1 1st and John Ringo's Posleen series.  The mixed emotions of feeding State dept. pukes to Croco-Centaurs.  Time for breakfast.

2 Just finished Tom Clancy's latest "Dead or Alive". It is solely based on the hunt for Bin Laden and it features the old round of characters from the John Ryan universe.

I had given up on him after the last one of these and wouldn't have read this one except that my MIL checked it out from the library and finished it and still had a few days left on it.

It wasn't bad but it reinforced my feeling that he has sold out. He has jumped on the "water boarding is torture" bandwagon and  it really is not reliable. I'll bet he wishes he could take that back now after they got the real Osama via water boarding.

3 Almost made it--second the early Posleen series as a good read, although I thought the characters and plot lines went downhill after the first three books.

4 Posted by: Vic at June 05, 2011 08:57 AM (M9Ie6)
I got started on the "Dead or Alive", but felt it bogged down and I  lost interest.  It still has a bookmark about 1/3 through, but I don't know if I will ever get back to it. 
Too bad, but most writers of endless series start to phone it in sooner or later!

5 I thought the characters and plot lines went downhill after the first three books.

That has become the norm for all writers now. I just finished his thirds in the Troy Rising series and you can see it starting to slip. What was disappointing was that it looks like this one will now be another endless series. Anyway.....

I am off to yard work. Back later.

6 LOL, we are speaking the same language, back later.

7 Still reading The last stand of Fox company. Been busy as hell at work, so not so much reading

8 I thought the characters and plot lines went downhill after the first three books.

The same thing is happening with George R, R, Martin's Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series.  He has descended into describing in detail the characters meals as page filler.  (OK, that's an exaggeration but not much of one.)  Most series just don't have enough story to carry it past 3 books.

9 I really liked James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno. It really gave the blow by blow account of the battles on Iron Bottom Sound in 1942.

10 Most series just don't have enough story to carry it past 3 books.

Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.


I'll be picking up more Brad Thor books for weekend airplane reading.  Chuck Norris wears Scot Harvath Underoos.

11 Just finished The Peshawar Lancers by SM Stirling.....two thumbs down. I liked his book The Difference Engine so this one was a big disappointment. It's an alternate history where an asteroid strike hits in the 1700s, and Britain becomes the world leader. Yawn. Do not waste your time on this one.

12 I've been reading Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy by Ian W. Toll. Very nicely written account. I recommend it.

I'm with you guys on the Posleen books.  I really like Gust Front but after the third book it went downhill and the end of the Posleen war on Earth seemed really rushed.

13 If you haven't read the three volume Shaara Civil War Trilogy (written by him and his dad), I highly recommend it. Two of the books were made into movies (Gettysburg and Gods and Generals), but all three are good reads.

14 I agree Mark, 'Neptune's Inferno' is riveting, we know somewhat of the land campaign in the Pacific, but not the grueling pace on the high seas.Clancy really has lost his edge, Flynn and Thor, and Silva, have taken him to the cleaners

15

Just started a book "Atlantis" that isn't half bad. Looks like the author, David Gibbins, has written a bunch of similar books, not sure how many are in this "series". Anyhoo, underwater archaeological discoveries, Cold War style espionage mixed with age-of-terrorism criminals. Looks like the kind of book that a lot of will you have read, so you could probably describe it better than I.

(I intend to devour much of it on the patio today.) 

16 I'm tri-reading: Robert Crais' *L.A. Requiem* (excellent - are there more of these Cole/Pike books?), Heinlein's *The Moon is Harsh Mistress* (I read it as a kid and didn't understand it at all, so it's knocking my socks off) and David McCullough's *Brave Companions*. Learning quite a bit about explorers and early naturalists that I had only come across before in a brief, referential way.

17 Wow. Neptunes inferno is still 15 bucks for the kindle version. I want to read it and the Tin can soldiers, just gonna wait for the price to come down

18 Can we have a non book thread please?

I like to read, but I'm a mystery kind of gal. 

Well, mysteries, and 'how to please your husband in bed...and...how to keep a nice house' ....and 'how to be subserviant to your husband'

Oh shit, that was hard to type because I was laughing so hard

19

HeatherRadish

Except for the mail it in books (Apostle, Last Patriot...wow those sucked) I generally enjoy Thor. He hooked me with Blowback and Takedown which are excellent.

Really hoping Full Black builds on Foreign Influence and gets back to the Thor I remember.  We'll see in July....

20 Reading John Ringo's "The Last Centurion". It's an excellent book. Written as a blog post after the fact. It's  a slight futuristic book, but it is the direct descendant of current events.

I'd recommend it to all.

21 I'll be picking up more Brad Thor books for weekend airplane reading.  Chuck Norris wears Scot Harvath Underoos.

Posted by: HeatherRadish at June 05, 2011 09:13 AM (0vDuM)

Got a reco as to where to start with Brad Thor's books?

22 Dammit.  Somebody read Diplomacy by Kissinger, so you can agree with me about how awesome it is.

23 A couple of us mentioned books by Gavin de Becker during the week. I haven't read all of The Gift of Fear, but would absolutely recommend the free sample for Kindle or Kindle software for PC. Fascinating stuff.

