SMF

Jackpot! Good score Chris. Enjoy.

Last read: Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilization" and "Pity the Nation"
Just finished Goeffrey Budworth's "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework" and Kousuke Iwasaki's "Honing Razors and Nihonkamisor"

I am about to start Michael Connelly's Angel's Flight.

I also have a couple of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.

Thanks,
Mike

Hi guys. I"m still working my way through Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield. Last night I was on p. 99 and enjoyed the following passage: (background --- the British commando team was fully briefed and ready to leave on a special mission to attack Rommel's command post somewhere in the desert near Tobruk. The main character is narrating.)

"By ten at night the trucks are loaded. A last-minute change in orders pulls Popski and his Arabs from the operation; rumour says they will kick off with Tinker, when he returns with T2 patrol, on a different mission. Wrapped and tarped, the vehicles glisten like Christmas packages. I have only helped a little but I feel proud and satisfied. A quick feed, a smoke with Collier and Oliphant, and I'm off for the bunk.

I can't sleep. Midnight comes and goes. I'm thinking about my shaving kit. Why have I packed a razor? There'll be no water to shave with. Hairbursh? Pistol? Saved weight would add a pint of petrol. Books. Those I will need. I lay out half a dozen, including Paradise Lost, The Sun Also Rises, and Stein's manuscript, which I carry for luck. At 02:45 I'm up and pacing. I shave one last time, dress and start on foot for the motor yard."

Note: the reason he is taking books is because they'll spend very long periods of time traveling through the endless desert, aboard tanks and trucks, and sometimes they stop for long periods of time for one reason or another.

Add Kill or Capture: How a Special Operations Task Force Took Down a Notorious al Qaeda Terrorist, by Matthew Alexander

to the "finished" list. Excellent and informative book.

Just started:
How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq, by Matthew Alexander and John Bruning

Thanks for the good post Gary

clive

fallingwickets wrote:Thanks for the good post Gary

clive

+1

Finished tonight for the MobileRead book club Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.

Just finished Killing Rommel. Now getting ready to start reading Separation of Power by Vince Flynn.

Most recently finished The Civil War by Ken Burns. Fascinating, reveals many details not taught in school, definitely NOT a dry chronology of dates and places. Highlly recommended.


Currently reading The Federalist Papers -- again, not having read them since high school in the 60s.

With a little age behind me now, and a different perspective on life compared to a high school kid's point of view, I find them fascinating. Although originally written to support the passage of the US Constitution, they are very timely today in my view. Ponderous language, difficult to plow through, but worth the read for two reasons: (1) the content itself and (2) the fluent writing style which reveals wordsmithing not often found nowadays. Highly recommended. Free (or almost free) on the Amazon Kindle.

brothers wrote:Just finished Killing Rommel. Now getting ready to start reading Separation of Power by Vince Flynn.

Gary, I finally ordered Killing Rommel. Should be here soon.

Up next is David Baldacci's The Sixth Man.

Thanks,
Mike

Slowed up my reading given my devotion to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Still on the Bernard Cornwell Saxon series -- started book 3 last weekend. They continue to be enjoyable reads which I find to be quite well written, with outstanding research backing them up.

brothers wrote:Hi guys. I"m still working my way through Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield. Last night I was on p. 99 and enjoyed the following passage: (background --- the British commando team was fully briefed and ready to leave on a special mission to attack Rommel's command post somewhere in the desert near Tobruk. The main character is narrating.)

"By ten at night the trucks are loaded. A last-minute change in orders pulls Popski and his Arabs from the operation; rumour says they will kick off with Tinker, when he returns with T2 patrol, on a different mission. Wrapped and tarped, the vehicles glisten like Christmas packages. I have only helped a little but I feel proud and satisfied. A quick feed, a smoke with Collier and Oliphant, and I'm off for the bunk.

I can't sleep. Midnight comes and goes. I'm thinking about my shaving kit. Why have I packed a razor? There'll be no water to shave with. Hairbursh? Pistol? Saved weight would add a pint of petrol. Books. Those I will need. I lay out half a dozen, including Paradise Lost, The Sun Also Rises, and Stein's manuscript, which I carry for luck. At 02:45 I'm up and pacing. I shave one last time, dress and start on foot for the motor yard."

Note: the reason he is taking books is because they'll spend very long periods of time traveling through the endless desert, aboard tanks and trucks, and sometimes they stop for long periods of time for one reason or another.

I read that a few years ago. Really interesting book, especially the Maori names used for the battle units as I recall them.

I'm working through a number of things - I have a problem of wanting to read multiple books at once. John Tracy Ellis's American Catholicism, John Le Carre's A Small Town in Germany, Star Wars: Riptide, and The Greatest Game Ever Played all currently occupy my shelf.

Slowed up my reading given my devotion to the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

http://i.imgur.com/Bz2KR.png

Enough...by Patrick Rhone.

fallingwickets wrote:

Slowed up my reading given my devotion to the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

http://i.imgur.com/Bz2KR.png

Yes -- I often witness the intervention of Providence in many such situations. A thing of pure beauty.

I seldom post this, but: +1 Wendell!

jww wrote:

fallingwickets wrote:

Slowed up my reading given my devotion to the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

http://i.imgur.com/Bz2KR.png

Yes -- I often witness the intervention of Providence in many such situations. A thing of pure beauty.

Providence? They didn't even make the tournament this year.

Kyle76 wrote:Providence? They didn't even make the tournament this year.

Oh you are sooooo funny.

Their old coach and key player have done quite well though.