Read any good books lately?

Just got Rampage,by Scott,the Battle of Manila to read on vacation.

Tojo72

Just got Rampage,by Scott,the Battle of Manila to read on vacation.

 

That sounds like a good one! 

Last Time I was at Ollie's I picked up "December 1941" by Craig Shirley. Just got around to starting to read it. It's 544 pages plus another 128 of notes, bibliography and acknowledgments. 

I'm 46 pages in to it and it's getting to be very mind blowing to learn just how the people were going about their everyday business and not paying much attention to the war that was going on at the time. Biggest attention getter was the movies at least 2 times a week to get the latest movie from hollywood (10cents-20 for a double feature). Especially if Clark Gable was in it. Amazing.

Jim  

Well, believe it or not, us Marines can read, too, but only if the book has lotsa pictures!!

I've recently read "Wounded Tiger", by T. Martin Bennett, which details the life of Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, and his conversion to Christianity. It also details others who crossed paths with him, or were involved in his life in some way. A very riveting read, even at 580 pages. A lot of detail on his personal planning of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Another that I just got through reading is "Top Gun - An American Story" by Dan Pederson, who is the creator AND first CO of the Navy's Top Gun program. OUTSTANDING book!! I almost read this one cover-to-cover in one day......almost.

Another good one is "Bogeys & Bandits - The Making Of A Fighter Pilot" by Robert Gandt. This one chronicles the training of a Navy/Marine fighter pilot for the F/A-18. Not for your kids to read - a lot of foul language in it, but, it is a true-life military documentary, soooooo....... 'nuff said.

Gary Mason

GMorrison

I'm very impressed. That would take serious reading time.

Have you read Taipan or Noble House? 

Sorry, GM, I didn't see your reply back then! 

I was out of work, so I had time, and in the summer, it's nice to sit out and read

No, I have not read either of those novels, nor have I read "King Rat", but they're on my reading list.  I enjoy "Shogun" so much that I expect I'll like his other novels as much.

stikpusher

Unbroken and 1776 were great books! You scored on that find. 

Yes, the Band of Brothers series took some liberties with how Cpt Sobel was portrayed. Especially on his contribution to the initial forging and training of the company. In the book, it is explicitly stated by the original Easy Co. survivors that it was his particular brand of training that contributed so much to prepare the company to perform as they did in combat.

A recent library book I just finished, ”Enola Gay” by Gordon Thomas & Max Witts, was an excellent entertaining read. I enjoyed the many details that the authors brought to light on the Manhattan Project from the viewpoint of Tibbets and his fellow airmen. The book reads like a very entertaining movie/ docu-drama, not the typical dry WWII history rehash. Highly recommended!

I’ve also recently read several of James Hornfischer’s WWII naval history books, “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” and “Neptune’s Inferno”, both very well researched works that both present in graphic detail the absolutely terror and occasional gruesome situations of being on war ships in battle in the Pacific. Not crazy about Hornfischer’s writing style (he loves long wordy passages with a gazillion characters popping in and out of chapters) but the subject matter kept me going.

nearsightedjohn

A recent library book I just finished........ 

You know, I haven't thought about going to the library in a long, long time. I just might hafta gits my butt over there and look around pretty soon. Great idea, nearsightedjohn!

Gary Mason

I just finished "The Pioneers" by David McCullogh.  Very good.  It's about the first organized settlements on the Ohio river in the 1780's.  I also finished a new book "Dinosaurs Redicovered" by Michael J. Benton.  Guess what.... Dinosaurs are still around, they are BIRDS.  Actually, we suspected that, now recent discoveries have shown it.   I remember in I think it was in 1972 or so, when I was in Geology, thinking about specialziing in Paleontology that one my professors told me  that we knew all there was to know, they lived millions of years ago, they are dead,  forget them,  learn Forams instead.  Oh well. I could go on.  Well, I have taught the new things at Dinosur Ridge here in Colorado.  We have bones and hundreds of footprints from both the Jurassic and Cretacious eras.  Fun.

Devil Dawg

 

 

nearsightedjohn

A recent library book I just finished........ 

 

 

 

You know, I haven't thought about going to the library in a long, long time. I just might hafta gits my butt over there and look around pretty soon. Great idea, nearsightedjohn!

Gary Mason

 

 

 

it can save some money and space,especially if the book isn’t good 

tankboy51

I just finished "The Pioneers" by David McCullogh.  Very good.  It's about the first organized settlements on the Ohio river in the 1780's.  I also finished a new book "Dinosaurs Redicovered" by Michael J. Benton.  Guess what.... Dinosaurs are still around, they are BIRDS.  Actually, we suspected that, now recent discoveries have shown it.   I remember in I think it was in 1972 or so, when I was in Geology, thinking about specialziing in Paleontology that one my professors told me  that we knew all there was to know, they lived millions of years ago, they are dead,  forget them,  learn Forams instead.  Oh well. I could go on.  Well, I have taught the new things at Dinosur Ridge here in Colorado.  We have bones and hundreds of footprints from both the Jurassic and Cretacious eras.  Fun. 

Yeah, reading Bakker and Horner, and Gould, too, back in the late 90s and early Aughts, they were re-examining and discussing new interpretations of the fossils, and a reclassificaion of Aves-birds, not the putty .  It's gained much traction since then.

Have you come across any good books that talk about feathers on dinosaurs, especially books that present whatever evidence we have, which species, etc?  I see a lot of dino art online, and it seems that every artist turns every dinosaur into a parrot.  But I haven't seen much reference to too many specific examples.

