December DeweyCAT 940-999

This grouping covers the history of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Oceania and extraterrestrial worlds. It's a wide grouping and includes recent best sellers Unbroken, American Sniper, and The Guns at Last Light. Some of my personal favorites in this group are listed below:

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
My Accidental Jihad
'Tis, a Memoir
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men against the Sea
Killing Kennedy : The End of Camelot
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean

And for animal and Christmas lovers, here are two that you might not expect to find in this category:

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava
Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present

I am looking forward to reading A Helmet For My Pillow (940.5) by Robert Leckie for December's DeweyCat.

I'm planning to read Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand.

I have LOTS of options for this one, but a couple that fit annual challenges that will help me finish up are:
Dead Wake / Erik Larson

ETA: Oops! In the Kingdom of Ice is 910, so would have worked for this month, not next. Guess that means it will be Dead Wake for me. I have plenty of other options if I have extra time to fit in more. Ha!

I have tons of things that will fit here!

Looking forward to reading American Creation by Joseph Ellis.

I have some books on Russian history and British history which would fit here.

I just finished The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, 979.4. It is a memoir of her Chinese American girlhood, but told more like Chinese stories or myths.

Finished Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the secret history of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin. Was a free audio through audio sync last year. My library has it shelved as YA 959.7043 SHE. I cannot recommend this one enough. An eye opener. This is the history of Vietnam. I lived through this time and under these presidents. I have to confess that I did not know much of this. This is a National Book Award Finalist.

I finished Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford (945.606). This was an interesting, fast moving biography.

The Cavalry Maiden is taken from the journals of Nadezhda Durova who disguised as a man and joined the Russian cavalry in 1806. Rumours about her reached tsar Alexander I and she continued her career with this protection. She took part in the entire campaign against Napoleon and finally quitted the service to return to her family.
This was an odd read, her adoration for the tsar and her enjoyment of the free life she led in male disguise are described in gushing, almost fervent prose. But she also comes across as a high-handed aristocrat in her treatment of civilians, and her attitude towards the many different peoples in the Russian empire that she meets is often contradictory. She tells little about training and actual service in the cavalry, and one gets the impression that there wasn't much of it. She appears to have had quite a lot of free time to read and explore the countryside wherever she was posted. Her sojourn in Holstein comes in for particular praise, maybe she was prepared to find everything wonderful because the Imperial family had its roots there.
The edition is very satisfactory, Zirin provides translations for Durova's many expressions in other languages, she adds biographical information for many of the officers mentioned in the text and she provides historical context whenever Durova's account disagrees with the official chronology and her service record.
This is classified as Dewey 940.27.

Just wondering, what are the non fiction books dealing with the history of extraterrestrial worlds?

>12 Robertgreaves:, me too

The 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor seemed a good time to read Pearl Harbor Christmas by Stanley Weintraub.

December 1941 and Pearl Harbor made for a Christmas never to be forgotten. Churchill took time away from the grim circumstances in Europe to make a surprise visit with Roosevelt, while US forces were battling Japanese in the Philippines and on Wake Island. It was a remarkable, and dangerous journey for Churchill, but it had a positive outcome with the beginnings of the United Nations being formed.

An interesting and well-written historical account.

I read the junior version of Enrique's Journey.

So far for this challenge I have read two very different books:
First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower (973.09) about the First Ladies from Jacqueline Kennedy through Michelle Obama and Danger Close: My Epic Journey as a Combat Helicopter Pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan by Amber Smith.

I might also read Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott to complete my Woman BingoPUP card.

Many of your choices sound interesting. I hope you are enjoying the selections.

>12 Robertgreaves: I have no idea!

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania / Erik Larson
4.5 stars

The Lusitania was a large passenger vessel, travelling from New York to England in 1915, during World War I. At the time, German submarines were patrolling and sinking ships, neutral, passenger, or otherwise, in British waters. Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States and had just lost his wife The British had a room (Room 40) where they decoded German messages. This book follows all those different threads as it leads up to a disaster…

I hadn’t heard of the Lusitania until I started seeing reviews of this book. I found this story fascinating! There were a few parts that weren’t as interesting, but for the most part, I was engaged in the story. Of course, most interesting to me was the Lusitania herself, the passengers and the captain. I was a bit surprised to find even the submarine’s story held my interest, as well, though. Wilson and Room 40’s parts in the book were a little less, but did come into play for various reasons.

I couldn't really get into Unbroken; I think it was just not the right time. I've decided to put it aside for now and read Last Train to Paradise by Les Standford instead. It's about the railroad that Henry Flagler built across the Florida Keys in the early 1900s.

>19 dudes22: I had the same problem with Unbroken the first time. When I read it the second time, I skipped over the remaining days on the raft, and finished it. I loved Last Train to Paradise read it shortly before a road trip to the Keys.

>20 LoisB: - I will try it at some point in time. Plus the length at this time of year - just wasn't working. But I am enjoying Last Train to Paradise. I've traveled that road a couple of times - the book is making me want to do it again.

I have completed by DeweyCat December read of Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie.

What do people think about including Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin as a work of fiction in this category, as it is reputed to be loosely based on the Wars of the Roses in mediaeval England but is set on an extraterrestrial world?

>23 Robertgreaves: Fine with me. I had no idea what to suggest for the extraterrestrial category.

I finished Flood of Fire, the final book in Amitav Ghosh's Ibis Trilogy. The three books are historical novels about the events leading up to the First Opium War and the transfer of Hong Kong to the British.

>25 mathgirl40: sounds interesting!

COMPLETED Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

I've managed to finish Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford which is about the railroad that Henry Flagler built from Miami to Key West, Florida.

>28 dudes22: As a Florida resident, but not a Florida native, I found that book fascinating. I read it just before a road trip to the Keys.

>29 LoisB: - I've been a couple of times and wish I had read the book first. Well - there's always next time.