The History Book Club discussion

Thanks so much Bentley. Am just having a few computer issues today I need to sort out before I start. Also I've gone considerably off track this year in my historical readings..while I've read 86 books, not all are in that genre. Thinking I shall just post the ones that fit.

Within this thread, you can post all of them.

Don't forget to give the books a rating and maybe a few words about how you liked the book.

Bentley wrote: "Don't forget to give the books a rating and maybe a few words about how you liked the book."

Yes, thanks I will. I was just practicing the formating. Need to do it over now in the right order of reading. I shall delete that post.

JANUARY


1. Aep S. Hamidin
Finish date; January, 2010
Rating; B. More of a coffee table book. Good photographs.

2. Malachy McCourt
Finish date; January 3, 2010
Rating; A. Autobiography of Frank McCourt's brother. The start of my aim to read more Irish writers.

3. Joyce Carol Oates
Finish date; January 5, 2010
Rating: C. Somewhat let down with this one after her fictional biography of Marilyn.

4. Jo Stanley
Finish date: January 15, 2010
Rating; B-. Good information, writing was a bit sloppy.

5. Jack Egan
Finish date; January 18, 2010
Rating; B. Extracts from various colonial diaries. Not a complete history by any means, but interesting.

6. Frank McCourt
Finish date; January 22, 2010
Rating; A. Frank McCourt's memories of growing up in Ireland & his early life in the USA.

7. Haruki Murakami
Finish date; January 31, 2010
Rating. C

8. Jack Kerouac
Finish date; January 31, 2010
Rating; A.

FEB

9. Louis de Bernières
Finish date; Feb 6, 2010
Rating; A.
A love story set on a Greek Isle during WW2, info about the Italian army there that I didn't know much about.

10. Peter Brune
Finish date; Feb 10, 2010.
Rating; A+. Eyeopening

Hi Velvetink, I have had a copy of Peter Brune's "A Bastard of a Place" on my 'to-read' list for some time now. Have you read Paul Ham's "Kokoda" and if so how does it compare?

by Peter Brune

by Paul Ham

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Velvetink, I have had a copy of Peter Brune's "A Bastard of a Place" on my 'to-read' list for some time now. Have you read Paul Ham's "Kokoda" and if so how does it compare?

Peter FitzSimons

- I found Peter Brune's book concentrated more on the decisions of the higher ranks - truthfully just scanned through some sections, mainly because I was looking for anyone who may have been the same unit as my grandfather.

11. Thea Astley
Finish date; Feb 10, 2010
Rating; A. A bookstore owners' experience in an oppressive dying Australian country town.

12. Martin Davies
Finish date; Feb 13, 2010
Rating; A+. Bit of a cross genre, detective + ornithology history. Loved this one.

13. Nuala O'Faolain
Finish date; Feb 26, 2010
Rating; A+
Autobiography of Nuala O'Faolain - Irish Journalist.

14. Sarah Waters
Finish date; Feb 26, 2010
Rating; C.
Historical fiction, plot too absurd for me, but the historical descriptions were good.

MARCH
15. Frank McCourt
Finish date; March 2010
Rating; A+.

16. Theodore Dalrymple
Finish date; March 2, 2010
Rating; A+. he specialises in skewering sacred cows.

17. Andrew Miller
Finish date; March 8, 2010
Rating: A.
Cross genre, historical fiction and fantasy.

18. Vladimir Megré
Finish date; March 11, 2010
Rating; C-.
Not sure how to classify this, autobiography/folk tale/botany/cedar product advertisement. Russian.

19. Jonathan Harley
Finish date; March 15, 2010
Rating; A.
Biographical memoirs of an ABC television journalist, his time in India, Pakistan and Afganistan from around 1999 up till September 11 and the following war on Terror.

20.
Erik S. Reinert
Finish date; March 16, 2010
Rating; B.
I'm new to economics so was a lot to take in. Mainly challenges economic orthodoxy.