24 Well, mysteries, and 'how to please your husband in bed...and...how to keep a nice house' ....and 'how to be subserviant to your husband'


Posted by: momma

So how you YOU doin?

25

Just started a book "Atlantis" that isn't half bad. Looks like the author, David Gibbins, has written a bunch of similar books

While I did enjoy Atlantis, I tried to read something else (I cant remember the name) by him and about midway through the first chapter he started in with some global warming crap, so I had to toss it.

26
DIT: At least Monty had the courtesy of posting an alternative thread for illiterates.

27 The Last Voyage of Columbus by Martin Dugard.  Columbus made four trips to the new world and this was the most tragic--hurricanes, mutiny, shipwrecks in a history that reads like a novel.  Once again demonstrating that truth is indeed stranger (and more exciting) than fiction.

28 I envy you all the time to read. I've been so dang busy lately that all I have time for is The American Spectator and the FarmTek catalogue. But I'm hoping to read the new Washington bio. Maybe soon, if my BPH flares up.

29 i'm almost done with vince flynn's "pursuit of honor" and let me tell you......phoenixgirl loves her some mitch rapp.....

30 tunafish, that has been the kiss-of-death for more books/authors than I can count. I'll keep an eye out for such stupidity. (Though to be honest, since the CRU hack that crap doesn't bother me as much as it used to.)

31 Really start with his second, Path of the Assasin, since the first, involves a right wing plot to prevent action on global warming, or something kind of a rejected '24 plot, yes there's a MacGuffin in there, two,

32 Have read Killer Angels and Gods and Generals. Great books. I have his Gone For Soldiers, about the Mexican War in the line. Looks good. Am in the middle of McCullough's Caeser right now.

33

tunafish, that has been the kiss-of-death for more books/authors than I can count. I'll keep an eye out for such stupidity.

Although I dont know the genre very well, I've started to read more Fantasy and the like - No Politics involved. I just read the entire Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - It was recommended here a while back.

34 BTW, Ace was totally en fuego on Twitter last night, doing battle with Patterico and Lee Stranahan over the ridiculous lengths they are going to in trying to exonerate Weiner. He accused the latter of being not a Birther, but a "Boner".

35

I'm currently reading The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 

36 26
DIT: At least Monty had the courtesy of posting an alternative thread for illiterates.

Posted by: Ed Anger at June 05, 2011 09:33 AM (7+pP9)

If they're illiterates, how could they read the alternative thread?

I am currently reading a novella called The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Bennett was the author of the play The History Boys that was popular a few years ago. The Uncommon Reader is about how Queen Elizabeth II takes up a sudden interest in reading in her later years, causing her staff to worry that she is losing touch with her duties, because she wants to spend all her time reading.

37 O/T, but the website sultanknish.blogspot has an interesting take on Weinergate.  It is in the second article, the first article is about global warming and the stupidity of Repubs (think Romney here) endorsing it.

38

@ Momma AJ:  I think the Gift of Fear is one book that every woman should read.  I gave it to a friend in a horrifyingly abusive marriage and have lent it to some of the young skulls of mush who work for me.  There are alot of young women who have no concept of personal safety.  

BTW: a couple of the people who helped my friend in the dangerous marriage the most was a conservative Christian couple who lived next door.  The husband in particular was disgusted with the beater, commenting in front of his wife and my friend that a man who behaves that way should be shot and left for the coyotes to eat.

What I've read - last week "Water for Elephants"  (Chick lit lite, I know) and "The Lincoln Lawyer."  Lincoln Lawyer was a real page turner.

I'm almost done with Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. This is the Louie Zamperini story - an Olympic runner who spent much of WWII interred in some of the most brutal Japanese POW camps.  The book was a slow started, but once I got into it, it was a powerful read. 

There are a lot of WWII experts among the morons here. I'm not one of them. I learned alot about the course of the Pacific war, the aircraft and strategies.  Great read - two thumbs way up.  

 

39 Has anyone else read the new Preston and Child book, "Gideon's Crew" yet? I know we've talked about the decline of their previous series, and I've got a few beefs with this new one that I want to bounce off someone.

40 On the sultanknish article, he sums up Weinergate by saying at least people will be able to stop wondering if Weiner is gay!

41 I cannot see typos until they are posted for the world to see. 

42 the end of the Posleen war on Earth seemed really rushed.

Wars go faster with nukes.  This is a feature in fiction and a bug in fact.

Ringo does seem to rush endings though.  I noticed the same thing in the March to series.

43 Just started The Chapter's Due (last of the Ultramarine series) for Warhammer 40K (by Graham McNeil). Needed something to read when I went on vacation at the end of April. Picked up The Ultramarines Omnibus and have almost finished the series. Not bad. The Way of Kings from Brandon Sanderson is on deck. Picked up the paperback the other day. I heard Sanderson was a good stand alone writer. So far, he's done well closing out Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This is the first in another series. I pray it isn't some 15 book opus like Jordan's.

44

Just finished "In The Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson (author of "The Devil in White City" and "Isaac's Storm."  It was a pretty decent and quick read, although just not as well written as his other 2 previously mentioned books. 

