"Books you've read over the Summer?" Topic

Hi All,
I'd like to see what everyone read over the summer. If you have time give them a rating from 1 – 5 stars.
Thanks.
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Ledgend
Author David Gemmell
4 Stars
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White Wolf
David Gemmell
3 1/2 Stars
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Crossfire
Matthew Farrer
3 Stars
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Zeppelins West
Joe R Lansdale
3 1/2 Stars
the oddest book of the summer.
kind of a weird wild west with steam punk. cast includes Sitting Bull,Annie Oakley,Wild Bill,a young Red Baron, Capt Nemo, Frankenstein, Dracula, Island of Dr M, Samurui Warriors at Little Big Horn, and the Tin Man.
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The Annals of the Chossen Trilogy
The Wizard Lord -The Ninth Talisman – The Summer Palace
Lawrence Watts-Evans
3 1/2 Stars
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World War Z
Max Brooks
4 1/2 Stars Great Book
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The Warded Man AKA The Painted Man
Peter V Brett
The Best Book of the Summer!!!
5 Stars!
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I read a horrid thing called The Descent by Jeff Long (worst stuff I've read in decades).
also… Sense and Sensibility, a huge book of 30's era science fiction, all the Astounding Science Fiction issues from 1957, a newish 'translation' of Gilgamesh, and a couple of Terry Pratchett books.

I've been reading a variety of zombie books and an Anita Blake novel.

Been watching more netflix than reading though.

I've been getting my Charlemagne fix: Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and William, Count of Orange with Pulci's Morgante lined up next. Plus Damon Runyon and Pratchett (been re-reading the series from the beginning). Oh, and let's see – With Wings like Eagles by Korda (nephew of the Director) about the Battle of Britain, and The king's Peace by Wedgewood.

Just a little light reading, really.

The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brien. 5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larssen (boring I know). 4.

Ghost by Robert Harris. 3 and a half.

Adrian Mole, The Missing Years by Sue Townshend. 3

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre. 4

Numbers, Prediction and War by TN Dupuy. 5

The War the Infantry Knew by JC Dunn. 5

The Yom Kippur War (Vol 2), Osprey. 3

Barbarossa 1941 by David Glantz 3 and a half.

The Austro-Prussian War by Wavro (sections). 4 and a half.

Comrades in Arms by Bob Mackenzie. 4

Currently on the next Stieg Larssen (The girl who knew too much? played with fire? can't recall the title). Was wondering about gettng Sheldons 'The German Army at Cambrai'.

I've had a splurge on books recently..

The Louie Knight detective series by Malcolm Pryce – black humour all the way. Interesting and fun…..

Lots of books on the Vietnam war.

Lots of books on the Napoleonic wars (current painting project)

The Alan Mallinson series.

Mons ****
Battles East: WWI Eastern front *****
Tanneburg: WWI campaign *****
1918: John Toland ****
Argonne:Ballantine's Book ****

I have also read several Osprey's and some books on Custer and Plain's Indian Wars.

Thanks,

John

Strangely enough I am just starting my first book, The Baltic by Allen Palmer.

Been on a bit of a modern binge for the most part this summer:

The Battle of Mogadishu by Matt Eversmann & Dan Schilling. 3.5

I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy. 4

The Night Stalkers by Mike Durant. 4

Riverine by Don Sheppard. 5

Chasing Ghosts by Paul Rieckhoff. 5

House to House by David Bellavia. 5

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells. 3.5

A few Garrett PI fantasy noir books, out of order. I read them in the order I buy them. I got the one with Lead in the title yestrday.

Alamo in the Ardennes. Good one about the 28th Division throwing off the German timetable in the Battle of the Bulge.

The Horse Soldiers, about the Special Forces in Afghanistan, post 9/11.

Some Foundry books on China and 20th Century insurrections.
The China one is particularly fascinating, with several rebellions simultaneous with the bloody Taiping rebellion. Any one of them would have or should have been famous for the millions of lives lost, but were overshadowed by the Taiping.

Ciaphas Cane, Hero of the Imoperum. Yup, I broke down and bought it. Very entertaining, particularly since I have no respect for 40K fluff.

I finished up all the Jane Austen I'd not read.

I read most of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books. Just 1.5 to go.

Re-read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because I'd got through all the Jane Austens.

The Information Officer by somebody Mills. Very interesting book set in WWII Malta.

