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RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:15 pm
by Halsey
1066 The Year of the Conquest-David Howarth
The Struggle for Mastery-David Carpenter
Agincourt-Juliet Barker
Brushing up on my English history.[:D]
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:38 pm
by mikkey
ORIGINAL: Matto
Really nice historical fiction, where Munich pact was not accepted and Hitler attacked Czechoslovakia...
Matto, what is the name of this book?
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:55 pm
by KG Erwin
"When the Boys Came Back: Baseball in 1946", by Frederick Turner (1996). This combines two of my favorite historical subjects -- major league baseball and WWII.
The introduction contains an interesting anecdote about St Louis Cardinal 1B Stan Musial, freshly discharged from the US Navy, thumbing his way home to Pittsburgh PA in March 1946. I didn't really understand the shock to the US transportation system caused with these millions of demobilized vets coming home in late 1945 - early 1946 until I read this story.
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:12 am
by RedArgo
ORIGINAL: Quellist
While I don't know if this is the case with the current English translations, the modern translations of The Three Musketeers to my native language has been shortened and mangled in general. I have an edition from the 1940s that's 3 x 300 pages so unless your version has a page count in that area you might be missing out on the full experience!
(Just a heads up [:)])
I just started the new David Weber Honor Harrington book Mission of Honor yesterday.
Ouch, Weber... I still haven't forgiven him for the bag of crap that is The Shiva option. And that that universe had so much potential and that the first part of that two-parter might have been the best I've ever read in that sub-genre didn't help either.
The version of Three Musketeers I read was over 500 pages, so if that wasn't the whole book it was long enough for me!
I've liked the Honor Harrington series and I read one other set of his books that I can't remember the name. I guess I'll avoid The Shiva Option until I run out of all other options [:)].
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:14 am
by RedArgo
ORIGINAL: KG Erwin
"When the Boys Came Back: Baseball in 1946", by Frederick Turner (1996). This combines two of my favorite historical subjects -- major league baseball and WWII.
The introduction contains an interesting anecdote about St Louis Cardinal 1B Stan Musial, freshly discharged from the US Navy, thumbing his way home to Pittsburgh PA in March 1946. I didn't really understand the shock to the US transportation system caused with these millions of demobilized vets coming home in late 1945 - early 1946 until I read this story.
My dad fought in the Pacific in WWII and I remember him telling me about hitch hiking back from San Francisco to Illinois. I always thought that was strange, but I guess it makes sense if the transportation system was overwhelmed.
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:28 am
by Matto
ORIGINAL: mikkey
ORIGINAL: Matto
Really nice historical fiction, where Munich pact was not accepted and Hitler attacked Czechoslovakia...
Matto, what is the name of this book?
Author: Jan Drnek (
http://jandrnek.xbx.cz)
First part: Žáby v mlíku
Second part: Žába a škorpion
Third part (not finished now): Operace Bouře
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:16 am
by nelmsm1
Been keeping my Kindle busy too. Lately I've been on a kick reading the Jack Reacher series from Lee Child. It is about time for me to dive back into the Lost Fleet series again and I've got a sample of a book about the great siege of Malta that keeps whispering to me wanting to be started.
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:05 pm
by warspite1
I have just started Massacre at Tobruk by Peter C Smith. Its the story of the ill-fated Operation Agreement - a combined ops raid on that Libyan port - that took place in August 1942.
During the attack, the cruiser HMS Coventry and two destroyers were amongst the losses suffered [:(].
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 5:25 pm
by Canoerebel
Mercy, the thought of using a hand-held electronic device as a "book" leaves me cold.
At the moment I'm reading For Authors Only, by Kenneth Roberts. Few people remember Roberts today, but some of you may recall a Spencer Tracy movie, Northwest Passage, based on Roberts' novel by that name.
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 6:24 pm
by mikkey
interesting, thanks Matto
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:31 am
by joeblack1862
ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager
My Kindle has been going constantly this summer. I bought all three books of the lateStieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy and am enjoying them so far.
I also have Spies of the Balkans which is a WW2 historical fiction that is a detective novel/spy novel hybrid. It is really good.
And I just finished up A Week in December by a British author and I greatly enjoyed that as well.
Basically I look over the Kindle recommended books and bestsellers and find the interesting books and download a sample chapter. About 60% of the sample books I end up buying.
The Chickenhawk book mentioned earlier in the thread sounds interesting and sure enough I found it in the Kindle store and downloaded the sample.
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Try a sample of the book First Light by Geoffrey Wellum if you haven't already. Story of a brit pilot from joining the RAF all the way through. I couldn't put it down from the first page. Got the sample on my kindle, 2 hours later, I bought it [:)]
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:51 pm
by Fallschirmjager
ORIGINAL: Joe Black
ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager
My Kindle has been going constantly this summer. I bought all three books of the late Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy and am enjoying them so far.
I also have Spies of the Balkans which is a WW2 historical fiction that is a detective novel/spy novel hybrid. It is really good.
And I just finished up A Week in December by a British author and I greatly enjoyed that as well.
Basically I look over the Kindle recommended books and bestsellers and find the interesting books and download a sample chapter. About 60% of the sample books I end up buying.
The Chickenhawk book mentioned earlier in the thread sounds interesting and sure enough I found it in the Kindle store and downloaded the sample.
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Try a sample of the book First Light by Geoffrey Wellum if you haven't already. Story of a brit pilot from joining the RAF all the way through. I couldn't put it down from the first page. Got the sample on my kindle, 2 hours later, I bought it [:)]
Fantastic, thank you. I think we might just need a Kindle thread for good books that you can find through the service.
Military history books are still hit and miss with finding them. Many of the popular classics are on there like Castles of Steel and the Guns of August but many others are still missing.
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:01 pm
by Fallschirmjager
ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
Mercy, the thought of using a hand-held electronic device as a "book" leaves me cold.
When I was in high school I thought going from CDs to digital music made it somehow less mussic but my opinion changed when I found out how convenient it was to have 750 albums on my phone and always with me.
I still love the feel and smell of a book and visiting the used bookstore on weekends. But again the convinence in which I can buy new books and being able to hold hundreds of books in a device that is under 1 lb in amazing. And book prices are cheap so I can buy more books. A digital device makes it cheap, convenient and space saving to buy reading material.
I live in a small townhouse and my book collection lines my hallways in boxes. Now I can consolidate all of that onto one device. It is perfect.
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:11 pm
by doomtrader
I'm reading a lot of Osprey's 'Greatest Battles of WWII' series, they are releasing those for like 3$ each (with a 60 minutes documentary).
RE: What are you reading this summer?
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:08 pm
by Perturabo
It's great that they made this collection. I buy most of them. 70PLN was certainly way too much for a 100 page book about a single battle/campaign. I could get a 700page Polish book for that price.
Bellona also started releasing Ospreys - I recently picked up "World War II Infantry Anti-Tank Tactics" for 20PLN.
I'm reading "Ambush Alley: The Most Extraordinary Battle of the Iraq War". That book is full of incredibly annoying people. I had to wait to page 70 to find anyone I could vaguely sympathize with - the only person so far that wasn't incredibly surprised that Iraqis aren't happy to be invaded.