What are you currently reading ?

[KTravlos]

Finisnhed my reading/skimming of Hovannisian's Four Volume Republic of Armenia (each volume 400-500 pages). I do need a break from such heavy reading.

A fascinating work, though it could had been told in three volumes.

Lessons from it
1) Small states (Armenia) really should not threaten other small states (Georgia) when Great Powers and medium powers are around to gobble you up. Whenever a small state joins in the dismemberment of another small state, it creates a precedent for its own demise. Turkey is not a small state.

2) Unfortunately no other power will fight for your country in the end expect if it is absolutely necessary for their goals and they cannot strike a deal over your dead body. The Entete really sold the Armenians down the drain. So did the Soviet.

3) Venizelos decision in 5 July 1920 to reject Paraskevopoulos request for an advance on Eskisehir and Afyon Karahisar in preference for the occupation of Eastern Thrace was CATASTROPHIC. By Nomveber 1920 it was already late, and no amount of Venizelist charm or genius could make up for the domination of Turkey in the East.

Thus one can say that there were two decisive moments in the Greek Turkish
Under Venizelos: The decision of 5th July 1920 to priorotise Eastern Thrace

Under Gounares: The failure of the Greek Army to attain encirclement of Ismet's Turkish Army at Kutahya-Eski Sehir in June-July 1921.

The first one is much heavier. Because if Venizelos had marched to Afyon and Eski Sehir in July 1920, this would had an effect on the situation in the east and the viability of Armenia. It meant that any revision of the Treaty of Sevres, would had been closer to Sevres than Lausanne.

In the second case, I am not sure if even the destruction of the Army of Ismet Inonu would had led to a result radically different than Lausanne.

Anyway speculations.

[kipt]

Finished "Master of War: A Legend Forged in Battle" by David Gilman, a novel.

The hero, if you will, is a young stone mason, who is sent off with others in his Lord's service, to help King Edward take his lands in France.  The book goes through the battle of Crecy, and as our hero is a bowman, he takes initiative and saves his Prince.  Whereupon he becomes a knight on the field of battle.Being grievously wounded, he recovers in a castle of a family that fought on both sides.

Our hero, Thomas Blackstone, becomes a leader of men and a lover of a maiden he saved (whew, getting serious here).  A good read and there are more books to follow.  Good battle descriptions and also of the filth and danger of those times.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Predator's Gold, by Phillip Reeve. Second part of the mortal Engines series, borrowed from my eldest.
"It's good, but its not as good as the first one..."to quote my 13 year old daughter.

[Leman]

Finished Flodden by Gary Mill. It turned out better than expected in that more emphasis was put on the actual historical characters. Although the fictional Scottish pikemen still had a role to play they did not overwhelm the story as I feared they might at the beginning. This was not, in the end, a Bernard Cornwell style rip-off and the description of the battle was pretty convincing. There were things in it that I think may have been coloured by the author being Scots, i.e. Surrey was presented as a pretty repulsive character, Catherine of Aragon as considerably more conniving than I imagined (and did she actually go north with the English troops and attempt a parley with James IV?), and the Provost of Selkirk had a pretty peculiar relationship with a sow. I know Surrey had trouble walking but I am not convinced that he sat throughout the battle in his litter. Nevertheless a good read.

[kipt]

Finished "the Pyrates" by George MacDonald Fraser, of Flashman fame.

Written in the same vein, but also with much reference to Hollywood (Fraser was a writer for some films) plus a lot of swashbuckling.

Good characters and quick action, most of it improbable, but mainly based on historical figures.

A good and quick read.

[kipt]

Finished the Osprey "Flush-Deck Destroyers 1916-1945; Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson classes" by Mark Lardas.

Typical Osprey; pictures, stats, short histories and very informative.  Good.

[Leman]

A book on the Boer War. Can't remember who by, but from 1977 in the Britain at War series, with lots of maps and photos. Pretty straightforward narrative history, with a brief (which I like) chapter on causes; a second chapter on armies and weapons and then straight into the action. Spiffing stuff that Brexiters would lap up buy the bucketful.

[kipt]

Finished a great book on the Byzantine Empire, "Lost To The West; The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization" by Lars Brownworth.

Written like a novel but all history.  Great footnotes and many, many stories of the different emperors and enemies, as well as generals and the common citizen.

This is a great book and I recommend it to any and everyone that has an interest in this period.  And even if you don't.

I particularly recommend it to KTravlos, but suspect he may have already read it.

[KTravlos]

Thanks for the recommendation. Interesting. Not happy it uses the term Byzantine instead of Roman. But c'est la vie.

[Leman]

It's one of those odd English language quirks - I have always found it odd that the Eastern Roman Empire, based on the city of Constantinople, is always referred to by that city's previous Greek name. Now  entrenched as the norm so most commonly used expression in English. It's like the slight irritation I feel when Americans speak of England, when they actually mean the United Kingdom. We do the same, referring to Americans when what we actually mean is citizens of the USA and not everyone living between Prudhoe and Tierra del Fuego.

[Geiss]

Every September I take a trip to Ypres and the Somme, and every September I read a book on the Somme. I've particularly enjoyed Richard Van Emden's 'The Somme', and last year read the classic 'The First Day on the Somme' by Middlebrook. This year I've got a book called 'Thipeval' in the Pen and Sword series which I'm really looking forward to - my particular interest is the 36th Ulster Division.

At the minute I've stalled on War and Peace - it's a really enjoyable book, but it has been hard to find the time.

[FierceKitty]

Just finished Rushdie's The Golden House. Sadly, I think he's lost his touch. Seems like an imitation of earlier, much more inventive books.

[Leman]

A bit like Dr. Who: a massive hooha made about the doctor becoming a woman, when Dax got there donkeys years ago on DS9.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Simon Elliot's Septimus Severus In Scotland, The Northern Campaigns if the First Hammer of the Scots.
Signed by the author too...

[Terry37]

"Among Wolves" by R.A. Hakok. Yep, a post apocalyptic novel.

Terry