A Journey Through History

Please join us on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 8:00 PM Eastern to discuss America’s first daughter DB88020 by Stephanie Dray. NLS Annotation America’s first daughter DB88020 Dray, Stephanie Reading time: 21 hours, 53 minutes. Pilar Witherspoon A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Historical Fiction Patsy Jefferson, eld...

Tuesday night a stalwart group of History Buffs read and reviewed the first half of American Prometheus which is a product of over twenty-five years of painstaking research by its two prize winning authors. The first half or “TRIUMPH” portion of the book focuses on how he resolved his social problems which many financially privileged prodigies experience to demonstrate the leadership skills to suc...

Our next month’s book to discuss is the best seller “American Prometheus: the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” DB61087 by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, 699 pages. Because of its length, we will cover the growing up and transformation of the brilliant Oppenheimer and ultimate triumph in Chapters 1 through 23In our January 2nd meeting and the remainder of the book covering the outcome of...

Hello Journey through History book group fans, Our book for 12/5/23 in A Journey through History is Lady Tan’s Circle of Women DB 115160 by Lisa Se. David Faucheux will be leading our discussion and has provided the below email received from the author Lisa See in the email history with some links regarding the book. Hope to see you at the meeting. Here is the NLS annotation: Lady Tan’s circ...

A Journey through History will be discussing The Wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder DB 113965 when we next meet on 11/7/23. When we met on 10/3/23, our November book was announced as Peril by Bob Woodward but on further review, we discovered we had already discussed this book at our 2/1/22 meeting. NLS annotation: The Wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder DB 113965 Grann, Davi...

Autobiography by William Thomas Hamilton one of the legendary Mountain Men who explored and settled the Louisiana Purchase which he published in 1905. He began his exploits in 1842as a fur trapper and later Army Scout assisted by his extraordinary skills in Indian sign language. Here’s the NLS annotation: My sixty years on the plains: trapping, trading, and Indian fighting DB20468 Hamilton, W. T,...

Miss Del Rio novel DB111757 by Barbara Louise Mujica 13 hours and 9 minutes long It is a largely true book selected by David Faucheux, our Historic fiction editor. It is the dramatic and vividly described life as told by her best friend including their life and flight from revolutionary Mexico in 1910 and Miss Del Rio’s rise to movie stardom. She pulls no punches as to the class and racial discrim...

Our August book was written by two prominent Historians, One Russian and the other American, who took advantage of the demise of the Soviet Union and thaw in the Cold War to access KGB AND OTHER Soviet and American files in 1990 to find out what truly happened. While it cleared up a number of issues some were rather frightening such as how close we came to a nuclear war. Also, it revealed JFK’s re...

The first and only successful slave revolution in the Americas began in 1791 when thousands of brutally exploited slaves rose up against their masters on one of the most profitable colonies in the Atlantic world. Their success was devastating not only to their former masters but to colonial powers including the United States. We’ll discuss this in the next meeting of A Journey through History on 6...

We will review Captain James Cook by Richard Hough (DB41944). It chronicles the life of James Cook, born 1728, who began working with his father as a day laborer at age eight, rose from lowest rank in the merchant marine, then to the Royal Navy to become the most celebrated explorer of his time. His three final trips mapping one third of the world and discovery of the cause of scurvy were the foun...

On April 4, David Faucheux will present his historic fiction, Switchboard Soldiers, a novel, by Jennifer Chiaverini (DB109619) NLS ANOTATION: In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American Forces in Europe. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. Pershing needed operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls and s...

The Face Maker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris, DB108939. Approximate reading Time: 8 hours, 20 minutes Armed with a Cambridge diploma and compassionate manner, Dr. Harold Gillies from New Zealand, opened the first hospital specializing in facial reconstruction of previously shunned, disfigured soldiers. The author describes the ma...

This is a Memoir with a happy ending. how a ten year old Chinese peasant boy living at a starvation level in a Mao Commune became a international Ballet star after recruitment into and undergoing rigorous training at Mao’s wife’s National Ballet school. While visiting Houston Texas he defected from China after finding “my first love” angering Chinese officials resulting in His imprisonment in the...

