On the Basics: New resources for freelancers

By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

I’m breaking precedent with a Sunday post to share some professional good news: The updated edition of my “Freelancing 101” booklet for the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), featuring new input from EFA Publications chairperson Robin Martin, and the updated new edition of the EFA’s “Resumés for Freelancers” booklet, which I’ve co-authored with original author Sheila Buff, are among the new publications available at the EFA’s new bookstore:
https://shop.aer.io/editorial_freelancers_association_bookstore

Robin deserves a huge round of applause for herding cats (um, authors) and – even more challenging – organizing the new bookstore.

I hope our subscribers find these publications useful. They were a lot of fun to produce and should be – if I say so myself – excellent resources for various aspects of a freelance editorial (not just editing) business.

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On Today’s Bookshelf XXVIII

Since my last On Today’s Bookshelf post (On Today’s Bookshelf XXVII) my library has grown. I want to point out a couple of the books.

The first is Joseph Nigg’s The Phoenix: An Unnatural Biography of a Mythical Beast. It is listed below under nonfiction as I wasn’t really certain how to classify the book. It is a well-written “biography” of a fiction. The phoenix has played an important role in the rise (and fall) of civilizations and remains a cultural constant. The second book I want to point to, which I have not yet read, is American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution by A. Roger Ekirch. I bought this book because of its relevance to the problem of sanctuary today. I thought a historical perspective might be worthwhile.

The list includes several interesting biographies (particularly Karl Marx and Rasputin) and several books that fit into my lifelong quest to understand genocide, especially the Holocaust.

Here is a list of some of the hardcovers and ebooks that I have acquired and either read or added to my to-be-read pile since the last On Today’s Bookshelf post. Hopefully, you will find some books of interest to you:

Nonfiction –

• The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 by Richard J. Evans
• Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union by Daniel W. Crofts
• Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich
• Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips
• Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea by Mitchell Duneier
• Harry Truman and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Shogan
• Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion by Gareth Stedman Jones
• Why? Explaining the Holocaust by Peter Hayes
• Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949 by David Cesarani
• The Phoenix: An Unnatural Biography of a Mythical Beast by Joseph Nigg
• The Gestapo: A History of Horror by Jacques Delarue
• Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith
• Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
• Archie and Amelie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age by Donna M. Lucey
• Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
• The Hands of War: A Tale of Endurance and Hope, from a Survivor of the Holocaust by Marione Ingram
• Madison and Jefferson by Andrew Burstein
• American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution by A. Roger Ekirch
• Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Q. Whitman
• The Crime of Complicity: The Bystander in the Holocaust by Amos N. Guiora
• Who Betrayed the Jews? The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust by Agnes Grunwald-Spier

Fiction –

• The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller
• Recluce Tales: Stories from the World of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
• Of Sand and Malice Made: A Shattered Sands Novel by Bradley Beaulieu
• With Blood Upon the Sand by Bradley Beaulieu
• The Emperor’s Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne Series #1); The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne Series #2); and The Last Mortal Bond (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne Series #3) by Brian Staveley
• Skullsworn by Brian Staveley
• The Stars Are Legion (Signed Book) by Kameron Hurley
• The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
• Whill of Agora (Books 1-4) by Michael James Ploof
• Earthrise (Her Instruments, #1) by M.C.A. Hogarth
• Black & Blue by Emma Jameson
• Rise of the Dragons (Kings and Sorcerers Book 1) and Rise of the Valiant (Kings and Sorcerers Book #2) by Morgan Rice
• Unforeseen (Thomas Prescott Series #1) by Nick Pirog
• The Lead Cloak by Erik Hanberg
• The Smuggler’s Gambit by Sara Whitford
• The Midnight Sea by Kat Ross
• Code Name: Camelot – A Noah Wolf Thriller by David Archer
• A Quest of Heroes (Book #1 in the Sorcerer’s Ring) by Morgan Rice
• Slave, Warrior, Queen (Of Crowns and Glory Book 1) by Morgan Rice
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan

For the complete collection of On Today’s Bookshelf essays, click on this link. Share books you recommend with us by listing them in a comment.

