What are you reading right now?

123,996 Views | 743 Replies | Last: 21 hrs ago by BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
VanZandt92
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Me I'm reading The Life and Times of Andrew Pickens.

VanZandt92
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Just got done with Captured at Kings Mountain which was about a British surgeon named Uzal Johnson. Actually it was his diary.

chick79
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AG
The Long Road Home. I've recorded the NatGeo mini-series.
RPag
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Just finished: The Model Occupation by Madeleine Bunting; covers the Nazi occupation of British Channel Islands. Fascinating study of how collaborators were willingly found wherever the Nazis had influence.

Currently reading: Gulag, a History by Anne Applebaum; an in-depth history of the gulag system.

On deck: The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander; one of the greatest histories of the Holocaust ever compiled.
VanZandt92
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RPag said:

Just finished: The Model Occupation by Madeleine Bunting; covers the Nazi occupation of British Channel Islands. Fascinating study of how collaborators were willingly found wherever the Nazis had influence.

Currently reading: Gulag, a History by Anne Applebaum; an in-depth history of the gulag system.

On deck: The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander; one of the greatest histories of the Holocaust ever compiled.


I read a number of Holocaust books in college and couldn't handle it eventually. At somepoint I read about the gulag system. Couldn't handle that either.
Maximus_Meridius
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AG
First book of the Morris Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Also reading Ivanhoe when I get tired of Roosevelt

And in the truck I'm listening to "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" by Robert Coram
BQ78
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AG
Various history magazines and journals, the stack is too high.
Cen-Tex
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AG
Pegasus Bridge. Stephen Ambrose 2nd book on the topic. So far, so good. The book has been out for a decade or more, but finally had time to start reading it.
JABQ04
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AG
Cen-Tex said:

Pegasus Bridge. Stephen Ambrose 2nd book on the topic. So far, so good. The book has been out for a decade or more, but finally had time to start reading it.


Great book. Hope the movie I see being kicked around about it gets made.
p_bubel
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Ag_EQ12
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AG
RPag said:

Just finished: The Model Occupation by Madeleine Bunting; covers the Nazi occupation of British Channel Islands. Fascinating study of how collaborators were willingly found wherever the Nazis had influence.

Currently reading: Gulag, a History by Anne Applebaum; an in-depth history of the gulag system.

On deck: The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander; one of the greatest histories of the Holocaust ever compiled.
Applebaum is fantastic.

I'm actually rereading Friedlander right now.
Presley OBannons Sword
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I generally have two books going at a time. Currently reading:

This Kind of War - T. R. Fehrenbach
About Face - David Hackworth



also, Gulag: A History by Applebaum is fantastic!
JonSnow
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BQ78 said:

Various history magazines and journals, the stack is too high.
Would love to know which ones?
BQ78
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AG
Civil War Times (6 issues per year)
Gettysburg (2 issues per year)
American History (6 issues per year)
Civil War Monitor (2 issues per year)
Blue and Gray (6 issues per year but just went defunct ;-()
Southwest Historical Quarterly Journal (4 issues per year)
Civil War News (monthly)
Gettysburg Foundation (4 issues per year)
Hallowed Ground (4 or 6 issues per year not sure which)

I am currently one year behind, so multiple issues of each.
aalan94
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Since I got to Afghanistan, my reading has plummeted. I did 52 books before October and have only finished one since. It was a good one:

Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies by Ian Baruma and Avi Margalit. A great study that really was an awakening in my mind about what unites the anti-Western movements from the Nazis to Soviets and Japanese to modern Islamic extremists. When you understand their points, you realize that the anti-Western movement within the West is a powerful constant, from J.J. Rousseau down through (dare I say it) Thomas Jefferson and the 1960s hippies. Not that Jefferson would have agreed with them, but the anti-progress, pro-pastoralism attitude is at its core a rejection of capitalism. Don't argue with me on this, read the book or a good review first. You'll realize that even a profoundly Western person (such as myself) has anti-Western (or anti-modern) tendencies and feelings.

Ultimately, I think they've defined the West and Modern as the same thing, which is a convergence, but not correspondence of values, which is why you get such conflicting notions as Jefferson, the author of much of American liberty being portrayed as the enemy of the result of that liberty. Nonetheless, it's a great book to test your mind.

Here's one summary I've found.

I'm about to finish "I Flew for the Fuhrer" by Heinrich Knokke, a WWII Luftwaffe memoir. I usually spice up my deeper readings with just interesting short WWII books.

Other than that, I'm doing a lot of reading relative to my research on the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition. I'm working my way simultaneously through a few books on West Florida, Aaron Burr and other background issues to the expedition.
JABQ04
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AG
Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius

and non-History is IT by Stephen King.

Want to pick up Hoods Texas Brigade by Susannah Ural which just came out but am for some reason the price of $36 (even for my kindle) is holding me back
txagB2
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AG
This Kind of War by T. R. Fehrenbach. Korean War history book and very very good so far.
DeckMe80
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Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall, about the French military collapse in Vietnam in the 1950's. It is hard to read too much at a time, as it is basically the same scenario playing out again and again.

