The History Book Club discussion

Vicki, here is your new thread in 2016. Happy reading in the new year.

Our Required Format:

JANUARY

1. by Winston S. Churchill
Finish date: January 2016
Genre: (whatever genre the book happens to be)
Rating: A
Review: You can add text from a review you have written but no links to any review elsewhere even goodreads. And that is about it. Just make sure to number consecutively and just add the months.

Thanks for setting this up, Jill.

JANUARY

1. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Jan. 2, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: This is the first Miss Marple novel and is narrated by the vicar at St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple's home town. A local wealthy and unpleasant man is found murdered in the vicar's study and first one, then another person confesses to the murder, but it seems neither could have done it. Miss Marple untangles the clues, even though the other people in the story don't think much of her deductions. I'm anxious to read others in the series, hoping one is from Miss Marple's POV.

2. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Jan. 7, 2016
Genre: Mystery short stories
Rating: B-
Review: This book contains all the short stories featuring Miss Marple. They are interesting and varied, but not as satisfying as a novel. One is in Miss Marple's own voice, rather than a straightforward narrative, which was fun.

3. by Susanna Gregory
Finish date: Jan. 13, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: C
Review: Scholars and teachers at Cambridge colleges are dying, perhaps as part of a plot by Oxford to do away with the institution. Matthew Bartholomew, a teaching physician there, gets involved and tries to figure out who he can trust and who's out to get him. In the middle of this mystery, the Plague comes to town and he's kept busy trying to help. The solution to the plot is pretty involved and requires a few paragraphs of explanation near the end. It was a bit too confusing for me and I don't think I can recommend it. It might make more sense to folks from England who know more about the make-up and history of these universities.

4. by Steven Saylor
Finish date: Jan. 15, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: A collection of short stories about Gordianus, taking place between the first two novels, Roman Blood and Arms of Nemesis. Very good stories, but I prefer the novels.

5. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Jan. 20, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: The body of a young woman is found in the library of a close friend of Miss Marple. Suspicion naturally falls on the husband of the friend, so Miss Marple ferrets out the real culprit. I had watched the TV version recently, so it was interesting to see the clues and suspects, already knowing who had killed the girl. Actually, Miss Marple takes up rather little of text, which is mostly concerned with the police and various persons connected to the crime.

I want to start reading through the "Miss Marple" series as well. Of course while I'm reading I'll undoubtedly hear the theme music from the Margaret Rutherford movies playing in my head.

6. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Jan. 23, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B-
Review: Several people in a small town have received nasty anonymous letters, including a young man who's recently moved there with his sister (he narrates the story). One day it appears that the wife of the local solicitor has killed herself, and not long after that, her maid is found murdered. Miss Marple doesn't show up until about 3/4s of the way through, having been sent for by the vicar's wife, who knows that she can always solve the toughest mystery. Again, we don't get much of Miss Marple's personality, and only about 1% of the text is about her, but the people and the story are engaging.

Hello from a fellow mystery-lover. I like Steven Saylor's series as well.

Steven Saylor

Hi, Peter. Saylor is the best, but John Maddox Roberts (SPQR series) is a very close second.

Steven Saylor
John Maddox Roberts

7. by Colleen McCullough
Finish date: Jan. 27, 2016
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: A
Review: I love this whole series. McCullough has wonderful raw material in the events and personalities of this era. When I ordered the first 3 books of the series from Amazon, I was floored by their size, but the pages just fly by. I didn't know much about Marius and Sulla before I read the books, but now I feel like I know them better than members of my family. Not that I would want them in my family.

Vicki wrote: "7. by Colleen McCullough
Finish date: Jan. 27, 2016
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: A
Review: I love this whol..."

I have all of the books in the series but haven't read them yet. I hope to get to them soon.

Donna, I too have had the complete series sitting on my library shelf for too many years but unread. Vickie, you have inspired me. Thank you as she is one of my favorite authors.

Donna and Lorna, I hope you are able to start this book soon. It shows you so much about life in Rome. There's politics, family matters, military goings-on. The glossary alone is like getting a course in ancient Rome. And the characters of Aurelia, Julius Caesar's mom, and the fictional Lucius Decumius, a delightful gangster, are wonderful.

8. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Jan. 29, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: This is the fifth Miss Marple book I've read so far and the best one. In the others, it seemed as though Miss Marple was called in at the last minute as a kind of deus ex machina, to solve the murder with a few comments. In this one, she appears rather early on and talks to several of the characters. A newspaper item says a murder will happen at a particular time at a local home and several neighbors show up, thinking it's some sort of game. But when a young man bursts in and shots are fired, it's apparently for real. The young man himself is killed and the owner of the house is nicked on one of her ears by a bullet. I had recently seen the TV version of the story and wanted to see how the plot was all put together. It was very satisfactory.

FEBRUARY
9. by Marianne Moore
Finish date: Feb 4, 2016
Genre: Kids
Rating: B
Review: This contains translations of three stories by Perrault, the father of fairy tales. The language is quite elegant and not at all Disneyfied. Puss in Boots and Cinderella were pretty much as I remember them, but Sleeping Beauty continued after she woke up and got married to the prince. The marriage was kept secret as were the two children they had. Then the prince's (now the king's) mother wanted to eat her daughter-in-law and grandchildren!! So I would hesitate to read that part to any kids.

10. by Agatha Christie
Finish date: Feb 14, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Nine people are brought to a house on a small island where a voice on a record accuses each of them of murder. Then one by one, they are killed. The mystery is, which of them is doing the killing. This is one of Christie's most famous books and it's really interesting.

One of my favorites, Vicki!!!!

11. by Stephanie Dray Ben Kane E. Knight (no photo) Sophie Perinot Kate Quinn Vicky Alvear Shecter
Finish date: Feb 19, 2016
Genre: Historical novel
Rating: A
Review: 6 stories written by 6 authors about what happened to various people living in Pompeii on the day Vesuvius exploded. Some of the characters are real, like Pliny the Younger and some are mentioned in graffiti on Pompeii's walls. The stories are somewhat intertwined by having people featured in one story show up peripherally in others. The book gives you a really good look at what it must have been like to have been there on that day. Sadly, not all of the stories end happily, but some of the characters you get attached to do survive.

12. by Charles Dickens
Finish date: Feb 26, 2016
Genre: Historical novel
Rating: B+
Review: This is Dickens' portrayal of life in a manufacturing town in England. Not a lot of fun to be had there. We meet Mr. Gradgrind, the head of a "just the facts" school and his put-upon daughter Louisa, who gets married off to a blustering wealthy man, Josiah Bounderby, who takes pride in the fact that he grew up poor and even so, has made something of himself. One of the workers at the factory, Stephen Blackpool, is a good man bedeviled by his drunken wife and shunned by the other workers when he doesn't go along with a proposed strike. Even though the subject is pretty grim, Dickens does add several funny incidents and his prose is droll in spots. Most of Dickens' characters are one-dimensional and don't really change much over the story, although there is a Scrooge-like transformation near the end.

13. by P.J. O'Rourke
Finish date: Feb 27, 2016
Genre: Non-fiction articles
Rating: C
Review: This is a collection of articles written by O'Rourke over the years for various publications. I like his political stuff, but most of the other topics didn't grab me. In fact, I had to skip the ones about cars.

MARCH


14. by Albert A. Bell Jr.
Finish date: March 1, 2016
Genre: Roman mystery
Rating: A
Review: Pliny and Tacitus go to Naples 5 years after the eruption of Vesuvius to help the husband of a friend who has been accused of murder. They have to investigate near Pompeii in buildings partially buried by ash, thus liable to collapse whenever there's a slight earthquake. It was really interesting to read about what the environs of Pompeii was like some years after it was buried. I always like Pliny and Tacitus, they make a good pair of investigators.

Vicki wrote: "MARCH


14. by Albert A. Bell Jr.
Finish date: ..."

interesting ! sounds like it's similar to by Robert Harris ?

Dimitri wrote: "interesting ! sounds like it's similar to by Robert Harris? ..."

Not really, Dimitri, because it takes place some years after the eruption. If you like stories about the disaster, check out , which is a collection of interconnected short stories by six different authors about what happened to several people during the few days surrounding the eruption.

I added the series to my list of books to check out. Thanks! I have some B&N Coupons beggin' to be used...

