

Apart from all the fascinating discussions on history we also have quite a few fine threads on music - all kinds from all places.
Come and take a look/listen if you like.

Best wishes,

André

Andy we have no self promotion. Sorry.

Hey everyone
My name is Debbie (Deb) & I love reading historical fiction & non-fiction. I work in a bookstore, a great deal in the children's dept. I am 55 and love needle crafts, gardening, walks, and of course, reading. I read pre-1900. Too modern after that. I love presidential books. My favorite authors are just to name a few. Mostly love Revolutionary & Civil War, early US history and European History between 1500-1900. Looking forward to being a part of this group.

Welcome, Deb. Glad you could join us.

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the "add book/author" feature when you comment. (There is a link on the top right of the reply box.) It makes things so much easier for people to see your book recommendations, because they can see the cover and the links to the author. And it helps the Goodreads software connect books with groups that talk about them. When citing a book and/or author, please put the book cover, author's photo and author's link at the very bottom of the post after your text. Because it is on the bottom, it calls the reader's attention to the book/author and increases the readability of your posts.

This is how the authors you've mentioned should look:

Jean Plaidy

Ann Rinaldi

Lora Innes

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

Take a few moments to read the orientation:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

And our guidelines:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us moderators. I look forward to your postings.

Welcome Deb, glad to have you in the group. Much here to explore, we hope you join the discussions and book recommendations.

Welcome Barbara, Bruce, Janis, Joachim, Sandra and Deb to the History Club. I'm just connecting after the long weekend and I'm glad you joined the group. Have fun.

So glad you joined us Deb since this is the place for all things history. Please join right in the discussions/book recommendations. Enjoy!!

Hello Deb,

Welcome to the History Book Club - we have an active historical fiction section in the History Book Club so you should feel right at home. Currently, we are enjoying The October Horse. You may want to pop over to that discussion.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

If you would like good non fiction discussions, we have two going on right now: one on Wilson and another which is a memoir about Anthony Shadid and Lebanon.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

Hi Deb, welcome to the group.

Apart from all the fascinating discussions on history we also have quite a few fine threads on music - all kinds from all places.
Come and take a look/listen if you like.

Best wishes,

André

My name is Jerry Ward. I am now retired and living in San Diego with my wife, Penny, and our two poodles, Britain and Paris. My academic training was in physics and in economics, with history confined to just the few courses required to graduate. But over the years it slowly began to dawn that even vaguely understanding the present depended nontrivially on knowledge of the past.

But for years, much of the history I read left me vaguely dissatisfied. The recounting of successive kings and battles, intrigues and catastrophes, made for some grand stories, but provided little understanding of how ordinary people lived, or why some of us have become so rich after thousands of years of almost no significant improvement in mankind’s material well-being.

In recent years there has been much greater attention to the economic dimension of history. Fernand Braudel was very multidimensional in his interests, and the economic dimension was prominent in the writings of Douglass C. North, Joel Mokyr, and Joseph Schumpeter.

I just discovered and am starting to read by Eric D. Beinhocker.

I would enjoy a discussion group focused on the general subject of how we transitioned from caves and stone tools to people who could go to the moon.

Welcome Jerry.....love the names of your dogs!!! This is the place to find just about anything about history that is of interest to you. It appears that you have the book citations in hand but let me add a little more information about the citations.

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the "add book/author" feature when you comment. (There is a link on the top right of the reply box.) It makes things so much easier for people to see your book recommendations, because they can see the cover and the links to the author. And it helps the Goodreads software connect books with groups that talk about them. When citing a book and/or author, please put the book cover, author's photo and author's link at the very bottom of the post after your text. Because it is on the bottom, it calls the reader's attention to the book/author and increases the readability of your posts.

by Eric D. Beinhocker



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

Take a few moments to read the orientation:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1......

And our guidelines:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5......

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask any of the moderators. I look forward to your participation.

Welcome Jerry to the History Club. I know you appreciate history. There is also a lot of history behind physics and economics. I'm glad you joined us.

Jerry, welcome to the discussions we are glad to have you.

Hi Jerry, welcome to the group.

Apart from all the fascinating discussions on history we also have quite a few fine threads on music - all kinds from all places.
Come and take a look/listen if you like.

Best wishes - and say hi to the poodles from me.

André

Hi Jerry, I'm glad you found us on Goodreads.

Hi, I have joined this group because I am fascinated by history. I have lived in different countries and have seen how history shapes people's culture. I was born in the US. At the age of 19 I moved to Sweden and became a Swedish citizen by choice. I like being Swedish! Currently I live in Belgium and Brittany, France. Soon we will be leaving Belgium and returning to Sweden, but will spend still a lot of time in France. Each country has its special attributes and being stuck in just one feels kind of boring. I love learning about different cultures and history shapes those cultures.

