What are you reading at the moment?

Been into "The MASSACRE of ABDACOM: The Destruction of the United States, British, Dutch and Australian Forces by the Japanese In World War II", by J. Lee Ready, for about a week.

 

On a recent visit to Chiang Mai, my local coffee shop had a few novels around and I picked Stalingrad (Antony Beevor) - finished inside a week. I found it to be an outstanding work that showed the struggles and triumphs of both sides.

Never really knew a lot about it, and this opened my eyes to what both sides endured - can't imagine what any of them went through, the vivid description of many events and experiences are truly ghastly.

Also reading In The Garden of Beasts (Erik Larson), which has proven to be a well written recollection of the first US Ambassador's experience in Berlin from 1933. An extremely engrossing book that I'm thoroughly enjoying.

 

I read that a few years back Owen. You're post made me go and try and find it, which I can't!!

 

I'm just re-reading, Make for the Hills, by Sir Robert Thompson. He went on to fame within the counter-insurgency field, but was a RAF Liaison officer on Operation Longcloth in 1943.

 

I've had that in my virtual 'basket' for some time now. How much of the book is devoted to his pre-Vietnam service?

As for me, I'm on the second chapter of Geoffrey Wellum's First Light and so far it's excellent - I gather there's a BBC dramatisation.

 

Hi CF,

Sorry for the delay:

WW2-77 pages
Malaya-40+ pages
Viet Nam-90 pages

Hope that helps.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve, it does.

Rather more tempted to buy it now. My maternal grandfather was with the R.A. in Malaya.

 

*Double Post - Please Delete*

 

'The Next Moon' by Andre Hue. I was recommended it by Tricky Dicky after I visited the resistance museum in Saint Marcel. Excellent book which I find hard to put down.

 

I am currently re-reading "Sea Lion" by Richard Cox - a novel but based on the 1974 Wargame of the proposed landings which was held at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst - enjoying it.
Noel

 

A few chapters into Dunkirk Fight To The Last Man.

 

Been into me Malayan set of books since the weekend (after the "Massacre of ABDACOM" fiasco ):

"Moon Over Malaya: The 2nd Argylls and Plymouth Argyll Royal Marines in Malaya and Singapore", by Audrey Holmes Mccormick & Jonathan Moffatt

"HMS Li Wo: The Most Decorated Small Ship in the Navy", by A.V. Sellwood

"Hurricanes Over Singapore: RAF, RNZAF and NEI Fighters in Action Against the Japanese Over the Island and the Netherlands East Indies, 1942", by Brian Cull et al.

"The Sinking of the Prince of Wales & Repulse: The End of the Battleship Era" by Patrick Mahoney and Martin Middlebrook

The pertinent pages (about 200) of "Campaigns In South-east Asia 1941-42", by Bisheshwar Prasad

 

Men At Arnhem by Geoffrey Powell. Having recently visited the battlefields of Operation Market Garden I wanted to read a good first person account from that operation and I believe I got it spot on when choosing this book.
The names used in the narrative are pseudonyms (the book was originally written under an alias) but at the start of the book the real names behind the pseudonyms are revealed.
It is a book I am finding hard to put down and as it stands it is in my Top 5 of first hand accounts.

 

Picked up some good books at a second hand store the other day, titles include;

'Rampant Dragons- New Zealanders in Armour in World War II' by Jeffrey Plowman.
'Spitfire Patrol'- by Group Captain Colin Gray DSO, DFC
'Baa Baa Black Sheep' by "Pappy" Boyington
'Return from the River Kwai' by Joan and Clay Blair

and for some fiction I picked up 'The Big Pick Up' by Elleston Trevor.

 

Nice set of books Alberto,

Jonathan Moffatt helped me out several years ago with some information on one of my chaps from Chindit 1. We met briefly at the FEPOW conference in 2009.

Here is my ex- Argyll's story:

http://www.chinditslongcloth1943.com/masterton.html

 

I'm taking a break from WW2 and have moved forward to Northern Ireland.

The British Army in Northern Ireland, by Michael Dewar. Fascinating and informative read, I've learned a lot from this book.

 

"The Third Reich - A Chronicle" by Richard Overy. Finished this one a couple of weeks back, but found it to be a bit of a letdown.

I know you can't possibly cram the full story into 400+ pages, but this one strangely left me feeling rather empty. It felt disjointed, in that it covered aspects of the period by year, but seemed to only touch on each topic, without much depth.

If you want a quick overview of The Third Reich it's ok, but you're after a more in-depth read, skip it.

 

Very good reading, so far, and I haven´t even made it beyond Grik yet!

Fascinating subject, "The Troubles"... Reminds me of the urban phase of the civil war we had down here; difficult days, those '70s were.

 

I recently read this whilst on Holiday.... enjoyed it.
Had a good spread of operational theatres.