What Are You Reading Now?

[Flattop]

So, now that I am back, here is a list of books I read while I was away:

Non-fiction

World War I by SLA Marshall. Fantastic!

With Wings Like Eagles: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda. Excellent.

The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose. Very good.

The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army by David Cloud & Greg Jaffe. Excellent.

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks. Unpleasant but very good.

Danger's Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy. Just think of the history in that guy's name. Great book, too.

The Magnificent Mitscher by Theodore Taylor. Fantastic.

The Commanders by Bob Woodward. Very good.

Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II by Belton Y. Cooper. Fantastic.

Cutthroats: The Adventures of a Sherman Tank Driver in the Pacific by Robert C. Dick. Very good.

Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond by Robert D. Kaplan. Excellent.

History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 5: The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942-February 1943 by Samuel Eliot Morison. Fantastic as always.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner. Another unpleasant but very good book.

The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West. Excellent.


Fiction

Final Justice by W.E.B. Griffen. Great.

Dead Hand by Harold Coyle. Fantastic.

Seals, The Warrior Breed: Medal of Honor by H. Jay Riker. Excellent.

Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy. Finally, after all these years! Excellent.

The Company: A Novel of the CIA by Robert Littell. Excellent.

[happyone]

Finished Matterhorn. One of the best novels on Viet Nam I've read. Marlantes makes it come alive. He explores the racial tensions in the late 60s military as well as how the strategy of a war attrition affected the men who had to carry it out.

It has a very good glossary of military slang and terms. It also has an org chart for all of the characters from Div on down to the squads, so you can tell how all the characters fit together. I found that helpful esp in the first 100 pgs or so.

Excellant first novel, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in war novels in general or Viet Nam in particular - warning - language, the characters talk like grunts talk - every third word starts with a F and the word as used as a noun, verb, adverb and adjective.

Note: Like Harold Coyle, Marlantes uses actual units, but at the time of the action those units were not in existance.

Currently reading Robert Mzarak's new book

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Come-Epic-Survival-Germany/dp/0451232275/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305498521&sr=1-2"]Amazon.com: To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany (9780451232274): Robert J. Mrazek: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W7GGnwjZL.@@AMEPARAM@@51W7GGnwjZL[/ame]

It is about the Sept 6, 1943, 8th AF raid on Stuttgart Germany, which Mzarek calls the worst defeat in the 8th's history.

He wrote A Dawn Like Thunder which a few people here have commented on.

[Flattop]

Currently reading Robert Mzarak's new book

Amazon.com: To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany (9780451232274): Robert J. Mrazek: Books

It is about the Sept 6, 1943, 8th AF raid on Stuttgart Germany, which Mzarek calls the worst defeat in the 8th's history.

He wrote A Dawn Like Thunder which a few people here have commented on.

It is curious why he thinks this was worse than the second Schweinfurt mission.

[Katy Lied]

Wow Flattop, I dont think I've read a thing on your book list.

[bobdog1945]

On the second Schweinfurt raid, most of the bombers hit the target, causing tremendous damage. In that sense it was a success in spite of losing around sixty bombers. The Stuttgart raid cost almost as many bombers and NONE of the 338 B-17's that left England hit the target. It was a fiasco, largely because the general commanding the raid took them around over the target four times, wrecking the combat boxes.

[happyone]

It is curious why he thinks this was worse than the second Schweinfurt mission.

On the second Schweinfurt raid, most of the bombers hit the target, causing tremendous damage. In that sense it was a success in spite of losing around sixty bombers. The Stuttgart raid cost almost as many bombers and NONE of the 338 B-17's that left England hit the target. It was a fiasco, largely because the general commanding the raid took them around over the target four times, wrecking the combat boxes.

Finished To Kingdom Come and the reason for Mrazeks statement is what bobdog said. Of the appox 300 a/c that reached Stuttgart, not one of their bombs hit the primary targets. The 8th lost a total of 45 a/c. When the bombers reached Stuttgart, it was completely cloud covered. The commander in the lead bomber, Gen Travis, took them over the target 3 times and was going over for a fourth time, when his bomdardier accidently salvoed the bombs and according to procedure the rest of the bombers dropped when he did. They ended up bombing a forest or some little dorf, they weren't sure.

