What are you reading?

[Bob Green]

I accompanied my daughter and grandson to Barnes and Noble this afternoon leaving with The Fleet at Flood Tide by James D. Hornfischer in hand. His other books have been outstanding so I am looking forward to reading his latest work.

[Ggallagher]

I accompanied my daughter and grandson to Barnes and Noble this afternoon leaving with The Fleet at Flood Tide by James D. Hornfischer in hand. His other books have been outstanding so I am looking forward to reading his latest work.

I'll be very interested in your impression of this book. I wanted to grab it right when it came out, but there were a few kind of iffy reviews of it. Plus it broke my rule for being overpriced on a Kindle which was how I planned on reading it at the time. I probably will have to pick it up at some time though - I served on the second Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823) during my NROTC duty, so destroyers have a special appeal for me.

[Olympic Fan]

I'll be very interested in your impression of this book. I wanted to grab it right when it came out, but there were a few kind of iffy reviews of it. Plus it broke my rule for being overpriced on a Kindle which was how I planned on reading it at the time. I probably will have to pick it up at some time though - I served on the second Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823) during my NROTC duty, so destroyers have a special appeal for me.

Wow -- the Samuel B. Roberts ... a proud name.

I hope you have read Hornfischer's Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, which tells that story very well.

I was not blown away by The Fleet at Flood Tide -- I prefers his Neptune's Inferno, which is about the Guadalcanal campaign.

And both you and Bob might be interested in John Prados' Storm over Leyte, which has to be the definitive work ever written about that titanic battle.

And another tip -- have you read Ian Toll's books about the war in the Pacific -- Pacific Crucible and The Conquering Tide? Similar to Hornfischer's work and at least as good, maybe better.

[Ggallagher]

Wow -- the Samuel B. Roberts ... a proud name.

I hope you have read Hornfischer's Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, which tells that story very well.

I was not blown away by The Fleet at Flood Tide -- I prefers his Neptune's Inferno, which is about the Guadalcanal campaign.

And both you and Bob might be interested in John Prados' Storm over Leyte, which has to be the definitive work ever written about that titanic battle.

And another tip -- have you read Ian Toll's books about the war in the Pacific -- Pacific Crucible and The Conquering Tide? Similar to Hornfischer's work and at least as good, maybe better.

Yep, the Sammy B does have a pretty proud name. Of course that's NOT from the Sammy B I served on which was commissioned shortly after the first one was sunk. I have read "Last Stand..." as well Ian Toll's book, and enjoyed both of them quite a lot.

Ever since graduating I've enjoyed reading history a lot, and take a special interest in naval history and warfare. My dad flew off the Essex during the Korean War, so I grew up around Navy bases. Sort of developed the interest at an early age, and it kind of grew as I read and learned more.

[cato]

Finished The Gunslinger earlier this week. Not entirely sure what I think of it so far. Bought The Drawing of the Three to read during my upcoming travel. Hoping the story develops some more. Was left scratching my head a few times in the first book.

So . . . Did you follow the path toward the Dark Tower? Each book is different, but the Gunslinger stands alone as unique. IIRC, King wrote it when he was very young. It shows.

[luburch]

So . . . Did you follow the path toward the Dark Tower? Each book is different, but the Gunslinger stands alone as unique. IIRC, King wrote it when he was very young. It shows.

Just finished The Drawing of the Three about a week ago. Started The Wastelands last night, but only made it about 25 pages in. Jet-lag is kicking my butt, so trying to read last night was a bad idea. Hopefully I can get through about 100 pages this evening.

Second book was definitely better and I can feel the story picking up. I haven't read much King, but at times I find myself wanting him to just shut up and move on with the story.

[cato]

Second book was definitely better and I can feel the story picking up. I haven't read much King, but at times I find myself wanting him to just shut up and move on with the story.

If you keep reading, just remember this thought a few books from now.

[OldPhiKap]

Just started a new book on tape: Blood Aces, about Benny Binion.

Also have Beer Money from Frannie Stroh, who I knew at Duke. The parts I read in print were really good, she has quite the tale to tell. (She was a super-nice girl, I hope the book does well for her).

