December Book Haul: History & Fiction Purchases

[00:00:00]hello booktube fancy seeing you here hi it's Peggy the history shelf you know me um so as you can tell by the title of this video um yeah I'm just laying it all out there for you guys uh I was sick in December and I was feeling a little sorry for myself and when it's close to the holidays and you're sick and you're just wanting something to take the pain away um you go on a bender since I don't drink anymore this was a book buying Ender and I think I broke the bank yeah um I went a little crazy in December you guys I didn't have a lot of energy to read but I had enough energy to flip open my uh my phone and scroll and look at my favorites book buying places so this this video won't contain all of the books that I bought in the month of December but it it's a start um I have at least two Hamilton book hauls to film yet um and then also to Book Outlet book hauls but those are going to be in a separate video um these were books I purchased mostly few different places but mostly I think um I was checking out the book sales on Amazon and they had a bunch of coupons you could clip on new books that made them very affordable and I was treating myself what can I say I I played I was my own Santa Claus um yeah I don't ask for books for Christmas obviously I don't need to in any way if anyone wanted to buy me a book they would have to ask me if I already have it because as you can see you have thousands of books in my library so oh but I will show you in another video um some of the cool gifts that Martin got me that are history related uh shoot yeah they're still downstairs under the tree have not taken the tree down yet we're waiting until I guess this weekend right because epiphany epiphany it's coming up in a couple days um all right so there's no Rhyme or Reason uh certain whims came up whether we were watching a documentary on something and then I bought a couple more books to you know read more about it um where should we start let's start with this let's start with a a fiction item I've been wanting to read more fiction uh contemporary literature stuff like this but um I love reading internationally and I love Russian writers um and I I was listening to a podcast on one of my new book networks on you know you can find on Apple podcast or wherever wherever fun podcasts are found and they were interviewing a the translator for this particular fiction fiction author from Russia and his name is Eugene vodolashkin and she was talking about one book in particular or I think she was just talking about her work translating his work and and and and what her she had obviously she knows a lot about this man and his writing styles and uh you know anyway so I started looking at you know the Corpus of his work and uh it sounded really intriguing in his best known book and this is the one I I think I might have shown these other two in a previous but I'm just going to show you the book I bought right now though but I'll show you the other two that I already have of his I want to start with this one though he's he's most well known for this book it is loris uh Eugene baloshkin um it's a really nice addition by one world this was super cheap on Amazon but I wanted this one I wanted to start with this one I probably won't read all of the different descriptions on these books but it says here 15th century Russia it is a time of plague and pestilence and a young healer skilled in the art of herbs and remedies finds himself overcome with grief and guilt when he fails to save the life of his beloved leaving behind his village his possessions and his name he sets out on a quest for Redemption honey listen alone but this is no ordinary Journey wandering across plagridden Europe offering his healing powers to all in need he travels through ages and countries encountering a rich tapestry of Wayfarers along the way accosted by Highwayman lynched in the Balkans and washed overboard at sea he eventually reaches Jerusalem only to find his greatest challenge is yet to come so that's just that's the kind of fiction I really enjoy um kind of his you know just historical and Rossini's Journey all right so I then these I had I bought used used new but they were very they're in great condition also published by one world and these are his other novels that just also the premises sounded just intriguing as all get out so I picked up the Aviator it's a nice Stark cover um it's been translated into more than 14 languages I didn't I didn't mention the trans the name of the translator well that is horrible on me because she was such a gracious lady on that podcast that I I listened to what is they should have this on the cover of the book but they don't yes translated from the Russian by Lisa C Hayden h-a-y-d-e-n So Lisa Hayden and um and you know they should have her name on these covers she's she's done all of his works these two books that I'm going to show you um yeah they used to see Hayden so we have The Aviator I picked that up in hardcover great addition um what the heck I'll just show you I'll just read to you real quick what this is about it's real real brief a man wakes up in a hospital bed with no idea who he is or how he came to be there the only information the doctor shares with him is his name inokenti petrovich platonov as memories slowly resurface anokenti begins to build a vivid picture of his former life as a young man in Russia in the early 20th century living through the turbulence of the Russian Revolution and it's aftermath you know I'm a sucker for anything around that time frame I love it soon only one question remains how can he remember the start of the 20th century when the pills by his bedside were made in 1999.