15. by Albert A. Bell Jr.
Finish date: March 11, 2016
Genre: Roman mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Aurora, Pliny's slave, has been asked for help by a woman she met near Ostia, who was traveling with a young boy. The woman says she's trying to escape her husband who wants to kill her. But as Pliny, Tacitus and Aurora investigate, they find a truly horrible murder and facts that contradict the woman's story. This book has more twists and turns than most of the Pliny mysteries, but it's quite satisfying. There's also some interesting parts about Pliny's mother trying to get him married off.

16. by Marilyn Todd
Finish date: March 19, 2016
Genre: Roman mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Claudia is a moderately well-to-do widow, but to keep up her standard of living, she has to engage in some shady activities from time to time. When the heat is on in Rome because of her doping a horse in a race, she accepts the invitation of a friend to visit "his" island off the coast of Illyria. Once there, she's not so sure she wouldn't be better off back in Rome, after pirates show up and her host is killed. To make matters worse, her nemesis (and forbidden fruit love interest) Orbilio, shows up to investigate. This is an interesting series, with a female "investigator" in ancient Rome. Unfortunately, I'm not able to get books from early in the series at my library system because they were published in England (I'm guessing).

17. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: March 26, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: Cromwell sends Matthew Shardlake to a monastery on the south coast of England after the previous commissioner he sent there is murdered. This is one of the monasteries King Henry VIII wants closed down and the murdered man may have found evidence that would hasten the closing. This monastery is very different from the one I'm used to in the Brother Cadfael series, much more worldly and privileged. Shardlake narrates the book and he's a very interesting character, quite intelligent, but somewhat naive in his faith in Cromwell. He's also a hunchback (shades of Richard III!) and his physical difficulties affect his investigation. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
by Ellis Peters

18. by Kerry Greenwood
Finish date: March 30, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B
Review: Phryne Fisher tackles her first detective case. Some friends of her parents are concerned that their daughter's husband might be poisoning her. She seems fine when she comes back from a trip away from home, but then within a few weeks, she's ill again. Having watched and enjoyed Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on TV, it was really interesting to see how she met Dot, her young companion, and Bert and Cec, devout working class communists who help in her sleuthing.

APRIL
19. by Ariana Franklin
Finish date: April 4, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: A
Review: Adelia is a female doctor from Salerno, Italy (the only place in medieval Europe where those two characteristics can be combined) who has come to Cambridge at the request of King Henry II to discover who has been killing children there. The townsfolk believe it was Jews, a group Henry relies on, and so he needs proof they weren't to blame. Adelia is accompanied by Simon, her Jewish mentor, and Mansur, her Muslim bodyguard. Naturally she can't be open about her profession, but she does manage to examine the remains of the children and eventually discovers the evil-doer. This is a wonderful start to a series I'm really looking forward to reading. The secondary characters among the townsfolk are very interesting and I hope they are used in subsequent books.

That book has an interesting premise.........looks promising for my tbr.

20. by Barry Strauss (no photo)
Finish date: April 6, 2016
Genre: Ancient History
Rating: B+
Review: This is a detailed look at the time period surrounding the assassination of Julius Caesar. Strauss starts with biographies of the men involved and Caesar's actions which drove the Liberators to kill him. My favorite part is A Note on Sources, an improvement on the standard Bibliography. Strauss has interesting comments on both ancient and modern sources, which made me want to read some of them more than if it had just been a list of books.

21. by Stephanie Barron
Finish date: April 9, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Jane and her brother Henry are on their way to Brighton, a very fashionable town and favorite hang-out of the Prince Regent, when they rescue a young woman who's been tied up and abducted by Lord Byron, the famous poet. Somewhat later, the young woman is found dead in Byron's hotel room (which he checked out of hours before) and sewn up in fabric from Byron's boat. Reluctantly (because Byron is not a nice person) Jane clears his name and discovers the real murderer. This series is really entertaining, if you like Austen's novels, because the books read like she wrote them.