Yes, this current book and I have another one and lots articles in a paleontology on line mag have pictures.  I did go a seminar with Dr. Bakker in 1980, before he became famous.  He did work at the University of Colorado for a time.  I do emember at Dinosaur Ridge, a Paleontologist that worked there was upset with Jack Horner because he felt the T-rex was a scavenger only.  At the Denver musem of Nature and Science we have a duck Bill with a bite mark on the tail done by a rex.  It survived the bite, and healed.  He just ignored her because she hadn't recieved her degree yet. The new fossils come from all over the world. China is really good.  Farmers over there make good money on fossils and the government realy encourages them.   There are lots of great early bird fossils, feathers and more.  I see more artwork with them like large velociraptors with feathers, even have seen some models of them.  It's a whole new world of Dinos.  I asked a dino artist what he thought of redoing a lot of his artwork and he was excited about it, lots of new colors! 

An english teacher freind of mine really got me hooked into audibooks.  Its so very convinent to listen to a book during the commute to/from work.  My list of last three books listened to.

I just bought a really nice picture book at Barnes and Noble. It has 245 pages of high quality color and B&W photos of WWII airplanes and crew.

How about this photo, a 109B. You don't see those very often.

Dragons Jaw, by Stephen Coonts and Barret Tillman.

True story of Vietnam air operations by the USAF & USN to bring down the Thanh Hoa bridge from 1965 to 1972.  It covers the origin of Wild Weasel and Iron Hand missions, and the development & use of first generation laser guided precision weaponry.  The authors cover a lot of the human side of the efforts, especially covering the airmen that became POWs, and the failings of the exectutive leadership of the US goverment of the time, especially LBJ & McNamara.

Six Frigates. The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy, by Ian Toll.

This book is a real gem. It's really four books in one, covering the funding design and construction of the heavy frigates; the Jeffersonian defunding of the Navy; the Barbary pirates war, the War of1812.

Ish47guy

Dragons Jaw, by Stephen Coonts and Barret Tillman.

True story of Vietnam air operations by the USAF & USN to bring down the Thanh Hoa bridge from 1965 to 1972.  It covers the origin of Wild Weasel and Iron Hand missions, and the development & use of first generation laser guided precision weaponry.  The authors cover a lot of the human side of the efforts, especially covering the airmen that became POWs, and the failings of the exectutive leadership of the US goverment of the time, especially LBJ & McNamara.

 

 

Isnt Coonts the Vietnam vet former A-6 driver who wrote Flight of the Intruder?

It sounds like a book that I'd love to read.

i just finished reading US Navy A-7 Units of the Vietnam War a couple days ago...

stikpusher

 

 

Ish47guy

Dragons Jaw, by Stephen Coonts and Barret Tillman.

True story of Vietnam air operations by the USAF & USN to bring down the Thanh Hoa bridge from 1965 to 1972.  It covers the origin of Wild Weasel and Iron Hand missions, and the development & use of first generation laser guided precision weaponry.  The authors cover a lot of the human side of the efforts, especially covering the airmen that became POWs, and the failings of the exectutive leadership of the US goverment of the time, especially LBJ & McNamara.

 

 

 

i just finished reading US Navy A-7 Units of the Vietnam War a couple days ago...

 

No listing of Pricco in the index. And yes, modeling is a very good excuse for buying books. My library has expanded manyfold due to modeling related books!

Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen. Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe.Arguably the greatest single sea voyage ever undertaken.

FORGOTTEN CACHE, by Justin Frye; about two eleven year old boys who find an American Revolutionary period cache tunnel. A great read, if you are in middle grades, (8-12 year olds). I know this because I wrote it! Forgotten Cache is my first kids book of hopefully a series of unrelated stories to help get kids reading again. Wish me luck, our youth need all the help we can give them. 

I read a lot at work. Just this year, I finished the entire series of Edgar Rice Bourroughs' John Carter of Mars (like 6 books on my Kindle), World War Z (much different from the movie), Dead of Night (a zombie book that actually explains how the zombies were created), We Called it War (an infantryman's story about enlisting during the Korean War and serving on the front lines).

I'm about half way through the book Children of Men, another book that was made into a movie that doesn't seem to be very much like the movie.

I've read a few others on my Kindle, one was about the Vietnam War leading up to the Tet Offensive.

"The Body, a Guide for Occupants" by Bill Bryson. He is a famous travel writer but this book is fascinating. It is written in very down to earth language, bunch of trivia. After reading many anatomy textbooks in school, this one is a very refreshing and informative read on how the body works and what is in it. Easy read for anybody interested in how you work.

This past week I was lucky to find a copy of Warday, and spent half of the week reading it. It’s a novel written in 1984, set in 1993 about the aftermath of ”limited” nuclear war between the US and USSR in 1988. 

stikpusher

written in 1984, set in 1993 about the aftermath of ”limited” nuclear war between the US and USSR in 1988

If you get a chance Stik,try " the Thirld World War ",General Sir John Hackett. 1978 publish date. Details a 1987 thrust through Germany by Warsaw Pact.

templar1099

 

 

stikpusher

written in 1984, set in 1993 about the aftermath of ”limited” nuclear war between the US and USSR in 1988

 

 

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If you get a chance Stik,try " the Thirld World War ",General Sir John Hackett. 1978 publish date. Details a 1987 thrust through Germany by Warsaw Pact.

 

I think that I still have that one in my library. I’ve read it several times.

Do anyn  of you have a "shelf-of-doom" for books you can't finish?

I've got a couple on mine.

"Cattle Kingdom", the history of the 19th Century cattle industry in the west and the real story of cowboys.

"Gourmand's Way", a collection of short stories about food writers. The first story was about A.J. Leibling and his time in France as an Army and New Yorker magazine writer during and post WW2. It was a good read. But after that a lot of Julia Child retread stories. I met her once.