01/02/12

Yet another assigned book that I like

Tonight, while roasting a perfect chicken and enjoying a nice day off as a final break from the Christmas season working in retail, I pulled the next book off the shelf to find this little gem.  Another book I had to read for a college class, and another book I enjoyed, it was very interesting.  You can find copies of this everywhere and in different formats, pretty cheap... if you have never read it, do yourself a favor and get some insight into what life was like for a slave.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself
By: Harriet Jacobs
with related documents
Published: around 1857

My attempt at understanding this evil woman

Now I will admit it, I have no love for the woman above.  She was a zealot, a murderess, and cold and calculating.  She brought no advancement to England, she married an idiot who was just as much as a zealot, and she left England backwards and almost in ruin.  But, that is a very biased opinion, and since I don't know a ton about her...and like nothing about her, I thought...I should read about her to ensure I dislike her.  ;)

This is a newer bio of Mary and we shall see, I cannot see how I would ever like her.

But... on nook the book is only 13.99 and you have to start somewhere.  

Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen

By: Anna Whitelock

9/7/2010

Get it Here!

1/01/12

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!


WELCOME 2012!!!!!




We brought in the New Year at my house in a rather boring fashion, going to bed a little after midnight and still kind of under the weather, especially since I infected Adam and he will now spend his long weekend recovering, poor thing.
But, that being said, its nice to have some down time.  I started my exercising again, a little and have been eating more than I should, but I am sick so oh well...


You know, when I get to a book of the day that I really like, I get overwhelmingly excited.  So, when I looked up on the shelf and saw this title as my next selection, I smiled.  

One of the best books I've read

To continue my obsession with the Great War, I will add yet another memoir about a soldier's experience in the midst of the chaos.  Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves is a beautiful and haunting book.  Unlike the book I featured yesterday by Junger, this book was written by a writer and his language adds some horrific depth to the war experience.  I will admit, the WWI class I took in college allowed me to read some of the most amazing books of my life and I cannot thank that professor enough, I do not know if anyone else who took those classes with me loved the books as much as I did, perhaps its my fascination with WWI itself, but this book, along with so many others I read during that class have crept into my top 25 list, I must say.  

"London seemed unreally itself.  Despite the number of uniforms in the streets, the general indifference to, and ignorance about, the War surprised me.  Enlistment still remained 

voluntary.  The universal catch-word was 'Business as usual.'"  -p 142

Good-Bye to All That

By: Robert Graves

Published: 1929

One of the places that Adam and I insisted on visiting when we went to England in May of last year was the Imperial War Museum.  It was an amazing experience and we both enjoyed it because Adam and I both have a hankering for history, if you guys didn't already know.  One of the most awesome (even if it was a bit cheesy) was the walk through the trenches display.  

One of the best parts of the exhibit was the fact that the entire place smelled like gas lol.  It was dark and loud and lights would flash out of nowhere... so it was rather creepy, nothing like the horrific reality of the millions of soldiers who found an early grave within them.  

When the world is red and reeking,
And the shrapnel shells are shrieking,
And your blood is slowly leaking,
Carry on.

When the broken battered trenches,
Are like the bloody butchers' benches,
And the air is thick with stenches,
Carry on.

Since I post in the blog daily (usually) and I read the same book on the nook for days at a time, I am just going to start to do with my digital library what I do with my physical library and feature a book and tell you about it and how to get it if you are so inclined to do so....

This was one of the books I purchased with my Christmas money, and I have read about fifty pages of it.  I have a fascination with the Crusades and the motivations and the ongoing struggle between the east and the west.  

Title:  The Crusades: The Authoritative history of the War for the Holy Land

By: Thomas Asbridge

Published: 2010    Price: 9.99 nook book

12/31/11

Farewell 2011 Edition!!!!!


Adam and I are both sick on this New Year's Eve, but that doesn't ruin our last night of 2011 at all, it has been a wonderful year!!  In need of an AWESOME recap...


FIRST...
We redid the Living Room, it was our first home improvement project ever: 

It was a fun project and now I have my study where I can do school work and relax, its great and I love Adam for doing it for me.  