22. by Sue Grafton
Finish date: April 14, 2016
Genre: Mystery
Rating: B+
Review: This 24th book in the series has Kinsey involved in three lines of inquiry. For the first one, she has been hired by a woman who says she wants to track down the boy she gave up for adoption. She knows his name and that he recently got out of jail, but needs his address. When one of the $100 bills Kinsey was paid with was tagged as part of a ransom payoff, she wants to find out who the woman really is. The second one involves a packet of keepsakes she found at the bottom of a box of files belonging to a colleague who was killed during a robbery several months ago. And the last concerns the drought California was going through in the late 1980s. All the Kinsey Millhone books are a bit rambling and include a lot of details of her daily life. Personally, I like this because I like Kinsey, but others may find it distracting from the hunt for clues. Also I like that it takes place in 1989 and there is no Google and no iPhones and she has to track down info the hard way.

23. by Stephanie Barron
Finish date: April 17, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Jane is visiting her elder brother Edward at his estate near Canterbury. The morning after attending the wedding at a neighbor's place, the supposedly long-dead husband of the bride is found shot in the woods. Suspicion falls on the widow/bride and Edward, as the local magistrate, has to put her in jail. Jane and Edward, working together, discover other suspects and a second corpse. Lots of interesting characters in this book and Jane, as usual, is level-headed and fearless.

24. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: April 23, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Lawyer Matthew Shardlake is trying to save a young woman accused of killing her young cousin. The problem is, she won't say anything, not in her defense nor even to declare "guilty/innocent." She will be tortured soon to get her to talk, but a reprieve comes from Cromwell, who needs Shardlake to discover the formula for Greek Fire, a weapon used centuries ago, which apparently works something like napalm, producing an all-consuming fire. Shardlake gets a new side-kick, and a sympathetic character from the previous book in the series plays an important part.
by C.J. Sansom

25. by Stephanie Barron
Finish date: April 23, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Jane, her mother and sister have gone to spend Christmas with her brother James and his family. James lives in the house where Jane and her numerous siblings grew up. They are all invited to visit the local gentry. A few days into their stay, a young man arrives with important papers for the head of the house (actually the only signed official copy of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812). He leaves the next day but is found dead on the road and the treaty is missing. Jane determines he was murdered. It takes several more days (and another murder) to discover the who and why. Jane is as sharp as a tack, naturally, and the other characters are all very interesting.

I read this during the first Readathon of 2016.

26. by Stephanie Barron
Finish date: April 26, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Jane is staying in London with her brother Henry, getting ready for the publication of Emma, when she receives a summons from the Prince Regent's chaplain. The Prince would like the book to be dedicated to him. While at the Prince's mansion, Jane discovers a dying man whose last words are "Waterloo map." With the help of her friend Raphael West (encountered in the previous book), she finds the map and ultimately discovers its meaning, after another murder. Barron has made extensive use of Jane Austen's letters and expertly shoehorned mysteries into her real life.
by Jane Austen
by Stephanie Barron

MAY

27. by Alfred Duggan
Finish date: May 10, 2016
Genre: Roman fiction
Rating: B+
Review: A very interesting look at a part of Roman military history from the viewpoint of a Gallic nobleman who joins the cavalry of Caesar's army under Publius Crassus, the triumvir's son, and goes with Crassus to fight the Parthians. What I like about Duggan's books is that they don't have a conventionally happy ending, although neither is the ending tragic. The main characters just make the best of a not-great situation.

28. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: May 13, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: King Henry VIII has gone on a Progress to York, to meet with the Scottish king and impress on the Northerners that his word is law (there had been a rebellion there). Lawyer Matthew Shardlake is along to take care of some legal issues in York and also to make sure a prisoner destined for the Tower arrives in London in good condition. Not long after Shardlake arrives, a glazier is killed and Shardlake finds some papers in his house that might bring up questions about the King's lineage and legitimacy. Before he has a chance to scrutinize the papers, he's hit on the head and the papers are taken. There are subsequent attempts on his life. This is a very long book for a historical mystery, but it doesn't seem excessive because you learn a lot about lawyering in those days and the struggles around religion.

29. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: May 20, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Shardlake's best friend is found murdered in a fountain near his house. It turns out this is only one of a horrendous series of murders with elements similar to those in the Book of Revelation, supposedly leading to the apocalypse. Additionally, he's trying to help a young man being held in Bedlam, London's mental hospital. The young man exhibits extreme religious mania and his parents are worried he would be arrested if he were turned out of the hospital. This is a rather more gruesome plot than others in the series, but still interesting.

Vicki wrote: "29. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: May 20, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Shardlake's best friend is foun..."

this combination of plot (see Dexter, season 6) and setting is extremely intruiging.

30. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: May 27, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Queen Catherine Parr (Henry VIII's sixth wife) asks Shardlake to investigate the case of a young ward of the court. He has to go to Portsmouth, where the English are preparing to repel an invasion by the French. He also wants to check for relatives of Ellen, an inmate of Bedlam, who might live nearby. The family who have guardianship of the ward, Hugh Curteys, may be stealing from him, and are acting strangely. These two investigations are taking place in the midst of war preparations, so there is a good bit of chaos. It's interesting how people and incidents from previous books in the series (like Ellen) are continued in subsequent books. Each book is extremely long for an historical mystery (500+ to 600+ pages), but they don't seem to be padded, and the plots are very interesting. You learn a lot about life in that period and place, especially the religious conflicts and how legal matters were handled.

Vicki wrote: "30. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: May 27, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Queen Catherine Parr (Henry VI..."

I have really enjoyed this series, Vicki, and now you are one book ahead of me. I'm glad to hear that some of the characters return in this one. One complaint I've had is that the arc of Shardlake's character has not developed more; he remains virtually unchanged in spite of his experiences and relationships (which seem to come and go). But the mysteries are interesting and the writing is very atmospheric.

JUNE

31. by C.J. Sansom
Finish date: June 5, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B+
Review: Queen Catherine asks Shardlake's help to recover a book she has written which might be interpreted as heresy. A page from the book has been found on the murdered body of a printer who belonged to a group of radical religious reformers. The case becomes connected to another book written by a woman who was burned as a heretic. Shardlake gets help from his new pupil Nicholas, as well as from Barak, who has been involved in most of Shardlake's adventures. Shardlake himself might be in danger, having previously run afoul of some important men in the royal entourage.

32. by Plato
Finish date: June 10, 2016
Genre: Philosophy
Rating: B
Review: Socrates and some friends discuss the nature of justice. First Socrates constructs the perfect city, ruled by a philosopher-king (or group of them) and he relates the balance of the classes of society to the components of an individual's personality or soul. This is the book containing Plato's allegory of the cave, wherein most people perceive reality as though it was just shadows on the wall of a cave, and only the philosopher has gone outside to see the world and the sun illuminating it so he can truly see what reality is. This was a particularly good edition, with the conversations more modern than those I've seen online or in other books. It also has a good introduction and index.

33. by Jerry Toner (no photo)
Finish date: June 15, 2016
Genre: Ancient history
Rating: B
Review: This presents itself as a book written by an ancient Roman who has had long experience with slaves. He tells you how to buy them, how to feed them, how to discipline them, etc. After each chapter by Falx is a commentary containing the sources, both ancient and modern. It was quite entertaining.

34. by Gary Corby
Finish date: June 16, 2016
Genre: Ancient Greek mystery
Rating: B
Review: Bad things are happening at the theater where a play is being prepared for the Great Dionysia, a festival to honor the god Dionysus. Pericles commissions Nicolaos to find out what's going on. Not long after the start of the investigation, one actor is badly injured and another one is killed. We get to learn a lot about theater in ancient Greece and the treatment of metics, foreign non-citizens in Athens.

35. by Anna Lee Huber
Finish date: June 20, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B-
Review: Lady Darby is the widow of a notorious anatomist, who married her so she would illustrate his anatomy text. This was during the period in England when bodysnatchers dug up corpses to sell to medical schools for study. She's been pretty well ostracized, and is living with her sister and brother-in-law in Scotland. One of their house guests is murdered and suspicion falls on her because of her reputation. She joins forces with Sebastian Gage, who has done investigations before, and the mystery is eventually solved. Along the way there's way too much sexual tension between them, along with mutual distrust. It was a pretty good mystery, though.

36. by Tessa Arlen
Finish date: June 25, 2016
Genre: Historical mystery
Rating: B-
Review: On the morning after the Montfort's annual costume ball, Lord Montfort's nephew is found hanged in the woods. He was apparently thoroughly unpleasant, and the Montfort's son was seen arguing with him on the day before. Lady Montfort is afraid her son will be accused of the murder, so she does some sleuthing with the help of her housekeeper. This seems to take place just before WW I, and is very like Murder at Downton Abbey. Interesting characters and setting.