21. Richard Flanagan
Finish date; March 23, 2010
Rating; A+
An alternative history of a Tasmanian convict/painter.

22. Angela Badger
Finish date; March 23-4
Rating; B-.
Historical fiction of a convict woman, not really a buccaneer though.

23. Clive Hamilton, Sarah Maddison
Finish date; March 27, 2010
Rating; A+
A must read.

APRIL

24. Brian Kennedy
Finish date: April 8, 2010
Rating; C
A poor Irish singer makes good in Rome. Gay love & romance.

25. Frank Hardy
Finish date; April 10, 2010
Rating; B
Semi autobiographical fiction covers Frank Hardy's early naive days with the Australian Communist party during the cold war period.

26. Matthew Gibney
Finish date; April 11, 2010
Rating; A++
another must read = differing views on Globalization

27. Georgia Blain
Finish date; April 28, 2010
Rating; C-
Sad and depressing

MAY

28.
Dave Franklin
Finish date; May 5, 2010
Rating; C
Won this in the GR giveaways. Not my style really, comedy & satire, but the Korean setting interested me as did the life of an English tutor.

29. Aimee Liu
Finish date; May 13, 2010.
Rating; A+
Engaging historical fiction, set in India & Nepal -1949 in India not long after India's Partition. Led me to other books = Kipling's view of the Great Game, Sven Hedin (explorer), Robert Shaw (explorer).

30.
Rebecca James
Finish date; May 14, 2010
Rating; C
Won this on GR giveaways. A teen book - I could not fully relate (guess I am getting old). My 21yr old daughter read it, thought it too predictable.

31.
Worldwatch Institute
Finish date; May 15, 2010
Rating; B-.
Covers the basics, a bit dated now.

32.
Frank Cain
Finish date; May 15-16, 2010
Rating; B.
Covers only the early history.

33. Tara Moss
Finish date; May 17, 2010. Didn't finish.
Rating; C
a playaway audio book. Did not like the narrator (an American) trying to do an Australian accent.

34. Jack Kerley
Finish date; May 18, 2010
Rating; C to B
fast paced - serial killer novel. Others might rate it higher. I read them to take my mind off things.

35. Danny Schechter
Finish date; May 19, 2010
Rating; C
How the news is constructed. A little repetitive and dry.

36. Andrew Hoskins
Finish date; May 20, 2010
Rating B
Hoskins’ main assertion is that television is central to the ‘social memory of war’. An interesting read.

37.http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Ernest Hemingway;A Reconsideration by Phillip Young.
(sorry there are 873 drop down page menus for Hemingway - I went through 70 menus before I gave up searching in the add book/author gizmo).
Finish date; May 26, 2010
Rating; A

38. Joanne Harris
Finish date; May 28, 2010
Rating; C.

39. Andre Dubus
Finish date; May 30, 2010
Rating; B
Short stories.

40. Peter FitzSimons
Finish date; May 30, 2010
Rating, B+
Discovered more pain in this than other books on the subject.

41. Minette Walters
Finished; May 31, 2010
Rating;B
Great crime writer.

JUNE

42. Kate Grenville
Finish date; June 7, 2010
Rating; C-
Fiction - Could not stomach the main character.

43. Bruno Arpaia
Finish date; June 10, 2010
Rating; A+
Historical fiction; episodes involving Walter Benjamin are interwoven with the fictional story of some Spanish refugees during WW2. Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (15 July 1892 – 27 September 1940) was a German-Jewish intellectual (philosopher, sociologist, literary critic,).

44. John Sefton Newton
Finish date; June 11, 2010
Rating; C
Historical fiction of an artist a Spanish painter - a protege of Picasso, I took to be real, but in fact did not exist. Gets silly towards the end.

45. Alan Gould
Finish date; June 14, 2010
Rating; C-B
Mariner's historical fiction. Not bad.

46. Brian O'Doherty
Finish date; June 16, 2010
Rating; B, but it won't appeal to everyone. Written in a particularly meandering Irish way. The demise of a small Irish village during WW2.

47. Barbara Hodgson
Finish date; June 20, 2010
Rating; C
A Mini coffee table book, introduction to 19th C women explorers.