Something dreadful involving hedgehogs in the title -- Elegance of the Hedgehog, perhaps? It sucked so badly that it is one of the very few books in my life I started and did not finish. Whoever the heck Richard and Judy are, they liked it, so I can now use them as a barometer of book suckitude.

Alexander McCall Smith's La's Orchestra Saves the World sort of set during and just after WWII.

I just re-read Kurt Vonnegut Bluebeard. Five stars. This novel informed me again how WWII turned a generation into practicing pacifists. They have almost all passed now, and I miss their strength and wisdom.

From the Edward R Hamilton catalog I ordered 40-odd remaindered aviation books, Luftwaffe At War and Osprey Aircraft of the Aces. I've read through most of them and give both series a solid 3 stars; they have lots of good quality photos and drawings, a little bit of analytic narrative and many revealing anecdotes of blazing air combat. Definitely worth the $6 USD or so I paid per volume. If you like to read you need the Edward R Hamilton catalog.

edwardrhamilton.com

The Zimmermann Telegram-Tuchman, Barbara W. 4

Persian Fire- Tom Holand 5

The Black and Tans- Richard Bennett 2.75

The Devils own Luck- Denis Edwards 5

No Simple Victory- Norman Davies 3.5

Currently reading (but just about finnished)

Alexander- Theodore Ayrault Dodge 4

Algernon Sidney and the English Republic by Jonathan Scott: A well written account of the life of Sidney. It looks into the politics of the time as well as dissecting out Sidney's views and what formed them both politically and personally. 5

Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis by Jonathan Scott: This looks at the end of Sidney's life with a powerful argument against Sidney being the founder of a whig party. It looks at the so called Exclusion Crisis in light of the literature of the time and sees that Exclusion is mentioned very little during the period. Well worth reading for any fan of 17th century England. 5

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I finished this while I was in Indianapolis, it is a somewhat depressing but nevertheless good story about young, rich, amoral individuals whose selfishness, apathy and shallowness ultimately destroys them. 4

The Four Million by O Henry: A collection of short stories and really good ones at that. One of the best short stories I've ever read, Mammon and the Archer, is in this work. Everything in it is good and much is great. Well worth it. 4.5

Lamb by Christopher Moore: This satire of the life of Christ should be funnier than it is. It is humourous in parts but it is not as funny as the author wanted it to be. A lot of it relies on the shock value of juxtaposition and just fall flat most of the time. I wanted to like it, and it was okay, but not really worth the time invested in reading it. 2

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschlid: I enjoyed this and it is pretty well researched for a pop history book. The subject is something that I'm not very familiar with so there was a lot that was new to me. It is a great introduction to the development of the modern congo. 4.5

Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley: While everyone is familiar with this story or at least some aspect of it, the novel itself is very different from most of the movie versions and the idea of Adam that the current popular media has created. The story blends various elements to it and can be read on multiple levels. The one amazing thing to me when I went through this this summer was how much of a narcissist Frankenstein himself is. It is incredible what he is able to justify to himself in different parts and how he is able to justify it, even allowing someone to be put to death when he might have the power to save her. Shelley touches on an immense number of human themes in this work and everyone will be a richer person for having read it. 5

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: Another case of a classic proving why it is a classic. The view of man's nature developed in this story is complex and imminently readable. 5

June:
Clubbed to Death by Elaine Viets.
Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy.
The Well-Beloved with The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved by Thomas Hardy.

July:
Alfred the Great by Justin Pollard.
The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt.

August:
More to William Morris by William Morris. (This consists of The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains in one volume.)
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. (I read this every August.)
Shop till You Drop by Elaine Viets.
In Hazard by Richard Hughes.
The Best of Hal Clement by Hal Clement.

I'm not sure Hardy, Viets, and de Camp should be rated on the same scale

I'm currently reading Conrad's The Nigger of the Narcissus, with Boiten's Battles with the Nachtjagd up next.

Let's see, the Lost Fleet series, 3/5, would be 4 if the female Co-President in the book didn't keep having the same undermining conversation with the main character every f/ive pages.

Robert Silverberg's Gilgamesh the King 4/5

Conan Doyle The White Company

Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest 3/5

Some Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover

David Keys – Catastrophe!

J R R Tolkien – El Hobbit

I didn't know Robert Silverberg wrote a Gilgamesh novel. Must track that down.

