What are you reading now...?

[Tampico]

Genghis: Bones of the Hills: A Novel
Conn Iggulden

[Snaquebite]

"Legacy and Honor"
The Values and Influence of America's Eagle Scouts.
Alvin Townley

[scooter]

In the Graveyard of Empires
by Seth Jones

[Tress]

Originally Posted by Tress

"A Brief History of Time" - Stephen Hawking

Originally posted by craigepo

That is a tough book.

LOL. Tell me something that I do not already know. Why do you think that I am reading it for the 4th or 5th time. I am still trying to get my head wrapped around some of the concepts in this book.

[Horned Frog]

As per many exhortations in the thread titled "A survival scenario: What do you do?" posted by nmap, I am currently reading One Second After, by William Forstchen. While I have never been much of a fan of apocalyptic-style fiction, this book provides a compelling, realist approach to the events following an EMP attack on America which cripples a small town in North Carolina. I encourage anyone who has not read it to check it out.

Update: this book is heart breaking.

[Requiem]

The Impostor's Daughter, by Laurie Sandell.

Laurie's father is a former Green Beret with a law degree, a PhD, speaks several languages and disappears for weeks at a time. He's brilliant, mercurial, and mesmerizing to those who meet him. He's also a fraud.

Laurie Sandell recalls adoring her father and his amazing stories of secret missions and worldwide adventures. But as she grows to young womanhood, she discovers he's not all he claims to be.

It's an interesting look at what a poser's lies do to those nearest to them -- the ones they claim to love yet nearly destroy with their lies.

Susan

(I was not thrilled with the format of the book - it's in a graphic novel format - but the story was compelling enough to keep me reading.)

[GratefulCitizen]

Received through ILL this week:
Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings by Charles H. Hapgood.

Looking at the record in the jacket, I'm the only the 13th person to checkout this book.
Most of the checkouts occurred well over 30 years ago.

It details the investigation of some ancient maps, including some by Piri Re'is, Oronteus Finaeus, Hadji Ahmed and Mercator.
The investigation and ancillary research deal with questions of ancient technology, exploration, and timelines.

Quite a little treasure.
Will probably buy a copy.

[ReefBlue]

I mentioned these books earlier, now my reviews are in:

I just finished 'Notes of a Russian Sniper' by Vasili Zaitsev.

I read it during a round trip flight, I thought I would be trapped in a chair on a plane with the only thing to do is to read this book.

It is absolutely incredible, I couldn't stop reading it. I completely recommend it to everyone.

If you saw the movie 'Enemy at the Gates', forget you ever saw that movie. When you read this book, you'll see that the only thing the movie takes from the book is Vasili's and Major Konig's name.

It is such a simplistic movie compared to the book. The foreword even says if Vasili lived to see the movie he'd be ashamed to be associated with it.

Also finished 'Project Azorian'. Very heavy and dry technical stuff in the beginning, so it kind of drags along until about half way through, then it is tough to put down. Pretty incredible story and it shows what can be done when you really want to do it (and, more importantly, have a virtually unlimited budget).

[DaveMatteson]

My desk books include,
Bradley: A History of American Fighting and Support Vehicles

Half-Track: A history of American Semi-Tracked Vehicles.

Both are by R.P. Hunnicutt and are technical books. They are very well written and researched. There are several in the group including the Sherman and Stuart books, The Sheridan book, The Pershing and Patton books, and the M1 book. There is also a Heavy tank history book as well. I use these books for my web sites and personal reference.


My car books (books I travel with) include, Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Walton and a book I picked up in a Reston, Va. book store about Teddy and the Rough Riders. That is actually still in the bag in the glovebox

Brothers In Arms is very well written and researched well worth the money and the time.

[ZonieDiver]

Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster. One of the "Band of Brothers" from Easy Company of the 506th. Very interesting viewpoint about those events. (He was one of my favorite characters in the min-series.)

Will find his other book, which I believe I read in high school, about sharks - Myth and Maneater.

[Mustang Man]

Slaughter House Five
By Kurt Vonnegut


After finishing The Things They Carried, my english teacher assigned us to read Slaughter House Five. Being a member on this sight for a couple of weeks, I noticed Richard would include in most of his posts "So it goes..." I had no idea where that saying came from or what it ment untill I started reading this book a week ago. I'm enjoying it and is definitly a book I'd have to read over again to have a full understanding of everything.

[CDG]

Just finished "Black Hearts" by Jim Frederick and am now on "On Combat" by LTC Dave Grossman. "They Fought For Each Other" by Kelly Kennedy is on deck.

[Streck-Fu]

I have finally started Horse Soldiers and am half way through now.

I have also started Jawbreaker.

[zeke]

Green Berets in the Vanguard, Inside Special Forces, 1953-1963 by Chalmers Archer Jr.

Good so far and talks about the 14th Special Forces Operational Detachment.

[Bushranger]

Infantry Training Vol.1, Pam.6, "Military Tracking"