Vanity...Read Any Good Books Lately?

n/a ^ | 7/10/21 | Me

[Don@VB]

Sometimes it's hard to find interesting reading. Any recommendations you care to share? I have a suggested book about the air campaign during World War II: more below...

[pepsi_junkie]

I read a lot of historical fiction. I tend to gravitate towards the medieval and roman periods though I occasionally branch out to other eras. Here are a few I very much enjoyed.

• The Agony and the Ecstasy: and old one, fictionalized bio of Michaelangelo.
• The 'Shardlake Series' by C.J. Sansom. Hunchback lawyer getting sucked into tudor palace intrigues. First book is "Dissolution".
• Bernard Cornwell's stories on Saxon England are good blood & guts & politics reads about Alfred The Great and a fictional saxon raised by vikings who fights for him. the first is "The Last Kingdom" and it goes some 14 books or so. There is an ongoing series on Netflix of these books as well.
• "The Shadow of the Wind" is set in 1950s Barcelona and tells a sort of mysterious tale of a mystical library, a lost book, a shodowy figure and the like. Cool, won many awards. I preferred the sequel 'The Angels Game' set in 1910ish Barcelona because it leaves you guessing if the events are due to madness or actually happening or maybe both which amped up the creepiness factor.
• The "Capitan Alatriste" series by Arturo Perez Reverte. Swashbuckling tales of a soldier (narrated by his protege) in 16th century (or maybe 17th century, I forget) Spain.

[LilFarmer]

I posted a similar thread in May... lot of great replies there as well.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3959726/posts

[fella]

I'm about half way through Blood Moon by John Sedgwick 2018. Full of much details that I have to stop and look up maps and such. Got my copy at Dollar Tree foe a buck.

It's odd that this book came my way just as I was finishing the 1957 fictionalized history "Rifles For Watie" by Harold Keith and the two kind of meshed like gears.

[fella]

Eckert’s books are a favorite.

[Darth Mall]

bump for later

[Renkluaf]

The Greatest Beer Run Ever

[fella]

I’ve read a number of Robert Louis Stevenson’s works and my favorite has always been “The Wrong Box”.

[x]

I have Soviet Civilization by Andrei Sinyavsky and The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine on my computer and am slowly (slowly, slowly) working my way through them. When I got these two books about the USSR they were largely of historical interest, but every day they seem more and more relevant.

[fella]

Reminds me of “God Is My Co-Pilot” that I read in High School in the 60’.

[fella]

Collen McCollch’s 6 books + 1 Caesar series.

And Lindsy Davis’s Didus Falco mysteries.

[Conservative4Life]

I go to several Goodwill stores and local used bookstores and find all kinds of treasures. I have collections for my kids (8 of them) to teach them virtues and how to be proper ladies and gentlemen. I also look for classics and have found numerous Jules Verne books, CS Lewis and numerous others. I have a very large collection of Civil War and Revolutionary War books. I also picked up a Websters Dictionary that is 3” thick and was printed in 1936. Its in excellent condition and I paid $5.00 for it. We are woking on the classics and have found a few first edition. I even found an Erma Bombeck hardcover that is signed by her and paid a dollar for it. Best Part is, as another has mentioned, you can find them online for free.

Enjoy

[KamperKen]

"I just finished an old classic, George Orwell’s Animal Farm"

I reread "Animal Farm" (first time in HS in the 60's) about 15 years ago and from my adult perspective felt it is a contender for the Book of the 20th Century.

[srmanuel]

It’s a great book that you can read in a day, it’s uncanny how something written that long ago can mimic what’s happening today...

[rbmillerjr]

“The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command”

By Edwin Coddington

It was recommended by a National Park Ranger, who gave historical battle lectures onsite at the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg.

He stated it was the most objective of all of the studies of the battle and gave great perspective leading up to the battle, all aspects of the battle, and post battle.

[KamperKen]

I read the excellent “Forsaken:..” several years ago and the book reminded me of a book published in the 1970s, “An American in the Gulag” by Alexander Dolgun.

Dolgun had the misfortune of being dragged to Stalinist Russia in the 1930s by his parents and related a harrowing tale of survival in the camps. This is on my reread list.

[Fungi]

Non fiction. Mushrooms Russia and History. available online for download. an incredible work with art, history, mycology, and literature.

[Trillian]

My husband surprised me with, “Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man” by Tim Allen. It was funny and interesting. He also got me a couple of Trump books and a Bryan Cranston book I haven’t read yet. It is hard to get time to read a book. When I’m on the computer, I’m constantly going back and forth doing other things.

[June2]

Bkmki for recommendations on books

[Nuocmam]

Thomas Cahill: Hinges of History Series
1. How the Irish Saved Civilization
2. The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels
3. Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus
4. Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter
5. Mysteries of the Middle Ages: And the Beginning of the Modern World
6. Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World (Hinges of History) Book
I have read all the above and it is my understanding that a seventh book is to complete the series.
Mark Kurlanski:
1. Salt: A World History
2. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
3. The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation
4. Paper: Paging Through History
5. The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town
6. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World
7. Milk: A 10,000-Year History
He has many additional books but these are the ones I have read.

[pepsi_junkie]

I loved McCollough's 'Masters of Rome' series for the first several books which focused on Marius and Sulla and the Gracci and Pompey and that whole period. But once Julius Caesar became the main focus it became over the top fanfiction almost. I remember, for example, a line when Caesar is being stabbed and she says a knife caught him in the cheek 'destroying that particular beauty forever'. Good lord, it's like she had a crush on him.

It lost me a little. I admire the genius and accomplishments of Caesar but the man was not a flawless superman as she portrayed him. But those first three books before he entered the scene as the main character were awesome, I loved them.