What are we reading?

[Gusington]

Greybriar please post what you think of the Stalin bio. I have part one of a massive Chruchill bio and part one of a massive Hitler bio ready to go, I just need to mentally prepare myself for the slog.

[BanzaiCat]

Which Hitler bio, Gus?

[airboy]

I finished the next to most recent Harry Turtledove "World War Two started early" books.  It was mediocre.

[BanzaiCat]

I finished the next to most recent Harry Turtledove "World War Two started early" books.  It was mediocre.

All of his books are mediocre. He has some cool ideas, but the execution, not so much.

[Airborne Rifles]

Greybriar please post what you think of the Stalin bio.

Ditto.

[endfire79]

I've got that Statlin bio on my ereader as well.  I'm not finished yet.  Picked it up when it was on special from Chapters/Indigo over here.

I should read the forward again, but I think this might have originally been written in Russian.  It's long, but very descriptive about his early life (I just made it to Lenin's will).  There's humour and anecdotes that might make more sense in Russian than in English possibly.  I usually pick it up when I'm on Transatlantic flights. 

[Gusington]

Banzai I've got the first book of Ian Kershaw's two book bio, Hubris.

[airboy]

Turtledove has two very good books IMHO:
Day of Infamy
The Man With the Iron Heart

The Man With the Iron Heart was one of the most plauible alt-WW2 european endings I have read.  It closely parallels some of the occurances during the Iraq War during the Bush II presidency which irritated some readers.  But as a military strategy book to overthrow a military occupation of a defeated country - the whole premise of the book was quite good.

[Staggerwing]

I finished the next to most recent Harry Turtledove "World War Two started early" books.  It was mediocre.

How were the other ones? I've been meaning to read them but have not gotten to it. I currently have Turtledove's 'The Man with the Iron Heart' on deck but I wonder if it will have lost some of it's parallel timeliness now that situation in Iraq has become less centered on the US presence there.

[Greybriar]

Greybriar please post what you think of the Stalin bio.

Ditto.

The book is about 600 pages long and I don't spend much time reading each day, so it will be quite awhile before I've finished with it (too many PC games to play and movies to watch). I've barely scratched the surface. But I find it interesting and have enjoyed what I've read so far.

I am about to start reading Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives by Ėdvard Radzinskiĭ.

Sounds like the documentary Russia's War: Blood on the Snow....

I didn't see Ėdvard Radzinskiĭ's name anywhere in that title's description, but the subject matter is similar. So go figure.

[Toonces]

I'm reading several books at once right now, but what is more interesting is what I'm not reading.

I have all three of Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy books.  I read about 75 pages of Army at Dawn before I shelved it; I read 95% of The Day of Battle but didn't quite finish it.  Last week I finally started The Guns at Last Light, but after the D-Day landings part I've shelved it.

The books look great on my shelf, all nestled together, but man, I just do not like Atkinson's writing style at all.  He has this way of saying, "One soldier said this.  Another soldier said that.  A sailor was overheard saying this.  That, said another sailor."  And so on.  For some reason, these little bits inserted into the narrative just grate on my nerves big time. 

Anyway, I'm moving on.  I read Stephen Ambrose's D-Day, so I know the gist of the fight, and how it ends.  I do want to read a good western front WW2 book, though.   ???

[bob48]

I would recommend 'Decision in Normandy' by Carlo D'este, and 'After Normandy' by James.J.Carafano.

[Airborne Rifles]

Six Armies in Normandy by John Keegan is a good one.

[bob48]

^Yes, indeed it is.

[Gusington]

John Keegan was a great writer. I'm about to start The First World War by him.