[00:07:01]reminiscent of the great works of 20th century Russian literature with nods to dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and bulkakov's the white card The Aviator cements voluschkin's position as the rising star of Russia's literary scene so I definitely want to do a dive into voluschkin in 2023 and so the other book I picked up by him is a solovyov and lyrionov and then you know shortlisted but a lot of different times for different Russian Awards translated numerous times um this one sounded great as well so I it says here it's a groundbreaking and gripping literary detective novel says here larionov a general of the Imperial Russian army who mysteriously avoided execution by the Bolsheviks when they swept to power and went on to live a long life in Yalta leaving behind a vast Heritage of memoirs soloviov the young history student who travels to Crimea determined to find out how laryanov evaded capture after the 1917 Revolution this is such this is so my my fiction right here I love this kind of stuff with Rye humor Eugene vitiloshkin one of Russia's foremost contemporary writers takes readers on a fascinating journey through a momentous period of Russian history interweaving the Intriguing story of two men from very different backgrounds that ultimately asked whether we can really understand the present without first understanding the past um yeah and here is our author in case you're wondering what the bat looks like and Lisa C Hayden yeah she's great that was a really good podcast she really sold me on on checking out his work so this is the one I bought and there goes oh by the way I'll be filming this is oh I'll be filming soon with a new camera I'm going to be getting rid of this old setup and the new camera will allow me a heck more Mobility you might be seeing me filming from different rooms in the house outside walking along talking about books whatever I've even got a Nifty little handle you know and I can I can easily Zoom through the different rooms and show you my bookcases but anyway so that's what I picked up the first one first book in my uh book buying Bender in December okay next book I bought is another uh fiction book but it's the first in the series I've read another book in her series for I was writing a review for historical novels review but this is Nicola upson's an expert in Murder a Josephine Tay mystery now many of you who are mystery fans know that Josephine Tay was an actual mystery writer she wrote the um what did she write the daughter of uh whenever I want to call up something it leaves me Daughters of time that's okay we're going to press forward um but in this series Nicola Upson makes Josephine an actual character who helps solve murders and I I read the secrets of winter which was I think the fifth or sixth book in the series and um and you could you could pick it up as a standalone and obviously I was assigned it and I didn't wasn't I didn't have time to go read the first five books in the series but I I was so I really liked um the character of Josephine Tay and how she portrayed her Nicola Upson did so I was like you know what this is a mystery series I'd like to go back to the beginning so I picked up the first and I've ordered I think books two and four in this series so I shortly should be able to have all of them and get those going I think there's like maybe seven books in the series so far so it's just a mystery um it's like the 1930s I'll keep pressing pressing on here since I talk so much about voluskin this book I had in my wish list for a very long time or my my cart or not my carpet outside of my car I heard about this man from a book that I read and wrote a review for for shelf awareness the book was called the double life of Catherine Clark who um worked in Yugoslavia it was at Yugoslavia I think yeah and met up with this man who was part of Tito's um communist you know governing class and uh he wanted to get some some of his papers out and she kind of basically smuggled him out um and he so this was one of the books that he had written and I had been wanting to read this for a long time so I picked it up this is milovan Gillis the new class an analysis of the Communist system um this is an older book her Court race jovanovic but says here the new class created a sensation when it was published in the U.S in 1957 because it was the first time that a ranking Communists had publicly analyzed his disillusionment with the system Gillis A former associate of Tito's who had traveled from the lowest to the highest rung of the hierarchical ladder and who was imprisoned for his views had found himself increasingly estranged from contemporary communism and attracted to the idea of democratic socialism here however he puts aside the story of his personal evolution to write a detached Lucid Lucid courageous critique of the Communist system its roots the character of its revolutions the rise of its powerful political bureaucracy bureaucracy the new class in what was intended to be a classless society is one party State its economic policies and its tyranny