History is Not Boring discussion
What are you reading?
message 751:
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Linda
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Mar 28, 2017 11:09AM
I am reading My Bondage and my Freedom by Frederick Douglass.
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Starting today Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Complete & Unabridged. Said to be the best personal memoirs.
I recently began reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I am amazed by how interesting it is. There are 780 pages which include an epilogue. I took a peek at the last line of the epilogue and it made me want to read every word in those 780 pages, if I had not already decided that.
I do not remember any school history book telling me about his marvelous mind, education and multiple health challenges. I've learned much about that and I have only reached chapter two.
Included are 140 more pages filled with acknowledgements , bibliography, notes, and index. Those pages will get cursory attention.
I am going to post this on my MyraSaidIt blog because I want more people to know about this great book, a Pulitzer Prize winner, published back in 2001.
I do not remember any school history book telling me about his marvelous mind, education and multiple health challenges. I've learned much about that and I have only reached chapter two.
Included are 140 more pages filled with acknowledgements , bibliography, notes, and index. Those pages will get cursory attention.
I am going to post this on my MyraSaidIt blog because I want more people to know about this great book, a Pulitzer Prize winner, published back in 2001.
Myra wrote: "I recently began reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I am amazed by how interesting it is. There are 780 pages which include an epilogue. I took a peek at the last line of the ..."My uncle, cousin, & I all read it & loved it. Flew right through it & one of us bought the the sequel. Impenetrable. Incredibly different. We passed it around & finally gave up. Just FYI. I didn't care for his biography of Reagan, either. He made it too much about himself, as I recall. Funny how he really nailed it with 'The Rise' though. It was super.
Mod
Another good one on the young TR is Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough.
Mod
I just ordered The Rise of TR & T. Rex. Thanks for letting me know about these. The Presidential personal memoir of U.S. Grant is from 1885, published by Mark Twain were able to have Grant’s family out of debt after Grant was involved in a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ by his friend & lost all money. Written very well by Grant & he’s is a bit witty. I’m reading this as if it were written today, not from 1885. His prose is wonderfully real.
However, I must mention that none is from his time as president. Childhood, West point, War, Index.
This is written just before he died of cancer on his tongue.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Books of Blood Volume 3 by Clive Barker. I've just read the first two and really enjoyed them! His stories are creepy and entertaining.
I'm reading an old book, The Fighting Cheyenne, by George Bird Grinnell.
Cowboys and Gangsters: Stories of an Untamed Southwest by Samuel K Dolan is a nonfiction account of the early 1900s along the Mexican border from Texas to Arizona. It mostly documents the crazy period of Prohibition. The old meeting the new, cowboys chasing bootleggers with cars, lots of shooting, & other violence, but all told in a factual way through newspaper accounts & reports. Quite interesting. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Joiner and Cabinet Maker: His Work and Its Principles is an updated edition of an early 1800s book about apprenticing to the trade. The original text was published anonymously & was extremely readable, but Christopher Schwarz & Joel Moskowitz brought it to life with a lot of historical background. They even made the projects described in it. Fantastic. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is really interesting & sad. Basically, one of the founding mothers of the children's section in US libraries went out of her mind & tried to get Stuart Little by E.B. White banned. Unbelievable. It's pretty long, but well worth reading. The New Yorker
Lives and Letters
July 21, 2008 Issue
The Lion and the Mouse
The battle that reshaped children’s literature.
By Jill Lepore
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...
Home Fires: The Story of the Women's Institute in the Second World WarNext: Capital Dames: the Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
This is what you put in your mouth? - Quite interesting. The author's wit is what keeps the book alive. without it it's going to be quite a mechanical read with all those scientific terms...
Mod
Just finished Richard Holmes' This Long Pursuit. Holmes is one of my favorite British biographers. He's terrific. He has concentrated on writers and artists and scientists from the 18th and 19th centuries. Shelley, Coleridge, Blake, Davy, Somerville, Gilchrist and on and on. Wonderful!
I'm reading The Long Way Home by David Laskin. It's about immigrants who came through Ellis island & then fought in WWI.
"The United States Naval Academy: Being the Yarn of the American Midshipman (Naval Cadet)" by Park Benjamin (1900) - well researched history written in a highly readable style by one who was a cadet at the USNA during the American Civil War. Besides the factual history, the book is sprinkled with yarns and songs and the origins of traditions.
