Onward reading through July

NONFICTION


The age of atheists : how we have sought to live since the death of God / by Watson, Peter, 1943-


Jaques Barzun is gone but we can still delight in Peter Watson's erudition;  those heady days of late 19th century to early 20th century until WWI is really an interesting period; mixture of uncertainty and optimism, culminating in...WWI :sobboing:


Chomsky and Dershowitz : on endless war and the end of civil liberties / by Friel, Howard, 1955-
 
Two prominent intellectuals


  A concise history of Byzantium / by Treadgold, Warren T.


I'm interested in 3 empires; Spanish Habsburg, Austria-Hungary and Byzantine. This should be a good start.  Should follow this with his more in depth book, also
History of the Byzantine State by George Ostrogorsky (Oct 1, 1986) as well.
I do have an abbreviated version of Norwich, but he was a diplomat, not an scholar.


For Spain, I did read
The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson (Sep 6, 2011)
but should resume reading
Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan by Hugh Thomas (May 31, 2005)


For A-H, somewhat lighter
Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe by Simon Winder (Jan 21, 2014)


Tennyson : to strive, to seek, to find / by Batchelor, John, 1942-


I was impressed with Tennyson's foresight in A.N. Wilson's Victorians


FICTION


Collected ghost stories / by James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936 
The castle / by Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924


You just can't resist brand new books; plucked those from the New books shelf lol, both gorgeous Oxford pbk.


I'll also finish King's Carrie as well, after watching the recent movie version; In Shining we encounter the problem of alcoholism; here, insane religiosity and peer pressure in high school.


Should also borrow
Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories: Winesburg, Ohio / The Triumph of the Egg / Horses and Men / Death in the... by Sherwood Anderson and Charles Baxter (Dec 27, 2012)
Will just read Ohio, which is said to evoke an idealistic rural community.