11/17/08 David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War 7/10
10/21/08 Neal Stephenson's Anathem 9/10
10/8/08 Rick Atkinson's The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 9/10
10/8/08 Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo 8.5/10
9/10/08 David Weber and Eric Flint's 1634: The Baltic War 7/10
9/10/08 Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian 7/10
8/19/08 C.J. Sansome's Sovereign 8/10
8/19/08 Max Brooks' World War Z 8.5/10
8/19/08 John Scalzi's The Last Colony 7/10
8/19/08 John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades 7.5/10
8/5/08 John Scalzi's Old Man's War 8/10
8/5/08 Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark 5.5/10
7/28/08 Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 7/10
7/28/08 Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl 7/10
6/30/08 Tom Neale and Noel Barber's An Island to Oneself 8.5/10
6/30/08 Anthony Everitt's Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor 5/10
6/6/08 C.J. Sansom's Dark Fire 8/10
6/6/08 Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 9/10
5/23/08 Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind 7/10
5/23/08 Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar: Life of a Colossus 8.5/10
5/15/08 Charles R. Morris' The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy 6.5/10
4/29/08 Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand 6/10
4/29/08 Jonathan Harris' Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium 7/10
4/29/08 C.J. Sansom's Dissolution 7.5/10
4/11/08 Jim Butcher's Small Favor 8/10
Above this point, detailed reviews are available in the
republic.org blogs
3/31/08 John Varley's Red Lightning 7/10
3/31/08 Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth 7.5/10
3/31/08 Frances Saunders' The Devil's Broker: Seeking Gold, God and Glory in Fourteenth Century Italy 7/10
3/31/08 John Steele Gordon's An Empire of Wealth 6/10
3/31/08 Terry Pratchett's Making Money 8.5/10
3/31/08 Steven Runciman's The Sicilian Vespers 8.5/10
3/31/08 Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid 8/10
3/31/08 Susan Cooper's Greenwitch 6.5/10
3/31/08 Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising 6.5/10
3/31/08 Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone 6.5/10
3/31/08 Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife 6.5/10
3/31/08 Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass 7.5/10
3/31/08 Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle 7/10
3/31/08 Norman Cantor's The Civilization of the Middle Ages 8.5/10
3/31/08 Mark Arax & Rick Wartzman's The King of California 7/10
3/31/08 Jason Goodwin The Janissary Tree 8/10
3/31/08 Jasper FForde The Eyre Affair 7/10
3/31/08 Peter Heather The Fall of the Roman Empire 8/10
3/31/08 David Damrosch's The Buried Book 8/10
3/31/08 Lord Kinross The Ottoman Centuries 8.5/10
6/21/07 Charles Stross' Singularity Sky 7.5/10
6/21/07 Garrett Mattingly's The Armada 8.5/10
6/21/07 Richard Morgan's Market Forces 6.5/10
6/21/07 Don Bassingthwaite's The Killing Song 6.5/10
6/21/07 Don Bassingthwaite's The Grieving Tree 6.5/10
6/21/07 Don Bassingthwaite's The Binding Stone 6/10
6/21/07 Keith Baker's The City of Towers 5.5/10
6/21/07 Tim Powers' Declare 5.5/10
6/21/07 R. Scott Bakker's The Darkness that Comes Before 6/10
4/8/07 C.V. Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War 9/10
4/8/07 Bernard DeVoto's Across the Wide Missouri 8/10
4/8/07 Robert Harris' Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome 7/10
4/8/07 Stephen Mitchell's Gilgamesh: A New English Version 7/10
4/8/07 Stephen Hunter's Havana 7.5/10
4/8/07 Stephen Hunter's Time to Hunt 8/10
4/8/07 Lee Child's Killing Floor 5.5/10
4/8/07 Richard Morgan's Broken Angels 7/10
4/8/07 Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon 7.5/10
4/8/07 Peter L. Bernstein's Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation 7/10
4/8/07 Glen Cook's The Tyranny of the Night 6/10
4/8/07 Mary Gentle's Carthage Ascendant: The Book of Ash #2 3.5/10
