What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Finished "Hell Or Richmond" by Ralph Peters.  Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor as Grant tries to break Lee in 1864. A grind through the forest with heat and blood.  A real good depiction of what combat most likely was like.  Good characters and great story telling.

I already read "The Damned Of Petersburg" (out of sequence) so only one to go; "Judgement At Appomattox".

[kipt]

Finished "Judgement At Appomattox" by Ralph Peters.  Last of the series and the war draws to a close.  Still a great read, following history but with character development - some historical and some fictional.

This was a great series and I highly recommend it.

[kipt]

Started a W.E.B. Griffin series, Presidential Agent, and finished "By Order of the President".  A young Marine, Carlos (Charley) Castillo, comes to the notice of the President who sends him on a mission to discover which of the several intelligence agencies of the US are not passing ALL the information they gather and how much political BS is affecting their work.  Thus starts the series that is a continuous gallop around the world, with incidental bad guys (and one bad guy/good guy) where Charley (young, hot shot, rich family, pilot, Don Juan - his nickname in

Fast read and entertaining.

[pierre the shy]

Yes W.E.B. Griffin was a very good author (He passed on a while ago ) I prefer his first two series with Craig Lowell and "Killer" McCoy, but although he wrote quite a few different series I have never been disappointed or underwhelmed reading any of his works.

[Ithoriel]

I'm a W.E.B. Griffin fan too and also prefer the first two series. Despite the impressive number of volumes he's written I've never read one I didn't like.

[T13A]

Hi

Just finished 'Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson' by S C Gwynne. An excellent biorgaphy of one of the best (relatively speaking) generals of the American Civil War. Lots of information on Jackson pre-war and just enough details of his campaigns and battles. If you are more interested in his campaigns and battles, I would look elsewhere. A good commander but probably could have been even better if his own personality traits hadn't got in the way (IMHO).

Cheers Paul

[Ithoriel]

Just finished "The Slave Wars: A Captivating Guide to the Servile Wars and Spartacus" from Military History.

A good summary of the three servile wars and some background to them too. Quite readable and a decent primer if you know nothing about the subject. I found it a quick and easy refresher of some things I had known once but had forgotten mixed with things I never knew!

However, if you are looking for footnotes, citations, sources and bibliographies or even a named author this is not the book for you.

[Steve J]

Burma: The Longest Wat 1941-1945 by Louis Allen. Early days but so far an excellent read, with just the right amount of detail for a theatre of operations I know virtually nothing about. Background reading for a possible future BKCII project...

[kipt]

Finished the next Presidential Agent novel, "The Hostage", W.E.B. Griffin. Another easy and quick read.

I don't get as much painting done when reading these.

[kipt]

And another Presidential Agent book, "The Hunters", W.E.B. Griffin.  Taking a bit of a break with these as the next one in hand is book 7.  The ones in the middle are on order.

[kipt]

Finished "Grant's Cavalryman: The Life and Wars of General James H. Wilson" by Edward G. Longacre.  Wilson, West Point, 1860, was a very driven and determined young officer.  He never wanted a failure attributed to him and sometimes blamed subordinates.  based on his personality, he had good friends but several influential enemies.

Wilson, after some time on the east coast during the start of the Civil war, became attached to Grant's staff as an engineer.  His drive and achievements did make Grant believe in him.  He was promoted to LTC and was at Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Knoxville, this last with Sherman, where he gained a star (brigadier general). 

He was always involved with the cavalry and in January 1864, became head of the cavalry bureau, which was not well run and dealt with dishonest contractors. In a short time he revamped the bureau to where it could serve the cavalry arm, with a proper supply of good horses and pushed for breech loading carbines as a true cavalry arm.

In April of 1864, Grant appointed him to the command of the 3rd Cavalry Division in the Army of the Potomac.  Ultimately he went west with General Thomas, where his large cavalry command (the largest in the war) helped defeat Hood at Nashville and then on to the ultimate defeat of Forrest on the way to Selma.

After the war he was part of the military government of the south, and believed in Lincoln's ideas of bringing the country back together.  Later, he did go on to participate in the Spanish American war in Cuba and Puerto Rico, when he went back into uniform.  He was always ready to offer his services to the government but did not always get the command he wanted.  However, he faithfully served as a subordinate commander wherever he was.

His one great disappointment was that he was never elected to any office.

A very interesting fellow.

[kipt]

Finished "Garibaldi" by Ron Field, part of the osprey Leadership Strategy Conflict series.  I of course knew OF Garibaldi, but didn't know much ABOUT Garibaldi.  This booklet does a great job telling his story.  Quite a fascinating person, charismatic.

This Osprey seems more in depth to me than others of the same type.  Recommended.

[fsn]

Re-reading "Sicily" by John Julius Norwich.

On the crossroads of the Med, between East and West, Europe and Africa, Sicily has seen warring armies of Carthage, Greece, Rome, Lombardy, Byzantium, Arabia, Normandy, and so on up to Operation Husky where Black Shirts and Fallschirmjaeger fought Doughboys and Tommies. 

However, my favourite line is "after the War of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282 it became a colony of Spain , and for the next four centuries or so virtually northing happened. (JJ's italics.)

[mollinary]

Just returned from a tour of Sicily led by Harry Sidebottom, Oxford don and historical novelist. So I am just starting his latest 'Ballista" novel - Falling Sky.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

My dad just sent me a 1954 first edition of Rosemary Sutcliffe's'Eagle of The Ninth'!