Author Topic: Review the latest book you have read  (Read 6427 times)

Offline Wraith

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #30 on: 01-08-2009, 01:08:11 »
Mo Hayder... That guy gets a lot of good reviews, I should really remember his name.
I'll see if I can find any of his books. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

Offline NTH

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #31 on: 01-08-2009, 10:08:53 »
Mo Hayder... That guy gets a lot of good reviews, I should really remember his name.
I'll see if I can find any of his books. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

He is a she  ;)


Milton Gault roared, "Roffey, I know bloody well that Jerry knows we are here but you don't need to advertise the fact!"
(From: First in the Field, Gault of the Patricias by Jeffery Williams, page 72.)

Offline Rawhide

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #32 on: 19-08-2009, 22:08:04 »
I thought I would just ask about two books here instead of making a new thread about it

I'm looking at buying "Killing Rommel" by Steven Pressfield. Good read? LRDG action and his previous books look pretty decent.

Also looking at this book "Rommel's Desert War: The Life and Death of The Afrika Korps" input?

Offline NTH

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #33 on: 20-08-2009, 09:08:32 »
Not related to your question Rawhide, but another excellent book I've just read.

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane:

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780688163181/The_Given_Day/index.aspx

The Given Day is a marvellous novel set in Boston at the end of WWI. It revolves around the lives of a family of police officers living in Boston and the life of a black man on the run from a crime committed in self defence.

The book sucks you in the life in Boston at the beginning of a new century. The US is dealing with immigrants, Anarchist, Bolsheviks and Union movements (guess nothing changed much in the last 100 years  ;))
It's just oozes the whole atmosphere and you don't have to try hard to feel like you are really there.

You also get to meet historical figures like:
Babe Ruth; Eugene O'Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson's ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover.
 
The book works it's way to a big climax: The Boston police strike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Police_Strike  and all it's intended and unintended consequences.

I realized that I did not know the first thing about the US in that age. I assumed the distrust and hate for the lefties and communise stemmed from after WWII.
It seems that the Anarchists and Bolshevik's were on a terror campaign in the US with bombs, uprising and assassination.

If you have interest in reading about the US and Boston in particular during the end of WWI this book is a must have. And if you don't, still get it it is a great read.   


Milton Gault roared, "Roffey, I know bloody well that Jerry knows we are here but you don't need to advertise the fact!"
(From: First in the Field, Gault of the Patricias by Jeffery Williams, page 72.)

Offline Mspfc Doc DuFresne

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #34 on: 21-01-2010, 00:01:57 »
The Accidental Guerrilla, by Dr. David Kilcullen, Lt. Col., ret.

David Kilcullen is the counterinsurgency adviser to General David Petraus, and has been influential in designing recent, post 2006 counterinsurgency strategy. In this book he uses his considerable experience in the field to explain a theory on the reason for the existence of all these wars today, the Accidental Guerrilla syndrome. Al Qaeda's and other takfiri organizations' strategy lies in exhausting the west through a series of protracted wars. Their tactics consist of Infection, when international terrorists move into an area to mobilize local discontent and lawlessness, contagion, when they use that area as a launch pad for other locales, intervention, when foreign and western forces intervene to clumsily attempt to drive al qaeda out, and rejection, when the local population responds negatively to the clumsy regular military and sides with the less foreign and more dangerous of the two, al Qaeda.

A Hugely informative book that is also hugely dense at times (~1000 citations, iirc). A must read for anybody who is interested in the current situation and the war on terror, but rather uninteresting for anybody else. 9/10
Twilight - the movie is just like Schindler's list... You know you're watching a crime against humanity, but it's sort of entertaining.~~Ts4EVER

Offline Rawhide

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #35 on: 02-08-2010, 12:08:52 »
What the hell, this thread has been dead for 120 days or more!

Nobody on this forums reads books during the summer?

Anyhow, during my visit in Australia I got a book from a backpacker

The book is called "Winter - A Berlin family 1899 - 1945"

I really liked it, a nice story of the Winter family, starting in the year 1899 when Harald Winter's two sons are born. It follows the family through the first half of the century and besides what happens to the family and friends it also follows Germany's history and how it affects them.