I mentioned retirement in an earlier essay (see Thinking About Retirement). Looking at my to-be-read (TBR) pile and wondering how many years it will take me to read all of the books I currently have in the TBR pile, the ones that I have preordered and will be coming, and the ones I do not currently know about but that I will buy in the coming months has finally made me take the first steps toward retirement. I have begun to say “no” to project offers more frequently and am spending more time reading. The yet-to-be-answered question is how long I will resist saying yes to new projects.

Richard Adin An American Editor

On Today’s Bookshelf XXVII

It’s the holiday season and because I am surrounded by books, both for my work and my pleasure, I think about giving books as holiday gifts to family and friends. I would guess that many of you do the same. Consequently, it is time for the my next On Today’s Bookshelf.

There are a goodly number of past On Today’s Bookshelf essays, which you can access by clicking here.

Since my last On Today’s Bookshelf post (On Today’s Bookshelf XXVI), I have acquired the books listed below, among others, for my library. They have been added to my to-be-read pile. Most are hardcovers, but some are ebooks.

Nonfiction –

• Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation by Nicholas Guyatt
• Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel
• The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: Testing the Constitution by Terri Diane Halperin
• Turner: The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J.M.W. Turner by Franny Moyle
• Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3: The War Years and After, 1939-1962 by Blanche Wiesen Cook (previously purchased volumes 1 and 2)
• American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White
• Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War by H.W. Brands
• A Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence by George C. Daughan
• No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity by Sarah Haley
• Birth of the Chess Queen: A History by Marilyn Yalom
• The History of the Hudson River Valley: From Wilderness to the Civil War and The History of The Hudson River Valley: From the Civil War to Modern Times (2 vols) by Vernon Benjamin
• The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945 by Robert Gellately
• Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips

Fiction –

•  Shadow of Victory by David Weber
• At the Sign of Triumph by David Weber
• Night School by Lee Childs
• Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
• A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George
• The Counterfeit Agent by Alex Berenson
• Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning
• Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon
• Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick
• The Hermit by Thomas Rydahl
• The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens
• Fall from Grace by Tim Weaver

Finally, if you are looking for a great book on the business of editing (to give or receive), check out The Business of Editing: Effective and Efficient Ways to Think, Work, and Prosper (ISBN: 9781434103727), which is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or directly from the publisher, Waking Lion Press.

Please share with An American Editor your suggestions for good books to give as gifts this holiday season. Also share the books you are hoping to receive as gifts or that you have purchased for your own pleasure reading.

Richard Adin, An American Editor

On Today’s Bookshelf XXVI

The time since my last On Today’s Bookshelf post (On Today’s Bookshelf XXV) has resulted in some interesting acquisitions for my library as a perusal of the lists below will show.

Interestingly, I have bought (and received) in the current month alone 15 hardcovers and 29 ebooks. Although I bought some of the ebooks at Barnes & Noble, most I bought at Smashwords, which is having its annual July Summer/Winter Sale. If you are an ebook reader, now is the time to head to Smashwords; the sale ends July 31.

The hardcovers I bought in July and list here are the ones I have received. In looking at my records, it appears that I have more on order that are supposed to be delivered by July’s end. Here is the list of July hardcovers received:

Nonfiction –

• Frederick the Great: King of Prussia by Tim Blanning
• The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andres Resendez
• Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler by Stefan Ihrig
• The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren
• In Reckless Hands: Skinner V. Oklahoma and the Near-Triumph of American Eugenics by Victoria F. Nourse
• The Eugenics Movement: An Encyclopedia by Ruth C. Engs
• The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History by Andrew G. Bostom
• The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings

Fiction –

• Summer Dragon: First Book of the Evertide by Todd Lockwood (Signed Book)
• Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
• Age of Myth: Book One of The Legends of the First Empire by Michael J. Sullivan
• Flag in Exile 20th Anniversary Special Limited Edition by David Weber
• Fellside by M.L. Carey (Signed Book)
• Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator by Claudia Christian and Morgan Grant Buchanan (Signed Book)

I also bought some fiction ebooks. The following is a partial list of the fiction ebooks I bought this month:

• The Collars of Phaleran by Ashely Abbiss
• Ice Station X by V. Bertolaccini
• Ravens in the Sky by Will Bly
• Children of the Trident by B. Albert Brier
• The Ascension Trilogy by David S. Croxford
• The Key by Brian Fisher
• Philippa Barnes Mysteries Books 1-3 by Trish McCormack
• The Blue Folio by Matt McMahon
• The One Hundred by K. Weikel
• The Safanarion Order Books 1-3 by Ken Lozito
• Ties That Bind by Carolyn Arnold
• Forgotten Ages (The Complete Saga) by Lindsay Buroker

Unfortunately for me, those books are not all of the books I have acquired since the last edition of On Today’s Bookshelf. Below is a list of some of the hardcovers and ebooks that I have added to my to-be-read pile since that post:

Nonfiction –

• The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition by Manisha Sinha
• At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others by Sarah Bakewell
• Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck by Adam Cohen
• The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History by Tonio Andrade
• Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion by Susan Jacoby
• Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era by Thomas C. Leonard
• The New Mediterranean Jewish Table: Old World Recipes for the Modern Home by Joyce Goldstein (I also bought copies for gifts)
• A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America by Frederic Cople Jaher
• The Jews and the Nation: Revolution, Emancipation, State Formation, and the Liberal Paradigm in America and France by Frederic Cople Jaher
• Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire by Peter H. Wilson
• Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation by Nicholas Guyatt
• Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
• The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolution Invention by Alexander Monro
• Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf

Fiction –

• Light in a Dark House by Jan Costin Wagner
• Burned, Pierced, and Scarred (3 novels) by Thomas Enger
• Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke
• The Photograph by Beverly Lewis
• Upon a Dark Night by Peter Lovesey
• Cold Shoulder (Lorraine Page Series #1) by Lynda LaPlante
• Crossbones Yard by Kate Rhodes
• Power in the Blood by Michael Lister
• The Serial Killer’s Wife by Robert Smartwood
• Two Strangers by Beryl Matthews
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

I mentioned retirement in my last essay (see Thinking About Retirement). Part of my thinking of retirement is looking at the TBR pile and wondering how many years it will take me to read all of the books I currently have in the TBR pile, the ones that I have preordered and will be coming, and the ones I do not currently know about but that I will buy in the coming months. I keep promising myself that I will stop buying books, but buying books is the bane of my editorial existence.

I guess I will never stop buying books, regardless of whether it is likely that I will be able to read them in my remaining years, until the time arrives when I can no longer read. Are you a book buyer? Have you cut back? Do you have plans to stop buying books?

Richard Adin, An American Editor

On Today’s Bookshelf XXV

In the time since my last On Today’s Bookshelf post (On Today’s Bookshelf XXIV) has resulted in some interesting acquisitions for my library. Here is a list of some of the hardcovers and ebooks that I have acquired and added to my to-be-read pile since the last On Today’s Bookshelf post:

Nonfiction –

• The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan
• Classical Philosophy: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume 1  by Peter Adamson
• Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume 2  by Peter Adamson
• The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism by Ross King
• Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
• Top Nazi: SS General Karl Wolff by Jochen von Lang
• The Last Jews in Berlin by Leonard Gross
• Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science by Alice Dreger
• The Spanish Armada by Robert Hutchinson
• Such Good Girls: The Journey of the Holocaust’s Hidden Child Survivors by R.D. Rosen
• American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante
• The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher
• Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt
• The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush by Howard Blum
• Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza
• Childhood at Court, 1819-1914 by John van der Kiste
• Lady Katherine Knollys: The Unacknowledged Daughter of King Henry VIII by Sarah-Beth Watkins
• Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte by Carol Berkin
• The Girl Who Loved Camellias: The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis by Julie Kavanagh
• The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
• The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels
• Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels
• The Imjin War: Japan’s Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China by Samuel Hawley

