April 2026 NonFictionCat: History & Ancient History

wiki link to add your reads can be found here: 2026 NonfictionCAT https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2026_NonfictionCAT#April:_History_.26_An...

I chose history and ancient history to cover a wide range of topics, so I'm hoping everyone can find something.

The dictionary defines history as a chronological recording of past events, developments, etc.

This year I am focusing, or going to try and focus on the history of science, I am interested in how science started and how we got to where we are and will start by reading a book by Patrick Moore and Brian May (yep, that’s Brian May from the rock band Queen), hoping this will make the book by Stephen Hawkings easier. This is one of the 4 books I have planned for this year.

Other subjects that come to mind are history of:

• books and literature, or something specific like History of the Hobbit
  
• a country or continent or an empire
  
a culture, including ancient cultures

• women’s history
  
• an industry
  
• royal houses or rulers
  
• philosophy
  
• wildlife / nature
  

but there’s so many more, if you’re stuck for ideas I’ll do my best to help.

And let's all share of what we'll be reading this month and how it's going for us.



Book covers of:

Bang! The Complete History of the Universe
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
After Modern Art: 1945 - 2000
A Short History of Nearly Everything
If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home
The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World
History of Furniture: A Global View
Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World
A Briefer History of Time

It's a bit early to say yet, but my most obvious possibilities are:

Bedlam: London and its Mad by Catharine Arnold
Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome by L J Trafford and
After 1177 BC by Eric H. Cline

At the moment, I've pencilled in Jennifer Wright's Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time, a biography of Mamie Fish, one of the grandes dames of New York during the Gilded Age.

I'll come back mid-month to start planning for April! :-)

I have tons from which to choose and will probably read more than one.

April, starting Bang, hoping this month will be a bang as I get closer to Stepohen Hawking's A Briefer History of Time

I'm in the process of reading You Can't Stop Us which is about Lady Bird Johnson's 1964 campaign train trip through the South in support of her husband.

Touchstone not found.

I read Who was Cleopatra? for this challenge.

I read Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time by Jennifer Wright, about the social history of the Gilded Age.

>2 Robertgreaves:

I read After 1177 BC by Eric H. Cline about a year ago.

I liked it a lot - I hope you do too!

I read his 1177 BC about 10 years ago and found it very interesting and thought-provoking.

Starting The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor

May thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/383664#n9177339

This one I've finished, I read on Kindle, I think there's a hardback version that (I think) is more like a coffee table book with lots of colour plates, with my one the images were at the back and the chapters were just text.

I finished American Sirens which was a recounting of the first paramedic team in the US.

I finished Rome's Greatest Defeat by Adrian Murdoch.

COMPLETED The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor

My review:

Did stories of Amazons reflect growing Greek awareness of steppe dwellers, who, archaeology tells us, followed a horse-based nomadic lifestyle where both women and men could function as warriors and rulers?

The first half was very dry and although it was written in connected prose, the information could just as well have been presented in the form of lists of excavated tombs, their occupants, and the accompanying objects, and parallel features from stories about Amazons.

The second half, which moved from the Hellenistic West all the way Eastward to China exploring both written and oral legends and history, was more interesting.

Although the author doesn't make it explicit, the book does give the reader much to think about in terms of how social factors influence gender roles.

BTW >1 AnishaInkspill: do we have a WIKI?

>18 Robertgreaves: re WIKI: is this something that needs to be setup, or something I should have done? Sorry I didn't know, and I don't know how to do this. Any advise?

re: the book, I'm interested in this one, thanks for the pointer.

>19 AnishaInkspill: It should already be set up, you just need to include a link to it in your first post - and a link in the wiki to this thread. You can find a link to a page with the whole year's worth of wikis in the planning thread.

>20 Robertgreaves: thanks, I found it, and will do

I'm also adding this in to >1 AnishaInkspill:, in the meantime here's the wiki link https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2026_NonfictionCAT#April:_History_.26_An...

I read Glory Road by Bruce Catton, the second book in his trilogy on The Army of the Potomac, about the Civil War.

>21 AnishaInkspill: ummm, do you realise that you are scheduled to host the ArtsCAT for May? Sorry if you've already got it in hand

>24 Robertgreaves: I am putting that together now, and no apology needed, I still feel like a newbie so appreciated

I have finished Erebus : The Story of a Ship where Michael Palin follows the famous sailing ship from its launch to its rediscovery in the frozen North.

I read two memoirs written by Bosnian genocide survivors:

Lauf, Mädchen, lauf! by Mirsada Simchen-Kahrimanović
Srebrenica. Kein Vergessen. Kein Vergeben. by Hasan Hasanović