What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Started on a series of Civil War novels, "Faded Coat of Blue" by Owen Parry.  The author does a great job of setting the times and locations.

The "hero" of the series is a Welshman who emigrated to the US after serving with the east India Company where he was a sergeant.  He did not intend to get in the war but took pity on local recruits and tried to instill some military bearing in them.  Well, he was elected captain of the company and ends up at First Bull Run where he is wounded and almost loses a leg.

So he now has a limp but is now working on procuring supplies for the troops.  He is very industrious (and religious) and McClellan picks him to look into the death of a young abolitionist officer.  So the series becomes one of solving various murders and insurrections.  But Lincoln promotes him to Major.

So off we go into 6 or 7 books; light reading and quick, but well done.

[steve_holmes_11]

I'm reviewing some ancients rulesets that have lain neglected for a while.
A sort of last effort to find something to inspire me.

* Sword and Spear - read.
* Basic Impetus II - In progress.
* To the Strongest - next up.

[kipt]

And finished number two of the ACW series, "Shadows of Glory" by Owen Parry.

In this adventure Major Abel Jones goes to upstate New York, working for Mr Seward of Lincoln's cabinet. He is to investigate the rumors of an Irish rebellion.

Turns out not true but there are deeper forces at large , which of course are foiled by our budding detective. A fast read and entertaining.

[kipt]

Finished a strange little book (to mt mind). " The Japanese Art of War: Understanding the Culture of strategy" by Thomas Cleary.

Not sure what I expected but this was more Zen, Buddha, Taoist, Shinto and some Bushido. More like a religious tract. One part was on The Thirty Six Strategies, but not very enlightening.

Cleanse your mind until you know nothing (meaning I guess that you practice so much all becomes second nature and you can operate without hesitation).

As we used to say, strange, weird and different ( at least for me).

[kipt]

Finished number three in the Owen Parry ACW series, "Call Each RiverJordan". In this he reports to Grant just as Shiloh starts, where he gets into the first day fight. After it is to solve the mystery of 40 murdered Blacks. He carries a flag of truce to the Confederate lines but gets taken by an ambush prior. He meets Beauregard and then into the mystery.

Read in a day; quick and interesting.

[steve_holmes_11]

Finished Basic Impetus, and have gone off the idea of a Sword and Spear and Impetus mashup.

Raced through "Where are the customers' yachts? or a good hard look at Wall Street." by Fred Schwed.

Rather amusing.

[hammurabi70]

Finished Basic Impetus, and have gone off the idea of a Sword and Spear and Impetus mashup.

Raced through "Where are the customers' yachts? or a good hard look at Wall Street." by Fred Schwed.

Rather amusing.

The difficulty is that it is 'our money' and 'our economy'.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ybrwYCxbOBQ

[kipt]

Finished a long one, "Wellington: The Path Yo Victory 1769 - 1814" by Rory Muir. This is volume one of an absolutely outstanding life of Wellington. The research is awesome. The bibliography alone is from pages675 to 711 of very small print. This includes 7 pages of narrative where he describes his sources.

From Wellington's birth to 1814 as noted in the title. Now on to volume two.

[Leman]

Currently revising the Peter Pig Square Bashing rules, plus the Walter Schnaffs supplement, for a bit of FPW 10mm action.

Andy

[kipt]

Finished number 4 of the Owen Parry ACW series, "Honor's Kingdom". Out hero, Major Abel Jones, has been sent to England to discover the whereabouts of a warship the British are supposedly building for the Confederates.

Lots of murder and mystery and old acquaintances from his days in India (not friendly)..

A lot of fun.

Owen Parry is the pen name of Ralph Peters who wrote "Red Army" as well as numerous others.

[pierre the shy]

Finished number 4 of the Owen Parry ACW series, "Honor's Kingdom". Out hero, Major Abel Jones, has been sent to England to discover the whereabouts of a warship the British are supposedly building for the Confederates.

Lots of murder and mystery and old acquaintances from his days in India (not friendly)..

A lot of fun.

Owen Parry is the pen name of Ralph Peters who wrote "Red Army" as well as numerous others.

Thats interesting to know Kipt, I've read a couple of Ralph Peters' books including Red Army....he's a good writer. Red Army is a novel about a theorectical mid 1980's Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe from a Soviet point of view.

I found, at least in Red Army, that he refreshingly focuses more on the characters than the hi-tech equipment that most authors of that genre tend to do.

thanks for the heads up.

[paulr]

The Dambusters Raid by John Sweetman

Fascinating, he has gone deeply into the available records (British & German) and has busted some of the common myths

One example, the RAF were considering the Möhne dam as a high priority target in 1937
The problem was that they didn't have the capability to destroy it

[flamingpig0]

Owen Parry is the pen name of Ralph Peters who wrote "Red Army" as well as numerous others.

"Red Army"  was one of the few cold war gone hot novels I found enjoyable

[kipt]

And another by Owen Parry, "Bold Sons Of Erin". This takes place in the coal fields of Pennsylvania.  A Union General has been murdered when on recruiting duty among the Irish miners. Government is afraid of another rebellion and Major Abel Jones is sent to discover why and what. His home is only about 10 miles from the scene, so there is some other adventures about that.

Again fast, entertains read.

[kipt]

And finished the last Owen Parry book, "Rebels Of Babylon".  Takes place in Union occupied New Orleans, again to solve a murder.

Voodoo, crypts, poison and disappearing slaves. Too bad this is the last of this series, although there were to be more. His one published 2005.

[kipt]

Finished "Himmler's War" by Robert Conroy.

An errant B-17 jettison's its bomb load in order to gain speed. However, Hitler happens to be in the buildings at Rastenberg and is killed.  Himmler takes over.

Stalin needs a break in the fighting and so does the Wehrmacht, so they call a truce.  Stalin trades 1000 T-34's for Vlasov and the German armies go west.

An atomic bomb goes off, but not by the US.  Skorzeny is involved so lots of action.

Fun and quick.

[flamingpig0]

'Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism'

Am overview of Strasser's political career and some useful info on the overwhelmingly middle class social base of the Nazi Party
Quite dry and I was more interested in his brother Otto

Oh I have also been reading a graphic novel the 'Vengeance of Vampirella'

[kipt]

Finished "Gerrmanica" by Robert Conroy.  Hitler stays in Berlin as the Russians close in, vowing to die there.  Goebbels however goes to the Redoubt in the Alps, adjacent to Switzerland.  American infantry division, the 105th (fiction) and the OSS with Allan Dulles are determined to close this last bastion of Nazism.  Goebbels is determined to make a new country, Germanica, with him as the head and hold off the Americans for the country to be recognized.  Delusional.

Good characters and descriptions of terrain and people, as well as situations.

[Leman]

My daughter bought me a copy of A Concise History Of The Netherlands. Looks like it is going to be a good read and of course very useful now I live here.

Andy

[kipt]

Finished "Red Inferno" by Robert Conroy.  Truman is President, the reds are fighting in Berlin but not helping the countries they have "liberated".  Truman decides to send a 2 division column to Potsdam which greatly upsets Stalin.  Staling decides to push the Americans out, all the way to the Atlantic.

Lots of action per the Robert Conroy type.  Surrounded garrison, second line troops, and finally nucs.

Fun read.