What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

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JasonPratt

That time of year has come again, where I just finished reading a new batch of Rusty Wilson short stories!  <:-) :bd:

I would use the "I'm a simple man" joke, but that needs to be believable to work, and no one here would believe I'm a simple man, so...

I'm a complicated man. But when I see that Rusty has released a new set of Bigfoot-encounter short stories, I click buy immediately. I have never been disappointed yet. (In his lone novel I borrowed through Amazon loan, yes. Short stories, no.)

They're all on Kindle, as well as physical, and here's the list: https://smile.amazon.com/Rusty-Wilson/e/B0058DGI1E

Back in January this year, he released a collection set in Montana, and aside from being up to par I was a little worried that the poignancy of the end of the final story was his way of saying he was retiring from authoring these. But hurray, another one in time for Halloween! -- also set in Montana, but more specifically at Glacier Park. The new collection includes a couple from the prior book which were also set in Glacier... and that includes the same finale short story, so... will this be his last collection?  :'(

Don't know, but I continue to maintain that Rusty ranks near the top of classically American short story authors in quality! -- and I'll always be glad to have read him.

If you have any interest in the topic at all, he's an easy full recommendation. Just be a little careful shopping his earlier work, since he released micro-batches on Kindle that he eventually collected together.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Gusington

Anyone here read the Arms of Krupp by William Manchester?


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

airboy

^ Yes, when I was in High School ages ago.  My Dad had a copy.  It was not memorable enough that I remember anything about it today.

ArizonaTank

I just finished "The British Are Coming" by Rick Atkinson.

https://www.amazon.com/British-Are-Coming-Lexington-Revolution/dp/1250231329/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+british+are+coming&qid=1603589187&sr=8-1

The book is part one of a yet to be finished trilogy on the Revolutionary War.

This is the third Atkinson book I have read. Each of the books having a similar "feel"; in a very good way. Atkinson is a very descriptive writer, and I have found his books to be colorful and entertaining. He does a wonderful job of telling the reader "what" happened. Still, sometimes I wish he would spend some more words on "why" things happened. But that is just me, and I think that many readers would find his balance between description and analysis to be just right.

The book starts with the early friction between the American colonies and Britain. It moves quickly to the powder keg ignited at Concord, and the climax at Bunker Hill. It then moves to the 1776, nearly catastrophic (for the Americans) New York campaign. It also fully describes the back and forth tragedy of the American Canadian Expedition. The book rounds out its discussion of operations with the surprising Rebel success in the '76 Southern Campaign. Finally, the book ends with the amazing Trenton / Princeton Campaign that restored American confidence in George Washington and the Continental Army.

Overall I found the book's great strength is that it covers all parts of the conflict, and doesn't play favorites.

One eye opening thing that the book taught me was that despite the successful British New York campaign, overall, the early war was not really successful for the British. 

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy once Rick Atkinson finishes it.       



Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Gusington

AB: I don't know why it popped into my head. I've wanted to read it since I was a teenager and never did. Got a copy at Amazon for about 3 dollars. I did not realize it was originally published in 1968!


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

matt3916

Re "The Arms of Krupp."  Have a hardback copy in my library.  Worth reading I thought.  Lot of pages.

Gusington

^Yes the copy I picked up is 'illustrated' and comes out to be around 900+ pages, I think.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Ubercat

#5227
I never thought wargamers would go in for silly romance novels; "bodice rippers" as an old girlfriend called them. Did Fabio model for the cover art?
:D

Sorry.

I'm reading Critical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity, by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsey.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

al_infierno

Quote from: Ubercat on October 25, 2020, 04:57:03 PM
I never thought wargamers would go in for silly romance novels; "bodice rippers" as an old girlfriend called them. Did Fabio model for the cover art?
:D


Lol, if you're referring to All the Pretty Horses, apparently some execs at Hollywood turned the film adaptation into schlocky romance crap.  The actors involved were apparently furious, as it was so at-odds with the tone of the book.  One way or another, I'm a sucker for McCarthy, and I'm sure "romantic" by his standards is still pretty dang dark and bleak by normal people standards :D
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

Ubercat

I meant Arms of Krupp, like In the Arms of Krupp.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labelled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today."

- Thomas Sowell

al_infierno

Ahh, I should have got that.  LOL
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

Gusington

Don't make me tell my Fabio stories.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Sir Slash

Did he ever pay you all that Alimony he owes you Gus?  ^-^
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Gusington

Still waiting.

While waiting, I am reading Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, an English ghost story about a 1970s folk band who retreats to a ruined castle to record their masterpiece and...has bad things happen to them.

Like Fleetwood Mac but less frightening.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

airboy

I finished rereading Shattered Sword.  Read everything through the sinking of the last Jap carrier and the Yorktown being torpedoed.  Then skipped the mop-up and reread the conclusions and implications.  Reread this to refresh my memory and compare with Miracle at Midway.

IMHO:
Read Shattered Sword for the best comprehensive coverage of Midway from the Japanese Perspective.
Read Miracle at Midway (Prager) for the best comprehensive coverage of Midway from the US Perspective.

They disagree on some fine points about the battle.  Shattered Sword's conclusions about the positions of the 4 Jap Carriers during the SBD attack was quite persuasive. 

They also disagree to some extent on why the Japanese had such a horrible defeat.  I think Shattered Sword's criticism of Prager's conclusions were overwrought - because Shattered Sword agreed with Prager but thought Japanese doctrine had led them on this path since they defeated the Russian Fleet back in 1905.  They did not actually refute anything Prager's group said - it was more of "yes, but the problem ran deeper and longer in IJN fleet doctrine."

Both are excellent.