What are you currently reading ?

Started by goat major, 03 November 2012, 06:40:05 PM

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Techno

Well done that man..... :-bd

I've found it in the Elizabethan dictionary now.  :)
Cheers - Phil

Leman

"Retreat and Rearguard 1914" by Jerry Murland. This is quite an in-depth account of the BEF's retreat from Mons to the Marne. It covers the lesser encounters with the pursuing Germans as well as the likes of Mons and Le Cateau, and is thus a great source of historical small-action scenarios. It also makes extensive use of first hand accounts which provide a great deal of atmosphere. It is well written and moves at a cracking pace, almost like a novel in places. For me it has been a great find. I got it as a Kindle version.
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Techno

Listening to "Treason's Harbour" by Patrick O'Brian.

I'll swear I've twice heard the word "Scotchman" (sic).......Historically accurate use, by the Naval Officers around the time of the Napoleonic Wars ?

Cheers - Phil

FierceKitty

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Chris Pringle

Was reading Mike Embree's new book on the Italian campaigns of 1848-49, "Radetzky's Marches" ...

... and then I left it on a plane yesterday.  :'(

Chris
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toxicpixie

Oh man, at sixty quid a pop that's got to smart :S
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kipt

Finished "Napoleon; A Life" by Andrew Roberts.  Very interesting anecdotes about Napoleon's life and the events and peoples he influenced.  Long book, 810 pages, so it took awhile.  Not heavily military, but enough for this book.  Some military passages I take a little exception to, however.

All in all, very worthwhile, even though I have many others on the Emperor.

Westmarcher

Just finished reading another of my cheap purchases on a recent visit to the USA,
"711, Ursneuvil: Bqy the Enilcepu Qwvurcih the 72 and Yqp the Lixqmwvcqpels 680." by Vbqneu F. Emmip.

"What is this gobbledygook" you may ask. For fans of Turn: Washington's Spies (American TV series), it will not surprise you that this is Benjamin Tallmadge's code for "George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War." by Thomas B. Allen.

As the title indicates, this is about the espionage war in that conflict.

Turn fans, do you remember Anna Strong hanging her laundry in certain ways to tell fellow spies the location of the cove where a Culper spy Ring message awaits? This really happened. Does the name Roderigue Hortalez and Company mean anything to you? This is the fake firm set up by the French to supply the colonists with guns and other military supplies before France entered the war.

When I started reading it, the style of writing reminded me of a Ladybird book and sure enough a quick flick to the back revealed that it had received various 'children's' as well as adult book accolades (e.g., American Library Assoc. Best Book for Young Adults 2005). However, do not let that put you off because the book is packed with stories of spy rings, individual spies and their successes and failures, methods of passing on secret messages (including Benjamin Tallmadge's code book) and so on.

Special care has also been taken to give the book a period feel. For starters, the book is set in a digital version of Caslon Antique, a typeface designed in the 1720's and all the rage in Europe and the American Colonies up to (and beyond) the American Revolution. It's also well illustrated with black and white reproductions of archival art and Harness's charming pen and ink sketches. Even the chapter titles are historically appropriate, such as "Franklin's French Friends. IN WHICH a wise man from Philadelphia goes to Paris and outfoxes spies of two nations."

A fascinating read and certainly made me think how much of a game changer the intelligence war was in that conflict. Next time I read about any of the campaigns in that theatre, I can see myself referring to this book if no mention is made of the intelligence aspect by the author of the book I am then reading.
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SV52

'A Few Acres of Snow' - French and Indian War.  Something I've no particular interest in but someone kindly gifted me the book  ;)
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Techno

Listening to "The far side of the World".....Patrick O'Brian.
Seems to be the direct follow on of the last one I was listening to.
Very Enjoyable.

Cheers - Phil

fsn

I'm re-reading HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean.

Harrowing stuff ... but gripping.
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freddy326

Just finishing a Kindle freebie about the 30 years war by Peter Wilson and then will be starting a re-read of the 3 volume epic that is The History of the Panzerkorps Grossdeutschland!

cameronian

Mike Embree's 'The Campaign in West and South Germany', a cracking read and beautifully produced, really nice.
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Steve J

stuart Reid's '1745, the Jacobite Rebellion from a Military Perspective'. So far an excellent read and perfect background info for our Honours of War games.

Leman

1632 - What happens when a slice of C21st West Virginia mining country suddenly gets transposed with a piece of C17th Germany, and the mining community finds itself dumped into the Thirty Years War. Very entertaining hokum, e.g. the black doctor is accepted as a Moor practising Arab medicine, so he can be trusted. An old man of the time regales the West Virginians with his stories of visiting the Globe in his youth and meeting Shakespeare, but then shocks them by telling them that the Bard may have had a hand in some of the poorer plays, but the great ones were written by the Earl of Oxford, but he could not admit to this owing to his social standing.
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