My favorite genre is, I guess, biographies and memoirs. I like to experience how history affects people's lives. Usually real life is more unbelievable than fiction, but I read that too.

That is Oscar sitting next to me on my avatar. He is a curly coated retriever. Not a sheep! :0)

I am a little bit unsure how this group functions. I just know I want to belong b/c I love learning history. If I make a mistake please explain.

Welcome Chrissie, we are glad to have you as a member. There is a lot to explore here so take your time to browse the threads and join in any discussions that interest you.

As you get started please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the "add book/author" feature when you comment. It makes things so much easier for people to see your book recommendations, because they can see the cover and the links to the author. And it helps the goodreads software connect books with groups that talk about them. When citing a book and/or author, please put the book cover, author's photo and author's link after all of the text of your post at the bottom of the post . Placement at the bottom of the post calls the reader's attention to the book and/or author and increases the readability of your post. This is how books you mention should look:

by Jeffrey Toobin

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

Take a moment to read our guidelines:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

and the orientation to get you started:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Thanks and glad you joined us.

Welcome, Chrissie. If you love to read history and talk about books on history, then you came to the right spot.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us moderators. I look forward to your postings.

Thank you Christopher for welcoming our newcomers Chrissie and Jerry.

And thank you Bryan and Alisa for giving Chrissie all of those helpful tips.

Thank you for welcoming me! I have read the guidelines and already know how to add covers, book titles and authors. I love the "add book/author button".

I am curious where one can talk about history books that we are reading and love! I am a little worried about how to find the right threads.... I will be reading The Hopkins Touch: Harry Hopkins and the Forging of the Alliance to Defeat Hitler and Truman soon since I just purchased them.

Christopher, I think I feel more Swedish than any other nationality, although sometimes I don't quite know where I belong. I do hope you can someday visit your friend. What is fun about Europe is that you can visit nearby countries easily!

by David McCullough by David Roll

I hope I did that right......

Chrissie - you are doing phenomenally well -

And I want to add that we love our dogs here too.

Oscar is beautiful.

There is a folder of threads that you will like called My Books and I.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

Bentley, thank you for directing me to the folder.

I am smiling b/c you think Oscar is beautiful. He IS pretty, but the main thing is that I love him to pieces. Couldn't live without my dog.

Yes, I agree - I could not live without mine and for dog lovers everywhere - we all love ours the same.

Glad you are here,Chrissie. Oh yes, we are dog lovers and I love mine to death. (But I think Andre, our music moderator, is a rabbit man!!!!) I know you will have lots of fun here and your TBR list will grow and grow and grow..........any questions?...just ask any of the moderators.

Thank you, Jill! I had a miniature lope-eared rabbit when I lived in Stockholm; but when she died and they could do nothing to cure her I decided I just had to go back to dogs. Vets can help much more with dogs than rabbits! I loved my Tizzy too.

Welcome, Deb and Jerry. Looking forward to your contribution.

Welcome Chrissie to the global History Club. Growing up our family had Belgian Sheepdogs (Groenendael). One does not see many in the U.S. Have you noticed many in Belgium?
Marge Turnquist

Hi everyone. I was reminded that I have not yet formally introduced myself to the group, so let me do so now. I grew up in IL, near St. Louis MO, went to school in Chicago and now live in Iowa--I think of it as the midwestern triangle. I am an academic physician so I stay pretty busy. Reading is my favorite way to decompress at the end of a long day, and history is what I enjoy reading the most. My only problem--for every book I find time to read, I seem to add 3 or 4 more to my wish list. So many books, so little time.

Last fall I decided that instead of reading willy-nilly (e.g., 20th century topic, then biography of an 18th century figure) I would do a somewhat sequential read of (mostly) American history, using the Oxford American History series and biographies of US Presidents as the main framework of my read. I started with Philbrick's "Mayflower", and am now on the 3rd book in the Oxford series "What Hath God Wrought" by Howe, one of your recent spotlight reads. (I plan to post a few comments on that thread before I finish the book-I was a few weeks behind all of you when I joined GoodReads.) It’s a 3-steps-forward, 2-steps-back kind of sequence, but I do think it has greatly enhanced my learning and enjoyment. So I look forward to learning from everyone here, and watching my wishlist continue to grow.

by Nathaniel Philbrick

byDaniel Walker Howe(no photo)

Hello Becky - welcome officially to the History Book Club. I have already posted all of the important links for you so I hope you have had an opportunity to become familiar with the site.

I look forward to reading your posts on our recent spotlighted book - and it is never too late to become involved in any discussion that we have on going or completed.

Both of the books you have posted are terrific ones and I know you will enjoy many of the discussions that we have.

Being a physician, I am sure that you have a tight emotionally charged schedule so reading is a great decompressor I am sure.