Basically it tells the true story of a liberal University of Chicago professor (are there any other kind?), William E. Dodd who was appointed ambassador of Germany in 1933.  Initially, he and his family (especially his adult daughter who accompanied him overseas) are enchanted by Germany and the Nazis.  They eventually do realize though, how dangerous Hitler is.  And Dodd's attempts to inform FDR his concerns about Hitler fall on deaf ears.  FDR comes off really badly in this book.  He was so focused on jamming through his domestic agenda he completely ignored Hitler and the increasing "Jewish problem".  FDR's own anto-semitism and the anti-semitism that was endemic to The State Department at the time definitely played a role in all of this.  Even Dodd and his family were a little anti-semitic themselves, and thought that the Jews were partially responsible for their fate initially. 

Dodd's daughter, Martha, comes across as a vain, shallow, hedonistic young woman who recklessly engaged in numerous affairs simultaneously and eventually ended up living in exhile because of her ties to Communism and the KGB.  Dodd fares a little better, but still appears feckless and weak throughout most of the book.  His principaled stand against Hitler ultimately costs him his job.  FDR replaces Dodd with Hugh Wilson.  

Wilson: "Sought to emphasize the positive aspects of Nazi Germany and carried on a one man campaign of appeasement.  He promised Germany's new foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, that if war began in Europe he would do all he could to keep America out...accused the American press of being 'Jewish controlled.'...He praised Hitler as 'the man who has pulled his people from moral and economic despair into the state of pride and evident prosperity they now enjoyed.  He particularly admired the Nazi 'Strength Through Joy' program, which provided all German workers with no-expense vacations and entertainments.  Wilson saw it as a powerful tool for helping Germany resist communist inroads and suppressing worker's demands for higher wages--money that workers would squander on 'idiotic things such as a rule.'  He saw this approach as one 'that's going to be beneficial to the world at large.'"  (pp. 355-356)

The most compelling and principled character in the book was Consul General George Messersmith, who oversaw the 10 American consuls inside Germany.  He was the first person to sound the alarm on Hitler.  He also had a spine of steel.  I actually thought this book would have been more interesting if it would have been written about him. I guess Larson felt that Martha's sexcapades would spice things up.

Ultimately a good, informative read.  Yet the central characters were hollow and unsubstantial and not really sympathetic.  It is ironic, too, that one of the most sympathetic characters was one of the early chiefs of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. 

45 I started "Reckless Endangerment" by Gretchen Morgensen last night. She is a business reporter from the NYT.

My blood started boiling after just the first few pages where she lays out the overview for the reaonns the economy collapsed in 2008 and who was involved.

I know this stuff...you know this stuff...hell...everyone knows this stuff, but points out it is being purposefully ignored by the media and the agencies responsible for investigating and bringing any possible legal action. She is practically daring these people to get off their asses.

46

@ Momma AJ:  I think the Gift of Fear is one book that every woman should read.  I gave it to a friend in a horrifyingly abusive marriage and have lent it to some of the young skulls of mush who work for me.  There are alot of young women who have no concept of personal safety.  

 

I read that book about 10 years ago, I think.  It is very good.

I'm almost done with Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. This is the Louie Zamperini story - an Olympic runner who spent much of WWII interred in some of the most brutal Japanese POW camps.  The book was a slow started, but once I got into it, it was a powerful read. 

There are a lot of WWII experts among the morons here. I'm not one of them. I learned alot about the course of the Pacific war, the aircraft and strategies.  Great read - two thumbs way up.  

Oh my gosh, I got that for Christmas and started reading it twice!  I got stuck at basically the same spot.  It was very slow moving, and I really wanted to love this book as the subject was so compelling, the story so amazing, and I loved Seabiscuit (the other book Hillenbrand wrote).  I will give it another go!

 

 

47

 started "Reckless Endangerment" by Gretchen Morgensen last night. She is a business reporter from the NYT.

 

WSJ reviewed that last week, and it sounds really good.  It sounded like Fannie and Freddie were the biggest culprits in the whole debacle.  The last comment at the end of the review was a quote along the lines of how it is completely unimaginable how Barney Frank (who did so much harm in the Fannie/Freddie mess) was allowed to co-author a new bill that's thousands of pages to regulate the financial market. 

48 Oh, the name of the book I'm babbling about is "Gideon's Sword". Gideon Crew is the protagonist.

49 Finished Ferrigno's "Prayers for the Assassin" last night. The plot is kind of standard crime/espionage thriller, but the Islamic American world he creates for his characters is interesting.....and terrifying.

50 Rep. Kristi Noem, damn is all I can say

51

I'm reading The Ascent of Money by Scottish historian Niall Ferguson.  Although it was originally published in early 2008 and revised in 2009 for the paperback, it's shocking how dated it seems already.

Despite its recent vintage, there are numerous references to the possibility of AGW affecting the financial world in the near future, including many references and one direct quotation from the IPCC. 

In addition, there is a chapter on real estate, where he treats the possibility of real estate bubbles and crashes as historical artifacts, despite the ongoing financial black hole of real property, changes due to Kelo, etc.