The book looks at the high level politics behind the American daylight bombing effort, the relationship between the AAF commander Gen HAP Arnold and the 8th AF commander Gen Ira Eaker, who was one of Gen Arnolds protégés. The issue of long range fighters really took a toll on their relationship/friendship.

Mrazek mainly tells the story through the eyes the members of 6 crews that flew the mission, all of which didn't make it all the way back to their bases, one ditched in the channel, four crashed in France and one crashed landed in Switzerland.

Some interesting facts

Gen Travis was the only general in the 8th AF to complete a combat tour. In doing so he was awarded 3 Silver Stars

His decision to go around 3 times caused many of the the older B-17s, which didn't carry as much fuel as the newer models, to run out of gas on the way back to England

At the time of the Stuttgart mission less than 1/3 of 8th AF heavy bomber crews were completing combat tours (25 missions)

If a person was shot down and made it out of occupied Europe, he was not allowed to fly combat missions over Europe again

Gen Arnold was in England during the raid and when asked how it went, the commander of the 8th Bomber Command lied to him and told him the results were excellent. When Arnold found out, he was justifiably furious

Although I don't think this is quite as good as Thunder at Dawn, I like Mrazek's writing style and thought this was an excellent read and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in WW II in general and I definately recommend it to those interested in the air war.

Currently reading

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Retreat-Hitlers-First-Defeat/dp/0312628196/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305726533&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat (9780312628192): Michael Jones: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51A0OUq9qaL.@@AMEPARAM@@51A0OUq9qaL[/ame]

It is the story of the German Army's assault on Moscow and the Russian counterattack

[Flattop]

They Were Expendable by W. L. White

"Everything was quiet . . . and then we saw her ahead in the dark not five hundred yards away. Creeping up on her, we had just readied two torpedoes when a searchlight came on and in dot-dash code she asked us who we were. We answered, all right -- with two torpedoes."

Ostensibly, this is the story of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three in the Philippines during the first months of the war. Actually, I don't quite know what to do with this book; is it fiction or non-fiction?

First, it is written in a very unique format of monologues given by the four survivors of MTB-3, John Bulkeley, Robert Kelly, Anthony Akers, and George Cox. White wrote the monologues himself, but he based them on what the four officers told him. That alone must make this a work of fiction.

Second, written in 1942 before many of the facts were known or confirmed, there are plenty of factual inaccuracies in the story. Many of the ships the squadron claimed to have sunk turned out, after a postwar search of Japanese records, not to be damaged at all. There are also quite a few rumors and even propaganda presented.

But what this book lacks in factual veracity, it counters with emotional sincerity. In a way, then, this book presents the truth about America's defeat in the Philippines in 1942, what White called "America's little Dunkirk." In the monologues, the author displays the professionalism of the four officers who were sent back to the states to pass on what they had learned about motor torpedo boat warfare. As the New York Times put it, their story is "almost unbearably painful at times, yet so engrossing that few who begin it will be able to put it down."

Excellent book.

[Flattop]

When the bombers reached Stuttgart, it was completely cloud covered. The commander in the lead bomber, Gen Travis, took them over the target 3 times and was going over for a fourth time, when his bomdardier accidently salvoed the bombs and according to procedure the rest of the bombers dropped when he did. They ended up bombing a forest or some little dorf, they weren't sure.

In effect, then, they were defeated by clouds rather than by the Germans.

With a total loss rate of 26%, Schweinfurt II was the costliest mission of the war for the Mighty Eighth, but at least the bombers that reached the target bombed it with mostly good results.

The real failure at Schweinfurt was that the Eighth Air Force did not return to the target on anything like a regular basis. Armaments minister Albert Speer is supposed to have said that if the ball bearing plants had been bombed at two-month intervals over a six months period they "could not possibly have survived." But the losses on Black Thursday, and on other missions around the same time, were so severe that such sustained bombing campaign simply wasn't possible.

I think, when I get around to reading Mrazek's new book, that I will also re-read Martin Caidin's Black Thursday for comparison.

[happyone]

In effect, then, they were defeated by clouds rather than by the Germans.

With a total loss rate of 26%, Schweinfurt II was the costliest mission of the war for the Mighty Eighth, but at least at least the bombers that reached the target bombed it with mostly good results.

