What are you reading right now?
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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
12:15p, 7/29/23
Texas Aggies In VietNam. Just started.

Everybody should read about Joe Bush ! His letters and poetry to his wife span high school thru A&M and Laos

are great. He was head yell leader! Killed in battle!

More later.
BigJim49AustinnowDallas
jphil1
11:21a, 7/30/23
Reading Jesse James, Last Rebel of The Civil War
dcbowers
12:45p, 7/30/23
In reply to monarch
monarch said:

A not funny thing that a lot of people don't realize about Midway is that the US came within an eyelash of losing all of its carriers itself. If Nagumo's decision to change his aircraft capabilities around had been successful what happened to the IJN could have happened to us. Japan lost four top of the line carriers in five minutes plus all the air crews and all the naval personnel to go with that. The Japanese fleet, though still lethal in certain aspects, lost what had made them superior in the first place. Naval power world wide had been impacted.


As detailed in Shattered Sword, there were lots of "what ifs" in the Battle of Midway. What if the Japanese had sent out a competent aircraft scouting mission and located the positions of our carriers. This would have likely resulted in a very different outcome.
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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
1:57p, 8/3/23
The Servant -by Robin Maugham - 1949
About an evil Man Friday. Robin's uncle was Somerset.
62 pages! Recently featured in by WSJ about the movie of the same name starring Dirk Bogarde
and James Fox in 1963.

Found the novel pretty dull.
BigJim49AustinnowDallas
monarch
7:42p, 8/4/23
In reply to dcbowers
True; things change on a dime and dumb luck. Look at Arnhem. We get up that road north a little quicker as we should have and it was planned (and that Panzer division wasn't camping out where it was) and the war gets over quicker. Look at Remagen; we don't capture that bridge, and the war lasts longer.
Peace for Ukraine!
Jabin
11:36a, 8/6/23
I'm not a big fan of "what ifs" because there's no end to them. For example, to counter your "what if" scenario re Midway, what if Hawaii had been on a war footing, as it should have been, and was ready for the Japanese? The war would possibly have been over immediately.

What if McArthur had followed the advice of everyone around him and had stockpiled supplies at Bataan and Corregidor? What if he had dispersed his aircraft after receiving word of the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Both sides made plenty of stupid mistakes, especially with 20/20 hindsight.
Ag In Ok
4:24p, 10/2/23
Just picked up Katja Hoyer's book on East Germany titled Beyond The Wall. I've been poking around what happens when peoples are split - from Northern Ireland to now Germany. I am interested to see four decades did the to Germans who couldn't or didn't want to leave before the wall went up. And how the west overtook the East and what rift remains.

Just finished The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre. That should be a movie, great read about a piece of history i didn't know much about.
TRD-Ferguson
9:48a, 10/6/23
Just finished the Last Stand of Fox Company. Great read about the defense of a strategic pass which allowed the Marines to breakout from the Chosin reservoir during the Korean War.
BQ78
11:25a, 10/6/23
About half way through Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi.

I think the author's ego is as big as the assassin's but it is jammed pack with information and contests every conspiracy theory out there. Being fresh on my mind, it helped me out this morning on posts for the latest Politics thread of who killed Kennedy?

Huge book but a fast read so far.
Kaa98
8:17p, 10/6/23
In reply to TRD-Ferguson
I've read that one before and agree it's a great read, especially for anyone interested in the fight at the Chosin.
Smeghead4761
11:45p, 10/13/23
Just finished The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson.

Working on Red Storm Over the Balkans by David Glantz and Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale.
Aggie1205
11:21p, 10/14/23
Recently finished "Armenia and the Near East" by Fridtjof Nansen. Its written about his journey to visit Armenia as a representative of the League of Nations in the early 1920's. The last couple of chapters go into detail about what is known of the history of the Armenian people and the genocide at the hands of the Turks. I started reading this prior to the recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh though it was interesting that the recent takeover/return to Azerbaijan happened while I was reading it.

One of the members of his travel group was a guy named Vidkun Quisling. You might recognize his name from something that happened later.

