The History Book Club discussion

Carly, this is your thread for 2018. I have included the link to the required format thread and an example. If you had a 2017 thread - it will be archived so when you get the opportunity move over your completed books and formats to the 2018 thread - but we will allow time for you to do that.

Please follow the standard required format below - I hope you enjoy your reading in 2018. 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 2018
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.

IMPORTANT - THE REVIEW SHOULD BE SHORT AND SWEET - THERE ARE NO LINKS OF ANY KIND IN THE BODY OF THE REVIEW ALLOWED. NONE. DO NOT REFER TO ANY OTHER BOOK IN YOUR BRIEF REVIEW. THE ONLY BOOK CITED IN YOUR REVIEW IS THE ONE YOU ARE REVIEWING - NO OTHERS. ALL LINKS TO OTHER THREADS OR REVIEWS ARE DELETED IMMEDIATELY - THERE WILL BE NO WARNING. WE CONSIDER THIS SELF PROMOTION AND IT IS NOT ALLOWED AND IS IN VIOLATION OF OUR RULES AND GUIDELINES.

Carly - you were sent a PM indicating that the 2017 thread was archived but still accessible with a link to this thread which is your 2018 one.

JANUARY

1. by Tracy Singleton(no photo)
Finish date: January 15, 2018
Genre: cookbook
Rating: A-
Review: I like cookbooks better if all the recipes have pictures. This is not the case with this book, but that is not a big deal. I loved how this book is devided by the seasons and loved the little stories on the farms that the Birchwood cafe buys from.

2. by Deb Perelman
Finish date: January 18, 2018
Genre: cookbook
Rating: A
Review: All the reciped look really good except the grilled squid (squid is just not my thing). Beautiful pictures accompany all the recipes. So far I tried the Chicken and Rice, Street Cart Style. It was really really good. It made a lot of leftovers so I had several days worth of meals!!

FEBRUARY

3. by Chris Smith(no photo)
Finish date: February 2, 2018
Genre: nonfiction, comedy
Rating: A
Review: For half my life I have been getting the news from the Daily Show. I started watching the Daily Show in highschool, early 2000s. This show had a lot of influence on my political awakening. So I was really looking forward to reading this book. It did not disappoint. It takes you through 16 years of Daily Show history from Jon Stewart taking over for Craig Kilborn to Trevor Noah taking over for John Stewart. It even talked about some negative office politics stuff too!! Overall, a very good insight in how a little comedy show on basic cable became such a huge cultural and political icon.

Good progress here too.

Carly, the Chris Smith book sounds interesting and fun. Since you're a Daily Show fan, you might enjoy the Trevor Noah memoir, one of the best books I read last year. It's humorous, but also shows the difficult situation in South Africa.

by Trevor Noah

4. by Brian Kilmeade
Finish date: February 9, 2018
Genre: History
Rating: D-
Review: This book covers a very interesting era in U.S history and Brian Kilmeade's writing style is not bad. It reads like a swashbuckling adventure novel. However, this book is full of bad dishonest revisionist history. A couple pages in I was already feeling uncomfortable with the thinly veiled islamophobia. I agree with another reviewer who said the books spits out the word Muslim like its poison. The authors diminish complex isssues while ridiculing diplomacy and applauding military aggression. Poor Tobias Lear is portrayed as some horrible villainous diplomat who completly ruins the war effort.

One positive this book has made me want to seek out better books on this subject.

APRIL

5. by Jojo Moyes
Finish date: April 3, 2018
Genre: fiction/romance
Rating: A
Review: Louisa Clark back with all cute quirky awesomeness, this time in New York City. Jojo Moyes is such a brilliant story teller. She pulls you in and you never want to climb back out.

MAY

6. by Jason Porath
Finish date: May 13, 2018
Genre: history
Rating: A
Review: A very fun book to read!! It features 50 women from all walks of life who did extraordinary things.

Interesting reads, Carly. You do need to fix posts 9 and 10 to add the author's photo (if available) and link.

JUNE

7. by Trevor Noah
Finish date: June 11, 2018
Genre: memoir
Rating: A
Review: A great memoir of a life growing up in South Africa. With a little bit of humor and a whole lot of emotion Trevor Noah paints a picture of a hard life, but a mostly happy life. His mother plays a leading role as she makes him into the man Trevor is today.

8. by Mary Donovan (no photo)
Finish date: June 16, 2018
Genre: History
Rating: B
Review: A good short overview of the day to day activities of George Washington and his troops when they were headquartered near Dobbs Ferry, New York during the summer of 1781. It was a little hard to into it in the beginning, but it soon picked up.

Carly, in message 13 you need to add the author links, like so -

by Mary Donovan (no photo)

9. by Chrissy Metz(no photo)
Finish date: June 23, 2018
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A
Review: Such a fun book to read!!! Part memoir, part self help. I highly recommend for any fan of This is Us or any fan of awesome people in general. Chrissy Metz just seems like an awesome person!!

AUGUST

10. by Ken Bensinger
Finish date: August 22, 2018
Genre: sports, crime
Rating: A
Review: A well researched meticulous account of the investigation that revealed to the world the rampant corruption in international soccer. Very entertaining and informative!!!

OCTOBER

11. by Bob Woodward
Finish date: October 21, 2018
Genre: Politics
Rating: A
Review: TBD

Thank you Carly.