On Today’s Bookshelf (XXI)

My acquisition of new titles to read never ends. I keep thinking I need to stop and put the money I spend on books into my retirement account. But books have a special allure and I find nothing is as relaxing as sitting in my recliner reading a well-written and well-edited book (and nothing as frustrating as starting a poorly written or edited book :)).

Here is a list of some of the hardcovers and ebooks that I am reading or acquired and added to my to-be-read pile since the last On Today’s Bookshelf post, including some children’s books:

Nonfiction –

• The Wandering Who: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics by Gilad Atzmo
• Blood in the Snow, Blood on the Grass: Treachery, Torture, Murder and Massacre – France 1944 by Douglas Boyd
• The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
• The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV by Anne Somerset
• Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion by Anne Somerset
• Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades by Jonathan Phillips
• The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople by Jonathan Phillips
• The Lady in Red: An Eighteenth-Century Tale of Sex, Scandal, and Divorce by Hallie Rubenhold
• The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71, The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916, and To Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne (trilogy)
• Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman
• Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great’s Empire by Robin Waterfield
• The Bolter by Frances Osborne
• Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn
• Dickens’s England: Life in Victorian Times by R.E. Pritchard
• The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley
• Saint-Exupéry: A Biography by Stacy Schiff
• The Black Death in London by Barney Sloane
• The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain by Alan Stewart
• Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford
• A Woman of Courage on the West Virginia Frontier: Phebe Tucker Cunningham by Robert N. Thompson
• Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results That Shaped America by Tony Williams
• American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit by Paula Uruburu
• Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich
• 1913: The Year Before the Storm by Florian Illies

Fiction –

• Twist by Dannika Dark
• The Clockwork Dagger: A Novel by Beth Cato
• Fatal Enquiry, Some Danger Involved, and The Black Hand by Will Thomas (3 books)
• The Sword Dancer Series (Sword Dancer, Sword Singer, Sword Maker, Sword Breaker, Sword Born, Sword Sworn, and Sword Bound) by Jennifer Roberson (7 books)
• Forbidden, Mortal, and Sovereign by Ted Dekker (trilogy)
• The Legend of Eli Monpress series (The Spirit Eater, The Spirit Rebellion, The Spirit Thief, The Spirit War, and Spirit’s End) by Rachel Aaron (5 books)
• Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
• Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen
• Dead Like You and Dead Man’s Footsteps by Peter James (2 books)
• Snow Wolf by Glenn Meade

Children’s Books –

Now that I have grandchildren, I try to keep an eye out for good books for them, both for now and for the future. A series I have been buying for them and that I highly recommend is Brad Meltzer’s “I am …” series. So far the titles are:

• I am Albert Einstein
• I am Rosa Parks
• I am Amelia Earhart
• I am Abraham Lincoln
• I am Jackie Robinson
• I am Lucille Ball
• I am Helen Keller

Other children’s books that I have bought/preordered include:

• Find King Henry’s Treasure: Touch the Art by Julie Appel & Amy Guglielmo
• Crankee Doodle by Tom Angelberger
• Time for a Bath by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
• The Princess and the Peas and Carrots by Harriet Ziefert
• Backstage Cat by Harriet Ziefert
• Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants by Giles Andreae & Korky Paul
• The Chandeliers: The World-Famous Giraffe Family Appearing Tonight and Every Night! by Vincent X. Kirsch
• Look! Seeing the Light in Art by Gillian Wolfe
• This Book Is a Planetarium: And Other Extraordinary Pop-Up Contraptions by Kelli Anderson

It’s never too early to start children on the path to literacy, so building a children’s library makes sense to me. Besides, there is great joy in having a grandchild sit on my lap and “read” along with me. Just as books are an adventure for me, so books are an adventure for children. Certainly much better than staring at a TV or computer screen.

For previous listings of books I’ve acquired, see previous On Today’s Bookshelf essays.

Richard Adin, An American Editor