What's Currently on Your Reading List?

[jerryd6818]

What a coincidence. Just a few months ago I gave a box of books to the book store/exchange down the street from me. In that box was all but maybe one of W.E.B. Griffin's The Corps series. I had been hanging on to them for over ten years, looking for a new home for them. They're good books but it's easy to become quickly annoyed at his habit of referring to everyone by their full name and title, e.g. "Lt. Colonel Fredrick A. Baswith Commander of 2nd Battalion 9th Marines". Every stinking time he mentions them. Two sentences apart and he does that. Aargh!

Do you have all ten books now? Have you read H. Jay Riker's Navy Seals series "Seals: The Warrior Breed"? Good series. There are about 8 or 10 of them.

Also recommend "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War" by Karl Marlantes if you haven't read it and Stieg Larsson's trilogy "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" is also very good.

[knife-nut]

I read one of W.E.B. Griffin's Corp series and got hooked. Then went on and read all the other series he wrote. Excellent writer.

[xstuntman]

I'm just starting "Roy Rogers And The Gopher Creek Gunman" published in 1945.
Still has the original dust jacket.

[orvet]

What a coincidence. Just a few months ago I gave a box of books to the book store/exchange down the street from me. In that box was all but maybe one of W.E.B. Griffin's The Corps series. I had been hanging on to them for over ten years, looking for a new home for them. They're good books but it's easy to become quickly annoyed at his habit of referring to everyone by their full name and title, e.g. "Lt. Colonel Fredrick A. Baswith Commander of 2nd Battalion 9th Marines". Every stinking time he mentions them. Two sentences apart and he does that. Aargh!

Do you have all ten books now? Have you read H. Jay Riker's Navy Seals series "Seals: The Warrior Breed"? Good series. There are about 8 or 10 of them.

Also recommend "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War" by Karl Marlantes if you haven't read it and Stieg Larsson's trilogy "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" is also very good.

Thanks Jerry, but I do have all 10. I should be through with #4 this weekend & on to #5.
Reading them the way I am: finish one & start the next, he does get annoying when he spends the first third of the book telling you what happened in the last book!

[jerryd6818]

Welcoming "Jack Reacher" to AAPK stirred the memory juices but I couldn't remember if I've posted my personal recommended reading list as a whole.

So for your consideration:

Lawrence Block the Matthew Scudder series (one of my favorites)
James Lee Burke the Dave Robicheaux books and the Billy Bob Holland books
Michael Connelly the Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch books and the Mickey Haller books
Philip R. Craig the J.W. Jackson books
Robert Crais the Elvis Cole books and the Joe Pike books
Nelson DeMille everything by him
Barry Eisler the John Rain books
Janet Evanovich the Stephanie Plum books
Sue Grafton her Kinsey Millhone A,B,C... series
John Grisham everything by him
Stephen Horn - In Her Defense
Stephen Hunter his series about Earl, and Bob Lee Swagger
Jonathan Kellerman the Alex Delaware books

Stieg Larsson trilogy - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - The Girl Who Played With Fire - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest -- Excellent

William Lashner = Vic Carl books
Charles McCarry
Richard North Patterson
H. Jay Riker - His SEALS THE WARRIOR BREED series - best read in order (beats W.E.B. Griffin all to pieces)
John Sandford the Prey series (all books have Prey in the title) and the Virgil Flowers books
James Sheehan - The Mayor Of Lexington Avenue
Daniel Silva - Gabriel Allon books
Robert K. Tanenbaum - Butch Karp and Marleen Ciampi books
William G. Tapply - Brady Coyne books
Randy Wayne White - Doc Ford books

If you were raised in the south, especially under poor circumstances, you can relate to "All Over But The Shoutin'" by Rick Bragg. Very well written.

[coffeecup]

Oh, no, don't do that to me, Jerry! I am going to finish this year with a net reduction in books no matter what! I'm already down almost 500*, and have a couple stacks to eventually get listed in the Off-Topic Trading Post. Eventually . . . . Meantime, I've been re-reading Peter Bowen's Gabriel du Pre mysteries, and some archaeological site reports.

