Erin O'Connor, over at Critical Mass (a daily read for me), has taken up the torch on the reading list that I started below and pulled in some really great comments and made some very interesting looking recommendations herself. Thanks, Erin, for your kind recognition and for more than tripling my summer reading list!
I'm going to add four more suggestions here:
One, the books of Allan Mallinson, serving Brigadier General in her Majesty's Calvary. His first book, A Close Run Thing, is a good place to start. Basically, Gen. Mallinson tries to do for the Calvary during the Napoleonic wars what O'Brian did for the Navy. Not as well done as O'Brian, but highly diverting. Side note, as a result of these books and their covers, my daughter believed until very recently that any man on a horse was a "Dragoon".
Second, I really enjoyed the Walking Drum, by Louis L'Amour. I don't know how good the history really is, but it's a great read.
Alexandre Dumas. Read him in French if you can. If you can't, no matter, the Three Musketeers is still one of my all time favorite pieces of historical fiction.
Finally, another straight history recommendation: Low Life : Lures and Snares of Old New York, by Luc Sante. This is a terrifically readable book about the Lower East Side of New York and the criminals, swindlers, con-men, and prostitutes who lived there.
Happy reading!
Posted by Random Penseur at June 9, 2004 08:06 AM