WHAT IS EVERYBODY READING NOW? Showing 2,051-2,100 of 2,886

[Donna]

Doreen wrote: "Donna wrote: "I have begun The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany which I'm sure many of you in this group have read. Fascinating, to say the least.

[bookco..."

We'll have to compare notes, Doreen.

[Doreen]

Donna wrote: "Doreen wrote: "Donna wrote: "I have begun The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany which I'm sure many of you in this group have read. Fascinating, to say the ..."

I read this book quite a few years ago but am looking forward to reading it again. As I recall it was a very well written book.

[Claire]

I'm reading (and re-reading) American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America and keep thinking, of course! Our present is informed by not just decades, but centuries of immigration.

[Jill H.]

Doreen wrote: "Donna wrote: "Doreen wrote: "Donna wrote: "I have begun The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany which I'm sure many of you in this group have read. Fascinatin..."

I have read it twice and must say that it is the classic of all books on the Third Reich. Another of his classics is Berlin Diary.....you might want to try it as well.

& by William L. Shirer

[Jill H.]

Just a reminder.....please put the book citations at the end of your post as it makes for easier reading. Thanks so much.

[GhostofMrJones]

Excellent read so far. The chapter surrounding Justinian II is truly stuff of bizarre legend.

John Julius Norwich

[John]

After just finishing Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn, I am now reading Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides and Freedom's Forge by Arthur Herman. Both authors and books are excellent. Herman tackles a subject often neglected when discussing WWII, especially in the classroom setting- and that is the economics and build up of American WWII production right before and during the War. I think that some general texts and textbooks often mention the Lend Lease program (sans specifics) and War Bonds (sometimes) and throw in a Rosie the Riveter or two and plow right into the fighting. Herman gives an excellent look at how it all worked and turned a still depressed economy into a roaring wartime producer. I am almost finsihed and then will start in with Lynne Olson's Those Angry Days (the political and cultural debates about getting into the war) and Atkinson's Vol. 2, Day of Battle
Rick Atkinson
Hampton Sides
Arthur Herman
Lynne Olson

[Lori]

I just finished A Land of Liberty?: England 1689-1727and Bring Up the Bodies. I'm now reading Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850-1520 so I'm getting my English history dose early this year.

byJulian Hoppit (no photo)

by Hilary Mantel

by Christopher Dyer (no photo)

[Dean]

Ghost Soldiers is quite good. The movie adaptation wasn't bad either.

[happy]

Dean wrote: "I'm about 2/3 through . It is an excellent overview of the events of 1914 - the slide to war and the cascade of idiocy that all the various..."

I thought this was excellent - it confirmed my opinion that Sir Max is one of the best 2 or 3 authors writing on Military History today!

I just finished Alison Weir's new Tudor biography

by Alison Weir

Not her best, but a step up from her "biography" of Mary Boleyn

Synopsis:
I enjoy Ms. Weirs writing style and this period of history. However, while this is marked as a biography it is more of a world of Elizabeth of York type book. Elizabeth was the daughter of Edward IV, the wife of Henry VII and the mother of Henry VIII. While there are some intersting facts and figures presented, I felt that there is just not enough primary source material available to do a decent biography.

[Bryan]

Dean wrote: "Ghost Soldiers is quite good. The movie adaptation wasn't bad either."

Thanks, Dean, don't forget to add the citation:

by Hampton Sides

[Jill H.]

Moved this post from Mike from another thread.

"I just finished a very good book, not sure where to put the comment."

by Hugh Wilford(no photo)

[Rowena]

I just read To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis by Andra Watkins. It was a really fun paranormal historical fiction and I think it is going to be the first in a trilogy. Highly recommend it.

[Jill H.]

Sounds like a good book Rowe but don't forget the book citations.

by Andra Watkins

[Sully]

I'm reading The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson. It's about the summer of 1911 in that Edwardian England twilight period before World War I. It's gossipy, but a very interesting snapshot of wealthy England with vignettes about troubling times - labor unrest, government discord, etc.

by Juliet Nicolson

[Jill H.]

Sully wrote: "I'm reading The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson. It's about the summer of 1911 in that Edwardian England twilight period before World War I. It's gossipy, but a very interesting snapshot of wea..."

I really liked that book, Sully. You might want to try the follow-up book which is about the year after the end of WWI. Very moving.

by Juliet Nicolson

[Roberto]

Im reading Susie Harris America in the Time of War 1916-1918

[Sully]

Thanks Jill! I was not aware the Juliet Nicolson had written a book about the post WWI era. This is definitely on my to be read list.

by Juliet Nicolson

[Marc]

I've been reading for the past two months "the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", by Edward Gibbon. I finally made page 800, only 452 more pages left to go... Quite interesting, he has biases, but since he completed volume 6 in 1787, it's kinda hard to complain to him to fix it! It really starts with the demise of the Roman Republic, but he doesn't consider Caesar an emperor, maybe because he died so quickly, but Augustus is the first Emperor listed. It's a bit hard to start, since he bounces around from Augustus (31 BC to 14AD) to Trajan (99-117 AD), back to Nerva (who preceded Trajan), to various emperors between Augustus and Trajan. He does this several times throughout the book. Sometimes it's a straight read (Emperor X did this, he died, and Emperor Y did that in sequence), other times he jumps. He spends a bit of time on Constantine and the Christian church and it's various sects, and, even after the demise of the Western Roman empire (which fell to the Goths, Lombards, and other 'barbarians' (he still calls them that even though they were Christianized)), he still dwells on it even though the action shifts to Constantinople. He even has a chapter called 'Total extinction of the Western Empire,' which ends on page 642, and I just finished page 800, and he was still talking about Rome and Italy.