4/8/07 Mary Gentle's A Secret History: The Book of Ash #1 5/10
4/8/07 Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis' 1635: The Cannon Law 6/10
4/8/07 Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis' 1634: The Galileo Affair 6.5/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Proven Guilty 7.5/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Dead Beat 8/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Blood Rites 7/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Death Masks 7.5/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Summer Knight 7.5/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Grave Peril 7.5/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Fool Moon 7.5/10
4/8/07 Jim Butcher's Storm Front 7/10
1/5/07 Eric Flint (and others) Ring of Fire 6.5/10
1/5/07 Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides 7/10
1/5/07 Iain Banks' Excession 7/10
1/5/07 Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon 4/10
1/5/07 William C. Dietz' For Those Who Fell 7/10
1/5/07 William C. Dietz' For More Than Glory 7/10
1/5/07 John Julius Norwich's The Middle Sea 7/10
1/5/07 Stephen Runciman's The Sicilian Vespers 8/10
1/5/07 Lauro Martines' April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici 6.5/10
1/5/07 Richard Matheson's I Am Legend 7/10
1/5/07 Naomi Novik's Black Powder War 8.5/10
1/5/07 Naomi Novik's Throne of Jade 8/10
1/5/07 Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon 8/10
1/5/07 Susanna Clarke's Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 9/10
**
5/27/06 Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb 8.5/10
5/27/06 Bart D. Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why 7/10
3/10/06 Robert Charles Wilson's Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century 5.5/10
3/10/06 Diana Preston's The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 7.5/10
3/10/06 Neal Stephenson's The System of the World 7.5/10
12/25/05 J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 7.5/10
12/25/05 Terry Pratchett's Thud 8/10
12/25/05 George Packer's The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq 7.5/10
12/25/05 Magnus Magnusson's Scotland: The Story of a Nation 8/10
10/21/05 Robert Caro's The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York 9/10
5/7/05 Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Queen of the South 7.5/10
5/7/05 Contested Eden: California Before the Gold Rush edited by Ramon A. Gutierrez and Richard J. Orsi 7.5/10
5/7/05 Howard Fast's Masuto: the Hollywood Murders 7/10
5/7/05 Howard Fast's Masuto Investigates 7/10
5/7/05 Jo Ann Levy's They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush 7/10
5/7/05 H.W. Brands' The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream 7/10
5/7/05 Iain Pears' The Bernini Bust 6/10
5/7/05 On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar edited by Katherine Kurtz 5.5/10
5/7/05 Terry Pratchett's Going Postal 8/10
11/20/04 Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky 7.5/10
11/20/04 Barbara Hambly's Wet Grave 6/10
11/20/04 Charles De Lint's Wolf Moon 6/10
11/20/04 Michael Alexander Eisner's The Crusader 6/10
11/20/04 George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War 7.5/10
11/20/04 Graham E. Fuller's The Future of Political Islam 5.5/10
11/20/04 John Julius Norwich's The Normans in Sicily 8.5/10
10/6/04 Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 8/10
10/6/04 John Julius Norwich's Byzantium: The Apogee 9/10
10/6/04 John Julius Norwich's Byzantium: The Early Centuries 9/10
9/17/04 William H. McNeill's Plagues and Peoples 6.5/10
9/17/04 John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice 8.5/10
9/17/04 Mario Livio's The Golden Ratio 7/10
9/17/04 Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven 7.5/10
7/25/04 Neal Stephenson's The Confusion 8/10
7/25/04 Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule 5.5/10
7/25/04 Niall Ferguson's Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power 8.5/10
7/25/04 Isaac Asmiov's I, Robot 6/10