Just finished The Irregulars, a book about British intelligence operations on the U. S. during WWII. It centered on Roald Dahl. I also just bought a book on the history of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). I read it about 2 years ago, and I must have been the only person in Charlotte to do so, becasue I bought it at the local library for $.50. It looks brand new.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larssen (boring I know). 4."
Philistene! That is probably the best book I've read this year.

Mostly I re-read some old favorites this summer, especially Bujold Vorkosigan books. For those who like mysteries, I'll second Neotacha's recommendation of Mark Mills's "The Information Officer", set in Malta during WWII. The U.S. edition isn't out yet though (I bought it in Nottingham to read on the train):

link

The Phoniex Guard by Steven Brust (5/5)
500 Years After also by Steven Brust (4/5)
The Paths of the Dead again by Brust (4/5)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson (5/5)

Anathem was one of best books I've read in awhile, and for once Stephenson actually managed a pretty good ending. Some very interesting ideas.

David S.

Can't remember all of them (not that many, just poor recall).

I Am Legend -- liked it reasonably well, but the short stories in the last half more.

Wings Over the Somme -- excellent, none better in the first-person war category.

A Few Acres of Snow -- pretty entertaining intro into the French and Indian War(s). I learned a lot, and have since forgotten most of it.

Bloody April – Black September (actually I think this was before summer) -- another excellent war info book. I liked the day by day formula.

The Bible Unearthed -- (for the third all the way through reading) I find it increasingly informative each time I read it.

Legends of the Ring -- checkered reaction, here: I like the mythos, just not the torpidity (and repetition) of such mundane details: get to the ACTION already!

Winter Quarters -- excellent Alfred Duggan (a reread, even more enjoyable than the first time).

I Claudius and Claudius the God -- for the third time. I will read them again someday.

Conan -- some of the pure R. E. Howard (not Carter and de Camp edited) as a tonic for boredom on vacation. Always works for me.

Solomon Kane -- not as good as his Conan stories by a long shot, but carnageous fun over all.

I am slowly plowing through The Lord of the Rings again (fourth time I think), and the Habsburgs; The Icelandic Sagas part two is stalled out (too many names, too much distraction: I have to set up the right reading environment to get anywhere with this one)….

I read both Larsson's …Tattoo… and "The Girl Who Played with Fire." Compulsive reading but I really didn't like either of the protagonists.(5s) If you like modern Swedish mysteries, try the Wallender books by Mankell and Ericcson's books. Mankell is terrific but he's gone native in Africa and isn't writing any more Swedish centered mysteries.
Really enjoyed "Public Enemies" (5) and the most recent "Lost Fleet" (4)
I also highly recommend the first 3 "Captain Alatriste" books by Arturo Perez-Reverte. (5)

Mostly re-read my Nero Wolfe collection, and just
finished _Warbirds and Ladybirds_, by Eliot White
Springs (WWI pilot), another re-read.

Started off with _Lone Star Preacher_, John W. Thomason.
Another re-read of an old friend.

Part way through _The Gettysburg Companion_.

Stephen Baxter : Coalescent, Exultant, Transcendent, Resplendent.
Tolkien: The Hobbit
Robert Tressell: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
The Qur'an
The Dangerous Book For Boys
Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbribge
Mahabharata
The Bible

Pete

Nation- Terry Pratchett – 4
Achtung Schweinhund 3
Drowned Wednesday to the kids (reread for me) – 4
2/3s way through Sir Thursday with them – 5
Just started 'Trafalgar' and the new Dawkins book

Neo- definately helps knowing your 19th cent novels with fforde, doesn't it!

Richard and Judy are a married couple who used to have a daytime (5pm) chat show. They would run a 'book club' every year, with a review from a reading group once a week on each of the 8 or so books that had been chosen. Not personally a big fan of most of them form the reviews (the genre, not the writing), but they usually cover a range, so don't write them all off because of one poor one. (Getting an R&J recommendation was a good way to sell lots of books)

Read a few Rex Stout "Nero Wolfe" novels, Mark Gatiss' "Black Butterfly".. but the best was a book I picked up in a small supermarket in Portugal – John Grisham's "Playing for Pizza" – a great read!

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel) by J. L. Bourne

As The World Dies: The First Days: A Zombie Trilogy by Rhiannon Frater

Horus Heresy: Tales of Heresy (The Horus Heresy)

Currently reading
Plague of the Dead (The Morningstar Strain) by Z. A. Recht

The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) by Laurell K. Hamilton