The History Book Club discussion

Vicki, this is your thread for 2017. I have included the link to the required format thread and an example. If you had a 2016 thread - it is archived - but you can still add books to it for the last few days of December.

Please follow the standard required format below - I hope you enjoy your reading in 2017. Here is also a link for assistance with the required guidelines:

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Our Required Format:

JANUARY

1. by Winston S. Churchill
Finish date: January 2017
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 Robert A. Kaster (no photo)
Finish date: January 13, 2017
Genre: History, travel
Rating: B+
Review: The author, a history professor, goes to Italy with his wife and they travel on the ancient Appian Way (where it can still be found). The first part, within Rome, is pretty scary, being between some walls and the traffic, so they decide to start at the end, in Brundisium, and drive towards Rome. Along the way they pass through charming towns and countryside, and we learn a bit about ancient history. There's a good section about Cicero, Clodius and Milo near the end of the quite short book. My only quibble is that the map has very tiny place names - you almost need a magnifying glass.

Cute, I'll take it.

Sounds good. I find driving in Italy to be scary no matter where you do it!

I can concur.

I heard that the Italian system of driving is that you have to worry about the people in front of you, and people behind you can worry about themselves.

I also heard that they regard using a turn signal as a failure of macho

FEBRUARY

2. by Colleen McCullough
Finish date: February 2, 2017
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This is the second in the Masters of Rome series, covering the period from 99 BC to 86 BC. In the main, it's the story of the rise of Sulla and the eventual fall of Marius. Some truly awful things happened in this period - the Social War between Rome and the Italians, Mithridates' having all Romans and Italians living in Asia Minor killed on the same day, Sulla's legions marching on Rome, and Marius running amok once he regains power. McCullough lays it all out in exquisite detail, letting us get to know so many fascinating characters. This is my third time reading this, and I finally read all the way through the Glossary. Maybe with the next in the series, I'll read the Glossary first.

3. by Alan Bradley
Finish date: February 3, 2017
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: It's Christmastime at Buckshaw mansion - 11-year-old Flavia is planning to capture Santa, and a film crew has come to shoot some interiors for a new movie starring the famous actress Phyllis Wyvern. Before long, there's a murder which Flavia is itching to solve. The steadfast Dogger (my favorite after Flavia) is always on hand to help out. As usual, Flavia's narration is very amusing, and there's some real physical peril in this one.

This was probably my least favorite in the series, Vicki, but it may be because I listened to it rather than reading it.

Donna wrote: "This was probably my least favorite in the series, Vicki, but it may be because I listened to it rather than reading it."

To tell the truth, I only got it because I wanted to reread a Flavia book and this was the only one my library had that wasn't checked out. They're all good, but this was also not my favorite.

4. by Gyles Brandreth
Finish date: February 3, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: This was a pretty grim book, dealing with the 2 years Wilde spent in prison at Reading Gaol. It's mostly told in his voice, describing the very severe conditions at the prison: prisoners cannot talk to anyone, must wear a cap covering their face when out of their one-person cell, beatings if they break any rules. The murders were pretty interesting as were the portrayals of people working at the prison - guards, the doctor, the chaplain, the governor. I'm not sure I'd recommend this one if you're interested in Oscar Wilde as detective, probably one of the others in the series would be better.

Great - thanks

MARCH

5. by David Wishart
Finish date: March 4, 2017
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+
Review: Virgil, the author of The Aeneid, tells the story of his life as he's dying, having been poisoned at the instruction of Emperor Augustus, aka Octavian. He's led an interesting life, having studied philosophy and poetry, and has finally come to the attention of Maecenas, one of Octavian's influential friends. Interestingly, their meeting happens about 3/4 of the way into the book, and the actual meeting with Octavian comes even later. Octavian needs him to write an epic poem which will promote the idea that Octavian has saved Rome for decades into the future, hence The Aeneid. Virgil puts a bit at the end of the work which subtly undermines the project. I like seeing the events of the fall of the Republic from a distance, through the eyes of a non-political person.