Fiction –

• Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
• The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (signed edition)
• The First Order by Jeff Abbott
• Magic Breaks, Magic Binds, and Magic Shifts (3 books) by Ilona Andrews
• Mutineer, Deserter, and Defiant (3 books) by Mike Shepherd
• The Forest at the Edge of the World, Soldier at the Door, The Mansions of Idumea, and The Falcon in the Barn (Books 1-4 in the Forest at the Edge series) by Trish Mercer
• City of Light: An Outcast Novel by Keri Arthur
• The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett
• The Case Against William by Mark Gimenez
• Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo
• Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold (signed limited edition)
• The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye
• Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China by Pearl S. Buck

As you are reading this, I am on vacation with my son and one of the places we are stopping is Daedalus Books in Columbia , Maryland. I have bought a lot of books from Daedalus online, and thought I’d like to see their retail store and perhaps add to my collection — especially children’s books, which I am hesitant to buy without having first read the book myself or being familiar with the author.

I recently read something that I plan to discuss in a later essay, but thought I would share now. In discussing John Gillingham’s new book, The EU: An Obituary, the reviewer wrote: “His thesis might be more persuasive if his book were not littered with errors.…” (“The Economist,” May 14, 2016, p. 76). It is just a reminder of the value of a good, professional editor.

Richard Adin, An American Editor

On Today’s Bookshelf XXIV

Books are not only my working life, they are my relaxation life, too. The beauty of books is that they can increase your knowledge as well as transport you to places and times of interest. For me that means my acquisition of new (to me) titles to read never ends. Here is a list of some of the hardcovers and ebooks that I have acquired and added to my to-be-read pile (other books can be found in earlier On Today’s Bookshelf posts):

Nonfiction –

• Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar
• Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Modernisation of the Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy
• George Washington’s Surprise Attack: A New Look at the Battle That Decided the Fate of America by Phillip Thomas Tucker
• Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World by Evan Thomas
• Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family — A Test of Will and Faith in World War I by Louisa Thomas
• The Churchills in Love and War by Mary S. Lovell
• A Merciless Place: The Fate of Britain’s Convicts After the American Revolution by Emma Christopher
• The Holocaust Encyclopedia edited by Walter Laqueur & Judith Taylor Baumel
• Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century by Geoffrey Parker
• Army of Evil: A History of the SS by Adrian Weale
• Born to Battle: Grant and Forrest—Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga: The Campaigns that Doomed the Confederacy  by Jack Hurst
• The Last Slave Market: Dr John Kirk and the Struggle to End the African Slave Trade by Alastair Hazell
• Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine
• The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 by Joseph J. Ellis
• The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR by Jules Archer
• Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobson
• The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman
• A Higher Form of Killing: Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare by Diana Preston
• The Mystery of Olga Chekhova by Antony Beevor
• Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan

Fiction –

• You’re Next by Greg Hurwitz
• The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
• The Man From Berlin by Luke McCallin
• Life for a Life by T. Frank Muir
• The Great Betrayal by Pamela Oldfield
• Traitor’s Blood by Michael Arnold
• The New Neighbor: A Novel by Leah Stewart
• The Dead Will Tell by Linda Castillo
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfield (2 books)
• The Just City by Jo Walton

What are you reading? Are there new acquisitions that you would recommend to colleagues? Is there a newly found author who excites you?

Richard Adin, An American Editor

On Today’s Bookshelf (XXIII)

It’s the holiday season again and time to be thinking about gifts for family, friends, even clients. What could be a better or more appropriate gift from an editor than a book?

I have three books in particular to recommend: The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip and Carol Zaleski; SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard; and The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff. As I write this essay, I have completed The Fellowship and am nearly done with the other two.

From reading The Fellowship, I finally discovered why Lewis and Tolkien (especially) were such great fantasy writers, something I will never be. The change in education, especially what is taught at the university level, from their school days to mine is dramatic. They were literate in Greek and Latin and well grounded in mythology, especially Norse mythology, and religion. The strengths, weaknesses, and meandering paths that the lives of Lewis, Tolkien, Barfield, and Williams took are fascinating.

