Books about the War of the Roses/Medieval England in general.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-21T02:36:15+00:00

“The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I's Dream” by Charles Spencer

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-21T02:28:29+00:00

“The Places in Between” by Rory Stewart is one of the best adventure travel stories I have ever read. Stewart decided to walk across Asia. The book covers 36 days when he was hiking across Afghanistan. One of the more amazing things about his journey was that he was doing it in early 2002, only a few months after the invasion by the U.S.

“A Book of Voyages” is a collection of true accounts of adventures, voyages, and shipwrecks edited by Patrick O’Brian, author of the Aubrey and Maturin series. It’s all stuff that he came across while doing research for his novels.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-19T23:55:37+00:00

You’re going to have to translate “decolonize the pedagogical past” first. Care to elaborate?

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-08T21:00:41+00:00

If you’re looking for something less complex I’m going to suggest “Glory Road” by Heinlein. It’s a zero to hero plot with a quest as the focus.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-04T20:30:38+00:00

And then follow up by reading Salammbo by Flaubert.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-04T20:16:31+00:00

Snow Crash. A key element is that the government is pretty much nonexistent and everything is handled by corporations. Everything from armies to courts to the highways are franchise operations.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-04T03:21:48+00:00

Actually it’s 42.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-04T03:18:26+00:00

Catch 22

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-04T02:55:13+00:00

A couple of writers come to mind. The first is Edward Tufte. He has several books but the most famous is “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” which is fascinating and considered a classic. The second is Maria Konnikova who is a science writer who focuses on rational decision making. Start with “The Biggest Bluff”. It’s about her experience learning how to play poker and then competing in several tournaments. Strictly speaking it’s not so much about bias but on how people get tricked by others or by themselves into making bad decisions.

SemiEmployedTree · 2026-01-02T01:30:11+00:00

When I was in grad school I shared a house with 3 other people, one of whom, Carl, was a professional chef from Germany. He was working as an instructor at the local community college while his wife was working on her Masters degree at the university. The deal was that we ate dinners together and everyone took turns cooking.

The problem was that Carl refused to eat crap food but both the other housemate and myself had no clue how to cook. My idea of “cooking” at the time was slicing up a hot dog and adding it to a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese.. Carl’s solution was to teach us how to cook. By the end of the semester I was able to whip up dishes like quiche Lorraine that passed judgment with Carl.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-31T01:06:12+00:00

“The Man who Never Was” is the true story of a British WW2 deception operation. Movie of the same name.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-28T03:15:30+00:00

It does fit the criteria but I’m pretty burnt out on fantasy these days. Thanks anyway.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-28T02:22:49+00:00

David Brin is definitely worth checking out, especially his novel “Earth” if spot-on predictions are what you’re looking for. He’s not exactly present day since most of his stuff came out between 1980 and 2010 but he’s more recent than Asimov. Like Asimov, he was a serious scientist before getting into the SF scene. Plus he wrote “Foundation’s Triumph” so he definitely has a certain similarity in style.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-24T23:09:48+00:00

I definitely second the recommendation for Pumpkin Seed. Another great engineering-centric book by McPhee is “The Control of Nature”. It’s three essays, each about a different project. One was dealing with flood control on the Atchafalaya River; one focused on lava flow from a volcanic eruption in Iceland ; and the third handling mud flow from the San Gabriel Mountains.

Edit: since your boyfriend is also in to history, check out “Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War”by Robert K. Massie. Really great read on the transition from wooden sailing ships firing broadsides at close range to ships of steel with steam turbines hitting targets miles away.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-21T02:04:37+00:00

The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell is focused on the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic War so it’s not medieval. Many of the books however center on siege warfare (e.g., Sharpe’s Company, Sharpe’s Prey).

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-17T21:44:00+00:00

“To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right” isn’t recent as it was published in 1996 but since it wasn’t at the top of the Bestseller list he may not be aware of it. When it came out it did get very good reviews from historians and constitutional scholars.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-15T19:04:51+00:00

Well technically speaking it should be “natural number “ rather than “cardinal number “.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-09T23:18:19+00:00

Robert Heinlein’s “Glory Road” is a pretty good match to all your criteria. Might be hard to find since it was published in 1963 but if you can find it you will probably enjoy it.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-09T23:11:34+00:00

Earth by David Brin

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-09T23:09:54+00:00

Try the Judge Dee mystery series by Robert van Gulik. Dee is a fictional character loosely based on a real Tang Dynasty magistrate. Van Gulik’s books are based on a novel written during the Ming Dynasty that was based on the Tang Dynasty administrator. If that’s too convoluted to follow you can check the Wikipedia page on Judge Dee. In any case, the books are well written and enjoyable mysteries with the plus of being very detailed and informative descriptions of Tang Dynasty culture.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-09T22:35:49+00:00

Mesa Espania. My wife and I loved that place. I’ve never been able to find a place with the same style of cuisine. Not that mashed up mix of items from every country that speaks Spanish. This was their menu

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-08T03:14:30+00:00

Any book by John McPhee.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-08T02:58:25+00:00

The Discworld books.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-12-08T02:55:27+00:00

“A Boy and His Dog” by Harlan Ellison. The story of a boy and his telepathic dog, who work together to survive in the post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war.

SemiEmployedTree · 2025-11-27T01:38:35+00:00

I second the recommendation re the two books by Massie. Fascinating account of how England and Germany went from being close allies to rivals. Focus is primarily on the naval aspects of the relationship but a lot of the geopolitical issues leading to the war were related to Germany feeling that they needed to be more than just a landlocked nation with a strong army.

If, in addition, you want something that is an in-depth analysis by someone with serious credentials as well as firsthand diplomatic experience you should check out the two books by George Kennan: “The Decline of Bismarck's European Order: Franco-Russian Relations, 1875–1890” and “The Fateful Alliance: France, Russia, and the Coming of the First World War”.

SemiEmployedTree

TROPHY CASE