over Minds finally jealous examines the essence of the conflict between the USSR and the West that continues to this day in the present atmosphere of intensifying Confrontation the new class is more significant than ever now mind you this um that copy was written uh when it was this rewrite this reprint done this one was printed in 1983 this version right here but uh I was intrigued again but the double life of Catherine Clark was a fantastic book about a just uh just a Fearless woman who who basically smuggled this man's writings out of prison and and arranged for them to be published in America and she didn't really get well until this the um the author of the The Book you know brought it to light so um very excited for this one all right and then oh the other yes let's do this so you know Amazon was having a bunch of coupons you could clip and and marking books Downs this this is a book by man I've got two of his books already he wrote a two volume biography on Hitler which is on the lower shelf behind me hidden behind the American flag plus I know Martin hates seeing those books but so he wrote another book and it's it's a more targeted it's not a biography it's just a more targeted history it's a little bit less than 300 pages but I saw it and um again it was marked down and with a coupon it was just eight days in May the final collapse of the Third Reich by vocal volcker Ulrich um so it's by live right publishing so yeah these coupons like we're knocking off like four to five dollars and off of already marked down the Amazon discounted price so it was like wow so I picked this up um I'll just give you a brief synopsis and eight days in May award-winning historian and Hitler biographer volcker volcker Ulrich draws on an astonishing variety of sources including Diaries and letters of ordinary Germans to narrate a society's descent into hobbesian chaos I just like I like that description hobbsian chaos um oh God gonna be kind of adult dark read here uh throughout the remains of the Third Reich huge numbers of people were on the Move creating a circle surrealistic Tableau death marches of concentration camp inmates crossed paths with retreating Vermont soldiers and groups of refugees taught propulsive propulsive narrative eight days in May takes us inside the phantom-like regime of Hitler's chosen successor who was Admiral Carl Donuts who I have some books on revealing how the desperate attempt to impose order utterly failed as Frontline soldiers deserted and Nazi party Fanatics called on German civilians to Martyr themselves in a last stand against encroaching encroaching Allied Forces I don't know why I can't really speak today you know I'm not quite sure um oh I did not know this man had such a beautiful head of hair look at that he was the most interesting man in the world bulker rocking that nice white Santa hair all right and what else did I pamper myself with when I was just feeling so sorry for myself just I'll just you know whatever this I've been this one I had in my cart for a while and I really wanted a a new addition and not a beat up used copy from Thrift Books so I just was waiting and it got marked down even further this is a nice trade soft cover edition of this book by Simon shama the embarrassment of riches and interpretation of Dutch culture in the Golden Age I know my friend John David picked this up recently and I already had it in my cart when he showed it and I was like I plan on getting this just waiting for the right time it is richly there's so many it's just I like books that really just mix it up okay I mean you could flip through here and there's just there's tons of it guys look at all the illustrations get in there love it love it so what is this about it's the it says here at the apogee of its powers in the 17th century Holland was a tiny island of prosperity in a sea of want its homes were well furnished and fanatically clean its citizens feasted on 100 course Banquets and speculated fortunes on new varieties of tulip as you do yet in the midst of Plenty the Dutch were ill at ease in this brilliantly Innovative book which launched his reputation as one of our most perspicacious and stylish historian Simon shama explores the mysterious contradictions of a nation that invented itself from the ground up attained an unprecedented level affluence and lived in a constant red of being corrupted by its happiness hmm oh I like this line drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art shama recreates and precise and loving detail and nation's mental furniture a great way to describe it I'm moving my desk around okay um he tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco of Thrifty Housewives and profligate tulip speculators there they go again you just you got to keep your eye on those tulips speculators he tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies this book throbs with life on every page baby now that's book jacket copy I like that all right so that's another one I treated myself to what else can I show you yes oh I paid a pretty penny for this but I really after