Grand unified books thread

[Malthus]

Reading Jay Taylor's The Generalissimo at the moment.  Good read so far.  Joe Stillwell's a giant dick and not much of a commander.

Looks interesting - an admiring portrait of Chiang Kai-shek. Runs counter to everything I've read about the man, though - most sources portray him as thoroughly inept and corrupt. 

[Barrister]

Just finished A History of Scotland, by Neil Oliver.  Certainly lighter historical fair then much of what is mentioned here, but I enjoyed it as a good read while commuting.  I could certainly have done without the geologic history of Scotland (), and the knob-polishing of William Wallace was to be expected, the author does gain bonus points for pointing out some of the contradictions inherent in scottish nationalism and its victimization complex, and does interestingly go at great lengths to explain how Scotland profitted from slavery.

If you want to cover several thousand years (or billions even) in 450 pages, it wasn't a bad way to do it.

[Ed Anger]

Reading Jay Taylor's The Generalissimo at the moment.  Good read so far.  Joe Stillwell's a giant dick and not much of a commander.

Stillwell just wanted to watch Dumbo without being interrupted.

[Josephus]

Just finished A History of Scotland, by Neil Oliver.  Certainly lighter historical fair then much of what is mentioned here,

Only on this forum would a book entitled A History of Scotland be considered "light fare"

[11B4V]

Finnished with, Gettysburg--The First Day (Civil War America)-Harry W. Pfanz.

Nice detailed tactical account of the first day. His and Glantz styles are similar, which I prefer. Be warned this is a tactical acount.

[Razgovory]

Reading Jay Taylor's The Generalissimo at the moment.  Good read so far.  Joe Stillwell's a giant dick and not much of a commander.

Looks interesting - an admiring portrait of Chiang Kai-shek. Runs counter to everything I've read about the man, though - most sources portray him as thoroughly inept and corrupt.

I don't think he was inept, but he had any army that was very poorly equipped, unreliable, and unmotivated.  He did fairly well in the 1920's (when he had soviet advisers and Chinese enemies).  I remember reading that in those warlord armies only 10-20% could be really expected to fight.   I mean you had soldiers armed only with medieval weapons who weren't even given shoes (they were given the material to make sandals).

[Malthus]

Read the latest Captain Alatriste book by Perez-Reverte (in translation): Pirates of the Levant. I'm very satisfied.  Plenty of swash and not lacking in buckle, all with the same grim noirish realism we have come to know and love from this series.

[For those who have not checked this series out yet, it's historical fiction about the days of the decline of the Spanish Empire (originally written in Spanish - it is amusing seeing the English portrayed from the Spanish POV!). It's about a middle-aged down-on-his-luck Spanish solder-mercenary-cut-throat with a paradoxical sense of honour, and his relationship with his protige (the narrator, at the start a young boy) who falls in love with a sadistic aristocratic girl who delights in tormenting and manipulating him ... needless to say they get involved in all sorts of trouble, as the Spanish empire they are sworn to defend rots from without and within around them].

[Barrister]

Reading South: The Endurance Expedition by Ernest Shackleton.  Yes, that Ernest Shackleton.

I've read several books on arctic exploration, but this is the first first-hand account - and I must say it really adds a certain thrill to have it not written by some dispassionate historian 100 years later, but by soemone who survived that very ordeal.

Interestingly - it's a cheap-o Penguin reprint (originally having been published in 1919, it's almost certainly gone into the public domain).  But the front of the book does read "New York Times Bestseller" - I do wonder if that was the Penguin edition, or back in 1919.

[Gups]

Just finished the last of the Abercrombie trilogy. Pretty good although it got repetitive by the end.

I'm now sated with fantasy, having read 5 this year.  When all''s said and done it's not that satisfying. I'll have a couple of years off now.

[Pedrito]

Tomorrow in Italy a law will be enacted that will ban discounts over -15% on books, so Amazon.it is doing a megasale applying -40% on over 200.000 books, ending tonight.

I just ordered them more than 300 euros of books  I should be ok until Christmas at least.

L.

[11B4V]

Brown Truck arrived with

Hells Gate
III Pz Korps at Kursk

[Archy]

Read the latest Captain Alatriste book by Perez-Reverte (in translation): Pirates of the Levant. I'm very satisfied.  Plenty of swash and not lacking in buckle, all with the same grim noirish realism we have come to know and love from this series.

[For those who have not checked this series out yet, it's historical fiction about the days of the decline of the Spanish Empire (originally written in Spanish - it is amusing seeing the English portrayed from the Spanish POV!). It's about a middle-aged down-on-his-luck Spanish solder-mercenary-cut-throat with a paradoxical sense of honour, and his relationship with his protige (the narrator, at the start a young boy) who falls in love with a sadistic aristocratic girl who delights in tormenting and manipulating him ... needless to say they get involved in all sorts of trouble, as the Spanish empire they are sworn to defend rots from without and within around them].

Indeed great series, is also strange seeing the Spanish POV on the war in the Netherlands 

[Barrister]

Tomorrow in Italy a law will be enacted that will ban discounts over -15% on books,

What an enormously stupid law.

Oh, right.

Italy.

[Habbaku]

France does something similar.  I imagine a few other Euros do the same thing. 

[The Brain]

Tomorrow in Italy a law will be enacted that will ban discounts over -15% on books,

lolwut