Read any good books lately?

A little while ago I read "Bury Us Upside Down" about the Misty pilots in Vietnam. Great book.

More recently "Race for the South Pole". Certainly I've read several books about Amundsen and Scott, but this one was a little different.

The structure is parallel diary entries, day by day, from Scott, Amundsen and his team member Olav Bjaaland (Amundsen tends to be terse) all the way down and back. This one really was a winner.

I hear that Damon and Affleck are making a movie. I would see that. Pretty tough on dogs...

Currently I am reading "Endurance".

I am currently reading Antony Beevor's "The Second World War" very good reading,made me aware of some things i didn't know.

Just finished "The Spanish Holocaust"By Paul Preston A real eye-opener about the Spanish Civil War,just some horrific details,I had no idea of the bloodshed.

Stik,Tuchman's book an oldie but a goodie,very insightful.

"Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist"

Sir Isaac Newton running the Royal Mint and busting counterfeiters, true story.

Also James Garner's autobiography

Hugh Howey's "Wool" series...one of the most interesting things I've read in years, about the survivors of some past apocalypse living within a massive underground silo. Seriously fantastic...Howey's writing is evocative without slipping anywhere near pretentious.

"Theodore Rex" by Edmund Morris...absolutely excellent, in-depth look at TR's administration. Learned a lot I didn't know or that I knew but vaguely.

"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. I'm a HUGE Stephenson fan and go back and forth as to whether Cryptonomicon or Anathem is my favorite novel, but I'd never taken in this classic "predicted the internet and virtual worlds and Google Earth" story before. Awesome, but somehow lesser in my mind than his more recent stuff.

gregbale

"Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist"

Sir Isaac Newton running the Royal Mint and busting counterfeiters, true story.

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle features Newton extensively, particularly as head of the royal mint as he trues to bust one of the other characters for counterfeiting. Dense, but awesome.

I've been reading about the H.M. Troopship Birkenhead, which sank off Point Danger in Africa. Tremendous account about the sacrifice of the British troops in deference to the safety of the women and children on board.

Glenn

Im currently reading "Prospero Burns" by Dan Abnett. Its part of the warhammer 40k "Horus Heresy" series.

Storyline is an artefact hunter gets irritated with the beuracracy of the administratum so at the ripe old age of 80 he travels to the planet of Fenris, where the space wolves astartes make their home. While entering the atmosphere he gets shot down by a space wolf named Bear. After certain events on the ice planet hes taken in by the space wolves and "Repaired" given a younger faster harder body. He then goes to war with them as their Skjald (Rememberer, teller of stories)

Im up to the part where hes sitting with the oldest of the wolves of fenris, whos been hit with a power hammer and is leaking blood everywhere (Hes claims hes no dieing, healing just hurts) telling him of his friend murza who wielded the powers of the warp which is the only thing that frightens the wolves.

Im enjoying it immensely. Im about half way through.

"Finding the Few," by Andy Saunders.  It's about recovery efforts for the remains of Battle of Britain pilots, missing since 1940 in England.  For the most part, it's been done by amateurs and without the cooperation of the Ministry of Defense.  Very moving.

"Deception in War" by Jon Latimer. Basicly about the use of camouflage, deceptive troop and armour movements, noise discipline and radio deception, etc. used from the time of the Trojan Horse to the Gulf War. Very good reading.

Jim

A Low Flying Pterodactyl by John Powers.  About his career in the Coast Guard flying both helo's and C-130's.

The last book I read was The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton which focused on the doping in professional cycling and Lance Armstrong's involvement in particular.  Outside of modeling my major hobby/interest is triathlons.  Very sad for me to read as a cycling fan.

Mark

Yes.  Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

The best book I have read in a very long time and I read a lot.

Echo139er, If you liked "Empire of the Summer Moon", try the books of Terry C. Johnston. IIRC there are 32 books in the series, all written about the same time period and all written about different tribes and their leaders. I have them all and read all of them. Great reading.

Jim

       Finished a book recently about "Tom Crean" a member of Scott's expidition to the South Pole.

        Reading "Forgotten voices" by Joshua Levine at the moment both good reads.

Cool.  The author sounds familiar.  I might have read some already.  I will take a look.  Thank you.

I'm in the middle of The Most Dangerous Enemy, by Stephen Bungay, about the Battle of Britain.  I remember reading a kids book way back in second grade on the battle, and figured it was about time to read a good comprehensive history.  It's absolutely a great read and I highly recommend it.

Also not long ago,  I read Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by  Laura Hillenbrand.  The true story of Louis Zamperini.

This book of non-fiction is one of the best stories I have ever read. Louis’s story is so incredible that I found myself wondering how it could all be true.  His story keeps coming back to me. I find it amazing what the will to survive is capable of.

Recently read "Low Level Hell" by Hugh L. Mills, Jr, which is an account of his time as a Loach scout pilot in Vietnam, with lots of Snake & Tadpole stories.  I thoroughly enjoyed it & although my eyes were already open to what these guys did, this book opened them slightly further......

I'm on the lookout for something decent from the Falklands campaign if anyone has any suggestions (already read Vulcan 607)?

I read "German Boy" not too long ago. It was a great read about the dying days of the Third Reich and the early post war years.

Over the Holiday I read "The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden"; by Mark Bowden.

Highly recommended, although since it was published last June, it's already out of date.

I plan to grab and read "No Easy Day" by "Mark Owen".  I was a little skeptical because of all the controversy surrounding it's publication, but I then downloaded and watched the interview he did for "60 Minutes" and was pretty impressed.

I ordered " Special Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice" by William H. McRaven, 1996 Presidio Press. It's eight case studies from Eban Emael to Entebbe, and was McRavens Thesis at Naval Post Graduate School. Really am looking forward to that.

Just about 200 pages into the "Rise and fall of the Third Reich" I can't recall the authors name off hand, but it is proving to be a very entertaining book.

William Shirer. That's the first book I ever read abt the Third Reich, when it was published in the early sixties. Still one of the best IMO.

Just nabbed Shirer's book on Audible for $8...will be a good listen as I'm working on the Fw 190F-8 and Me 262A-1a/U4

That's the guy, and yes it is an awesome book.

Yes,  Star Trek Destiny, by David Mack. It's a compilation of a trilogy he wrote recently.  It is about the finial war of the Borg on the Federation, and the Klingon and Romulan worlds, in fact, pretty much every world in known space.  The Borg are not assimulating this time, they are exterminating.  In these novels, which involves pretty much everyone from the StarTrek universe, you learn the origin of the Borg and their purpose.  I found it a griping adventure and great on characters and action.  The ending may disturb some however, but it is true to Star Trek.   The author is quite know to Star Trek folks and had permission from those that be, to do this story. Not sure if is could be considered Canon, but it comes close.

Doug

Now I'm rereading "The Big E" for the 3rd time.  Of course it's about USS Enterprise CV 6 in WWII.

I’m reading A Genius for Deception by Nicholas Rankin.
Don’t be fooled by first impressions.

• Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
• Armored Thunderbolt by Steve Zaloga
• Rangers at Dieppe (The first combat action of U.S. Army Rangers in World War II) by Jim DeFelice

Just picked up a copy of Helmet for my pillow by Robert Leckie.

GMorrison

I ordered " Special Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice" by William H. McRaven, 1996 Presidio Press. It's eight case studies from Eban Emael to Entebbe, and was McRavens Thesis at Naval Post Graduate School. Really am looking forward to that.