History

  So many people seem to not enjoy history.
  i think it's in the presentation.
  It's so easy to present history badly, as nothing but dates and battles.
  i admit i can find that fascinating, but really, that's not what it's all about.
  History is as much about people as a novel.

  It's fascinating to hang your events on the dates and see what was going on in China while something else was happening in Europe and something else yet again in Africa and the South Pacific.
  Truman at the same time as McCarthyism.  Kennedy & LBJ as young Senators when Harry was President.
  Earlier this week i read

Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure.

Author Matthew Algeo not only shares with us the Trumans' post presidential trip, but details of his own re-creation of that trip, and dips back and forth into Harry's times.
  It's our book club's selection for next month, but i got confused & read ahead.  i loved learning about all the details and couldn't put it down, though i'm of mixed opinion about the jumpiness of the style.

Novel Style for NonHistory Geeks

  Still, for non-history lovers, this works well.  Katie, author of the blog Sharing Closet Space, writes "that one of the best ways for me to learn about history is through literature. When I read a historical novel, and tie the events to characters and plotlines, it makes the story more real to me."
  As Harry said, "The only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know."
  (And Edmund Burke said, "Those who don't know history are destined  [in some versions, doomed] to repeat it.)