What are you reading - Part II

[robw_uk]

Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson

[Billy54]

After finishing three of the four books in James Ellroy's "LA Quartet", The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, I decided to slow things down a little with Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library, one of her Miss Marple books I had not read and it was a definite change of pace from Ellroy.  I plan to start Earl Derr Bigger's fourth Charlie Chan book The Black Camel today.

[BristolBlue]

14 hours ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

Slide Rule, Shute’s autobiographical account of the building of the R100 and the formation of Airspeed is another title well worth reading by anyone with an interest in aviation. Charity shops (if they ever reopen) are often a fruitful source of his works. 
 

Craig. 

It’s also a very un-varnished account of the governments wilful arrogance and stupidity over the R101.   

[BristolBlue]

On 6/24/2020 at 6:41 AM, Dandie Dinmont said:

Slide Rule, Shute’s autobiographical account of the building of the R100 and the formation of Airspeed is another title well worth reading by anyone with an interest in aviation. Charity shops (if they ever reopen) are often a fruitful source of his works. 
 

Craig. 

Good read here.. https://www.nevilshute.org/Reviews/barneswallis.php comparing Barnes Wallis with his fictional aircraft designers in “no highway”. 

[Dandie Dinmont]

37 minutes ago, BristolBlue said:

Good read here.. https://www.nevilshute.org/Reviews/barneswallis.php comparing Barnes Wallis with his fictional aircraft designers in “no highway”. 

Thanks for that. Very interesting read. 
 

Craig. 

[Mick4350]

The Art Of Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker by Phil Szostak.  Abrams , but published in 2019 and only available after April 2020.

 

 

I do like it, but disappointed about the lack of the last forty-five minutes of the movie in this book.

Another book to the library.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Mick4350

[Seahawk]

On 6/4/2020 at 10:49 AM, stevehnz said:

The Forgotten Fleet, by John Winton. About a quarter into it and even though I've read the British Pacific Fleet by David Hobbs in the last couple of years, I'm enjoying the slightly different slant this puts on much the same subject & especially enjoying Winton's, at times, wry humour. A good read.

Steve. 

I read this when I bought it (secondhand)  in 2001 but, at your prompting, decided it was overdue a re-read.  It's very good, isn't it?  He's a good pacy storyteller with a concise spare style who conveys a lot of information quickly.  Like you, I found it more readable than Hobbs' book.  Has the benefit of immediacy: a bit like The World At War, he draws heavily on interviews and letters from participants at all levels, to whom the events were half as distant then as the Falklands are to us now.  The broad sweep of his story does not preclude little human snippets like the ghost of a lost airman reputed to haunt the showers of Indefatigable.  Supported by a really excellent set of maps which stopped some parts of his story being a catalogue of unpronounceable names.  And, as you say, enlivened by his wry humour.

 

Thanks for the tip.

[stevehnz]

@Seahawk, I just finished it & thoroughly enjoyed it, an easy read to recommend to others. Glad the jog worked so well for you. I think it was earlier in this thread Winton's name came up & when I searched & saw he'd written this it was straight onto Google to find a copy.

Steve.

[Pete in Lincs]

Wingless Victory : The Story of Sir Basil Embry's Escape from Occupied France in the Summer of 1940.

Having handed over his Blenheim squadron to his successor, he decided to lead them on a raid for one last crack at the Hun. He got shot down.

Within hours of being captured he'd met General Heinz Guderian, a German officer named McClean with relatives in Scotland, and a German soldier with an American accent!

[qn30jEkPz7]

Just finished Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer - an interesting read, kind of a Red Storm Rising (Clancy) or Red Pheonix (Bond) of the near future

[stevehnz]

Osprey's Hellcat vs Shiden/Shiden Kai by Tony Holmes. An interesting read about two aircraft I've got kits of. Maybe one day there'll be an adversary pair built.

Steve.

[593jones]

'Stolen Journey' by Oliver Philpot.  Philpot was the third man in the Wooden Horse escape.  He was shot down in a Beaufort off the Norwegian coast in 1941 and ended up in Sagan.  The book is very good, surprisingly much more informative about the actual tunneling than was Eric Williams' own book.  Recommended read.  Looked for this book for years and finally found one on Ebay.  Result!

Edited July 6, 2020 by 593jones

[stevehnz]

Beam Bombers, the secret war of 109 squadron by Michael Cumming. An interlibrary lone book & less than a fortnight to get through it now so I'm going to need to crack onto it & let the Hellcats & Shidens play in their West Pacific sand pit by themselves for a while. On first acquaintance it comes across as being very dry, maybe I just haven't found its rhythm yet.

Steve.

[Ed Russell]

The Long Flight Home by Lainie Anderson. An account of the events leading up to and the flight itself of the Vickers Vimy. The author has done a great deal of research and written her book as a novel, seen through the eyes of Sergeant Walter Shiers, one of the two mechanics on the flight. Between Shiers and Ross Smith there is a lot of documentation on the flight and it makes an epic story, very well written.

[Whofan]

Having bought the Second Sleep by Robert Harris, I'm abour halfway through it.

 

Interesting premise, but as with all Robert Harris' books since fatherland, I find it just a touch  - ummph.

[Shorty84]

My current read, a biography about Josip Broz Tito. Drawing from ex-Yugoslav, US and Soviet sources it gives an interesting and well balanced account on Yugoslavia's charismatic leader.

 

 

Cheers

Markus

[John_W]

Beyond Band of Brothers by Dick Winters.

An interesting companion read to the Ambrose book. 

I hate to be critical, but it makes the exttordinary heroism of an outstanding soldier apear mundane and occasionaly boring, he was the most modest of men. 