7/25/04 Bart Ehrman's Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament 7/10
7/25/04 Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything 8/10
7/25/04 Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City 7/10
4/22/04 John Julius Norwich's Shakespeare's Kings 8.5/10
4/22/04 Donald Kagan's The Peloponnesian War 7/10
4/22/04 Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Alexander: Child of a Dream 7.5/10
2/4/04 H.N. Turteltaub's Over the Wine-Dark Sea 7/10
2/4/04 Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them 7.5/10
2/4/04 John Julius Norwich's A Short History of Byzantium 9.5/10
12/18/03 Dan Brown's The Davinci Code 6/10
12/18/03 Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment 8/10
12/18/03 Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver 8.5/10
12/18/03 Margaret Macmillan's Paris 1919 7/10
9/27/03 McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon 5/10
9/27/03 J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 5.5/10
9/27/03 Ross King's Ex-Libris 5/10
9/27/03 Peter F. Hamilton's The Naked God Part One: Flight 7/10
9/27/03 Peter F. Hamilton's The Neutronium Alchemist Part Two: Conflict 7.5/10
9/27/03 Peter F. Hamilton's The Neutronium Alchemist Part One: Consolidation 7/10
9/27/03 Peter F. Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction Part Two: Expansion 7.5/10
9/27/03 Peter F. Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction Part One: Emergence 8/10
7/10/03 Laurell K. Hamilton's Cerulean Sins 4.5/10
6/26/03 Beryl Markham's West with the Night 7/10
6/10/03 Joe Haldeman's The Forever War 7.5/10
6/10/03 Joe Haldeman's forever peace 7/10
6/10/03 Anita Brenner & George R. Hamilton's The Wind that Swept Mexico 7/10
6/10/03 Mark E. Rogers' Zorachus 6/10
5/21/03 Steven Brust's Issola 6.5/10
5/21/03 Laurell K. Hamilton's Narcissus in Chains 6/10
5/21/03 Mark Kurlansky's Salt: A World History 6/10
3/31/03 David Weber (& Eric Flint)'s Changer of Worlds: Worlds of Honor #3 6.5/10
3/31/03 Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion 8/10
3/31/03 James Reston Jr.'s Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade 8/10
3/31/03 David Fischer's The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rythms of History 6.5/10
3/31/03 Caleb Carr's The Lessons of Terror 6.5/10
3/31/03 Dorothy Dunnett's Scales of Gold 7.5/10
3/31/03 Dorothy Dunnett's Race of Scorpions 8/10
2/12/03 David Rakoff's Fraud 7.5/10
2/12/03 Terry Pratchett's Night Watch 8/10
2/12/03 Jill Lepore's A is for American 6/10
1/31/03 Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay 8/10
1/31/03 Stephen Hunter's Pale Horse Coming 6/10
1/31/03 Geoffrey Regan's Battles that Changed History 7/10
1/31/03 Peter Bernstein's The Power of Gold 5.5/10
1/31/03 Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Fencing Master 7.5/10
1/31/03 Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Flanders Panel 7/10
1/31/03 Charles de Lint's Waifs and Strays 7/10
1/31/03 Michael Curtis Ford's The Ten Thousand 5/10
1/31/03 Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples 6/10
1/31/03 Jeff Shaara's Gods and Generals 6.5/10
11/21/02 Charles de Lint's The Onion Girl 7.5/10
10/26/02 Dorothy Dunnett's Spring of the Ram 7.5/10
10/26/02 Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo Rising 7.5/10
10/4/02 Jack McDevitt's Eternity Road 7/10
10/4/02 Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter 8/10
10/4/02 Robert Asprin's Myth-ion Improbable 6/10
10/4/02 William Shirer's The Nightmare Years 7.5/10
8/20/02 What If? 2, edited by Robert Cowley 6/10
8/20/02 Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man 7.5/10
8/8/02 William Wiser's The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s 7/10
8/8/02 Charles de Lint's Jack of Kinrowan 8/10
8/8/02 Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation 8.5/10
8/8/02 Terry Pratchett's The Last Hero 7.5/10
8/8/02 William Shirer's Twentieth Century Journey 7.5/10
8/8/02 C.S. Forester's Beat to Quarters 6.5/10