SECOND...
I graduated College!!!!

Stephen, Dane, and I backstage

I know I have more schooling to go, but the BA in History is the first step right??!!!

I will be honest, it was an amazing moment to graduate, it took a long time!!!  :D

If things couldn't get any better... my awesometastic husband Took me to ENGLAND!!!!!

I want to move here!

It was a trip of a lifetime and we enjoyed every minute of it.  We stayed in London, near a lovely cheese shop that we visited and ate fine cheese from.  We visited Salisbury and Bath and loved BOTH places and did the obligatory Stonehenge visit....

Don't we look so happy

I will admit, the ancient stones were sort of a let down, there is a highway in front of where we are standing lol.

If London wasn't awesome enough....

When we got home, we got Elizabeth I

Lizzie at 8 weeks old

June 2011, isn't she adorable.....  Lizzie is amazing, and we were terrified in October when she got sick and we thought we might lose her.  But, she's over the parvo and back to normal... her giant self...

Lizzie eating her oinker on New Year's Eve

So life is good...

Now on to the normal Blog....The last book of the year is a title that I think every student should read in a world history class.

a very compelling war memoir 

Storm of Steel

By: Ernst Junger

Published: 1920

This german soldier account of the Trenches of WWI is amazing and it tells you a true story of war and what war feels like in one of the most astonishing wars of the 20th century.  WWI is a war that I feel is often put in the background.  Read this book, it's amazing.  I wish it were on nook, so I could DL it, but its not.

On the nook, I am really enjoying the book on the Crimean War, I didn't know there were so many religious undertones in the war.

I know I already said read this one... But do it, READ IT!

12/30/11

I love it when I get to feature a book I really enjoyed, as is the case with this title.

Having to take a class on WWI wasn't in any way a burden, I was excited to take it and excited to read the books assigned to us.  This, The Great War and Modern Memory by Fussell is one of my favorites.  The book focuses on the British Western front and not only delves with accounts of the war but into the literature and the writing of the time, its an amazing book, I loved it.

I will admit, the frenzy of buying books with all my christmas money has left me a bit overwhelmed with books to read.  Last night, I started reading 
The Crusades
Check it out here
The book is by Thomas Asbridge and was published in 2010, it seems to be a sweeping overview of the crusades, but a good refresher none the less.

12/29/11

The year is winding down and I know I missed a few days.  I will preface this post with the fact that I've been nasty sick the last few days and I've had nothing but hot tea with lemon and honey and a lovely variety of soups...so remembering this food is awesome.   Adam and I had a wonderful Christmas at my parent's house with good food and a good time, after that we drove up to Atlanta, Georgia to spend Christmas night and my birthday the 26th.  Let me tell you... eating on Christmas night, even in Atlanta is a task.  After hours of waiting... three to be exact at Grand China on Peachtree, we did have pretty good food.

YUM

That was Adam's spicy Shrimp, it was spicy and good...and so was my general Tso's chicken, was it 3 hours good... no.  But, it was Christmas and people were working late and hard.

The next night's Dinner was a meat festival with a great dessert.

There is lamb, filet mignon, bottom shank, fried polenta, mashed potatoes, fried plantanes and many other yummy things

Fogo De Chao was pretty good, and a ton of meat.  Though the server did find out it was my birthday and gave me this...

Birthday Creme Brulee is happy

oh yea... sooo good.

Now... through all of that, I have been sick and I have neglected my book posts, so here goes...

A vintage 1967 bio of Henry VIII

By John Bowle

Published by: Readers Union, London

looks awesome and used right??

As for myself, I am currently reading a book on the Crimean War.

The Crimean War

It is a war no one knows about, but has a lot of history and background, great book.

12/24/2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!
I had to get a bit in the spirit, I am sorry I have been a bit slack in posting.
So now, It is Christmas eve and I have some great people coming over and I am listening to classical renditions of favorite christmas songs.  I wish I could find Loreena Mckinnet live streaming, but alas... I can't.


Sooo....