However, it is readable and fun.  Worth $12 in paperback.

52

Finished Ferrigno's "Prayers for the Assassin" last night

I read that one and his other one set in the same islamic America - I am really bad with names. But most interesting was the fact that it was recommended by Charles Johnson back in the day.

53 Rep. Kristi Noem, damn is all I can say

Posted by: Jose

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I'll be in my bunk

54
Have fun with this one:

Stewart Lansley's THE LIMITS OF INEQUALITY: How the rising wealth gap caused the crash, arguing that increasingly unequal distribution of wealth has not merely opened up new economic and social gaps, and brought a serious decline in opportunities for middle and lower income groups, but it has also been an economic time-bomb, to Gibson Square, for publication in October 2011, by Andrew Lownie.

55 But most interesting was the fact that it was recommended by Charles Johnson back in the day. I'm sure that now, even MENTIONING the Assassin novels is a banning offense.

56
These look good:

Chinese journalist Yang Jisheng's TOMBSTONE: The Untold Story of Mao's Great Famine, a graphic and personal account of one of the devastating famines in human history, to Farrar, Straus.
     
   
       
Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine's MAO: His Life and Times, a new biography of the Chinese leader with access to previously-sealed Soviet and Chinese archives, to Simon & Schuster.

57

58 Posted by: runningrn
......
If you like reading about that time period in Germany, you might like a fictional novel that came out a few years back.

oddly enough the title is also "Garden of Beasts" by Jeffery Deaver

http://tinyurl.com/3ehw5kj

I plan to read Larson's book when I get some time.

59

Oh, I bought a new book I haven't started yet (was going to try and save it for a plane ride, but it looks to compelling to wait), "Operation Mincemeat" by Ben McIntyre (author of "Agent Zig Zag").

It tells the true story of the two British naval officers who plant a dead body "outfitted in a British uniform with a briefcase containing false intelligence documents--in Nazi territory, and how this secret mission fooled Hitler into changing military positioning, paving the way for the Allies to overtake the Nazis." 

It's basically the story that was told in "The Man Who Never Was" by Ewen Montagu (who was one of "Agent Zig Zag's" handlers).  Per McIntyre:  "The Man Who Never Was" has lost none of the flavor of wartime intrigue, but it is and was always intended to be, incomplete.  The book was written at the behest of the British government, in order to conceal certain facts; in parts it's deliberately misleading.  Now, with the relaxation of government rules surrounding official secrecy, the recent declassification of files in the National Archives, and the discovery of the contents of Ewen Montagu's ancient trunk, the full story of Operation Mincemeat can be told for the first time."

60 Rep. Kristi Noem, damn is all I can say Posted by: Jose Damn is right. Didn't realize that she was that tall. Notice that she looks damned comfortable in boots and grubbies. Can you imagine what Captain MomJeans would be wearing?

61

If you haven't read the three volume Shaara Civil War Trilogy (written by him and his dad), I highly recommend it. Two of the books were made into movies (Gettysburg and Gods and Generals), but all three are good reads.

I was bummed they couldn't make Last Full Measure into a movie. IMO the best of the series and one of the best CW novels I ever read.

Listening to Matterhorn on audio. Bronson Pinchot is reading it. He pronounced Tarawa as "Tar OW-a".

62 I finally got around to starting Accelerando by Charles Stross. I think it was a recommendation from one of these threads. Stross really seems to love his Communists. Thumbs down.

63

If you like reading about that time period in Germany, you might like a fictional novel that came out a few years back.

oddly enough the title is also "Garden of Beasts" by Jeffery Deaver

 

Thanks!  Although I don't read much fiction, that does look interesting, and it had a lot of really good reviews. 

64

I'm almost done with Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. This is the Louie Zamperini story - an Olympic runner who spent much of WWII interred in some of the most brutal Japanese POW camps.  The book was a slow started, but once I got into it, it was a powerful read.   

Posted by: Jade Sea

I was driving to the cemetary where my parents and grandparents are buried on Memorial Day, last Monday. Louis Zamperini was on the radio in an interview I heard, in which he talked about his troubles, nightmares, and coming to God at a Billy Graham revival in the late 40's.  It was very inspirational, and actually came at a time, for me, that was very uplifting. Louis wants to live long enough to see the movie being made of "Unbroken" which is coming out in a few years.

God lives through this man and all his works, is all I can say.

65 Posted by: runningrn at June 05, 2011 10:14 AM (ihSHD)

James Johnson became Fannie CEO in 1991 and his lieutenants are on record as testifying that he he said he was going to turn it into a machine where they can all make a ton of money. He was also chairman of the Brookings Institution at the time which was coincidentally pushing the government to create laws and quotas to increase home ownership.

66 Whoops.  I just finished The Human Factor - Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture by "Ishmael Jones" 
It's about a long time CIA NOC (non official cover) agent (and former Marine) and his fight within the gigantic CIA bureaucracy.  He tells of the multiple levels of approval he needs just to place a phone call to a WMD scientist in a hostile country.  He also details the enormous waste of money at the CIA.