Enjoy the group and contact any of the moderators if you need assistance.

Becky, great to see your thoughtful introduction. So glad you have joined the group and hope you continue to enjoy and participate in the discussions. You are not alone in the problem of the ever growing to-read list. It happens to all of us. It's not a bad problem to have.

Mark, they are called Tervuren here, and there are many. They are smaller than both a German Shepherd or a Curly, and a bit more alert/nervous, at least the ones I am acquainted with. Breeds can in fact exhibit varying personality traits in different countries.

Chrissie wrote: "Mark, they are called Tervuren here, and there are many. They are smaller than both a German Shepherd or a Curly, and a bit more alert/nervous, at least the ones I am acquainted with..."

Thanks Chrissie. The Belgian Sheepdogs were the smartest dogs I have come across and speaking of Curly Coats, my wife and I used to own a gentle Flat Coat, but unfortunately in the states the breed often gets cancer.

Welcome Becky to the History Club. Thanks for the great and proper posts. Please stay active within the group.

Mark wrote: "my wife and I used to own a gentle Flat Coat, but unfortunately in the states the breed often gets cancer. "

In Sweden too. My daughter and SIL are vets. Curlies are very intelligent; not all people really want an intelligent dog though. They demand more from their owners. I love the breed.

Welcome Becky. My wife is also an academic physician, so I know what you are going through. I hope you have the time to enjoy the discussions and the threads.

Hi. I'm your basic World War I freak. I love reading anything about the war, or the lead-up to the war, or the effects of the war. I'm a fan of anything by John Keegan. Other interests include medieval Italian art and ancient Rome (you can take a girl out of Latin class, but you can
never take Latin class out of the girl). Your conversations about dogs make me jealous. I so much want one, and I am so allergic, even to the hypoallergenic ones.

Welcome Marilyn, we are glad to have you as a member. There is a lot to explore here so take your time to browse the threads and join in any discussions that interest you.

As you get started please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the "add book/author" feature when you comment. It makes things so much easier for people to see your book recommendations, because they can see the cover and the links to the author. And it helps the goodreads software connect books with groups that talk about them. When citing a book and/or author, please put the book cover, author's photo and author's link after all of the text of your post at the bottom of the post . Placement at the bottom of the post calls the reader's attention to the book and/or author and increases the readability of your post. This is how books you mention should look:

by John Keegan

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

Take a moment to read our guidelines:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

and the orientation to get you started:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Thanks and glad you joined us.

Hi Marilyn, you came to a great club to talk WWI. Welcome.

Marilyn, nice to have you in the group. Lots to explore here so look around and please jump into the discussions and book recommendations.

Welcome Marilyn to the History Club. We cover tons of subjects under the umbrella of history including World War I. Browse around, have fun and be active.

Welcome Becky and Marilyn to history central!!! Glad you joined us and I hope you find topics that concentrate on your particular areas of interest. But most of all...........enjoy!!

Thanks for your warm welcome, everyone. I look forward to gabbing with you.

Hi Chrissie,
Welcome aboard! Glad to see you over here . . . this is the group responsible for assisting me in parting from a good share of my retirement funds by adding so many books to my collection ;-) . . .

Hello,

I’m Isabelle and I’m 41. I live in thé French province up North and I am a légal translator.

I love history, mostly England’s and the Isles.

I wish I could run for a living, but I am still quite satisfied with life. I love reading, and I do so mostly at night, when my children are in bed, with my big Maine Coon cat crushing me under her weight. What’s not to love?

My mother tongue is French, and the autocorrect feature on my iPad doesn‘t know I also speak English... If you ever see me writing strange stuff, it may be that I was on a roll and not rereading myself as I was typing.

Well... That’s me, I guess.

Glad to have found this group,

Isabelle

Bienvenue, Isabelle. We are glad that you joined us and hope that you find all the topics that are of interest to you.

As you get started please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the "add book/author" feature when you comment. It makes things so much easier for people to see your book recommendations, because they can see the cover and the links to the author. And it helps the goodreads software connect books with groups that talk about them. When citing a book and/or author, please put the book cover, author's photo and author's link after all of the text of your post at the bottom of the post . Placement at the bottom of the post calls the reader's attention to the book and/or author and increases the readability of your post. This is how books you mention should look:

by Henry James


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

Take a moment to read our guidelines:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5......

and the orientation to get you started:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1......

Thanks and glad you joined us. If you have any questions, ask any of the moderators.

Isabelle, welcome to the world-wide History Club. Have fun and enjoy.

Hello Gaby, so very nice to have you in our worldwide group. Please join the discussions. I think you will find plenty to hold your interest.

Welcome, Isabelle, glad you found us.

Hello Group, My name is Mike I am 50 years old, and I am an avid history buff. I mostly read world war 2 and the civil war as my main topic of focus.