The History Book Club discussion

Carly, this is your thread for 2020. I have included the link to the required format thread and an example. If you had a 2019 thread - it will be archived so when you get the opportunity move over your completed books and formats to the 2020 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 2020. 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 2020
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 are ready to go for 2020. We now have a special perk where we can list the books we want to read for the 50 Books Read in 2020. You also now have a Personal Reading List thread where you can keep track of what you want to read; and/or what you have completed etc for the challenge. These of course can be carried over to the next year's personal reading list if you do not complete your 2020 To Be Read list. You would simply do an edit, copy and paste.

Have fun with your two threads. Sample formats are included; but there is room for some personal preferences on the Personal Reading Lists. Have fun.

Hello Carly,

There are now two threads set up for you in the 50 Books Read in 2020.

The first is the normal 50 Books Read in 2020 thread which you are readily familiar with and you can just jump into that quickly.

And the second thread is your Personal Reading List/Tracker thread for the books that are on your to be read list for 2020. You can add to the list during the year, checkmark off the books that you have completed or you have a choice to do a strikethrough. You make a list for the books that you are planning to read for the year - order is not important - you can skip around. You can number them or not; you can checkmark them when done or you can do strikethroughs to show the ones that you have completed before adding the reviews to your normal 50 Books Read in 2020 thread.

I have provided the sample format with choices. You list the book with numbers or not - but you must skip one line after listing the title of book and the author and you then must add just the citation with bookcover, author's photo and author's link but the other choices are up to you. That helps the goodreads software create a linkable list of books and authors on the right hand white space of your tracker thread.

Your Personal Reading List - To Be Read thread is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Your new 50 Books Read in 2020 thread is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The Introduction Thread is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The 50 Books Read in 2020 - How To's Thread is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The thread with the special instructions and explanations for the 50 Books Read in 2020 Personal Reading Lists is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hope you enjoy!
Bentley

JANUARY

1. by Ronald Kessler(no photo)
Finish date: January 7, 2020
Genre: History, nonfiction
Rating: C
Review: I would think that a book written by a journalist would be better written. I am not sure if it was the writting that was that bad or the way he structured the book. There was a lot of interesting information but I was too distracted by the writting style to 100% enjoy.

2. by Jonathan Van Ness
Finished date: January 13, 2020
Genre: Autobiography/Memoir
Rating: A+
Review: I absolutely love this book. Jonathan is my favorite of the Queer Eye guys (don't tell the others). This book is full of tough themes (sexual abuse, HIV, addiction), but also full of humor. Jonathan's wonderful personality and awesomeness leaps from the page even when he talking about the tough stuff.

3. by Antoni Porowski(no photo)
Finish date: January 15, 2020
Genre: Cookbook
Rating: A+
Review: My new favorite cookbook!!!! I have tried several of the recipes and they were easy and oh so yummy!!!.

MARCH

4. by Dan Jones
Finish date: March 15, 2020
Genre: History
Rating; A+
Review: Another great Dan Jones book. Reads like a novel, very entertaining. Jones does not just gives us what the Magna Carta was he gives us context. What led to the barons demanding change and what the consequences of the Magna Carter then and now.

5. by Jenny Han
Finish date: March 18, 2020
Genre: Young Adult Romance
Rating: A+
Review: The is my favorite in this series. The ending to Lara Jean's story was perfect.

6. by Heather Dune Macadam
Finish date: March 28, 2020
Genre: History
Rating: A+
Review: I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. A must read account of the little known first Jewish transport to Auschwitz. Heartbreaking and powerful. Heather Macadam not only shares the stories of the survivors, she shares the stories of the girls that did not.

April

7. by Peter Gatien(no photo)
Finish date: April 1, 2020
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A-
Review: I won this from a Goodreads giveaway!!! Peter Gatien has lived a pretty extraordinary life as a owner of multiple night clubs. This is his well written account of how he became the king of the New York nightclub scene and how Mayor Guilliani and the U.S. Government screwed him over. The only real flaw is Gatien seems to gloss over the personal family aspects of his life. In a couple sentences he talks about how his business life took a tole on his family life and then quickly moves on. I would have loved to read more on that aspect of his life

8. by Chavi Eve Karkowsky(no photo)
Finish date: April 4, 2020
Genre: non-fiction, medicine
Rating: A-
Review: Dr. Karkowsky writes about her experiences as a maternal fetal medicine specialist. This book is a fascinating window into the challenges that pregnancy and delivery can entail. I won this book from a goodreads giveaway

9. by Jacob Tobia(no photo)
Finish date: April 8, 2020
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A+
Review: I won this from a goodreads giveaway!!! This was a great memoir. Jacob is very witty and you will find yourself laughing and crying throughout the book. This book will challenge your preconceived notions on the trans narrative and what it means to be trans. Highly recommended!!

10. by John "Chick" Donohue(no photo)
Finish date: April 25, 2020
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A-
Review: The Greatest Beer Run tells the amazing, unbelievable, yet very true story of John Donohue's trip to Vietnam to bring his buddies a beer. Well written and highly entertaining. Won from a Goodreads giveaway.