[NashvilleDevil]

Recently finished H.W. Brands's bio on Ronald Reagan and part 1 of Shelby Foote's 3 part Civil War narrative. Continuing with the Civil War theme, I am currently reading Brands's bio on U.S. Grant and I just saw that Ron Chernow is releasing a bio on Grant in the fall. I find myself fascinated by Grant and am stuck in the rabbit hole reading anything I can about the man.

[Olympic Fan]

Recently finished H.W. Brands's bio on Ronald Reagan and part 1 of Shelby Foote's 3 part Civil War narrative. Continuing with the Civil War theme, I am currently reading Brands's bio on U.S. Grant and I just saw that Ron Chernow is releasing a bio on Grant in the fall. I find myself fascinated by Grant and am stuck in the rabbit hole reading anything I can about the man.

You might want to check out Ronald C. White's American Ulysses, another new Bio of Grant.

It's actually very good detailing Grant's youth and his pre-Civil War struggles. It doesn't break any new ground when it talks about the his wartime service. But it picks right up again with his post-war career. It does as good a job as I've read of explaining why at Grant's death, he was considered one of the three greatest Americans (with Washington and Lincoln

[rasputin]

Recently finished H.W. Brands's bio on Ronald Reagan and part 1 of Shelby Foote's 3 part Civil War narrative. Continuing with the Civil War theme, I am currently reading Brands's bio on U.S. Grant and I just saw that Ron Chernow is releasing a bio on Grant in the fall. I find myself fascinated by Grant and am stuck in the rabbit hole reading anything I can about the man.

I read Grant's memoirs earlier this year, and recommend the work highly. Mark Twain was his editor.

I also recommend the rest of the Foote series. Obviously these are long-term reads.

[Bob Green]

I was not blown away by The Fleet at Flood Tide -- I prefers his Neptune's Inferno, which is about the Guadalcanal campaign.

Neptune's Inferno is a tremendous book. I cannot overemphasize how much I enjoyed reading the book.

[mgtr]

Agree with positives on The Devil in the White City. I knew virtually nothing about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago prior to this book. Subsequently I discovered some memorabilia from my (old) (and dead) relatives which tied into the Fair. Some talk about the Ferris Wheel, which was new at the time.
Currently reading Everybody Lies. Very interesting, something like Freakonomics, dealing with clever interpretations of readily (sort of) available data. I like clever.

[Jim3k]

OK. This really Philip Kerr's "Prussian Blue." No, not Duke's Prussian Blue, but the color of the German army coats during the Franco-Prussian War. You don't find out the why of the title until late in the book.

But the Franco-Prussian isn't one of the wars in which Gunther served. His are WWI and WWII. Gunther is Kerr's protagonist in a series of novels. He is a Berlin police detective, part of the murder squad, who gets caught up in Hitler's Germany. This particular novel is the latest of the series (2017), which began in 1989 with "March Violets." HBO and Tom Hanks are currently working on converting this character into a TV series, but I don't know where that actually stands.

Anyway, Gunther is a Mickey Spillane-type detective. Tough, smart, resourceful and (carefully) insouciant. As Nazism takes over his country, it is all he can do to hold on to his honest cop principles. His travels take him to all corners of the Nazi war zones. This novel begins in 1956 but flashes back to 1938 shortly before the invasion of Poland. A murder has occurred on Hitler's brand-new aerie above Berchtesgaden and Martin Bormann wants someone to find the killer and fix matters before Hitler arrives within the next few days. Gunther is drafted for that duty. This takes Gunther in a number of directions--all of which are extremely dangerous. As a policeman who is not a Nazi, he is no party myrmidon and is entirely expendable. As an excellent murder detective, and subordinate of Heydrich, he is very dangerous himself. This all leads to an outstanding story of suspense, mystery and corruption. And it all comes back to haunt him in 1956.

Well worth a read. I especially love the details of the times, both historic and those of the everyday. Kerr's skill makes it all seem very real.

Wiki says that another Gunther novel is to be published in 2018.

[Olympic Fan]

I was just re-reading Walter Lord's classic "The Miracle of Dunkirk", which I first read more than 20 years ago.

I was re-reading it after seeing Nolan's movie. It fills in a lot of gaps, corrects several of Nolan's distortions and provides a much better overview of the battle than the film.