I learned a valuable lesson after my last blog post, the Vampire story book that I featured is no longer with us... instead... THIS

Bowl full of innocence right here .... has her look of "I didn't do it" while hiding under a table... yes, the book has been eaten.
She loves books...




Today's Book...I absolutely Loathe!

I have never read a more contrived and bias book

If you want an honest look at the economics of slavery, this is not the book for you, IF you want someone telling you that slavery wasn't so bad...this is the load of bull that you need.  The research is bias, horribly done, and has more holes than swiss cheese.  We were actually assigned the book to know what to look for when things  go WRONG in a history title.  Man, I never have hated a book more...


So... I should give this to lizzie and tell her to chow down.


I am finally back into reading the John Brown book and I am really getting into it.  Horowitz is pretty scant in the reference department, and I would like to see more, but beyond that...its an amazing story and you start to get to know Brown and realize he wasn't just some slight radical, he truly believed that slaves should be free and that God called for it even if that meant the taking of lives.  He lived in a hard place during a hard time and after two of his children died of cholera, they had two more and renamed them the names of the dead and moved on.  Its an interesting perspective into this man's life, which at best can be called spartan.  

12/20/11

There is a part of me that really wants to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and be in the holiday spirit, that part of me does NOT go to work everyday.  Those who do not work in retail cannot fully comprehend how horrible the holiday season is on retail employees.  We get screamed at, we get treated like crap, we have to deal with multiple extreme situations every day and our thanks is longer hours and painful sleepless nights.  It is a stressful situation.  I think my lowpoint was having to climb under all the stalls in the women's bathroom on my hands and knees because some ignorant children who weren't being watched thought it would be funny to lock all the bathroom doors... from the inside.  So yea, that is what Christmas is like, or people calling you liars or telling you that you personally ruined their family Christmas because we didn't have some sacred gift...


Rant over...

  

For my book of the day, I have a bargain book I purchased at my old B. Dalton store because I really liked vampire stories and these are from the south so hmmm... seemed cool.

This is fluff reading at its finest...

I've never heard of any of the authors in the book, but the stories aren't horrible.

its a 2007 printing.

I read some of A Christmas Carol today, trying to get in the spirit...lol.

12/19/11

This post is sponsored by Holiday Therapy!

Now that is done... lol... All I need to say is RETAIL MAKES YOU ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!

My book of the day is actually brought to you by my amazing husband who got this for me last Christmas because he knows me better than ANYONE.  You know, a lot of biographies seem vague in research...but this one isnt, Schiff does an amazing job and wow was this good to read, I adored it.  

I am usually pretty picky but I really liked this one.  The way she goes into Cleopatra's family dynamic and how that shapes this enigmatic woman is awesome, I cannot say enough good things, I think this one is good enough that even my fellow historians who insist on RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH will approve.

Its published by Little Brown in 2010 and its now in paperback for those who want a less expensive copy.

Man I am sucking on the personal reading, Midnight Rising and a book about what famous figures in history ate... yea, sounded cool.

But I really do recommend this one, I know I love John Brown, but its an interesting book and it really gives insight into the growing divide in America leading to the Civil War.

1843 – Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol goes on sale for the first time, let Tiny Tim’s magic be born and the lessons of what greed can do be taught by the chain toting Jacob Marley. I think I could tell the story by heart, and like everyone, I love the story. It is actually a Dickens I can stomach.

A reminder, be kind to people during the holidays or Jacob Marley may visit YOU!

12/18/11

I didn't love this book, I know a lot of people did, but I didn't.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what everyone said it was either...maybe I am too picky.
I thought there were parts that didn't add up and the most compelling characters disappear while some of the most annoying stay throughout.
I didn't read World Without End.

Title Pillars of the Earth
By: Ken Follett

This is just some paperback edition I picked up at the Friends of the Library Booksale for a whole two dollars.


Last Night I downloaded the Common Book of Prayer used by the Anglican church, just reading it...

12/17/2011

Another amazing book sale find.

1809 Edition, Published by The Book League of America

I have a little love for Washington Irving  :D