Offline NTH

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #36 on: 02-08-2010, 14:08:39 »
I am reading books, just not ones worth mentioning right now.


Milton Gault roared, "Roffey, I know bloody well that Jerry knows we are here but you don't need to advertise the fact!"
(From: First in the Field, Gault of the Patricias by Jeffery Williams, page 72.)

Offline Thorondor123

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #37 on: 02-08-2010, 14:08:49 »
What the hell, this thread has been dead for 120 days or more!

Nobody on this forums reads books during the summer?
 
Oh, let's see... I have read few Star Wars books during the summer.

- The Paradise Snare
- The Hutt Gambit
- Rebel Dawn
- Allegiance
- Tatooine Ghost
- Heir to the Empire
- Dark Force Rising
- The Last Command
- Jedi Search
- Dark Apprentice
- Champions of the Force
- Specter of the Past
- Vision of the Future
- Survivor's Quest
- Outbound Flight

And for more science and less fiction:
- A Brief History of Time

Not going to review all of them, but they are well worth reading. Oh, and yesterday I bought The Hunt for Red October.
« Last Edit: 02-08-2010, 14:08:47 by Thorondor123 »
Let mortal heroes sing your fame

Offline Rawhide

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #38 on: 04-09-2010, 14:09:59 »
Looking for a good book about the life of a soldier during World War II, German perspective.

Got Koschorreks work but need something else

Offline Jobabb Jobabbsen

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #39 on: 04-09-2010, 15:09:38 »
" Forgotten Soldier - Guy Sajer " - quite good. About a very young and scared soldier. doesnt describe many
                                               heroic actions, but alot of good descriptions of panicky retreats from the
                                               eastern front.
" Soldat - reflections of a german
              soldier- Siegfried Kanppe " Havent read it yet, but it seems awesome, about a guy who faught in all
                                                 the major german theatres, from Paris to Hitlers bunker.

" Ernst Jünger - Storm of Steel "  is from ww1, but its awesome. I read it atm and its written in a great way,
                                              describes the battles in a pure neutral and informative way, aswell as the
                                              life in the trenches.
                       

Offline Rawhide

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #40 on: 04-09-2010, 17:09:52 »
Well check them out, thanks Job!

Offline Mayhemic.MAD

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #41 on: 04-09-2010, 19:09:25 »
Looking for a good book about the life of a soldier during World War II, German perspective.

Got Koschorreks work but need something else
I´ve been reading a lot books from/about German Soldiers in WW2 in the last few months. But I think most of them are only available in German.

Hans Jürgen Hartmann "Zwischen nichts und Niemandsland"
The author served as a PAK crew in russia, first on the southern front, then in the middle. He thinks about the human aspects as well when they stay in captured villages behind the front, living with the people there in there houses. Also he describes in great details the situations when they were for weeks in trench systems and bunkers. He mentions the fear of being "taken by the Russians" while being on a lonely post at night a lot. One scenery was very intense when they had large battle during a Russian offensive for 48 hours. They lost and recaptured a large trench line system a few times during the night and kept still during the day with the enemy being in the trenches just a hand grenade throw away. Later they got support by some stugs that cleaned the trenches, crowded with hundreds of Russian soldiers, by shooting at 20 meters directly into the masses that did not move and retreat or attack. But even more impressive is how he is able to make you realise the horror from constant waiting and fears, the weather, hunger, lack of sleep and over all the lice and the stench of the dead. First he just wanted to keep out of trouble and stay alive until he got promoted and now had to think for all his men and make them follow orders, even if it ment most likely death. I have highest respect for this man.

Willy Peter Reese "Mir selber seltsam fremd"
A very sad book. He was not the average soldier. He was a very intelligent and well-read young man. He got drafted and wrote this book while he was at the eastern front and when he was on recovering holiday after being injured. He describes the war with the words and thoughts of a poet and still it is the horrors of the eastern front. He was a lonely guy in the army. He even describes how he woke up in a foxhole and everyone had moved and left him behind because he was without friends.
The book ends with "I was soldier in danger and pain. Wanderer, Adventurer in Space. But I loved the life." just before he went back to the eastern front. He died in July 1944 near Witebsk.

