What are you reading?

[Klaiber]

3 hours ago, Razwald said:

Picked this one up yesterday. It is 190 pages and filled with pictures.  So many that a person could finishing the book in one sitting.  So if you are looking for an in-depth book about MvR I would skip it. I grabbed it for the pictures. Something I can pick up from time to time and day dream of WWI aviation.

Very fitting!  Today is the 105th anniversary of his death.

[Razwald]

16 hours ago, Klaiber said:

Very fitting!  Today is the 105th anniversary of his death.

I was not aware of it.  Must be a sign.

[Snaggle]

In this, the Fifth volume of the Hornblower Saga, while making his way with his wife Maria and baby son to London on a Cotswold canal, Hornblower is called upon to act as a bargeman, giving the reader an unexpected image of late 18th century England. Once arrived and captain of the smallest ship in the British Navy, always finding challenge and scope for his abilities, Hornblower must manage 38 barges for the naval procession carrying Nelson's casket from Greenwich up the Thames to Whitehall. After that harrowing experience, he finds an oar with a crossed numeral 7 floating in a dense fog in the Broads which leads, of course, to another successful adventure. And much of the book concerns his and his crews' efforts in raising sunken treasure from a quiet bay in Turkey. Ending at home, with less fortune in sight, Hornblower knows his duty is to his country first, leading the reader to yearn to continue Hornblower's adventures

 

[Snaggle]

'Like Crécy itself, this book is a triumph and the tale it tells gives an old story new life.' BERNARD CORNWELL, bestselling author of The Last Kingdom series

A groundbreaking new study of the battle of Crécy, in which the outnumbered English under King Edward III won a decisive victory over the French and changed the course of the Hundred Years War.

The battle of Crécy in 1346 is one of the most famous and widely studied military engagements in history. The repercussions of this battle were felt for hundreds of years, and the exploits of those fighting reached the status of legend. Yet cutting-edge research has shown that nearly everything that has been written about this dramatic event may be wrong.

In this new study, Michael Livingston reveals how modern scholars have used archived manuscripts, satellite technologies and traditional fieldwork to help unlock what was arguably the battle's greatest secret: the location of the now quiet fields where so many thousands died.

Crécy: Battle of Five Kings is a story of past and present. It is a new history of one of the most important battles of the Middle Ages: a compelling narrative account of the battle of Crécy that still adheres to the highest scholarly standards in its detail. It is also an account that incorporates the most cutting-edge revelations and the personal story of how those discoveries were made.

[Razwald]

I read Bernard Cornwell's "Agincourt" which I thought was good.  At some point I would like to read his Sharpe series when I find some time. 

[Snaggle]

20 minutes ago, Razwald said:

Bernard Cornwell's "Agincourt"

Thanks lead me to the rabbit hole, added a number of his books to the reading list.

Thanks

[Snaggle]

Time for 21 hours of sci-fi

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family - and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. 

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. 

Frank Herbert's death in 1986 was a tragic loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever. 

[Klaiber]

5 minutes ago, Snaggle said:

Time for 21 hours of sci-fi

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family - and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. 

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. 

Frank Herbert's death in 1986 was a tragic loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever. 

One of my favorite books and book series.

Have you read it before?

[Snaggle]

57 minutes ago, Klaiber said:

Have you read it before?

I have not. Looking forward to it!!

[Flyboy]

One of my favorites also. Had to read the first on for sci fi class in college then years later got around to reading the whole series and it surprised me. 
 

My other favorite series at the Patrick O’Brien series (Master and Commander is first book and title of movie they made with Russell Crowe). my other is Sharpe’s Rifles (Sean Bean got his start playing the role in the series). 

[Snaggle]

Currently on Chapter 7.

The book is really interesting as it is read by some of the actors from the current movies....

Makes it more like listening to a Play\TV\Podcast etc. then a book...

Loving it so far!!

[Klaiber]

6 hours ago, Snaggle said:

Currently on Chapter 7.

The book is really interesting as it is read by some of the actors from the current movies....

Makes it more like listening to a Play\TV\Podcast etc. then a book...

Loving it so far!!

The unabridged audiobook is extremely good.

The audiobook for Dune Messiah, the second book, is really good too.

Did you see the Dune movie, btw?

Either way, I'd love to talk about the book after you finish.

[Snaggle]

50 minutes ago, Klaiber said:

Did you see the Dune movie, btw?