I was like examining it online I looked at some sample pages oh did I want it so I bought it um looks yeah this is new but I picked up Martin Luther and the enduring word of God the Wittenberg and it's the Wittenberg school and its scripture Center Proclamation by Robert Kolb because by Baker academic just uh oh I just can't wait to get into this one this says here the Reformation Revolution revolutionized Church life through its new appreciation for God's presence working Through the Bible coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation Martin Luther and the enduring word of God explains how Luther's approach to the Bible drew his colleagues in contemporary followers into a scripture-centered practice of Theology and pastoral leadership Robert Kolb examines the entire School of interpretation launched by Luther showing how Luther's students continued the study and spread of God's word in subsequent Generations um filled with fresh insights and Cutting Edge research this major statement provides historical grounding for contemporary debates about the Bible I'm always wanting to read more about Luther and just understand more about the Lutheran tradition which you know I was baptized Lutheran I have not been confirmed in it just because I you know I don't I don't know I'm still it's not like I have any major um issues with Luther's teaching I mean I don't I mean I could have gone without his his later in life is kind of his his other things he might have said um but I don't know I don't know why I haven't gotten confirmed maybe I will I mean I definitely follow a reformed Protestant Faith you know um anyway the labels are with the labels of the different church just kind of the kind of great on me after a time yeah I'm a follower of Jesus Christ what else can I say that should Define me you know okay so this book I use some of my credits on this book I had or some like gift card stuff this one was pretty pricey but I've had my eye on and now I haven't cracked the seal on it because I wanted to show you guys first and keep this thing as clean and beautiful as possible for as long as possible nice big beefy book from something PNR publishing it doesn't even say look at this guy a history of Western philosophy and theology by John M frame and see I just love that I was like keeping this on until I crack it open you know look at this thing was like 58 dollars and I used a like a like a gift card to bring it down to at least half that um but yeah this is a it's the fruit of John frames 45 years of teaching philosophy subjects no other survey of the history of Christian thought offers the same invigorating blend of expositional clarity critical insight and biblical wisdom the supplemental study questions bibliographies links to audio lectures quotes from influential thinkers 20 appendices and index glossary make this an excellent main textbook choice for Seminary and college level courses and for personal study so a personal study right here that's all um duh why tonight I'm gonna crack it open now for you guys let's that's what I do for you guys oh my God oh the pages are very thin almost almost as thin as Bible paper I'm sorry I had to oh it smells good has like study uh the questions on the outline why study philosophy it gives you like definitions um that's just in the beginning oh I like the the way this is set up they're really getting into it um Carl Jasper's John Locke I like I like all the study guides that they add in on in the in the margins you know um [Applause] this is great what a treasure what a treat and indeed I treated myself so a history of Western philosophy and theology all right what else did I get for myself well so I've been wanting to get this book and I kept waiting for the price to drop in Amazon because it's not showing up yet as being marked down at any of my bargain book Outlets like Hamilton or or Book Outlet and then they had a coupon you could clip the coupon for this book and bring it down to like 14 so I finally said I yes please because I like I love this historians Andrew Roberts and I have I don't have this one yet it's the last king of America that misunderstood reign of George the Third I have a Churchill I think I have is Napoleon I think I do but um look at this this is a door stopper I love it I love a guy he just he just cranks out these big ass books and uh I just love it so I wanted this and I got it so yeah so Merry Christmas to me um so yeah it's the book on the King George III I don't think I need to read this to you because you know I've got a few more books to show you so let's press on so I picked that one up for myself as well brand new um oh this one probably could have should have kept this with the other ones because it's kind of the theological theologically related another one I've been wanting for a very long time um this is from ivp academic and this is Louis Marcos from Achilles to Christ why Christians should read the Pagan classics and The Iliad is one of my favorite um I guess you'd call it the Pagan classic um yes this one I've been really one and