What Are You Reading?

I'm currently reading 'In the Shadow of the Wooden Horse', the Stalag Luft 3 memoirs of East Compound Kriegie (and Dad's neighbour in Luft 3 East) Tom Wilson.

A real, true-to-life look at what it meant to be a POW. Boredom and hunger, and the adrenaline of the odd escape or two. A good read.

Marc

 

I'm listening to the audio book, Inside the Third Reich and have a question. This book was written surreptitiously by Speer when he was in prison. How could he have gone to all this detail while being prohibited to write in prison? My thought is maybe he completed the book once he was released, where he would have had access to all of the detailed information that appeared in the book. It seems very unlikely that he could have remembered all of these details.

I'm also looking for a recommendation for a book that covers all of WWII but not in enormous intimate detail. Is there a good book that covers the basics but is shorter than the massive tomes I've seen?

 

I am sure he was interrogated repeatedly which would help with the recall, and suspect that he had a lot of editorial help from the publisher after he left prison. Famous people have cranked out books in 6 months before. As for tour second question, considering the scale of WWII it would be hard to find anything good for under 400 pages I think, but some rouges here may have a reccomendation to offer.

 

Four hundred pages would be great, if I can find a book of that size. I'd be happy with a book of 600 pages, actually. I'e seen some that would take me months to read. One solution is to download the audiobook, for in-car listening. That works for a very long book.

 

"Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40" by William R. Trotter. Easy read, very much written for the public. Boy, the Fins were tough S.O.B's.

 

...the second of the 'Coward' novels - 'Coward at the Bridge' by James Delingpole. The first 'Coward' novel was a 'Commando' comic book adaptation set on D-Day, this one sees Coward in Arnhem with the 1st Airborne. Super fun read...

".....Trapped in a cupboard with a nubile blonde nymphomaniac; crossing the Waal under a hail of fire with the US paratroops of 82nd airborne; rattling in a jeep through the Dutch countryside with the men of 1st Airborne Recce Squadron; trying to take out a self-propelled gun with a ruddy useless PIAT. It's all in a day's work for Lt Dick Coward and Sgt Tom Price on their second published adventure. After the horrors of D-Day, they find themselves plunged into even greater chaos and mayhem as they land in the deceptively tranquil countryside around Arnhem, Holland, as part of Operation Market Garden. What should be a pushover - the ingenious scheme that everyone thinks will end the war by Christmas - turns into Britain's biggest military disaster of the Second World War. But if it's a cock-up, by golly is it a glorious one. Rarely if ever have Allied soldiers acquitted themselves better than the British, Americans and Poles, as they fought against the might of the SS, in their bid to capture 'The Bridge Too Far." As usual Coward and Price are in the thick of it. They have to be. If Coward doesn't get a VC this time, he'll be booted off the family estate for good, and stand no chance of winning the heart of the fickle, dangerously beguiling Gina. Will he get the medal? Will he get the girl? Will Price be driven so mad by his master's Bertie Wooster-like stupidity that he ends up throttling him first? ....."

First chapter extract here

 

I am finishing up "Strike and Hold" and the next book is a biography about General Patton that I was given this past Christmas. I have also just finished up "The Bitter Woods" which I thought was a very informative book on the Battle of the Bulge.

 

Wellington at War-Chaz Bowyer Ian Allan Ltd 1982
Hurricane at War- Chaz Bowyer Ian Allan Ltd 1974

Got these from the Finnish net auction site

 

Just started "Halsey's Typhoon". 'Bout two chapters in, doesn't really seem to flow linearly, but is interesting nonetheless.

 

Downloaded? Is that another word for "boot legged"?

 

Nah, with the Nook (same as with the Amazon Kindle), you buy the books online and then download the e-book to the reader. They don't mail you a CD with the book on it.

 

Ok, if you say so. At first it sounded like a little "cyber-browsing" was going on here.

 

My wife has one, as well as an iPad. I may have to take over the Nook, since she's got the 'pad, but for now, it just feels wrong to read a "book" that doesn't have pages to flip.

 

That looks like a kindle thingamabobadoodle. What's the difference?

 

Been going on a binge lately. Almost done with Geirr Haarr's "The German Invasion of Norway," and his sequel "The Battle for Norway," is in the wings. Very well written, almost reminds me of "Day of Infamy" in the sense of ignored warnings, unprepared defenses, and impending doom.

Also started reading "Neptune's Inferno" by James Hornfischer. This guy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite WWII authors, right up there with Cornelius Ryan.

 

We went to Minneapolis, MN a couple weekends ago and stopped at Barnes and Noble's. I walked in and went straight to the 'Military History' section where I found a crapload of WWII books. I was probably in there for 15 minutes until my parents finally told me we had to go lol. When we got home we went online to Barnes and Noble and bought 'The Pacific' by Hugh Ambrose, that just came into the mail today. I already have a book to read though lol, but it looked like a really good book so I said 'Why not?'.