What Book Are You Reading at the moment?

[Orm]

Reading Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–56 by Anne Applebaum.

But it is slow going since I do not have enough energy to read heavy books. [:D]

[Greybriar]

Raylan by Elmore Leonard.

[cpdeyoung]

"The Long Shadow : The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century" by David Reynolds

Wow, this is just wonderful. So much here I never knew, or did not know what I thought I "knew". Fine writer too.

Highly recommended.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: cpdeyoung

"The Long Shadow : The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century" by David Reynolds

Wow, this is just wonderful. So much here I never knew, or did not know what I thought I "knew". Fine writer too.

Highly recommended.

warspite1

+1 I haven't read the book (didn't know there was one) but the BBC did a three part TV series last year, presented by the author. A thoroughly watchable, thought provoking documentary.

Thanks. I may have to stick this on my 'to buy' list.

[loki100]

agree about Long Shadow its excellent. Worth reading in conjunction with AJP Taylor's essays in Europe: Grandeur and Decline as a complete contrast both in style and conclusions. Reynolds seems a classic documentary evidence driven historian and Taylor was never a man to let facts interfere too much with his opinions (but was good at reaching for grand narratives).

Anyway, I've been looking for a good work on the strategic airwar as WiTW has raised my interest in this. Struggled to find anything that wasn't a Hastings' style love in for Bomber Command or a hatchet job on Harris.

Found Richard Overy - The Bombing War. Covers the entire war and every state that used bombing of cities/industry as part of their approach. Switches from the impact on societies to the stresses that afflicted the bomber crews. To me its that near perfect mix of the politics, economics and psychology of war.

[warspite1]

I would second this too. Only read one Richard Overy book so far, but found it a really good read.

[warspite1]

Playing DC: Barbarossa so have a yearning for the Eastern Front. Time to get out Third Axis Fourth Ally.

Can anyone recommend a good book covering the entire campaign? I have only read Ostkrieg (Fritz) and Barbarossa (Clark).

[loki100]

From the Soviet perspective, I'd recommend Erickson's Road to Stalingrad/Road to Berlin. They are a bit dated but he melds military and political issues very well (which I think is important to understand Soviet actions). Also, although he wrote them in the 1970s he got access to the sealed Stavka archives (incl stuff that was not released even after 1991). So his detail stuff has been less undermined by research post the fall of the USSR (as has affected say Clark).

I find him easier to read than Glantz and much less likely to declare that this or that minor action was the one true decisive moment in the campaign.

The Soviet army liked him as an understanding but external commentator (hence his access). He fought in the Balkans with SOE. There is a story of him sharing an aeroflot flight to Moscow in the early 80s with a bunch of pro-Soviet trade unionists etc. Much to their disgust, they were left to deal with the horrors of Soviet bureaucracy while he was given 5 star treatment and whisked off in a Zil.

[warspite1]

Hi loki100 - thanks for the response. Sadly I will pass on this. I bought this book (RtS) back in the early 90's and tried three times to read it. I eventually gave up for good having never got very far. I just found the author's writing style too impenetrable.....

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Hi loki100 - thanks for the response. Sadly I will pass on this. I bought this book (RtS) back in the early 90's and tried three times to read it. I eventually gave up for good having never got very far. I just found the author's writing style too impenetrable.....

You may find "When Titans Clashed: Revised and Extended" by Glantz and House more readable.

[Greybriar]

Hunting Hitler: New Scientific Evidence that Hitler Escaped Nazi Germany by Jerome R. Corsi

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Hi loki100 - thanks for the response. Sadly I will pass on this. I bought this book (RtS) back in the early 90's and tried three times to read it. I eventually gave up for good having never got very far. I just found the author's writing style too impenetrable.....

You may find "When Titans Clashed: Revised and Extended" by Glantz and House more readable.

warspite1

Thanks Emperor. I have plumped for this - although Amazon is currently out of stock. Never mind, this will give me another chance to read Third Axis, Fourth Ally in the meantime. First time round I only read about the naval war and the air war in this brilliant book - so time now to finish off the book with a visit to the land war on the Eastern Front.

[Toby42]

West and East by Harry Turtledove. Book two of the War that came Early series!

[parusski]

Relishing The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe.

[goodwoodrw]

Waterloo B Cornwell

[Pvt_Grunt]

Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter. It's the story of the Stuxnet virus that was used against Iranian nuclear plants.

I've just started it, so I cant review yet...

[demyansk]

I am finishing Order of Chaos memoirs of Herman Balck

[nelmsm1]

Battle for Empire: The very first world war 1756-63 by Tom Pocock. Interesting read as he goes into the personalities involved on the British side.

[Recognition]

A very good Napoleonic book I thought was "Napoleons Army "by Col H.C.B.Rogers 1974 that follows Davouts III Corp

[TulliusDetritus]

Sink 'Em All by Charles A. Lockwood (aka Boss-in-Chief Submarine Force Pacific Fleet)

I had read Doenitz's book too, so that makes 2 books about 2 different and enemy WW2 submarine forces [:)]

Doenitz's forces lost 3/4 of their men (30.000 out of 40.000 men [X(]). Lockwood's hordes literally annihilated the Japanese merchant marine. Two different massacres that is.