I was especially interested to read about the engineers who used abandoned trucks to build a temporary pier on one of the beaches (shown briefly in the movie). The idea belonged to a Scotland Yard detective who was a lieutenant in a military security force. He found a small engineer group and encouraged them to build it. It was so successful that it was copied up and down the beach and did a lot to get the mass of men off the beach and to the larger ships waiting in deep water.

The book also details the sacrifice of those who held off the Germans while the BEF evacuated. Contrary to what the movie implies, the rear guard was composed of both British and French -- the British holding the Northern half of the perimeter and the French holding the southern half.

I had also forgotten the incredible role that Bernard Montgomery played in the escape. He commanded the Third Division at the time. The night march of his division on the night of May 27-28 -- slanting a dozen miles over the countryside in the midst of total chaos, was an epic military movement and plugged a huge hole on the northern edge of the perimeter. Just his men arrived, the Belgium Army, holding 15 miles of the line to his immediate left, surrendered (at 4 am in the morning). Montgomery was able to improvise a defense of the new gap long enough for Gort to rush reinforcements to replace the Belgiums.

Montgomery gets a bad rap in American movies -- okay, he was a bit slow in the attack, but he was a great commander.

[Tommac]

Just finished Lee Child's latest book of Jack Reacher short stories and am currently reading Dion Leonard's Finding Gobi about a long distance runner who picks up a stray dog while competing in a run through the Gobi desert.

[duke4ever19]

Just finished Milton's epic poem, 'Paradise Lost' and was amazed at how much of my childhood understanding of Christianity and theology actually came out of that book and not from the Bible. It certainly will make a heck more sense of William Blake's poetry.

That Milton was essentially blind when he composed this work makes it all the more astounding an achievement. The comparisons to Homer are obvious.

I have no idea how a poet could proceed to write poetry after reading that work. I agree with Harold Bloom that Paradise Lost must be considered a HUGE problem for poets coming after it's publication. It would be stuck in the back of my mind every time I put pencil to paper.

I think that's why it was necessary for Keats to take his poetry in a completely different direction. I just don't see a way forward in absorbing Milton's influence. Keats embraced Shakespeare instead -- obviously another titan of literature -- but there's something about Shakespeare that is porous enough to allow a writer to find what he needs there. Milton is a steel wall to me.

[Olympic Fan]

Just finished Milton's epic poem, 'Paradise Lost' and was amazed at how much of my childhood understanding of Christianity and theology actually came out of that book and not from the Bible. It certainly will make a heck more sense of William Blake's poetry.

That Milton was essentially blind when he composed this work makes it all the more astounding an achievement. The comparisons to Homer are obvious.

I have no idea how a poet could proceed to write poetry after reading that work. I agree with Harold Bloom that Paradise Lost must be considered a HUGE problem for poets coming after it's publication. It would be stuck in the back of my mind every time I put pencil to paper.

I think that's why it was necessary for Keats to take his poetry in a completely different direction. I just don't see a way forward in absorbing Milton's influence. Keats embraced Shakespeare instead -- obviously another titan of literature -- but there's something about Shakespeare that is porous enough to allow a writer to find what he needs there. Milton is a steel wall to me.

It's been a while since I wrote a senior thesis on Paradise Lost (wondering why so many modern readers see Satan as the hero of the piece -- he certainly wasn't to Milton).

I did recently find this article --written in 2008 (the 400th anniversary of Milton' birth) -- that talks about the epic poem and the impact is has had -- and still has -- on society:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...rn-to-paradise

PS You mention the obvious connection to Homer. The author makes the analogy that Milton is closer to contemporary Galileo -- both blind, both imprisoned and both of whom's last work essentially remade the world they lived in.

[Bob Green]

I received a new book as a birthday present. The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King - The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea.

[Ggallagher]

I received a new book as a birthday present. The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King - The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea.

That's an outstanding book that I really enjoyed. It contains a piece of military trivia that caught me by surprise. Until I read the book, I did not realize that Leahy was the highest ranking officer in WWII.

I would have thought that having a father and step-father that served in the Navy, doing some NROTC duty myself and reading LOTS of military and naval history, I would have discovered that before hitting my late 60's. Always nice to learn new things though.