What are the Forum members reading (2 Viewers)

damian said:
Wilbur Smith oh boy if you wanted to annoy the English teachers at Durban High just use Shout at the Devil for your book review. He was considered beyond the pale. Yet he has probably sold more books than any other Southern African writer.
Regards
Damian
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Come on Damian, I mean, Shout At The Devil is blatently Anti-German and also Anti-Askari as well.

H
 
Just finished "Patriots, the Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides" by Christian Appy. This was a great read. The book was comprised of personal interviews from all walks and sides of the Vietnam/America conflict. Reads like a Studs Terkel work but much longer and diverse.

Just started(about 100 pages into it) "An Army at Dawn" by Rick Atkinson, seems like it will be a good read.

Take Care
 
MCKENNA77 said:
Just started(about 100 pages into it) "An Army at Dawn" by Rick Atkinson, seems like it will be a good read.

Take Care
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That's a good book hope you enjoy it. Kind of a nice break from American D-Day/Buldge books on the market. The sequel "Day of Battle" which covers the Italian campaign is also a good read.
 
Have just ordered two books,one fiction one History.'Operation Odin' by James Holland (Described as a 'Sharpe' for world war two)and 'War without Hate'(John Bierman)about Alamein.

Rob
 
Science fiction: John Ringo Through the looking Glass, Really good! Stayed up to 3am to finish it. History: Just Americans 442 Regiment/100 Batt. Seperate.
Self Help? Words That Hurt Words That Heal.
 
Just finished Fusilier by Mark Urban and now onto this:-
 

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About half-way through "The Black Douglas" by David R. Ross.
I'm really struggling with the style of writing though. The author appears to have some starry-eyed notions concerning the Scottish Wars of Independence circa late 13th early 14th Century.
Sir James Douglas happens to be a character from the SWoI that I'm extremely interested in (along with Randolph Earl of Moray) - but I guess I'll have to find a book by a different author. I'll probably leave this one in some hotel library once I've finished it.

H
 
I am simultaneously reading "Secret Files of the Diogenes Club" and "The Man from the Diogenes Club" by Kim Newman. I just ordered the new Frank Barnard book "Foxing Rommell" which will be released August 18th.
 
Just finished "Covenant with Death" by John Harris. Exploits of fictional characters but background based solidly on the actions and movements of the Sheffield City Battalion. Highly recommend this to everyone with an interest in WW1.
 
kilted vampire said:
Diogenes Club? Are you Holmesian?
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Kim Newman is an interesting author who blends his three interests, (1) 19th and Early 20th Century Literature including "pulp fiction" like horror and hard boiled detective stories, (2) history and (3) the occult in his many novels. He borrows characters and institutions from many 19th Century novels, like Mycroft Holmes and the Diogenes Club from Aurthor Conan Doyle (along with many Holmesian villians), with horror Characters like Doctor Jeckyle and Mr. Hyde from Robert Lewis Stevenson, Count Dracula from Bram Stoker, or the Characters from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu tales, as well as classic characters from Kipling, and uses them alongside real historical figures and characters of his own creation in his novels and short stories.

In Newman's novels and stories, a secret cabal within the Diogenes Club has evolved into the highest level of the British Secret Service, into everything from criminal masterminds, espionage in the Great Game and European politics to dealing with the occult. Its players include Charles Beauregard (from 1880's through WWI), Edwin Winthrop (WWI through WWII), Catrione Kay (Post WWI through the 1960's) and Richard Jeperson (1960's and 1970's), along with their sidekicks, friends and lovers, from Danny Dravot (Kipling's the Man Who Would Be King, now a Vampire), Kate Reed, a 19th Century journalist turned vampire, through Genevieve Diodonne, a Vampire from the 1400's.