Sounds pretty boring but it is written well and should scare the hell out of anyone who is concerned about our ability to prevent the proliferation of Chem and Nuke weapons.

When he sent the manuscript to the CIA for their approval they redacted nearly all of it.  He went ahead and published it anyway. 

67 Lou Zamperinin has titanium balls. Even after years in a Jap POW camp he could beat Jap soldiers sadist bastards in a race.

68

Damn is right. Didn't realize that she was that tall. Notice that she looks damned comfortable in boots and grubbies. Can you imagine what Captain MomJeans would be wearing?

 

Why in God's  name is Crusty Gnome running around in expensive designer jeans to survey flood damage?  Doesn't this woman realize that people have lost their entire livelihoods during this tragic event?  Some people have even lost their lives, I'm sure!  Why is Crusty so fricking out of touch with her constituents?  I bet Crusty's jeans cost more than some of these poor people will ever recover from their losses.  Crusty Gnome bad for America.

OMG!  Did you hear the news?  Michelle Obama is planning on taking her girls on a trip to Africa!  This is so exciting!  I'm so glad that she is so in touch with her African American roots and that she wants to pass down this heritage to her adorable daughters.  I just can't wait to see what her favorite couture designers come up with for this very special trip to the land of her ancestors.  I think a Jason Wu Daishiki would be just gorgeous.  It would really show off our First Lady's toned arms.

69

James Johnson became Fannie CEO in 1991 and his lieutenants are on record as testifying that he he said he was going to turn it into a machine where they can all make a ton of money. He was also chairman of the Brookings Institution at the time which was coincidentally pushing the government to create laws and quotas to increase home ownership.

 

2 words:  Clinton Crony.  Dude is still working in banking too.  He and Franklin Raines should be in fricking jail. 

70

fracking sock!

 

71 Kay in Pain

That;s some great snark.

72 Skop that series, go to his Bond meet Cthluthu series, beginning with the Atrocity
Archives, really good, with a dark sense of humor

73

Ruh roh!  O/T but:

TEL AVIV—Israel's army opened fire on dozens of Arab demonstrators who marched from the Syrian border toward the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Syria's state-run news agency reported that four demonstrators were killed and over 30 were injured.

Inspired by popular domestic demonstrations around the Arab world, pro-Palestinian protestors in Syria and Lebanon are now challenging Israeli forces posted on the border. The violence marks the second flare-up in 15 days on a frontier that has remained relatively quiet for more than three decades despite frequent political tension.

 

Who wants to bet that Preznit McJizznuts comes out to condemn Israel asap?  (A man who is curiously quiet about President Assad killing protestors, including that 14 year old boy).  The other thing, who wants to bet that these are Assad martyrs that were trying to throw a feint?

74 WOAH!  A post not involving Anthony Weiner - and it's also NOT a post in which Ace has to tell all of you that you are lying, racist dumbfucks!  I can't believe my eyes.

75 Anybody ever read The Weary Titan?  Paul Ryan referenced it in his June 2nd speech.

76 The storyline is set in Germany - Home of the Weiner, so in effect this is just another Weiner thread.

77 >>A post not involving Anthony Weiner

We can fix that in the comment section!

78 The Killer Angels is simply one of the best books I have read.  Gods and Generals and Gone for Soldiers are both excellent reads as well. 

79

I was driving to the cemetary where my parents and grandparents are buried on Memorial Day, last Monday. Louis Zamperini was on the radio in an interview I heard, in which he talked about his troubles, nightmares, and coming to God at a Billy Graham revival in the late 40's. . .

Posted by: Reader C.J. Burch writes

They cover that in "Unbroken."  Post war Louie had become an alcoholic slave to his nightmares and seething desire for revenge.   The Graham revival reminded him of God's incredible providence and plan for his life. 

I would love to here that interview.  Wonder if it's up on youtube or posted on a radio site?

Also wonder if the movie will actually tread into what is bound to be a completely politically incorrect (but true) portrayal of Japanese WWII  brutality.  When I hear lefties pontificating about the evil of our use of the atom bomb, I remind them that more people died in the Rape of Nanking than in both atomic attacks combined.  

"Unbroken" also deals with the standing "Kill All" order that was indeed enforced repeatedly in POW and concentration camps run by the Japanese throughout the Pacific.  If there were any chance of imminent capture, they were to kill all prisoners regardless of status.  In one civilian Korean camp they killed 500 people in a night.

This was a society that needed the reset button in a big way.

80 PALIN'S WEINER!!!! AHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!!!!!

81

This was a society that needed the reset button in a big way.

And they got one punched, courtesy of a couple of B-29s.

82 @16 -- oh yeah. Start at the beginning [see Amazon] The Crais Pike & Coke books are much fun. Working my way randomly thru the Iain M Banks Culture series. The dude has a streak of weird in him, but writes so well your eyes slide down the page like buddah.

83
DIT: At least Monty had the courtesy of posting an alternative thread for illiterates.

Posted by: Ed Anger at June 05, 2011 09:33 AM (7+pP9)

If they're illiterates, how could they read the alternative thread?

