What are the Forum members reading (3 Viewers)

[Cairnbeg]

...currently reading through :- "If Hitler Comes: Preparing for Invasion: Scotland 1940"....

...a great book about our coastal defences (such as they were) during the early part of WW2.......lots of good info for those interested in Pillboxes / Tank Defences / Beach Barricades / etc......many are now over-grown and hidden or simply washed away through coastal erosion....

...it certainly highlights the many idiosyncrasies of military thought as to how the areas were to be defended...

...can't wait to visit some of these when the fine weather (ehm? {eek3} ) begins......

 

[Davout71]

I recently finished "Out of the Rat Trapesert Adventures with Rommel" by Max Reisch. This is a great read on what life was like in the Afrika Korps. The author was a well travelled German prior to the war so has interesting perspectives on many aspects of the conflict. From a toy soldier perspective he makes some interesting comments around uniform:
- The tropical hat was impractical and often discarded
-a khaki green cap was the sign of a green-horn, a long serving DAK was proud of a sun faded one.

Anyway, a great read.

 

[bromhead]

I recently finished "Out of the Rat Trapesert Adventures with Rommel" by Max Reisch. This is a great read on what life was like in the Afrika Korps. The author was a well travelled German prior to the war so has interesting perspectives on many aspects of the conflict. From a toy soldier perspective he makes some interesting comments around uniform:
- The tropical hat was impractical and often discarded
-a khaki green cap was the sign of a green-horn, a long serving DAK was proud of a sun faded one.

Anyway, a great read.

As were U S army soldiers with faded Khakis in the old regular army of the 60s

 

[zblang]

I just started King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman. I absolutely love her books!

 

[theBaron]

"Band of Brothers". I had never read the book, but have the HBO series. I was curious to see how close to the book the series was.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

"Band of Brothers". I had never read the book, but have the HBO series. I was curious to see how close to the book the series was.

Prost!
Brad

The series kept pretty close to the actual events as described by Ambrose, though I found some of the deviations interesting. Learning that Speirs ordered Liebgott and two others to assassinate the alleged work camp commandant, for example (I can't remember who the other two were, but Webster was not one of them, as depicted in the series). Also, there were some grudging complements for Sobel, that his horrible leadership actually forced the men to bond together in ways they needed, to survive in combat. But it wasn't Sobel who ordered the slaughterhouse waste for the exercise field. And Winters fought more actively for command of the company, than I would have thought, from watching the series, where the struggle is portrayed more as a series of failures by Sobel. Also, Webster features much more in Ambrose's book, by virtue of being a writer and having kept a journal. But none of this detracts from the book or the series. Both are classics.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

And now, I'm on to "Black Rednecks, White Liberals", by Dr. Thomas Sowell.

I've also added Digby Smith's "Armies of the Seven Years War" to my reference library, finally found a new copy at a good price.

Prost!
Brad

 

[bradleyl30]

I got this book called Scouts Out! on German Recon in WWII from Amazon and love it so far:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811713113/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is big, high quality and for $29 a steal!

 

[braddinpa]

He actually lived very close in Hershey PA and I was lucky enough to get a signed book. . The book glosses of some things that the movie spends more time on. Like I believe the soldier in one of the early episodes is scared and then becomes a hero and is wounded in the neck at the end (I forget his name, it was at Caratan?) In the book it is a minor episode. Same with the character who shots himself with the luger.

But overall, they were fairly close. I would recommend the book. It is very easy reading.

"Band of Brothers". I had never read the book, but have the HBO series. I was curious to see how close to the book the series was.

Prost!
Brad

 

[mk26gmls]

Finally got around to reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. What a book! One of the best war survival books I have read. I highly recommend it. I am looking forward to the movie this December. In all of the reading I have done on World War II, I didn't know anything about this story before I started the book. It is really hard to fathom the agony these men endured in captivity.

Darrell

 

[theBaron]

Finally got around to reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. What a book! One of the best war survival books I have read. I highly recommend it. I am looking forward to the movie this December. In all of the reading I have done on World War II, I didn't know anything about this story before I started the book. It is really hard to fathom the agony these men endured in captivity.

Darrell

I've got it on my wish list, since hearing Zamperini's story on a talk show. Even if he hadn't been a POW under the Japanese, his life's story is plenty interesting.

