One of the interesting bits of my research is collecting - and delving into - some of the more obscure reference materials available (since I'm not attached to a university, I have to invest my own money in these books, so at this point I have a better reference section on pulps and Lovecraftiana than most university libraries). I actually had occasion this week to drag out my copy of Monthly Terrors: An Index to the Weird Fantasy Magazines Published in the United States and Great Britain (1985) to write a little bit about Weird Sex Tales (no relation to Weird Tales, despite the title) and Monster Sex Tales - very obscure (and scarce and today expensive) one-shot 1972 pornographic magazines with a weird/horror bent, which are believed to largely be the work of Ed Wood working under pseudonyms.

Today I'm delving into Enciclopedia erótica del cómic (2012) - An illustrated Spanish-language work about sex in comic books. It's not really as useful as some of the "standard" works on the subject, since it takes the premise more literally than most, with entries for different sexual acts instead of titles, authors, history, censorship, etc. but it's always kind of interesting getting a European comics perspective on that sort of thing, since the situation with the Comics Code Authority in the US really put the kibosh on things like the artistic nude in comics for a generation.

Any upcoming history book releases (academic or pop) you guys are hyped about?

I'm working on a project on Asian History and am in need of sources on Parthia, Greco-Bactria, and Kushan India. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks everybody and enjoy the weekend!

Been Reading Richard N. Fryes: The Golden Age of Persia. Really interesting subject material and stemmed quite through, though sometimes can get a tad dry. I really want to get a decent grounding in Persian history, I'd appreciate if anyone could recommend further readings on Iranian history, especially interested in Qajars, Safavids and anything that discusses the spread of Persian culture.

I am doing a research paper on what is historical truth. I've broken it down into three major categories: popular truth, patriotic truth (foundation myth), and academic truth. The first two are pretty straightforward, but the academic truth has been the most contentious.

Does anyone have recommendations on articles or books that delve into historicism? I have a historiography book by Breisach and another by John Tosh.

Finished off River of Dark Dreams, which taught me a lot. I picked it up in large part because Johnson integrates filibustering into the wider antebellum rather than treating it as a weird sideshow. He does that, and the book as a whole is really good, but it was weird to see him lay out his plan with the filibusters in the front and then leave it almost completely untouched until the final third of the book. But I got a Pierre Soulé appearance out of it and I'll forgive much just for that. Especially since he included the part where Soulé lets on that he's been having an affair with the Spanish queen. Soulé is terrible, but he's never boring. I deeply regret that my French isn't up to reading the most recent biography.

My mother put a local history of Leavenworth, KS into my hands. It's a loan from a friend of hers' who enjoyed my podcast episode. Haven't looked through it in any detail, but it appears to be one of those justifiably obscure local history books: long on genealogy and short on analysis. I plan to give it some due diligence anyway, but right now I'm starting up Frederickson's The Black Image in the White Mind.

Hopefully I'll have it done about the time some books on the Whigs come in. Pity me, AH, I have ordered up Holt's Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party. I know what I'm getting into. It's long and tedious. The print is small. Holt himself says its repetitive. But it's the book, you know? Not going to read it until after I've got Howe's The Political Culture of the American Whigs under my belt to help orient myself, and possibly not until next year anyway, but it's coming. Dead tree too, because I'm not paying that much for an ebook.

If you like research check this out

https://www.everycrsreport.com/

essentially it's a new push to get Congressional research reports out free to the public. CRS reports are pretty much gold for interested laypeople trying to dive into a topic. Now most of it isn't really directly history related but just looking at most recently released reports I see something that comes up a lot

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS22478.html

Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress

or

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33740.html

which includes a historical overview of US-Japan alliance.

or https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R44127.html

which gives an overview of Singapore.

I finished Peter Wilson's The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy this week, after months of reading. I'm away from my computer so a review will have to wait until later. I'm now taking a break and reading The Lost City of Z, which is a lot of fun so far.

I'm still on the lookout for any decent books about Somalia and British ruled Somaliland if anyone knows of any.

I'm looking for books about The Culler Ring, Hercules Mulligan, or both.

I know "George Washington's Secret Six" is supposed to be good but is it worth reading or is there a better option?