Kelkel Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 (edited) Yes, I realize that this is a horribly unoriginal topic, but we need something to spark life into this forum. Plus, I'm always one for good book recommendations. I'm currently reading Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K. Martin. After Kim Jong-Il died, I realized that my knowledge of North Korea was about as much as they potrayed on the 30 Rock episode with Margaret Cho. Since I have an odd fascination with authoritarian dictatorships, I figured it would be the opportune time to read up. I basically googled "best book about the history of North Korea" and came up with this one. While I wouldn't classify this book as the definitive history of North Korea (Martin is a journalist, not a historian), it is keeping me interested. It's 700 some-odd pages and I've still got a ways to go. I also recently finished Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. The books are not near as good as the TV show has been. This latest installment of the novels definitely was the worst. It was very anticlimatic and overall just "meh." Now it's time for you to share! What books are you reading? What books do you want to read? For school or for fun? Do you have a Nook/Kindle/other? If you have a GoodReads account and want a friend, PM me! I have one, but am not going post it so those trick adcomms can deny me for my poor taste in books (just kidding, I have amazing taste). Oh, btw, I posted it in the History forum for the purpose of getting all us crazed Historians something else to discuss while we wait. I noticed that the diving thread got moved, so I hope it doesn't happen here! Edited January 24, 2012 by Kelkel
taybaxter Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 (edited) Good idea! At any given time--this year especially--I'm usually switching between two or three books at once. I'll pick one up one night and then another the next and keep cycling like so. I just finished Eric Foner's wonderful new book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. I've always been a Foner fan but I have to say this one was one of my favorites. It was very well-written, readable and just a generally refreshing take on Abraham Lincoln. I also just read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson about H.H. Holmes and the Chicago World's Fair. It was a fun read! Right now, I'm reading Stephen King's Skeleton Crew and James Loewen's Sundown Towns. I have to say that I'm not particularly engaged in the latter one. It's a worthy endeavor, but I find that he is kind of grasping at straws for evidence at some points. Somebody ought to now follow up by writing a more "close-up" history of a sundown town or two. I discovered Stephen King during the summer of 2010 and I've been crazy about him ever since. I think it comes from my love of horror movies. I pick up one of his books whenever I feel like I need a distraction for a while. I read Under the Dome in two completely obsessive days that summer. Since then, I've read Cell, The Shining, IT, Full Dark, No Stars, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and now Skeleton Crew. Great stories, I loved The Mist. EDIT: Oh and I got a Kindle for Christmas. It's certainly helped with my leisure reading. Edited January 24, 2012 by taybaxter
Kelkel Posted January 24, 2012 Author Posted January 24, 2012 I discovered Stephen King during the summer of 2010 and I've been crazy about him ever since. I think it comes from my love of horror movies. I pick up one of his books whenever I feel like I need a distraction for a while. I read Under the Dome in two completely obsessive days that summer. Since then, I've read Cell, The Shining, IT, Full Dark, No Stars, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and now Skeleton Crew. Great stories, I loved The Mist. EDIT: Oh and I got a Kindle for Christmas. It's certainly helped with my leisure reading. My mom's on a Stephen King kick right now. I had one when I was waayyy younger. I read a bunch of his books (can't even remember which at this point) and watched whatever movies were playing on TV. I got myself a Nook Touch for my birthday this past summer, and I have to say it has done wonders for my fun reading. I managed to blaze through the Game of Thrones series. I was hesistant to get one, because I love phsyical books so much, but now I love it. I've decided I'll buy physical books if it's something that would go in my future office. Fun books can definitely be ebooks.
Simple Twist of Fate Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 I read The Devil in the White City last winter. Riveting stuff. I'm reading Anna Karenina now, for a class on Russian history. I'm setting aside pleasure reading for the time being until this I've finished this monster of a book. I'm less than halfway in, but I already dislike Vronsky pretty intensely.
RevolutionBlues Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 Heart of Darkness and The Age of Capital for me.
Khayzuran Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 For leisure, I'm reading David McCullough's "The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris". I like his popular take on social history and ability to make periods interesting for the period's amateurs through anecdotes. Goodreads is amazing! Now I won't ever forget books I've always wanted to read, though a drawback is I doubt I can get through my reading list in one lifetime.
iamincontrolhere-haig Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 Finishing up The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective today. It's an edited volume that focuses on economic, political, geostrategic, and social changes in the 1970s and is part of a self-conscious effort to de-center the Cold War from our narrative of post-1945 international history. Some of the articles are fascinating but quite short, so the book as a whole provides some really interesting avenues for future reading. I need to choose what to start next. It's between James Mann's Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet and Kim Phillips-Fein's Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan. Speaking of Stephen King, has anyone had the chance to read 11/22/63? I hear good things.
kotov Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 For pleasure? For My Legionaries by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Basically an edict to his fascist revolutionary group in 1930s Romania. For classes? Uh, several. Taner Akcam's A Shameful Act about the Armenian Genocide, Ulrich Herbert's Hitler's Foreign Workers Shirer's Berlin Diary, etc.
crazedandinfused Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 I'm at the end of Vic Gatrell's City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth Century London which is even more awesome than it sounds. I don't need to read anything for fun because this book is so awesome, but when I do it will probably be Doctorow's The March or Nixon Agonistes by Gary Wills. I might have problems.
