Thursday Reading and Recommendations is intended as bookish free-for-all, for the discussion and recommendation of all books historical, or tangentially so. Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to:
Asking for book recommendations on specific topics or periods of history
Newly published books and articles you're dying to read
Recent book releases, old book reviews, reading recommendations, or just talking about what you're reading now
Historiographical discussions, debates, and disputes
...And so on!
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion of history and books, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
I’m actually going to Bahrain tomorrow, will be stationed there for the next year. Any suggestions on books about the Persian Gulf area as a whole? I’m particularly interested in how the discovery of oil changed the region, family histories of the ruling parties, as well as the Sunni/Shia dynamic.
I devoured Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson. He broke down the internal and external conflicts the led the seeds of discord.
It’ll take me 24 hours to travel, and I can’t sleep on planes 😳 any suggestions?
Might I ask for book recommendations on:
I'm currently reading 'Les Chevaliers teutoniques' from Sylvain Gouguenheim. I only wish I could read it faster! It's the captivating tale of the Teutonic Knights: the founding of their order, their conquest of Prussia, etc. It is written in French but the author quite masters the German and Polish sources on the topic so its a total pleasure. I think I'll ready a first-part review for next week about the founding of the order :-) The conquest of Prussia will wait... I still have to read it! Just let me know if you would be interested or not ;-)
Recently finished Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser and i thought the entire thing was spectacular. Such an amazing and detailed account of her entire life, would highly recommend.
I'm a gamemaster about to start running a game of Miseries & Misfortunes, a tabletop roleplaying game set in 17th century France. I'm in desperate need of some good resources on this particular time and place, the extent of my knowledge going about as far some vague recollection of the Thirty Years War from high school...
Just finished reading Anders Winroth's "The Age of Vikings" and David Grummitt's "A Short History of the War or the Roses", looking for interesting reads on high medieval Northern Europe, or a good overview of Tudor England. Thanks for the help!