SPQR (which stands for “The Senate and People of Rome”) is a well-presented, fascinating look at one of the foundations of Western civilization — ancient Rome. I thought I had a pretty good grasp of that history for a nonhistorian, but I was constantly surprised at what Mary Beard had to teach me and at how off-track my education of 50 years ago in this area was. If you want to understand and learn about one of the foundational pillars of Western civilization without being hampered by dense annotated academic writing, then SPQR is the place to start. (If you prefer a broader world view in survey style, then the best bet would be The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer, which can be followed by her books, The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade and The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople. All three of Bauer’s books are excellent.)

Americans are fascinated by the Salem witch trials. The story has been told many different ways — in novels, histories, plays — and I have read several variations on the theme. I originally didn’t think there was room for yet another telling, but I was wrong. Schiff’s The Witches is one of the best nonfiction histories I have read on the invasion of Puritan Salem by the Devil through his witch emissaries. The Witches is a well-crafted story of this American moment.

Aside from those three recommendations, my acquisition of new titles to read never ends. 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 essay:

Nonfiction –

• Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation by John Ferling
• Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors by James D. Hornfischer
• The Story of England by Michael Wood
• Caligula: A Biography by Aloys Winterling
• The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg
• Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter
• Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
• Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric by Veronica Buckley
• The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
• Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad by Brian A. Catlos
• The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789 by Edward J, Larson
• For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789 by Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon
• Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer
• It’s Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Cliches by Orin Hargraves
• The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama (volume 1 of 2)
• Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama (volume 2 of 2)
• Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright
• The Reign of Arthur: From History to Legend by Christopher Gidlow
• Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler by Antony Sutton
• The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder by Abram de Swaan
• Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
• Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose
• The British Execution: 1500-1964 by Stephen Banks
• The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass
• Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62 by Frank Dikötter
• Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age by James Essinger
• A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico by Amy Greenberg
• Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives by Daisy Hay

Fiction –

• The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry
• Archive 17 by Sam Eastland
• The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen
• Pines, Wayward, and The Last Town by Blake Crouch (3 books)
• The Book of the Maidservant by Rebecca Barnhouse
• The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin
• Island Madness by Tim Binding
• Black Fly Season and By the Time You Read This by Giles Blunt
• The Hidden Man by David Ellis
• Hell’s Foundations Quiver and The Sword of the South by David Weber
• A Call to Arms by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and  Thomas Pope

For those of you who have young children or grandchildren, there are three educational toys I recommend for gift giving or for having around the house: Kids First Amusement Park Engineer Kit, Kids First Automobile Engineer Kit, and Kids First Aircraft Engineer Kit. These are designed for ages 3+ years (Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in the toys or the toys’ manufacturer.)

We bought these kits to have as projects for us and our granddaughters to do together when they visit. Each kit comes with a storybook. As you read the story to the child, the child is presented with instructions to build, for example, an airplane, to help the children in the story get to their next destination, where they will need to build yet another airplane (or automobile or amusement ride).

The Aircraft and Automobile kits each build 10 models; the Amusement Park kit builds 20 models. These are great teaching toys. And, because storage is important, each comes in a plastic storage container.

For additional book suggestions, take another look at past On Today’s Bookshelf essays.

Richard Adin, An American Editor

On Today’s Bookshelf (XXII)

They say summer is the time for reading. I suppose that is based on the assumption that a person has more time to read while on vacation. Personally, I do not see any difference in my reading habits or the time I spend reading for pleasure (or work, for that matter). So, my acquisition of new titles to read never ends. 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:

Nonfiction –

• The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71 by Alistair Horne
• Napoleon’s Poisoned Chalice: The Emperor and His Doctors on St Helena by Martin Howard
• A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain by Marc Morris
• The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England’s Self-Made King by Ian Mortimer
• The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of England: 1327-1330 by Ian Mortimer
• The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville by Clare Mulley
• Treacherous Women: Sex, Temptation and Betrayal by Gordon Kerr
• Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson
• The Queen’s Agent: Sir Francis Walsingham and the Rise of Espionage in Elizabethan England by John Cooper
• The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism by Deborah Baker
• The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 by Piers Brendon
• Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford
• The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg
• Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
• Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen
• Monster by Allan Hall
• The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World by Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone
• The Man Who Would Not Be Washington: Robert E. Lee’s Civil War and His Decision That Changed American History by Jonathan Horner
• The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind Five English Thrones by Thomas Asbridge
• KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann
• Lincoln and the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna & Benjamin Shapell
• The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal by Hubert Wolf

