I’ve just finished up two very good books recently. “Fighter Pilot” about Gen. Robin Olds and “Hitler’s Gladiator, the life and wars of Sepp Dietrich”. Fighter Pilot is well known and has been talked about on the forums before. The book on Sepp Dietrich was interesting. It is written in an unbiased way and seems to be well researched.
I enjoyed FP too. I would like to read the book about Dietrich as I don’t know too much about him. He certainly was right at the center of things throughout the whole Hitler era.
I didnt know a lot about him either until reading the book. The book charts his rise from an NCO in WWI throughout the rise and fall of the NAZI’s. As I said earlier, it is very unbiased. It goes into what he may have known or not known about Malmedy and other war crimes, as well as Hitler’s state of mind as the war went on. Good book.
I read about 20% of The Wild Blue and was bored to death so I stopped reading it.
Going to have to read one of the other several thousand books I have for the Kindle.
Yeah, that story was not overly compelling. I finished up “The Guns of August” last night. Great stuff there. I now finally have some knowledge in that period of history which I never had before. I dont think one could ask more from that type of book.
Up next, “The Horse Soldiers”, about the early days of SF in Afghanistan after 9/11. That and I have started “Dune” for my ‘light reading’ (porcelain throne) 
One book I always must recommend is “Shattered Sword” by Pearsall and Tully. It tells the story of the battle of Midway from the Japanese side. It also dispells the many myths surrounding the battle in a very thoughtful and well researched format. That being said, the book reads almost like you are sitting there talking to the authors and they are letting you know their opinions as you are talking. The appendices are almost worth buying the book for, given all of the info contained.
Currently, I am working my way through the “Game of Thrones” series. This is in no way light reading, given the number of characters and subplots running, but it is very vivid and detailed. For fans of high fantasy, it is a good read. If you have seen the HBO series, the books is all of that and more. The series is pretty faithful to the books.
Quick question to the group, has anyone ever found a good book on the Tuskeegee Airmen? I had the honor of meeting one of the ground crew several years ago and have always been amazed by the story. Watching “Red Tails” (I know, not the best movie for plot, but the flying scenes were amazing) has whetted my appetite to have a good read and reference about the group. Can anyone help?
I just finished Hitler’s U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942 by Clay Blair. Now on to part 2, The Hunted!
I’m reading Charlie Chan by Yunte Huang. This book is the back- story of the fictional Charlie Chan, Hawaiian cop Chang Apana.
Chang Apana (left) and Charlie Chan (Warner Oland)
Just finished reading a nice brace of books actually. It started with a re-read of a classics, Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day. This swung me back into an ETO kind of mood. So I went to the library and borrowed Operation Mincemeat (about the British intelligence scheme that planted fake papers on a dead body and floated it into Spain to convince the Germans the Allies planned on invading Greece and Sardinia, NOT Sicily…reads almost like a novel at times!). The I sped through Stephen Ambrose’s Pegasus Bridge, which is everything I expected from an Ambrose book! Right now I have just started into Len Deighton’s Fighter, his book on the battle of Britain. I am probably going to also try and get his book Bomber too. And as luck would have it my Uncle brought over 4 books for me to read also. One was Curtis Lemay’s book Superfortress, Stephen Ambrose’s D-Day, a book called Two, and Bud Masterson’s AAF,Official WW2 guide to the Army Air Forces.
Currently reading The history of german submarines and mine warfare vessels 1815-1945 by Eric Groner and Dieter Jung. It’s the 9th or 10th time I’ve read it. Oooooo… pictures…
I will second both of wolfhammer’s recommendations, especially that for Shattered Sword .
That book Superfortress by Curtis Lemay turned out to be pretty good. A pretty quick read at only 176 pages, but a good perspective from a man who was in on the USAAF early in it’s beginnings and who was intimate with the B-29 project in general.
And even though this book brought me over to the PTO, I am still in an ETO kind of mood, and as such I started re-reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich today.
“Darwin"s Armada” by Iain McCalman. About Darwin, Hooker, Huxley and Wallace. These guys were real men! What they endured for the sake of science. Very interesting.
Just finished “The Mosquito Coast” by Paul Theroux. Not everyone likes it, because the father in the story gets a little crazier as the story progresses, but I liked it. First fiction I have read by him, his non-fiction is all good.
Just remembered another really good book, The First Team by Lundstrom. Really good read about the beginning of the Pacific air war. Also, just finished the latest book in the Safehold series by David Weber. The series is an interesting mix of sci-fi and period mid-18th century wet water navy activity. The first book in the series is called Off Armageddon Reef. I have been really enjoying Weber’s work, and have never been disappointed in one of his novels. Anyone else like David Weber?
I just finished “The Pacific” by Hugh Ambrose. It was written as a companion piece to the HBO series. The book includes two characters not shown in the series: one a Naval Aviator, who flew of Enterprise at Midway, Eastern Solomons and Guadalcanal, and later on in the Pacific War off the new Hornet; and the other a Marine officer who had been in the Phillipines, captured at Corregidor, later escaped from a POW camp on Mindanao, hooked up with the guerillas there and later evacuated to Australia and after recuperation time stateside went back out with the 1st Marine Division to fight at Peleliu and Okinawa. Those tales I think would have greatly improved the series, but lengthened it at least two episodes. I don’t think that Hugh’s work is quite a polished as his father Steven, but I sure gained a better insight into the Marines and Dive Bomber pilots war in the Pacific.
I just finished “The Color of War” by James Campbell (the Green Mountain Boys)
He covers the invasion of Saipan with the disaster at the Port Chicago loading facility. He does a great job describing how horrific the fighting was at Saipan and how poorly the Navy treated the Black Sailors who were relegated only being able to load ships and not actually fight for their country.
The last books I read were:
The Taliban Don’t Wave by Rob Semrau - demoted and ordered to leave the Canadian Army after allegedly killing an unarmed Taliban soldier in Afghanistan
No Easy Day by ‘Mark Taylor’ - the book that the movie Zero Dark Thirty was based on
The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose - autobiographical look at Gov. George McGovern’s exploits as a B-24 pilot in WWII.
@GreenThumb - while I agree The Wild Blue wasn’t an extremely compelling read, I thought it was an informative book. Gave me something to do while passing the time and catching some rays by the pool during or Florida vacation
Not quite a zombie thread… More of a bump of sorts or a paddles shock to get this thread going again…
In anticipation of the new movie, I read “Unbroken” a month or two ago. As usual when i read if Pacific War POWs, i am humbled as a man a realize how minor my problems in life are. and that guy was si much more… Now I am working my way thru a complete collection of Sherlock Holmes that I received for Christmas last year. I really must confess how much I do enjoy Conan Doyle’s writing style. Great stuff! And I got some new books for Christmas this year for when I have finished the Holmes collection…
I got 2 books and a DVD for Christmas. Books: Conversations with Major Richard Winters (I can’t use the short version of his name LOL!) and Uncommon Valor; DVD - Last Heroes of D-Day.
I’ve got a few others accumulated through the years of my favorite authors - Steve Berry, Dan Brown, Matthew Reilly, etc… I also got the latest Assassin’s Creed novel as well. Looks like I’ve got enough books to keep me occupied for awhile.