During the busy Winter Holidays don’t forget our book to review on January 3.. It is shorter than some.. If you can’t finish it suggest reading Chapters 9 through 11. 10, Our reading suggestion for January (FALLING IDOLS: TWELVE STATUES THAT MADE HISTORY is a short 9 hour 10 minutes. The Author states that this book is “about how we make history “. selecting Statues which h...

David Faucheux will be presenting the following book on December sixth The storyteller of Casablanca DB107192 NLS ANNOTATION: Morocco 1941, Twelve year-old Josie and her family fled Nazi occupied France for Casablanca where they awaited safe passage to America. Seventy years later, Zoey is a wife and mother living as an ex-pat in an unfamiliar place. But when she discovers Josie’s diary from...

Brad Snyder and Alan Lemly co-hosted the October session discussing the book ISAAC STORM by Erik Larson. Everyone seemed to like it. There were no challengers with the Erik Larson Best Sellers we had reviewed. On Tuesday, November 1st we will leave the familiar Trumpian, Anglo-American literary venue for Hitler’s Germany and some incredibly courageous dissidents. Defying Hitler: the Germans...

On October 4 we will be reviewing Isaac Storm: a Man, a Time, and the deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson(db48811). This was published more than a hundred years after the Galveston Flood and was this author six best selling books four of which we have discussed. Name them if you can. NLS ANNOTATION Galveston Texas, September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane approaches the city. Isaac Kline,...

On September 6 we will review our second World War Two Churchill book, The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson, covering WWII from May 1940 to May 1941. It focuses on how Winston Churchill and his Family coped with the Blitz which killed over forty-thousand Londoners and led England to foil Hitler and his plans to conquer all of Europe. Similar to Lincoln and Napoleon, there are already many book...

As usual, we will skip July and meet on August 2 when David Faucheux present his historic fiction but is a realistic history of the 1937 NAZI invasion of the Ukraine. A real page-turner with realistic character description. The title is The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn, db107522. Again, except for July, Journey Through History meets on the first Tuesday of the month at eight P.M. Eastern Time.

On Tuesday, June 7, your History Group will discuss the consequences of WWII after Yalta and the expanded roles of the privileged daughters of the three powerful leaders. Here’s the NLS annotation: The daughters of Yalta: the Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans : a story of love and war DB102417 Katz, Catherine Grace Reading time: 14 hours, 57 minutes. Christine Rendel Biography World History an...

the Journey Through History Group will review The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial settlers , Tribal Nations and the kidnap that shaped America by Matthew Pearl( Db106571). Reading time: six hours fifty seconds. Synopsis from Bookshare.org. The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America by Matthew Pearl “A rousing tale of frontier daring and ingen...

The Engineers Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood She built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow. Emily Warren Roebling refuses to live conventionally—she knows who she is and what she wants, and she’s determined to make change. But then her husband Wash asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible. Emily’s fight for women’s suffrage is put on hold, and her...

In March, (finally after fifty years) the real people behind Roe V. Wade are revealed. Families were afflicted by alcohol and drugs. There was never an abortion. The opposition to Roe V. Wade is rising and faces a conservative Supreme court. FROM BOOKSHARE.ORG A masterpiece of reporting on the Supreme Court’s most divisive case, Roe v. Wade, and the unknown lives at its heart. Despite her famous p...

Our next month’s title ‘PERIL’ by Bob Woodward. Was there really a “PERIL”? Last March 5, 1919, we reviewed Fields of Blood: Violence in congress and the road to Civil War by Jane Freeman where Congressmen from slave states carried and used clubs and guns to intimidate beat and even kill (at least one) fellow Congressman to prevent their submission of anti-slavery petitions. While the January 6 in...

The doctors Blackwell: how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women and women to medicine DB 104506 Nimura, Janice P. Reading time 11 hours, 27 minutes. Read by Laural Merlington. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Biography; Health and Medicine Description: Biography of Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell, the first licensed fe...