The real failure at Schweinfurt was that the Eighth Air Force did not return to the target on anything like a regular basis. Armaments minister Albert Speer is supposed to have said that if the ball bearing plants had been bombed at two-month intervals over a six months period they "could not possibly have survived." But the losses on Black Thursday, and on other missions around the same time, were so severe that such sustained bombing campaign simply wasn't possible.

I think, when I get around to reading Mrazek's new book, that I will also re-read Martin Caidin's Black Thursday for comparison.

Basicly yes. The main thing I took from the book on the strategic level was the raid convinced Arnold to expedite the delivery of long range fighters to the 8th AF. It didn't stop him from pressing Eaker for deep penetration raids over Germany though. That took Schweinfurt 2. I really need to reread Black Thursday also. Maybe when the to read pile gets smaller

[jlwalden]

I am reading War and Peace right now. I am in the second epilogue, so I am almost done. It was an enjoyable read, but there were so many characters and settings that it was hard to keep track of them all.

[woot]

I am reading War and Peace right now. I am in the second epilogue, so I am almost done. It was an enjoyable read, but there were so many characters and settings that it was hard to keep track of them all.

Tolstoy is one of my favorites, but I never finished W&P. I got more than half way through over a few months, but I finally just admitted that I wasn't enjoyed it and put it down. I love the prose, but at some point after the introduction of several hundred characters the reader is supposed to care about, it crosses the line from "epic" to "punishing". I still aim to read more of his stuff eventually.

[hopfrog]

I'm doing a study of Baudelaire as I want his satanic influence reflected in a character in the new book I am writing. I have a number of splendid books, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire edited by Rosemary Lloyd, and her Baudelaire's Wolrd, a book-length study of her own. I am also rereading the Claude Pichois biography in Graham Robb's superlative translation. Just got a new translation of The Flowers of Evil, by Keith Waldrop -- and it has a good reputation but thus far I am not impress'd:

"Huddled, teeming, like gut-worms by the million, a clutch of Demons make whoopee in our brain and, when we breathe, Death floods our lungs, an invisible torrent, muffled in groans."

I'm sorry -- I find "make whoopee" distinctly unpoetical.

I am also reading my first Hugh Nibley book, Abraham in Egypt, and it is feeding my continual obsession with The Pearl of Great Price beautifully.

[Shaka]

Not sure if they have been discussed earlier in this thread but I just finished I'm Not a Serial Killer and it's two sequels by Dan Wells.

Wells is a local guy and a BYU grad. I was turned on to them by an article in City Weekly and a few good reviews. I thought they were easy but enjoyable reads. The twist in the first book took me by surprise.

[Sleeping in EQ]

I'm doing a study of Baudelaire as I want his satanic influence reflected in a character in the new book I am writing. I have a number of splendid books, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire edited by Rosemary Lloyd, and her Baudelaire's Wolrd, a book-length study of her own. I am also rereading the Claude Pichois biography in Graham Robb's superlative translation. Just got a new translation of The Flowers of Evil, by Keith Waldrop -- and it has a good reputation but thus far I am not impress'd:

"Huddled, teeming, like gut-worms by the million, a clutch of Demons make whoopee in our brain and, when we breathe, Death floods our lungs, an invisible torrent, muffled in groans."

I'm sorry -- I find "make whoopee" distinctly unpoetical.

I am also reading my first Hugh Nibley book, Abraham in Egypt, and it is feeding my continual obsession with The Pearl of Great Price beautifully.

I encountered Baudelaire through Walter Benjamin. In Illuminations, Benjamin muses on Baudelaire for 40 pages or so.

[hopfrog]

I encountered Baudelaire through Walter Benjamin. In Illuminations, Benjamin muses on Baudelaire for 40 pages or so.

Illuminations was the first of Benjamin's books that I obtained, decades ago when I was in my first rush of obsession with Kafka. Last year I got the hefty hardcover of The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, but I have yet to peruse it because I suddenly became obsessed with writing a bunch of my own books. My friend, a few months older than I, died of a heart attack (I didn't know she had a bad heart), and what with my congestive heart failure I was certain that I was gonna die before I turned 60, so I went into creative fever and wrote a bunch of books. It's nice to have that thick collection of W. B.'s letters to look forward to. He was one of the great casualties of the Holocaust.