The History Book Club discussion

Peter, here is your new thread in 2016. Happy reading in the new year.

Our Required Format:

JANUARY

1. by Winston S. Churchill
Finish date: January 2016
Genre: (whatever genre the book happens to be)
Rating: A
Review: You can add text from a review you have written but no links to any review elsewhere even goodreads. And that is about it. Just make sure to number consecutively and just add the months.

JANUARY

1. by Paul Levine
Finish date: Jan 2, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: In this novel in the Lassiter series, he's hired by a musician who believes another artist stole his song and made millions.

2. by Mark C. Chu-Carroll (no photo)
Finish date: Jan. 10, 2016
Genre: Math
Rating: B
Review: Chu-Carroll writes a blog about math and this is a collection from that blog, somewhat expanded. Essays cover various aspects of math and computer science and their intersection.

Peter.......don't for get to put January in bold caps on your first post, as shown in my sample. Thanks.....glad you are joining us again this year.

3. by Ian Rankin
Finish date: Jan. 10, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: C
Review: This is one of the earlier books in the inspector Rebus series. I usually like these, but this one had too many different plots going at once.

I love the Rebus series but I might pass on that one, Peter. Thanks for the review.

4. by Constance Bowman Reid (no image)
Finish date: Jan. 12, 2016
Genre: Math, biography
Rating: A
Review: A very good non-technical biography of one of the 19/20th century's greatest mathematicians

5. by Paul Levine
Finish date: Jan 12, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: A-
Review: Lassiter is having a drink with a friend when a beautiful woman walks in, shoots a man 3 times and faints into Lassiter's arms. Needless to say, he winds up representing her. And needless to say it's a twisty tale. Good fun. NOTE: Lots of sexual content, discussion of rape, not for kids.

Awesome start for the year

Thanks @Michael

6. by Alan Smale (no image)
Finish date: Jan 15, 2016
Rating: A
Genre: Science fiction, alternate history
Review: It's about the year 1200 in the calendar of the "Christ risen" (one of several calendars in use in Imperial Rome) and the Romans have sent a legion across the great ocean to Nova Hesperia. to explore and, most of all to find gold. They meet (and fight) with several tribes, and their leader becomes part of the Cahokia, who live in the middle ranges of the Mizipi river.

Enthralling from the first page. Great stuff.

Peter wrote: "6. by Alan Smale (no image)
Finish date: Jan 15, 2016
Rating: A
Genre: Science fiction, alternate history
Review: It's about the year 1200 in t..."

Added to TBR

Also, it's the start of a trilogy, the next one is due out in March.

7. by Paul Levine
Finish date: Jan. 15, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Mystery
Review: The fourth book in the Solomon and Lord series, this one starts when someone kidnaps two dolphins. Now Steve Solomon and his partner and lover Victoria Lord, are on opposite sides of the case.

Well done.

8. by Nancy Kress
Finish date: Jan 16, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Science fiction
Review: Marianne is a biologist with three grown children and she has difficult relationships with all of them. Then the aliens show up and ask for her to join them on their ship. This not only complicates her relationships with her kids, it also introduces threats to the human race.

Pretty good, but not completely believable and I did not like the ending.

9. by Andrew Vachss
Finish date: Jan 19, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Mystery
Review: One of the later books in the Burke series, in this one Vachss avoids his tendency to overwhelm us with slang. Here, former sex crimes prosecutor Wolf has been arrested for the attempted murder of a sexual predator. As usual with the Burke novels, this is a dark, dark book.

10. by Michael Connelly
Finish date: Jan 23, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Mystery
Review; The 4th in the Harry Bosch series, this one begins when a dead body is found in the trunk of a Rolls Royce. But, this being a Bosch novel, the plot soon thickens. In fact, it thickens too much for my taste. Connelly writes well, but I prefer less baroque plots.

11. by Gene Wolfe
Finish date: Jan 26, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: SF
Review: Gene Wolfe always has interesting ideas. Here, the central one is that clones of people are not fully human. Instead, they are stored in libraries (like books) where they can be borrowed. The protagonist is such a borrowed man - a former mystery writer. He is borrowed in order to help solve a mystery. Very interesting.

12. by Gregg Hurwitz
Finish date: Jan 29, 2016
Rating: A
Genre: Suspense
Review: When Evan Smoak is 12 years old he is orphaned. He is then adopted by an agent for a highly secret department of the government and trained in all manner of things. Then he becomes one of the "orphans" - Orphan X (23rd letter in the alphabet). I won't spoil any of it for you, but this book grabs you at the beginning and never lets up.

