What are you reading right now?

The Boss just left for a three-week tropical cruise with her girlfriend and I got some new books to read between feeding Cat and taping her TV shows...

Crash Dive - In Action with HMS Safari 1942-43 by Arthur P. Dickison

and

Broken Arrow - America's First Lost Nuclear Weapon by Norman Leach

[STEED]

Finished reading...

Ivan's War: The Red Army at War 1939-45: Inside The Red Army, 1939-45

By Catherine Merridale


I'm a third of the way in to my next book...

When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler

By David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House

[AirborneTD]

Just recently finished:

Lone Survivor

The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Both about spec ops in Afghanistan. Both really good. I believe the first is going to be made into a movie.

[Sailor Steve]

Finished The Sorrow Of War. Outstanding book by a veteran of the North Vietnamese army. Shocking, enlightening, funny and tragic. I recommend it highly.

I'm now just starting Constructing a Life Philosophy, edited by Mark Ray Schmidt, Ph.D., Book Editor for The University of Arkansas at Monticello. It's part of the Opposing Viewpoints series, which looks at important issues and quotes full opinions by leading authorities on all sides. This particular one focuses on philosophy and religion.

It's one of four books I picked up very cheap at a library used-book sale.

[Subnuts]

I just finished reading Stalking The Red Bear, and I'm shocked at how painfully average the whole thing was. It's mildly interesting, and is mercifully free of technical errors, but it doesn't deliver on it's promise of being a gripping thriller. There's little character development, a lot of historical exposition, but as Cold War submarine stories go, a lot of the material in Blind Man's Bluff is so much better. I never got the impression in Stalking The Red Bear that the Blackfin was in any danger, and most of the book consists of the boat going around the Barents Sea, spying on Russian exercises, and collecting intelligence.

I think the author's rather stale writing style hurts the book more than it's subject matter. I bought it for $10, but I'd only recommend it if you stumbled across a copy at Salvation Army.

Originally Posted by Subnuts

I just finished reading Stalking The Red Bear, and I'm shocked at how painfully average the whole thing was. It's mildly interesting, and is mercifully free of technical errors, but it doesn't deliver on it's promise of being a gripping thriller. There's little character development, a lot of historical exposition, but as Cold War submarine stories go, a lot of the material in Blind Man's Bluff is so much better. I never got the impression in Stalking The Red Bear that the Blackfin was in any danger, and most of the book consists of the boat going around the Barents Sea, spying on Russian exercises, and collecting intelligence.

I think the author's rather stale writing style hurts the book more than it's subject matter. I bought it for $10, but I'd only recommend it if you stumbled across a copy at Salvation Army.

Whew! I thought it was just me that was totally underwhelmed by Stalking the Red Bear.

It sort of reminded me of a book version of a crap TV quasi-history doc like one sees sandwiched between the blowing things up show and monster-truck marathons, with the fancy CGI graphics, dramatic sound track and zero substantive content.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Just read A. Terenov's Under Three Flags, The Saga of the Submarine Cruiser K-43/Chakra, English version.

(Don't bother looking it up in Amazon. It's just not there. www.books.ru has it, for around 1000 rubles - very roughly US$25, not counting shipping. The good news is that they ship overseas, the bad news is that the order screens are 100% Russian, with no English).

Most of the book is on the author's experiences as he prepares and trains for the job of teaching officers from another (India) and is very interesting. Frankly, I'll prefer more stories of Terenov's earlier career, but the book was originally intended for a Russian audience (written in Russian to boot!) and presumably talk of the standard Russian system would be a lot less interesting to them than to us. Nevertheless, it is one of a handful of views from Russian commanders that made it all the way to an English translation, and if you cut out those whose views have been irreversibly soured by having an accident happen on their boats, perhaps the only one.

The weak part is at the back, where the author tries to compare the Soviet and Indian naval systems. His points have some merit but are poorly argued in my opnion. For more details, see my fuller review here.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Finished The Sorrow Of War. Outstanding book by a veteran of the North Vietnamese army. Shocking, enlightening, funny and tragic. I recommend it highly.

Glad you liked it.

I guess the model or inspiration for it was the classic of all modern war novels, "All quiet in the western front", or so I thought when I read it. But, it's good anyway.

Presently I'm sort of glancing through Sun Tzu's Art of War.

[Dowly]

Art of War was a bit of an disappointment to me.

Started reading Generation Kill yesterday.

[Raptor1]

Just started reading Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, been a while since I read a good book on the Eastern Front and this one looks promising.

[frau kaleun]

Hi Jacob, welcome to Subsim!

Some of the books discussed here are new, some aren't. Mostly it's a thread about what people are reading at the moment.

Lots of good info in this thread about a lot of different books but if you have interest or questions about particular books or subject matter, ask away and if someone's got info they'll more than likely share it.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Hi Jacob, welcome to Subsim!

Some of the books discussed here are new, some aren't. Mostly it's a thread about what people are reading at the moment.

Lots of good info in this thread about a lot of different books but if you have interest or questions about particular books or subject matter, ask away and if someone's got info they'll more than likely share it.

Ha, somebody other than me now has the shame of answering to one of those! I'm free! Freeeeeeeeee! *runs into brick wall*

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by jacob1hamilton

hi everybody

this is jacob .... I m new in this forum... Please tell me latest books releases

die spammer.

[Kpt. Weyprecht]

Originally Posted by Randomizer

The Boss just left for a three-week tropical cruise with her girlfriend and I got some new books to read between feeding Cat and taping her TV shows...

Crash Dive - In Action with HMS Safari 1942-43 by Arthur P. Dickison

and

Broken Arrow - America's First Lost Nuclear Weapon by Norman Leach

How is the Crash Dive compared to Ben Bryant's Submarine Commander? I read that one last year and really liked it.

By the way, any advice on Unknown Waters by Alfred Scott McLaren and William R. Anderson? I considered ordering it recently and I finally turned back to the WW2 with Clear the Bridge.

Originally Posted by Kpt. Weyprecht

How is the Crash Dive compared to Ben Bryant's Submarine Commander? I read that one last year and really liked it.

Am not familier with Ben Bryant's Submarine Commander, just Paul Schratz' book of the same name. Sorry.

The author of Crash Dive was a Leading WT Operator on board and the book, based on his diary, is generally well done and quite readable.