It was an interesting read and goes into great detail about their work to try to find a place for refugees. The details described in the last bit about the genocide were tough to read. The world has consistently shown that it won't step in to stop genocide when it takes place. Even today many countries won't risk bad relations with Turkey by acknowledging what happened.
Rongagin71
9:03p, 10/16/23
Rereading the five novel series "Demon Princes" by Jack Vance.
Vance is gone now but remains one of my favorite authors.
He writes at a higher level than most fantasy/sci fi.
Here is a review of book 1 in this series.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1902266.The_Star_King?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=RmWc55VXt6&rank=3
CT'97
9:12a, 10/17/23
1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus 2nd Edition,

History of the indigenous peoples of the Americas has interested me and a pod cast brought this book to my interest. The author dismantles popular ideas of pre-Columbus Americans and supports his claims with detailed evidence that while still controversial in some areas makes a lot of sense to me. He does a great job of telling the story of these mostly forgotten and often disregarded cultures.
Yordaddy
12:44p, 10/19/23
Ghost Wars - Steve Coll

Really enjoyed it. Timely reading considering global events
chick79
9:23a, 10/21/23
"James Monroe, A Life" by Tim McGrath. About 150 pages in. It's good. The most comprehensive biography of Monroe I've ever seen.
Brutal Puffin
11:01p, 10/25/23
The People with No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764 by Patrick Griffin.
Rongagin71
1:30a, 10/26/23
In reply to Brutal Puffin
Brutal Puffin said:

The People with No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764 by Patrick Griffin.
I'm trying "the ScotchIrish: A Social History" by Dr James G Leyburn, publ 1962.
Seems pretty good, makes the point that the English settled in three very different social groups that over time the Scotch Irish helped to bring together as Americans.
Brutal Puffin
5:01p, 10/26/23
In reply to Rongagin71
I nearly chose that book but settled on the Griffin book.

I'm only the (long) introduction and a couple of chapters in. Really good so far, though I wish I knew more of the history of the Glorious Revolution for background. Learning a lot about the Presbyterian Church in the north of Ireland as the lowland Scots moved over. Need a spreadsheet to keep up with the shifting alliances - lol.
Aggie_Journalist
6:16p, 10/29/23
Reading "Ronald Reagan: The Life," by H.W. Brands.

Which means I'm nearing the end of my quest to read a biography on every U.S. president. Just 2 Bushes, Clinton, Obama, and Trump after this.
Thanks and gig'em
Aggie13B
6:43p, 10/29/23
"Normandy '44" by James Holland
Noblemen06
7:48p, 10/29/23
I'm currently a student at the Army War College and had the pleasure of reading The British Are Coming by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson, then spending an evening in a small group session with him as part of the Commandant's Reading Program.

The book was fantastic and the first in a trilogy he is writing about the American Revolution. This volume spans 1775-1777, closing with the Continental Army's victory at Princeton. The narrative takes place in the colonies, the UK, and Canada, with "main characters" on all sides of the conflict. Battles are accounted for in gruesome detail at times - making 18th Century warfare come alive in ways I haven't appreciated in other readings. Atkinson's writing style is very accessible and exceptionally vivid, reading more like a novel than the legitimate, densely researched history it is. The detail he has drawn from thousands of letters, reports, and archives in the US and UK make the narrative as lively and rich as what we are accustomed to for events like World War II.

I asked him where he took creative license...and if/when he did, how did he balance it with historicity. He said he didn't take any creative license ("that wouldn't be history'") and those details were all sourced from someone's (or several people's) first-person accounts. When you read about the color of a sunrise or the squish under a general's boot walking over dead bodies, that level of research is impressive to reconcile. Nearly a third of the printed pages are his references, to give you an appreciation for the work he put in.

I'll point out that it is a predominantly military history of the Revolution. For example, you find out about the Declaration of Independence alongside Washington's army in New York. There is more political content in London and Paris than in Philidelphia and it works well to drive the narrative. It also added a more palpable sense of the ambiguity and challenges the Continental Army faced in resourcing, logistics, and strategic intent. Washington shows up as a greenhorn General and his mistakes are not sugar coated, but the providential aspects of his leadership aren't muted, either. You'll also see why Benedict Arnold was considered the best battle captain of the war on either side; something I was not so familiar with.

At our session, Atkinson said his motivation for writing this book was to help Americans have a complete appreciation for what our Founding Fathers did for us; to recognize what they were willing to die for in their aspiration for greatness as a people...without ignoring their character flaws.

I think he succeeded in fulfilling his goal in writing the book...I looked forward to every chance I got to sit down with the book and didn't want it to end. The second volume should be published in 2025, which can't come soon enough for me.

