What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Finished "The Mammoth Book Of Soldiers at War: Firsthand accounts of warfare from the Age of Napoleon" edited by Jon E. Lewis.

Excerpts from memoirs, most of which I have.

Entries are:
With Napoleon in Italy, Jean-Roche Coignet.
A Foot Soldier in Egypt, SGT David Robertson, 92nd Foot.
The Road to Corunna, Rifleman Harris 95th Rifles.
I Trust We Shall Return Successful; A Dragoon in the Peninsula, CPT Fenton, 4th Dragoons.
Wagram 1809, Marshal MacDonald.
Diary of a Cavalry Officer in the Peninsula,1810, LT Tomkinson, 16th Lt Dragoons.
The Storming of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, 1812, LT Grattan, 88th Foot.
Triumph and Tragedy: Salamanca and Burgos, CPT Bragge, 3rd Dragoons.
Fighting the Redcoats, CPL Stubbs, Kentucky Militia.
The Retreat from Moscow 1812-13, GEN Lejeune.
Vitoria, 1813, Ensign Hennell, 43rd Foot.
"The Only Regiment of English": Fighting the North German Campaign, 1813, SGT Morris, 73rd Foot.
"The Battle of the Nations": Leipzig, 1813, Gen Marbot, 23rd C-a-C.
An Artilleryman at Waterloo, 1815, CPT Cavalie Mercer, RHA.

Good with much action in the selective parts of the memoirs.

[steve_holmes_11]

Suffering a bit of a brane freez.

Trying to work my way through Absolute Emperor.
It doesn't have a lot of pages, and each makes sense alone.
My brain isn't tying it together at all well.

Perhaps the problem is that I'm interleaving reading with "5 torches deep".
An "Old school roleplay" take on the D&D 5e rules.
Very interesting, but my pals don't want to play with characters that die easily.

[Steve J]

'Kursk' by Lloyd Clark. I know a lot of online reviews have moaned about the fact that a large part of the book is taken up with pre-war and events leading up to the battle, but I like this approach  of putting it in context. A very good read and have learnt quite a bit so far, which is good. Highly recommended.

[kipt]

Finished "The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" by Dave Sobel and William J.H. Andrewes.

Fascinating reading and extremely well illustrated.  Finding longitude then (early to late 1700's) was based on time from a known point with each hour being 1/24th of the spin of the earth or 15 degrees (1/24th of 360 degree circle around the earth).

The problem was to make a clock that was super accurate, not affected by heat, cold or motion of the ship.  John Harrison figured it out and won most of the 20,000 pound prize over a 40 year period.  

The last money was collected by his son after he passed away.

[fred.]

Finished "The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" by Dave Sobel and William J.H. Andrewes.

Fascinating reading and extremely well illustrated.  Finding longitude then (early to late 1700's) was based on time from a known point with each hour being 1/24th of the spin of the earth or 15 degrees (1/24th of 360 degree circle around the earth).

The problem was to make a clock that was super accurate, not affected by heat, cold or motion of the ship.  John Harrison figured it out and won most of the 20,000 pound prize over a 40 year period.  

The last money was collected by his son after he passed away.

I read this book some years ago - it is a great story and the illustrations in this version really bring it to life - must find it on the bookcase and have another look through.

[mmcv]

Just finished Liu Cixin's trilogy the Three Body Problem, Dark Forest and Deaths End. Highly recommended for any sci fi fans.

Prior to that Child of Vengeance and Sword of Honor by David Kirk were good reads on the  fictionalised early life of Miyamoto Musashi.

Just arrived is Samurai Battles: Japan's Warrior Lords in 700 Years of Conflict by Michael Sharpe. Seems to give a fairly good overview of the history but not sure if it's going to go into enough detail on the battles for my liking, though only had a cursory flick through so far.

Also about halfway through Justin Swantos Ancient Battle Formations which is an interesting read.

[Chad]

Re-reading "Too Little Too Late. the Campaign in Wesr and South Germany Jun-July 1866" and "The Contribution of the Royal Bavarian Army to the War of 1866".

Nice change from the usual works which do not seem to provide much coverage. Battles are smaller and do offer opportunities for What If types games. In addition to Bavarians there are Hessian, Baden, Wurttemburg and a small Austrian contingent. Terrain is a bit of a nightmare with numerous wooded hills, but 'c'est la vie'.

[fsn]

I'm reading "Wellington's Eastern Front: The Campaigns on the East Coast of Spain, 1810–1814" by Nick Lipscombe.

The Peninsula where the Duke was not - the Eastern front of the war.

Good read, expands those bits in the usual histories that say "Soult was busy with the Spanish".

[steve_holmes_11]

Suffering a bit of a brane freez.

Trying to work my way through Absolute Emperor.
It doesn't have a lot of pages, and each makes sense alone.
My brain isn't tying it together at all well.

Perhaps the problem is that I'm interleaving reading with "5 torches deep".
An "Old school roleplay" take on the D&D 5e rules.
Very interesting, but my pals don't want to play with characters that die easily.

Update:

Absolute Emperor - not one of Osprey's finest. File alongside "Artificial limbs of the Wehrmacht 1943-45".

