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Reading for pleasure- what are you reading now?
- Thread starter Strawboss
- Start date
"A Column of Fire", by Ken Follett, the third book of the "Kingsbridge Trilogy" now situated in 1558 follows 2 families on opposite sides when the Protestant Reformation is sweeping England and France and people are being killed because of what they believe in. Powerful stuff.
Good series.
Sounds like a fairly accurate description of today's world.
As I haven't been out much for long rides over the past year, I figured it would be worth reading about the rides others have taken. Ms. Beard made the ride in 1984.
Here's a book nobody has mentioned so far, and I found it flat amazing: "Builders for Battle" by David O. Woodbury.
You won't find it in a library. Long out of print. You'll have to find it on Amazon and buy it. Published in 1946.
It's the story of the Pacific naval bases constructed at Pearl Harbor, Guam, Wake Island, Midway, other places, in the year or two just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before that attack, everybody knew war was coming, the Navy knew they'd need bases way out there in the Pacific, and they enlisted several big American construction companies to build them. After Pearl Harbor, Wake Island was attacked and civilian Morrison Knudson workmen were captured there after building that base, and they were P.O.W.'s for the rest of the war. Quite a story there. When I moved to Boise in 1983, there were plenty of the survivors of that battle and Japanese internment living around here.
Each story of how those civilian Americans built those bases is almost unbelievable, but the best story, imho, was how they figured out how to construct a series of ENORMOUS underground fuel storage tanks under a mountain ridge in Hawaii, at Pearl Harbor, when the Navy decided their above ground storage tanks were vulnerable to attack. The entire project was super secret, and quite an engineering challenge. It was a different world back then. All these construction projects were negotiated, set up, designed, supplied, and built at warp speed; NOTHING in this book could be done now. At least, without ten years, at least, of lawsuits and environmental impact statements. Reading this book shows you why and how we won WW II, and why we haven't won a war since then.
Other than that, Jack Reacher books are great, (and yes Lee Childs hates guns and other grubby aspects of the USA.) The Gray Man series by Mark Greaney is good. The Pike Logan books by Brad Taylor are good. Taylor is a retired Delta Force Colonel. And, of course, the best I've read, imho, is Vince Flynn.
You won't find it in a library. Long out of print. You'll have to find it on Amazon and buy it. Published in 1946.
It's the story of the Pacific naval bases constructed at Pearl Harbor, Guam, Wake Island, Midway, other places, in the year or two just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before that attack, everybody knew war was coming, the Navy knew they'd need bases way out there in the Pacific, and they enlisted several big American construction companies to build them. After Pearl Harbor, Wake Island was attacked and civilian Morrison Knudson workmen were captured there after building that base, and they were P.O.W.'s for the rest of the war. Quite a story there. When I moved to Boise in 1983, there were plenty of the survivors of that battle and Japanese internment living around here.
Each story of how those civilian Americans built those bases is almost unbelievable, but the best story, imho, was how they figured out how to construct a series of ENORMOUS underground fuel storage tanks under a mountain ridge in Hawaii, at Pearl Harbor, when the Navy decided their above ground storage tanks were vulnerable to attack. The entire project was super secret, and quite an engineering challenge. It was a different world back then. All these construction projects were negotiated, set up, designed, supplied, and built at warp speed; NOTHING in this book could be done now. At least, without ten years, at least, of lawsuits and environmental impact statements. Reading this book shows you why and how we won WW II, and why we haven't won a war since then.
Other than that, Jack Reacher books are great, (and yes Lee Childs hates guns and other grubby aspects of the USA.) The Gray Man series by Mark Greaney is good. The Pike Logan books by Brad Taylor are good. Taylor is a retired Delta Force Colonel. And, of course, the best I've read, imho, is Vince Flynn.
e-book, The 3 Body Problem, translated into english from chinese.
So far it's fairly ordinary sci-fi, plot seems familiar sort of like The Day The World Stood Still, differently of course, up to the minute technology, and a little bit of Ayn Rand mentality creeping in. I'll see where it goes in due time.
