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Book: What Are You Currently Reading?

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Author Topic: Book: What Are You Currently Reading?  (Read 19674 times)
Rattler
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« on: 19 November 2008, 19:09:07 »
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Agressor by Andy MacNab

While fiction and about an ex SAS merc team running rampage, the first chapters of this book give some insights in SAS capabilities.

Rattler
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« Reply #1 on: 28 November 2008, 21:58:39 »
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The three books I ordered have just arrived  Brede lach
And they are ...........
MONTY'S GREATEST VICTORY - the drive to the Baltic April-May 1945 written by Charles Whiting. (just started reading it)
WAR WITHOUT GARLANDS - operation Barbarossa 1941-1942 written by Robert Kershaw.
TANK MEN - the human story of tanks at war written by Robert Kershaw.

Has anyone read any of these books?
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Heinrich505
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« Reply #2 on: 28 November 2008, 22:36:37 »
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British Tommy,
  Those are very good books indeed.  I can understand your excitement.  Most of Whiting's books are excellent.  I am sure this one is too, although I don't have it.

  I see you snagged a copy of War Without Garlands by Robert Kershaw.  That is an amazing book, and sort of hard to find anymore.  I got it many years ago, and was mesmerized by the details and the combat that was related in this book.  So many of the early Barbarossa books just focus on tanks, tanks, tanks, but this book covers both tanks and infantry.  The infantry that was slogging behind the glory boys in the armor had a butchers bill of a time trying to close the pockets and survive the ambushes that the desperate Soviet troops were pulling on them.  Both sides were desperate to simply survive.  I pulled this one down just the other day to look up some details about some of the action that was near Romanovka.  What an excellent book.  You won't be disappointed.

                 Heinrich505
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Koen
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« Reply #3 on: 29 November 2008, 00:18:40 »
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'Schweinfurt': defeat of the B-17 by John Sweetman

and several editions of 'Wereld in Oorlog', a dutch written documentary of both WWI & II
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Mad Russian
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« Reply #4 on: 11 December 2008, 06:20:46 »
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"From Normandy to the Ruhr: With the 116th Panzer Division in World War II" by Heinz Gunther Guderian...that would be THE Guderians son.. Also, in conjunction with reading about the 116th PD I'm reading  "One More River: The Rhine Crossings" by Peter Allen. This is about the attacks over the Rhine and I'm reading it specfically because of the coverage it gives for the Battle of the Reichswald and XXX British Corps part in that.

Good Hunting.

MR
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« Reply #5 on: 1 January 2009, 01:33:24 »
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Two especially good readings this year were:

The Devil's broker.
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Broker-Seeking-Glory-Century/dp/0771079095/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230764146&sr=8-3
A biography of John Hawkwood, a 14th century Free Company Commander.

Mastermind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare.
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Mind-Laureate-Launched-Chemical/dp/0060562722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1230766253&sr=1-1

I needed a break from the 20th and 21st century for 2008.
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« Reply #6 on: 1 January 2009, 03:22:19 »
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Excellent new book: The Secret War with Iran, by Ronen Bergman
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BlueSixGolf
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« Reply #7 on: 13 January 2009, 09:30:01 »
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Presently reading Against the Panzers, Jannoy & Karamales.

Just finished Design and Development of Fighting Vehicles by R.M. Ogorkiewicz.

Next up is Soviet Military Strategy, written by Marshall Vasilii Sokolovskii (RAND Corp., trans).
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« Reply #8 on: 24 January 2009, 10:37:55 »
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Just started reading this :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nemesis-Battle-1944-45-Max-Hastings/dp/0007219822/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232786218&sr=1-1

And its good !
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Rattler
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« Reply #9 on: 18 April 2009, 01:31:20 »
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Currently deeply involved in reading (and fascinated by!) "The Scientific Way of Warfare: Order and Chaos on the Battlefields of Modernity"

Fairly new, it holds true to all the things said in the link below (as I have not finished it yet I will refrain from a review right now, but it´s on my To-Do list and you guys will be the first to hear it...). Game Theory for non-math guys...

Stunning and imaginative so far. If you have a nerdy side as a wargamer, the book for you.

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-70078-8/the-scientific-way-of-warfare/reviews

Rattler
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« Reply #10 on: 21 September 2009, 20:58:26 »
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"Battle for Antwerp"

ISBN 90 6045 141 4

1978

General-Major J.L. Moulton CB / DSO / OBE
commanding officer Royal Marines Commando during Normandy - Antwerp & Walcheren

easy to read and well detailed
I'm taking notes so I can start a topic here on WaT

buy it:
http://www.tomfolio.com/bookdetailsmem.asp?book=MAIN005648I&mem=1267
http://cgi.ebay.com/BATTLE-FOR-ANTWERP-BY-J-L-MOULTON-HCDJ-EXCELLENT_W0QQitemZ270354944212QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item3ef26910d4&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Antwerp-Liberation-Opening-Scheldt/dp/B000O3MI1W

some info on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Scheldt
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Rattler
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« Reply #11 on: 21 September 2009, 22:09:39 »
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Just finished: "The Catastrophist" by Ronan Bennett.



