Back to History Challenge

Yourcenar: A near-miss or a future substitute?

The previously unknown to me Shannon, formerly of Shannon's Reading Log and now the host of another blog elsewhere, is graciously sponsoring a Back to History Challenge for 2008 which you can read about here. In essence, the challenge is to read 12 history-themed works (non-fiction or historical fiction) this year and to share the reviews with other history geeks. Since there are no entry fees or fines for starting late, I've decided to accept the challenge and start catching up to the others after spotting them a three months' lead. The following is my tentative list of choices to be read:

History

• Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios (review)
• Fredric L. Cheyette, Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours
• Georges Duby, Le temps des cathedrales: l'art et la société, 980-1420
• Elena Poniatowska, La noche de Tlatelolco
• John Phillip Santos, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation (review)
• Edwin Williamson, Borges: A Life

Historical Fiction

• Radwa Ashour, Granada
• Tomás Eloy Martínez, Santa Evita
• Juan Goytisolo, La reivindicación de Conde Julian
• Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard (review)
• Carme Riera, Dins el darrer blau
• Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird's Daughter

Definite Maybes (Possible Alternates)

• Mariano Azuela, Los de abajo [The Underdogs] (review)
• Roberto Bolaño, Estrella distante [Distant Star] (review)
• Mark Bowden, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw (review)
• Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo (review)
• Gabriella De Ferrari, Gringa Latina (review)
• Francisco Goldman, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? (review)
• Edwin Mullins, The Pilgrimage to Santiago (review)
• Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (review)
• Roberto Saviano, Gomorrah (review)