If you'll notice, Monty has enough $$$ to take some pretty long vacations.

84 yes, killer angels is the best.......man hunt is great too

85 I've been working through a Great War novel as well. It's about a diverse group of reservists and career soldiers from Vienna called up for the expected war. It's called The Wieners Of August.

86 The sequel that I haven't gotten around to yet is called Show Your Wiener.

87 What do girls know about good Civil War novels?

88 One small correction:  S.M. Stirling didn't write The Difference Engine. That was Bruce Stirling (with William Gibson). Very different writers. Both pretty good, though, when they're "on."

89

 

If you'll notice, Monty has enough $$$ to take some pretty long vacations. 

That's gold, Jerry!  Gold!

90 89 What do girls know about good Civil War novels? Posted by: USS Diversity at June 05, 2011 11:12 AM (RPYjQ) A heck of a lot more than you.

91 . It's called The Wieners Of August.

No no I think you have the title backwards -
It's The August Wieners

ba doom ching

92 By coincidence I've been re-reading Keegan's history of the First World War. Reeeeally depressing. You can trace pretty much everything that's been wrong with the world for the past century to that war. Communism? Check. Fascism? Check. Nanny-state socialism? Check. Radical Islam? Check. Paris Hilton? Check (her great-granddad Conrad survived WWI and then went into the hotel biz afterward).

93 This is an excellent post. It is very informative. Thank you so much. I'll be a regular viewer. Replica Handbags wholesale lingerie

94 The third book in the trilogy is Stand At Attention, Wieners!

95 Has anyone read the new book on the social media phenominon "My Dick in a Tweet" ? I am thinking about ordering it.

96

Paris Hilton?? Oh, sure. Blame EVERYthing on WWI. Wasn't the rest of the list enough?

Seriously, Princip was responsible for the greatest change in History with just a couple shots from a revolver. He was instrumental in the fall and rise of several empires and shaped the 20th century.

97
Sigh! -- It looks like Replica Handbags have replaced Lace Wigs.

Am I wrong to hate change?

98 The other incredibly depressing thing about WWI is that there were no villains (except maybe the Serbian intelligence service). Britain and Germany were the most advanced, liberal (in the classical sense), and civilized countries in the world . . . and because of something that happened to a guy in an obscure Balkan town, they spent four years murdering the shit out of each other.

99 I never post because my books are so ... lightweight! Recently finished "Buried Prey," the latest Lucas Davenport by John Sandford. It was typical Lucas -- I wanted more at the end. If you're a fan, it's a must-read. If you're not, read them from the beginning! Am about to start the newest Robert Parker, which makes me sad because Parker is dead. However, his most recent books have been "paint-by-number," far, far from his best. I just got a Nook for Mothers' Day and I'm going to be slowly buying things; for him, I'll go from the beginning. And I read a Nora Roberts romance! See, all lightweight. All enjoyable. (Nora Roberts was "Happy Ever After;" it was a re-read.

100 What do girls know about good Civil War novels? Posted by: USS Diversity at June 05, 2011 11:12 AM

Why fiddle-dee-dee, you think the late unpleasantness only happened to the men?

101 One small correction:  S.M. Stirling didn't write The Difference Engine. That was Bruce Stirling (with William Gibson).
 
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2011 11:12 AM (0u1B1)
 
Aah. Thank you. No wonder I was so disappointed with Peshawar Lancers. I got confused by the author's last name when I bought and read it. SM Stirling sucks imho.

102 Moby Weiner. It's Inevitable!

103 Read two excellent Matthew Scudder books by Lawrence Block, 'When The Sacred Ginmill Closes' and 'Out on the Cutting Edge'.   The first had a number of mysteries that were resolved together with a bang, the latter was a tremendous page-turner.  Having a hard time convincing myself to read anything else until I've read all of Block's books.

104 Posted by: suburban Illinois at June 05, 2011 11:42 AM

I read lightweight books, too.  Sometimes you don't want to think about what you are reading, you just want to read.  Nora Roberts is a favorite of mine, although I don't like her JD Robb books.

105 A Tale of Two Clippings. A real horror show, Man!

106 Halfway thru the greening-of-WalMart book "Force of Nature," the author seems a total libtard, and is saying WalMart is totally in the tank with him and the climate change greenies.

107 88 The sequel that I haven't gotten around to yet is called Show Your Wiener. Posted by: andycanuck at June 05, 2011 11:11 AM (DUOUR) I don't know... something like that could blow up in your face!

108 Read two excellent Matthew Scudder books by Lawrence Block, 'When The Sacred Ginmill Closes' and 'Out on the Cutting Edge'.   The first had a number of mysteries that were resolved together with a bang, the latter was a tremendous page-turner.  Having a hard time convincing myself to read anything else until I've read all of Block's books.
Posted by: waelse1 at June 05, 2011 12:02 PM

Lawrence Block has written some good stuff, and I like the Scudder books.  I also am a fan of  Donald Westlake's books, especially the Dortmunder books.

