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Posted

I finally started Shake Hands With the Devil by Romeo Dallaire . If anyone has any lingering doubts as the the sheer worthliness of Kofi Annan and the United Nations , this should clear them up . I hadn't been on a good French loathing binge until reading the remarks about the paras "going to save their good friends" . It isn't like we had much to be proud of over that mess either - everyone should read it as an example of why " never again " is rubbish and in case they've been feeling too good about humanity in general recently .

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Posted

I just picked up a complete set of Churchill's 6-volume history of the Second World War for $15. I haven't read these since I was a teenager (except for the occasional peak to research an issue now and then).

Posted
I just picked up a complete set of Churchill's 6-volume history of the Second World War for $15. I haven't read these since I was a teenager (except for the occasional peak to research an issue now and then).

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You bastard!

 

I started reading the series and got deep into volume 3 and then the girlfirend who owned the books(they were her grandfather's) and I broke up so that was that. Then during the Hurricane I&I we stopped at a great used bookstore in Sharpsburg I believe and he had the original printing in decent condition but I had zero room in my luggage to take it home on the plane. All they sell now are recent paperback additions so I'll have to scour the used book stores. :(

Posted
Trying to finish Castles of Steel after putting it down due to elections, homebuying, moving and holidays. I'm just shy of halfway through. I was unpacking my books and realized I have a LOT of books I've bought and never read, sheesh.

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My favorite part is the bit where Prince Albert (the future King George VI) climbs out on top of his turret on Collingwood to sun himself between the late afternoon and early evening engagements with the High Seas Fleet.

Posted

I'm currently dividing my reading time among...

 

Into The Green, Cherokee Paul McDonald

 

This collection of Vietnam anecdotes is a fast read, and I take in a short chapter or two each evening. If the author isn't doing screenplays, he missed his true calling.

 

The Valhalla Exchange, Jack Higgins

 

My first Higgins novel. Good so far.

 

The Helmsman, Bill Baldwin

 

Uninvolving space opera, but I want to finish it.

 

Once I polish these off, I'm on to...

 

The Count of Monte Cristo, (unabridged version) Alexandre Dumas

 

I fell in love with this novel, but discovered to my horror I'd read an abridged copy. Correcting that error will take some time, as this is a seriously long book.

 

A Walk In Wolf Wood, Mary Stewart

 

A childhood favorite. I don't remember too many of the details, but I do remember by book report getting marked down because I couldn't identify enough faults in it.

 

Samurai!, Saburo Sakai

 

It'll be fascinating to read a WWII memoir from an IJN perspective.

Posted
My favorite part is the bit where Prince Albert (the future King George VI) climbs out on top of his turret on Collingwood to sun himself between the late afternoon and early evening engagements with the High Seas Fleet.

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I'll look for that one. Hipper's battlecruisers just escaped after shelling some English towns and it sounded like Beatty was going to cry. Massie doesn't seem too impressed with him.

Posted
I'll look for that one. Hipper's battlecruisers just escaped after shelling some English towns and it sounded like Beatty was going to cry. Massie doesn't seem too impressed with him.

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Hipper gets some respect for his behavior at Jutland. Beatty comes off a rather tragickal figure.

Posted
You bastard!

 

I started reading the series and got deep into volume 3 and then the girlfirend who owned the books(they were her grandfather's) and I broke up so that was that. Then during the Hurricane I&I we stopped at a great used bookstore in Sharpsburg I believe and he had the original printing in decent condition but I had zero room in my luggage to take it home on the plane. All they sell now are recent paperback additions so I'll have to scour the used book stores. :(

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I won't spoil the ending for you then. :D

Posted
Was it Goering in the study with the candle stick?

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It was Churchill in the bedroom with the whiskey bottle.

Posted
"Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma" by George Fraser.

 

His Flashman books were a hoot, and his biography is good reading so far.

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An outstanding book I've now read several times.

 

I haven't read any of the Flashman books, but please do find a copy of his THE COMPLETE MCAUSLAN" when you're done QUARTERED SAFE. It's a compendium of three books, all of which, while being "fictionalized", stand as his own experience in a postwar Highland regiment as a junior officer (where QUARTERED SAFE leaves off). I was struck by so much (I'm half-Scot) that I wrote a note on email to the publisher... about two months later I received a very nice handwritten card from GMF himself.

Posted

Currently reading "Man is Wolf to Man" by Janusz Bardach, a Jewish Pole who managed to end up in the Soviet gulags during the second world war.

 

After reading the chapter on his punishment in the "isolater" in a Kolyma prison camp I've never been so glad of a warm bed in my life...

Guest Hans Engström
Posted

Gerald Seymours The Unknown Soldier, good thriller, and scary as hell, not to mention putting across the Arab/Moslemviewpoint fairly well.

Posted

After the exams, I'll be reading Harold Coyle's "Code of Honor." I hope it's as good as Team Yankee. I noticed, this is the second book I've read by Coyle and in the opening chapter, he always has a young inexperienced 2LT that is new to the unit.

Posted

Started, then abandoned Teeth of the Tiger. Clancy doesn't do it for me, anymore.

 

Started a series my sister bought me, by George R. R. Martin. Duty is the only compulsion I'm finding to keep reading. After I finish I'm going to read some William Manchester. I owe it to myself.

 

Doing a lot more writing than reading, though.

 

 

Shot

Posted
Just finished the January edition of Penthouse Forum

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"The coed and I were getting hot and heavy in the shower when her teamates from the field hockey team came in and started stripping...."

 

That's some fine literature!

Posted

Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore

 

I have enjoyed Robert K Massie and Antony Beevor in the past.

 

Also enjoyed Martin van Creveld's The Sword and the Olive, about the IDF.

Posted

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

 

Jared Diamond.

 

The Seduction of Unreason.

 

Richard Wolin.

 

The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer

 

William Irwin, et al.

Posted
An outstanding book I've now read several times.

 

I haven't read any of the Flashman books, but please do find a copy of his THE COMPLETE MCAUSLAN" when you're done QUARTERED SAFE. It's a compendium of three books, all of which, while being "fictionalized", stand as his own experience in a postwar Highland regiment as a junior officer (where QUARTERED SAFE leaves off). I was struck by so much (I'm half-Scot) that I wrote a note on email to the publisher... about two months later I received a very nice handwritten card from GMF himself.

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I've read all of the Mcauslan books - I enjoyed them just as much as the Flashman series.

Posted

I don't remember if it's already been mentioned, but anyone who likes tanks and has never read "Brazen Chariots" by Robert Crisp should really find a copy ASAP. Possibly the best tank memoir ever.

Posted

Right now I am jumping back and forth between The Lessons of Terror by Caleb Carr and Thunder Run by David Zucchino. So far, so good but I just started them.

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