Hello, I would like some recommendations on good historical books to add for my collections

by Xiao8818

I'm a bibliophile, and history is the love of my life. I want to learn seriously, but my family would not heard of my entering a history major. So, to compensate for this, I decide I'll learn about it myself.

I'm interested in history of China, pre-Islam Arab, early Christianity, mystery of the Old Testament, historical Jesus, Victorian era England, paganism in general, mythology, and etymology of God. Historical books, biography, or old novels that allow me to get some glimpse of living in that particular era, like Arabian Nights and The Golden Lotus will all do for me. I can speak Indonesian, English, and Chinese, so books in those three languages will all be fine.

I have checked the book list in AskHistorian, just wondering whether there are some other interesting or a must read books which you may want to share with me.

For now, the list of books I'll buy / have owned are:

  • Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity
  • Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
  • The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms
  • One Thousand and One Nights
  • Jin Ping Mei
  • The Life of Oei Hui Lian
  • Heshen
  • Water Margin
  • Strange Tales from the Chinese Studio
  • Tales of a Chinese Grandmother
  • Hong Lou Meng
  • Remembering Abraham
  • Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel
  • Who Wrote the Bible?
  • The Early History of God
  • The Religion of Ancient Israel (Library of Ancient Israel)
  • Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches
  • Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan
  • God is not One
  • The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics
  • 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History
  • The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China
  • Chinese Religion in the Shang Dynasty
  • A History of the Ancient Near East
  • Tudor England
  • Bali: Sekala & Niskala: Essays in Religion, Ritual, and Art
  • This Is China: The First 5,000 Years
  • Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty
  • Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China
  • Religion and the Decline of Magic
  • A History of Women in Science from Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century
  • Holy Blood, Holy Grail
  • The Gospel of Judas

Please kindly give your help and recommendation. Many thanks for your generosity!

Love, Xiao8818

cordis_melum

If you're interested in 20th century Chinese history, so far I've found these books to be pretty good:

  • Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s by Christina Kelley Gilmartin - a book discussing how the Chinese Communist Party dealt with issues of gender in the 1920s.
  • The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor - a book about how the Chinese Communist Party operates, in terms of dealing with state run industries, the army, capitalism, the state, corruption, and history.
  • Private Life Under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village 1949-1999 by Yunxiang Yan - a case study on the effects of socialism on family relations in a rural village in Northwestern China.
  • The Origins of the Boxer Uprising by Joseph W. Esherick - I'm going to start reading this after I finish The Party, but as the title states, this is about the origins of the Boxer Uprising.
  • Spider Eaters by Rae Yang - a memoir of a former Red Guard who gets sent to work in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.
  • A Woman Soldier's Own Story by Xie Bingying - an autobiography of a woman who was raised in the early 20th century; describes gender relations and expectations, both from her traditional parents, and from an ever changing society that emphasizes free love and women's rights.

AskHistorians also upkeeps a book list here... which I just noticed that you said you read. My bad. :P