109 Halfway through Jo Nesbo's The Snowman. Excellent, excellent crime fiction. If you like Michael Connoley and his Harry Bosch books  and Johnathan Kellerman and his Milo Sturgis character, you will love this book. A little odd to be set in Oslo with snow being central to the setting. I'm used to LA settings. Lol

110 SM Stirling sucks imho.

This is true.

111 #46 runningrn, Thanks, that book is in my TBR pile.

112

I'm reading Royal Pains which was recommended by the proprietor of BookwormRoom.com.  It's the stories of royal wastrels and ne'er-do-wells and numerous downright bad guys and I'm enjoying it greatly.  It's definitely not heavy-duty stuff but who cares? 

For the 'ronettes who like light reading, as do I, may I recommend Jen Lancaster.  It's memoir/chick-lit stuff but there's always a few LOLs in every book and plenty of entertainment.

I will also point out that the Moron half of our universe is not devoted to serious reading either.  It's mostly SF and action/adventure stuff.  We want romance; they want to be heroes.  Isn't that the way of the world for the most part?

113 Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2011 11:39 AM (0u1B1)

Eh, not really. Germany was very jealous of Britain's position in the world, and had long considered it in need of rectification. That's why Germany was allied against Britain's interests, and why that "obscure event" ended up being the catalyst for a world war. Germany was looking for an excuse.

114

Ed Anger, sorry, I didn't know that.  Normally Sunday morning is a busy time for me and I don't get a chance to see what's happenin until the afternoon.  Anyway there's other threads up now.

 

I'll keep it in mind though, me and Gabriel are trading off Sunday am posts (book, and now non-book).  Thanks for the head's up.

115 A book, but not in the common Ace genre, that I am currently reading is "Inside of a Dog" by Alexandra Horowitz.  Interesting stuff if you are canine inclined.

116 "A Weiner Too Far" is on my to do list!

117 runningrn, since you enjoyed (somewhat) In the Garden of Beasts, you might try Americans in Paris by Charles Glass which tells about Americans who remained in Paris after the occupation.  I read both and enjoyed the Glass book better.  Very interesting and written and written in a much broader sense than the Larson book.

118 Several people above mentioned Jordan's Wheel of Time series above, and to me it epitomizes the three book rule!  After the third book, he would check in on one of his dozens of characters in a separate plot line so we could find out something fascinating like he has a dream of "foreboding." Then, on to the next character--infuriating.

119 I read a couple of Lee Childs' Jack Reacher novels.  Great violence, but somewhere in both novels, Childs  had to interject his appalingly leftist political views.  Too bad--he can write a great bar fight!

120

I'm two thirds the way through "Theodore Rex" about Teddy Roosevelt's time in the White House, by Edmund Morris.  One big event of Teddy's administration was applying the Sherman Anti-Trust law against railroad combinations.

Teddy didn't really understand what was going on, economically, and neither does Morris.

To remedy that I picked up "All Aboard: The Railroad in American Life."  by George Douglas. It starts with a bang and lays out the real reason that American public opinion was so anti-railroad - they almost always held a monopoly in their local markets.  Hence, if it took a dollar a bushel for a farmer to grow wheat and deliver it to the railhead, and the export market paid $2 a bushel at the dock, the monopoly railroad would charge 95 cents, leaving the farmer a nickel profit, it that.   Rail rates from Iowa to Chicago were two thirds of the cost to ship to New York because the Iowa to Chicago segment was served by only a single company while there was competition between Chicago and NYC.  In California, the Southern Pacific would insist on seeing the shipper's books before setting rates.  If local political opposition cropped up, the railroads would retaliate by stopping local service altogether.

Teddy's response was to block combinations and institute rate regulation in the form of the Interstate Commerce Commission, finally killed by Reagan.  That urge to central planning and detailed government regulation, designed to fix one real problem has grown to itself being THE problem today.

 

 

121 The Way of Kings from Brandon Sanderson is on deck. Picked up the paperback the other day.

I heard Sanderson was a good stand alone writer. So far, he's done well closing out Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

This is the first in another series. I pray it isn't some 15 book opus like Jordan's.

Posted by: catmman at June 05, 2011 10:02 AM (DTzwU)

I just finished that and really enjoyed it.  Would have liked to read it in one sitting in fact, but the size made that completely impossible.  I'm worried about it's potential to mutate into a never-ending series as well. 

122

runningrn, since you enjoyed (somewhat) In the Garden of Beasts, you might try Americans in Paris by Charles Glass which tells about Americans who remained in Paris after the occupation.  I read both and enjoyed the Glass book better.  Very interesting and written and written in a much broader sense than the Larson book.

 

Thanks, I'll check that out!

 

 

 

 

123 I've been catching up on my Political Books, from recent books like Radical In Chief (dry but good) to older books like Unlimited Access and Dereliction of Duty (man, Hillary sure is a raging bitch), I finally caught up with Bernie Goldberg's "Arrogance," halfway through. All good reads.

I need to get back to fiction, but I can't bear to go over to HuffPo or Kos again.

But seriously, I've barely been writing lately and I need to read some fiction to kick-start. I love discount stores, they're getting more and more books. If you know your authors you can get some pretty good deals.