Herbert Brunnegger "Saat in den Sturm"
He was 15 years old when he volunteered for the SS in 1938. He was the youngest Soldier of the third Reich.
He joined the Waffen SS Division "Totenkopf" and became a KZ Guard during training. He was with the first troops who entered the Sudetenland, later they went to Poland and then to France. In 1941 they went to Russia were he was in the Demjansk Pocket, then Charkov, and later Operation Zitadelle. After his fourth injury he came to Italy and the back to the east to Brandenburg in 1945. Mostly he served as a driver, delivering ammunition and orders to the Front and brining the dead and wounded back.

Hans Heinz Rehfeldt "Mit dem Eliteverband des Heeres 'Großdeutschland' tief in den Weiten Russlands 41-43"
"Mit dem Panzerkorps 'Großdeutschland' in Russland, Ungarn, Litauen und im Kampf um Ostpreußen 43-45"
This books is like a movie somehow. He describes in great detail what he did, what happened and the battles they had. But it does not contain self reflection, scepsis about the orders or the meaning of his doing.
He fought in a Elite Division in a grenade launcher crew and he was certainly a good soldier but not a fanatic. To many thoughts just get you killed and they were in action nearly without interruptions from one part of the front to another were the situation was bad and help was needed.

Albrecht Wacker "Im Auge des Jägers - Der Wehrmachts-Scharfschütze Josef Allerberger"
Albrecht Wacker wrote this book based on talks with Allerberger and it´s a tough book, the death around him is described in disturbing detail. Be it his comrades, getting shot by enemy sharpshooters or killed by shrapnel or tanks during an enemy assault or the enemy he just killed. The book even has pictures of the dead he describes.
He served in the 3. Gebirgsjäger Division on the eastern front from July 1943, always on retreat.
He used a Russian Tokarev Rifle with scope first, later K98 and G43 with Scope. He also tells about a SS Sharpshooter company he met in April 1945 armed with G43 ZF and a few had a STG44 ZF.
His duty was patrolling near the front line trenches and stopping enemy scout troops and such. He was also able to stop several attacks, sometimes about 100 people in four waves, mostly alone with his G43 with FZ.
He mentions the explosive ammunition a lot. The Russians issued it to their snipers from the beginning while Germans used it only for Plane Mg Adjusting because of limited supplies. Only later in the war he could use this ammunition with German Rifles.
The effects of this kind of ammunition is horrible as he explains in a lot of occasions.
Der Motor des Panzers ist ebenso seine Waffe wie die Kanone.
Heinz Guderian

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Offline Rawhide

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #42 on: 04-09-2010, 19:09:35 »
Whoa, thanks Mayhem!

Will check if I can find any of them in English

Offline General Tso

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #43 on: 05-09-2010, 03:09:47 »
I thought I would just ask about two books here instead of making a new thread about it

I'm looking at buying "Killing Rommel" by Steven Pressfield. Good read? LRDG action and his previous books look pretty decent.

I enjoyed it and it is well written.  It was no Gates of Fire mind you, but a good read.

I just finished Alan Furst's latest novel (published in June), called Spies of the Balkans.  Most of his popular novels take place on the outskirts of World War II -- no spies stealing the plans for D-Day or trying to kill Hitler.  Most of this book took place in Greece and obviously the Balkans.  A good but brief read, but far from his best.

I would recommend The Polish Officer and Night Soldiers -- they are immersive, excellent reads.

I also would love to get some European perspective on his ability to write about Europe - are his depictions accurate?  He is an American who has spent a great deal of time in Europe (France), but one never knows...

Offline Mayhemic.MAD

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Re: Review the latest book you have read
« Reply #44 on: 05-09-2010, 12:09:53 »
Looking around on amazon I found these two to be available in english:

http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Myself-Inhumanity-Russia-1941-1944/dp/B000INB00S/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

http://www.amazon.com/Sniper-Eastern-Front-Memoirs-Allerberger/dp/B002G59OKO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283683651&sr=1-1

I recommend reading both. While the sniper book is mostly detailed but unemotional facts, showing what people do in war, the book from Peter Reese is the opposite, showing what war can do to people. Also Peter Reese was a usual Infantry Man and as such it´s much more representative for what happened at the eastern front.
Der Motor des Panzers ist ebenso seine Waffe wie die Kanone.
Heinz Guderian

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