The History Book Club discussion

JANUARY

1. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 1, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: I have to apologize in advance for the string of fluff I'm going to be reading. I'm going through some medical issues and don't feel up to reading much serious stuff.

This is another collection of three novellas, and I don't like those quite as much as the full-length novels, but the third story was pretty good. A dog follows Archie home from a crime scene, and that fact turns out to be the key to solving the murder. Also, Wolfe actually likes the dog and lets him stay. Although I don't think the dog turns up in any of the subsequent novels.

2. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 1, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: Archie has to go undercover at a rich man's house as his secretary in order to find out if the man's daughter-in-law is plotting against him. After a gun is stolen from the house, a couple of people turn up murdered and the police think Archie knows more than he's telling. It's interesting how all these mysteries are different and yet still very similar, at least in structure.

3. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 3, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: An acquaintance of Archie's asks him to fill in for him at a dinner given by the man's rich aunt for some unmarried mothers. One of them dies from poison and Archie is the only one who insists it was murder and not suicide, even though the young woman had often talked about killing herself and she was killed by the same kind of poison she carried around in her purse. As usual, I had no idea who the culprit was.

My favorite detective of all time, Vickie. I love those books and the A&E series starring Maury Chaykin as Wolfe (perfect casting) and Timothy Hutton as Archie.

Yes, Jill, they did a good job of being Wolfe and Archie in that show. And the period setting was really good too.

4. by Lemony Snicket

Finish date: Jan 5, 2013
Genre: Kids
Rating: B+

Review: It's on to another guardian for the Beaudelaire children. This one is Aunt Josephine, and while she means well, the living conditions aren't ideal. Josephine is afraid of nearly everything, including the hot stove (so only cold meals), the telephone (you might get electrocuted!) and doorknobs (they might shatter and cut you). Naturally Count Olaf shows up, disguised as Captain Sham, the owner of a fleet of sailboats. Of course, he tries to get control of the orphans and, of course, doesn't succeed. The children continue to be resourseful and clear-thinking, and Mr. Poe, their financial advisor, continues to be blind to the danger of Count Olaf.

5. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 5, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B+

Review: Wolfe is approached by a committee of authors and publishers to find out who is behind the string of spurious claims of plagiarism. It gets serious fast when some of the people who claimed to have been plagiarized turn up murdered. Of course, by the end the murderer has been uncovered.

6. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 12, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: This is another collection of three novellas, unusual in that Wolfe goes not only out of his house, which he hates to do, but out of New York City in two of them. In the last one, he and Archie are part of a collection of private investigators being accused of perfoming illegal wiretaps, and the person who hired them turns up dead in the building in Albany, NY, where they have congregated. It's a very interesting story.

7. by Lemony Snicket

Finish date: Jan 13, 2013
Genre: Kids
Rating: C-

Review: This one was a bit too grim. The orphans have to work in a lumbermill, Klaus gets his glasses broken three times, each time getting hypnotized by the optometrist. The final time, he's ordered to saw someone up. I'm going to need a palate cleanser before reading the next one.

8. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 14, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B+

Review: A man comes to Archie asking to be checked out if he's being followed, gives him the starting and ending addresses and a start time. Only he never shows up. Turns out he gave a false name and the real person with that name was found dead near the ending address hours before the imposter contacted Archie. The initial client is the head of the corporation where the victim worked who wants to quelch any scandal. And other potential clients follow. It takes a while to discover who the imposter was.

9. by Lemony Snicket

Finish date: Jan 17, 2013
Genre: Kids
Rating: C+

Review: The orphans have been sent to a boarding school where they befriend another set of orphans, the remaining two of a set of triplets. They are treated horribly by the vice principal and Count Olaf is disguised as the P.E. coach. Of course they escape him, but I'm getting pretty tired of all the unpleasant adults they have to deal with. They do encounter a few nice people in each book, but usually something bad happens to them. I thought I would read the whole series, but I need to take a break. I really like the writing style, but the plots are too grim.

