TSF Book Club

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
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</blockquote>
 
I'm more of a boob man myself but whatever floats your boat I guess.

Paekakboyz

But brain can be used to think about boobs... this reminds me of...
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='

'>

</a>

gollum

For everyone who has been waiting 15 years for one of my favourite books to be made into a movie. Altered Carbon is coming as a TV series -
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.blastr.com/2016-5-13/joel-kinnaman-star-new-netflix-cyberpunk-sci-fi-series-altered-carbon'>http://www.blastr.com/2016-5-13/joel-kinnaman-star-new-netflix-cyberpunk-sci-fi-series-altered-carbon</a>

dogmeat

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="dK" data-cid="559487" data-time="1455846897">
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Just finished a very good trilogy by Miles Cameron, The Traitor's Son Cycle. If you enjoy Sword Fantasies with a mix of Medieval European History (of sorts) then this would be a great start
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13616278-the-red-knight?ac=1&from_search=1&from_nav=true'>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13616278-the-red-knight?ac=1&from_search=1&from_nav=true</a>
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17737893-the-fell-sword?from_search=true&search_version=service'>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17737893-the-fell-sword?from_search=true&search_version=service</a>
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129080-the-dread-wyrm'>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129080-the-dread-wyrm</a>
 
I have read a lot of Cameron's Historical fiction (written under Christian Cameron) which would appeal to people who enjoy Conn Igglugden. He has 4 main series
1) the Tom Swann short novellettes are Kindle only books, set around the late Medieval Era and the encroachment of the Ottoman Empire into to Eurpoe
2) the Tyrant series, which is based on a post-Alexandrian Mediterranean world
3) the Long War series, which explores the Persian invasion of Greece, around the Battel of Plataea
4) the William Gold series, about the stories of a donat of the Order of St John and his adventures in France, Italy and now the Crusades to fight the Saracen
 
All great reads for the nerds among us
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</blockquote>
 
Thanks for this DK. I read a Tom Swann when you first posted this and found it a bit meh, but had forgotten that I (must have) got The Red Knight at the same time.
 
Wow - just wow. How had I not discovered him for myself? Totally endorse your recommendation. Good characters real feel to his writing, writes a good battle and despite a lot of majick (sic) it does seem quite well grounded in the Plantagenet period.
 
It's like a modern chivalric romance

taniwharugby

Operation Mayhem - Steve Heaney MC with Damien Lewis.
 
A black ops British squad is dropped into a village in Sierra Leone to try and slow the progress of the RUF intent on taking the Freetown Airfield.
 
Just another tale of some woeful decisions made higher up the chain that leads to putting lives at risk unnecessarily on the front line, good read though with one of the Pathfinders squad (Steve Heaney) being involved in writing with renowned war and conflict reporter Lewis.

The Silver Fern

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