*I cheated--they all went to a bunch of kids doing outpatient recovery through the VA. Now when they can't sleep, they can call me and we'll talk about whatever they're reading.

[jerryd6818]

With winter coming on, fresh reading material is welcome. Thanks Jim.

[orvet]

I finished W.E.B. Griffin's "The Corps" series a week or so ago. It took me nearly a couple months to read all ten volumes. Not a bad series, but he has about a 20% repeat factor in each new volume; about 20% of the new volume is a rehash of the events in the previous novel(s). That part got boring to me. If it hadn’t been for the great story line I would not have finished it.

I need to find the last 2 new volumes of S.M. Stirling's novels of the "Change".
Interesting post-cataclysmic series, and it is set in the Willamette Valley in the near future/or alternate time-line.

There is another couple Sci-Fi series I have to check & see if they have new volumes out yet.

[jmh58]

Killing Lincolin.. Got into some Civil War reading.... John

[Quick Steel]

Just finished the KILLER ELITE by Michael Smith. This is non-fiction. The history of the most secretive of our special ops, simply called "the Activity." No permanent name, it changes with each mission. The members are drawn from anywhere in the military depending on skills but mostly former Green Berets, some Delta, and Seals. A lot of technical skills plus shooters. Fascinating. And its good to know this unit exists.

The book contains many revelations about operations we thought we understood.

[coffeecup]

Quick Steel, that book title threw me--I was thinking Stirling wrote the script for Peckinpah's The Killer Elite, then caught that you were referring to a more-modern book of the same name.

I've been sorting through books, which always leads to reading bits and pieces of many of them. Just started re-reading Lorenz' On Aggression, then I think I'll go back and read Before the Golden Age (an anthology of 1930s science fiction).

[jerryd6818]

Meantime, I've been re-reading Peter Bowen's Gabriel du Pre mysteries

I'm in the middle of Coyote Wind. That Du Prè. What a character.

[coffeecup]

Du Pre reminds me of a lot of the "old guys" I knew when I was a kid. (That right there probably explains a lot about how I see the world.)

A while back, someone was telling me about some new legislation and I sort of shrugged my shoulders. He pointed out that once it was the law, I'd have to obey it. I replied that I obeyed all of those good laws that made sense and I agreed with, when it was convenient. A fellow who was sort of eavesdropping said, "Oh--so you're from Montana?"

[Old Hunter]

Currently reading Citizen Soldier by Stephen Ambrose and Growing up with Guns by Steve Sorensen (The Everyday Hunter). OH

http://www.everydayhunter.com/

[jerryd6818]

Colonel -- I tried to read Ambrose's "Crazy Horse and Custer". I thought it was well written but for some reason I just couldn't "get into it".


Jim -- I love Montana and wouldn't mind living there if it were not for the cold winters and distance from family. Do you suppose that attitude is infectious and you can get it just from visiting a couple of times?

[Quick Steel]

Quick Steel, that book title threw me--I was thinking Stirling wrote the script for Peckinpah's The Killer Elite,

I missed Peckinpah's The Killer Elite, at least I don't recall it. I don't want to divert the thread away from reading but just want to mention the first Peckinpah move I ever saw was The Wild Bunch which I thought was super.

Back to reading. Just finished A guide to the Battles of the American Revolution by Savas & Dameron. Filled in a lot of blank spots for me. Superbly organized: each battle covers the big picture as both sides saw it; the leaders on each side of the battle; battle commentary plus what the weather was, the time of day fought, the terrain, casualties etc. I did not know Spain came in on our side and fought for us along the gulf. We lost a lot of battles but won the essential ones.

[Quick Steel]

Quick Steel, that book title threw me--I was thinking Stirling wrote the script for Peckinpah's The Killer Elite,

I missed Peckinpah's The Killer Elite, at least I don't recall it. I don't want to divert the thread away from reading but just want to mention the first Peckinpah move I ever saw was The Wild Bunch which I thought was super.

