Grand unified books thread

[BuddhaRhubarb]

really enjoying Charlie Stross' "Saturn's Children, right now. Total cheezeball cornball robot sex, SF-referential/reverential in good ways. Heinlein-y (early H. & elder H. in a kind of unholy Asimov admixture.) fluffy fun.

[The Brain]

Reading The Road to Bosworth Field: A New History of the Wars of the Roses by Trevor Royle. Not very meaty but it certainly works as a general introduction to the era for a n00b. There's some riveting stuff going on!

After years of thinking about it I finally bought my own copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare. I picked the RSC version.

[Queequeg]

Looking for good, reasonably light book on Spanish Empire. 

[Malthus]

In the middle of If The Dead Rise Not, the latest Bernie Gunther "German Noir" by Philip Kerr. Excellent, as is the whole series.

This one takes place just before the 1930s Berlin Olympics and then 20 years later in Cuba. Corruption, murder, hot dames, snappy dialogue, engaging characters, Nazis. In short, the perfect page-turner for noir fans.

Though as usual with this genre, those looking for happy-ever-after must look elsewhere. 

[crazy canuck]

Looking for good, reasonably light book on Spanish Empire.

Pretty big topic.

Dogs of War by James Reston is a good read on the formation of Spain, the reconquest and Columbus.

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie is another good read.

[Barrister]

Looking for good, reasonably light book on Spanish Empire.

Interested more in the colonial stuff, or what was going on in Iberia, or both?

[Queequeg]

Anything and everything before the final decline and the Napoleonic war; Spanish perspective on the Eighty Year's War, Spanish conquests of both Mexico and the Inca (that one book looked good), wars on the continent, particularly involvement in more general Reformation awfulness.

Actually, would also be interested in something of an intellectual/theological history of the Reformation.  Or something military.

Also; something on development of sea-routes between China and the West, particularly evolution under Dutch and Spanish.

Obviously I've been playing a lot of Magna Mundi.

Also: Anyone know anything decent on Muscovy and early Russia? 

[Syt]

Almost through with The Bad Guys Won! A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo-chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, The Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform--and Maybe the Best.

Very entertaining book about an interesting cast of characters (many of them a'holes).

Finished. Liked it a lot. Weird, though, to put it down and read about Dwight Gooden getting arrested on DUI charges in the news.

[Barrister]

I have a book entitled Spain's Road to Empire: the Making of a World Power 1492-1763, by Henry Kamen.  It's a big topic so it's a pretty broad overview, but it wasn't bad.

[Malthus]

Just finished If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr, mentioned above.

I'd say it was his best yet. This series just keeps getting better and better. A total treat for noir fans, it has the perfect reveal at the end - devestating, inevitable, and yet a series of total surprises (at least to me). I read the last chapter twice, to take it all in.

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in well-researched period hardboiled detective fiction.

[The Brain]

Also; something on development of sea-routes between China and the West,

http://www.amazon.com/1434-Magnificent-Chinese-Ignited-Renaissance/dp/0061492175

[Lettow77]

 Reading The Book of Tea, by Kakuzo Okakura, as part of a project to create a domestic Southern Tea ceremony that will be explained here if it ever comes to fruition.

I have read too many books on the South this year, and need to look abroad- to provide a new perspective at looking at the South, of course.

Books read this year on the South that I can recall, invariably leaving a couple out:
Dixie Looks Abroad: The South and U.S Foreign Relations
Shiloh
The Beleagured City
Still Fighting the Civil War
Recollections of a Southern Lady of Letters
3 Months in the Southern states
Why the South will Survive
History of a River City
Psychology of Southerners
The Mind of the South
Nathan Bedford Forrest & His Crittor Company
A Meteor Shining Brightly
Hood's Atlanta Campaign
War Crimes Against Southern Civilizans
Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government
Memoir of the Last Year of the War of Independence, Jubal Early

[The Brain]

No wai! Me too!

[Ed Anger]

No wai! Me too!

mieu!

[garbon]

Most of the way through "Ungrateful Daughters" by Maureen Waller. Pretty decent and I like that about half the book is spent discussing the viewpoints and backgrounds of William III, Mary II, James II and Anne.