"What Are You Reading Or Recently Finished?" Topic

I'm re-reading Martin Windrow's, "Our Friends Beneath the Sands, The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935." A great read and highly recommended to anyone interested in the French Foreign Legion. Lots of inspiration and ideas for scenarios in Morocco, Algeria and Tonkin.
Also re-reading, "Desert Warfare," by Bennet Burleigh.

I just bought "Daughters of the Night Sky" by Aimie K. Runyan. On sale at Amazon for kindle at 2 bucks. Russian women of the 588th night bombers. Good reads rates it a 4.17. And 4.17 with 9k plus ratings is a great record!

The book you're rereading Ragbones looks really interesting. Just stuck it on my Amazon wishlist.

I just finished "Splintered Empires" by Prit Buttar. It's the final book in his series on the Eastern Front WW1, and covers the east right up to 1921, because in the east, the conflicts certainly didn't end in 1918. I was quite interested in learning about the Baltic countries, and the break up of the Austro Hungarian empire post 1918. So few histories cover it.

Just finished "Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway". Currently reading James Holland's "Normandy '44" and Charles Todd's "The Black Ascot".

Just finished "Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War" by Rick Atkinson. Really a fascinating book covering the fight in the air, on land, on sea and in the board rooms and command centers. The most enlightening part dealt with the interaction between the commanders.

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

The first in a planned trilogy on the Revolution this books covers the first 21 months. This is the best History book I have read in a while. The man knows how to tell a story and his documentation is impeccable . I thought I knew the Revolution but after this book i now know much more and more importantly "the why". Critics claim that this is the best military history of the Revolution, at least in our lifetime if not ever.

Highly recommended

Amazon link link

Just finished Meacham's The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. Great read. Very good man. Now 1/2 way through Drury and Clavin's, The Heart of Everything That Is,Valley Forge. Inspiring. Next in line is Wilkins', Gran Their Belts to Fight Them: The Viet Cong's Big Unit War against the US., 1965-1966. H

Gaiman, Russel, and Hampton, American Gods Vol. 2 My Ainsel, graphic novel (2019)

A one-volume collected works of HP Lovecraft.

Began on August 1st and just finished all 5 books of James L Nelson's Revolution at Sea Saga (AWI fiction) and have now returned to vol. VIII USN Operations in WW2-Samuel Morrison.

Anthony Beevor's "D-Day"

Just finished Killers of the Flower Moon.

link

A reviewer of Publishers Weekly stated "New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Lost City of Z) burnishes his reputation as a brilliant storyteller in this gripping true-crime narrative, which revisits a baffling and frightening—and relatively unknown—spree of murders occurring mostly in Oklahoma during the 1920s."

Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam is next on the list.

I just picked up "Purposeful Retirement: How to Bring Happiness and Meaning to Your Retirement" by Hyrum W. Smith last night at my wife's insistence.

I retire in 10 months and she thinks she knows what I need to have in order to retire….my idea is that I am getting the "Honey-Do" list (major renovations, house jobs, etc.) done as quickly as possible this year (and especially this past summer) so that I have more time paint, to game, to make terrain, etc. without the need to having to complete her projects….perhaps I am dreaming of utopia!!

Currently reading "The Undivided Past" by David Cannadine, an examination of identity and how it resulted in coexistence as much as conflict. Recently read the graphic novel "They call us enemy" by George Takei (co-writer), Justin Eisinger (co-writer), Steven Scott (co-writer), Harmony Becker (Artist) about Takei's Japanese-American families internment during WW2 and "Paper" by Mark Kurlansky, a history of paper which is also a history of reading and publishing. Recently also read Ospreys The Aleutians 1942-43, Imjin River 1951,Campaldino 1289, Roman Legionary Fortresses 27 BC–AD 378, Roman Army Units in the Western Provinces (2), Special Forces Camps in Vietnam 1961–70 and The Army of Maria Theresa (retitled The Austro-Hungarian Army of the Seven Years War)… they are quick reads.

Just finished "Fighting Emperors of Byzantium" by John Carr.

Excellent book on what the title says. Some were brilliant (Leo 1, Leo 3, Basileios 1 and 2), others competent, others not so.

Time to get my Byzantine armies up to strength, and take on the foes of the Empire.

"Company Aytch" by Sam Watkins, who served with the First Tennessee from their day of muster until Appomattox – great first hand account of the life of a Confederate infantryman

"A Confederate General from Big Sur" by Richard Brautigan.

Finished "The Fountainhead" a few days ago. Getting ready to start "A Roadside Picnic".

Just finished the Cambridge history of Ancient China. Currently reading The Forgotten War and The Early Chinese Empires Qin & Han

Just finished "The Second World Wars" by Victor Davis Hanson. A really great book! Now I'm reading "This Man's Army" by Andrew Exum. It's his experience as a platoon commander in the 10th Mountain, and is pretty good too.

Taking a break from volume 2 of Shelby Foote's "The Civil War"
to go more in depth with "Chancellorsville" by Stephen Sears.

Flint by Louis L'Amour

The African Wars by Chris Peers in conjunction with Foundry's Armies of East Africa (also by Chris Peers) which I finally scored, at a reasonable price, off eBay a couple of weeks ago.

"Karel de Grote" (Charlemagneà by Raoul Bauer. A well detailed overview of the reign and historical/mythological importance of Charlemagne.

Don't remember the name of it, but a book on Billy the Kid.

I've been on a heroic fantasy kick lately, but before that I read The Naval War in the Baltic, 1939-45 and Bodenplatte (the New Years Day 1945 attack by the Luftwaffe).

Guthrie's War a Napoleonic Surgeon During the Peninsular Campaign, by Michael Crumplin. Excellent read.

_Strength For The Fight_ a history of Black men (and
women) in the armed forces of the US from the early
days through Viet Nam.

The Rajah From Tipperary. Second hand bought Facts stranger than fiction. A young, illiterate Irishman becoming a Rajah in India and almost conquering the entire Punjab.
Highly recommended

The Osprey books on the Border Reivers.