What Book Are You Reading at the moment?

[Orm]

Just completed a book about piracy and privateering in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Very interesting read but I should really avoid these topics since they make me overuse the 'angry pants'.

[wings7]

"The Third Reich Series", published by Time-Life (1988-91). Packed with illustrations, maps, pictorial essays and an extensive bibliography. [:)] This is a great read on the doomed Reich!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Series
http://www.amazon.com/The-Third-Reich-2 ... B000WOZZQ8

Patrick

[bobarossa]

ORIGINAL: Treale

Robert Conroy's 1920: America's Great War!

Just read that last month! Enjoyed it and I see he has a number of other alternative history books.

I also just finished The Battle of the Atlantic by Costello and Hughes. Was published in 1977 and they interviewed a number of the surviving admirals and captains (including Donitz). Best book on that aspect of the war I've ever read. Lots of details on convoy battles and excerpts from after action reports and diaries. Appendix covers convoy tactics and ASDIC operations.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: loki100

Project Fear by Joe Pike. His partner was a significant organiser in the pro-UK 'Better Together' campaign in Scotland's independence campaign in 2014 and he had pretty good access to all the significant individuals (from both sides).

However, the book is actually very funny and well balanced - as a picture of 'politics for real' rather than 'politics as it is pretended to be'. Its a bit parochial (as you'd expect) but I think its essentially a reflection of any real political campaign and all the antics.



it is, if you can find it Kluge's The Soviets as Naval Opponents, 1941-45 is much better. Its from the German perspective but I don't think there are any decent books from the Soviet point of view that have been translated. Glancing it at, Kluge seems fair in his comments

warspite1

I could not find it so I removed the author's name and it came up on Amazon (the author was Ruge!). Ordered, thanks for the tip.

warspite1

...and it arrived today [:)] Look forward to this as soon as Sealion is done.

warspite1

Read the intro and largely finished the first chapter (The Baltic).

The translation into English isn't always great and that makes things a little more difficult but so far so good.

Ruge makes clear his intense dislike of the modern day Soviet Union (the book was printed in 1979) with every utterance!

He is very scathing too about the performance of the Soviet Baltic Fleet in WWII - although counters this with his view that the Kriegsmarine should have been used better than it was.

More importantly, and very usefully he provides commentary on what the Soviet official version states about certain events - and it is clear that Soviet Naval Operations in the Great Patriotic War may not have been a good choice of book. I think at this early stage it is going to be clear that in the Soviet version, their navy sunk far more vessels than the Germans actually possessed. However the bias isn't all one sided. I couldn't help but let out a wry smile when reading his opening lines in the Baltic chapter:

In the fall of 1939 the Soviets took advantage of the war between Germany and Poland to occupy the eastern part of Poland as well as Latvia and Estonia.....

Priceless - nothing to do with the secret protocols contained within the Nazi-Soviet pact then? [;)]

[berto]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Just completed a book about piracy and privateering in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

What's the name and author?

[ntrlpr]

I've just spent the last hour-or-so reading through this thread and adding books to my to-read list, before realising it was 64 pages long. This will probably become my go-to area on the forums.

My reading stalled somewhat this year until I picked up Barbarossa by Alan Clark to (in theory) help me make better decisions in Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa. Thoroughly enjoying it so far.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: ntrlpr

I've just spent the last hour-or-so reading through this thread and adding books to my to-read list, before realising it was 64 pages long. This will probably become my go-to area on the forums.

My reading stalled somewhat this year until I picked up Barbarossa by Alan Clark to (in theory) help me make better decisions in Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa. Thoroughly enjoying it so far.

warspite1

That's good to know. That was the intention of the thread. Otherwise individual threads get started - and then disappear, thus as a source of reference they are limited.

Some individuals refuse to use this thread - which is fine, its their choice after all, but as I say, its a shame because the book soon ends up off the first page and then forgotten, whereas this remains an easily accessible source.

If you liked the Alan Clark book (which I did) I would thoroughly recommend Glantz When Titans Clashed. I think the latter is even better!