While basically a novel about (a failed and lost) love, it is based in 1960+ Belgian Congo, and talks about journalism in war zones (actually, journalism vs. writing, and about the resulting ethical takes on both) and most convincingly leads you through pre-independence Congo, the transition phase with Lumumba gaining the independence (with CIA help) and then later the Mobutu times incl. the death of Lumumba and the (fictional) backgrounds on it.

Fiction, but so close to reality that you feel *being there*, especially if -like me - you have "been there, done that"... (and dont misunderstand me, haven´t been to Congo ever).

Reviews: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/bennettr/catast.htm

Personally, I cannot go along with the long reviews gist: I find the protagonist totally convincing, even in his detachedness when facing violen events, I have had the same experience and for me it sounds real. That all the political and social turmoil is rather in the background, well, this is a love sotry, after all.

Where the critic ponders about his whining for the loss of his love, or for tthe things he perceives strange when the guy goes intropsective, well, all I can say: Bud, that´s the way it works, go out and try for yourself once.

Also the characterisation of Stipe, the CIA guy, is exactly what I have met in "the fiield", normal guys that use their normalness to try and use you (and more than often succeed).

I am especially angry about one passage of the review, as it is simply pure demagogics:

Quote
...Bennett milks the writer as observer idea a bit too much, leading to elegiac, self-righteous pronouncements such as:

    "(...) I'm a writer and I see all sides. I work in words and these words cannot be made to work for others, they are not the slaves of party or position. Maybe you look down on it, maybe you and your bitter comrades think it's precious, but the writer's words are their own justification. They have to be if they are to be true, if they are to count for something. "

       Authorial pomposity is hard to pull off, and Bennett certainly doesn't, in one of the major failings of the book. Gillespie, the catastrophist of the title, is not quite everything Bennett wants to turn him into. Inès explains the term: "If you are catastrofista no problem is small. Nothing can be fixed." While the label fits Gillespie to a certain extent (no problem is small) he does, in his inept way, seem to be trying to fix them.



Apart from being absolutely - as ex journalist - along with the protagonist on that (he voiced it better than I ever will, but then: I am a photo journalist), here is my complaint: He *tries* to fix them as we all try to fix our´s, but he is "the Catastrophist", and Inés in the end is right. "Nothing can be fixed". The central statement of the book, IMHO, and well transported, just the critic didn´t catch it. I see no contradiction in the two things whatsoever, this statement is actually what provides the sense I have found in this book.

Buy (used from 15 cents up): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catastrophist-Ronan-Bennett/dp/0747260338

Rattler
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« Reply #12 on: 22 September 2009, 00:16:00 »
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I don't read as much as I'd like to,  I tend to get distracted way too fast with other things going on.  But I like Dean R Knootz books,  he has a way of capturing my (sometimes fickle) imagination and keeping it captured,  at least most of the time.

Occasionally,  I like reading autobiographies too,  some of famous people, but mostly not.  I find the books written during or just after WW2 in Northern England fascinating.  The lives of most the people of that time where really hard.  Food was on tokens and limited,  people were poor,  a lot went into the war effort, London was bombed out, as were Liverpool and other major cities in that time.  Children were sent off to the countrysides to stay with strangers, in hope to keep them out of the firing range of German bombers...
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Rattler
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« Reply #13 on: 22 September 2009, 00:59:01 »
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Quote from: Jilly on 22 September 2009, 00:16:00
-snip- ...I like Dean R Knootz books -snip-

Dean R. Koontz?

Rattler
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« Reply #14 on: 22 September 2009, 01:16:03 »
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Deen R Knootz, is a Californian who likes to write Horror mixed with science fiction/thriller.  My favorite book of his is called 'intensity'.  It was also one of the first ones I read by him.

More about him on here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Koontz



Dean:

Many of his books have been made into movies also.
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Rattler
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« Reply #15 on: 22 September 2009, 01:22:15 »
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errhmmm...  Huh? The guy on the book title has a differnt name than theone you used, I thought at first it was just a typo, but are these two different writers?

Just joking, but sometimes I just cannot let go... Smiley

Deen R. Knootz is not Dean R. Koontz   hihi

Forget it it´s not important, just called my attention... Smiley

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« Reply #16 on: 22 September 2009, 01:26:23 »
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It was just a typo,  Mister.  Man, are you ever fussy    Tong

I'll have to think of a way to get my own back on you now.   You didn't know I was revengeful did you?  hihi
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« Reply #17 on: 21 October 2009, 01:40:11 »
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"The Day of Battle: THe War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944" Volume Two of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson.

This book is just as good as his first book in the trilogy "An Army at Dawn".

It has alot of really detailed accounts of some of the battles that go unnoticed. The fighting in Italy that takes place during the same time periods as that in Normandy just disappears in the eye of the public.

Good Hunting.

MR
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« Reply #18 on: 5 August 2011, 04:07:48 »
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Soldat - reflections of a German soldier 1936-1949.
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« Reply #19 on: 5 August 2011, 06:11:03 »
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Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, 1941-1945

Not a bad read but I have a feeling Raus is padding his abilities a bit.
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