Speaking of time I like time travel plots just to see how their creator views, well, time travel. There's often a scene where the future changes because of something unexpected but possible that happens in the past.
So I was reading this thread Turnbuckles for Trailering; Is anybody interested? | Page 2 | Concours Owners Group Forum (cog-online.org) when the future changed... it was a remarkable feeling.
So far it's fairly ordinary sci-fi, plot seems familiar sort of like The Day The World Stood Still, differently of course, up to the minute technology, and a little bit of Ayn Rand mentality creeping in. I'll see where it goes in due time.
Speaking of time I like time travel plots just to see how their creator views, well, time travel. There's often a scene where the future changes because of something unexpected but possible that happens in the past.
So I was reading this thread Turnbuckles for Trailering; Is anybody interested? | Page 2 | Concours Owners Group Forum (cog-online.org) when the future changed... it was a remarkable feeling.
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My next book is going to be Yeager: An Autobiography. I think this would be the 4th time. Check Yeager also has another book Press On! It’s about his hunting, fishing, and backpacking adventures. The guy lived an incredible life and accomplished a lot, and it’s amazing he lived so long considering combat and all the risk he took on. Both books fill in details you will never see in the news.
Interesting. Thanks for the intro.
I looked him up... it's strange that I don't recall any Turtledove but lately I see that a lot of what I thought was widely known is really local-ish.
I think I'll notice his books next time if they are there. As a fact-check, have you heard of Asimov's Foundation series? He wrote "I, Robot" which became a Will Smith movie. Foundation speculates that the main gist of the future is predictable and it gets predicted in a big library-like place called Trantor.
I think I'll notice his books next time if they are there. As a fact-check, have you heard of Asimov's Foundation series? He wrote "I, Robot" which became a Will Smith movie. Foundation speculates that the main gist of the future is predictable and it gets predicted in a big library-like place called Trantor.
Vegetable gardening for dummies lol
I read Asimov back in college. Hadn't thought about him in years... may have to see what my local library has in stock
I don't like him since I heard he said that 90% of the human race shouldn't be living. He's like that Marvel comics double-movie villain so I wouldn't read him just for amusement. As for finding Asimov anywhere, since he expired I bet his publicist is taking some time off. His future tech was a lot like Star Wars, I think, hyperspace and androids and diplomatic situations.
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Agreed. I thought the Foundation series was just fantastic when I read it in high school. But I just reread the first three or four books a few months ago and it seemed rather blasé now.
I just finished chapter 4 of the Book of Daniel. It seems written for today.
Chris
I just finished chapter 4 of the Book of Daniel. It seems written for today.
Chris
Builders for Battle sounds like my kind of book. I really enjoy historical / fact based reading. You learn something real at least
Thanks
Soooo. I checked Amazon, they have one new copy. $601.00. Several used copies, around $40.00. Im gonna check my local libraries before buying one. LOL
Bob
I'm reading " A Bright Shining Lie, John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam"
By Neil Sheehan
Good history lesson for me. Tragic that the US Commanders knew, clearly, as early as 1962 it was a untenable, unwinnable civil war.
Sad/ tragic for the 52,000 US lives lost.
With McNamara Secretary of Defense, former CEO of Ford Motor Company it is clear now that he fully backed it for the economic gain for US Company's suppling the war effort. After WW2, US Company's really liked those wars, no bid contracts etc etc.
Nick
2014 C-14
By Neil Sheehan
Good history lesson for me. Tragic that the US Commanders knew, clearly, as early as 1962 it was a untenable, unwinnable civil war.
Sad/ tragic for the 52,000 US lives lost.
With McNamara Secretary of Defense, former CEO of Ford Motor Company it is clear now that he fully backed it for the economic gain for US Company's suppling the war effort. After WW2, US Company's really liked those wars, no bid contracts etc etc.
Nick
2014 C-14
"Hue 1968" by Mark Bowden is an excellent book about Vietnam. Bowden also wrote Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo. LBJ was all in on the troop surge in Vietnam. Once it was said and done lots of people just wanted to forget it. I know, easier for some than others. A very bitter lesson for this country.
