book update
Aug. 11th, 2012 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerPlaying catch-up with recording them. Comments later.
Catalina's Riddle by Stephen Saylor (17)
The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken (18)
A History of the Middle East by Peter Mansfield (19)
Dolly and the Doctor Bird by Dorothy Dunnett (20)
In progress:
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fisher
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
The Fort by Bernard Cornwell
In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation by Francois Furstenberg
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War by Michael S. Neiberg
The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the Defining Battles of World War I by Richard Holmes
Laxdaela Saga
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Shards of Empire by Susan Schwartz
In the Skies of Nomonhan: Japan versus Russia, May - September 1939 by Dimitar Nedialkov
The Lily Hand And Other Stories by Edith Pargeter
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle
ETA: My sister in law asked about Krzyzacy: I replied
Ah. Do you know Sienkiewicz? He was a great writer of the romances (in the broad sense). Imagine a writer with the prose style, sweep and complexity, and characterization of Dickens, but instead of writing about the complexities of early modern society telling huge, exciting adventure stories. You know, just call him the Walter Scott of Poland, and you'll get the idea. :-) His stories are full of bold and dashing heroes, stalwart comrades, beautiful but chaste damsels (some of whom are accomplished with a sabre and pistol themselves), scheming villains (some handsome but wicked, some repulsive and degraded) and hordes and hordes of extras. And, of course, the true centerpiece of his stories--the forests and rivers and grasslands and mountains of Poland itself.
They don't have a ton of SUBTLETY, but they're great fun (if you can take the writing, which is sometimes a bit longwinded by modern standards) and they're almost all of them quite page-y, so you never feel as if you had only gotten started and here it is ending. Probably his most famous work is his Great Trilogy: With Fire and Sword, The Deluge, and Fire in the Steppe, which are about a great war in 17th century Poland and Ukraine. (Most famous at least in Poland--in the west, his most famous book is probably Quo Vadis, a novel about the early Christians in Rome, which has been made into several movies.)
He wrote a fair bit of contemporary fiction as well, but it never got the attention his historical novels did. In 1905, he received the Nobel Prize for literature, as a sort of lifetime achievement award.
Of course, I like his stories because the dashing heroes are generally named Jan! :-)
Catalina's Riddle by Stephen Saylor (17)
The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken (18)
A History of the Middle East by Peter Mansfield (19)
Dolly and the Doctor Bird by Dorothy Dunnett (20)
In progress:
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fisher
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
The Fort by Bernard Cornwell
In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation by Francois Furstenberg
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War by Michael S. Neiberg
The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the Defining Battles of World War I by Richard Holmes
Laxdaela Saga
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Shards of Empire by Susan Schwartz
In the Skies of Nomonhan: Japan versus Russia, May - September 1939 by Dimitar Nedialkov
The Lily Hand And Other Stories by Edith Pargeter
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle
ETA: My sister in law asked about Krzyzacy: I replied
Ah. Do you know Sienkiewicz? He was a great writer of the romances (in the broad sense). Imagine a writer with the prose style, sweep and complexity, and characterization of Dickens, but instead of writing about the complexities of early modern society telling huge, exciting adventure stories. You know, just call him the Walter Scott of Poland, and you'll get the idea. :-) His stories are full of bold and dashing heroes, stalwart comrades, beautiful but chaste damsels (some of whom are accomplished with a sabre and pistol themselves), scheming villains (some handsome but wicked, some repulsive and degraded) and hordes and hordes of extras. And, of course, the true centerpiece of his stories--the forests and rivers and grasslands and mountains of Poland itself.
They don't have a ton of SUBTLETY, but they're great fun (if you can take the writing, which is sometimes a bit longwinded by modern standards) and they're almost all of them quite page-y, so you never feel as if you had only gotten started and here it is ending. Probably his most famous work is his Great Trilogy: With Fire and Sword, The Deluge, and Fire in the Steppe, which are about a great war in 17th century Poland and Ukraine. (Most famous at least in Poland--in the west, his most famous book is probably Quo Vadis, a novel about the early Christians in Rome, which has been made into several movies.)
He wrote a fair bit of contemporary fiction as well, but it never got the attention his historical novels did. In 1905, he received the Nobel Prize for literature, as a sort of lifetime achievement award.
Of course, I like his stories because the dashing heroes are generally named Jan! :-)
