Whatcha reading?

[ashiepoo72]

I would love to know what books you guys are reading, wishing you were reading or planning to read. Something fun to keep my mind of applications! Also, my Amazon wishlist, at about 200 books, is simply not long enough

 

I just finished reading Carroll Smith-Rosenberg's Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America, which has aged extremely well IMO. I'm about to crack open Stephen Kotkin's new book Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 and to say I'm anything less than giddy would be an understatement. And I'm planning to read The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars by John Tirman next.

[Kleio_77]

I just bought a used copy of Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones. Although I won't begin reading this until Christmas break. I also hope to read A Very Double Life: The Private World of Mackenzie King by C.P. Stacey during the holidays. 

[C&C]

Perhaps the best monographs I've read this semester are Danielle L. McGuire's At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance & Pete Daniel's Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s.

 

I'm eagerly awaiting next semester's syllabi! 

[maelia8]

My guilty pleasures this semester have definitely been Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 and The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to War in 1914. So pop history, so lovely to read, such pretty writing and gorgeous narratives.

[ToomuchLes]

A book I am surprised I haven't already heard about - David Davis' Inhuman Bondage: The Rise & Fall of Slavery in the New World. 

 

Also, I am reading Ric Edelman's The Truth About Retirement Plans and IRAs. I promised myself that, during my gap year, one of my personal projects would be to gain a better understanding of how to invest wisely. Although, retirement, for me, is some forty years in the future, its best to start sooner than later thanks to ... COMPOUND INTEREST! Now I get excited when I hear, smell, talk, read or think about investments. Its actually a cool, interesting study.

[ashiepoo72]

@maelia8 - I love love love Sleepwalkers. Such a great book, so well written and compelling. Now I have to check out his other books! Nothing wrong with some pop history

[dr. t]

Archaeologies of the Future: the Desire Called Utopia and other Science Fictions

 

Not as good as its amazing title makes it out to be.

Edited December 1, 2014 by telkanuru

[gsc]

When it comes to just pleasure reading, I prefer fiction -- nothing like curling up with a good novel, especially if it's a historical one! I love Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, and I'm in the middle of the gorgeously written Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I've also picked up a copy of The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, which I think should be a good read.

Edited December 1, 2014 by girlscoutcookies

[ToomuchLes]

Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome sounds awesome! I already added The First Man in Rome  to my Amazon list. 

[gsc]

Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome sounds awesome! I already added The First Man in Rome  to my Amazon list. 

 

They are some of my very favorites! The history is also extremely detailed, which is fun (although McCullough totally plays favorites).

[Kleio_77]

Maelia8 - I read Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom a year or two ago. As a side interest, I have examined the relationship between the Prussian Poles and Germans both before and after German unification. If interested in this topic as well, I highly recommend Germans, Poles and Jews: The Nationality Conflict in the Prussian East, 1772-1914 by William W. Hagen. 

  

[maelia8]

@Kleio_77 Thanks for the recommendation! I've read Hagen's German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation, and I loved it, so I'm looking forward to reading more works by him.

[Kleio_77]

@maelia8 I will have to get my hands on that Hagen book as well! Maybe another book to read over the holidays.

[PD33]

I'm reading Hope In A Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture and The Prince of Tides. I'm usually reading one non-fiction monograph and one or two fiction novels at the same time. I've also been slogging my way through The Plague, but it's so damn boring.

[ToomuchLes]

For those reading for fun (and not for school), how long do you generally take to finish a book?

 

During my undergrad, I read about 2 - 3 books a week, which includes whole books, articles, and mere chapter(s). Now I read about a single book a week, plus my daily online junk; so about half the reading material I used to read. 

[PD33]

I average about a book a week when I read for fun. Then, I also work full time and I have 2 kids (plus the husband), so… yeah. I'd probably suck down quite a bit more literature were I not always so busy!

LeventeL - You're killin' me with your list of places to which you've applied. I feel like such a slacker!

Edited December 4, 2014 by PD33

[ashiepoo72]

PD33 - totally understand the feeling. With my daughter running around it's hard to read anything for fun! I spend the ten minutes between laying down at night and passing out reading fluff books on my phone haha other than that, I get all my pleasure reading from things like the New Yorker. This is generally done when I'm taking the train to school.

