Read any good books lately?

Assassin's Creed: Unity is the newest book I'm currently reading.

I'm almost finished The Forgotten 500. It's a book about airmen who had to parachute out over Yugoslavia during WWII. They were taken in by Drazz Mahailovich's men and protected from the Germans until the OSS could arrange air transport for them out of the country. It also tells the story of how the US and British governments, due to Stalin's and Communist infiltrators mis-information, were against Mahailovich and considered him a German collaborator. A great book about a part of history that few know about.

Yup - have that book and already read it. A good read for sure.

" Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I "  
by John Ellis

 1977

Excellent overview of the suffering experienced by soldiers in the WWI trenches.

http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Deep-Hell-Trench-Warfare-World/dp/0739403710

If I may add a video of a similar theme to this, I watched the video " Joyeux Noël "  on Christmas ; a fictionalized adaptation of the unofficial 1914 Christmas truce in the Western Front trenches.

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

Tojo72

I'm working on the 50th anniversary edition of 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by Shirer.Very dey reading,but I wanted to get thru this one.

I take that out and re-read it every couple of years, too.  I think Shirer's book is still an excellent book, if not the best book, on precisely that subject--the rise and fall of the Third Reich.  I got an argument a couple of years ago from someone who cited a lot of detailed literature on very specific areas of that history, but I don't think he refuted my point.  Shirer had his own notes, plus tons of archived and eyewitness material, to write the book.

OK, wait--I think I get it now.  You're talking about the video game, now, aren't you.

No. The newest Assassin's Creed book. :))

A couple of months ago I finished a book titled "Knights Templar".  Can't remember the authors name.  Good book though.  The history of the Knights.

Jim 

"Raven One", by Kevin Miller.  Modern day setting of an F-18 squadron deployed to the Gulf region.  

Reading 'American Sniper' now. Good book!

wolfhammer1

Could anyone recommend a good book or 2 about the Korean War?  I am starting a research kick on that time, as my dad served in combat there and I have never heard or seen much about it.  Thanks.

Only couple books on the Korean War that stand out for me

"The Last Stand of Fox Company" (which I highly recommend)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Stand-Fox-Company/dp/0802144519

and, "The Darkest Summer" by Bill Sloan. 

Just finished reading "The Admirals" by Walter Borneman, well written and very informative.  Will be starting quite a few other books next week.

Josiah, thank you for those recommendations.  I will look into getting them.

John

I just read a great book that I found in a used book store last night.

"Battleship Bismark, a survivors story".

Published in 1980 by the Naval Institute Press.

I had not ever heard of this book before and I recommend it.

The highest ranking survivor of the sinking wrote it based on personal recollection, interviews of other survivors and members of the Royal Navy, plus German and British records.

It's a bad sign when the Fuhrer starts conferring battlefield citations before the battle is over.

Recently I've finished:

"The General" by C.S. Forester

-Good read and easy read, hard not to get frustrated (at the characters) reading it though

"The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World" by Frank Lambert

-Good book, loaded with information, looks at the Barbary Wars from an interesting perspective

And a couple others that aren't worth mentioning

I've got quite a few books waiting to be read. However, I did get a couple around Christmastime. "Conversations with Major *** Winters" and "Untold Valor"

wolfhammer1

Hey waynec, I am a huge David Weber fan and love his work.  Have you ever read the Safehold series by him?  To me it raises some interesting questions about faith and religion, given that it is set in a science fiction time with late 1600s technology and but with a few futuristic twists.  Could anyone recommend a good book or 2 about the Korean War?  I am starting a research kick on that time, as my dad served in combat there and I have never heard or seen much about it.  Thanks.

Ihey WOLF  'll look into that when i am done with the honorverse.

THE FORGOTTEN WAR by Clay Blair

SLA Marshall has a few including, I think. PORK CHOP HILL. good movie too.

waynec

wolfhammer1

Hey waynec, I am a huge David Weber fan and love his work.  Have you ever read the Safehold series by him?  To me it raises some interesting questions about faith and religion, given that it is set in a science fiction time with late 1600s technology and but with a few futuristic twists.  Could anyone recommend a good book or 2 about the Korean War?  I am starting a research kick on that time, as my dad served in combat there and I have never heard or seen much about it.  Thanks.

Ihey WOLF  'll look into that when i am done with the honorverse.

THE FORGOTTEN WAR by Clay Blair

SLA Marshall has a few including, I think. PORK CHOP HILL. good movie too.

Marshall's The River and the Guantlet is really good.

I'm in the middle of Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.

ISBN-13: 978-1439148815

Taken from Amazon.com:

This memoir of a veteran NASA flight director tells riveting stories from the early days of the Mercury program through Apollo 11 (the moon landing) and Apollo 13, for both of which Kranz was flight director.

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America’s manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA’s Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director’s role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. 

Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers’ only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success. 

A fascinating firsthand account by a veteran mission controller of one of America’s greatest achievements, Failure is Not an Option reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.

I've been unable to put it down.

I'd love to read that.

Ed Harris played him pretty well in the movie.

I started working on the AMT Man in Space kit and I bumped into the book on the internet as I was looking for references.

I highly recommend it.

Hey Beans, I'll bet Kevin would love a review of that for the newsletter.  ;-)

John

If there's any aviation nuts here (and I know there are) and haven't read this book yet, then you need to...........  Awesome doesn't even begin to describe it folks.

I am still working my way thru my "Complete Sherlock Holmes" collection that I received for Christmas in 2013 and did not start until late last year... Great stuff!

mustang - I have and read that book when it first came out.  I couldn't put it down.

Read the book about 6 or 7 months ago and have been thinking about building the 2 planes.  Amazing book. Hard to put down.  Loads of info on the two planes to work with. The 109 wouldn't be too hard but the bomber is another story.  Tons of scratch work.

Jim 

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

For your information, you can buy decal sets (1/72 & 1/48 scale) of both Ye Old Pub and the Bf-109 portrayed

wolfhammer1,

I'm on it.

I'm hoping to complete the rockets and the book in time for March's meeting.

I just added A Higher Call to my reading list.

Beans, Look forward to seeing you there.  

I've been wondering about  A Higher Call as well, so its now added to the list.

John