[ntrlpr]

ORIGINAL: warspite1
If you liked the Alan Clark book (which I did) I would thoroughly recommend Glantz When Titans Clashed. I think the latter is even better!

Ooo, looks good. Yet another added to the list! Thanks, warspite1.

[nelmsm1]

I love this thread. First place I check whenever I pop in. Don't know how many recommendations I've looked into and read but it's been very helpful.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: ntrlpr

ORIGINAL: warspite1
If you liked the Alan Clark book (which I did) I would thoroughly recommend Glantz When Titans Clashed. I think the latter is even better!

Ooo, looks good. Yet another added to the list! Thanks, warspite1.

Make sure you get the revised and extended edition.

[Beilisarius]

The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple by Malcolm Barber

[Kuokkanen]

This could be of interest to some of you

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

This could be of interest to some of you

Looks interesting, have to spend some time with it! Thanks for sharing! [:)]

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: berto

ORIGINAL: Orm

Just completed a book about piracy and privateering in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

What's the name and author?

Kapare och Pirater i Nordeuropa under 800 år - Lars Ericson Wolke

I didn't mention the name of the book, and author, because I read it in Swedish and I do not think that there is a translation made. [:(]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: warspite1


warspite1

I could not find it so I removed the author's name and it came up on Amazon (the author was Ruge!). Ordered, thanks for the tip.

warspite1

...and it arrived today [:)] Look forward to this as soon as Sealion is done.

warspite1

Read the intro and largely finished the first chapter (The Baltic).

The translation into English isn't always great and that makes things a little more difficult but so far so good.

Ruge makes clear his intense dislike of the modern day Soviet Union (the book was printed in 1979) with every utterance!

He is very scathing too about the performance of the Soviet Baltic Fleet in WWII - although counters this with his view that the Kriegsmarine should have been used better than it was.

More importantly, and very usefully he provides commentary on what the Soviet official version states about certain events - and it is clear that Soviet Naval Operations in the Great Patriotic War may not have been a good choice of book. I think at this early stage it is going to be clear that in the Soviet version, their navy sunk far more vessels than the Germans actually possessed. However the bias isn't all one sided. I couldn't help but let out a wry smile when reading his opening lines in the Baltic chapter:

In the fall of 1939 the Soviets took advantage of the war between Germany and Poland to occupy the eastern part of Poland as well as Latvia and Estonia.....

Priceless - nothing to do with the secret protocols contained within the Nazi-Soviet pact then? [;)]

warspite1

I am enjoying this book sooo much! It would be nice to have a little more detail but.....

Reading this, hot on the heels of When Titans Clashed, and it really brings home that the Germans simply had no chance. You really have to hand it to the Soviets though. The punishment they took and yet, despite all the losses, they simply would not give up. Incredible.

[philabos]

The Oster Comspiracy of 1938 by Terry Parssinen, the stillborn 1938 Wehrmacht plot to overthrow Hitler.

[Twotribes]

Ok this is a little off topic since it is not a history series. It is in fact a sort of zombie apocalypse series. But before you write it off and ignore the series. It really is good. It is not your normal zombie book and it is full of military stuff.

John Ringo Under a Graveyard sky, To sail a darkling sea, Islands of Rage and hope and Strands of Sorrow. There is another book coming out this year but it is a book of short stories by other authors on stories in this Universe. This series has a sort of ending, the last book clearly has the surviving humans on an attainable goal to reclaim the planet.

[gryffindor1]

Currently reading The Help. It's pretty solid.

[gryffindor1]

Any recommendations for scifi/fantasy?

[ntrlpr]

ORIGINAL: gryffindor1

Any recommendations for scifi/fantasy?

I'm an unashamedly massive sci-fi fan. Probably my favourites of recent times:

* Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
* Any of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks
* Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

For fantasy, I'd also recommend:

* The Traitor Baru Cormorant (shortened to The Traitor here in the UK) by Seth Dickinson