When you go as far back as 1200 B.C., it becomes difficult to reconcile history from myth.

And it can be especially difficult when you're talking about ancient Greek history because the monumental collapse of the Bronze Age around 1100 B.C. resulted in a period of dark ages until 800 B.C. Much of the writing that existed before the dark ages were lost.

The little that survived can be found in bits and pieces from certain sources -- and the poetry of Homer.

In "The Trojan War: A New History," Cornell professor Barry Strauss attempts to give a history of that great ancient war using not only those few surviving written sources but also using archeological findings and the things we know about the Greeks other regional cultures of that time period. Plus, there are the texts written after the dark ages period that refer to the mythology (for example, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil).

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This review is by staffer Teresa Cook:

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

Jill Bolte Taylor was a brain scientist, when, at the age of 37, she suffered a massive stroke. But as part of her brain shut down, the other part allowed her to feel a deep inner peace.

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I fell in love with Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief." The minute I finished it, I started reading it again. It has bumped "Charms for The Easy Life" by Kaye Gibbons to No. 2 on my all-time favorite books list.

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Review by Joan McInnis

"War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq" By Richard Engel. Simon & Schuster, New York. c. 2008.

You know his face and voice from the NBC nightly news reports about the war in Iraq, and now Richard Engel has put his experiences on paper for a vivid and horrifying tale of what it has been like to cover the war since it began.

In the process the reader comes to know the man as well as the reporter and what toll
his coverage has exacted. His marriage ended in divorce; he narrowly escaped kidnapping, lost fellow reporters to sudden death, and had his hotel room blown up around him as a suicide bomber struck his hotel.

It was no wonder the constant violence led to burn out.

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One of the book clubs I belong to (yes, I'm a dork and belong to two) read "One Red Paperclip" by Kyle MacDonald this month. It tells the story of a 20-something in Canada who traded his way up from a paper clip to a house in a year's time.

I missed the book club meeting, but I heard the reviews were mixed. I enjoyed the tale and the life lessons MacDonald incorporates along the way. Others thought it was just another guy-gets-lucky Internet story.

I went to check the Web site today, and apparently now he and his girlfriend are trying to trade their house for something else.

You can ask him about that yourself when he comes to speak at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg on September 23. Here's the information.

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Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" is the 1927 novel that the recent Oscar-winning film "There Will Be Blood" is loosely based upon.

Probably the most obvious difference is that, in "Oil!", the main character is "Bunny," the son of the book's central oil man, J. Arnold Ross.

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Voni Grimes recounts his long life in his autobiography "Bridging Troubled Waters."

Voni B. Grimes, respected community leader, has labored for months to write about his long life.

The result is a 90-page book with more than 20 photos of a life well lived.

For details, see: New book gives insight into community leader Voni B. Grimes at York Town Square blog.

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Windsor's centennial book is a snapshot - well, hundreds of them - of small-town life in York County.

A 300-plus page history book packed with photos can tell much about a town.

This 100th-anniversary book of Windsor borough provides a busy side of a town that seemingly can best be described as sleepy.

For long post on this thick book, view: Windsor: Home of 'stately old houses that may appear to be miniature castles' at York Town Square.

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While I’m entrenched in Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!”, I figured I’d add a review of yet another book in Canongate’s myths series.

In his contribution to the series, Alexander McCall Smith tells the tale of Angus (or Aengus), the Celtic god of dreams.

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Daisy Myers' "Sticks 'N Stones," Mary Hamilton's "Rising from the Wilderness," and Carol McCleary Innerst's "York College of Pennsylvania" are three books that merit reading this summer - or any time of year.

For more details, see: Central Pennsylvania histories make smart part of summer reading stack over at sister blog, York Town Square.

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