| History Book Club

Old Booklets Make Interesting Reading

A promotional booklet nearly a century old turns out to be a jackpot of information!

1914 Sears booklet For someone who genuinely loves history, finding copies of original documents can be unexpected sources of history. Earlier today I was searching for information on Sears, Roebuck & Co., since I am writing about a character who works as a typist for the company in the 1920s -- Sears was a major employer of female typists in the 1920s. I was delighted to come across a digitized copy of "A Visit to Sears, Roebuck and Co." -- a promotional booklet that describes the generous working conditions and the process of filling orders from the point of view of an anonymous visitor -- during my search. Read more about Old Booklets Make Interesting Reading

First Person Accounts: Bringing History to Life

Auschwitz by Miklos Nyiszli

Auschwitz In the category of sale and inexpensive ebooks from Barnes & Noble, I found an eyewitness account of life in a concentration camp: Auschwitz, by Miklos Nyiszli. Although I've learned about World War II, read books and watched movies, reading the words of someone who actually lived through it was a very different experience for me. Read more about First Person Accounts: Bringing History to Life

Historical Fiction How-To by One of the Genre's Experts

The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by James Alexander Thom

The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction I can remember reading Follow the River in high school -- a novel by James Alexander Thom about a woman who was kidnapped by Indians, and memorized the path they took her on so that she could escape and find her way home again. It was one of the first serious historical fiction novels that I had read, and I devoured it.

Writing historical fiction has been an interest of mine ever since, so when I was browsing books by Thom on my Nook the other day, I was quite interested to come across this book: The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction. Read more about Historical Fiction How-To by One of the Genre's Experts

History Through Photographs

Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

Lincoln: A Photobiography I was a little skeptical at first about getting a book that calls itself a "photobiography" on my Nook, but when I saw my library had Russell Freedman's Lincoln, I decided to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the illustrations all looked great on my Nook Tablet. I imagine they would look okay, but not quite as great, on a black and white e-reader, and even better on a tablet with a larger screen, such as an iPad, but the Nook Tablet did them plenty of justice.

Other than photographs, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Read more about History Through Photographs

Great History by Ken Burns

Documentary 'Prohibition' Brings History to Life

Ken Burns: Prohibition If you've followed my posts on this blog, you know that one of my favorite periods in history is the 1920s. On a recommendation from my mom, I started watching Prohibition, a 3-part documentary by Ken Burns. So far I've only watched the first part, which does an excellent job of setting the stage for Prohibition. This part is about the 70 years or so leading up to the passing of the 18th Amendment, explaining what the drinking culture in the United States was like -- why it was so bad that so many people thought trying to ban alcohol was a good idea. Read more about Great History by Ken Burns

Randy Robert's "A Team for America"

The 1944 Army-Navy Game.

I got my grandfather a book for Christmas called A Team for America: The Army-Navy Game that Rallied a Nation by Randy Roberts. The book details the perhaps most important game in the history the legendary match-up, which took place on December 2, 1944, right in the middle of World War II. Simultaneously, the country suffered shortages of turkey and pie for Thanksgiving, and President Roosevelt was only a few months away from death. During West Point's quest to win the national championship, Americans were also reading about the military's march to Berlin and Tokyo, forever linking these two conquering battles in their minds. Read more about Randy Robert's "A Team for America"

History Through a Horse's Eyes

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

War Horse With the movie War Horse coming out tomorrow, I decided to finally read the book earlier in the week. I've had this one on my to-be-read list since I first heard about the movie and downloaded the ebook, but I finally decided to read it when I started thinking about getting the book as a Christmas present for a little horse-crazy girl I babysit for. Since War Horse is about a horse that ends up on the front during World War I, I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything inappropriate for her.

The book is, of course, excellent -- a story told in the style of Black Beauty, from the horse's point of view and starting from his early days as a colt. It also has something of a message -- not just how horses should or shouldn't be treated, as Anna Sewall was trying to do, but how terrible and pointless war is. Read more about History Through a Horse's Eyes

History, with an Emphasis on "Story"

Death in the City of Light by David King

Death in the City of Light There seem to be two kinds of history books -- those that are fairly dry and difficult for all but the most dedicated readers to follow, and those that are written so that they have a natural flow, even in some cases so that they tell a story, like a novel. Probably one of the most well-known examples of the latter is Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up Death in the City of Light -- it looked a lot like The Devil in the White City, even with a similar title, so I was hoping it was another example of creative historical nonfiction. Read more about History, with an Emphasis on "Story"

How Many Books Do You Read at Once?

reading many books at once How many books do you read at once? Are you the kind who likes to read just one book at a time, finishing it before you move on to something new? Or, like many book reviewers, do you always have several books you are reading at once, sometimes even across more than one genre? Read more about How Many Books Do You Read at Once?

The History of Language

Flappers 2 Rappers by Tom Dalzell

Flappers 2 Rappers One thing that fascinates me just as much as history as we typically think of it, is the history of language. For example, did you know that sayings such as "Beat it," "A cup of joe," and "Knocked up" all originated in the 1920s?

Flappers 2 Rappers is a great book, chock full of information on the slange of each decade of the 20th century. I got interested in this book because I was doing some research on the 1920s, and found this guide to jazz age slang. The authors of this website have put together a great list of 1920s slang, but they do say that there is even more contained in one of their primary sources, Flappers 2 Rappers. Read more about The History of Language