Books: What are you currently reading?

Michael Dorosh

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The Forsaken Army by Heinrich Gerlach - the author was captured at Stalingrad and wrote about his experiences in novel form. The original manuscript was confiscated by his Russian captors and he rewrote the novel over a number of years. I'm reading the rewrite but apparently the original manuscript (which was much more political) was preserved by the Soviets, and recently published.
 

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"Augustus" by Adrian Goldsworthy. If it's written By Prof Goldsworthy it is worth the read. He has numerous volumes on the Romans, their players, their rise and fall.
I have "In the Name of Rome" by the same author. I haven't got round to reading it yet, though.
 

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Give "Caesar" a read as well. It is a heavy tome but its sets the scene for "Augustus" with a very in depth review of Julius Caesar's life.

I would also recommend Peter Heather for late Rome and the collapse of the empire.

"The Fall of the Roman Empire"
"The Restoration of Rome"
"Empires and Barbarians"

Tom Holland's "Persian Fire" and "Dynasty" are also excellent.
 
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holdit

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Tom Holland's "Persian Fire" and "Dynasty" are also excellent.
I've read "Dynasty" and also "Rubicon", by Holland. Both are excellent. I have "Persian Fire" but I put it down when I was distracted by something else and I still have to get back to it.
 

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"Rubicon" was excellent.

"Persian Fire" reads very well, as do most of Holland's books. You should get through it quite quickly in a just few focused sittings.
 

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In the middle of rereading LotR. Just finished the first half of The Two Towers. It's been a long time since I've reread them and I've been enjoying rediscovering details I forgot.
Hope you are thoroughly enjoying it. Just reminds me of how disappointed I was with the movies.

Don't get me started on Starship Troopers.
 

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Just finishing The Retreat by Michael Jones about the failed attempt to take Moscow in 1941.

When describing the Germans celebrating Christmas he relates a story where a Russian officer was in church with the Germans. I've read this account before and I know this is the first time I've read this book. I can't recall the other source where I read this account. Anyone have a clue?

Btw The Retreat is an ok read, nothing extraordinary.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Just finishing The Retreat by Michael Jones about the failed attempt to take Moscow in 1941.

When describing the Germans celebrating Christmas he relates a story where a Russian officer was in church with the Germans. I've read this account before and I know this is the first time I've read this book. I can't recall the other source where I read this account. Anyone have a clue?

Btw The Retreat is an ok read, nothing extraordinary.
I think I have that one on my shelf somewhere, I can't remember if I ever made it through the whole thing or not. I shall have to check.

I am reading a couple books now - one in bed at bedtime, another on my kitchen table to dinner reading.


Dinner reading is George Washington on leadership, which is fascinating.

At night trying to get through Guy Sajer's FORGOTTEN SOLDIER, decided to really sit down with it after seeing yet another internet discussion about it. I admit as I reread it, it is very well written, but the details are so crisp I have a hard time buying it as an autobiography. Sajer crawls across a field at the start of the battle of Kursk and can remember every detail of every patch of ground he crawls over. I am enjoying it much more by just assuming it is fiction.
 

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I think I have that one on my shelf somewhere, I can't remember if I ever made it through the whole thing or not. I shall have to check.

I am reading a couple books now - one in bed at bedtime, another on my kitchen table to dinner reading.


Dinner reading is George Washington on leadership, which is fascinating.

At night trying to get through Guy Sajer's FORGOTTEN SOLDIER, decided to really sit down with it after seeing yet another internet discussion about it. I admit as I reread it, it is very well written, but the details are so crisp I have a hard time buying it as an autobiography. Sajer crawls across a field at the start of the battle of Kursk and can remember every detail of every patch of ground he crawls over. I am enjoying it much more by just assuming it is fiction.
Lol I am attempting to finish Vicksburg, Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy. I had checked it out from the library but had failed to finish it as it was my toilet book, if you get my drift. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how it is considered, I usually finish the task at hand rather quickly and don't feel like sitting in my own vapors so reading time was brief.

I've rechecked it out and it's now in my bedroom, available whenever I can't take the boob tube anymore.
 

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I'm currently on "The War in the West" Vol 1 by James Holland, which is an interesting deep dive into one theatre after reading Max Hastings and Anthony Beevor's full accounts of the war. Because of the scope, and size of the work, he can go into some interesting details e.g. how Goering wasn't nearly as useless as he's often made out to be, and some amusing ones, like Churchill's statement that he would be happy to go to war at sea with Germany with just the ships the Germans claimed to have sunk by early 1940, among which was HMS Kestrel - a training establishment on land...
 

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Just about finished reading SHATTERED SWORD by Parshall and Tully. This is without a doubt the finest book on Midway I have ever seen. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks! Need to read some good sea stuff. Been hanging with the landlubbers for too long.
 

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Two on the go at the moment

Margaret MacMillan's "The War That Ended Peace, The Road to 1914"

David Glantz and Jonathan House "Armageddon in Stalingrad, September-November 1942, The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 2"

Skim read the four Stalingrad volumes when they first came out but am giving them a deeper read this time. Volume 2 is 718 pages w/o the chapter notes (which are worth reading).
 

Michael Dorosh

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Finally laid hands on BAYONETS AND BLOBSTICKS: THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE OF CLOSE COMBAT 1915-1918. Author's intent is to dispel what he says is a myth - that bayonets were rarely used in the First World War.
 

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Finally laid hands on BAYONETS AND BLOBSTICKS: THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE OF CLOSE COMBAT 1915-1918. Author's intent is to dispel what he says is a myth - that bayonets were rarely used in the First World War.
Sounds interesting. I'm so far behind on my reading I can't even finish the Vicksburg book. Too busy painting the house. ☹
 

Manilianus

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E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed" - wanted to read it before watching HBO's "The Pacific". I suppose that everyone here knows those classic memoirs - but if not I recommend them highly, very informative, and very brutal...
 
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