Jabin
8:18a, 10/30/23
In reply to Noblemen06
Thanks. Very, very good review. So much so that I immediately went to Amazon to buy the book. For anyone else who belongs to Kindle Unlimited, it surprisingly is available under that program, so it costs members nothing to borrow and read.
Noblemen06
8:39a, 10/30/23
In reply to Jabin
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Bellards Boys
2:43p, 11/1/23
Always with Honor: The Memoirs of General Wrangel (kindle)
BB's
AgRyan04
9:48p, 11/9/23
Just finished Red Devils by Mark Urban. I'd describe it as a British Band of Brothers/Pacific as it focuses on four or five men in the British Parachute Regiment and follows them and their troops through the war.

It was good, but not as good as BOB.
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CanyonAg77
10:02p, 11/9/23
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-500-Untold-Greatest-Mission/dp/0451224957



The amazing story of over 500 American and other Allied airmen who were protected by the Chetniks in German occupied Yugoslavia, and rescued in the biggest mission you never heard about. Picked up in C-47s, 12 at a time.

Most were shot down in raids on the oil facilities at Ploetsi.

The rescue is inspiring, the betrayal of the Chetniks and their leader by the US State Department disgusting.

Never trust a communist.

I'm considering a thread on this book and WWII in Yugoslvia.

Quote:

The astonishing, never before told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War IIwhen the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia...

During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian farmers and peasants risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers while they waited for rescue, and in 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip large enough for C-47 cargo planeswithout tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the cargo planes had to make it through enemy airspace and backwithout getting shot down themselves.

Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time ever. The Forgotten 500 is the gripping, behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II.
AgBQ-00
10:05p, 11/9/23
In reply to Noblemen06
Just got my copy of this book today. Am excited to start it. Is in line after Twilight of the gods. The third book of Toll's Pacific Trilogy
Aust Ag
5:33p, 12/3/23
In reply to AgRyan04
AgRyan04 said:

Finished Empire of the Summer Moon by SC Gwynne from recommendations on here. Excellent book!

I think it's going to force my hand to re-read the Lonesome Dove series


Reading "Empire" right now, about halfway through. Maybe I haven't gotten to that part yet, but I don't see any mention of the Indians hunting deer. Lots of talk of how game was sometimes scarce, but no talk about deer, which of course is plentiful in Central Texas, at least these days.

Maybe I missed that part, not sure. Also, was the Buffalo ever a part of the North Central Texas plains or Balcones Escarpment landscape? I think I read that they migrated to the Central plains, but wasn't sure how far south they were at one point.
MAROON
7:49p, 12/3/23
Dead Wake by Eric Larson about the sinking of the Lusitania

I'm not sure he's ever written a bad book
JABQ04
4:02a, 12/4/23
Finally getting around to reading "Helmet for My Pillow"
Aggie12B
3:29p, 12/6/23
Just finished reading this:

brought back a whole lot of memories. It was very well researched and well written
Project Gemini
7:53p, 12/6/23
First time posting on this thread, but have followed it for a bit and appreciate all the commentary. I am wrapping up Masters of the Air (wanted to get it done before the show). Recently finished these, and liked most of them: Freedoms Forge (Herman), Undaunted Courage (Ambrose), The Battle for Spain (Beevor), Crusaders (Jones), Generation Kill (Wright), Israel a Concise History of a Nation Reborn (Gordis), Texian Iliad (Hardin), Stalingrad (Beevor), Failure is not an Option (Kranz) and all of Erik Larson's books.

(edit removing a portion of this post to not derail the original intent of the thread)
Smeghead4761
11:20p, 12/6/23
Hell to Pay by D.M. Giangreco and Operation Barbarossa by David Glantz.

I'll probably (re)read Downfall by Richard Frank when I finish those.

Anyone know when Frank's follow-on to Tower of Skulls is expected?
BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
5:01p, 12/9/23
In reply to Kaa98
Kaa98 said:

I've read that one before and agree it's a great read, especially for anyone interested in the fight at the Chosin.
Cousins unbeknowst to one another were at Chosin. One in Marines, the other Navy pilot! Navy cousin

was bombing the Chinese in the mountains overlooking Chosin!

They found out about this 50+ years later at a family reunion!
BigJim49AustinnowDallas
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