it's it's not cheap I mean it doesn't get marked down because I just think it's it's one of a kind it says here and from Achilles to Christ Louis Marcos introduces readers to the great narratives of classical mythology from a Christian perspective from the battles of Achilles and the adventures of Odysseus to the Feats of Hercules and the trials of Aeneas Marcos demonstrates how the Characters themes and symbols Within These myths both foreshadow and find their fulfillment in the story of Jesus Christ the quote myth-made fact end quote along the way he dispels misplaced fears about the dangers of reading classical literature and offers a Christian approach to the appropriation and interpretation of these great literary works um so yeah I'm looking forward to reading this he has a part one here on Homer and he covers uh theogony um Iliad Odyssey and then we part two we go into the the Greek tragedians so escolas Sophocles euripides and part three Virgil obviously the The Aeneid I love it I love it I love the Greek word the the classic Greek works and plays and poems that are just um get lost in them so pick that one up struck while the iron was hot meaning my pocketbook I guess my money was burning a hole since I wasn't going out or doing anything I was just laying in bed okay um let's see 29 minutes so then I hit a little patch where um Martine and I were like kind of vibing and off on the like Civil War stuff and she was getting into Civil War stuff like actual history and we were talking and well I think we watched like a video on Gettysburg and I was explaining to her the movements of troops and then she watched another one on her own and Really Got A Feeling for it by the reenactors who who go out to Gettysburg I think like every major anniversary and they'll do a major reenactment especially if pick his charge anyway so as we were talking I was just kind of browsing books um about a brigade that I've always wanted to read more about I've read tons of you know they're referenced in so many different civil war books I've read over the years but I wanted to read a more targeted history on the iron Brigade and so I picked up Alan T Nolan's classic I remember the iron oh my God the iron Brigade in military history I don't know if I'm stroke stroking out or what I don't think I am but geez forward by Gary W Gallagher many of us know that name in the you know history or Civil War history circles um this book has been around for a while and he wrote it in 1961.

[00:30:36]I might have read it when I was a kid not a kid maybe like 15 or something but I don't recall it so I really wanted to to get this again and um and check it out it's always good to have a new copy anyway but uh and maybe I haven't read it I could be totally misremembering but um you know the iron Brigade had one of the Michigan regiments that I loved and they you know they have got such a great fighting record um it's like men from the Midwest like Indiana Michigan Wisconsin um yeah 24th Michigan volunteers that's the the Brigade I was referencing so this is the story of the most famous unit in the Union Army originally called the black hat Brigade because soldiers wore the Army's regular dress black hat instead of the more typical blue cap the iron Brigade was the only all-western Brigade in the Eastern armies of the Union the Brigade was initially made up of the second sixth and seventh Wisconsin and the 19th Indiana volunteers later later it was reinforced by the 24th Michigan volunteers and Battery B of the fourth U.S artillery consisting in large part of infantry detached from the Brigade was closely associated with it it was at Bronner Farm in Northern Virginia on August 28th 1862 that the Brigade saw its first significant action from that time forward at second Bull Run South Mountain Antietam Fredericksburg Chancellorsville and Gettysburg the Western soldiers earned and Justified the proud name iron Brigade and when the war was over the record showed that it let all federal brigades in in percentage of deaths in battle wow the north might well have lost the battle of Gettysburg if not for the iron brigade's famous stand baby yes I think that's how we came to this we were talking about the Aaron brigade's actions at Gettysburg that helped save the day um and then I wanted to go into a um let's just say um yeah a memoir by one of uh one of the more well-known officers within the iron Brigade and that is Rufus R Dawes so I picked up an officer in the iron Brigade Rufus ardas so this is his memoir this is a oh it says Abridged and annotated which is fine I'll eventually get my hands on a unabridged version but one of the most exciting well-written and important Memoirs of the American Civil War from one of its most accomplished Warriors Colonel Rufus R Daz of the six Wisconsin uh let's see at Antietam Fredericksburg Chancellor Chancellorsville Gettysburg and Grant's Overland campaign the iron Brigade suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any in the war it seemed to Dawes that every time he saw the worst that he could see it got worse