48. Matthew Pearl
Finish date; June 21, 2010
Rating, A
Alt. History/crime fiction 1865 Boston, involves poets and writers like Longfellow.

49. Nicholas Salaman
Finish date; June 25, 2010
Rating; A.
alt.Historical fiction

50. Fiona Giles
Rating D
Funny this should end up No.50.

JULY

51. Patricia Bosworth
Finish date; July 4,2010
Rating A+ Excellent biography of the photographer

52. J.G. Ballard
Finish date; July 9, 2010
Rating A+. Excellent.Interesting chapters on internment camps of Shanghai during WW2.

53. Bob Carr
Finish date; July 14, 2010
Rating; B+. Lists a great selection of books Bob Carr recommends with his reviews. Many political/war/economics.

54. Bruce Cook
Finish date; July 17, 2010
Rating; B
Historical alt? fiction about Shakespeare

55. Lourdes Nichols
Finish date. July 26, 2010
Rating B. The taco sauce is good.

56. Patti Smith
Finish date; July 28, 2010
Rating; B+
Her life with Robert Mapplethorpe (photographer)

57. Bryan Ray Turcotte
Finish date; July 30, 2010
Rating; D for text, A for great collection of posters

58. James Herriot
Finish date; July 30, 2010
Rating; B. Classic series about Yorkshire vets.

AUGUST

59. Minette Walters
Finish date; August 1, 2010
Rating; B-

60. Anna Funder
The author is the girl on this cover.
Finish date;August 4, 2010
Rating; A+.
investigates the GDR (before the Wall came down in 1989) and the life of the East Germans under the Stasi in interview form & her personal experiences.

61. Phillip Knightley
Finish date; August 6, 2010
Rating; A+
Autobiography of an Australian Journalist.

Impressive listing of books so far.

Thanks Bentley, These days limiting myself to 2nd hand books in an effort to recycle, but sometimes find it difficult to keep on my preferred themes. The Up side is I have plenty to read when I get insomnia. ;))

62. Nikki Gemmell
Finish date; 12 August 2010
Rating; C
My excuse = everyone seemed to be reading it.

63. Hans Habe
Finish date; 13 August,2010
Rating; B.
The author Habe was an intelligence office during WW11 for the US Army. Written in 1958 -a classic spy thriller it's a bit dated now, but interesting.

64. James Nachtwey
Finish date; 13 August, 2010
Rating A
James Nachtwey is a documentary war photographer, excellent - one of my heroes. - there's a DVD "War Photographer" also worth tracking down.

An impressive list Velvetink.,

Thanks Bentley. I hope I can stay on track a bit better next year though.

65. N. Lee Wood
Finish date; 15 August, 2010.
Rating;B
Sci-fi, an all-too-possible near-future where the face of global politics appears ominously familiar- set in the middle east mostly - main characters a journalist and a cyborg, reads a bit like Tanith LeeTanith Lee and William GibsonWilliam Gibson


66. Katherine Mansfield
Finish date;18 August, 2010
Rating, B. Classic Mansfield short story.

67. Douglas Botting
Finish date; 23 August, 2010
Rating A+++
Excellent - Douglas Botting a first rate biographer.
Much to enjoy for everyone, Maxwell led an amazing life, Grandson to a Duke, his SAS service, shark hunting, writing, conservationist, explorer, & much more.

68. Kim Powers
Finish date; 25 August, 2010
Rating; B
an alternative history of Harper Lee and Truman Capote with a twilight zoneish twist.

69. Demetria Martinez
Finish date; 28 August, 2010
Rating A+
Lyrical & poetic, Brings to life the heartache of refugees from El Salvador.

September

70. Flannery O'Connor
Finish date; 6 September 2010
Rating; C
O'Conner was an astute observer & writer. O’Connor loved the South,(she was born in Georgia) but I found the stories oppressive and depressing.

