What are you currently reading ?

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

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kipt

Finished "Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th" by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen.  It follows history up to the end, other than Yamamoto leading the armada attacking Pearl, until the end.  A third air strike inflicts more damage (tank farms included). the novels fictional characters interact with actual historical people - Fuchida (who lead the air strike) and Genda (major influence on the planning of the strike).

The writing style is very good and it is therefore a fast read.  The book ends with Yamamoto realizing that the Japanese declaration of war was not delivered before the strike and now decides the Japanese need to destroy the missing carriers before returning.  The next book is "Days of Infamy".  Coming up next.

Scorpio_Rocks

Quote from: MSawyer on 07 October 2020, 05:28:06 PM
I've been reading The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules from Osprey.

Probably not the best laid out rulebook (Osprey limitations I believe) but a FANTASTIC set of very customisable, fun rules!

Swing by the "The Men Who Would Be Kings Fan Group"https://www.facebook.com/groups/tmwwbkfangroup on Facebook for house rules, discussion and resources for the entire "colonial wars" period.
"Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake - we must not interrupt him too soon."
Horatio Nelson.

MSawyer

Quote from: Scorpio_Rocks on 08 October 2020, 03:44:43 PM
Probably not the best laid out rulebook (Osprey limitations I believe) but a FANTASTIC set of very customisable, fun rules!

Swing by the "The Men Who Would Be Kings Fan Group"https://www.facebook.com/groups/tmwwbkfangroup on Facebook for house rules, discussion and resources for the entire "colonial wars" period.

Nice, and Thanks!
Keep your stick on the ice.

kipt

And now finished "Days of Infamy" by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, the follow up book to the one above.  Continues the Japanese navy looking for the missing American carriers.  A couple of fights and both sides lose carriers with others heavily damaged.  An exciting read - went through it in a day.

Steve J

Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears. His other books I've read are excellent and this one is shaping up nicely :).

kipt

Finished "The First Casualty; From the Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker" by Phillip Knightly.

The author has interesting stories about different correspondents and tells how difficult it was (is?) to produce a truthful story.  Hard conditions, military censors, transmission time to the paper or journal, acceptance of the story by the editors all worked against timely reporting. But then Knightly disparages correspondents for NOT getting the story of "what really happened" to the public.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't is what it seemed to me.

The later wars, WWII, Algeria, Korea and Vietnam get particularly blasted as the sense of morale outrage grows.  The author, Australian, was a special correspondent for the Sunday Times, but did not cover combat.

Ithoriel

Just finished "EARLY SHIPS AND SEAFARING: Water Transport Beyond Europe" which is packed with information on the types and methods of construction of ships, boats, rafts, etc. from beyond Europe. There's a previous companion volume that covers Europe. Clearly something most people would dip into for specific items of info rather than reading cover to cover!

About to start "WARFARE IN NEOLITHIC EUROPE: An Archaeological and Anthropological Analysis" .... I hope not to be about to start yet another project! :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

John Cook

Quote from: hammurabi70 on 07 October 2020, 05:23:38 PM
BLOOD, SWEAT & ARROGANCE - G Corrigan

Thanks for the warning.  I shall give it a miss.  I never thought much of Corrigan as a TV historian.  As for Monty and disparaging, in the blurb, his ability 'to command', I doubt my late father or any of his old 8th Army pals would have agreed with him.  Command is more than just generalship and I'm not sure I want to take lessons in command from somebody who got all the way to major, which suggest he didn't go to, or failed, staff college. 

fsn

I've just started "reading" the Bulldog Drummond books (99p on the Kindle for 15 books).

Set just after WWI the eponymous hero is a gentleman adventurer, and presages those men of steel with and iron will, a mercurial wit and a copper bottom - like The Saint, the Toff and Dick Barton.

Probably politically incorrect, the books leap along with a merry quip and a sneering villain. 

Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

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Raider4

Quote from: fsn on 14 October 2020, 01:15:23 PM
. . . Probably politically incorrect . . .

Only "Probably"??

From Wikipedia (I know, but it illustrates my point): " . . .while the academic Michael Denning observed that "Drummond is a bundle of chauvinisms, hating Jews, Germans, and most other foreigners""

It also goes onto say "The author and publisher Ion Trewin comments that for the readers of the 1920s and '30s, McNeile was seen at the time as "simply an upstanding Tory who spoke for many of his countrymen"", so make of that what you will.

Jacob Rees-Mogg probably has his man-servant read Bulldog Drummond to his offspring as a bedtime story . . .

hammurabi70

Quote from: Raider4 on 15 October 2020, 09:04:47 PM
Only "Probably"??

I seem to remember reading one Drummond book that I found on my parents bookshelf as a teenager and found it rather boring so it would be interesting to know how they read about a century on from their original publication.  Henty's work seemed to get a boost on his centenary despite, or because, of his 'political incorrectness'.

Leman

Currently reading a nice hardback copy of Osprey's Balaclava in the hope that the remodelling of the Crimea range is not too distant a dream.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Nirnman

I am currently reading "Hardtack and Coffee the unwritten story of army life" by John D Billings about ordinary aemy life in the Union army during the ACW.

Adamwest

Franco-prussian war volume 1 campaign of Sedan, not finished yet just finished the chapter on gravelotte. So far the boon is a good overall take on the war but for me its lacking jn detail on the battles, maybe i am better suited to individual battle books.

flamingpig0

The Osprey  book on SA80 Assault Rifles by Neil Grant - somewhat depressing reading
"I like coffee exceedingly..."
 H.P. Lovecraft

"We don't want your stupid tanks!" 
Salah Askar,

My six degrees of separation includes Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, and Wendy James