4 Likes
An excellent, creative, intelligent book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
1 Like
Quite a change of pace from my previous read and aimed at tweens but what the heck. 
1 Like
Thanks. Just added it to the Libby wait list. Maybe by Christmas.
1 Like
I watched the mini-series remake of this recently. I had read this book probably 45 years ago, so I was curious what I remembered and whether the new series was accurate. Parts follow the book and other parts don’t, which is to be expected. The internal dialog from the book is almost completely absent. It is a long read at over 1,000 pages, and very immersive.
RJ
6 Likes
It took me 3 tries over 10 or more years to finally get past page 100. As you described, I was rewarded with a highly engaging and immersive experience.
For me, the most difficult challenge was understanding all the Japanese terminology thrown about in the book. Words, names, places still in existence and those not. I used the internet to download a pdf dictionary collated by other fans, which helped immensely in moving forward with and gaining better comprehension of the novel.
This worked as well with William Gibson’s “Cyberpunk” trilogy which is loaded with all sorts of terminology and slang.
Yale University Professor of History Ned Blackhawk
Winner of the 2023 National Book Award in Nonfiction • Finalist for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Award in History • Winner of 2024 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction • Winner of the 2024 Mark Lynton History Prize
Named a best book of 2023 by New Yorker, Esquire, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble
A New York Times Notable Book of 2023 • A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction of 2023 • An NPR “Book We Love” for 2023
“Eloquent and comprehensive. . . . In the book’s sweeping synthesis, standard flashpoints of U.S. history take on new meaning.”—Kathleen DuVal, Wall Street Journal
“In accounts of American history, Indigenous peoples are often treated as largely incidental—either obstacles to be overcome or part of a narrative separate from the arc of nation-building. Blackhawk . . . [shows] that Native communities have, instead, been inseparable from the American story all along.”—Washington Post Book World, “Books to Read in 2023”
A sweeping and overdue retelling of U.S. history that recognizes that Native Americans are essential to understanding the evolution of modern America
The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, as a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America.
Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non‑Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century. In this transformative synthesis he shows that
• European colonization in the 1600s was never a predetermined success;
• Native nations helped shape England’s crisis of empire;
• the first shots of the American Revolution were prompted by Indian affairs in the interior;
• California Indians targeted by federally funded militias were among the first casualties of the Civil War;
• the Union victory forever recalibrated Native communities across the West;
• twentieth-century reservation activists refashioned American law and policy.
Blackhawk’s retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America.
4 Likes
I could not stop reading this book.
Hilarious illustrations.
I learned of the book on Brian Keating’s Into The Impossible podcast.
Only about 90 pages in. Damn i hope this works. 
The big booklet full of notes and photos that is within the Mosaic Records box set “Classic Black & White Jazz Sessions.”
1 Like
Yah my girlfriend has a copy of Indistractable and I was planning on reading that next. Johan Hari is kind of critical of Nir Eyal in Stolen Focus, so i’ll go in a skeptic, too. 
Picked this up, along with “A Streetcar Named Desire”, for a dollar. Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neil and Edward Albee are my favorites among American playwrights; all of which are easily found for pennies in the local thrift stores. Very fast reads for this hot summer and a nice change from the laborious novels I usually enjoy.
2 Likes
What do you think of the book?
Towles is a superstar author in my opinion.
1 Like
I am enjoying it.
It is a first novel but the author shows promise IMO. Thematically similar as the reviews have said to Diane Gabaldon’s Outlander series as it involves a woman displaced in time although not nearly as long as any of her novels. I’m finding pre-Plague Siena an interesting locale. Haven’t gotten more than a 100 pages into it so I don’t know if we get to the onset of the Plague itself but she gives the reader a good feel for medieval Italy.