Reply to: CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[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: 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.

[NotAllThere]

Terry Pratchett a Stroke of the Pen.

The forward by Neil Gaiman pointed out the link between Strata and Ringworld. There's other references as well. Apparently Niven and Pratchett enjoyed each other's work. So... I'm rereading Strata.

[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]

Done: Off to Oxfam with it next month.

Next: TBD but 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: 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: TBD but 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. 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.

[NotAllThere]

Navalny, Patriot done. Back to Anthony Beevor's "Russia".

[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: 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.

[sadkingbilly]

His early ones were pretty good. His latest one had interesting moments, but over all pretty poor.

yep, not so great.
his collaboration with C stross was good, that's why i tried him.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E. Ambrose. This one's about the Lewis & Clarke expedition "from sea to shining sea" some 20 years before Douglas did it in the opposite direction whilst collecting samples of vegetation.

So far it's full of stuff about The Evil British, as one might expect.

100 pages in before the journey begins.

And by page 331 we've reached the Pacific having canoed down the Columbia River.

If the Native Americans had any sense they'd have killed them all. But there you go.

Journey ends at page 440, then there's 100 pages of What Happened Next.

Spoiler: it doesn't End Well for Lewis.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

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.

483 pages in this one as opposed to 438 in the previous one, which was written 20 years later.

I almost decided to read "When Britain burned the Whitehouse" but thought better of it.

The Septic exceptionalism is becoming somewhat tedious.

From the sounds of it the Native Americans had a fairly decent life until it was fecked up by something approaching genocide.

Classic: the glory hunter having survived the Civil War, he ends up the 7th Cavalry on the plains.

As dumb & unthinking as ever whilst commanding a troop in a search for the Sioux he spots some antelope & immediately abandons his troop to chase said antelope with his greyhounds.

Greyhounds fail to catch antelope, Custard now lost on the plains.

Oh! What do we see here? A buffalo bull! So off he goes chasing said buffalo, still as lost as ever.

Then to cap it all, when about to shoot the buffalo with his pistol, buffalo swerves, horse rears up and Custard, instead of shooting the buffalo, shoots his own horse in the head & kills it.

So, afoot on the plains, lost, no idea where the troop is, wanders around with his dogs.

Fortunately for Custard, the troop found him before the Indians did.

You really couldn't make this tulip up.

<spoiler>Custard meets his end, laughing, on page 442. Crazy Horse lasts a bit longer</spoiler>

The Septics, speaking as ever with Forked Tongue, and despite an existing treaty with the Sioux, steal the Black Hills.

The unfortunate Native Americans end up in "reservations", and corruption is rife in their food supply.

I've seen how they treat their own people, what chance do we have?*

*Not necessarily Sitting Bull, but one or other of the Native American Chiefs who went to Washington.

The incompetence of the Septic Army was amazing.

The Native Americans were left with one small area around the Bighorn where there were still enough buffalo to warrant a hunt.

They weren't beaten by the Army but by the buffalo hunters who killed millions of buffalo, not for any real reason other than to starve the Indians into submission.

https://theconversation.com/historic...inction-148780

It's Manifest Destiny innit, from sea to shining sea.

Then tulip all over it once you've got it all.

Especially if you can design tulip that lasts forever and contaminates the entire globe.

It's the Anglo way. No wonder they're so roundly hated, starting with the Celtic Fringe who have long memories and have hated the mofos since about 450AD.

[NotAllThere]

now reading 'down and out in the magic kingdom' by cory doctorow.

His early ones were pretty good. His latest one had interesting moments, but over all pretty poor.

[sadkingbilly]

now reading 'down and out in the magic kingdom' by cory doctorow.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: very probably off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Second Foundation" by I. Asimov. This one was 3/6d. (That's 17.5p by the way).

More Mule.

I remembered recently that in the long ago when I originally read this stuff I thought there really was an "Encyclopaedia Galactica" that you could look in to find the references.

Ah, the innocence of youth. Must have been about 11 or 12 at the time.

I'm not sure but I think it was the first of the trilogy that I read, long long ago. Possibly indicated by it being 3/6d as opposed to the 5/- of Foundation & Empire.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: TBD.