Edward Gibbon

[Jill H.]

Marc wrote: "I've been reading for the past two months "the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", by Edward Gibbon. I finally made page 800, only 452 more pages left to go... Quite interesting, he has biases..."

You are a brave man, Marc!! I just could never seem to get started on that book although I wanted to read it. It sounds like a rather tough read due to the style.

[Marc]

Aw, now I'm pissed. I didn't realize this was an abridged version. I kept thinking throughout the book whenever I saw stuff like

[some major event happened. something else major happened.]

I kept thinking, I want to know more about those major events, why didn't gibbon include it?? Then I finally noticed in tiny print, 'abridged'. Arrgh! I'm almost 2/3's through the book, and to realize someone chopped up the original?? Why didn't they say "The Abridged version of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"?? Or "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged)"? I thought Gibbon was being crappy when he did that. Like if I modified John Keegan's book "The First World War", and put in "[The battle of the Bulge happened. Lots of people died.]

Or an abridged version of the Bible [Jesus entered Jerusalem. He got executed. He was resurrected, went to heaven.]'

You'd be thinking, "wait! I want to know what happened! It sounds like something major happened, I'm missing something. The nerve of Gibbon to dismiss it, was he tempting me (something major happened but I'm not going to tell you), or being dismissive, some major battle happened, but I'm not going to tell you any details, only that a major battle happened." Only to realize, two months into the book, after 800 pages, the original might have more detail??

I bought it at a bookstore, I had no idea it was abridged.

[GhostofMrJones]

Theodoric the Goth by Thomas Hodgkin

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

@Matthaios - here is the way to do the citation:

by Thomas Hodgkin (no photo)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Rowe, here is the correct citation:

by Andra Watkins

We add the book cover, then the author's photo when available and always the author's link.

We do not just link to the page.

[Suburbanrockdoll]

by Walter Isaacson

and

by William Faulkner

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Great choices Suburbandoll and great citations too.

[Francie]

by Kim MacQuarrie

by Patrick Süskind

by Gary Small (no photo)

by Joseph M. Higgins (no photo)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Francie you are a reading machine (smile)

[Carol]

I'm currently reading both of these. They dovetail in really interesting ways. They are both well written and so far pretty riveting.

by Robert E. Conot (no photo)

by Robert Gellately (no photo)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Yes they do - both good books.

[Bryan]

Great reading, Carol, let us know how you like them.

[Suburbanrockdoll]

Bentley wrote: "Great choices Suburbandoll and great citations too."

Thank you Bentley!

[Lori]

I'm close to finishing Emperor in the Roman World. It's old but considered a 'classic' (no pun intended). It's actually a little easier than I expected. Most of his footnotes are in Latin or Greek or they refer to original Latin or Greek documents, so I get to completely ignore them.

by Fergus Millar no photo

[Jill H.]

Lori.....don't forge to put (no photo) after the author link. Thanks.

[Lori]

Ooops. Fixed.

[Carly]

Can't add book on ipad but I am currently reading: Freedom National, The Destruction of Slavery in the United States by James Oakes. It's good so far, I'll give a better assessment when I'm further along X

[David]

Sounds good. Keep us posted.

[Suburbanrockdoll]

byRobert O'Neill(no photo)

[Kressel]

I'm currently reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, and the cool thing about it is that Peru is featured in one of the early chapters of the book!

[Bryan]

Great Kressel, don't forget the citation. Try editing your message to practice if you need it :-)

by Elizabeth Gilbert

[Jeffrey]

Between books. I just finished by Major General Fred Haynes (Usmc-Ret )(no photo) Will start by John W. Thomason Jr.(no photo) tonight.

[Rebecca]

by Amanda Foreman

I am in the middle of this wonderful weighty tome. Yet another reminder that when my chronological read of US history is over (or at least into the 20th century) I need to back up and read more world and European history.

[Francie]

by Paul Scott
by James M. McPherson and
by Miss Madeleine (no photo). Actually, I'm cooking as I read.

[Barbara]

Finished two excellent books related to WW II, but in very different ways.

Saving Mona Lisa: The Battle to Protect the Louvre and its Treasures During World War II





In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

[Jill H.]

Barbara......here is how the books you mentioned should look. It takes a few tries to get it right but no fear, it will become second nature after a while.

by Gerri Chanel (no photo)

by Erik Larson

[Donna]

Among other things, I'm reading The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era, a really interesting look at the history of the atomic age and the people who played a part in all the great discoveries as well as the historical figures who shepherded the world through the cold war. Fascinating stuff even for this non-science person.

by Craig Nelson(no photo)

[Aasinathena]

I'm currently reading "Inferno" by Dan Brown.This thriller is really a page turner :) !

[Kressel]

I just started The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman. I've tried reading her before, but I intend to make it through this time. It may take a while. . .

by Barbara W. Tuchman

[Bryan]

Thanks Barbara, let us know how you like those books.

Nice, Donna, I might have to add this to my read pile. Does it cover the H-bomb, as well?

Kressel: great choice. JFK read this book right before the Cuban Missile Crisis and it made him pause about pushing the military too far.

I love to hear what other people are reading, so keep those comments flowing!

by Craig Nelson (no photo)

by Barbara W. Tuchman

[Bryan]

Ashie: I wanted to know about this book, so thanks for keeping me informed. Don't forget to add the citation, so someone can click and read about it:

by Dan Brown