OT - Book (Non Fiction) Review/Recommendations Thread

[Adm.Lee]

I found this one at the library yesterday. It seems like a T2k-style thing to do:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...orth-dying-for

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I found this one at the library yesterday. It seems like a T2k-style thing to do:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...orth-dying-for

Unfortunately, I'd have to sign up for Farcebook to read it; I'm not that trusting of Facebook.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Unfortunately, I'd have to sign up for Farcebook to read it; I'm not that trusting of Facebook.

Why would you have to sign up to Facebook? I thought that link was to a review of the book at a non-Facebook site.

Anyhow, it looks like a good read. I'd like to get a copy. I'll have to look around the bookshops here in Australia and see if it is available.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Unfortunately, I'd have to sign up for Farcebook to read it; I'm not that trusting of Facebook.

Try again, I edited it to go to Goodreads instead.

[Jason Weiser]

Closing With The Enemy: How the GIs fought the War in Europe 1944-45: I've read and re-read that book about a dozen times. It also explodes the myth "The GIs stank as infantrymen." and it showed that when doctrine failed, the American GI was flexible enough to improvise solutions, and how the Army as a whole became a clearing house in dispensing the information on said solutions throughout the Army. It also demonstrates how the Army began to realize that it needed to teach junior officers some sense of self-preservation, as too many of them were exposing themselves needlessly...

http://www.michaeldoubler.com/Closing.htm

[Raellus]

I just finished The Siege of Budapest by Hungarian historian Krisztian Ungvary. It was sad but pretty good. I think it would be helpful for a GM trying to recreate a city siege or describe its aftermath. I would have like more detailed info about the relief operations but overall it was a quick and worthwhile read.

[Cdnwolf]

For a really good account about a Russian attack against a fixed defence position, I recommend "First Clash" by Kenneth Macksey.

Its about a meeting encounter between the 4'th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group and the Soviets 1'st Guard Tank Division. It has lots of detailed maps and organizational charts. Fascinating read.

Also "Dragons at War - Land Battle in The Desert" by Daniel Bolger... a great behind the scenes look at the US Army National Training Center at Camp Irwin. It also offered insight on how to play the great game and get promoted.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

Also "Dragons at War - Land Battle in The Desert" by Daniel Bolger... a great behind the scenes look at the US Army National Training Center at Camp Irwin. It also offered insight on how to play the great game and get promoted.

I'm a huge fan of Bolger's work. He wrote "Dragons" after a 1982 deployment by his brigade to NTC-- he was a company CO. He also wrote "The battle for Hunger Hill" about his brigade's (he was a battalion commander in the 101st) 1993 and 1994 deployments to the JRTC at Fort Polk. JRTC is the anti-guerrilla version of NTC-- a big laser-tag game, plus civilians, guerrillas, journalists and NGOs. I liked that book better, but it infuriated me later: to know that the Army *had* learned some lessons of counter-insurgency, and they couldn't get through to the high command.
He's also written two or three histories of post-Vietnam actions by the US, "Death ground," "Savage peace: Americans at war in the 1990s," and "Americans at war:1975-1986"; and a novel "Feast of bones."
Daniel P. Bolger-- says he now commands the 1st Cavalry Division.

[WonderGoon]

A Rumor of War by Phillip Caputo: Pretty good read about the authors time in Vietnam with the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade in 1965 and again ten years later when he returned as a newspaper correspondent.

Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-five Months in Vietnam by John Leppelman: An honest, gut wrenching read which was a catharsis for the author (in my opinion). At times brutally honest. Has an afterword where the author expresses his opinions on allowing females to take jump training. Leppelman served as a paratrooper with the 173rd Airborne, an Army seaman, and an LRRP.

Infantry Soldier Holding the Line at the Battle of the Bulge by George W. Neill: Neill served with the 99th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge. It also covers his time serving with a signal battalion in London after he recovered from wounds suffered on the line. An interesting read.

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military This is a dictionary of military terms. Handy for those unfamiliar with military terminology. (I picked this up at Dollar General, of all places, for a dollar. Cover price is $7.99. Check the spinner rack at your local Dollar General, if you've got one nearby).

Enjoy!

Goon

[James Langham]

In addition to the Flashman books, George MacDonald Fraser also wrote the wonderful "Quartered Safe Out Here," chronicling his time in Burma in WW2. An unapologetic book it tries to explain the reality of soldiering there and features some wonderful set piece scenes - I defy anyone to not be moved (in both humour and gentle sadness) by the description of the ex-servicemen many years on in the final chapter.

If you enjoy this he continues the story in fictional form in the McAuslen trilogy which I find even better than his wonderful Flashman books.

[Raellus]

This isn't a review because I haven't read this yet, but this new book looks to be a great source of material on what happens in the aftermath of a devastating, modern, total war situation- the kind you'd expect to see in the Twilight War.

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/24/204538...paign=20130725

I shall be acquiring it forthwith and will post a review once I've finished it.

Incidentally, I just stumbled across a fairly recent (it's new in paperback) book entitled Twilight War, about the simmering decades=long pseudo-war between Iran and the U.S.

[Targan]

Plague Wars: The Terrifying Reality of Biological Warfare by Tom Mangold and Jeff Goldberg, published by St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-20353-5 / 0-312-26379-1. The edition I have is from 2001 so it's a little bit dated now but it really is terrifying. Meticulously footnoted for sources and quite a few photos and illustrations too. You don't have to be an epidemiologist to understand this book. The biggest problem I had reading it is that it's so depressing how easily biological warfare could end modern human civilization.