Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: H Gilmer
I'm reading "The Queen's Oranges". Historical fiction. I can't get enough of historical fiction about England for some reason.

I really liked "The Other Boleyan Girl" by Philippa Gregory. I picked it up because it was suggested to me by a female cab driver who also loved "Top Gear" - so her opinion mattered [:)]

The thing I liked the most about the book is how it portrays in a realistic way an era where "men" and "women" were considered grown up at 14. The novel's character behave as someone living in the world of "adults", but without losing the lack of experience and the mindset of teen-agers or people in their 20s. This is why the movie adaptations were lacking: today it would be unacceptable to show a 14 years old girl who behaves like a 14 years old but considers normal having kids.

It is eerie to look back in history and see how many famous historical figures led armies or ruled kingdoms (and well) at an age that today would be barely considered enough to finish university. When people died at 40, it was a world of kids and youngsters, from our perspective - but somehow they managed to pull it off and history went on [:)]

ORIGINAL: Vincenzo Beretta

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

Reading Shattered Sword again for the fourth or fifth time. My wife asked me a couple of days ago,"are you reading that book AGAIN?".

When I first read "Shattered Sword" I was surprised by how the book is often quite funny ("...Don't worry, the bombing will resume promptly" [:D])

Currently reading:

"Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq", by Thomas E. Ricks
and
"Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System - and Themselves", by Andrew Ross Sorkin

The interesting thing about these two books is how one can switch reading between them without losing the thread.

Warspite1

I read very little non-war - but two such books I have read are excellent reads:

Too Big To Fail (mentioned above) and
The Real Global Warming Disaster.

Back to proper stuff however - All four volumes of The War At Sea have now arrived [:)] OH YES!!

Cool deal Sabre 1. Looking forward to do that as soon as this semester is over. Hopefully it'll still be available

MySQL Workbench 5.2 Reference Manual
I lost my job (or rather my job lost a job) and failed a semester at school and need to repeat it on weekends. Since I moved from daily to weekeend learning, I finally have time to study and learn stuff seriously. I'm learing MySQL as it's a common requirement in informatics jobs.

Haruki Murakami - End of the World and Haird-boiled Wonderland. Weird science-fantasy stuff.

I really liked "The Other Boleyan Girl" by Philippa Gregory.

I too have enjoyed the Tudor series by Gregory.

Just finished The Blue and the Gray, by Henry Steele Commager.

I also just completed the audio book version of With the Old Breed.

This afternoon I am about to begin The Stand, Stephen King, audio book.

Harmonica for Dummies.

ORIGINAL: Hertston

Harmonica for Dummies.

Are you pulling my leg? Harmonica I believe. But the dummy part??

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Hertston

Harmonica for Dummies.

Are you pulling my leg? Harmonica I believe. But the dummy part??

I suspect that this is a rather good book to learn about harmoica. At least the description looks good. (I googled it)

Muggenthaler - German Raiders of World War II.

Like a little slice of a chivalrous bygone age in WWII.

Sounds weird I know, but most of these officers were true gentlemen.

ORIGINAL: parusski

Are you pulling my leg? Harmonica I believe. But the dummy part??

Nope. Very good it is too.

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: parusski

Are you pulling my leg? Harmonica I believe. But the dummy part??

Nope. Very good it is too.

Ha, you got me on that one. Send me a recording of your mouth music.

ORIGINAL: nate25

Muggenthaler - German Raiders of World War II.

Like a little slice of a chivalrous bygone age in WWII.

Sounds weird I know, but most of these officers were true gentlemen.

Sounds like a very good read.

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: nate25

Muggenthaler - German Raiders of World War II.

Like a little slice of a chivalrous bygone age in WWII.

Sounds weird I know, but most of these officers were true gentlemen.

Sounds like a very good read.

One of the cheapest books I ever bought - 25 cents at a garage sale right across the street.

It's ISBN # is: 0-13-354027-8. August Karl Muggenthaler. Don't know if the ISBN will help in the age of the Gorenet, but there it is.

ORIGINAL: nate25

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: nate25

Muggenthaler - German Raiders of World War II.

Like a little slice of a chivalrous bygone age in WWII.

Sounds weird I know, but most of these officers were true gentlemen.

Sounds like a very good read.

One of the cheapest books I ever bought - 25 cents at a garage sale right across the street.

It's ISBN # is: 0-13-354027-8. August Karl Muggenthaler. Don't know if the ISBN will help in the age of the Gorenet, but there it is.

Warspite1

nate25 - are these the German auxiliary cruisers - Kormoran and co??

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: parusski

Are you pulling my leg? Harmonica I believe. But the dummy part??

Nope. Very good it is too.

Warspite1

I read this one - can't recommend it, its rubbish; there is no hero, there are no juicy murders and no one gets into a sticky situation over a £5 note...as I say, dull, dull, dull. Almost as bad as that thing I read the other day by Dr Samuel Johnson - what was it called? - ah yes, Dictionary.

Yes.

Atlantis, Kormoran, Orion, Pinguin, etc.

Has nice descriptions of armament, it's placement, etc.

ORIGINAL: nate25

Yes.

Atlantis, Kormoran, Orion, Pinguin, etc.

Has nice descriptions of armament, it's placement, etc.

Warspite1

There is a review on Amazon that sings the praises of this book so I've ordered a copy. Interested in your comment nate about the humanity shown by the German sailors; At least one; Helmuth Von Rckteschell (Widder and Michel) was imprisoned for war crimes, although I have never heard of any acts of atrocity by the Kriegsmarine raiders.

Looking forward to getting my hands on this [:)]

I don't want to be a spoiler here, since you've just ordered the book, but in at least one case "Widder (Schiff 21)" vs. "Davisian", British sailors were THOUGHT to be seen running towards their ship's 3.7cm and 2cm AA guns, after her boats had started to lower.

In any case, his trial is controversial, and I think many cases of "I saw this/he saw that", while maybe true, maybe not, were used as gospel in the trial.

Just one man's opinion.

I think on the whole they were honorable men, many having served in WW1, that were playing by rules the rest of the world had shelved.

ORIGINAL: nate25

I don't want to be a spoiler here, since you've just ordered the book, but in at least one case "Widder (Schiff 21)" vs. "Davisian", British sailors were THOUGHT to be seen running towards their ship's 3.7cm and 2cm AA guns, after her boats had started to lower.

In any case, his trial is controversial, and I think many cases of "I saw this/he saw that", while maybe true, maybe not, were used as gospel in the trial.

Just one man's opinion.

Warspite1

Yes, interesting stuff and as I say, I had certainly never heard of this sort of behaviour by any hilfskruezer captain until I read it in one of the Osprey books.