Great progress and reviews, Peter.

FEBRUARY

13. by Stephen Hunter
Finish date: Feb 1, 2016 (unfinished)
Rating: D
Genre: Suspense
Review: Stephen Hunter is a very popular author and this book got excellent reviews. But ... I don't see why. Not my taste and I'll just leave it at that.

14. by David Foster Wallace
Finish date: Feb 9, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Essay collection
Review: This is a collection of essays by the late, great David Foster Wallace. For style and virtuosity, Wallace gets an A+. His use of language is stunningly good. But the range of these essays is so broad (from Roger Federer to novels about mathematics) that I find it hard to imagine someone who'd be interested in all of them; and some of the essays are a bit dated.

15. by David Daniels (no image)
Finish date: Feb 12, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: History, bridge
Review: This book is a good history of bridge from its prehistory to the age of Ely Culbertson (the 1930s). If you're interested in this subject, you will like this book.

16. by Lee Child
Finish date: Feb 15, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Thriller
Review: There is a pattern to the Reacher novels: Reacher, minding his own business, is drawn into some affair. Evil is afoot. There are plot twists. There is violence. There is romance. And, although some good guys may suffer along the way, Reacher resolves the problem.

This one involves mercenaries, kidnapping and a psychotic.

Not the best of the series but pretty good. (Warning: This could be a disturbing book for a lot of people)l

17. by Susan Jacoby (no image)
Finish date: Feb 22, 2016
Rating: B+
Genre: History
Review: A pessimistic view of anti-intellectual trends in the USA. Jacoby covers a lot of ground but I think she leaves out stuff that is crucial.

MARCH

18. by Nancy Kress
Finish date: March 2, 2016
Rating: A
Genre: Science fiction
Review: The Earth is becoming less and less pleasant. People are colonizing new worlds. The latest to be colonized is a pleasant one called Greentrees. But, when the colonists get there, they discover intelligent aliens - twp species, and they are at war.

As always with Nancy Cress, there are lots of interesting ideas with well thought out characters and a good plot.

Highly recommended

19. by Holly Hughes (no image)
Finish date: March 6, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Essays
Review: A collection of essays about food written in 2015. They run the gamut from cooking to eating to more poetic pieces on what food means.

Good progress Peter

20. by Ronald S. Calinger (no image)
Finish date: March 8, 2016
Rating: B-
Genre: Biography, history, mathematics
Review: This is the definitive biography of Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) who is generally regarded as one of the four greatest mathematicians of all time (the others being Archimedes, Newton and Gauss). It's prodigiously researched and reasonably well-written (although the author has a proclivity for some odd word orders). Unfortunately, it has some problems:

First, Euler's life doesn't seem to have been that interesting
Second: There is less on the enlightenment than the subtitle led me to believe.
Third (and I don't know how this one could be solved) Euler's volume of work was so large, and so much of it so important and deep, that it is impossible for one book to cover even a small fraction of it in any depth.

Peter wrote: "20. by Ronald S. Calinger (no image)
Finish date: March 8, 2016
Rating: B-
Genre: Biography, history, ..."

Sounds interesting, Peter. I just love Euler's identity -

e^{i*pi} + 1 = 0

The most beautiful theorem in math

Peter wrote: "14. by David Foster Wallace
This is a collection of essays by the late, great David Foster Wallace. For style and virtuosity, Wallace gets an A+. His use of language is stunningly good. But the range of these essays is so broad (from Roger Federer to novels about mathematics) that I find it hard to imagine someone who'd be interested in all of them; and some of the essays are a bit dated.


I'd love to hear more : which are dated/why ?

There's one about the US Open in 1995 that is dated because the characters have faded from memory of all but the biggest tennis fans. There's one on sex in the era of AIDS that's very dated.

21. by Guy Deutscher
Finish date: March 16, 2016
Rating: A
Genre: Linguistics, history
Review: How did language get the way it is? Why have people always been bemoaning the deterioration of English (and every other language)? What accounts for the complexity of the Latin case system and Semitic verbs? Why is metaphor much more common than you think it is?

These are the sorts of questions asked in this book. If you find those questions interesting, you will probably like this book.

22. by David Deutsch
Finish date: March 27, 2016
Rating: A
Genre: Philosophy, science, history
Review: David Deutsch is a brilliant guy. In this book, he proposes that the key thing about ... well, almost everything ... is good explanations. His vista is broad. And he takes on big targets. Mostly he succeeds.