Back to reading. Just finished A guide to the Battles of the American Revolution by Savas & Dameron. Filled in a lot of blank spots for me. Superbly organized: each battle covers the big picture as both sides saw it; the leaders on each side of the battle; battle commentary plus what the weather was, the time of day fought, the terrain, casualties etc. I did not know Spain came in on our side and fought for us along the gulf. We lost a lot of battles but won the essential ones.

[coffeecup]

Jim -- I love Montana and wouldn't mind living there if it were not for the cold winters and distance from family. Do you suppose that attitude is infectious and you can get it just from visiting a couple of times?

I'm not sure if it is infectious; I know I had it before I ever heard of Montana. It may be genetic.

[jerryd6818]

I just finished John Sandford's new Virgil F'n Flowers book "Storm Front". Enjoyable as always.

[Quick Steel]

Castles of Steel. This is the well told story of two Navies in World War 1: The British and the Germans. It provides excellent information on the personalities and ships; above all on the climatic battle of Jutland. If you have any interest in this facet of history the book is not to be missed.

[coffeecup]

I've been thinking it was time to re-visit this thread too. I just finished reading John Toland's autobiography, Captured by History: One Man's vision of our Tumultuous Century. Toland was the author of the Pulitzer-winning The Rising Sun--the first book to tell about WWII from the Japanese perspective--as well as one of the best biographies of Hitler (Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography), an extensive discussion of the Battle of the Bulge (Battle: The Story of the Bulge), and possibly the best book ever on the Korean War (In Mortal Combat: Korea 1950-1953). He's also the author of the book that brought to public attention much of the evidence that suggests Roosevelt was aware of the Japanese intentions to attack Pearl Harbor (Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath), and a really neat book on dirigibles (Ships in the Sky: The Story of the Great Dirigibles).

What Toland was not, however, was a trained historian; this shows in his work. Someone trained as a historian would be unlikely to take his approach to gathering information, or to present that information with minimal, if any, analysis. Toland did just that: he gathered background information, then went out and interviewed (to the extent possible) the people actually involved. In many cases, he resulted in gaining access to privately-held records, journals, etc, that were previously unavailable. The end product has a distinctly different "flavor" than that of the traditional approach to history. To see what I mean, just compare Battle with any of the other histories of the Battle of the Bulge.

He seems to have taken the same approach to his autobiography. Not so heavy on dates and dry facts, but much background on the people and events.

[RobesonsRme.com]

I just finished Where The Red Fern Grows.

I have seen two different movies of this, but had never read the book.

The 1975 movie popped up on Netflix last week, it's the better of the two, and I wanted to read the book before watching the movie for the second time.

What a fantastic, simply and honestly told story.

If you've never read the book by Wilson Rawls, I highly recommend it.

But, prior to starting the book, read about Wilson Rawls and the writing of his only two books on the internet.

That, in itself, is a fascinating story.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 3194,d.b2k

Charlie Noyes

[jerryd6818]

Thanks for bringing this thread back up Charlie, so I don't have to go looking for it.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Band of Brothers. I saw the series on television quite some time ago so recently, when Mike (313 Mike) sent the book to me, I was excited to get my hands on it. It's very well written and has no trouble keeping my interest.


Growing up, my favorite book was Jesse Stuart's "Hie to the Hunters". Unlike any book before or since, I read it several times and then read it again several years ago as an adult.

[313 Mike]

Where The Red Fern Grows is a great book indeed, Charlie. Haven't read it in a while though, might have to re-visit that old classic again.

Jerry, glad to hear you are enjoying Band of Brothers. I never saw the t.v. series, so when I started the book I didn't really know what to expect. Most of my "modern" military reading has been a little more USMC related, so it was interesting to get an insider look into how things worked in the Army...circa WWII .

As for what I am currently reading, I am just getting rolling with Rise To Rebellion by Jeff Shaara. It is historical fiction about the buildup to the American Revolution. I've read three or four of his books on the Civil War which were all excellent, and so far this one is a good read as well.

[jerryd6818]

Here's the 1974 version of the full movie Where the Red Fern Grows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-GAf_momeo#t=13