Grand unified books thread

[Gups]

Finished What God Hath Wrought USA 1815-1848. Very impressed with the quality of the writing and the breath of scope although his dislike of Jackson and Polk and love of JQA shines through a bit too much.

Now reading Half of a Yellow Sun, novel set during the Biafra conflict. Excellent so far.

[The Brain]

Now reading Half of a Yellow Sun, novel set during the Biafra conflict. Excellent so far.

Any Swedish flying mercenaries in it?

[crazy canuck]

The story and the world feel interesting enough. If things pick up in these last 200 pages, I'm decidedly checking out the following book in the saga. It's just that so far it feels like a prelude, hints that something "big" is going to happen, but nothing really big happens.

I agree, there is a lot of build up.  But I was fascinated by the world he created and that kept my interest.

[Pedrito]

Robert McFarlane, The Old Ways. A Journey on Foot

Extremely enjoyable book about walking old paths. Mongers came to my mind several times while reading this.

L.

[Maladict]

Robert McFarlane, The Old Ways. A Journey on Foot

Extremely enjoyable book about walking old paths. Mongers came to my mind several times while reading this.

L.

One of the best books I read last year.

[Malthus]

I recently read Measuring The World, which was an absolute delight:


http://www.amazon.ca/Measuring-World-Novel-Daniel-Kehlmann/dp/0307277399/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424985748&sr=8-1&keywords=measuring+the+world

[mongers]

Robert McFarlane, The Old Ways. A Journey on Foot

Extremely enjoyable book about walking old paths. Mongers came to my mind several times while reading this.

L.

Yeah, that's on my reading list, but I'm actively avoiding it as I'm working on some routes at the moment.

[sbr]

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?

I really liked Ron Chernow's Washington: A Life.  I listened to it as an audiobook, but it was still very good. 

Other Presidential biographies I have read and enjoyed, but have no idea how others feel about them:

David McCullough's John Adams and Truman.
Geoffery Perret's Eishenhower
Books one and two of Edmund Morris' 3 book biography of Theodore Roosevelt.  I want to read the last one, it is about the short time between leaving the White House and his death.

I have Lynne Cheney's James Madison biography on a wishlist somewhere.

Biographies of non-Presidential Founding Fathers that I enjoyed:

Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton
Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

[sbr]

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

Nice, bookmarked.

[Sheilbh]

I'm on a Civil War kick.

Currently reading God's Fury, England's Fire (which is a wonderful title, taken from a contemporary pamphlet), only a couple of chapters in but at least part of the argument seems to be that it was a Reformation conflict. Interesting so far. The author has an eye for illuminating images and details I think - like the Covenanters having a funereal march with a Bible to symbolise the death of the Word of God that they saw in the prayer book.

But it may also, possibly, be the end of that school of interpretation. My understanding is that this historiography of the Civil War that saw it as 1) not fundamentally caused by long-term causes but rather specific problems of the 1630s-40s; and 2) seriously motivated by religion is on its way out just as it replaced the English Revolution. Similarly, from what I understand, interpretations of Cromwell are changing and slightly downgrading the importance of his religion.

But I'm also reading Antonia Fraser's Cromwell, Our Chief of Men. Again only a couple of chapters in but so far so good. I think she is excellent on the personal spirituality of 'Puritanism'. I'm really interested that it seems like she'll suggest a certain indecision in Cromwell which I like. It's always interested me that when Cromwell was about to take a momentous decision (and often under most attack) that he seems to disappear. As often happens when I read about Cromwell it reminds me of de Gaulle.

[Habbaku]

   That doesn't sound like the Civil War.   

[CountDeMoney]

Cromwall Jackson?

[Ed Anger]

Mew m'lord.

[jimmy olsen]

I'm on a Civil War kick.

Currently reading God's Fury, England's Fire (which is a wonderful title, taken from a contemporary pamphlet), only a couple of chapters in but at least part of the argument seems to be that it was a Reformation conflict. Interesting so far. The author has an eye for illuminating images and details I think - like the Covenanters having a funereal march with a Bible to symbolise the death of the Word of God that they saw in the prayer book.

[Scipio]

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?

I really liked Ron Chernow's Washington: A Life.  I listened to it as an audiobook, but it was still very good. 

Other Presidential biographies I have read and enjoyed, but have no idea how others feel about them:

David McCullough's John Adams and Truman.
Geoffery Perret's Eishenhower
Books one and two of Edmund Morris' 3 book biography of Theodore Roosevelt.  I want to read the last one, it is about the short time between leaving the White House and his death.

I have Lynne Cheney's James Madison biography on a wishlist somewhere.

Biographies of non-Presidential Founding Fathers that I enjoyed:

Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton
Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Skip Cheney's Madison; read Gutzman's instead. He's a real scholar. However, his review of her biography of Madison yielded up a major plaudit for her book: her focus on Madison's health, which is well-documented but poorly understood.