"Books You’re Reading or Bought Recently " Topic

The subject line sums it up. What book(s) are you reading? What books have you recently bought?
September's been an unusually acquisitive month for me but I found a couple hard-to-find books that I knew I'd better buy or lose the opportunity. Here are the books I've purchased in September in no particular order:

"The Wars in Egypt: From the Rebellion Under Arabi Pasha to the Fall of Khartoum," by Thomas Short.
"The Encyclopedia of River Gunboats," by Roger Branfill-Cook.
"The Sudan Memoirs of Carl Christian Giegler Pasha 1873-83," edited by Richard Hill.
"Holy City on the Nile: Omdurman During the Mahdiyya, 1885-1898," by Robert Kramer.
"The Southern Sudan 1883-1898: A Struggle for Control," by Robert Collins.
"The Boiling Cauldron: Utrecht District and the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879," by Huw Jones.
"The Zulus at War," by Adrian Greaves and Xolani Mkhize.
"The Zulu War Journal of Colonel Henry Harford, C.B.," by Bob Carruthers.

Thanks to the generosity of longtime friend Dave Mills (Long Valley Gamer) I read, "The Life of the Mahdi," by Haim Shaked to start off September. I took a little break from history by reading Lee Child's, "The Midnight Line," but jumped right back in with "Foreigners Within the Gates: The Legations at Peking," by Michael and Yeone Wei-Chih Moser. This book is filled with great old photographs of Legation buildings. Right now I'm reading, "The Mahdi of Allah," by Richard Bermann and, "The Curling Letters of the Zulu War: There Was An Awful Slaughter," edited by Adrian Greaves and Brian Best.

Guessing any books not just 19th century but luckily this counts either way.
Battle of Borodino by Alexander Mikaberidze

I've had a pretty good reading month, finishing The Monitor Boys (about the ironclad's crew), Patriot Battles, and The Cap (memoir of WW II Jew). I am currently reading Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy. I've cut my book buying way down, but I've accumulated several dozen books on the slave trade, a Tony Hillerman novel, and a book about the Marianist religious order.

The Boxer Rebellion by Diana Preston.

As usual, this month the number of books I've acquired is embarrassingly large. Mostly WWII, but a few others such as "War on the Run", the story of Robert Rogers which I'm looking forward to reading next.

At the moment I'm reading an exceedingly well written memoir of the desert campaign, "Alamein to Zem Zem", by Keith Douglas. Written immediately after the events, he was sadly to die a few days after D-Day.

A question on the Hartford Journal. I have a copy edited by Daphne Child and she says that she omitted the last two paragraphs from the book.

She said they were "irrelevant to the story".

In this edition the last paragraph starts with "Troubles broke out almost immediately" and ends with "of heart-disease or poisoning.]".

Does your copy have the missing paragraphs?

Thanks,

Vince

No, the last page ends abruptly with a sentence describing how Cetshwayo's appearance drastically changes when wearing western-style clothes. I suspect that your version may be longer. The one I bought has only 115 pages worth of his journal. It's confined to just the AZW and ends with Cetshwayo's capture. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a copy of the journal edited by Daphne Child.

In paper, just started Mission Accomplished--the SOE in Italy '43-45. On kindle is Crasader about Don Starry, who commanded 11th ACR in Vietnam and Cambodia. (Really reading this for insight into David Drake's SF: when Starry was in command, Drake was in the S-2 shop.)
In fiction, just tracked down Carnage of the Realm, the only one of the Werner-Bok Library mysteries I hadn't read. And I'm re-reading J Robert Janes' Sandman in his Kohler and St Cyr series.
What else? Ah! Mayan Glyphs and Cretan Linear A & B in the British Museum series.

I need a theme.

Double Indemnity – J.M. Cain
Another Hill – Milton Wolff

The Gun – CJ Chivers

Just finished The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler.

King William's War – Michael G. Laramie
Battles for the Three Kingdoms – John Barrat
Lethal White – Robert Galbraith (#4 in a mystery series written under a nom de plume by J.K. Rowling)

LT

Fiction: Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss
Non-Fiction:In the Name of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy
Rules: Hail Caesar by Warlord Games and
WRG 1685-1845 by WRG and
The Fantasy Trip by Steve Jackson

Battles of the Bible,as it was discussed on a thread on here awhile back. It sounded interesting and I found it cheap on Amazon.