6. by Tom Holland
Finish date: March 10, 2017
Genre: Ancient history
Rating: B
Review: This was a pretty interesting book, and I liked how Holland mixed reporting on historical events with local color, like describing Marius' villa in Chapter 3. But I was seriously disappointed that he didn't talk about Marius' rather radical changes in the army. By taking in non-property owners (the "head count"), and having the state give them equipment, he in essence transferred their loyalties from the Roman state to their general. Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Caesar were able to use this to their individual advantage and hastened the downfall of the Republic. Also, he skipped over some of the details in several events, which caused some confusion about what happened, particularly with the formation of the Second Triumvirate. All in all, I prefer a more straightforward history without the frills.

May I recommend the golden oldie by Ronald Syme? And you wouldn't believe how many straight academics are listed when adding "the roman republic".

Dimitri wrote: "May I recommend the golden oldie by Ronald Syme? And you wouldn't believe how many straight academics are liste..."

I did read that several years ago. Definitely a must-read.

7. by J. Sydney Jones
Finish date: March 25, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: This takes place in Vienna in the early 1900's and is the 6th in a series. I might have liked it better if I had read the earlier ones - it's always nice to get acquainted with the characters over time. Investigator Werthen and his friend, the famous criminologist Dr. Gross, are investigating the murder of a head waiter at a local cafe. But they are almost immediately called on to look into a possible assassination attempt on the emperor, so they have to put the original investigation aside. At least until it looks like the cases are connected. The villain is an interesting character, and a good bit of the story is from his viewpoint.

8. by Allan Massie
Finish date: March 25, 2017
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: B+
Review: Marc Antony is dictating his memoir to his secretary Critias, starting with Caesar's assassination. Most of the book is in Antony's voice, but Critias inserts comments of his own throughout. He's fond of his master and doesn't much care for Cleopatra or Octavian. This is an interesting way of viewing these important events, through Antony's death, in which Antony comes off almost blameless.

9. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: March 30, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: I was about half-way into the 13th book in this series when I decided I needed to go back to the beginning because so many characters had complicated back-stories. It takes place in England in the late 1200s in an unusual priory which contains both nuns and monks, along with a hospital. Even more unusual, the prioress runs the whole place, and is superior to all the men. The 20 year old new prioress, Eleanor, is resented by many of the residents, especially the nun who had been voted in as prioress and has been replaced. Also new to the priory is Thomas, a gay man who was caught with his lover and imprisoned and beaten as a result. His only way to escape death is to become a monk and spy on the priory. A murdered monk is discovered soon after they both arrive and other murders follow. The characters are quite interesting, as is the set-up. The author includes a long preface to explain the history of such dual-purpose religious establishments.

APRIL

10. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: April 1, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B-
Review: I picked this book up at the library (#13 in the series) when I wanted a historical mystery and got about halfway through when I decided I needed to go back to the first one in the series, because there were so many characters with backstories. Reading #1 did clear up many of my questions, and it was interesting meeting the characters at the beginning. In this story, several abbots stop at the priory on their way to meet a papal representative, each one hoping to be chosen for a bishopric. Each one is unpleasant in his own different way. One has died on the way, a second dies not long after arriving and more deaths ensue. This series is unusual in that both nuns and monks live and work in the same establishment, and the person in charge is the prioress, and not the prior.

11. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: April 7, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B-
Review: Prioress Eleanor, Brother Thomas and Sister Anne travel to Eleanor's childhood home to care for her sick nephew. Her brother is supposed to become betrothed to her childhood friend Juliana, who refuses, as she wants a religious life. Juliana's obnoxious brother is killed and Eleanor's brother is the main suspect. Naturally everything works out OK. The best part was being introduced to one of the most interesting continuing characters. I've read three of the books in this series and I still can't figure out how the titles relate to the stories.

Sounds good, Vicki. I like medieval mysteries a lot.

12. by Jo Walton
Finish date: April 8, 2017
Genre: Sci-fi, philosophical fiction
Rating: B+
Review: The Just Cities on Thera have been moved by Zeus to a planet called Plato. They trade with a couple of alien civilizations, and some of the aliens even live on Plato with the humans. The aliens have their own pantheons of gods. Pytheas has grown very old and dies at the beginning of the book, thus releasing him to be Apollo once more. He finds out that Athene has disappeared into Chaos and he gathers some characters (from the previous books) who have died in order to go several places to get pieces of the puzzle which will help find her. Also Sokrates has been brought back. As if that wasn't enough tsuris, a spaceship from Earth is orbiting Plato and wants to meet their human brethren. This was such an interesting series, with a lot of discussion of the ideas from Plato's Republic. It's sort of sci-fi, with sentient robots and alien races, and sort of fantasy, with all the Greek gods. I finished this during the 4/8/17 Readathon.

13. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: April 19, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: Prioress Eleanor has returned to the priory at Amesbury where she grew up under the care of her aunt Sister Beatrice. Eleanor is recovering from a near-fatal illness and hopes to regain her strength there. There have been sightings of ghosts and soon after she has arrived, accompanied by Sister Anne and Brother Thomas, a local man is murdered. Thomas has been sent there to secretly discover who is trying to steal the very valuable Amesbury Psaltry. I could do with a little less of Thomas' struggling with his homosexuality and with Eleanor's secret lust for Thomas. But the story is interesting as are some of the local characters. This is the fourth in the series - I'm forced to read the books out of sequence because my library couldn't find their copy of #3.

14. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: April 26, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: A corpse is discovered on the road to Tyndal priory, disemboweled and stabbed by a Saracen knife. He may have been a crusader on the way to the priory for spiritual comfort. Ralf, the king's crowner, has to find the murderer, with the help of Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas, as in all these books. The chapters are written in the POV of the different characters, including the killer, whose identity we don't discover until the end. Each of the books in the series has an author's notes section at the end explaining some of the relevant history, and a bibliography - very unusual in novels. I find it helps to read the notes before starting on the story.

15. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: April 29, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: An unpleasant local man has been poisoned at the inn in a room with his "employee," the local whore. A few minutes earlier, the two blacksmith brothers were also there, having a loud argument. Naturally, more people are poisoned before we learn whodunit. I like that this book includes the anchoress Juliana, from book #2. In general, there's too much angst from Brother Thomas and prioress Eleanor, mostly having to do with lust - this is a continuing feature of these books. All these people believe very strongly in the influence and actual presence of Satan and his imps, and they think about Hell a lot.

MAY

16. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: May 8, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas stop at a manor on their way home because of awful weather which has caused a young novice traveling with them to fall ill. The lord of the manor has a young wife who's been fooling around with one of the grooms. The groom is found with his throat cut soon after their arrival. Other deaths ensue, as usual. I prefer the stories which take place at the priory because of the number of familiar characters, but if all the books took place there, pretty soon everyone would leave because of the huge number of murders.

Good progress Vicki

Very good point, Vicki! :) I think of that whenever I read Louise Penny's books. By now, everyone left in Three Pines should have packed up and moved away.

Louise Penny

Vicki wrote: "JANUARY

1. by Robert A. Kaster (no photo)
Finish date: January 13, 2017
Genre: History, travel
Rating: B+
Review: Th..."

Adding this to my TBR list! Having just driven in Rome, in December, I'm still trying to recover!!!

Pamela wrote: "Very good point, Vicki! :) I think of that whenever I read Louise Penny's books. By now, everyone left in Three Pines should have packed up and moved away.

Louise Penny"

Hello Pamela - remember that the author's citation is the author's photo first followed by the link which you have correct. Please edit 29

17. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: May 11, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: A group of courtiers comes to Tyndal Priory to see if it will be suitable as a stop on a pilgrimage the queen is planning to make. Included in the group is Sheriff Fulke, crowner Ralf's older brother - they are not on the best of terms. One of the company (with a lot of enemies) is found dead near Brother Thomas' hermitage in the woods. I was glad to be back at the priory with familiar characters.

18. by Bronwen Riley (no photo)
Finish date: May 17, 2017
Genre: Historical geography
Rating: C+
Review: The author takes us on a tour of Britain in 130 BCE with the newly appointed governor Sextus Julius Severus. He visits many towns and forts, including Londinium and Bath, ending at Hadrian's wall. There's a lot of detail here, and the final chapter describes the various museums and exhibits that one can visit today. On the one hand, it was really interesting, but on the other hand, it was kind of boring. There wasn't much about the people on the trip or in the towns. It would be a great book to take on a tour of England, though.

19. by George Saunders
Finish date: May 17, 2017
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: A
Review: Lincoln's young son has died and Lincoln visits the crypt where his body is lying. Most of the book is conversations between some of the spirits of folks who have been laid to rest there. They don't think of themselves as dead, just really sick, and they refer to their coffins as sick-boxes. These conversations alternate with collections of short excerpts from publications which describe the gala that was being given at the White House on the night Willie died, or on descriptions of Lincoln's looks, among other relevant topics. The spirits want to help Willie, as he doesn't understand what's going on. There are lots of different voices, some not very pleasant, but always interesting.

20. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: May 19, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C+
Review: A friend of Prioress Eleanor's brother, Sir Hugh, has asked Hugh to bring his sister and some physical and spiritual healers to his manor. Baron Herbert has returned from the Crusades and refuses to talk to his wife and children, believing he has something terribly wrong with him. This one was pretty interesting.

Vicki wrote: "19. by George Saunders
Finish date: May 17, 2017
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: A
Review: Lincoln's you..."

This sounds completely fascinating. I don't often read American Historical Fiction, so this will fill a gap in my reading list. Thank you.

20. by Alfred Duggan
Finish date: May 25, 2017
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: A-
Review: This is the story of the founding of Rome, told from the viewpoints of 4 different characters. Marcus is a young man who joins Remus in his quest for a new home, after he was thrown out of his father's house when his father brought home a new young wife, and stays after Romulus kills Remus, taking a wife from the Sabine women captured by the Romans. Publius is a Sabine who comes with his kinsman King Tatius when that king joins Romulus. Perperna is an Etruscan priest who escaped when his city was overrun. Macro is a Greek from Cumae who was dispossessed by his brother and subsequently killed him. For all of them, Rome is second best, but they all make a good life there, and they are content.

21. by Elizabeth Peters
Finish date: May 27, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: This is the first in a wonderful series about amateur Egyptologist Amelia Peabody and her soulmate Radcliffe Emerson. It's the 1880s and her father has recently died, leaving her financially independent. She's always had a hankering to travel, and in Rome she takes under her wing a young destitute and disgraced Englishwoman Evelyn. They travel to Egypt; Amelia has always wanted to investigate the ancient ruins there. Traveling up the Nile to Amarna, they encounter Radcliffe Emerson and his brother, who are uncovering pharaoh Akhnaten's city there. One night they are disturbed by what looks like a walking mummy, and from then on, things get more and more disturbing. The book is narrated by Amelia and she has a very strong and amusing personality.

Great progress Vicki

That's two historical novels to be - A - reading...

Have fun with them, Dimitri.

JUNE

22. by Ruth Downie and 6 others
Finish date: June 2, 2017
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This is a novel written in seven separate chapters by seven authors about the revolt in ancient Britain against the Romans by Boudica. Only one of the parts is from the viewpoint of a Roman, the young legate Agricola (a real person). The others are various Britons, some real and some fictional. The parts all fit together really well and you get to know how these people lived. There is a huge amount of killing, but it did really happen.

Vicki wrote: "21. by Elizabeth Peters
Finish date: May 27, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: This i..."

This sounds fun. I've been on the hunt for some good mystery novels.

24. by Elizabeth Peters
Finish date: June 6, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Peabody and Emerson haven't been to Egypt for a few years because they couldn't take their young son Ramses and didn't want to be separated from him. But the chance to take over the dig of a newly discovered tomb, and to solve the mystery of how the original explorer met his death are too enticing.

Thank you for following the rules and guidelines.

25. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: June 8, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Prioress Eleanor et al are back at Tyndal Priory, which is where I like them. It's just too bad that murders happen when they're there. A man who's a paid bodyguard of sorts for a traveling Jewish family is killed, and the townsfolk are sure the Jews did it. The level of anti-Semitsm was really extreme in those days, culminating in the Edict of Expulsion in 1290. In a welcome side plot, the romance between Crowner Ralf and Gytha finally comes to fruition. Plus we learn something about bee culture - back then people thought the queen bee was a king.

You seem to love this author Vicki

Having read #13 first, I'm determined to get through them all. And it's not a chore.

Great

26. by Priscilla Royal
Finish date: June 13, 2017
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A-
Review: Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas have gone on a pilgrimage to a nearby shrine and are staying at the local priory. Not long after they arrive, one of the nuns there falls to her death from the bell tower. Had she been meeting with her lover? While I prefer books in this series which take place at Tyndal, Eleanor's own priory, this one is very interesting because of the unpleasant characters of the local prioress and the local priest. They are both stiff-necked and uncharitable to an orphan girl who is trying to live by her wits. All's well that ends well, and we meet a new character who I think will be in a subsequent book.