CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: funny old place the Caucasus . Written in 1994 before the advent of Putin.

Next: "A delicate truth" by J. Le Carre.

I must be getting old: I'm finding this one quite confusing. Have to leaf back through it remind myself WTF is going on, who's doing the needful going, and who the feck anyone is. And then, suddenly, it's 3 years later. .

It's odd how these books somehow grind to a halt for weeks for some reason. 20/11/24.

Done, finally. Odd sort of book really. I may have to read it again* before it meets Oxfam.

Next: "The Night Manager" by J. Le Carre (1993).

In a fit of complete insanity (though who would notice?) I bought two copies of this 4 weeks apart for no readily apparent reason, it being ticked off on the list in my pocket. Ho very hum.

Stone me, it's a sloooooow read..Slow. Slow. Slow. 315 pages in & it's got even slower.

Managed to reach page 349 now.

379 now a mere day later.


*I didn't bother. Not only that I can't remember WTF it was about.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Crazy Horse & Custer" by Stephen E. Ambrose. 1975. When he still had curly hair as witnessed by his appearance on World at War.

It's all about General Custard. The Glory Hunter. And Crazy Horse, the chap who did away with him.

Blah.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Those poor poor people*.

Next: "Pegasus Bridge" by Stephen E. Ambrose: Brits in this one. For a change.


*The Native Americans, though the grunts had a hard time of it too.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Those poor poor people.

Next: "Pegasus Bridge" by Stephen E. Ambrose: Brits in this one. For a change.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. Happily enough the print was rather larger than usual which was a distinct plus.

Next: "The Victors: the men of WWII" by Stephen E. Ambrose. The print is back to the usual size. .

Gosh. Chunks of this are word for word out of "Pegasus Bridge". I suspect this may be true of "D Day" and "Citizen Soldier" also by Ambrose.

Sounds like Omaha Beach was an even worse hell than I'd previously realised.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. Happily enough the print was rather larger than usual which was a distinct plus.

Next: "The Victors: the men of WWII" by Stephen E. Ambrose. The print is back to the usual size. .

Gosh. Chunks of this are word for word out of "Pegasus Bridge". I suspect this may be true of "D Day" and "Citizen Soldier" also by Ambrose.

Sounds like Omaha Beach was an even worse hell than I'd previously realised.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it next month.

Next: it might be "D Day June 6th 1944 the battle for Normandy Beaches" by, you guessed it Steven E. Ambrose.

Innerestingly there's a reference to a "Martin V. Hersh" in said tome, but there seems to be no further reference on line other than sad gits like me searching for the name.

There are questions of whether Ambrose invented him or not.

Can't find a reference to Pvt John Fitzgerald 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne either other than quotes from Abrose's book which refer to the above Martin V. Hersh.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: Off to Oxfam with it next month.

Next: it might be "D Day June 6th 1944 the battle for Normandy Beaches" by, you guessed it Steven E. Ambrose.

Innerestingly there's a reference to a "Martin V. Hersh" in said tome, but there seems to be no further reference on line other than sad gits like me searching for the name.

There are questions of whether Ambrose invented him or not.

Can't find a reference to Pvt John Fitzgerald 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne either other than quotes from Abrose's book which refer to the above Martin V. Hersh.

Done: very long. Off to Oxfam with it. Oh, and yes, chunks of it are word for word out of other books (mostly books written by him it must be said)

Next: "Lost Worlds: what have we lost & where did it go?" by Michael Bywater. A bit lighter.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: very long. Off to Oxfam with it. Oh, and yes, chunks of it are word for word out of other books (mostly books written by him it must be said)

Next: "Lost Worlds: what have we lost & where did it go?" by Michael Bywater. A bit lighter.

Well that was a refreshing change: off to Oxfam with it. Not as polemical as a previous what have we lost book.

Next: another refreshing change: "Citizen Soldiers: from the beaches of Normandy to the surrender of Germany" by, you guessed it, Stephen E. Ambrose. It's the last but one of his epics & is another 450 pager, a follow on to "D Day".

I bought a lot of these Ambrose tomes remaindered about 15 years ago after "Band of Brothers" on the telly.

After this one there's only some book about the rise to globalism (1971) and his son's book about The Pacific War that also generated a tv series, though I've read some of the books by the guys who did the fighting from that warzone.

"Repple/Depple" is eyeopening: talk about cannon fodder: sending untrained replacements to the front line. Impressive if they survived a day. Some didn't survive the first hour.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Haven't read any Niven for years. The Integral Trees has sat on the bookshelf for 30, nearly 40 years, got a little way in & gave up. The glories of the early Known Space epics it ain't. Never read any Gaiman, though there's a couple of his dotted about, I've even got the dvd of that tv thing from 30 years ago (Neverwhere). It seemed better in retrospect than in a fresh viewing. A bit like "Here we go round the Mulberry Bush" in that respect. .

Next: another refreshing change: "Citizen Soldiers: from the beaches of Normandy to the surrender of Germany" by, you guessed it, Stephen E. Ambrose. It's the last but one of his epics & is another 450 pager, a follow on to "D Day".

"Repple/Depple" is eyeopening: talk about cannon fodder: sending untrained replacements to the front line. Impressive if they survived a day. Some didn't survive the first hour.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Butter side Up" by Magnus Pyke of immortal memory.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Butter side Up" by Magnus Pyke of immortal memory.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. The one review on Goodreads is of the opinion it should have stayed in the 1970s. Cruel but probably correct: not overly inneresting but at least it was short.

His cousin was the inventor of "Pykcrete": the ice/woodpulp combination for making aircraft carriers.

Next: "Churchil's Secret Defence Army: resisting the Nazi invader" by Arthur Ward (2nd edition, 2013): the story of the "BRO" staybehind organisation.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Churchil's Secret Defence Army: resisting the Nazi invader" by Arthur Ward (2nd edition, 2013): the story of the "BRO" staybehind organisation.

Curiously uninneresting: some of the pictures were very good. Seemed to have a tendency to repeat himself rather irritatingly with the same information on two facing pages at one point.

Happily push never came to shove so the organisation was disbanded in November 1944.

Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: . So little choice. . "The Enigmatic Sailor" by Sir Alan Peacock. The Y Service on board ships.

[DoctorStrangelove]

The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope. Never read any Trollope before. Quite witty.

Project Gutenberg so no returning anywhere! I recently download a few books and short stories from there by Robert Silverberg and Clifford D Simak.

Which Simak?