First, a tease from God Rest Ye Merry Soldiers: A True Civil War Christmas Story. The book itself quotes a little poem published in a December 1862 paper.
This happened one Christmas, I’m sorry to write
Our ports are blockaded, and Santa to-night
Will hardly get down here; for if he should start
The Yankees would get him unless he was ‘smart’
They beat all the men in creation to run
And if they could get him, they’d think it fine fun
To put him in prison, and steal the nice toys
He started to bring to our girls and boys
Today’s TTT is books on our winter TBR list. Mine are drawn partially from Mount Doom but there are a couple of new ones as well.
(1) The War of 1812, John Mahon. I’m two-thirds through this and expect to finish before the week’s end. It’s an older, comprehensive history of the war that also explores its connections to the Napoleonic and Creek wars.
(2) The Commercial Revolution, 1000 – to 1500. Joseph Gies. Also a mount TBR title that I’m working through.
(3) The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Observatories, J.L. Heilbron. ‘Twould be fitting to read it near the winter Solstice. (Article here featuring Heilbron.)
(4) In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World, Paul Kriawaczek. Another TBR title that was left off the Incomplete Census posted earlier in the year. Should be a nice tip of the hat to the ‘magi from the East’ closer to Epiphany.
(5) America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940, Claude Fischer.
(6) Cool: How Air Conditioner Changed Everything, Salvatore Basile
(7) The Mind of the South, W.J. Cash. On my CC reading list. I’d started a few months back and then gotten sidetracked.
(8) God Rest Ye Merry Soldiers, James McIvor. A Civil War Christmas tale
(9) Scatterling of Africa: My Early Years, Johnny Clegg’s unfinished autobiography.
(10) A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O’Connor. Might as well knock another of the ol’ CC.
Reading Freely 
Hopefully you can get to all of these and topple Mount Doom.
Thanks! I’m very close.
How Air Conditioner Changed Everything sounds like itd be really interesting in its specificity.
It’s proven entertaining so far. I love finding books about how technology changes society and culture. 🙂
All of your books sound very interesting. Good luck in conquering Mount Doom!
Oh cool, I read a ton of civil war books! Sounds like a good TBR! Thanks for dropping in on my post
Oh, have you read A Good Man Is Hard to Find before ? (the story, that is, not the collection) It’s quite something, and I’d be curious to hear your take on it.
I….think? My English 102 class did a section on the Southern Gothic, so we read Flannery and Faulkner (short stories, both), and I BELIEVE the title story was one of the ones we did. All I remember is one story about an old woman reminiscing about “pickaninnies”, and another about a bible salesman with one leg. I wrote a paper on the Bible salesman but I can’t remember a think beyond that. XD This was twenty years ago, mind…I did community college from ’03 to ’05 and then a bachelor from ’07 to ’10. (And now a master’s beginning in ’23, because I don’t follow scripts very well.)
I live in Arizona, so I’m really, REALLY glad air conditioning was invented! I honestly don’t know how people lived here without it. It would be interesting to read the history of it. I hope you enjoy all your picks.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
I’m in Alabama, so I know how you feel!!