At this rate, you're headed for 100 books this year!

You are on a roll, Vickie!!!!

10. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 21, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B+

Review: This is another collection of novellas, with four instead of the usual three. These were pretty good, especially the first one, which has a delightful twist I maybe should have suspected. In the first three, Archie just happens to be present at a murder, with Wolfe also there for the third. So they don't have clients per se, just need to get themselves out of a jam.

11. by Paul Tough

Finish date: Jan 21, 2013
Genre: Other non-fiction
Rating: C+

Review: The thrust of the book is that success in school and life doesn't necessarily depend on native intelligence, but more on "character" - traits like self-control, diligence, resilience, integrity - and that these can be taught and learned. I found the chapter on teaching chess to middle schoolers very interesting. The teacher was really hard on the kids, making them go over their mistakes in the game, exhorting them to take their time, play against better players. She was really tough, but they appreciated it and didn't feel put down. I'm not sure how a parent would apply the ideas here, but it was interesting.

by Seth Casteel (no photo)

Finish date: Jan 25, 2013
Genre: Other non-fiction
Rating: B+

Review: I'm not giving this a number because there's hardly any text, but it's a great book for folks who like dogs. This is a book of pictures of dogs chasing balls and other things underwater. The water makes their eyes open even wider and their lips pull away from their teeth, making them look fiercer than on land. There are many different breeds and ages, and they all look as if they're having a great time.

12. by George MacDonald Fraser

Finish date: Jan 29, 2013
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: B

Review: Flashman is a libertine and a coward, but he has extraordinary luck. In this second of his adventures, he is tricked and threatened into posing as a prince of Denmark by Otto von Bismark, who hopes to foment war in several of Europe's duchies and principalities for the greater glory of Germany. The twists and turns in the plot are quite amazing and really keep you guessing.

13. by Mike Dash (no photo)

Finish date: Jan 30, 2013
Genre: Other non-fiction
Rating: C+

Review: This book traces the tulip from its origin in central Asia, near where China, Tibet, Russia and Afghanistan meet. From there it traveled to Turkey, thence to Holland, where it went from being a curiosity, to an object of interest and admiration by local flower-lovers, to an insanely priced commodity. The run-up in prices was quite quick, from the autumn of 1635 to February of 1637, when the bottom dropped out. Ordinary people would hock nearly everything they owned to buy shares in some rare variety, hoping to sell at a great profit. Some did get rich, but others were ruined. The only drawback to the book is that there aren't any pictures of the tulips.

Vicki wrote: "12. George MacDonald Fraser

Finish date: Jan 29, 2013
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: B

Review: Flashman is a libertine and a ..."

I found that the Flashman books got repetitive pretty quickly.

14. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Jan 30, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: A rich woman whose husband has been kidnapped comes to Wolfe, not to find her husband, but to make sure he's returned safely. Wolfe has a notice put in the paper addressed to the kidnapper to make sure of this outcome, which does happen. But then the husband turns up dead the day after he returns. Was it murder or an accident? The son of the woman next hires Wolfe to find the ransom, which his mother has told him he can keep if he finds it, with Wolfe getting one-fifth as a fee. How he finds the money and deduces the murderer is quite interesting.

Vicki wrote: "13. Mike Dash

Finish date: Jan 30, 2013
Genre: Other non-fiction
Rating: C+

Rev..."

No pictures would indeed be a drawback, but I am so intrigued by these little microhistories I am add this to my TBR list. Besides, what's not to love about a tulip?

FEBRUARY

15. by Colleen McCullough

Finish date: Feb 6, 2013
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+

Review: This sixth book in the Masters of Rome series covers the period from just after Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus, through the end of the civil war, Caesar's assassination, Octavian's adoption as Caesar's son, the formation of the second Triumvirate, and ending with the defeat and death of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. Since we are about to start discussing this, I will leave a more detailed review for later.

Vicki wrote: "FEBRUARY

15. Colleen McCullough

Finish date: Feb 6, 2013
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+

Review: This sixth book in the Maste..."


