Today’s TTT is books we couldn’t wait to get and have not read. But first, The Tuesday Tease!
Odysseus openly laughed. ‘Oh my goodness, you’ve never seen such a
rocky, scrubby, barren, unforgiving spot,’ he said. ‘It’s all our farmers can
do to grow weeds there, let alone cereals and fruit. We have the sourest
wine, the raggediest sheep, the scrawniest cattle of any island in the wide
Ionian Sea. Trees and houses are blown down every year in the gales. Some
years, the rain never comes, and the earth turns to sand. Other years, the
whole island slops with mud. Believe me, Ithaca is no Ogygia. But it’s
something else … it’s …’ His eyes now filled with tears and the word came
out hoarsely, ‘… home.’ ODYSSEY, Stephen Fry.
In the last week I’ve listened to a 3-part podcast on the Odyssey by The Rest is History, as well as attached Troy and The Odyssey with Armand Assant.
So, Books I’ve Bought But Not Yet Read….
(1) GIRLS: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything, Freya India. The only reason I haven’t devoured this has been the presidential fixation and the fact that this is a book I really need to focus and sit with, unlike presidential biographies which are a lot more casual even when they’re thought-provoking.
(2) Lee in the Shadow of Washington, Richard McCaslin. A study of Robert E. Lee and George Washington, particularly how the life of Washington dominated Lee — both because he was married to a Washington relation, the Custis family, but because for Lee Washington was The Model Gentleman.
(3) Vendetta: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa. I am reading this one. Slowly, but reading it.
(4) The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865. Ordered this at the start of the year for America @ 250 reading, but then Nixon and Kennedy took over.
(5) The Civil War: An Aerial Portrait. I could knock this out in an hour; it’s just photos of battlefields.
(6) Caesar: Life of a Colossus, Adrian Goldsworthy. I was REALLY in a Roman mood when I bought this. The mood exited stage left, pursued by a Praetorian.
(7) Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl. Huh, where did I put this?
(8) One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream. I was reading this two weeks ago, where did I put it? It’s a big book, too, not easy to lose…
(9) Historic Pensacola (Colonial Towns and Cities of the Atlantic World). Hoping to go back to P-Cola in September; maybe I’ll read this then.
(10) The Atlas of Beauty: Women of the World in 500 Portraits. I bought this thinking it was kinda like Humans of New York, but it’s mostly pictures. I could knock it out in an hour, I just…haven’t.
Reading Freely 
Interested to hear what you think of the ‘Girls’ book. Its on my Wish List but I’m waiting for it to drop in paperback – unless I’m *really* lucky and its already in my Indie shop (visiting next week).
I’m a huge fan of her substack — it’s one of the few I’m financially subbed to, instead of just following for free posts — so I imagine I’ll love it.
Cool. I’ve been a critic of creeping commodification for a LONG while now so I look forward to reading her ideas on it.
I have only read #7. Powerful. I hope you can find it soon, lol.
I had to do something special today, alas: https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/07/28/top-ten-books-by-keigo-higashino-1958-2026/
Girls sounds like an interesting read for sure.
I hope you enjoy all of these 🙂
I am more into historical fiction than nonfiction and the Civil War era has always interested me so I can get the appeal of those books for sure!
My Post:
https://thegentlechapter.blog/2026/07/28/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-have-not-read-yet-but-had-to-have/
Adrian Goldsworthy’s books are so dense, too! I’ve read one or two and they were good, but they definitely needed the right mood.
I recently read Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey. She had a 3 hour introduction that I enjoyed way more than the book itself! I will check out that podcast, it sounds cool!
Rest is History is PHENOM!
Interesting list. I hope you enjoy them when you get to them.
Some of the best books I’ve ever read are huge histories and biographies that were recommended to me. My pattern is to find a copy in a used bookshop and then keep it on my shelf for years until I finally decide to read it, many, many years after the book was first published, often after hearing about it from several people. One example is Team of Rivals, which I read (finally!) last year, first published in 2006.
I enjoyed MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING. I’ve read it a couple of times, but I couldn’t tell you where it is on my bookshelves. It’s somewhere in there…I hope you enjoy all these when you get to them!
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com