after Gettysburg where he led the charge on the railroad railroad cut on July 1st he wrote my horse was shot under me early in the fight which perhaps saved my life the experience of the past few days seemed more like a horrible dream than the reality may God save me and my men from any more such trials there were more trials to come for the sixth Wisconsin so a little iron iron Brigade supplement here to my uh all my other reading book actually just arrived a few days ago but I did order it while it was technically still December and I think it's important that I think it's important that we should all have this and what is it yep Fresh Off The ready it's all it's been printed different in different uh varieties different Publishers this is Celadon press and I wanted this version because it's prefaced by David ramnick and I like his writing um yep so it's the report of the select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States capitol so I thought it was important and it was uh they make it fairly affordable I bought it off Amazon was thirteen dollars I think others might be could be 10 other versions are like 16 or 17 but if you really just want to have a good copy that's not you know going to break the bank this one was a good a good one um I'll just read the back on January 6th as we come up on that horrible anniversary right 2021 insurgents stormed the U.S Capitol an act of domestic Terror without Peril parallel in American history designed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in a resolution six months later the House of Representatives called it one of the darkest days of our democracy and established a special committee to investigate how and why the attack happened Celadon books in collaboration with the New Yorker presents the committee's final report the definitive account of January 6th and what led up to it based on more than a year of Investigation by nine members of Congress and committee staff with a preface by David remnick the editor of the New Yorker and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and then an epilogue by Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland a member of the committee there's a lot here wow I can't you know I can't say I can't wait to get into this but um executive summary and then you've got pages of just notes within notes within notes all these links and stuff so I mean it's it's beefy um so that's the executive summary and then what happens here so these are just actual chapters I'm trying to see how you're supposed to read this thing oh I see so then they go into different channels okay so the beginning of the book is executive summary and then they go into chapters the big lie chapter two I just want to find 11 780 votes what does that tell you that guy's such a creep foreign anyway doing my due diligence as an American citizen I should tap into that and read that report so guys that's what I'm willing to show you right now from my December book buying Bender um I feel like I should make another video about my January book hangover but what would that look like because you know oh I know what it should be January book hair of the dog that bits you um but no actually I do need to slow down on the book purchases I went a little crazy the last few months I think it was retail therapy um but if I don't stop soon uh Martine is going to and I will also check myself into the book version of the Betty Ford Clinic um yeah yeah I've got some great ideas for the the channel as far as where I want it to go in reading my library so I have a new series I want to start and I might start it in League with historathon that's going on right now but just an you know a wild idea that I have which I think I might call it reading my library reading the history Shelf and each month I will either buy lottery or closing my eyes being spun around and going to my bookshelf and picking a book off that's the book I'll be reading from my library that month it's got to happen it's got to happen um yeah but I you know am I ever never going to buy another book again no you know I will but I went a little crazy I went a little overboard and uh you know I just went and dropped off some books today for to give away and I need to give out more so all right guys well let me know what you think of a little taste of my my pity party book buying Bender in December and all Rhymes okay booktube I hope you enjoyed the video thanks for watching Thanks for liking if you do um hey thanks for not liking it you know you know what you're engaging with the channel with every thumbs down it's an engagement that's fine you know what I'm saying um so Thanks for liking thanks for commenting thanks for subscribing and you know I'll always be here to show you what's new and upcoming what's back on the on the the back list and you know what I'm reading and yeah I think that's about all I can say for right now I think I need to drink some water because I might be stroking out because I cannot string together a sentence anyway guys with that I will leave you there see you later booktube bye