Books: What are you currently reading?

Gordon

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Interesting -

Pool continued his amazing run of luck: suffering from claustrophobia, a definite handicap for a tanker, he preferred to ride totally outside the tank’s turret. When action became imminent he compromised by climbing through the commander’s hatch, but kept his upper body outside. Only rarely did he “button up” In the Mood. His driver Baby Richards imitated Pool, rarely closing his own hatch.
 

KhandidGamera

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Guess here is as good a place as any to post some bad news for us book readers.

Found out on another forum that James D. Hornfischer passed away from cancer June 2, Weds. I really liked Neptune's Inferno and Fleet at Hightide.

The latter did a very effective job in getting at the perspective of U.S. leaders after and on Saipan firsthand that informed the use of the atomic bomb later.
 

Manilianus

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Very sad news... His "The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945" was - is - on my must read list...
 

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Guess here is as good a place as any to post some bad news for us book readers.

Found out on another forum that James D. Hornfischer passed away from cancer June 2, Weds. I really liked Neptune's Inferno and Fleet at Hightide.

The latter did a very effective job in getting at the perspective of U.S. leaders after and on Saipan firsthand that informed the use of the atomic bomb later.
Whenever a favorite author passes on I take solace in knowing their work is still there and so a part of them remains. The written word, what a marvelous invention that allows one's thoughts to be available for future generations.
 

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Guess here is as good a place as any to post some bad news for us book readers.

Found out on another forum that James D. Hornfischer passed away from cancer June 2, Weds. I really liked Neptune's Inferno and Fleet at Hightide.

The latter did a very effective job in getting at the perspective of U.S. leaders after and on Saipan firsthand that informed the use of the atomic bomb later.
This is such sad news.
A great loss to those of us who have been fascinated by his accounts of the U.S. Navy during the Pacific War. I have read Neptune's Inferno twice, and I just finished Ship of Ghosts last month. I will miss his commitment to portraying the human side of the sacrifices of those sailors and their officers.

He seemed to be a relatively young man, such a loss for his family and his many readers. I will miss his work.
 

Actionjick

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James D. Hornfischer, author of " The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors " passed on June 2nd. Really a good book and the documentary was also quite good.
 

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Operation Pedestal. The Fleet that Battled to Malta, 1942. Max Hastings.

Just started it but reading time is scarce over the summer so who knows how long it will take to finish it.
 

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Operation Pedestal. The Fleet that Battled to Malta, 1942. Max Hastings.

Just started it but reading time is scarce over the summer so who knows how long it will take to finish it.
Online audio books are great for when your reading time is limited. Most of my "reading" is now done while driving. :)

Also while, cooking, washing up or doing other chores. It's not a money saver though, because with my library being mostly history, I usually pick up a hard copy too for reference purposes.

My current paper read is "War" by Gwynne Dyer, an updated version of his book from the 1980's. There was a companion television series to the first edition that's still on YouTube although it doesn't cover all of the ground that the book does.
 

Manilianus

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H.P. Lovecraft's selected novels (one of my favourite authors - while I disagree with some of his philosophical views, I almost enviously admire his writing style and mind), Mark Solonins book about the 22.06.1941 (I don't have any news that was translated into English, though) and Wojciech Tochman's (Polish writer) reportage about poverty in Manila, "Eli, Eli".
 

Michael Dorosh

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Six Victories: North Africa Malta and the Mediterranean Convoy War November 1941–March 1942: O'Hara, Vincent: 9781682474600: Books - Amazon.ca

Just started this. Naval stories bores me normally but a comment in a discussion - somewhere - made this one seem quite compelling, apparently the Italian navy was much better than one might think off hand.

From the book copy:

Shortages of ammunition and fuel ... compelled the Afrika Korps to retreat four hundred miles. Then, in the space of thirty hours, this all changed. First, Italian naval forces broke the blockade by fighting through a major convoy that arrived in time to blunt the British advance; next, the strike force plowed into a minefield laid by Italian cruisers; and finally, in a daring attack, Italian commandos crippled the Mediterranean Fleet's battleships in port. The swing in fortune was immediate and dramatic.
 