[Pete in Lincs]

And he cared for the men under his command too. An excellent read. 

[flashlight]

"Oceans in Decline" by Sergio Rossi - a very interesting read on the (not only) human impact on our oceans.

[qn30jEkPz7]

Utopia for Realists from Rutger Bregman - interesting take on work and society. Especially relevant after lockdown and assorted discussions about the new normal. Centres on basic universal income the nature of the employment market and how we assign value. 

Edited July 28, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[stevehnz]

Finished beam Bombers, there is an oboe Mosquito in my future, luckily I have a couple of decal sheets with one & some Paragon engine conversions for a B. Mk IX or XVI in 1/72. With that out of the way I got back to my Osprey Hellcat vs Shiden/Shiden Kai, I'd left them playing in the sand pit while I read Beam Bombers, when I got back the Hellcats had stomped all over the Shidens  & turned the sand pit to glass.  I enjoyed it as a read & found it dovetailed into books like John Winton's "The Forgotten Fleet", I commented on above, quite well. It was hard not to feel sympathy for the Japanese pilots totally overwhelmed by more numerous & better trained USN airmen as they fought valiantly but futilely in defence of their homeland.

Now I'm onto "Wheels across the Desert" by Andrew Goudie, bought as a result of John Master's Light Car Patrol Model T build. Its a lovely read so far, Goudie does a good job of covering his subject in a way that is informative & scholarly with getting too bogged down in detail . A nice read to date.

Steve.

[Mick4350]

Tobruk's Easter Battle 1941. The Forgotten Fifteenth's Date with Rommel's Champion by John Mackenzie-Smith, 2014. ISBN 9781925046243 ( paperback ).

Largely the untold story of the 2/15 Battalion's action in Tobruk around Easter 1941.the book is dedicated to the memory of Australian, British and Indian soldiers who fought valiantly in that battle and won.  The book references a man who came from Toowoomba who earned himself a Military Cross for " ... the gallant outnumbered patrol, led by Lt Ron Yates... which captured a near company strength of Ponath's crack 8 Machine-Gun Battalion...".

 

I've had glaucoma for a few years now, so I get six monthly eye tests done by local eye specialist doctor who sees me and it was his father  that was the Officer mentioned in dispatchers and in this story i've yet to read .

Edited July 29, 2020 by Mick4350

[Billy54]

Since I last posted in this thread I have finished  The Black Camel, Charlie Chan Carries On and Keeper of the keys, Earl Derr Biggers 4th, 5th and 6th (his final) Charlie Chan novel, and I can recommend them all, in addition to his first three Chan books,  to those who enjoy detective/mystery fiction. I then proceeded to Djibouti by Elmore Leonard and enjoyed it however not as much as some of his other books. Following that I read The Blue Hammer by Ross Macdonald which I enjoyed immensely as I have done with all of his Lew Archer books. I started Fright by Cornell Woolrich and I am sorry to say that I put it aside after about 50 pages, it was too dark and too slow for my current taste.    

I went to Barnes & Nobel today and picked up The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson and a Sudoku book containing over 900 puzzles, I plan to start 7 1/2 Deaths this evening.

[Whofan]

9 hours ago, Billy54 said:

Since I last posted in this thread I have finished  The Black Camel, Charlie Chan Carries On and Keeper of the keys, Earl Derr Biggers 4th, 5th and 6th (his final) Charlie Chan novel, and I can recommend them all, in addition to his first three Chan books,  to those who enjoy detective/mystery fiction. I then proceeded to Djibouti by Elmore Leonard and enjoyed it however not as much as some of his other books. Following that I read The Blue Hammer by Ross Macdonald which I enjoyed immensely as I have done with all of his Lew Archer books. I started Fright by Cornell Woolrich and I am sorry to say that I put it aside after about 50 pages, it was too dark and too slow for my current taste.    

I went to Barnes & Nobel today and picked up The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson and a Sudoku book containing over 900 puzzles, I plan to start 7 1/2 Deaths this evening.

I've read the Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, too. No spoilers fro me.

 

In the same vein as yourself, since I last posted in this thread I've read;

 

Goliath by Sean McFate - why the west is losing wars and what it must do about it

The Second sleep by Robert Harris

Black Sun by Owen Mthewws - a crime novel set in the scientific establishment that developed the Tsar bomb, the largest ever thermo nuclear bomb ever tested

The Terminal list by Jack Carr (Jack Reacher style book)

Tom Clancy's Enemy Contact by Mike Meaden.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Worst Case scenario by Helen Fitzgerald

A long night in Paris by Dov Alfon.

 

Currently reading a biography of Jeremy Thorpe.

[Seahawk]

16 hours ago, Mick4350 said:

Tobruk's Easter Battle 1941. The Forgotten Fifteenth's Date with Rommel's Champion by John Mackenzie-Smith, 2014. ISBN 9781925046243 ( paperback ).

Largely the untold story of the 2/15 Battalion's action in Tobruk around Easter 1941.the book is dedicated to the memory of Australian, British and Indian who fought valiantly in that battle and won. 

You've prompted me into rereading Brazen Chariots, by  Robert Crisp, a 3 RTR Stuart troop commander (and former South African test bowler) describing day by day his experiences of the battles around Sidi Rezegh at the end of 1941.  Very vivid and difficult to put down.  Clearly has an affection for the Stuart even though he is clear that the only good things about it were its speed, reliable engine and reluctance to shed its tracks.  Amazing how fresh some of these books I first read 30-40 years ago are on rereading: more life experience on my part, I guess.  Highly recommended.