71. Gillian Boddy
Finish date: 6 September, 2010
Rating; A
Very good biography of this New Zealand writer.

72. Bryce Courtenay
Finish date; 6 September, 2010
Rating; C-B
Australian/Colonial/Convict history based on real people (and Fagin from Dicken's Oliver Twist).
Oliver TwistCharles Dickens

73. Photocopies: StoriesJohn Berger
Finish date; 7 September, 2010
Rating A.
Short stories of his time living in provincial France and memories of people he knows.Exquisite vignettes.

74. THE GREAT WORLDDavid Malouf
Finish date; 14 September, 2010
Rating; A+
The lives & friendship of two Australian men over 60 odd years who met first as Japanese POW's & survived Changi & the Malay railway. Impressive writing, first time I have read Malouf.

75. William S. Burroughs
Finish date; shelved indefinately...read halfway till 20 September, 2010
Rating;-D
I was looking forward to seeing Burroughs' cut and paste method in the original. Bitterly disappointed.

76. Tanith Lee
Finish date; 22 September, 2010
Rating; B-A
Sci-fi/fantasy, follow on from Silver Metal Lover.
Tanith Lee

77. Wyndham Lewis
Finish date: 27 September,2010
Rating:B
Extracts from Lewis's diaries of his travels in and around Morocco. Could have been edited better. Interesting,strange & funny explorer.

78. Ken (Kandy) Johnson
Finish date: 27 September, 2010
Rating: C
Poorly written autobiography.Could have been terrific if ghost written.

October

79. (link to author won't work for me :()
Finish Date; 01 October, 2010
Rating:B.
Perhaps the film was better? Didn't grab me but worth reading if you want to know what it was like around 1910 in England.

80. Barbara Wood
Finish date: 5th October,2010
Rating: D minus
Plot unbelievable, but interesting from early Jewish and Christian history point of view.

81. Margaret Drabble
Finish Date; 12 October, 2010
Rating: B
Could have spent more time developing the main character but otherwise satisfying.

82. Christina Noble
Finish date; 14 October, 2010
Rating; A
Irish author's autobiography and her quest to set up a foundation in Vietnam for homeless children.

83. Nat Young
Finish date; 22 October, 2010
Rating A.
Very honest autobiography of an Australian surfing legend.

84. Richard Flanagan
Finish date; 27 October, 2010
Rating; A
Moving story set in a Tasmanian dam construction camp about a Slovenian family.

November

85. Annette Blonski
Finish Date; 1 November,2010
Rating: A
A fascinating and definitive record of independent women's filmmaking in Australia.

86. Haruki Murakami
Finish date; 5 November, 2010
Rating; A+
Inspirational not only to runners. Ironic I had a broken ankle when I started this.

89. Alan Moorehead
Finish date; 8 November, 2010
Rating; A.
Very good memoir of the author, an Australian Journalist - he also covers fellow journalist, Alexander Clifford & their time together during WW2.

90. Will Self
Finish date; 18 November, 2010
Rating; A
A strange kind of fantasy.

91. Thomas Keneally
Finish date; 24 November, 2010
Rating. B
It's a fictional presentation of the peace talks that took place in the forest of Compiègne in November 1918. It's written from the point of view of the German negotiator, Mattias Erzberger, a liberal pacifist. Made me google Napoleon III's private railway carriages. There's a link in my review to a recent photo of one of the carriages restored.

Wow, you are reading machine.

;0 I've had insomnia all year, it's pretty much been my way of dealing with it. Normally I've never read this much.

Well you spent your time wisely.

A very impressive list. While insomnia isn't fun, at least you get the benefit of more time to read. A "No great loss without some small gain" type of thing. Although having more time to read might be a big gain. :)

And thanks for your reviews. Some of those books look really interesting.

92. Frederick Forsyth
Finish date; 19 December 2010
Rating; B+


93. Jonathan Safran Foer
Finish date; 29 December 2010
Rating; A.
Young American man's search for Jewish roots in the Ukraine (former Volhynia area). I gave it an A for the inspiration, but the style might not be to everyone's taste. Extremely funny in parts & moving. There's a film also of the same name based on the book which I hear is worth tracking down.