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

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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 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