Elmore Leonard
One of the best adventure, fiction I have read in a long time was Louis L’Amour “Last of the Breed”. It was hard to get to sleep on time!
“The Father’s Tale.” Moving and deeply Christian. One of the best books I have read in a decade.
You have to get thru 150 pretty slow pages. But it’s worth it.
Elmore Leonard
The Fire, By Jorg Friedrich. About the Fire bombing of Germany. Very sad what we had to do to end the evil of the Third Reich.
From Russia with Love - just started reading the Ian Fleming Bond books - made it through Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, and Diamonds are Forever in short order (since Christmas). Good reads. Never read them before.
Interesting choice for a first post. A vanity.
Welcome to Free Republic.
For the consumption of FReepers, I’ll throw out a couple recent titles from the last 2-3 months (my holiday reading).
The current read is “Bodyguard of Lies”. This is from the 1970s and deals with Allied deception and trickery throughout WWII with a focus on concealing the Normandy invasion and making the Germans think the landing would be in Pas De Calais. This is an absolutely fascinating read, and even though its almost 40 years old, reveals a lot of behind the scenes things that were going on in the secret war between the Axis and Allies. Only a couple hundred pages in...
Recently read is “Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar”. This is not the latest book on Stalin, but is only a few years old and written after the author had spent years in the newly-opened Russian archives in the 90s. It is a might tedious but offers great insight into the ‘court’ of Stalin and how he played his minions and their families against each other. One of the interesting tidbits was how normal people used to write him letters denouncing their neighbors for various infractions and as often as not, comrade iosef would send out the thugs to re-distribute wealth. Kind of like obama’s “Attack Watch” website where people can report anti-obama activities, only in the electronic age.
A must-read if you’re at all interested in AK’s or AR’s or the development of modern arms is “The Gun” by C.J. Chivers. This is a fascinating account focusing on the development of the AK, with a healthy portion of attention to the AR. The author’s premise is that the USSR came out with the atom bomb shortly after WWII, which ushered in the Cold War, but their real impact was building zillions of cheap, easy to use, reliable guns that upset the balance of power in numerous countries throughout the Cold War and continues to impact the world today. Something to think about.
For those interested in counter-insurgency and history, get a copy of “Devil’s Guard” put together by George Robert Elford. This book is a tale related to the author by a former SS officer who joined the French Foreign Legion after WWII and found himself in French Indochina setting the stage for our involvement in Viet Nam. Don’t forget the fella telling the story has some things to hide, and don’t get bogged down in the morality of his techniques in Indochine. He’s got some fantastic techniques for fighting a counter-insurgency, which by definition are tips for fighting an insurgency as well. The masses (and lawyers) would find his techniques distasteful, but there’s no denying their effectiveness.
FRegards!
I have been engrossed in the 1980’s Ashes series by William Johnstone! These are post-collapse based books. The hero, Ben Raines attempts to rebuild society a bit at a time. Those who are preparing for a collapse of some kind will probably love them.
They are written in very simple english, yet I found them to be very thought provoking. I can’t put them down! I’ve a couple more of the series to read and I just might start reading the first books again.
I think the first of the series was called “Out of the Ashes.” Google his name to get the series sequence.
I found the incidents and encounters between “TEA” type Americans vs. ruthless and desperate gangs roving the nation
interesting and the story lines very realistic scenarios should our nation collapse.
I can see why they made the best sellers lists back then.
Animal Farm, been reading it with my oldest child
Over 800 pages with tons of evidence for the claim that man has actually become more civilized over the millennia, and that violence has markedly declined at every scale: between individuals, between groups, and between nations. Pinker credits the "Leviathan state" with getting violence under control, with a central phenomenon being the outsourcing of vengeance to government.
Lots of fascinating facts, such as that the incidence of rape has declined by a factor of five over the past few decades, and that the incidence of murder in the U.S. is much higher among southerners (white or black) than among northerners.
Currently reading Crazy Horse and Custer; The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen E Ambrose.
Just finished Extraordinary, Ordinary People; A Memoir of Family by Condoleezza Rice
and before that; Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweitzer.
Reading the new Himmler bio. Very dry. The one on Heydrich was much better. Just finished Max Hastings’ latest, a history of WW II. MUCH better than Kershaw’s.
The Golden Age, by John Wright - highly recommend this trilogy which has a very conservative bent throughout...but i don't recommend it just for that, there's a lot of mind-blowing futuristic stuff in there and the battle scene in the 3rd book was maybe the best i've ever read.
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding - never got around to reading this growing up and didn't think i would like it that much, but i listened to it read by the author (who i thought did a good job, though some reviewers didn't) and to my surprise ended up liking it once it got going...
Sylvie and Bruno, by Lewis Carroll - i downloaded an audiobook version from Lit2Go and the story is a bit on the strange side (what'd you expect from Carroll?) but has some very funny parts. Not for everyone but you can listen to it free, so worth a try. The reader is good although the reading was a bit rough at times. He got better as the story went along. By the way, he also does a good job with Dickens' Great Expectations.
The Story of Philosophy, by Will Durant - never thought i'd make it through a book on philosophy, much less enjoy it, but Durant made both possible with his usual charm and wit.
Currently reading the Steve Jobs biography.
Interesting subject. Kinda in a dry spell as far as reading material. Might be time to bring out one of my all time favs and IMHO the best western ever written ‘Chiricahua’ by Will Henry.
“My List of Conservative Accomplishments” by Mitt Romney.
It was blank.
The latest by Elizabeth George featuring Sir Thomas Lynley and crew. I love British crime fiction and George is one of my favoite authors of that genre (along with P.D. James who also has a new book out).