MAY

11. by Sara Donati
Finish date: May 4, 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: A-
Review: Sara Donati does a wonderful job bringing to life New York City in 1884. Her characters are strong and never boring. It does start out a little slow but quickly picks up as the characters dig deeper into the murder mystery that has occupied their lives for months.

Carly wrote: "10. by John "Chick" Donohue(no photo)
Finish date: April 25, 2020
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A..."

Just finished reading and reviewing this one. I learned lots more about the Vietnam War than I expected from the title and the blurb. What a shame the publisher pushed the release date back to Nov 2020.
A good read for any military history fan.

12. by Merlin Sheldrake
Finish date: May 14, 2020
Genre: Science (biology: Mycology)
Rating: A-
Review: I won this book from a Goodreads Giveaway!!! A great book on the importance of Fungi to life on earth. So much interesting things going on in the world of Fungi. Well written and entertaining. This book will change your understanding of Fungi and its place in this world. My only real criticism is that Sheldrake gets a little too philosophical at times for my taste.

JUNE

13. by Joshua Levine(no photo)
Finish date: June 22, 2020
Genre: History
Rating; A-
Review: An interesting and well researched look into the events of the summer of 1940 the led to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of men from France. It not only looks at the evacuation itself but the political and military events that led up to it. Also for an added bonus, Joshua adds an interview with Christopher Nolan and a chapter on what it took to make the movie.

JULY

14. by Steve Almond
Finish date: July 28, 2020
Genre: nonfiction
Rating: A-
Review: Steve Almond travels to several independent candy companies. His passion and love for candy really shows through.

AUGUST

15. by Tan France
Finish date: August 17, 2020
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Rating: A+
Review: Really fun to read!! Tan's great personality really shines through.

16. by Karamo Brown (no photo)
Finish date: August 19, 2020
Genre: Biography/memoir
Genre: A+
Review a great memoir! He does not shy away from his past mistakes. He is a beautiful human being.

Carly I missed a standard problem that started with message 18 - do not skip a line between the citation and the Finish date:

Please remove the blank - skipped line in 18, 20 and 21.

Always check message one when in doubt.

The standards are mandatory so all of the moderators help out here.

SEPTEMBER

17. by Kate Stevens (no photo)
Finish date: September 7, 2020
Genre: humor non fiction
Rating: B
Review: A positive, mostly tongue in cheek look at various subcultures including vegans, swingers, deadheads, and many others.

OCTOBER

18. by Robert Cowley
Finish date: October 1, 2020
Genre: History
Rating: A-
Review: An interesting and thought provoking collection of counter factual history essays that ask the question what if historical events did not happen the way they did. What if one little thing changes? My favorite entries are:

- VE Day - November 11, 1944
- N0 Bomb: No End
- What If Pizarro Had Not Found Potatoes in Peru?

All the essays pretty much have the same conclusion. The world would be a very different place for better or worse if one little thing changes.

Good progress Carly.

2021


JANUARY

1. by Susan Orlean
Finish date: January 27, 2021
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: A-
Review: An ode to libraries. Susan Orlean goes back and forth between talking about the 1986 fire and the unique history of the Los Angeles Central Library. There are many interesting little tidbits throughout about fire science and arson investigating, however, the Los Angeles Central Library is the star.

2. by Caroline B. Cooney
Date finished: January 28, 2021
Genre: mystery
Rating: A-
Review: It started out a little slow, but it quickly turned into a very entertaining whodunit. A great cast of cooky characters who find themselves embroiled in murder. Clementine gets herself in a sticky situation involving drug dealers and murder. Of course this is only half the story because Clementine is also hiding a very big secret.

FEBRUARY

3. by Paul Ham
Date finished: February 2, 2021,
Genre: History
Rating: A-
Review: Paul Ham brilliantly lays out his thesis that World War I was not inevitable as many of the leaders at the time claimed and easily avoidable.

MARCH

4. by Gerry House(no photo)
Date finished: March 2, 2021
Genre: Memoir
Rating: B
Review: A somewhat funny inside look into the movers and shakers of country music. It did get a little National Enquirer in some parts for my taste. Overall, an entertaining look into the life of a long time country music radio host.

5. by Chuck Culpepper(no photo)
Date finished: March 6, 2021
Genre: Sports/Memoir
Rating: A-
Review: A entertaining account of an American sportswriter who immerses himself in English football culture. Any fan of soccer or sports in general will enjoy this book. Since it was published in 2007, it is a little dated.

6. by Dana DuTerroil (no photo)
Date finished: March 27, 2021
Genre: Travel
Rating: A-
Review: It amazing how you live in a city your entire life and you don't know whats there. In this book you will find an eclectic mix of attractions that make Houston such a wonderful unique city.

Good progress, Carly. You need to go back and change the format of your books beginning with Post #26 and change that and each successive post from "Date Finished" to Finish date.

Thank you, it should be a quick fix.