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What are you reading - Part II


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7 hours ago, keefr22 said:

News Years Eve waiting for midnight when all the ships in dock all sounded their whistles

Probably the same crews that kept us awake too. There was generally a Brit boat or two in port that time of year. :)

Steve.

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On 2/4/2022 at 5:30 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Stalingrad - Antony Beevor. 400 odd pages in a quite large paperback.

I only started it this week and I'm finding it very interesting.

A very good book. I have read a few of his books in the past and they have been interesting. I think he  is quite balanced in his opinions. 

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3 minutes ago, Mr T said:

I think he  is quite balanced in his opinions. 

As opposed to the leadership on both sides involved in the conflict. Barbarossa was a slowly unfolding nightmare for all involved.

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Too true, both sides saw the conflict in quasi-religious terms as crusades against the other side ideology man's it all added to the frightful Ness and horror of the Eastern Front. 

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I've now hooked into, "They Gave Me a Seafire" by Commander R "Mike" Crossley. Very early into it but enjoying it a lot so far, the bit about a young Crossley pilfering brass screws for his boat building exploits had me in stitches. :)

Steve.

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Having just finshed The End, by Ian Kershaw, a profoundly disturbing book, I read A Gambling Man by David Baldacci, and am now reading The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith, about the life of n early cinematogapher, the "lost fiilm" he made called the Electric Hotel, and his relationship with an actress.

 

As I started the book, I thought t was going to be a difficult one to read, but I am wrong; it is a really nice book to read.

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On 2/2/2022 at 11:53 AM, Bertie Psmith said:

Thanks for the tip. I've just downloaded Voyager. Support Your Local Author!

Thank you very much indeed!

 

Funny, I regard Voyager as probably my weakest book but it outsells the others by about five to one 😂 always let the market decide 😉

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7 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Which one are you most satisfied with?

I like how Jonah and Incendiary work as stories. Jonah I think is my best writing overall. I wasn't in a good place when I wrote it, I think that emotional energy worked into the story and gave it something extra.

 

Thanks very much again. For any further opinions, I shall leave it to Psmith!

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1 minute ago, Alan P said:

I like how Jonah and Incendiary work as stories. Jonah I think is my best writing overall. I wasn't in a good place when I wrote it, I think that emotional energy worked into the story and gave it something extra.

 

Thanks very much again. For any further opinions, I shall leave it to Psmith!

 

That's a haha for the joke but also thanks for the candid review.

 

I enjoyed Voyager. It's very different to my usual reading matter, an entertaining  easy read. I could see your airline background in many of the details.

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Just now, Bertie Psmith said:

 

That's a haha for the joke but also thanks for the candid review.

 

I enjoyed Voyager. It's very different to my usual reading matter, an entertaining  easy read. I could see your airline background in many of the details.

Thank you, in glad to hear it. And yes, there's one very transparent character in there 😂

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8 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

Are you writing a third Voyager book Alan? Thought I read somewhere it was to be a trilogy? 

 

Keith

Yes, one day I will, I just have all these models I want to make 😂

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On 2/13/2022 at 11:58 AM, Whofan said:

am now reading The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith, about the life of n early cinematogapher, the "lost fiilm" he made called the Electric Hotel, and his relationship with an actress.

 

If you're enjoying that, have you read this?

 

The New Confessions, by William Boyd: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00H03IEBC/

 

Sounds like it might be a bit too similar to read straight after, but it's my favorite of all Boyd's  sweeps through 20th century history from the point of view of one character...

 

best,

M.

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23 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

If you're enjoying that, have you read this?

 

The New Confessions, by William Boyd: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00H03IEBC/

 

Sounds like it might be a bit too similar to read straight after, but it's my favorite of all Boyd's  sweeps through 20th century history from the point of view of one character...

Matt,

 

thanks for the recommendation.

 

I'll certainly look into it,  I may be going to Waterstones later this week and will see if they have it. 

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Just finished a couple of books on Passchedaele. I started with the newish Passchendaele - A New History by Nick Lloyd. A good general narrative history of the campaign covering both sides, with plenty of personal accounts. It suggests that the British army had got to grips with warfare on the Western Front using bite-and-hold tactics for offensives with limited objectives. Where things went wrong it was because of the weather and deviation from the bite-and-hold method. Overall, the thing was a tragedy.

 

I then read Passchendaele - The Untold Story by Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson. Originally published 25 years ago, it's now in its third edition. This is a much more damning read, focussing on British military and civilian leadership. Neither come out in a good light. They agree that bite-and-hold was the way forward, but then point out that the military kept drifting back to weak, poorly supported attacks in poor conditions, guaranteed to produce failure. If the military had learned what was needed to succeed, they often failed to apply the lessons. And it seems questionable whether Haig had even learned the lesson, dreaming of mass break throughs and, when the campaign bogged down, letting his army commanders pursue the slogging match in the mud instead of calling a halt.

 

The civilian leadership was just absent - Lloyd George and the war cabinet might not of liked what was going on (when they could be bothered to turn their attention to it) but couldn't muster the will to tell Haig to halt the offensive. Instead, the campaign was allowed to drag on with ever diminishing returns. Here it's not so much tragedy as incompetence and negligence.

 

The New History is fine and provides the general background before reading The Untold Story. Its conclusions seem weak, but if you were to read just one book on Passchendaele it's probably the one. However Untold Story, whilst more limited in scope, gives a clearer account of why Passchendaele was such a futile campaign. 

 

Edited by Potato Pete
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I am currently reading James Holland's book about the Sicilian Campaign.

 

I am only about halfway through and my one criticism so far is that it is too focused on the American forces. It is almost as if the British and Canadians weren't there. See how the rest of the book pans out.

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I'm about halfway through a book by Norman "Bud" Fortier; An Ace of the Eighth, he flew P-47s and P-51s in the 354th Fs, 355th Fg at Steeple Morden. Great book, I got it in Waterstones in Edinburgh a few years back on a week end away with the caravan and have read it a few times but I like it so much that I don't mind reading it again! This wont be the last time either.😉

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now reading "The Last Escape" following @Pete in Lincs report on it back in July last year, bought a copy from Abebooks but have only just got around to reading it. Pretty heavy duty content though very readable in its own way. I've certainly read accounts of this before, mainly RAF/RNZAF chaps from Stalag Luft III, but none of them conveyed anything like the horror these men endured. How any of them recovered let alone went on to enjoy full lives is an amazing testimony to the resilience of the human species. On top of accounts such as "The End" by Ian Kershaw & "Armageddon" by Max Hastings, one realises just what an inhumane shambles the Nazis bequeathed to their own & the captured peoples of Europe as the final months of WW2 played out.

Steve.

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An excellent summation, Steve. I've just finished reading Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. It;s a similar tale there of the horrors of war.

And, in this case, the horrors inflicted by both sides, on the enemy and on their own people.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just started the biography of Ray Davies of the Kinks, by Johnny Rogan.

 

My word, I had no idea about Ray Davies at all.  I've understood over the years that he was at best a moody, testy and somewhat difficult person to work with, especially with his brother Dave, but given the circumstances of his childhood it's not surprising that he was the moody, difficult and testy adult he became.

 

Other snippets I found are he's been married 3 times, Chrissie Hynde was not one of his wives; he changed his name by deed poll some years ago to Ray Douglas - which is his middle name but I haven't got to the part of the book that gives the reason why, dropping the Davies, and he was at school with Rod Stewart, who almost became a member of the group Ray Davies was in from the school..

 

And I've only read 100 pages of the 600 odd pages in the book!

Edited by Whofan
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2 hours ago, Whofan said:

Just started the biography of Ray Davies of the Kinks, by Johnny Rogan.

 

My word, I had no idea about Ray Davies at all.  I've understood over the years that he was at best a moody, testy and somewhat difficult person to work with, especially his broter Dave, but given the circumstances of his childhood it's not surprising that he was the moody, difficvult and testy adult he became.

 

Other snippets I found are he's been married 3 times, Chrissie Hynde was not one of his wives; he changed his name by deed poll some years afo to Ray Douglas, dropping the Davies, and he was at school with Rod Stewart, who almost became a member of the group Ray Davies was in from the school..

 

And I've only read 100 pages of the 600 odd pages in the book!

 

That sounds a cracker!

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