The Long Way Home by David Laskin wasn't as good as I hoped. It started out pretty good, but got somewhat scattered, repetitious, & was plagued by his own views & lack of understanding. I still gave it a 3 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I followed it up with an LA Theater Works play, Abundance by Beth Henley. I was amazed at how well she painted these two women's lives, but it wasn't very pleasant. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hajdu was fantastic. I'm not much of a comic book fan, but it was mostly about the censorship of them in the 40s &50s. Scary & topical! I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
American Military History: From Colonials to Counterinsurgents by General Wesley K. Clark was an excellent find from The Great Courses. It's on sale for only $35 & is a great overview from a different perspective than I'm used to. He knows his trade & its history. Great insights & well balanced. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Fighting the Flying Circus by Eddie V. Rickenbacker is his autobiography of being the WWI Ace of Aces of the fledgling US flying forces. It was an interesting fast read, quite a different take on that war than any other I've read. I don't think I'd have had the guts to fly one of those death traps much less fight in one. Pretty incredible. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"Washington Engineered" by Vincent Lee-Thorp (2006) illustrates the civil development of the city of Washington, DC. The writing is not inspiring, although its composition is acceptable. The information is fascinating, however, and goes into great detail about the inventions and machines by inventors, engineers, scientists, and others who contributed to the growth and modernization of our nation's capital. Some amazing photographs, too. One shows the Aqueduct Bridge during its active days as the bridge over which the canal boats crossed the Potomac River. Another shows the 1860s coal-gas plant in which a large-diameter steel tank, open-ended on the bottom, floated when filled with gas inside a slightly larger tank, open-ended on the top and filled with water, the weight and displacement of the gas tank providing consistent pressure to the gas lines under the streets to street lighting and to government, commercial, and domestic buildings throughout the city. Ingeniously simple concept!
Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace was great. The reality of spying & the issues the techs face in real life was as good & often as exciting as any novel. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All was really interesting. Libraries are so important, underfunded, underappreciated, & need to evolve so much that it's amazing that they're able to do so. They do & this is a very good overview of the amazing people that are making it happen. Plus the author gets into how they need to evolve & a lot of the issues they face. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Memoranda During the War by Walt Whitman was great, yet disturbing. It's a side of war that rarely makes the histories & never in such great prose. I gave it 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Jim wrote: "This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All was really interesting. Libraries are so important, underfunded, underappreciated....""Like"! <--insert mental like button icon here
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck was another 5 star read earlier this week. It's especially timely now with all the talk of the economic divide & the 1%. I'd like to beat my English teachers who managed to turn me off this author with The Red Pony. His writing is fantastic, yet I wouldn't try another book by him for over 2 decades because of early trauma. Anyway, here's my review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Luckily, I've always been a reader & didn't let the "high school trauma" thing turn me completely off books like it did so many of my friends. Lucky too that my youngest boy was assigned "Of Mice & Men" & badgered me into reading it. I wound up taking a long lunch to finish it. Couldn't put it down & then I read more of Steinbeck's books. I've really liked all the rest.
Mod
Unlike most of the rest of you, my high school class ended up with practically none of the usual classics in literature, and I took on a lot of them a couple decades later by choice. My school trauma (junior high instead of high school) was in music, which class we had once a week, at which the teacher played the 1812 Overture every week for the whole school year. (He didn't teach us a thing, and I don't remember him ever talking about anything. We just sat and listened, and watched him look at the girls' legs, where he had the girls sit in the front row. He couldn't have had much excitement in his life if he was fascinated by the scrawny legs of a bunch of 10- to 12-year-olds.) Anyway, it took a couple decades before I could appreciate this piece of music without shuddering.