124

Re-reading Grant Takes Command by the incomparable Bruce Catton. What is so striking to me is that Grant turned just 42 years old a few weeks before he began his Wilderness campaign of 1864. I know that people didnt live as long back then so early forties was almost wizzened and gray, but its still fascinating to contemplate.

Grant, Longstreet, Sherman, Jackson, AP Hill, Reynolds, Sheridan, Hancock, Stuart, McPherson, Pickett, Cleburne...all these Civil War giants were 45 or younger at the time of their death or when the war ended. Techincally, Sherman turned 45 two months before the war ended but whatevs.

As I read my civil War history books (mostly Bruce Catton stuff) I sometimes think about what a combined Army of the United States led by Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Jeff Davis, Sherman, Jackson, Longstreet, Meade Stuart, Sheridan, Bueauregard, Gideon Welles, Reynolds, Hill, Hancock etc., campaigning together as a team under the stars and stripes might look like compared to the armies of in Europe or Asia.

If one measures possibilities by the amount of skill and determination in that group, Im pretty sure a combined Army of the USA in the 1860's backed with full civilian moral and labor support, could have conquered every mile of ground from the Yukon to Tierra Del Fuego and all points in between.

Now, theres no reason under the sun why such a campaign would ever need to take place, but on paper there'd be no one to stop them back then.

So, yeah. Reading is fun.

125 @ 84 Cool! Thanks, Running Hobo. @ 101 Mom....? LOL @ 121 I hear ya, Cowboy. The lefty tripe inserted into many of the plotlines is the only thing that inhibits my pure Reacher lurve.

126

Count me among the light-reading crew, too.  It's my escapism in this depressing age of Toonces.  Just finished One Was A Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming, the latest in the Russ Alstyne/Clare Fergusson series.  Nobody does sexual tension like this author.  Nobody.  Not since the halcyon days of Moonlighting has there been such restraint.  We begin this novel with Rev. Fergusson and five other locals returning from Iraq to their homes in upstate New York.  The war has taken its toll on each with vets facing PTSD-induced rage, substance abuse and life-shattering disabilities.  Is one soldier's suicide really a murder connected.to the obnoxious resort owner/millionaire in the 'burg?  Are unexplained accidents part of a scheme?  Tune in to find out.

Next up, Patriots, by James Wesley, Rawls, a novel of survival in the coming collapse. 

127 110 Lawrence Block has written some good stuff, and I like the Scudder books.  I also am a fan of  Donald Westlake's books, especially the Dortmunder books.

Thanks huerfano!  I'll check out the Dortmunder series.

128 This should go without saying (I can hear the attack responses...), but - it's one thing to live on or near the battlefield and quite another to come into the fray from half-way round the world, in arguing for this as a strategy: http://tinyurl.com/cww4g3 I really think if the roles were reversed, and it was the Brits & Froggies coming over to help out in a tussle to end all tussles agin them Spanish Mexicans & those traitorous commie Canuckleheads, they too would be arguing against the locals wanting to fight out trenches for months and years on and on. The proof of this lies to a large extent in the Civil War.

129 Irish veterans of the Civil War (the Fenians) did try invading Canada several times and failed.

The Royal Navy had twice as many ships as any other two rival navies combined and, depending on year, included ocean-going ironclads (unlike USN Monitor-style ships that weren't seaworthy) and Halifax was already a major fortified port.

American industry wasn't up to British levels (it's 1860 not 1940) and things like the hundreds of thousands of Enfield rifled muskets that the North was compelled to use in the ACW because US industry couldn't keep pace with demand in our ACW time line wouldn't have been available for alternate-Lincoln's Grand Army. (Would he have worn a goatee with moustache by the way?)

Your good Northern generals, generally speaking, only came around later in the war through the school of hard knocks so presumably you would have started out the war with the same incompetents with which you started out the ACW although maybe some of your brilliant Southern generals (Lee was one of the top students at West Point, IIRC) would have started nearer the top behind the initial entrenched incompetents that I admit would have helped the Grand Army.

You're assuming that even if Lincoln would have had a united country (let's say with some sort of agreeable slavery solution) that the South would have been in favour of a war of conquest to make Northern industrialists rich in the alternate time line; and that the NE wouldn't have minded losing British and European trade maybe forever and not just for the duration or due to blockade when just decades earlier by the end of the War of 1812 the NE was ready to secede if that war would have carried on.

Americans hated the standing army and after the war was over you disbanded it almost completely other than occupation troops so that you were hard pressed fighting the Plains Indians just 15 years after the ACE so I don't think alternate-Lincoln would have had much support for raising and equipping and paying for an army of conquest the size of your combined ACW armies.

I do like "real" alternate histories (as contrasted with fantasy alternate histories with frigging dragons and spells helping to fight the ACW) so this is fun to think about. 

What's the famous series with the South being allowed to separate relatively peacefully and they start conquering South America and they and the North get into a major war a long time after the 1860s? I can't recall it as I haven't read it, I've just seen other people comment on it on wargaming and science fiction sites and maybe I've read a chapter or two in one of Pournelle's There Will Be War series.

130 15 years after the ACE = after the ACW
Doh!

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