6/24/02 Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point 9/10
6/24/02 Kenneth Ackerman's The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday 7/10
6/15/02 Jack Beatty (ed.) Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America 6.5/10
6/15/02 Eugen Weber's The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s 6.5/10
6/10/02 Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Nautical Chart 6/10
6/10/02 Barbara Tuchman's The First Salute 7/10
6/10/02 Terry Pratchett's The Thief of Time 7.5/10
5/7/02 Tom Clancy's The Sum of all Fears 7.5/10
4/27/02 Hans Zinsser's Rats, Lice, and History 8.5/10
4/27/02 Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Like It in the World 6/10
4/09/02 Peter Bowen's Yellowstone Kelly 7.5/10
4/02/02 Piers Brendon's The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s 9/10
3/8/02 Arthur Herman's The Idea of Decline in Western History 7.5/10
2/25/02 Terry Pratchett's FaustEric 7.5/10
2/25/02 Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures 7.5/10
1/27/02 Bernard Lewis' The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam 7.5/10
1/27/02 Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex 8/10
1/06/02 Iain Pears' The Immaculate Deception 6/10
1/06/02 Edmund Morris' The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt 9.5/10
1/06/02 Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman 7/10
1/06/02 Arthur Herman's How the Scots Invented the Modern World 6.5/10
1/06/02 Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha 7.5/10
12/17/01 David Nevin's Eagle's Cry 7/10
11/26/01 Terry Pratchett's Maskerade 7/10
11/26/01 Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies 7/10
11/26/01 Barbara Tuchman's The Zimmermann Telegram 8/10
11/26/01 Terry Pratchett's Small Gods 8/10
11/26/01 Peter Grose's Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain 6.5/10
11/26/01 Terry Pratchett's Soul Music 7.5/10
11/10/01 Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times 7.5/10
11/2/01 Terry Pratchett's Men at Arms 8/10
11/2/01 David Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations 7/10
10/20/01 Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent 7/10
10/09/01 Terry Pratchett's Hogfather 7/10
10/09/01 Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum 6.5/10
10/09/01 Terry Pratchett's Jingo 7/10
9/21/01 Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay 7.5/10
9/21/01 Edmund Blair Bolles' The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age 7/10
9/21/01 Tony Hillerman's Sacred Clowsn 7/10
9/17/01 Terry Pratchett's The Truth 7.5/10
9/17/01 Dave Barry's Big Trouble 8/10
9/11/01 A. Scott Berg's Lindbergh 6.5/10
9/11/01 Terry Pratchett's The Fifth Elephant 6.5/10
9/11/01 Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! 7/10
8/22/01 Terry Pratchett's Pyramids 7.5/10
8/1/01 Chauncy L. Canfield's The Diary of a Forty-Niner 7.5/10
8/1/01 Ken MacLeod's The Cassini Division 6.5/10
8/1/01 Bill Bryson's In A Sunburned Country 7/10
7/17/01 Stephen King's On Writing 7.5/10
7/17/01 Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra 6.5/10
7/17/01 Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games 7.5/10
7/17/01 Katy Munger's Better Off Dead 6/10
7/17/01 Neil Gaiman's American Gods 9/10
7/17/01 Warren Ellis' Come In Alone 7.5/10
7/17/01 Stephen Hunter's Hot Springs 9/10
7/17/01 Ben Bova's Jupiter 5.5/10
7/17/01 Iain M. Banks' Consider Phlebas 7/10
7/17/01 David Holland's Murcheston: The Wolf's Tale 6/10
7/17/01 Iain M. Banks' Inversions 7/10
6/13/01 Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Seville Communion 6/10
6/13/01 Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Susters 7/10
5/26/01 Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters 7/10
5/9/01 Joseph J. Ellis' Founding Brothers 7.5/10
5/5/01 Neal Stephenson's The Big U 8.5/10
4/17/01 Terry Pratchett's Sourcery 7/10
4/17/01 Fergus Fleming's Barrow's Boys 7.5/10
4/17/01 Bill Bryson's I'm A Stranger Here Myself 8/10
3/13/01 Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 7/10
2/26/01 Stephen Levy's Crypto 7/10