APRIL

23. by A.C. Grayling
Finish date: April 18, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: History
Review: I have only two issues that keep me from giving this book an A. First is the title, which led me to believe that this was going to be about the geniuses of the 17th century: Newton, Galileo, Shakespeare and so on. There is indeed some of that, and it is the best part of the book. But there is also a discussion of the 30 years war that is almost exactly the wrong length - about 50 pages. This left me completely confused.

Peter a few issues - look at the month and the citation.

Month should be bolded - APRIL

Citation is as follows:

by A.C. Grayling

Will delete this post when edit complete

MAY

24. by Steven Saylor
Finish date: May 2, 2016
Rating: B
Genre: Historical mystery
Review: This is a prequel to the other books in the Gordianus the Finder series by Saylor. Here, Gordianus is 18 years old and is touring the seven wonders of the ancient world. It's really more like a collection of linked short stories than a novel. I found it less compelling that some of the earlier books in this series.

25. by Terry Pratchett
Finish date: May 15, 2016
Rating: A+
Genre: Fantasy/satire
Review: One of the best books in the Discworld series. Moist von Lipwig, a con man, is condemned to death put then rescued by Lord Vetinari and made head of the Ankh Morpork post office.

Brilliant and funny.

26. by Robert Tombs (no image)
Finish date: May 26, 2016
Genre: History
Rating: B
Review: This is a well written comprehensive history of England from prehistory to now. I gave it a B rather than an A for a few reasons: 1. It is very concentrated on more recent history. The period before the 18th century gets very little attention. 2. The more recent history reads more like journalism or an opinion piece than like history and 3. It is a history of England for the English - Tombs assumes that the readers know things that non-English people probably won't (e.g. he makes analogies to soccer teams).

Good review on that book, Peter!

27. by Ted Gioia (no image)
Finish date: May 26, 2016
Genre: Music
Rating: B
Review: This relatively short book is not one that you read and then put away. I intend to go back to it with headphones on and my computer available for finding You Tube audio tracks of the many suggested pieces to listen to. Gioia goes over various forms of jazz and various pioneers, briefly summarizes them and gives recommended listenings.

28. by Terry Pratchett
Finish date: May 29, 2016
Genre: Comic fantasy
Rating: B
Review: A re-read for me. This is the sequel to Going Postal and is the further adventures of Moist von Lipwig. Here is put in charge of the mint. While it's a good book, it's disappointing afterh the brilliance of the earlier book.

One of Pratchett's few flaws is his difficulty with antagonists. In GP, the bad guy is perfect. Here, not so much.

by Terry Pratchett

JUNE

29. by Nancy Kress
Finish date: June 5, 2016
Genre: Science fiction
Rating: B+
Review: Humanity is at war with an alien race called the Fallers. The humans have reason to suspect that one of the moons of a previously visited planet (called "world") is actually an artifact and may be a weapon, so they send a team back to World.

World is an odd place; its natives are very like humans, but they have "shared reality", which Kress explores with her usual intelligent gusto.

30. by Robert F. Worth (no image)
Finish date: June 13, 2016
Genre: History/current events
Rating: B+
Review: This is a recounting of the Arab spring and its aftermath in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia. Worth offers no grand themes or reasons, but tells the stories well, combining personal details of ordinary people with politics on a national and international level.

31. by Robert B. Parker
Finish date: June 15, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: A
Review: This is an early entry in the Spenser series. He is just falling in love with Susan and Hawk is not in evidence.

Spenser is hired to find out whether a baseball player is throwing games. This leads to investigating low and high level prostitution, gambling, loan sharking and more.

If you like the series, you'll like this.

Peter wrote: "31. by Robert B. Parker
Finish date: June 15, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: A
Review: This is an early entry in the Spe..."

I think I read the whole series years ago and really liked it.

32. by David Wootton (no image)
Finish date: June 17, 2016
Genre: History of science
Rating: A
Review: A brilliant book on the scientific revolution. Wootton takes a largely linguistic approach to the subject, tracing the history of words and ideas in great detail.

33. by Robert B. Parker
Finish date: June 19, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: This is the very first in the long and wonderful Spenser series. I've decided to reread the lot.

In this one, Spenser is hired to find a missing manuscript that was stolen from a college library. But that leads to investigations of drug selling, left wing cults, crazed professors ... and a few murders. Good stuff.

34. by Michael Wolraich
Finish date: June 21, 2016
Genre: History
Rating: B+
Review: (I got this book free from the publisher via the history book club on Goodreads).

This book tells about American politics from 1904 to 1912, focusing on Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Bob LaFolletee and the presidential election of 1912 when TR left the Republican party to form the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party.

I very much enjoyed the book. It's well written and organized and I learned some more about this era.