Grand unified books thread

[Razgovory]

Pulled a 11B4V and picked up a military history book: Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division.  Many of the soldiers who fought in the battle were from my area and I found a copy of another book written by local news reporter about his experiences in that unit.  The 35th was one of the worst preforming divisions in the whole AEF.  Their first and only battle was at the Meuse-Argonne.  They lasted five days before they fled.  After finish I the book on the battle I'd like to try the read the book by the reporter.

Unfortunately the book is somewhat annoying.  Way too much use of the passive voice, too much use of "Could have", or "Might have".  "If X were here, they might have thought Z".  It's a minor gripe, but it is a bit annoying.

[Admiral Yi]

Truman's division, I assume?

[jimmy olsen]

Pulled a 11B4V and picked up a military history book: Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division.  Many of the soldiers who fought in the battle were from my area and I found a copy of another book written by local news reporter about his experiences in that unit.  The 35th was one of the worst preforming divisions in the whole AEF.  Their first and only battle was at the Meuse-Argonne.  They lasted five days before they fled.  After finish I the book on the battle I'd like to try the read the book by the reporter.

Unfortunately the book is somewhat annoying.  Way too much use of the passive voice, too much use of "Could have", or "Might have".  "If X were here, they might have thought Z".  It's a minor gripe, but it is a bit annoying.

So, what did the author think was the reason that the 35 performed so poorly compared to other AEF divisions?

[Admiral Yi]

I propose the thesis that since Kansas and Missouri saw the worst intrastate  strife before and during the Civil War, men from those states had difficulty bonding with other men from their state.

[Razgovory]

I propose the thesis that since Kansas and Missouri saw the worst intrastate  strife before and during the Civil War, men from those states had difficulty bonding with other men from their state.

I don't think the soldiers from Kansas and Missouri encountered each other much.  The 35th was a National Guard Division so individual regiments and brigades were made up of soldiers from one state or the other.  They were also very poorly trained, equipped and led.  Pretty much anything that could be wrong with a military unit was is evidence in the 35th.

[Admiral Yi]

Returned the Bolitho to the library, and was considering checking out more, but found that Midshipman Bolitho is the only volume they possess.

So I picked up a couple Charles Portis titles: The Dog of the South and Gringos.

[Razgovory]

Truman's division, I assume?

Yes.

[11B4V]

Pulled a 11B4V and picked up a military history book: Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division.  Many of the soldiers who fought in the battle were from my area and I found a copy of another book written by local news reporter about his experiences in that unit.  The 35th was one of the worst preforming divisions in the whole AEF.  Their first and only battle was at the Meuse-Argonne.  They lasted five days before they fled.  After finish I the book on the battle I'd like to try the read the book by the reporter.

Unfortunately the book is somewhat annoying.  Way too much use of the passive voice, too much use of "Could have", or "Might have".  "If X were here, they might have thought Z".  It's a minor gripe, but it is a bit annoying.

The last WW1 book I read was Finding the Post Battalion

[Admiral Yi]

Finished up Gringos by Charles Portis.

First, there's not a lot that tells you this by the author of True Grit.  The first person narrator is the strong and silent type.  I thought there were traces of Hemingway in the voice.

The story is about a colony of ex-pat Americans in Merida, Mexico who are involved in one way or another with the Mayan ruins.  A few grave robber types (the narrator is one), a few crackpot wanna be serious scholar types, an alien spaceport guy, and a few end of the Long Calendar end of time types.

I found the book readable but not mind-blowing at all.  Now I'm onto Portis' Dogs of the South.

[Admiral Yi]

Dogs of the South was also readable but no great shakes. Same territory as Gringos, off beat Americans in Mesoamerica, this time Belize (still British Honduras in the book).

Just started Masters of Atlantis, also by Portis.  American soldier gets conned by grifter at the end of WWI, buys into story of secret society dedicated to preserving the wisdom of lost Atlantis.  He's in Malta right now,, near the start of the book.

Whereas True Grit featured a cast of hard-headed flawed heroes, these three feature nothing but slightly amusing flakes and weirdos.  Also tightly plotted adventure quest vs. circular pointless wandering.

[jimmy olsen]

Sanderson finished the rough draft for the 4th Stormlight book! Should be out by the end of 2020

[The Brain]

Sanderson finished the rough draft for the 4th Stormlight book! Should be out by the end of 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9xLoivADqk

[Eddie Teach]

36 views on that. 

[The Brain]

Just finished The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History, by DK. A nice enough easily digested overview, which includes relevant stuff outside a strict definition of the American war. Some things seemed strange to me near the end though: they say that the Purple Heart is awared for military merit, my understanding is that it is awarded for being wounded or killed. They also say that the Vietnam Memorial is inscribed with the name of every member of the US armed forces who served in the war, my understanding is that it's just the ones killed. Which makes me wonder what other weird stuff I've read in the book but didn't identify as strange because of ignorance.

[KRonn]

I'm reading "The German Girl" by Armando Lucas Correa. It's a fictional novel about a Jewish German girl and her family in WW2 and the stress and horrors they went through. The story alternates between her 1939 story and the story of her niece in 2014 New York and they're soon going to meet up.

Seems a pretty good portrayal of what so many Jewish people/families went through. So far just in the first part of the book but the girl winds up in Cuba, not sure how as yet but her father and other Jewish friends are working on getting their families out of Germany.