Fiction –

• The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher
• Blood Song and Tower Lord by Ryan Anthony (2 books)
• Critical Error by Murray McDonald
• A Maiden’s Grave by Jeffrey Deaver
• The Defenders of Shannara: The Darkling Child by Terry Brooks
• An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning

Nonfiction Books I’m Thinking About –

These books I am but a keyboard away from ordering. Some are from authors I have previously read, but others are just ones that keep drawing me back.

• The Story of Science by Susan Wise Bauer
• The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe by E.M. Rose
• The Paradox of Liberation by Michael Walzer
• Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography by Sara Lipton
• The Last Slave Market: Dr, John Kirk and the Struggle to End the African Slave Trade by Alastair Hazell
• Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed

What are you reading this summer?

Rich Adin, An American Editor

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

On Today’s Bookshelf (XIX)

In only a few weeks, it will be gift-giving time again. High on my list of gifts to give and to receive are, of course, books. What I like about books is that they are educational (I always learn something) and long-lasting. When I give a book, I know that for as long as the recipient keeps the book, every time she looks at it, she will think of me.

If you are looking for ideas for books to give, the On Today’s Bookshelf series here at An American Editor can be a place to start. Besides buying books at Barnes & Noble, I also buy a lot of “remainders”, which are new books that are leftovers and overruns the publisher didn’t sell through normal retail channels and are now being sold as remainders, which translates to very steep discounts. My primary source for remainder books is Daedalus Books. The other source for books, particularly older books, are bookstores that sell used books. I generally only buy used books that are graded near fine, fine, or new; occasionally, I will buy one graded very good. As I have mentioned before, when it comes to print books, I only buy hardcovers.

As to what is on my bookshelf — and some gift ideas — 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:

Nonfiction –

• Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I by Alexander Watson
• Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan by David Cunningham
• The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America by Marc Levinson
• The Paper Trail: an Unexpected History of the World’s Greatest Invention by Alexander Monro
• The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image by Daniel Schwartz
• A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age by Steven Nadler
• Churchill’s Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made by Richard Toye
• Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War by Douglas R. Egerton
• Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War by Stephen R. Platt
• Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 by Yang Jisheng
• Isaac’s Army: A Story of Courage and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland by Matthew Brzezinski
• The Wars of Watergate by Stanley Kutler
• Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
• Russian Roulette by Giles Milton
• Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
• The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism by David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen
• Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth
• Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
• The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In by Hugh Kennedy
• Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives by Daisy Hay
• The Courtiers: Splendor and Intrigue in the Georgian Court at Kensington Palace by Lucy Worsley
• Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Kieth Lowe
• Edith Cavell by Diana Souhami
• Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne

Fiction –

• The Thousand Names and The Shadow Throne by Django Wexler (2 books)
• Magician, Magician Kings, and The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (trilogy)
• Personal by Lee Child
• The Tyrant’s Law and The Widow’s House by Daniel Abraham (2 books)
• Bye Bye Baby and Beautiful Death by Fiona McIntosh (2 books)
• The Necromancer’s Grimoire by Annmarie Banks
• To Kingdom Come and Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas (2 books)
• The Path of the Sword by Remi Michaud
• The Immortal Prince by Jennifer Fallon
• Eye of the Red Tsar and The Beast in the Red Forest by Sam Eastland (2 books)
• Traitor by Murray McDonald
• A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison

Of course, if you are looking for books to give colleagues or would like someone to give you to help you with your freelancing business, you can’t do better than these books, which focus on the business aspects of the freelancing rather than on editorial skills:

• The Business of Editing: Effective and Efficient Ways to Think, Work, and Prosper by Richard H. Adin, An American Editor (for special holiday pricing click this link)
• Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters by Louise Harnby
• Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business by Louise Harnby

Are you planning to ask for or give books this holiday season? If yes, why not share with us what books you are giving or asking for. If no, tell us why not.

Richard Adin, An American Editor