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John Charity Spring posted:George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series is the benchmark for all good historical fiction. Pick up the first of them, which is simply called Flashman, and wallow in the glory of it. They're the 'memoirs' of a 19th-century Victorian hero, Brigadier Sir Harry Paget Flashman, VC. The conceit is that this much-decorated hero is writing his memoirs in his old age, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, and being truthful about his exploits for the first time in his life. His exploits being entirely built on lies, cowardice, betrayal, and general poltroonery. They're impeccably researched and accurate (with lots of footnotes by 'the editor' to clarify bits where Flashman's memory is playing him false) and excellently written. Damned funny, too. Don't start these unless you have few weeks when you don't need your spare time for anything also. Also go ahead and pencil in some time to re-read them every few years or so.
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Feb 1, 2012 05:37
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toanoradian posted:These past few weeks I've been reading books that cover the history of a very specific subject. Don't know if there's a term for these. I've read Bread: A Global History, which was good and Library: An Unquiet History, which was great. Do these count as history books? If so, can someone recommend similar books? Mark Kurlansky's books on salt, codfish, and Basques (among other things) fall into this category.
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Apr 22, 2012 22:58
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No one every went broke writing books telling people how awesome they are.
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Mar 4, 2013 20:03
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TheFallenEvincar posted:I was just wondering to myself if anyone had any good books on Popes? Perhaps one going through them one by one or a particularly interesting book about one or two of them? My "to read" stack has a book in it called "Absolute Monarchs" which I'm pretty sure is about popes. I think maybe someone here recommended it?
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Oct 18, 2013 03:48
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The Southern Dandy posted:My dear ol' Mom just passed a couple of weeks ago, and Dad, after his grief, was looking for something to bury his brain in. I directed him to Six Frigates, and after that Pacific Crucible. He's a retired Naval captain, and likes that kind of stuff. And he needs something to take his mind of his pain of losing his friend of 50 years. If he's ok with navy-related historical fiction then point him towards Patrick O'Brian and be prepared to not hear from him for however long it takes him to plough through all 20 of those. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3393240 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series withak fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 03:52
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The Kindle version of Churchill's The Gathering Storm is on sale for $2.99 today if anyone is into that kind of thing.
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Apr 11, 2014 13:27
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If there are details that weren't covered in Mash then those details aren't worth knowing.
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Jun 10, 2015 21:35
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It's not a history book in the non-fiction sense, but if you want to scratch a viking itch then The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson is the best thing you will ever read about vikings (and possibly the best thing you will read about anything).
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Aug 3, 2015 21:26
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These books about the Rhodesian Bush War are on sale today, are they any good?
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Nov 11, 2015 16:00
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"Cod" by Mark Kurlansky does what it says on the tin.
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Jun 25, 2016 06:40
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Also "The Pencil" and "The Evolution of Useful Things" by Henry Petroski.
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Jun 25, 2016 06:43
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Gangs of New York The book, not the movie. The movie is good too tho. withak fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Nov 13, 2016 |
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Nov 13, 2016 02:48
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FMguru posted:The Clothes Have No Emperor by Paul Slansky is the best history of 1980s America. Seconding this. In 2026 they are going to make the sequel by just pulling up Donald Trump's twitter page and hitting "print."
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Aug 31, 2020 05:22
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GoingPostal posted:I'm watching AMC's The Terror right now, and I've seen a few YouTube videos on the subject, but can anyone recommend any books? I've got Michael Palin's book on the Erebus right now from the library, any more recommendations? Audiobooks, as always, are a plus. I got shockingly far into the novel before I figured out that it was fiction.
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Jul 23, 2022 15:08
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FPyat posted:My local library did have a copy of the volume of the official history of the war in the pacific dedicated to logistics. Unfortunately, I think it was the kind of history that goes "we built a base here, and moved some ships about, and so on." As opposed to the "a person did this, then they did that, and so on" type of history?
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Feb 22, 2023 00:35
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You're already a boat guy OP.
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Jan 5, 2024 03:17
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Nerdburger_Jansen posted:-The Vikings were probably hot, given that foreigners always seemed impressed by their looks on meeting them. I’ve been to Scandinavia, this checks out.
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Feb 20, 2024 05:39
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