Today’s treble T is books we hope Santy Clause leaves, or bookish wishes in general.  The compulsory gift-giving is my least favorite part of Christmas, at least when small children aren’t involved – especially when absurd scenarios like adults taking turns giving each other gift cards surfaces. Those things are a scam, in my opinion –  some of them don’t even let you wipe the card, so you have to be careful about what you buy so that you use up as much of the gift amount as you can. Anyhoo, I’m going to list the last ten books I added to my Goodreads wanna-read shelf, starting from most recent and working backwards.    A couple of these were added not by me, but by goodreads when I entered giveaways for them.  I don’t add books to this list often – my mental TBR is bigger and far more hazy – and  it’s funny to look back and see my Roman history mood from the late summer be replaced by a mid-19th century history mood that reigns at present.

But first, a tease!

Tuesday Teaser

When [Stephen Douglas’] mother remarried Gehazi Granger in late 1830, she moved to his upstate New York home, accompanied by seventeen-year-old Stephen, who entered Canandaigua Academy.There, Douglas made lasting friendships rooted in mischief, including furtive poetry recitations enlivened by whiffs of nitrous oxide.

To say that Stephen Douglas lived and breathed politics is to make apt use of a stale cliche. He scheduled his wedding for the narrow window between the 1856 election and the opening of a new session of Congress — after courting his Adele Curtis on the campaign trail. – ARGUING UNTIL DOOMSDAY

(1) The Birth of Modern Politics:  Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams,  and the Election of 1828,  Lynn Hudson Parsons

(2)  Arguing Until Doomsday: Stephen Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and the Struggle for American Democracy, Michael E. Wood

(3)  A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community, Nicole Etcheson

(4) Storm Tide, Paul Doiron. (Hey! A non-history title!)

(5)  Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, Katja  Hoyer

(6) The Crossroads,  CJ Box.

(7) Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era , Mike Bunn

(8)  A Rome of One’s Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire, Emma Southon

(9) Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece ,  A. H. Robin Waterfield
(10)  The Eagle and the Lion: Rome, Persia and an Unwinnable Conflict,  Adrian Goldsworthy