Grand unified books thread

[Razgovory]

I'm thinking of a major reading campaign.  A biography of every US President (well up until say Eisenhower, I don't want to get to modern),  Anyone know a good book on Washington?

[Sheilbh]

This blog may help:
http://bestpresidentialbios.com/

[Barrister]

They really should have shot Master and Commander, leaving out the Gibraltar part.  Not a bad scene or slow moment in Master and Commander.

Nah.  Too many different ship battles in Master and Commander.  Too hard to keep track of in a 2 hour movie.

Personally, I think Desolation Island would make a good movie - chased by a much larger ship, then once that battle is over a desperate struggle for survival until an enemy vessel also stationed at Desolation Island is their only hope for survival...

[Barrister]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

[Malthus]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

That is awesome.  I'm interested in hearing the details - I love costume-making.

[Valmy]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

Viper is outraged you are wearing the uniform of the hated colonial power that oppressed Canada so.

[Admiral Yi]

Nah.  Too many different ship battles in Master and Commander.  Too hard to keep track of in a 2 hour movie.

There's two involving the Sophie: the Algerines and the Cacafuego.  Plus a bunch of prize chases.

[Valmy]

No, there really isn't good history in those books.  They have been pretty well savaged by actual historians.

And here I was hoping Bill O'Reilly was using his powers for good instead of evil.

[crazy canuck]

Nah.  Too many different ship battles in Master and Commander.  Too hard to keep track of in a 2 hour movie.

There's two involving the Sophie: the Algerines and the Cacafuego.  Plus a bunch of prize chases.

The battle with the Cacafuego is my favourite battle so far and was a significant defining moment in Aubrey's career.  It would have been perfect for the purpose of introducing the Movie audience to the books.

[Sophie Scholl]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

I miss having access to TBR.   Have you seen or read Austenland?  I've been moderately intrigued by the concept of watching it at some point, if only for Keri Russell.

[Barrister]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

That is awesome.  I'm interested in hearing the details - I love costume-making.

Not a ton of details to tell really, though I'll post pics.  We got the name of this lady who is making the uniform from friends (who are the ones putting on the event).  I had rented something similar once before, but at $100 it wasn't cheap, it wasn't 100% accurate, and it was 2-3 sizes too big.

So she runs a side business of making medeival, historical or fantasy costumes.  We went over a bunch of patterns to try and pick one that looked right (some parts had to be made up by hand though), picked some fabric, and she's almost done making it.

At $350, on the one hand it's hardly the smartest thing I've done with my money, but honestly I don't know how she makes any money doing this.  Just getting a regular handmade suit would cost more, never mind a historical recreation (and the ones I've seen online go for 5x that price).

[Malthus]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

That is awesome.  I'm interested in hearing the details - I love costume-making.

Not a ton of details to tell really, though I'll post pics.  We got the name of this lady who is making the uniform from friends (who are the ones putting on the event).  I had rented something similar once before, but at $100 it wasn't cheap, it wasn't 100% accurate, and it was 2-3 sizes too big.

So she runs a side business of making medeival, historical or fantasy costumes.  We went over a bunch of patterns to try and pick one that looked right (some parts had to be made up by hand though), picked some fabric, and she's almost done making it.

At $350, on the one hand it's hardly the smartest thing I've done with my money, but honestly I don't know how she makes any money doing this.  Just getting a regular handmade suit would cost more, never mind a historical recreation (and the ones I've seen online go for 5x that price).

That does sound insanely cheap.

[mongers]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

That is awesome.  I'm interested in hearing the details - I love costume-making.

Not a ton of details to tell really, though I'll post pics.  We got the name of this lady who is making the uniform from friends (who are the ones putting on the event).  I had rented something similar once before, but at $100 it wasn't cheap, it wasn't 100% accurate, and it was 2-3 sizes too big.

So she runs a side business of making medeival, historical or fantasy costumes.  We went over a bunch of patterns to try and pick one that looked right (some parts had to be made up by hand though), picked some fabric, and she's almost done making it.

At $350, on the one hand it's hardly the smartest thing I've done with my money, but honestly I don't know how she makes any money doing this.  Just getting a regular handmade suit would cost more, never mind a historical recreation (and the ones I've seen online go for 5x that price).

That seems pretty darn reasonable for a bespoke item, presumably made of good cloth. Just think of all the confusion it'll cause future generations as they try to work out when and how great grandfather BB served in the Royal Navy, maybe he was some super sluth or perhaps a secret agent formerly in RN Reserve?

[Barrister]

On a completely related note, the missus and I are going to another Regency Ball in a couple weeks.  This time I've splurged and am having a full blown RN captain's uniform costume made for me.  It looks fucking fantastic, and I'll post pics in TBR when it's done.   

I miss having access to TBR.   Have you seen or read Austenland?  I've been moderately intrigued by the concept of watching it at some point, if only for Keri Russell.

Nope.

But I have no particular love or affection for Jane Austen.  I haven't read any of her books.  In advance of the first ball I did see the mid 90s Colin Firth P&P miniseries and enjoyed it well enough, but not enough to start wanting to recreate it.

When my wife first wanted to go to this ball, I was a little unenthused - until I realized I could just as easily think of it as a Patrick O'Brien ball.     They are writing about the exact same time period, and while O'Brien does tend to focus on Aubrey's life at sea, he does include some very lengthy passages (and nearly the entirety of the second book, Post Captain) to his life on land, which certainly did include going to dinner parties and balls.

[Admiral Yi]

If you haven't already watched it, I thought the Pride and Prejudice movie was quite good.