Sometimes you can find out of print books on abebooks.com (American Book Exchange) which is like a market place for used book resellers. All levels of condition and price.
Just finished "Gettysburg' by Newt Gingrich and Fortschen. It's an alternative Civil war history about the immediate post Gettysburg battle that didn't happen the way it really did (Gettysburg). It was "okay" but you could tell which parts Newt wrote and which parts Fortschen wrote. That's a bad sign in a collaboration. Newt is definitely more difficult and less entertaining to read. Fortschen should've just done it alone. It's a good $2.99 Kindle book that cost $12.99 because of the two authors. Now I'm debating the next one in the series. With Fortschen, it's rarely a consideration. Thinking....
(Fortschen, not Rosone)
(Fortschen, not Rosone)
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I usually finish a series if I get through the first one, but after reading the reviews and plot summaries of #2 and #3, I think I'll save my $ for a tank of gas.
Some very intellectual readers here! I'm currently rereading a collection of Stephen King short stories, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. I recently reread The Motorcycle Diaries. One nice thing about getting older is one can reread books or re-watch movies and it's almost like virgin material lol.
I remember in 1981 on a break from school my Father in Law said "Hey Yashew, try this book out" as he slid Pillars of the Earth across the table. Went in my then GFs room and read for 3 days straight. Prior to that I did not like much of Follet but since then I have read most of his work goiing forward. They are very easy to get lost in for days at a time.
"Final Flight" by Stephen Coonts, it's not really a sequel to "Flight of the Intruder" as it takes place about 15 years later with Jake Grafton flying F-14's as CAG off a carrier, but it was the next book he wrote after that. Lots of technical cockpit flying action. Written right after "Top Gun" was released, so, older stuff but still relevant to world events.
For lent I deleted Facebook from my phone, which has become a major time suck. Started reading “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown, about the Olympic crew team from Washington state that won Hitler’s olympics.
I may leave FB deleted.
I may leave FB deleted.
I've been reading the Harbinger II, by Jonathan Cahn.
Fascinating book. I read the Harbinger a few years ago. This is just as good. The story revolves around a guy, Nouriel, who is given clues to solve by the Prophet. The story brings out events and prophecies about ancient Israel that have come true in America's past and now current events. I'd like to say it was just a fiction story, but when I check things, it looks like the correlations are true.
In any case, it is a good read and food for thought.
Chris
Fascinating book. I read the Harbinger a few years ago. This is just as good. The story revolves around a guy, Nouriel, who is given clues to solve by the Prophet. The story brings out events and prophecies about ancient Israel that have come true in America's past and now current events. I'd like to say it was just a fiction story, but when I check things, it looks like the correlations are true.
In any case, it is a good read and food for thought.
Chris
My wife just picked up a new title, "The Girl And The Bombardier" by Susan Tate Ankeny, True story of a a woman finding notes in her fathers belongings of his account of being shot down over Nazi occupied France late in WWII and taken in by a girl and her family and her quest to find those people. It's not a large book.
Yes, I’m liking those, thanks for the tip.
I posted about Follet’s series earlier in the thread. Those were excellent.
I like anything he writes. His Night Over Water is a single book story and is a WWII “ thriller/who done it” that’s good.
Bob,
Hope you find a copy and you enjoy the book. I'd loan you my copy but I've already got it loaned out to friends.
Yep.
That is a real good book. It amazes me how our society--and the college-education-industry--has changed in a few short decades.
Ron203: Along these lines there is a short essay that one can find on-line, written by Winston Churchill. Entitled "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg." It's a counter-counter history, reverse what-if essay, that lists all the things that did happen, that would not have happened if the North had won the Civil War. Very clever.
I'm reading that now. Great life's story of a very skilled and lucky man.
"Snow Wolf" by Glenn Meade tells a tale of a man that investigates the circumstances of his father's death in 1954 and his possible involvement in the possible assassination Of Joseph Stalin around the time of the Soviet Union's perfecting their version of the hydrogen bomb and the possiblities of what some thought Stalin wanted to do with it in his state of mind, which was crazy.