What Are You Reading? A List of Books Shared

November 5, 2020

“Remember, remember the fifth of November…”

I remembered that today is Guy Fawkes Day so I had to acknowledge it before I started the blog post. Anyhow, last month I released a post on the books I wanted to read for the rest of 2020. I asked you all what you are reading, and below is a selection of books that have been shared with me through social media.

1. Ron Chernow’s Grant

From the writer of Washington and Hamilton, Ron Chernow wrote a biography of another general and president: Ulysses S. Grant. Chernow’s biography provides an understanding of the general and president who faced frequent changes in successes and failures in his career and personal life. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

2. Tejano Patriot: The Revolutionary Life of José Francisco Ruiz, 1783–1840 by Art Martínez de Vara

Art Martínez de Vara wrote a biography of one of the important figures in Texas history. The biography takes a closer look at the life of José Francisco Ruiz and his contributions go beyond being one of two Texas-born signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Ruiz went through a transformation during the war of Mexican independence from a conservative royalist to one of the steadfast liberals of his era. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

3. Frederick Jackson Turner: Historian, Scholar, Teacher by Ray Allen Billington

Written in the 1970s, Billington wrote a biography of the historian Frederick Jackson Turner who was known for his paper on “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” that was presented at the 1893 American Historical Association meeting held in Chicago. For more information, check out the link about Turner here and for the biography here.

4. Brief History of History: Great Historians And The Epic Quest To Explain The Past by Colin Wells

Wells goes into brief detail about history that is described history as a living idea. Also, it provides summaries of historians and their important works. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

5. John Arnold’s History: A Short Introduction

Arnold released an essay about how we study and why we study history. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

6. Alun Munslow’s History of History

Munslow wrote a book which confronts several basic assumptions about the nature of history. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

7. A Relentless Spirit: Catharine Ladd by Patricia Veasey

Patricia Veasey wrote about Catherine Ladd who was an innovative educator and writer. She juggled marriage with numerous children, established and conducted female academies, contributed poetry for publication, wrote and produced plays, helped raise funds for rebuilding her war-ravaged town, and submitted political commentary—all within 19th century cultural constraints. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

8. Intentional Practice for Museums: A Guide for Maximizing Impact by Randi Korn

Korn wrote on how the idea of intentional practice grew from a confluence of political concerns, observations of museum in the marketplace, and the increasingly deafening call for museums to be accountable. Also, it describes the seven principles of intentional practice and provides basic intentional-practice strategies, exercises, and facilitation questions. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

9. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

A novel written by O’Farrell, Hamnet is set in England in the 1580s during the plague. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

10. Pull of the Stars by Emma Donohue

Donoghue’s novel is set in Ireland in 1918, and it is about a nurse working in an understaffed hospital where unexpected mothers were quarantined together after coming down with a terrible new flu. For more information, check out the link for the book here.

If you would like to share what you are reading or are planning to read, please let me know in the comments. Have you read the books above? If you have, what do you think of them?

Here is the link to the previous book list I wrote last month: Books I Want to Read for the Rest of 2020