A Beautiful Mine by Chris Enss. No the title is not a typo. It truly is Mine and not Mind a play on words. This is a great little book about women prospectors. They were fierce and determined women who had as much desire to find the mother lode as any of their male counterparts. Some were married to them. Some outlived their husbands and continued to prospect the rest of their lives. Some women prospectors added other sources of income like restaurants, laundry services, and boarding houses. Some invested their main income to finance their digs. Only a few gave up, usually when they were too sick to continue. Some took their children along, some had none. Some had to defend their claims with guns. One, a young mother, joined the military, dressed as a man and was not discovered until she was injured and her doctor promised to keep her identity a secret. Some women started life as very feminine and prosperous and gave up that life to search for gold. MyraSaidIt
Just sinking my teeth into "A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides" by Tyrone G. Martin (2003) about the USS Constitution. She was the third of the first three commissioned vessels to launch (all 44-gun frigates) when the US Navy was established. USS United States in launched in May 1797, followed by USS Constellation in September and USS Constitution in October. Of the original six commissioned vessels (USS Chesapeake - 44-gun, USS President - 36-gun, and USS Congress - 36-gun being the other three), Old Ironsides is the only one left in existence, and is the oldest commissioned vessel still afloat in the world.
Sally wrote: "Just sinking my teeth into "A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides" by Tyrone G. Martin (2003) about the USS Constitution. She was the third of the first three commissioned ves..."I toured it a few times in Baltimore. It's incredible how low the ceilings were & how crowded it had to have been.
One one of its cruises? I haven't been on board in quite a number of years. My next writing project will be a historical novel set during the Civil War at the US Naval Academy, which settled in Newport, RI, during the war, when Old Ironsides was a school ship. It's nice that she's berthed so close to me in Boston - I plan to take time off from work to go do research there.
Mod
That would have been in about 1920.
message 796:
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads, Crazy Cat Lady
(last edited Mar 29, 2018 08:30PM)
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Pistol Packin' Madams: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West
I finished reading this book yesterday. The author, Chris Enss, provided a collection of stories about several women of Red Light Districts, of the ole west. They led a variety of interesting lives, filled with beautiful dresses, wild men, miners and politicians, and danger. The homes they lived in looked like extravagant mansions. Some of the women enjoyed large incomes as prostitutes and some as their bosses/ madams. Many of the madams demanded respectable appearances from their group when out in public. They often protected them from dangers and tried to lend an air of professionalism to their dens of iniquity. They tried to fight the legal institution and often had fines to pay, sometimes to their very clients. Only one male pimp was mentioned. A few of the women were even married. Some husbands encouraged their night-time "work". There was often a display of jealousy among the women who developed a love interest in the same man. Shooting the other woman or the man in the middle was not past their willingness to perform. A few of the women strived to overcome their past by getting married and having families. MyraSaidIt
I finished reading this book yesterday. The author, Chris Enss, provided a collection of stories about several women of Red Light Districts, of the ole west. They led a variety of interesting lives, filled with beautiful dresses, wild men, miners and politicians, and danger. The homes they lived in looked like extravagant mansions. Some of the women enjoyed large incomes as prostitutes and some as their bosses/ madams. Many of the madams demanded respectable appearances from their group when out in public. They often protected them from dangers and tried to lend an air of professionalism to their dens of iniquity. They tried to fight the legal institution and often had fines to pay, sometimes to their very clients. Only one male pimp was mentioned. A few of the women were even married. Some husbands encouraged their night-time "work". There was often a display of jealousy among the women who developed a love interest in the same man. Shooting the other woman or the man in the middle was not past their willingness to perform. A few of the women strived to overcome their past by getting married and having families. MyraSaidIt
GoodReads is changing the authors on all lectures to "NOT A BOOK" & not even listing the author as a narrator. They're deleting them entirely! I don't know why lectures suddenly aren't books. They have an ISBN & are distributed by libraries & resellers as books. They often come with an ebook full of notes. I've spent a lot of hours reading & writing reviews for them here. I often refer to those in discussions of other books by the same author here in various groups.
I've never been happy with they way GR has handled audio books. Listing the number of CDs or tapes as pages was stupid from the start & yet they don't list the number of files as pages. They should just list a minute per page, IMO. I think that's close to an average reading speed & would work for me. As it is, I never pay attention to that data.
Anyway, could you please send an email to support@goodreads.com & ask them to keep lectures as books? Apparently this is a staff decision & maybe if enough of us complain they'll change their minds. Making the author a narrator would be fine, but deleting them entirely really sucks.
That's Not in My American History Book by Thomas Ayres was a lot of fun. Not a great, comprehensive history, but he sets a lot of stories straight & notes some overlooked heroes & heroines - kind of a cross between "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" & Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story". I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
History is Not Boring
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