Riotbeard Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 Reading for the discussion section I teach: Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. Foner's Reconstruction Sappol, A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in Nineteenth-Century America Just Finished E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class TAing plus theory class has gifted me a crazy workload so no fun reading, but I have been watching the Australian Open every night...
calamari19 Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 Speaking of Stephen King, has anyone had the chance to read 11/22/63? I hear good things. I read it last month! Really enjoyed it. I think anyone particularly interested in history will a lot out of it. It's just a fun read, but Stephen King is an amazing writer (even if some people don't want to give him credit for it because of his subject matter) and he captures the quotidian better than anyone. Saw the Erik Larson nod above - anyone who likes him should also check out his latest (but like a year old, I think) In the Garden of Beasts. Amazing look at the rise of the Nazis from the perspective of the American ambassador to Germany in '33-34. Plus it has sex and spies, what more could you want? And, as other history nerds will appreciate, Larson's end notes were hilarious. Right now I'm catching up on reading from last year and halfway through Freedom. Pretty engaging, just depressing. But it's better than thinking about my applications!
Simple Twist of Fate Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 I liked The March when I read it a few years ago. Recommended. Of Doctorow's others, I've read Ragtime and Homer & Langley and they're also quite good reads. Homer and Langley Collyer are interesting historical figures in their own right. For anyone looking for a distraction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers I thought Freedom was okay. However, I just recently read Franzen's The Corrections, and that is a hell of a book.
SapperDaddy Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 I feel like a total slacker. I just read Inheritance, the last of the Eragon books.
virmundi Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 For those of you who are into Stephen King right now: read his book It -- a truly wonderful and remarkable book, as is The Stand. I also recommend his Dark Tower series -- but don't blame me when you realize that the Wizard and the Glass onward isn't as good as the first several books (although they are still enjoyable reads!)...! As for me? I am currently reading a collection of essays La Religion de ma mère: les femmes et la transmission de la foi... a good selection for those interested in religious history and the transmission of the faith A.D. 0 - A.D. 1800 or so.
goldielocks Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. For a required seminar in my MA program. So far, I'm not into it.
crater21 Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 I just finished reading Freedom a few weeks ago, and I thought it was great. I still think The Corrections is a better novel, but only because it has these flashes of pure brilliance. Freedom doesn't have these singular moments of brilliance, but it is consistently engaging throughout. Right now, I'm reading The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker. Has anyone read it yet? I would actually be very interested in your views of it as history students. Basically, Pinker is arguing that, on a per capita basis, there is less violence today than there was in previous centuries. I find myself disagreeing with a lot of it, and have some issues with his use of evidence, but it is an interesting book.
virmundi Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 I just finished reading Freedom a few weeks ago, and I thought it was great. I still think The Corrections is a better novel, but only because it has these flashes of pure brilliance. Freedom doesn't have these singular moments of brilliance, but it is consistently engaging throughout. Right now, I'm reading The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker. Has anyone read it yet? I would actually be very interested in your views of it as history students. Basically, Pinker is arguing that, on a per capita basis, there is less violence today than there was in previous centuries. I find myself disagreeing with a lot of it, and have some issues with his use of evidence, but it is an interesting book. Honestly? I think that Pinker is yet another jive, ill-informed, positivist cheerleader for a modernity that doesn't conform to his rosy point of view...
crater21 Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 Honestly? I think that Pinker is yet another jive, ill-informed, positivist cheerleader for a modernity that doesn't conform to his rosy point of view... Yes! It is amazing how historically uninformed the book is. But, it did stimulate a lot of discussion.
Riotbeard Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 For those of you who are into Stephen King right now: read his book It -- a truly wonderful and remarkable book Second that.
taybaxter Posted January 25, 2012 Posted January 25, 2012 Second that. Thirded, but I must say that I think I enjoyed The Shining a tad bit more.
Kelkel Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 Well, I've definitely gathered some titles that I need to put on my to-read list, such as City of Laughter. That does sound intriguing to say the least!
telemaque Posted January 28, 2012 Posted January 28, 2012 Currently: Hitler's Foreign Workers (Ulrich Herbert) and A Civil Action (forget the author...made into a movie with John Travolta, children get leukemia, John Travolta sues big corporations, big corporations bankrupt John Travolta). Also articles on slavery in early America for one of my classes. Needless to say, it's a pretty dismal reading list at the moment.
triplebogey Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye. Very good so far.
oseirus Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I am currently reading State and Society in Pre-colonial Asante
kotov Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 Currently: Hitler's Foreign Workers (Ulrich Herbert) and A Civil Action (forget the author...made into a movie with John Travolta, children get leukemia, John Travolta sues big corporations, big corporations bankrupt John Travolta). Also articles on slavery in early America for one of my classes. Needless to say, it's a pretty dismal reading list at the moment. Dude, I'm totally reading Hitler's Foreign Workers right now too. Do you study forced labor or something?
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now