Actionjick

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Online audio books are great for when your reading time is limited. Most of my "reading" is now done while driving. :)

Also while, cooking, washing up or doing other chores. It's not a money saver though, because with my library being mostly history, I usually pick up a hard copy too for reference purposes.

My current paper read is "War" by Gwynne Dyer, an updated version of his book from the 1980's. There was a companion television series to the first edition that's still on YouTube although it doesn't cover all of the ground that the book does.
Co-worker in the office would listen to audio books while working. I thought he missed too much because of the distractions of his job.

I'd occasionally listen but really was not taken by it. I like seeing the words.
 

Actionjick

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H.P. Lovecraft's selected novels (one of my favourite authors - while I disagree with some of his philosophical views, I almost enviously admire his writing style and mind), Mark Solonins book about the 22.06.1941 (I don't have any news that was translated into English, though) and Wojciech Tochman's (Polish writer) reportage about poverty in Manila, "Eli, Eli".
That's quite a smorgasbord of literary treats you are reading there Sir!🤗
 

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While doing some info checking for the weapon breakdown thread came across the book The Grand Old Lady of No Mans Land: The Vickers Machinegun. Has anyone read this?
 

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Variety is a spice of life, and he who controls the spice controls the universe...!
I read it while I was in Junior High or High School. I read a lot of sci-fi back then. I read the sequel, Dune Messiah (?) but then the Navy intervened.

I saw the movie but don't recall much of it. Great book though.

Heinlein, Andre Norton, Asimov, Zelazny. There were others but those guys a lot.

A friend in School told me to read Fellowship of the Ring and that lead in a whole new direction.
 

Manilianus

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I read it while I was in Junior High or High School. I read a lot of sci-fi back then. I read the sequel, Dune Messiah (?) but then the Navy intervened.

I saw the movie but don't recall much of it. Great book though.

Heinlein, Andre Norton, Asimov, Zelazny. There were others but those guys a lot.

A friend in School told me to read Fellowship of the Ring and that lead in a whole new direction.
The first novel in the series is a Nobel-level masterpiece, later on it tends to drop in terms of quality - and I've didn't read Brian Herbert's and Kevin J. Anderson's continuations, although the general opinion is that it is more of a fan-fiction than good writing.

Curiously enough I've read only so much sci-fi / fantasy authors, maybe five names comes to my mind.

Lynch's "Dune" was brilliant IMHO - and in opinion of Herbert himself, who said that in terms of plot it isn't much of his book, but it captures its' onyric/dreamlike/narcotic/mystic atmosphere perfectly.

Tolkien is whole another story! Greatly underestimated writer, one of the biggest of the XX century. I guess much of the hurt comes from RPG-s, which popularized his writings on the one hand, but on the other they've pretty much narrowed Tolkien to being "that guy with elves and goblins" type of writer.
 

Gordon

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I just finished Ian Toll's the Pacific War Trilogy: https://www.amazon.com/ian-toll-pacific-war-trilogy/s?k=ian+toll+pacific+war+trilogy

Highly recommended. Not highly detailed on the individual battles (although there is a lot of that). Much more detail on the campaign and strategic aspects as well as a lot of information on the personalities and interactions of the commanders and especially new for me, of the political struggles within the Japanese government.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Tolkien is whole another story! Greatly underestimated writer, one of the biggest of the XX century.
Tolkien's fame comes from his imagination, his linguistic skills and his world building. I don't think an analysis of his storytelling abilities brings one to the conclusion he was superior at it. Which is okay since that's not why we read his books. His reliance on deus ex machina alone kind of points you to a different conclusion. He manages to break most of the most elementary rules of novel writing. Too many characters, with similar names (Saruman/Sauron), who come and go without advancing the plot (Tom Bombadil for just one), etc. It's one thing to introduce characters or references in order to expand the world and add to the tone of the story, but it's another to introduce them and have them lead the reader down a dead end.
 
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