5 torches deep - Nice spin on D&D if you like your adventurers crunchy and temporary.

Tilly's very bad day - fast pay for 30 years War / English Civil War - with enough chrome to incorporate interesting scenarios and build campaigns.

Congo - Adventures in the heart of Africa - excellent darkest Africa skirmish. Terrain requirements are somewhat daunting.

[kipt]

Finished "Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign In Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1" translated and edited by Nicholas Murray & Christopher Pringle.

It is too bad including a lot of maps makes books so expensive.  This book has maps but can only hit the major actions and strategic locations.  I did not read this with a comprehensive atlas in had, but it would have helped.  Clausewitz, using Jomini and Archduke Charles  narratives, as well as other histories, does a great job with operational history.  Some general OB's with round numbers.  I enjoy this type of history however.

Again the translation is very well done.  My only nit picks are in the footnotes where our editors say "see" such and such a book.  Most of these are not available without a lot of online searching and translating.  I have quite a few of the modern books referenced, but not the older ones.  Footnotes could just reference the book where the information is accessed.

Hopefully a translation of Archduke Charles may happen sometime in the future?

Coming up will be volume 2 (I read "Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign some time age and have purchased a copy for a birthday present fr a friend of mine).

[Steve J]

The Winter War (The Russo-Finnish War 139-1940) by William R Trotter. Extremely well written and an enjoyable read, with plenty of good info for those wanting to wargame this more obscure conflict.

[Chris Pringle]

Finished "Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign In Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1" translated and edited by Nicholas Murray & Christopher Pringle.

It is too bad including a lot of maps makes books so expensive.  This book has maps but can only hit the major actions and strategic locations.  I did not read this with a comprehensive atlas in had, but it would have helped.  Clausewitz, using Jomini and Archduke Charles  narratives, as well as other histories, does a great job with operational history.  Some general OB's with round numbers.  I enjoy this type of history however.

Again the translation is very well done.  My only nit picks are in the footnotes where our editors say "see" such and such a book.  Most of these are not available without a lot of online searching and translating.  I have quite a few of the modern books referenced, but not the older ones.  Footnotes could just reference the book where the information is accessed.

Hopefully a translation of Archduke Charles may happen sometime in the future?

Coming up will be volume 2 (I read "Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign some time age and have purchased a copy for a birthday present fr a friend of mine).

Thanks very much, Kip. I've passed your comments on to Nick and to the Press.

The limit on maps was not cost but time. They were all created by Nick and each one takes many hours' work. I agree more maps would have been nice, but we had to be selective and limit it to 11.

A translation of Archduke Charles may well happen.

Chris

[Techno II]

Listening to....H2G2......The Hexagonal phase.

(I treated myself.......Which YOU paid for.)

First listen.....Hmm..yeah..O.K.  ....Not bad......Second listen....Loved it !

Cheers - And thanks for all the fish - Phil.

[kipt]

A friend gave me the 140th Anniversary special magazine Antietam Commemorative Issue, from the editors of America's Civil War, Civil War Times and MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History.

Several good articles by well know authors:
To Antietam Creek by D. Scott Hartig,
Lost and Found: Special Orders No. 191 by Stephen W. Sears,
Defeat or Victory? by Gary W. Gallagher,

as well as several others on South Mountain, the Cornfield, Bloody Lane and Burnside's Bridge.

Good illustrations also for a most interesting battle.

[Matt J]

The War of Wars: epic struggle between Britain and France - 1789-1815

Clips along at a nice pace and lots of snippets I'd not read about before like battle of Villiers-en-Cauchies: 400 cavalry, British and Austrian, surprise and rout 800 French cavalry before careering straight through (over!) a division of 12,000 infantry in 3 ranks and sixty guns! (which were quickly taken) before routing the French cavalry again which had reformed in the rear  What a ride! 

[Steve J]

What a ride indeed!

[kipt]

Finished Issue 65, July 2021 of the Gettysburg Magazine.

Articles in this issue are:
Ed Bearrs Remembered...And Now,
"It Was the Intention to Defend the Place":John Reynolds and the Decision to Fight at Gettysburg,
The Forgotten Assault at Gettysburg: Richard Anderson's Division on July 2,
The Myth that Mahone's Brigade Did Not Move on July 2, 1863,
and a couple more.

Good magazine.

[kipt]

Finished Vol. 85, No. 1 of "The Journal of Military History."

Articles in this issue are:
Should Roman Soldiers be Called "Professional" Prior to Augustus?
Bastion of Empire: The Italian terzo vecchi of the Army of Flanders (1597-1682).
"Neither an Officer nor an Enlisted Man": Contract Surgeons' Eligibility for the Medal of Honor.
The Battle of Shanghai (January-March 1932): A Study in the Space-time of War.
Harvey A DeWeerd and the Dawn of Academic Military History in the United States.
Debunking an Omaha Legend: The Use of :Armored Funnies" on D-Day.
Warriors Who Don't Fight: The Post-Cold war United States Army and Debates over Peacekeeping Operations.

And as always reviews of books; 102 pages.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Jack Four by Neal Asher.

Awesome hard sci-fi.

[Poggle]

Sicily '43 by James Holland. An excellent informative book on a subject I didn't know a great deal about.