646 replies to this topic

[DJ MC]

Insane City, by Dave Barry. Started the book at about 1:30, finished just as PTI came on.

You know what sucks about reading a great book by one of your favorite authors? Unless the author is James Patterson or Nora Roberts, it is going to be a long time before you get another one.

[lordbrook]

I just finished reading Ernest Cline's first book, Ready Player One.

This book was simply phenomenal. Chock full of 80's pop culture references, which I'm sure everyone would eat up.

http://www.amazon.co... ... player one

I should mention that the rights to this book have already been secured by a studio, and there are plans of making this into a film sometime soon.

How in the hell did I miss this thread? That book kicks so much ass it's scary. I recommended it to all of my friends. I honestly could have written that book myself if I had any talent. I grew up in the '80s (I'm 42 now), I'm way into video games then and now, and I'm a programmer. He couldn't have written a better book for me if he had researched me for years.

Another book that was great but didn't get picked up by a publisher is Wool by Hugh Howey
http://www.amazon.co... ... words=wool

[DJ MC]

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham.

 

I liked American Lion quite a bit, and have been thinking about a good Jefferson bio to read for a while. The book really focuses on Jefferson's acquisition and use of power, which means it occasionally seems to gloss over certain events (not in a historical revisionism sense, like ignoring Sally Hemmings, but putting less of a focus on his personal life in general), but it is very interesting. Of course, it is difficult to make Thomas Jefferson uninteresting.

[Mark Carver]

I came across this late and don't know how much longer Amazon will keep it a freebie for your Kindle.

 

 

Churchill's Sacrifice of the Highland Division: France 1940 by Saul David

 

 

http://tinyurl.com/cuet56f

Churchill's Sacrifice of the Highland Division: France 1940 by Saul David

 

 

On 12 June 1940, more than a week after the last British troops had been evacuated from Dunkirk, the 51st (Highland) Division was forced to surrender to General Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division at St Valery-en-Caux. 

More than 10,000 members of the Division were driven into five years of captivity in prison camps. 

It was one of the most dramatic incidents of the early phase of WWII. 

Drawing upon over 100 personal interviews with survivors of the battle, upon unit war diaries, personal letters and journals, as well as official documents and reports, the leading military historian Saul David traces the story of the Highland Division from its arrival in France, through the excitement of patrol operations in front of the Maginot Line and its magnificent defensive battles on the Somme and the Bresle, to the final, desperate stand in the little Norman seaport of St Valery.

 

 

'Churchill's Sacrifice' is a book that will fascinate anyone interested in WWII. 

Saul David is Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham and the author of several critically acclaimed history books, including The Indian Mutiny: 1857 (short-listed for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature), Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency, Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 (a Waterstones Military History Book of the Year) and, most recently, Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire.He has also written two best-selling historical novels set in the wars of the late 19th Century, Zulu Hart and Hart of Empire. An experienced broadcaster, he has presented and appeared in history programmes for all the major TV channels and is a regular contributor to Radio 4.

'A well-researched history’ The Times

'David proves conclusively that Churchill allowed the Highlanders to be cut off’ Scotland on Sunday

'David does full justice to this “forgotten piece” of history’ Military Illustrated.

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

 

 

[Mark Carver]

A podcast of the British Historian Antony Beevor discussing the problems he encountered at the Russian Archives near Moscow while researching the information for his book Stalingrad. He also recounts historical issues in Germany during the fall of Berlin in May 1945.

 

http://www.nationala...013.mp3?pod=rss

[DJ MC]

Last night I read the first Walking Dead graphic novel, and over the past couple days I read Election. I liked the first enough that I might read the next few (and it made me want to watch the series). I loved the second one, though.

 

I'm about to start Warm Bodies.

[Mark Carver]

Another Kindle freebie... http://tinyurl.com/afqbdgk

 

Escape From the Rising Sun by Ian Skidmore

 

February, 1942.

Singapore has fallen. 

The British Army, retreating in disorder before the terrible onslaught of the Japanese shock troops, has been told to surrender. 

It is one of the greatest defeats the British Army has ever suffered. 

One man was convinced he could escape - and reclaim some honour from the disaster. 

Geoffrey Rowley-Conwy seized a junk and sailed for Padang. 

There he joined up with a group of fellow officers for a desperate bid to escape the Japanese. 

Their plan? To take a dilapidated sailing boat across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon. 

But to reach safety they would have to cross 1,500 miles of open sea swept by the fury of the monsoon and patrolled by Japanese fighter planes on the lookout for British survivors.

'Escape From The Rising Sun' is an incredible survival story of dedicated soldiers battling disease, depression, and the elements in the search for British-occupied land. With snippets from personal diaries and documents, it is a revealing recollection of the extraordinary feats of a group of very remarkable men.

‘One of the best and liveliest escape stories of the Second World War…enthralling.’ - Times Literary Supplement.

Ian Skidmore is the author of more thirty books – many of them best-sellers. He was also one of the most widely-read newspaper columnists and radio show presenters in the UK. After thirty years with BBC Wales, he was awarded the coveted Golden Microphone Award. 