2/26/01 Terry Pratchett's Mort 7/10
2/21/01 James Burke's The Pinball Effect 7/10
2/15/01 Rudyard Kipling's Kim 7.5/10
1/26/01 Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac's Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia 7.5/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's Obsidian Butterfly 7.5/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's Blue Moon 7.5/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's Burnt Offerings 6.5/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's The Killing Dance 7/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's Bloody Bones 7/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's The Lunatic Cafe 7.5/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's Circus of the Damned 7/10
1/26/01 Joe R. Lansdale's Mucho Mojo 7/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's The Laughing Corpse 7/10
1/26/01 Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures 7.5/10
1/26/01 Joe R. Lansdale's Bad Chili 7/10
1/26/01 Owen Parry's Faded Coat of Blue 6/10
1/26/01 Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars 7.5/10
**
11/14/00 Janet Gleeson's The Arcanum 7.5/10
11/14/00 Alan Moorehead's The White Nile 7/10
11/4/00 Alan Moorehead's The Blue Nile 7.5/10
10/18/00 Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas 7.5/10
10/18/00 Caleb Carr's The Angel of Darkness 6.5/10
8/28/00 Sean Russell's The Compass of the Soul 6.5/10
8/21/00 Sean Russell's Beneath the Vaulted Hills 7.5/10
8/14/00 L.D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson's Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature 7.5/10
7/31/00 Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates 6.5/10
7/17/00 J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 7.5/10
7/17/00 Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark 6/10
7/5/00 Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites 7/10
7/5/00 Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic 8/10
7/2/00 Walter Jon Williams' Metropolitan 8.5/10
7/2/00 Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic 9/10
6/21/00 John Steinbeck's East of Eden 9/10
6/21/00 Chaim Potok's The Promise 6.5/10
6/21/00 Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire 7/10
6/10/00 Chaim Potok's The Chosen 7.5/10
6/10/00 Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics 8/10
6/4/00 My Favorite Science Fiction Story, edited by Martin H. Greenberg 7/10
6/4/00 David Fraser's Frederick the Great 7/10
5/14/00 Donald Tyson's The Tortuous Serpent 7.5/10
5/7/00 Leo Frankowski's A Boy and his Tank 6.5/10
4/24/00 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 6/10
4/24/00 Iain Pear's An Instance of the Fingerpost 7/10
4/3/00 Bruce Sterling's A Good Old-Fashioned Future 8/10
3/25/00 Richard Stern's Battle Beneath the Waves 7.5/10
3/24/00 Eric Flint & David Drake's In the Heart of Darkness 7/10
3/18/00 Eric Flint & David Drake's An Oblique Approach 7.5/10
2/29/00 Eric Flint's Mother of Demons 8/10
2/29/00 Eric Flint's 1632 8/10
2/19/00 Mary Stewart's The Last Enchantment 7/10
2/19/00 David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper 8/10
2/10/00 Mary Stewart's The Hollow Hills 7.5/10
1/28/00 Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave 7.5/10
1/10/00 Eliyahu Goldratt's The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement 8/10
1/10/00 William Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree 7/10
1/3/00 Michael Bliss's William Osler; A Life in Medicine 7.5/10
1/3/00 Barbara Tuchman's The Zimmerman Telegram 6/10
12/21/99 Allen Steele's A King of Infinite Space 4/10
12/14/99 Hy Bender's The Sandman Companion 7.5/10
12/7/99 Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels 7.5/10
11/29 What If?, essays by military historians, edited by Robert Cowley 8.5/10
11/29 Dale L. Walker's Bear Flag Rising: The Conquest of California, 1846 8.5/10
11/13 Leo Frankowski's Conrad's Quest for Rubber 7.5/10
11/7 Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination 6/10