The first novel of his I read, "Anno Dracula" employed a little "alternative literature" as opposed to "alternative history" - it took place in a London where Professor Von Helsing's merry band had failed, Dracula had more or less "conquered" British society, and much of high and low British society was becoming Vampires. Charles Beuregard, Genevieve Diodonne and Danny Dravot are investigating the "Jack the Ripper" (also known as the "Silver Knife") murders of newborn Vampire harlots (it turns out to be one of the members of Von Helsing's group) on behalf of the Diogenes Club, and in doing so, find the means of taking Dracula down. His second in the series, "The Bloody Red Baron" finds Dracula, now the power behind Kaiser Wilhelm's thrown, employing shape shifting Vampire flyers to overcome the Allies (who also employ Vampires) in WWI. Edwin Winthrop, a human, drinks vampire blood to obtain the necessary skills to overcome the Vampire Red Baron, and defeat Dracula's gambit (a Vampire Winston Churchill is now one of the ruling cabal of the Diogenes Club). A third novel, taking place in post-war italy, depicts the fall of Dracula (murdered by one of his original British get) and the death of Charles Beauregard of old age - he refuses to become a Vampire to extend his life). The two books I am reading now are compilations of short stories about various Diogenes adventures from the 19th Century through the 1970's. Newman is a good author, the adventures remind me of a good 19th Century adventure story like King Solomon's Mines, She, or the Lost World, or sometimes, a good piece of Pulp Fiction, like one of Lovecraft's Cthulu tales, or a Dashell Hammett detective story.
 
Atkinson's second book in the trilogy is out. It is The Day of Battle. He also writes a good book about West Point called The Long Gray Line. I just finished the two True Blue books by Lt Randy Sutton. Cop stories. Also finishing up Lt Compton's book, Call of Duty
 
Just finished "At Dawn We Slept", and found it very enlightening. The parallels to 9/11 are really very interesting, especially that fact that no one believed it could happen. That often trumps the best planning or preparedness.

Start now Amity Shlaes' "The Forgotten Man", about the Depression, and how the Roosevelt administration actually prolonged the problem. Again, lessons to be learned...

Prost!
Brad
 
I finished the Tomb in Seville as well as Day of Battle (which I hadn't finished) and am now reading Team of Rivals. I also started reading Herman Hattaway's Shades of Blue and Gray, a good introduction but with lots of reading recommendations.

Speaking of the Civil War (and maybe this needs a separate thread), what would other members recommend reading. I know it's a huge area but would love to hear what people think.
 
jazzeum said:
I finished the Tomb in Seville as well as Day of Battle (which I hadn't finished) and am now reading Team of Rivals. I also started reading Herman Hattaway's Shades of Blue and Gray, a good introduction but with lots of reading recommendations.

Speaking of the Civil War (and maybe this needs a separate thread), what would other members recommend reading. I know it's a huge area but would love to hear what people think.
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My absolute favorites are Shelby Foote's Civil War Trilogy. He's a master storyteller (you just have to have some time to get through the thick volumes!).

I'd be curious to hear UKReb's thoughts on Foote. I know Foote definitely has his opinions...


Pete
 
to Jazzeum- i would highly recommend Wiley Sword's book on Shiloh and his book on Franklin, "Embrace an Angry Wind". both are outstanding. also the classic Freeman "Lee's Lieutenants". Harry Pfanz has written three tremendous books on Gettysburg that are essential Civil War reading as well.- lancer
 
Lancer,

Thanks for the recs. I will check them out.

Pete,

I just saw that Bell Wiley's Billy Yank is being republished.
 
theBaron said:
Just finished "At Dawn We Slept", and found it very enlightening. The parallels to 9/11 are really very interesting, especially that fact that no one believed it could happen. That often trumps the best planning or preparedness.

Start now Amity Shlaes' "The Forgotten Man", about the Depression, and how the Roosevelt administration actually prolonged the problem. Again, lessons to be learned...

Prost!
Brad
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Brad
I would appreciate some comments on the Shlaes book when you have finished. It sounds interesting.
Regards
Damian
 
I have read some reviews of the Shlaes book and I think what you think of it probably depends on your view of FDR. Some see him as a god and some hated him. My family lived through the great depression and they see him as I do, close to deity status, one of our greatest Presidents. When I see the likes of Newt Gingrich praising this book, need I say more? Was FDR perfect? No, but who is and it's probably true that WW II was what probably pulled us out of the great depression. However, he was responsible for many things that have helped people in our country. If we had Hoover for another term, god knows what would have happened. It's easy to criticize, second guess and over analyze 70 years later but when action was required, he took it. If certain things worked, he kept them. If they didn't, he jettisoned them.
 
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