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

[DJ MC]

Warm Bodies was interesting. I had been intrigued by the previews for the movie, but I was worried that the book would go too far down the supernatural romance path (it is technically in that same group with books like Twilight). But it has a real sense of humor, and an interesting take on the cause and many concepts of the zombie apocalypse. I liked it.

 

I'm now almost finished Lunatics, by Dave Barry and Alan Zwiebel, which I am furious with myself that I didn't know it existed. It involves two men who cross paths at a rec soccer game, and things spiral out of control quickly. I love it.

 

My next book will likely be The Silver Linings Playbook.

[DJ MC]

Finished The Silver Linings Playbook. Really enjoyed it, at least once I stopped actively picturing the actors from the movie as the characters.

[Mark Carver]

Get 'em while you can... kindle freebies

 

Eastern Front Combat: The German Soldier in Battle from Stalingrad to Berlin (Stackpole Military History Series)

 

Joshua Chamberlain: A Hero's Life and Legacy

[DJ MC]

Get 'em while you can... kindle freebies

 

Joshua Chamberlain: A Hero's Life and Legacy

I'm DJ MC and I approve this message.

[Mark Carver]

Get 'em while you can... kindle freebies

 

Rommel's Desert Warriors: 1941-1942 (Stackpole Military Photo Series)

 

Ronin: A Marine Scout/Sniper Platoon in Iraq

[DJ MC]

Just started The Stand.

[DJ MC]

Just started The Stand.

Just to update: this is a ridiculously good book. I guess when I see all the jokes making fun of Stephan King and wonder how he got to his place in American writing, this is how.

[Russ]

Just started The Stand.

Just to update: this is a ridiculously good book. I guess when I see all the jokes making fun of Stephan King and wonder how he got to his place in American writing, this is how.

It's his best by far. I also liked It and most of his short stories.

[Mark Carver]

Get it while you can... kindle freebie. This is gonna be good. By Joseph Balkoski, Command Historian of the Maryland National Guard.

 

From Brittany to the Reich: The 29th Infantry Division in Germany, September - November 1944

 

The 3rd volume of Balkoski's history of the 29ID, this is a worthy follow-on to the previous books. It is an excellent example of what a unit history should be. It provides vivid descriptions both of combat and life out of action. Focusing on the 29th, this is an in-depth look at the GIs' lives at "the sharp end."

[Mark Carver]

Get em while you can... kindle freebies.

 

Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in WWII (Stackpole Military History Series)

 

• Character-based study of why the German air force was defeated
• Recounts the Luftwaffe in combat from the blitzkrieg of 1939-40 and the Battle of Britain to the Eastern Front and the Normandy campaign

  From its secret post--World War I beginnings to its virtual destruction by the Allied air forces, the story of the German air force is best told by examining its leaders--brilliant, ambitious, ruthless, and deceitful men like Hermann Goering, the drug-addicted Luftwaffe commander; Erhard Milch, the half-Jewish head of aircraft production; and Adolf Galland, the general of fighters who often clashed with Goering. Mitcham profiles them and others while describing the Luftwaffe's battles--both in the skies and behind the scenes--and explaining why it was so decisively defeated.

 

World War II AFV Plans: American Armored Fighting Vehicles (World War II Armored Fighting Vehicle Plans)

 

Technical artist and military historian George Bradford has been producing detailed drawings of armored fighting vehicles for over thirty years. Based on meticulous research of actual vehicles, official photographs, factory specifications, and, in some cases, the original design plans, each drawing is rendered with great precision--and in exact scale--offering military enthusiasts and modelers an essential reference on these steel chariots of war.

Filled with fine-scale drawings of America's tanks and other armored vehicles during the entire course of World War II. 

• M2 Halftrack
• M3 Lee/Grant Tank
• M3A3 Stuart Tank
• M4 Sherman Tank
• Staghound Armored Car
• LVT Amphibious Tank
• And dozens more . . .

[Mark Carver]

It's old but a great read and deals with the 69th Anniversary of the Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches in France.

 

Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E Ambrose

 

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, a small detachment of British airborne troops stormed the German defense forces and paved the way for the Allied invasion of Europe. Pegasus Bridge was the first engagement of D-Day, the turning point of World War II. This gripping account of it by acclaimed author Stephen Ambrose brings to life a daring mission so crucial that, had it been unsuccessful, the entire Normandy invasion might have failed. Ambrose traces each step of the preparations over many months to the minute-by-minute excitement of the hand-to-hand confrontations on the bridge. This is a story of heroism and cowardice, kindness and brutality -- the stuff of all great adventures.

 

http://www.amazon.co...tmm_hrd_title_0

[DuffMan]

About 60% through Truman right now.

[Mark Carver]

Kindle freebies, get'em while you can.

 

Mission 85: The U.S. Eighth Air Force's Battle over Holland, August 19, 1943 (Stackpole Military History Series)

 

Winter Storm: The Battle for Stalingrad and the Operation to Rescue 6th Army (Stackpole Military History Series)