Mill Springs: Campaign and battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky Hardcover – 2001 by Kenneth A Hafendorfer

Awesome book on a little known battle of the ACW

Just finished Warhawk in the Pacific (about P-40's).
Working on Introduction to a Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales. I know I'm all over the spectrum.

Murderbot Diaries! Oh my… Amazing reads!

In December I have to present a talk on the Anglo/Commonwealth/Free French invasion of Vichy French controlled Syria & Lebanon in 1941, so currently I am reading "First Victory, Britain's Forgotten Struggle in the Middle East, 1941" by Robert Lyman. Next will be "England's Last War Against France, Fighting Vichy France 1940 – 1942" by Colin Smith.

Then I have to sit down and write the talk.

I just finished "Shiloh: Conquer or Perish" by Timothy B. Smith. This excellent book covers the second day of the battle in detail, which is usually glossed over in other books on the battle.

I recently completed:

General Fox Conner: Pershing's Chief of Operations and Eisenhower's Mentor by Steven Rabelais. Besides being a fellow Mississippian, I'm to portray him in a "Present Meets Past" program for the Mississippi Archives next month.

Moltke and His Generals by Quintin Barry, a study of the great German chief of staff and the officers with whom he worked from the Danish "problem" through the Franco-German War.

And I'm currently reading Quintin Barry's The Franco-Prussian War, Volume 1: The Campaign of Sedan, Helmut von Moltke and the Overthrow of the Second Empire. And have The Franco-Prussian War, Volume 2: After Sedan, Helmut von Moltke and the Defeat of the Government of National Defence.

[And all of the above are Kindle books.]

And yesterday I bought (on sale) The story of Code Breaking by Al Cimino.

Plus one "light" reading, I'm also re-reading The Lord of the Rings, again.

Being retired, I do have much more time to read now a days.

Jim

The Complete Story of the Grail: Chretien's Percival and its continuations

Up next is probably Palmerin of England or Amadis of Gaul vol. III.

Plus some mind candy that changes weekly as I finish books.

Vietnam An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975 by Max Hastings.

The Battle of Kings Mountain by Lyman Draper
The Hunt for Rob Roy by David Stevenson

I just recently finished reading, Where The South Lost The War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, by Kendall D. Gott

I've started reading The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War by Donald Stoker.

I'm now reading, finally, With Zeal and Bayonets Only.

Vincent Cronin's biography of Louis XIV.
Pacific Glory by P. T. Deutermann.
Just finished Bulldog Drummond by H. C. McNeile.

Took a break from my historical books and just finished both Michael Crichton's The Sphere and Congo. Am now starting on my recently acquired, like new 1960 edition, 16 volume set of Sam Morrison's History of US Naval Operations of WWII.
After having read Pope, O'hara and Hornfischer and other more recent writings on the Naval War, I am expecting the Morrison volumes to be rather light on details or inaccurate in some aspects. But it'll be something to cross off the bucket list once I'm done.

Gothic line

A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility and What the Eye's Don't See, Hue 1968, and Lam Son 179 -The Cargo Must Get Through. All are highly recommended!

I'm currently wading through Robert Fisk's massive Great War for Civilisation. Getting a deeper understanding of Middle East wars and politics since 1980 or so.

Just finished Shogun, currently reading The Battle of Mine Creek, next up A Bright Shining Lie, then Gaijin.

I just bought from Tom Molon (a gentleman and a member here) -Scenarios for All Ages by Grant and Asquith, and Programmed Wargame Scenarios by Grant. I am thrilled and hope to dig in over my birthday weekend.

I am currently in mid read of three books: A Team of Rivals, Hiking the Appalachian Trail, Cave Time. An eclectic but interesting selection that reveals a bit about the reader.

Read recently:

Osprey Duel: Patton vs Centurion, Pz3 vs Somua S-35.
Conan Doyle: Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
Howard Whitehouse: The White Zulu
John Scurr: Malayan Tales of the Yorkshire Light Infantry
Connaughton, Pimlott & Anderson: Battle for Manila

"Anthracite Reds", a documentary of Communism in Northeastern Pennsylvania during the 1920s

The Case for a Creator – Lee Strobel

Saratoga John Luzader