There is a great quote from Pompey:

Stop quoting laws to us. We have swords.

16. by George MacDonald Fraser

Finish date: Feb 9, 2013
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: C+

Review: This was a bit hard to read - Flashman deals with the various aspects of slavery. In order to get away from England after nearly killing someone, he's put on a ship which goes to Africa to pick up slaves and deliver them to the Caribbean, then sails to New Orleans with a few more slaves. We learn way too much about conditions on the ships. Once in the New World, he's forced to accompany a run-away slave to Canada (they don't make it), then he works for a farmer as an overseer, then is sent away to be a slave himself, he escapes along with a slave woman, finally getting her freed and himself back to England. The only thing that made this book not a distasteful waste of time was the appearance of a young Abe Lincoln.

Vicki - way to go - awesome.

Vicki wrote: "16. George MacDonald Fraser

Finish date: Feb 9, 2013
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: C+

Review: This was a bit hard to..."

I read some of the Flashman books. The first one was good, but they got kind of boring and repetitive.

Peter wrote: "I read some of the Flashman books. The first one was good, but they got kind of boring and repetitive."

Probably, but I bought used copies of the first five many years ago, so I have to read them in order to clear out my bookshelves.

17. by Gillian Bradshaw

Finish date: Feb 15, 2013
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+

Review: This book was about some groups of Sarmatian horse warriors who came to Northern Britain after being defeated in their homeland near the Danube by the legions under Marcus Aurelius. The narrator is the head of one of these groups, Ariantes, and he tries to do the best for his men without becoming too Romanized. The trouble is, the head of another group has been seduced into trying to help a descendant of Queen Bodica overthrow the Romans. I really liked learning about the Sarmatian way of life. Also, there are lots of plot twists. For instance, a Roman centurion who is quite hostile to the Sarmatians at the beginning slowly becomes an ally. Another interesting secondary character is a slave serving as Ariantes' scribe who's secretly a Christian. This is the sixth book I've read by Bradshaw, and it's not my favorite, but her books are always really good.

18. by Alan Bradley

Finish date: Feb 17, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B+

Review: This one has Flavia de Luce crawling through some tunnels in the local graveyard containing decomposing remains (ick!), but she's not fazed. The church is about to disinterr their patron saint, St. Tancred, when they find the body of the organist on top of the saint's crypt. Naturally Flavia does her best to find the culprit. While the mystery is solved, the end of the book leaves us with at least two cliff-hangers. I can't wait for the next one.

19. by Rex Stout

Finish date: Feb 20, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: This is another collection of three short stories. In the first one, Wolfe doesn't even figure out whodunit, just how to trap the person into revealing him/her-self. But the second one is pretty good. A young woman knocks at the door just as Archie is leaving, having quit his job with Wolfe. She needs Archie's help with a corpse in the cab she just drove over. A pretty intricate plot.

20. by Robert D. Kaplan

Finish date: Feb 24, 2013
Genre: History
Rating: B

Review: This is an interesting look at how geography influences history, i.e. invasions, wars, etc. I was a bit taken aback when the first third of the book had no maps, but the second section, which covers particular parts of the globe, had very nice ones. The specific areas covered are: Europe, Russia, China, India, Iran, the former Ottoman Empire, and the US and Mexico.

I've added it to my TBR list. Love maps.

You are reading a great variety of books this year, Vicki.

G wrote: "I've added it to my TBR list. Love maps."

Me too, especially in fiction books. I just heard about an interesting book on The Colbert Report, by Simon Garfield, about maps. Hoping to get it soon.

by Simon Garfield

21. by Steven Saylor

Finish date: Feb 26, 2013
Genre: Roman mysteries
Rating: B

Review: 18-year-old Gordianus goes on a tour of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world with his tutor Antipater (a historical character) and encounters a mystery in each place, many of them murders. His father is also known as The Finder, so that's where he learned the skills he uses in all the adventures he gets involved in down through the years. This is a collection of short stories, and while they're sort of connected, they aren't as satisfying as the novels. I hope Saylor can go back and fill in some gaps between the existing Gordianus novels. I love the way his unusual family grows over the years.