 

Just added another book to my wishlist, which may get bumped up because it sounds sooo good: The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War by Mark M. Smith.

[ToomuchLes]

LeventeL - You're killin' me with your list of places to which you've applied. I feel like such a slacker!

 

Thats funny cause I feel like a slacker for not applying to more places. Originally I wanted between 15-18 but my adviser was like "NO!" (how he said it is comparable to how you say no to a dog when hes done something bad X.X)

[dr. t]

I am frankly kind of shocked that anyone with interests narrow enough for doctoral applications could find more than 6-8 programs with relevant faculty. Is this a difference between subject fields?

[ashiepoo72]

Short answer: I think it can depend on the field, but I also think everyone approaches this process with different factors in mind and that can also limit or expand their list. I, for one. want an academic job in the future, but I also want to get a PhD for the sake of completing a dissertation. If I don't end up in a tenure-track position, I will be sad but not devastated, and I certainly won't regret spending the time doing the PhD.

 

I'm a modern Americanist, so I think I have it a bit easier than some other fields. However, I attribute my long list of programs to a TON of research and an open mind. I can see myself at every single one of the 13 schools I'm applying to. I spent a year contacting scholars and grad students and narrowing/reworking my list of schools (that had about 50 programs on it initially. Any that didn't have more than 1 person in my field accepting students got taken off). The result is that I have spoken with/confirmed that at least 2 scholars at each program are accepting students and expressed interest in my research. These are people who cover at least a major part of my field/research, and I paid careful attention to the department as a whole to see if it could support my more expansive interests (my research is transnational in nature).

 

Not only that, I spent the year researching the universities holistically, as well as the surrounding area. I have a gnarly spreadsheet that lists whether the schools have resources for students with children, if there are secondary schools nearby (for my kid), public transportation, what other resources exist in the area (like other archives, etc. not technically associated with the university), housing costs, blah blah blah. This could be a product of me being neurotic, of course, but I'm glad I took this approach. I could have added probably 3-5 more schools based on research fit and faculty accepting students had I not gotten weird vibes (yes, not the quantitative approach, but I think it's important to listen to your gut sometimes). All of this resulted in a list of schools that I can honestly say I would be happy going to.

 

While I totally understand that some people are flummoxed by the number of schools some people apply to, I think that view is limited. After all the work I did to make my list of schools, I feel a little personal about it. We should all feel personal about our individual journeys to the "submit" button on applications.

[maelia8]

Normally I read about 2-3 fiction books per week (during the first three years of undergrad when I wasn't writing a thesis, as well as my two years of "real-world" work between undergrad and grad school). However, during this first semester of grad school, I managed to read about 3 novels over the course of the semester, largely because I just didn't have time to read more than a few pages a day after finishing with my required academic reading (and as a historian, it's a lot of reading). I've been really into Anais Nin lately and just finished ​The Winter of Artifice.

[1Q84]

Normally I read about 2-3 fiction books per week (during the first three years of undergrad when I wasn't writing a thesis, as well as my two years of "real-world" work between undergrad and grad school). However, during this first semester of grad school, I managed to read about 3 novels over the course of the semester, largely because I just didn't have time to read more than a few pages a day after finishing with my required academic reading (and as a historian, it's a lot of reading). I've been really into Anais Nin lately and just finished ​The Winter of Artifice.

 

 

Ooohh I've been reading Spy in the House of Love on and off for a while now (it's very short but it's one that I just pick up whenever I have spare time--that is to say, not often). It's taking a while for me to get used to her style, but it's great in its frankness. 

[maelia8]

That's the thing I love about Nin, you can pick her up, read five pages, and enjoy a delightful vignette without having to worry about losing track of the storyline since it meanders a lot and doesn't always make sense anyway. Perfect for a grad student!

[ashiepoo72]

Ahhhh! Just got the reading lists for classes next semester. Why am I so excited?! 

[Chiqui74]

I'm reading lots of things at once, something like 5 books, but the most recent one I picked up is Bernard Bailyn's "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution."  I went to see one of my LOR writers a few days ago and he sent me home with some books, claiming I could never be a historian of Early America unless I had read them, especially the Bailyn book.  Mind you, I graduated years ago!  It was like independent studies all over again!