Saw the part 1 waiting for part 2

50 minutes ago, Klaiber said:

Either way, I'd love to talk about the book after you finish.

You bet!!

[Bamse]

i'am reading Robert Mason: Chickenhawk. Yesterday remembered how to fly Huey.

[Britchot]

I started it a bit back but haven’t picked it back up. Also kicked myself for not really understanding the Army warrant officer rank when I was younger. 

[Vonrd]

18 hours ago, Bamse said:

i'am reading Robert Mason: Chickenhawk. Yesterday remembered how to fly Huey.

Read it years ago. Excellent book. Rings true.

[Snaggle]

Publisher's Summary

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time, an enduring best seller that has sold more than two million copies. In the best-selling Gods and Generals, Shaara's son, Jeff, brilliantly sustained his father's vision, telling the epic story of the events culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Now, Jeff Shaara brings this legendary father-son trilogy to its stunning conclusion in a novel that brings to life the final two years of the Civil War.

As The Last Full Measure opens, Gettysburg is past and the war advances to its third brutal year. On the Union side, the gulf between the politicians in Washington and the generals in the field yawns ever wider. Never has the cumbersome Union Army so desperately needed a decisive, hard-nosed leader. It is at this critical moment that Lincoln places Ulysses S. Grant in command - and turns the tide of war.

For Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg was an unspeakable disaster - compounded by the shattering loss of the fiery Stonewall Jackson two months before. Lee knows better than anyone that the South cannot survive a war of attrition. But with the total devotion of his generals - Longstreet, Hill, Stuart - and his unswerving faith in God, Lee is determined to fight to the bitter end. 

Here too is Joshua Chamberlain, the college professor who emerged as the Union hero of Gettysburg - and who will rise to become one of the greatest figures of the Civil War.

Battle by staggering battle, Shaara dramatizes the escalating confrontation between Lee and Grant - complicated, heroic, deeply troubled men. From the costly Battle of the Wilderness to the agonizing siege of Petersburg to Lee's epoch-making surrender at Appomattox, Shaara portrays the riveting conclusion of the Civil War through the minds and hearts of the individuals who gave their last full measure.

Full of human passion and the spellbinding truth of history, The Last Full Measure is the fitting capstone to a magnificent literary trilogy.

[Ludwig]

OH sad....  the last of the Gordon Prange series of books put out by his students on the Pearl Harbor attack and effects it had on the Pacific war. 

 

 

[Snaggle]

When courage, guts and loyalty merge, you’ll find Army helicopter pilots fighting in Vietnam, committed to each other beyond measure. This is their story. Buckle up.
-- Admiral Thomas B. Hayward, Chief of Naval Ops 1978-1982, USN Ret

Mended Wings has the full flavor of that long ago war from the dangers to the messiness that is part of war.
-- Ambassador (Ret) Ronald E. Neumann, USA Lieutenant Vietnam

Mended Wings is a great snapshot in the timeline of the Helicopter War in Vietnam.
It is a humanization of the sky soldiers who piloted and crewed these amazing aircraft.
I was transported back to Vietnam.
-- Lt Col Eldridge Johnson, Vietnam War Helicopter Pilot, USAF Ret

You hear them first, the whop whop sound of rotor blades chopping through the humid Vietnam air. Suddenly they appear, screaming toward the landing zone at treetop level. Gunships launch rockets into the nearby tree line. The resulting explosions announce the arrival of the lift helicopters, pointing their noses skyward like falcons coming out of a dive for landing. Unseen enemy respond with machinegun fire, spewing orange tracers toward the slowing birds. Bullets rip into the thin aluminum skin and plastic that surrounds the men who fly these machines. But on they come, determined to complete the mission no matter what the cost. When one pilot is hit, the other takes the controls and carries on. When one helicopter crashes in flames, the pilots in the others maintain formation and push ahead. Nothing deters these warriors, volunteers all, from flying on with the tenaciousness of zealots.

Who are these men? Where did they come from? Where have they gone?

Mended Wings is their story. Follow the lives of ten Purple Heart heroes as they relate the Vietnam War experience from the perspective of the helicopter cockpit. Get to know the generation of men who fought with pride, determination, skill, and courage only to be shunned when they brought their battered bodies and haunting memories home. Their fathers and uncles were heralded as the “greatest generation.” Meet the forgotten generation. Meet the men whose stories did not end as a name on a black wall in Washington D.C. Meet the survivors.