Prost!
Brad

 

[zblang]

Finally got around to reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. What a book! One of the best war survival books I have read. I highly recommend it. I am looking forward to the movie this December. In all of the reading I have done on World War II, I didn't know anything about this story before I started the book. It is really hard to fathom the agony these men endured in captivity.

Darrell

I loved that book! Great story and very well written

 

[zblang]

I just started this after finishing "A king's ranson" by Sharon Kay Penman.

This one might be a tad drier!

 

[theBaron]

I'm in the middle of a book-gasm. I just finished, in sequence, "Shogun", "The Longest Day", and "Incredible Victory"--I read those every year--and am in the middle of "The Last Stand of the Tin-Can Sailors". Waiting in the queue are, "Unbroken", "Why Geography Matters", and "Happiness is a Serious Problem", which, along with "Tin-Can Sailors", I got for my birthday.

 

[lancer]

I'm in the middle of a book-gasm. I just finished, in sequence, "Shogun", "The Longest Day", and "Incredible Victory"--I read those every year--and am in the middle of "The Last Stand of the Tin-Can Sailors". Waiting in the queue are, "Unbroken", "Why Geography Matters", and "Happiness is a Serious Problem", which, along with "Tin-Can Sailors", I got for my birthday.

I very much enjoyed Last Stand of the Tin-Can Sailors. It is an incredible battle for the US Navy. -- Al

 

[MikeNick]

I just finished reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn and Savage Continent by Lowe. I highly recommend Lowe's book but be prepared for a dramatic eye-opening of what Europe went through after VE Day. Now, I am on Crime and Punishment.
MikeNick

 

[lancer]

In spirit with the WW1 anniversary, I have received 1 new book and have several others on order. The 1 received is 'Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914', written by Prit Buttar. It is 472 pages long and published by Osprey. This is the first of 3 projected volumes about WW1 on the Eastern Front, and, IMO, very badly needed. There is very little about the Eastern Front in English, so a new general history is most welcome. Just got it today so I haven't done more than examine it yet, but it covers more than just the Russo-German front. Austro-Hungary and Serbia also are covered.
The others I have ordered are 'Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania', by Michael Barrett, 'Alvin York: A New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne', by Douglas Mastriano, and 'A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War 1 and the Collapse of the Hapsburg Empire', by Geoffrey Wawro. As you see, 2 of these 3 are also Eastern Front related. -- Al

 

[nmrocks]

Just finished an interesting trilogy of the memoirs of Jean Baptiste De Marbot during the Napoleonic Years, I was scanning Amazon for books of interest when I came across the author's name and it seemed familiar.
I realized that First Legion actually produced a figure of Marbot!
While obviously not a professional writer, there is an authentic feel and taste to the tale and it genuinely portrays the military life of long stretches of tedium interspersed with intense action and combat.
I was also interested in the portrayal of the difficulty of command and control in the era, as an Aide De Camp to Generals and Field Marshals, the aides would be rush off with verbal orders! left to interpretations by the aide on up the ladder to the Field Marshals in a form of the "post office" game where one person tells the next in a circle and by the time it comes back to the original person it's nothing to do with the original message!
First book is a little slow but a good and interesting read going from Napoleon's early years the Russia and the retreat and the fall of france.
They are:
The Young Hussar vol.1
Imperial Aide De Camp vol.2
Colonel of the Chassuers vol.3

 

[Terp152]

Just finished James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. One of the Oxford history books of the United States series. Excellent coverage of the pre-war years, particularly the 1860s, socioeconomic elements. Not much detail of the fighting, more on the political level. Shelby Foote was mildly criticized for concentrating too much on the military operations in Civil War Narrative. I found each to be complimentary to the other.

Now reading The Glorious Cause, The American Revolution, another Oxford history volume. Great look at the 1760s leading up to the Revolution.

Also reading Fighting Fox Company, sister company to Easy Company of BoB fame.
Chris

 

[MikeNick]

Last week, I finished the Great Courses series of lectures entitled The World of Byzantium. This was a very good exploration of the Byzantine Empire.

Last night, I finished reading Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War by Stephen R. Wise. A very thorough work of research that erases some of the misconceptions about the role of blockade running.

Now, I have started another one of the Great Courses entitled the Early Middle Ages.
I teach modern European history so the Great Courses help fill in the gaps and remind me of what I studied as an undergraduate.

MikeNick