TSF Book Club

jegga

I've got another Damien Lewis book here if you want it , it's about this <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Qala-i-Jangi'>https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Qala-i-Jangi</a> 
Operation certain death is another good one of his .

jegga

Finished the book about Crazy horse and Custer,as usual with an Ambrose book it was pretty long . Custer was a bit of a rockstar in his day and was on the verge of announcing that he was about to run for president as a democrat when got back from on last battle with the Indians .

mariner4life

Have now finished two Max Hastings WWII books, "All Hell Let Lose" and "The Secret War"
 
All Hell Let Loose is a narrative of the entire conflict, from origins through to victory and aftermath of both theatres. While there isn't much there that's new for someone who has read as many history books as me, i still enjoyed it. To tell the story of the war he attempts to make it smaller and more personal by using extracts from letters and journals from people involved in major episodes. It helps to provide a more human story than a basic run-down of dates and places. I actually really enjoyed it, it's well written.
 
The Secret War is the story of the intelligence and secret services of each major player, and how they evolved and developed over the war. It's okay, but lacks any real depth of feeling to it, and i found i finished it out of a sense of duty than i desire to keep reading.
 
A thing i've noticed with modern WWII historians, Hastings especially, is they are a lot more critical of the western allies now than the romanticised views of victors from the past. He is pretty scathing about their leadership, and their skill in battle. It's fairly obvious he holds the performance of the Wehrmacht in high esteem, but holds nothing but contempt for the German leadership. He also uses the benefit of hindsight to wonder how the west fell for Stalin's bullshit. 
 
I would recommend All Hell Let Loose, but The Secret War is only for those with a specific interest. 
 
 
After reading nothing but non-fiction since christmas i needed some fiction, so i started Fallen Dragon by Peter Hamilton. Funny to see the first chapter set in Cairns and Kuranda. At least i know it will still be here in 250 years, and so will Skyrail and the Kuranda Scenic Rail. Doesn't look good for tourism though.

jegga

I enjoyed all hell broke loose but Hastings can be a miserable bastard at time. I'm reading Catastrophe at the moment, its a bloody good read too. Its interesting how people rant about what a fucked up place the world is now , pre world war one Europe wasn't much better if at all.
 
If you haven't read Nemesis put that on your list, theres a lot of stuff in there like how the yanks screwed the french and poms over and how China screwed over everyone that tried to help them . Also he goes into a fair bit of detail about the Russian and Japanese fighting towards the end.
The aussies do not come out of it well even though he went into great pains to explain why they still whined when the book came out.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nemesis-The-Battle-Japan-1944-45/dp/0007219814/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51pvzwQpoYL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL160_SR104%2C160&refRID=168JEYRTQM3EG96Q1FG9'>http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nemesis-The-Battle-Japan-1944-45/dp/0007219814/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51pvzwQpoYL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL160_SR104%2C160&refRID=168JEYRTQM3EG96Q1FG9</a>
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catastrophe-Europe-Goes-War-1914/dp/0007519745/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=61Ltw7cYlBL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL160_SR104%2C160&refRID=168JEYRTQM3EG96Q1FG9'>http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catastrophe-Europe-Goes-War-1914/dp/0007519745/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=61Ltw7cYlBL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL160_SR104%2C160&refRID=168JEYRTQM3EG96Q1FG9</a>

mariner4life

That Catastrophe looks fantastic, I'll give that a crack. 
 
 
The Yank command were pretty vehement in their anti-imperialism, and that affected a huge amount of their thinking in the Pacific, and also lead them to making a few decisions about what intelligence to share late in the war. They for damned sure weren't fighting a war to "liberate" these countries only for the poms and the French to just waltz back in and reclaim their rights. From what i understand, European prestige was too badly tarnished by the Japanese success to every make that a reality any way. I assume that book goes in to that in a fair bit more detail though.

jegga

The french rose up against the japs as the yanks got closer expecting them to help, they didn't and the japs crushed them. They also did their best to try and exclude the poms from the naval war, India had their land troops tied up anyway. 
 
The end of the book goes into the double dealing and back stabbing in a bit more detail. The spell the europeans had over their colonies was broken which influenced people like Lee Kuan Yew , the Phillipines elected a Japanese sympathiser as their leader after the wars end due in no small part to the yanks abandoning them. The dutch got the British to re arm the Japs to fight against pro independence forces in Indonesia and they did in Viet Nam too. I think the messiest part was probably former Wermacht ncos and officers leading foreign legion troops against Vietnamese troops led by ncos and officers from the IJA.
 
Theres a nice summary here <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.armchairgeneral.com/british-and-japanese-troops-cooperate-in-se-asia-1945.htm'>http://www.armchairgeneral.com/british-and-japanese-troops-cooperate-in-se-asia-1945.htm</a>
 
Anyway I scored this the other day,<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Valley-French-Vietnam/dp/0306814439'>http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Valley-French-Vietnam/dp/0306814439</a> it looks good but its as long as Catastrophe. It'll take a while to get through it.

