I purchased two books today Are they any good?

[Fallschirmjager]

Today marked the first time I have been in a BM bookstore in a very long while. One local chain we have here in the south is Books A Million. They are big stores that are fun to browse and always well staffed and clean. But they are damned expensive so I hardly ever purchase from them. Amazon.com is almost always cheaper and plus with my small house I am increasingly going to digital books.

Anyways, today I was with someone so I had to go into the store. I figured I would hop over to the military history section and browse on books about the Pacific. I found two.
They are


December 1941 - 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World - Craig Shirley

Neptune's Inferno - The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer

[whippleofd]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

Today marked the first time I have been in a BM bookstore in a very long while. One local chain we have here in the south is Books A Million. They are big stores that are fun to browse and always well staffed and clean. But they are damned expensive so I hardly ever purchase from them. Amazon.com is almost always cheaper and plus with my small house I am increasingly going to digital books.

Anyways, today I was with someone so I had to go into the store. I figured I would hop over to the military history section and browse on books about the Pacific. I found two.
They are


December 1941 - 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World - Craig Shirley

Neptune's Inferno - The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer

Inferno is great. It gives a nice overview of the campaign and it's not over technical with terms and jargon. It is one of the books I currently have two students reading who want to apply to the Naval Academy so they can get some idea of our traditions and history.

Whipple

[AW1Steve]

I liked them both. [:)] Which in the opinion of the rest of the forum must by necessity mean they both blow. [:D][8|]

[danlongman]

I really enjoyed Neptune's Inferno and found it to be first rate
but my background is infantry so what would i know?
cheers

[StK]

December 1941 - 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World is not a good book I'm afraid. I read it because I was intrigued by a day by day representation of what happened during December '41.
Well I should have been warned by the title. In short - the book is unprofessional and there are many inaccuracies (and for some I think the author knew better, but changing the words just a little would make the book sell better) An example: the author states America lent battleships to Britain. Which sounds amazing.. I think he meant the destroyers for bases agreement but old WWI destroyers are no battleships. The book is filled with these things. [8|]

edit: the description of the USS Kearny Incident is... well biased is putting it mildly and in one part of the book (if I remember correctly) the author mentions the Luftwaffe having 1 million pilots at its disposal...

[SqzMyLemon]

I just bought "Neptune's Inferno" on a whim while on vacation, haven't read it yet though. I also bought "A Dawn like Thunder" by Robert J. Mrazek, but again haven't read it. It's about Torpdeo Squadron Eight.

[warspite1]

Personally I couldn't get on with Neptune's Inferno. Nothing to do with the content I don't think, although didn't get far enough to comment for certain. It was more to do with the authors writing style. Frank's Guadalcanal however is a superb book.

[spence]

I enjoyed "Neptune's Inferno".

I can't say the other one has ever even appeared on my personal radarscope.

But I have read "Long Days Journey Into War (December 7th, 1941)" (by Stanley Weintraub) which is sort of along the same line. I covers what was going on all over the world on that one day. It's kind of strange too since it follows the sun so to speak from the moment it is Dec 7th somewhere (mid Pacific) until it is (at least) December 8th everywhere (which takes 48 hours). That is a really good read.

[bush]

I found Inferno to be quite boring, but I am more a big picture guy - not all that interested in reading about the minute to minute accounts.

[CaptDave]

December 1941 does a reasonably good job of doing what it says it's trying to do -- represent what was going on in the civilian world during the month. Other than that, though, I have to agree with StK. Too many inaccuracies, too many personal opinions, and it doesn't look like the book was ever reviewed by a proofreader. Nice try, but a very unprofessional product.

[Fallschirmjager]

I went back and returned Dec 7th 1941 and instead purchased Pacific Crucible War at Sea in the Pacific. Ian W Toll

[Justus2]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

I went back and returned Dec 7th 1941 and instead purchased Pacific Crucible War at Sea in the Pacific. Ian W Toll

I read Pacific Crucible a few months ago (thanks to recommendations from the forum), great read, gave me a good perspective on the early days of the war from the perspective of the various admirals. It did seem to end somewhat abruptly, maybe prepping for a second volume? But I enjoyed it.

[RevRick]

Just now getting around to reading "And I Was There" by Layton. So far, all it makes a really good point of saying is how screwed up the USN Bureaucracy was in late 1941 - and makes me dislike Turner even more.

[Canoerebel]

I started Neptune's Inferno but couldn't finish it. IIRC, there were several errors in the first 100 pages. Also, the author had a weird way of trying to paint the big picture but doing so in awkward spurts that didn't paint the big picture well. I was very disappointed in the book and put it down.

Another book that came pretty highly recommended was Bill O'Reilley's story about the Lincoln Assassination. This was written in an engaging manner, but I think the history was a bit suspect. O'Reilley (and I think there's a co-author) wanted to implicate Stanton in the assassination, but didn't give any legit basis for the innuendo. If you're going to make a flaming, nitroglycerin allegation, come out and do it honestly and back it up. That book left me feeling pretty soiled for having read it.

One of the best book's I've read lately is Bill Bryson's The Thunderbolt Kid, about his growing up in the midwest in the 1950s Bryson can flat out write, though I personally cringe at his vulgarity.

[ilovestrategy]

My favorite is Shattered Sword. I must have read it at least four times.

[dr.hal]

Inferno is good, but could have given more to the Japanese side. As Ilovestrategy says, Shattered Sword is fantastic from the Japanese point of view.....

[jmalter]

i was also disappointed by Neptune's Inferno. tho' the battle descriptions were adequate, i got the impression from his beginning passages that he would be concerned w/ each sides cruiser/destroyer tactical doctrine, training & changes/evolution during the war.

but he writes very little about these issues, & his time-frame is too short to address the 'evolution' issue.

i did enjoy Toll's 'Pacific Crucible', i understand its the 1st of a series, & i'm slaverin' for more from him. his 'Six Frigates' was delightful.