An acquaintance of mine, who was a dedicated and patriotic transport plane pilot who flew in and out of Vietnam starting well before we acknowledged our involvement, recommended it to me. He told me, "I read it in 1964, and I knew we were going to lose."
VanZandt92
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aalan94 said:

Since I got to Afghanistan, my reading has plummeted. I did 52 books before October and have only finished one since. It was a good one:

Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies by Ian Baruma and Avi Margalit. A great study that really was an awakening in my mind about what unites the anti-Western movements from the Nazis to Soviets and Japanese to modern Islamic extremists. When you understand their points, you realize that the anti-Western movement within the West is a powerful constant, from J.J. Rousseau down through (dare I say it) Thomas Jefferson and the 1960s hippies. Not that Jefferson would have agreed with them, but the anti-progress, pro-pastoralism attitude is at its core a rejection of capitalism. Don't argue with me on this, read the book or a good review first. You'll realize that even a profoundly Western person (such as myself) has anti-Western (or anti-modern) tendencies and feelings.

Ultimately, I think they've defined the West and Modern as the same thing, which is a convergence, but not correspondence of values, which is why you get such conflicting notions as Jefferson, the author of much of American liberty being portrayed as the enemy of the result of that liberty. Nonetheless, it's a great book to test your mind.

Here's one summary I've found.

I'm about to finish "I Flew for the Fuhrer" by Heinrich Knokke, a WWII Luftwaffe memoir. I usually spice up my deeper readings with just interesting short WWII books.

Other than that, I'm doing a lot of reading relative to my research on the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition. I'm working my way simultaneously through a few books on West Florida, Aaron Burr and other background issues to the expedition.
That first one sounds heady!
VanZandt92
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p_bubel said:


Wow
VanZandt92
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BQ78 said:

Civil War Times (6 issues per year)
Gettysburg (2 issues per year)
American History (6 issues per year)
Civil War Monitor (2 issues per year)
Blue and Gray (6 issues per year but just went defunct ;-()
Southwest Historical Quarterly Journal (4 issues per year)
Civil War News (monthly)
Gettysburg Foundation (4 issues per year)
Hallowed Ground (4 or 6 issues per year not sure which)

I am currently one year behind, so multiple issues of each.


Please also note that there is now a Journal of the American Revolution online. The Rev War doesn't get as much demand so it is difficult to keep a hardcopy afloat, but they are steadily publishing well researched articles and book reviews here:

Allthingsliberty

Recent article on Great Bridge

https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/11/battle-great-bridge-preserving-site-honoring-soldiers/

Here is an image of the Battle of Great Bridge. I used to live right by here in Chesapeake and had no idea its significance. It is unrecognizable now to say the least.

cmiller00
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AG
Reading Grant by Ron Chernow.

Before that just finished the three part Churchill biography The Last Lion by William Manchester (and Paul Reid on the last one), Enemy at the Gates by William Craig and the Miracle of Dunkirk by Walter Lord.

Enjoyed them all but probably liked the Churchill books best.
SRBS
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Target Rabaul. 3rd in the trilogy by Bruce Gamble.
Halfway through. Tremendous. Better than the first two which were pretty much great.
Strongly recommend all 3
VanZandt92
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SRBS said:

Target Rabaul. 3rd in the trilogy by Bruce Gamble.
Halfway through. Tremendous. Better than the first two which were pretty much great.
Strongly recommend all 3
This looks sweet.
Presley OBannons Sword
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DeckMe80 said:

Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall, about the French military collapse in Vietnam in the 1950's. It is hard to read too much at a time, as it is basically the same scenario playing out again and again.

An acquaintance of mine, who was a dedicated and patriotic transport plane pilot who flew in and out of Vietnam starting well before we acknowledged our involvement, recommended it to me. He told me, "I read it in 1964, and I knew we were going to lose."
great book. read "hell in a very small place" as well
XpressAg09
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AG
Sapper Redux
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Reading "Lincoln's Lieutenants" by Sears. Not really breaking a ton of new ground, but it's a solid history of the high command of the Army of the Potomac. I will say that Sears is definitely not a fan of McClellan.
BQ78
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AG
Watson:

If you are looking for a historian that give McClellan a break and points out his good attributes, read Ethan Rafuse.
cmiller00
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AG
Well finished Grant last night. Need to find a new book. Thinking I might stay on the Civil War era. Suggestions?
Sapper Redux
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The Fiery Trial is very good if you're interested in the politics around slavery and abolition
DeckMe80
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Recently I have read D Day Through German Eyes Books 1 & 2 by Holget Eckhertz, who compiled it from interviews done by his grandfather several years after the war. I learned many things in these books that I never knew before. And when I read the Germans describing how formidable and overwhelming our invasion was it made me a proud American.

I also read Tiger Tracks and The Last Panther by Wolfgang Faust, a German tank crew member. The first is about retreating before the Russian onslaught, and the second is about being encircled by the Red Army southeast of Berlin as the German armor attempted to break out to the west and reach the American lines to surrender. Both books are non-stop descriptions of running battles told in brutal detail.

In describing the desire to reach the American lines, Faust states they all knew that capture by the Russians meant "the gulag" and that capture by the Americans meant "cigarettes, hot dogs and medical care." Reading that also made me a proud American.
SRBS
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Read all of those recently. Good stuff
VanZandt92
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I'm now reading Dunmore's War, The Last Conflict of America's Colonial Era.
SRBS
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Just finished Washington's Immortals. Good, not great.
Now on "In the Highest Degree Tragic" About the U.S.Asiatc fleet. Tremendous. Just needs maps.
VanZandt92
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SRBS said:

Just finished Washington's Immortals. Good, not great.
Now on "In the Highest Degree Tragic" About the U.S.Asiatc fleet. Tremendous. Just needs maps.


I bought Washington's Immortals at the airport a few months back and regretted it. The title itself is so pretentious.
 
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