Vicki wrote: "21. Steven Saylor

Finish date: Feb 26, 2013
Genre: Roman mysteries
Rating: B

Review: 18-year-old Gordianus goes on a tour of the S..."

I like this series. I will have to add this to my TBR pile.

MARCH

22. by Rex Stout

Finish date: March 1, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B+

Review: A chess player is poisoned, and it seems the only one who could have done it is the man whose daughter has hired Wolfe to prove he didn't do it. Lots of seeming dead ends in the investigation, but in the end, the murderer is fairly obvious, although I didn't pick up on it.

You are on a Nero Wolfe roll, Vicki......since he is my favorite fictional detective, I love to see others enjoying him as well. I might have to revisit a few of the book again!!

23. by Elmore Leonard

Finish date: March 6, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: Two holdovers from the radical student days of the 60's and 70's decide to use their bomb expertise to extort some money from a rich Detroit man. When it goes horribly wrong, a suspended cop who worked on the bomb squad tries to track them down. Elmore Leonard's characters and dialog are always great.

24. by Rex Stout

Finish date: March 10, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: A young widow comes to Wolfe to ask him to find the mother of an infant who was left in her vestibule with a note intimating that the baby's father was her late husband. The only clues are some unusual buttons on the baby's clothes.

Good progress Vicki.

Love the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Also enjoyed the TV series with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin

25. by Rob Goodman (no photo)

Finish date: March 14, 2013
Genre: Ancient history
Rating: B+

Review: This is a very readable biography of one of the most interesting characters of the late Roman Republican era. Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger was a very conservative Senator and did everything he could stop the plans of the populares, those politicians who catered to the masses. In particular, he hated Caesar, perhaps in part because Cato's half-sister Servilia was Caesar's mistress. After Caesar finally wrapped up the Gallic wars and wanted to stand for consul without entering the city (because several people were ready to prosecute him for treason and other charges), Cato was dead against it and convinced Pompey (at that time consul without a colleague) not to compromise with Caesar. Once Caesar crossed the Rubicon, Cato and others of the optimates left Italy with Pompey. After Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus and death in Egypt, Cato took many of the Pompeian forces to Africa and wound up in Utica. When it was clear that Caesar had won in Africa, Cato committed suicide rather than be pardoned by Caesar. He was very popular in American Revolutionary times owing to a play written by Joseph Addison in the early 1700's. Washington put on this play at Valley Forge to buck up the soldiers there.

26. by Madeline Levine (no photo)

Finish date: March 21, 2013
Genre: Education
Rating: B

Review: This book focuses on the school years, from primary through high school, to counteract the emphasis on grades and over-scheduling of extra-curricular activities with the aim of getting into the most prestigious schools. Instead it discusses character traits which will serve your children well throughout life, such as resourcefulness, good work ethic, and self-control. I was hoping to read something about pre-schoolers, which was absent, but it was interesting.

27. by Robin Sloan

Finish date: March 21, 2013
Genre: Other fiction
Rating: A+

Review: A young man takes a job in a weird bookstore, where hardly any books are sold. Instead the "customers" check out strange encrypted books, and he's required to detail each of these transactions in a logbook, including what they look like, what was said, any impressions he got. This leads to New York, to the headquarters of the strange society these people belong to. Google gets involved in decrypting the books but the final answer is more simple and strange than you can imagine. Every one of the characters, even the minor ones, are fascinating and folks you'd love to have a conversation with.

Vicki wrote: "27. Robin Sloan

Finish date: March 21, 2013
Genre: Other fiction
Rating: A+

Review: A young man takes a job in a weir..."

