OT - Book (Non Fiction) Review/Recommendations Thread

[TiggerCCW UK]

I reckon we've similar tastes Rainbow - I'm reading The Circuit at the minute

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

I reckon we've similar tastes Rainbow - I'm reading The Circuit at the minute

I reckon you're right there Tigger...after I finish the Gamble I'll be moving on to An Ordinary Soldier.

A few other recommendations:

Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran - a study of the activities of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq

Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden - about the US Embassy hostages in Tehran in 1979 (author is the same man who wrote Black Hawk Down)

Armageddon and Nemesis by Max Hastings - Armageddon has been discussed on the forums before, Nemesis is the follow up and centres on the closing stages of the Pacific War.

Cheers

[Targan]

I've recently started reading 18 Hours by Sandra Lee. True story about Jock Wallace, Signaller, 152 Signals Sqn (152 is the signals unit for the Australian SAS Regiment) who with another 152 sig was attached to Charlie Company, 1-87 US 10th Mountain Infantry Division to provide comms for the SAS liaison to the 10th who was coordinating with 1 Sqn, SASR. They fought in a big battle at the start of Operation Anaconda. I don't normally like reading factual war stories by female authors but this one isn't bad.

[Matt Wiser]

A few more:

Crusade by Rick Atkinson: The best history so far of the First Gulf War
(He's also writing a trilogy on the U.S. Army in the ETO and MTO in WW II-two books so far and both worth reading)

She Went to War: The Rhonda Cornum Story by then-MAJ Rhonda Cornum (now a Brig. Gen); a firsthand account from one of two female POWs in the First Gulf War.

Down Range by Richard Couch: Navy SEALS on operations post 9-11. The author is a former SEAL, so be warned.

Any one of Tom Clancy's nonfiction books (Fighter Wing, Armored Cav, Marine, Submarine, etc.)

The Great War in Africa by Brian Farwell: WW I in Africa, very useful if planning a T2K campaign involving the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kenya.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Another couple for you

War Dogs : Keith Cory Jones. A journalists travels with a group of mostly UK mercenaries in the former Yugoslavia.

That Others May Live : SMSGT Jack Brehm. Memoirs of a para rescue jumper. Astounding what these guys get up to.

Cold War; Building for Nuclear Confrontation : Wayne D Cocroft & Roger J C Thomas. An English Heritage publication studying Cold War architecture in the UK. Very interesting and full of useful photos, drawings and floor plans of everything from nuclear bomb stores to ROC posts to regional government bunkers. Great book!

[Rainbow Six]

Another couple that came to mind...

Berlin and Stalingrad, both by Anthony Beevor. In the same vein as Max Hastings' Armageddon...Berlin in particular paints a vivid picture of the last few months of WW2.

[Littlearmies]

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White - the story of the RAF mission to crater the runway at Port Stanley during The Falklands War. A really first rate account of flying elderly British jets (three months away from the scrapyard at the start of the war) 4,000 miles beyond their maximum range to deliver 21 thousand-pound bombs. Normally I prefer books about the PBI but this was very good.

Sod That For A Game OF Soldiers by Mark Eyles-Thomas - the story of a young Para during the Falklands War. Extremely good book.

Riding The Retreat by Richard Holmes. The story of a group of friends retracing the route of the British Army retreat to Mons during the opening weeks of WWI. Every time I read one of his books it just makes me wish he could be presuaded to do a War Walks series on the battlefields of North America. In fact I'd pretty much recommend anything by him - I haven't come across a dud yet (although I've heard Dusty Warriors being criticised for being a bit biased - he was colonel of the regiment featured). I'm working on his Marlborough at the moment.

Fusiliers by my friend, Mark Urban, the story of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers during the AWI. A really first rate account of a battalion that served pretty much from the beginning to the end of the war that includes lots of first person accounts of events.

I could go on but this also caused me to look at my "slush pile" of unread books and realise that my New Year resolution to read two books for every one I bought went out of the window about March and that I now have around thirty unread books in a large stack by my bed. As I have the same impulses with model soldiers (several large boxes of unpainted lead lie at the foot of my wardrobe) I realise I must do something about both issues!