11/2 Patrick O'Brien's Blue at the Mast 9/10
10/25 J. Gregory Keyes' Newton's Cannon 7/10
9/11 J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 7.5/10
8/30 J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 7/10
8/27 J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 7.5/10
8/23 Mark Kishlansky's A Monarchy Transformed: Britian 1603-1714 6/10
7/29 Gary Kinder's Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea 7.5/10
7/26 Dianne Day's The Strange Files of Fremont Jones 7/10
7/26 Gary Jennings' The Roadshow: Spangle 7/10
7/20 Alexander Hamiltion, John Jay, and James Madison's The Federalist Papers 7.5/10
7/20 Dennis Miller's Ranting Again 6/10
6/29 Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon 8/10
6/29 Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore 7.5/10
6/29 Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly 7.5/10
6/29 Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror 7/10
6/29 S.M. Stirling's Against the Tide of Years 7/10
6/29 S.M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time 7/10
6/29 Neal Stephenson's Zodiac 8.5/10
5/19 Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods 7/10
5/19 Thomas Pakenham's The Scramble: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 8/10
4/20 Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum 5/10
4/12 H.W. Brands' TR: The Last Romantic 7/10
3/31 Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow 4/10
3/7 Steven Saylor's House of the Vestals 7/10
2/28 Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain 5/10
2/16 Bernard Cornwell's Excalibur 8/10
2/6 Bernard Cornwell's Enemy Of God 8.5/10
2/6 Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King 8.5/10
1/14 Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors 8/10
1/4 Robert Ludlum's The Matarese Circle 5/10
1/4 Louis de Bernieres' Corelli's Mandolin 8.5/10
12/22 Cornelius Ryan's The Last Battle 6/10
12/22 Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower 7/10
12/6 Sharon Kay Penman's The Queen's Man 7.5/10
12/6 Len Deighton's Berlin Game 4/10
10/18 Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August 9/10
10/18 Patrick O'Brien's The Hundred Days 8/10
10/6/98 Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent 7/10
10/21/99 Richard Feynman's Six Easy Pieces 7/10
10/6/04 Jon Stewart & the Daily Show cast's America: the Book 7.5/10
11/20/04 Simon Winchester's Krakatoa 7.5/10
5/7/05 Mark Twain by Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, and Ken Burns 8/10
5/7/05 The Great Courses: Herodotus, the Father of History by Elizabeth Vandiver 8/10
5/7/05 The Great Courses: the Illiad of Homer by Elizabeth Vandiver 8/10
5/27/06 Jonathan Harr's The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece 7/10
5/27/06 Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln 7/10
5/27/06 Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare 6/10
5/27/06 David McCullogh's Truman 7/10
A note on the rating scale: It's a scale from 1 to 10; 5 means it was
about equivalent to spending an equal amount of time doing nothing in particular;
below 5 means it was a waste of time, and should be avoided. 7 is enjoyable;
8 or higher is certainly recommended. I know it's a wacky scale - if it's
easier on you, just think of it as a 0-5 scale, with 5 being 0, and having
occasional negative numbers. I have yet to give a ten, though
such personal favorites as Things Fall Apart
rate in the 9.5 area. Yes, I give tenths of points.
Also, the dates are the date that the book in question was added
to this list, not the date upon which I read it. The list starts in 1998.
As a further note, I have started perhaps a fifth more books than are
on this list, and didn't like them enough to finish. This tends to swing
the book ratings here, which are all for books I have completed, higher.
Also, at the interval denoted with an asterisk, republic.org lost several
web pages, including this one, to the malevolent influence of hackers; thus
the entries subsequent to the asterisk were all reconstructed on the same
date.