[Snaggle]

Publisher's summary

In Israel and the West, it is called the Six Day War. In the Arab world, it is known as the June War or, simply, as "the Setback". Never has a conflict so short, unforeseen, and largely unwanted by both sides so transformed the world. The Yom Kippur War, the war in Lebanon, the Camp David accords, the controversy over Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the intifada, and the rise of Palestinian terror are all part of the outcome of those six days of intense Arab-Israeli fighting in the summer of 1967.

Michael B. Oren spotlights all the participants: Arab, Israeli, Soviet, and American, as well as all the world leaders involved in this earth-shaking clash that transformed the world.

[Snaggle]

From one of our most acclaimed and original colonial historians, a groundbreaking book tracing the critical "long year" of 1774 and the revolutionary change that took place from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In this masterly work of history, the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought, Mary Beth Norton looks at the sixteen months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period when colonists traditionally loyal to King George III began their discordant “discussions” that led them to their acceptance of the inevitability of war against the British Empire. Drawing extensively on pamphlets, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Norton reconstructs colonial political discourse as it took place throughout 1774. Late in the year, conservatives mounted a vigorous campaign criticizing the First Continental Congress. But by then it was too late. In early 1775, colonial governors informed officials in London that they were unable to thwart the increasing power of local committees and their allied provincial congresses. Although the Declaration of Independence would not be formally adopted until July 1776, Americans had in effect “declared independence ” even before the outbreak of war in April 1775 by obeying the decrees of the provincial governments they had elected rather than colonial officials appointed by the king. Norton captures the tension and drama of this pivotal year and foundational moment in American history and brings it to life as no other historian has done before.

[wheelsup_cavu]

The Doolittle Raid by Carroll V. Glines

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H6YUYY/

 

Wheels

[Snaggle]

Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

The must-have companion to Bill O'Reilly's historic series Legends and Lies: The Real West, a fascinating, eye-opening look at the truth behind the western legends we all think we know

How did Davy Crockett save President Jackson's life only to end up dying at the Alamo? Was the Lone Ranger based on a real lawman-and was he an African American? What amazing detective work led to the capture of Black Bart, the "gentleman bandit" and one of the west's most famous stagecoach robbers? Did Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid really die in a hail of bullets in South America? Generations of Americans have grown up on TV shows, movies and books about these western icons. But what really happened in the Wild West? All the stories you think you know, and others that will astonish you, are here--some heroic, some brutal and bloody, all riveting. Included are the ten legends featured in Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies docuseries -from Kit Carson to Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok to Doc Holliday-- accompanied by two bonus chapters on Daniel Boone and Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley.
Frontier America was a place where instinct mattered more than education, and courage was necessary for survival. It was a place where luck made a difference and legends were made. Heavily illustrated with spectacular artwork that further brings this history to life, and told in fast-paced, immersive narrative, Legends and Lies is an irresistible, adventure-packed ride back into one of the most storied era of our nation's rich history.

[Snaggle]

Publisher's summary

The year is 1808 and somewhere off the coast of Nicaragua, C.S. Forester's hero returns, ready to embark on his next swashbuckling adventure.

The fifth installment in the series, The Happy Return follows Captain Horatio Hornblower as he commands the thirty-six-gun frigate, HMS Lydia. Sent out on a mission to weaken the colonial Spanish government, Horatio must form an alliance with a narcissistic revolutionary leader with delusions of grandeur, who goes by the name of 'El Supremo'.

Simultaneously faced with an advancing Spanish fleet and their far superior fifty-gun ship, Natividad, Horatio must find a way to 'take, sink, burn or destroy' his enemies or fail and be made to face the British courts. Adding insult to injury, Horatio is furthermore challenged by the arrival of a singularly attractive passenger, the influential Lady Barbara Wellesley. Vulnerable, alone and seeking passage to England, Horatio cannot refuse the lady, but as a happily married man, he finds himself tortured by Barbara's tempting nature and astounding beauty.

[Snaggle]

Got these from the Air Warfare Group Going to read them next...

https://www.youtube.com/@AIRWARFAREGROUP

Link to PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tD8olk1Wk-C10WyyMwt068BjLGgNhbCt/view?usp=sharing

Link to PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AziTUaZYYcb0Jjyf8LvCU9blU5Ok07pB/view?usp=sharing