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two quick reviews
May. 17th, 2011 10:46 am16/50: The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 by Dan Van der Dat. I borught this back from Okney last year as a present for my friend The Texas Attorney, who works in admiralty law (!) and loves naval history. It's a fascinating book of three parts: one about the rise of the Imperial German Navy and its service during WWI, one about its internment as part of the Armistice and its scuttling by its own officers, and one about the attempts to raise the scuttled ships to break up for scrap. The first part is a good summary of the international politics of pre-war Europe as they related tot he naval question (an arms race not unlike that of the Post WWII Cold War) and of the naval operations in the North Sea, touching on some of the other small actions of the Imperial German Navy. The second part is the bulk of the book and is quite fascinating. The author spends a good deal of time giving you a feel for the conditions on the interned ships, the challenges faced by the German officers serving on them, and the dilemma of the Internment Fleet's commander who was ashamed of the abject surrender of his ships to begin with and who was determined not to see them simply handed over intact to his nation's enemies after (in the German view) they had never been defeated at sea. I didn't have a chance to see Scapa Flow when I was on Orkney, but I plan to go back,* and I look forward to taking a tour and seeing the small visitor's centre they have there on Hoy.
17/50: The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. A re-read from a long time ago. I loved this book, and the movie made from it, when I was in high school. Wow. Some books I read when I was a teenager (or younger) I still love. This is, I have to say, a piece of complete trash. I read a couple of passages to E, and we were convulsed in laughter at how horrible they were. Stilted, awkward, unrealistic, contrived, melodramatic...these words are all too generous and kind to describe this tripe. Were we really so desperate for good, lightweight writers in the 1970s that people thought this guy was a rockstar? On the other hand, I did read one Dan Brown book, and that gave me a feeling for what utter tosh people think is just wonderful now, so... In any event, part of my youth or not, TEHL will be going on the donation/recycling pile ASAP.
Books in Progress:
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
Red Branch by Morgan Llewellyn
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Still hoping to review the last batch one of these days.
* I would dearly love to live on Orkney; probably not permanently, but at least for a while. Something about it really speaks to me in a way I don't quite understand. Until I can get over the immigration hurdle, though, that won't be happening.
17/50: The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. A re-read from a long time ago. I loved this book, and the movie made from it, when I was in high school. Wow. Some books I read when I was a teenager (or younger) I still love. This is, I have to say, a piece of complete trash. I read a couple of passages to E, and we were convulsed in laughter at how horrible they were. Stilted, awkward, unrealistic, contrived, melodramatic...these words are all too generous and kind to describe this tripe. Were we really so desperate for good, lightweight writers in the 1970s that people thought this guy was a rockstar? On the other hand, I did read one Dan Brown book, and that gave me a feeling for what utter tosh people think is just wonderful now, so... In any event, part of my youth or not, TEHL will be going on the donation/recycling pile ASAP.
Books in Progress:
Theoretical Criminology by George B. Vold et al.
Understanding China by John Bryan Starr
Red Branch by Morgan Llewellyn
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775 by Thomas Desjardins
Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Still hoping to review the last batch one of these days.
* I would dearly love to live on Orkney; probably not permanently, but at least for a while. Something about it really speaks to me in a way I don't quite understand. Until I can get over the immigration hurdle, though, that won't be happening.
