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Jul. 10th, 2012 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerGoodness, it's been too long! Time for a
Since I last posted, I've gone through several books on CD.
11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944 by Stanley Weintraub. (13) More detail on this later, but this has got to be one of the worst histories by a trained scholar that I've read in recent memory.
Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen Ambrose. (14) More detail on this one later, but I don't care what people say about Ambrose--he is an excellent researcher and writer.
Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Walton. (15) I enjoyed this, but discovered partway through that the CD version is heavily abridged. I'll look out the full version later and re-read it. The custodian in my high school was in the 761st; we never found that out until he retired though. Knowing him as a civilian, I found him a decent, kindly, patient man; I had no idea he was one of a 'band of brothers' remarkable for their courage and determination.
Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War by Rodric Braithwaite. (16) An excellent introduction to the history of Moscow, to the social and cultural history of early Stalinist Russia and, oh, yes, a great military history of the opening campaigns of the Russian Front in World War Two. It's amazing how stalwart and determined the Russian people were, given how cruelly and stupidly their government treated them before, after, and even during its existential struggle against Nazi Germany.
I've read a couple of fiction titles, but since they were all re-reads of old favourites, I won't list them here.
In progress:
In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation by Francois Furstenberg
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War by Michael S. Neiberg
The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the Defining Battles of World War I by Richard Holmes
Laxdaela Saga
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Shards of Empire by Susan Schwartz
In the Skies of Nomonhan: Japan versus Russia, May - September 1939 by Dimitar Nedialkov
The Lily Hand And Other Stories by Edith Pargeter
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle
Since I last posted, I've gone through several books on CD.
11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944 by Stanley Weintraub. (13) More detail on this later, but this has got to be one of the worst histories by a trained scholar that I've read in recent memory.
Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen Ambrose. (14) More detail on this one later, but I don't care what people say about Ambrose--he is an excellent researcher and writer.
Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Walton. (15) I enjoyed this, but discovered partway through that the CD version is heavily abridged. I'll look out the full version later and re-read it. The custodian in my high school was in the 761st; we never found that out until he retired though. Knowing him as a civilian, I found him a decent, kindly, patient man; I had no idea he was one of a 'band of brothers' remarkable for their courage and determination.
Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War by Rodric Braithwaite. (16) An excellent introduction to the history of Moscow, to the social and cultural history of early Stalinist Russia and, oh, yes, a great military history of the opening campaigns of the Russian Front in World War Two. It's amazing how stalwart and determined the Russian people were, given how cruelly and stupidly their government treated them before, after, and even during its existential struggle against Nazi Germany.
I've read a couple of fiction titles, but since they were all re-reads of old favourites, I won't list them here.
In progress:
In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation by Francois Furstenberg
Doom Castle by Neil Munro
Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I by James J. Hudson
Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War by Michael S. Neiberg
The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the Defining Battles of World War I by Richard Holmes
Laxdaela Saga
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Shards of Empire by Susan Schwartz
In the Skies of Nomonhan: Japan versus Russia, May - September 1939 by Dimitar Nedialkov
The Lily Hand And Other Stories by Edith Pargeter
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691 by John Childs
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Knights of the Cross; or, Krzyzacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle
