Current Reading - November 2025

First up for the month, just finished Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879 by Noel Perrin

Also mentioning Paramilitarism in the Balkans here because it's as much, if not more so about politics, as it is about military affairs, though I think the author got lost in the weeds.

Finished Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American Revolutionary by J. Kent McGaughy

Knocked off the The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, which I found most interesting for detailing the background that inventor and businessman Stanford Ovshinsky came out of.

With Silent Cavalry, come for a chunk of U.S. Civil War history, stay for Howell Raines taking his pet grudges against "Lost Cause" enthusiasts out for a spin.

Slogged through Dressing for Altitude: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle by Dennis R. Jenkins

The Worlds of Jane Austen: The Influences & Inspiration Behind the Novels by Helena Kelly
Includes period illustrations, archival images, photos, and original artwork

Previous book: Katharine of Aragon Spanish Princess I Am Not As Simple as I May Seem by Heather R. Darsie
Biography of Katharine of Aragon. The author writes in depth about Katharine's family, their rule of Spain and Portugal, and the influence on Queen Mary I.

Finished Duel in the Snows: The True Story of the Younghusband Mission to Lhasa by Charles Allen

Finished The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, a history of the peoples living beside the Mississippi River, the US government's efforts to control said river, and how that control is inexorably coming undone.

Wrapped up The Jakarta Method, a journalistic accounting of some the less-than-enlightened methods by which Washington waged the "Cold War."

Finished God's Ghostwriters, which seems to be an original take on the environment that the New Testament of the Bible was written in.

Wrapped up the month with Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future, a journalistic overview of the world of Chinese unofficial historians on one hand (who will not forget the CCP's crimes), and the CCP's ongoing war to convince everyone (including themselves?) that they are still riding the crest of a wave.

Hidden History of Montgomery County, Maryland by Brian Myers
Local history book

>13 princessgarnet: Was it any good? Former resident inquiring: could be a fun gift, too!

Finished reading John Adams by David McCullough. Overall, decent and readable book about Adams. The author does a good job of examining the life and times of John Adams, his accomplishments and his relations with other founders and family.
Started reading Rome and Persia by Adrian Goldsworthy. It examines the relation and rivalry between the Roman Empire and the Parthian and later Sasanian Empires.

>14 PocheFamily: It was interesting! The book is written by a county native.