JC

The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund. It's a thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in Sweden. You get to know (or at least suspect) who the killer is pretty quickly but they are pretty ingenious and manipulative in the Hannibal Lecter vein. It's nearly 800 pages long so it needs a bit of commitment but it's pretty fast paced with some really clever twists and turns. Fairly rough at times. The author is in fact a couple of young Swedish blokes who write together.
 
I enjoyed it and read it in one weekend. It's the kind of book that will be made into a cracking Scandi movie or TV series before being watered down into a so-so Hollywood remake 3 years from now.

Chris B.

I happened to read Peter Fitzsimons' Gallipoli book a couple of months ago. It's a reasonable book, though perhaps errs a bit on the emotive, blame the British generals, side of the story. Compared to various other, older books, I've read - he also attributed Keith Murdoch quite a bit more influence in ending the campaign than I'd seen previously.
 
Then, the other night, on TV, I watched an Australian docu-drama on World War 1. I think it's going to be a three or four part series, but this first episode dealt mainly with the lead-up to war and Gallipoli. And bugger me, if Keith Murdoch didn't feature prominently as a mover and shaker of policy on Gallipoli again.
 
The Keith Murdoch we're talking about isn't, of course, the disgraced AB prop - it's Rupert Murdoch's father. I'm afraid I can't help but be fairly cynical that Rupert might be trying to build his family's legacy. 
 
Edit: The docu-drama was called Changed forever: The making of Australia - it was on the History Channel.

jegga

I've read or tried to read a couple of Fitzsimons books, I find him a bit hard going tbh .
There was a story a week or so back about the numbers of Kiwis serving in Gallipoli actually being about twice what was originally thought,<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/twice-as-many-kiwis-served-in-gallipoli-than-previously-thought-2016032121#axzz46Lsqmezr'>http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/twice-as-many-kiwis-served-in-gallipoli-than-previously-thought-2016032121#axzz46Lsqmezr</a>

NTA

Battle Ground
Why the Liberal Party Shirtfronted Tony Abbott
 
I'm not particularly into political journals, but this one was sent to the wife for subscribing to the Australian (for some article about the bloke with a Tesla battery) long after the subscription ended.
 
It basically looks at the politician who is Tony Abbott, and why he was effective as an opposition leader but fuck all use as a national leader. Pretty much what everyone suspected: he's a fucking numpty who thought everyone loved the 1950s, despite being whipped by Peta "Mad Tits" Credlin. Though the book is fairly staunch in the belief that Tony and old Vinegar Tits never got it on, so that's something.
 
Anyway, its a really good look at why politics is fucked due to a bunch of out-of-touch party spawn who put the party above everything, including the electorate.
 
But I'm glad I didn't pay for it.

Tim

Hotel California: Singer-songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons 1967-1976
By Barney Hoskyns
 
Entertaining, gossipy, and agreeably trashy look at people behind the Laurel Canyon sound. Almost a companion piece to Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.

JC

If you liked that one Tim you should try Zero to Sixty, the Neil Young bio by Johnny Rogan. IMO it's a much better read than Shakey which came out a couple of years later, as Rogan is much more interested in the music than Jimmy McDonough seems to be.

Tim

Cheers man, might check it out.
 
I need to find a good book about Steely Dan, and one about "yacht rock".

JC

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="573708" data-time="1461148704">
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Cheers man, might check it out.
 
I need to find a good book about Steely Dan, and one about "yacht rock".
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</blockquote>
Eminent Hipsters by Fagen himself. Very funny, but you'll still know very little about the music. You'll never find out what the Custerdome is. Avoid the Brian Sweet biog. It's like an Albert Goldman bio - lots of conjecture that the author couldn't possibly know.

Mokey

Just released my 5th book into the wild. This one is quite different - a collection of 10 contemporary erotic short stories called Ladies First.
 
Significantly more filthy than anything else I've done, so if menages, group stuff etc makes you squeamish, DO NOT GO THERE.
 
Otherwise, buy your socks off (or encourage your sexy times partner too), and earn my undying gratitude.

jegga

Good luck with the new book, mrs Jegga says I'm not allowed to buy them though.

dK

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Mokey" data-cid="576062" data-time="1462055529">Just released my 5th book into the wild. This one is quite different - a collection of 10 contemporary erotic short stories called Ladies First. 
 
Significantly more filthy than anything else I've done, so if menages, group stuff etc makes you squeamish, DO NOT GO THERE. 
 
Otherwise, buy your socks off (or encourage your sexy times partner too), and earn my undying gratitude.</blockquote>
Illustrated?

Mokey

Heh. The words paint a picture in your head!

dogmeat

The brain is without a doubt the body's most sensuous organ

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="dogmeat" data-cid="576189" data-time="1462100182">
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The brain is without a doubt the body's most sensuous organ
</div>
</blockquote>
 
I'm more of a boob man myself but whatever floats your boat I guess.

The Silver Fern

TSF Book Club