I also enjoyed this book

28. (no image) Young Caesar by Rex Warner (no photo)

Finish date: March 26, 2013
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: B+

Review: This is the first in a two-book "autobiography" of Julius Caesar, written on the eve of the Ides of March. It covers the period through his leaving for Gaul. He realizes that he only has assassination to fear, but he doesn't seem very worried by it. He's very calculating, even joining in on the early conspiracy with Catiline, along with Crassus, although they realize Catiline is not going to be able to be a success. Also he says he'd like to be king. In the early years, before he's an adult, there's lots of musings about his uncle Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who both loomed very large in the history of Rome. There's virtually no dialog, just a running narrative of events along with his thoughts on people and events, and how to turn everything to his advantage.

29. by Rex Stout

Finish date: March 28, 2013
Genre: Other mysteries
Rating: B

Review: This is another one with three novellas. The last one is the most interesting. A scruffy landlady wants Wolfe to hang onto a package of currency for her and split any reward there might be. It turns out to be counterfeit and then she and Archie discover the body of one of her tenants in the room where the package was found. She hates the police and refuses to talk to them.

30. by Richard Miles (no photo)

Finish date: March 30, 2013
Genre: Ancient history
Rating: B+

Review: This covers the history of Carthage, Rome's ancient nemesis, from the beginnings of its progenitor Tyre, on the coast of modern Lebanon, to its demise after the Third Punic War. It was a very successful commercial hub on the Mediterranean and had many colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and the coast of Africa. The most familiar part of its story is that of Hannibal, who crossed the Alps with his elephants and army and ravaged Italy for 15 years, only to be defeated by Rome in his homeland at Zama. An interesting aspect is how the Carthaginians appropriated the legend of Heracles (aka Hercules in Rome) by fusing him with one of their gods, Melqart, to make it seem that their influence in the Mediterranean was approved of by the gods.

APRIL

31. by Alfred Bester

Finish date: April 1, 2013
Genre: Science fiction
Rating: C+

Review: This is a very old (1953) sci-fi novel I had kept when I cleaned out my bookshelves, meaning to re-read it. In the future, there's hardly any crime because the police use Espers, people with ESP, and they can detect those who have done crimes or intend to do so. One of the richest, and smartest, men in the world decides he has to kill his business rival and figures out a way to do so using some Espers of his own. His nemesis is the highest level police Esper, but even he has a hard time figuring out how the murder was done. There's a lot of back and forth between various Espers of different abilities, which is interesting. But overall, it seemed a bit old-fashioned. I'll have to read a current sci-fi story to see how things have changed.

I love the variety of books that you read, Vickie. Your reviews are fun!

Vicki wrote: ". I'll have to read a current sci-fi story to see how things have changed."

You'd have to read many many stories to see how SF has changed. It's gone in many directions. And Bester wasn't a typical writer in the '50s.

32. by Mike Brown (no photo)

Finish date: April 1, 2013
Genre: Science
Rating: B+

Review: The author describes his work as an astronomer who specializes in looking for large bodies in our solar system. Over the course of the book he finds three objects near the size of Pluto. It's necessary to keep these discoveries close to the vest while doing the necessary checking of observations and writing of scientific papers. Along the way we learn about how he met and wooed his wife and the birth of his daughter. It's really very interesting and not technical, but you do learn a bit about the solar system and how astronomers do their work. The last part of the book is about the meeting of the official astronomical society which ultimately demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet.

33. by Robert E. Sherwood (no photo)

Finish date: April 1, 2013
Genre: Play, Roman fiction
Rating: C+

Review: This is a three-act play about Hannibal at the gates of Rome after defeating the Roman legions at Cannae, and how the wife of Fabius Maximus, the man who was just appointed dictator, convinced Hannibal to go away. It was pretty silly, but the edition I got from the library was interesting in that it contained stage layouts for each act, lighting instructions and a list of props. Also, it was the basis for the 1955 movie Jupiter's Darling, starring Howard Keel, Esther Williams and Marge and Gower Champion. Yes, there's singing, dancing and swimming! It was also silly, but fun.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048239/