Read any good books lately?

Just finished "The Rodale Book of Composting" and am now reading "Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management"

In order to keep my mind off the frustration of the new format here, I got back to reading in the past week. Two books that I had received as Christmas gifts: "No Easy Days" by Mark Owens, and "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrel. Both are SEAL memoirs  of different types in Afghanistan during the current war, and good reads for those who like that sort of thing.

I've started reading a biography of William Wallace.

Read that one too. You will soon learn how Wallace really died. Not how the movie Braveheart did it.

'D-Day Through German Eyes' is pretty interesting. There's two volumes. It really gives a sense of what it was like to be on the other side and the shock it must have been to see all that coming at you!

Keeping with my recent Afghanistan subject theme, last night I started "Return of a King", which is about the early 1800s there and the early British activities in that land.

Copy on the frustration factor Stik. That being said, I'm almost finished with "First Man" a biography of Neil Armstrong. Next up is a book on George A. Custer called "A terrible Glory".

I've got a couple books I have yet to read:

Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of American Bomber Crews over Europe in World War II

The Wrong Stuff: The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Airforce Aviator

Conversations with Major D*** Winters: Life Lessons from the Commander of the Band of Brothers

Finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand not too long ago. Very good book.

I've also read Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and The Trident by Jason Redman. Very good reads about Navy Seals. 

rooster513

Finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand not too long ago. Very good book.

 

I read that book as well just after I first heard the movie was coming out based on that. I recommended those interested in seeing the movie to read the book first. The book tells more than the movie did. I know a few of us did read it before seeing the movie.

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

 

rooster513

Finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand not too long ago. Very good book.

 

 

 

 

I read that book as well just after I first heard the movie was coming out based on that. I recommended those interested in seeing the movie to read the book first. The book tells more than the movie did. I know a few of us did read it before seeing the movie.

 

Agreed... there was no way to include all the book into the time alloted in the movie. although I do think that the movie did a very good job of capturingmost of the essence of the book.

Just finished re-reading "PT-109: John F. Kennedy in the South Pacific" the 40th anniversary edition by Robert Donovan. The new foreword by Donovan, and the afterword by Duane Hove, make the book an even more exciting read for those interested in PT boat warfare in the Solomon Islands. Highly recommended.

Another recent read for me was "The Night Stalkers" by Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov, with Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert L. Johnson. Another great read about the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Chapter 8, "From the Jaws of Death" holds a special meaning for me- I flew as a crew chief with the pilot whose Gulf War exploits are described in that chapter (not as a Night Stalker, but back when CWO4 Jim Crisafulli was my unit's standardization instructor pilot, with the 5th Special Forces Flight Platoon, and a heckuva pilot)

Great books.

An excellent book that I just read is "Viper Pilot", by Dan Hampton, a veteran USAF F-16 pilot. He writes about his exploits during the 1st Gulf War, and the other conflicts that the US has been involved with since then. Excellent read!

Reading a book now that I got in the Grand Canyon when I was just there callled "Death in the Canyon". Wow, what a harrowing book--it details the ways that people die in the canyon from falls, dehydration, environmental hazards. Definitely a great primer to read before you consider a hike in the brutal wilds of the canyon, where temperatures in the shade can exceed 102F. It certainly has me second-thinking a hike...

I'm just finishing The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a factual narrative of the party and the background of those who were there. It's a large book but it keeps getting better. This is the first book I've read on the Reich because the author William Shirer was there and wrote a true account supported by documents. The Germans wrote down everything and we're still translating them from about 70 years ago.   Terry

jibber

I'm just finishing The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a factual narrative of the party and the background of those who were there. It's a large book but it keeps getting better. This is the first book I've read on the Reich because the author William Shirer was there and wrote a true account supported by documents. The Germans wrote down everything and we're still translating them from about 70 years ago.   Terry

 

I just finished reading, "Five Days in London-May 1940" by John Lukacs, which looks at the infighting in the British cabinet when Churchill was named to replace Chamberlain, and the eventual decision not to negotiate with the Germans but to fight on at all costs; and John Lundstrom's "The First South Pacific Campaign", on Japanese and US naval and political strategies from December 1941 to the end of June 1942.  I really enjoy Lindstrom's books about the first year of the war in the Pacific.

OK, I just noticed that in my previous post about The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, that the forum's nannyware actually censors the abbreviation commonly used for adherents of National Socialism.  That is really just too much!  I can see censoring profanity, but N-a-z-i is a historical term, and, unlike the s-w-a-s-t-i-k-a, the word isn't banned (yet) in the EU.  I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous.

Baron, deep breath.

The nannybot is set up that way to prevent personal insults in online flame wars.

It's sort of funny, but the offensive term is "rivet ***".

Nazi is ok. At least semantically.

The swastika is not banned in the EU, either.

Devil Dawg

An excellent book that I just read is "Viper Pilot", by Dan Hampton, a veteran USAF F-16 pilot. He writes about his exploits during the 1st Gulf War, and the other conflicts that the US has been involved with since then. Excellent read!

 

Dave

And "Bury us upside down", the story of the Vietnam Misty pilots in F-100s.

GMorrison

Baron, deep breath.

The nannybot is set up that way to prevent personal insults in online flame wars.

It's sort of funny, but the offensive term is "rivet ***".

Nazi is ok. At least semantically.

The swastika is not banned in the EU, either.

 

The plural *** is blocked. The singular nazi is not.

again it's in an effort to avert flame wars and makes sense to me.

the wiki article on the swastika is very good. It covers the reasons a couple of countries have controls over the usage, and more power to them.

I just finished "Marching With Caesar - Conquest of Gaul". I'm a big fan of Roman Era historical fiction but currently taking a break from that (mostly b/c I don't have another one) so I just started reading The Longest Day again. It was a toss up between reading this for the second time or A Bridge Too Far for the third time. A Bridge Too Far is one of my favorite books!

I starter reading book 15 of the Harry Dresden series, but put that aside for a new book from the same author, Jim Butcher. "The Aeronaut's Windlass" is the first book of a steampunk series set in another world. Very well written and a great start to another one of his series. I have read 14 of the Harry Dresden book in the past year.