Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joseph on January 13, 2011 at 2:38pm

Read: "The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy" by Adrienne Mayor. Very good Bio on Mithradates and his ups and downs vs Rome. A lot of details on his poisons he worked with. This is what the author's expertise is in mostly. Recommended.

 

"The Spartacus War" by Barry Strauss. Very good but the problem is so many gaps in the Historical Record that the author makes a lot of "Best" educated guesses. Spartacus is a favorite in the West on anti-slavery but there is a bigger revolt in AD869-883 by African Slaves in southern Iraq against their muslim oppressors that makes Spartacus's revolt, small time. Hollywood would never make a movie on this slave revolt for the obvious reasons.Recommended.

 

These books together give great background for Compass Games, game 'Spartacvs'. It covers the same time period.

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Permalink Reply by Carlos Alberto Laport de Miranda on January 13, 2011 at 3:39pm

I'm reading the 21 books of Richard Sharpe, by Bernard Cornwell.

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Permalink Reply by Chuang Shyue Chou on January 16, 2011 at 11:19pm

I bought 'War' by Sebastian Junger on Friday night and finished it on Saturday! Interesting account of the firefights in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan. Engrossing and gripping. It's not war porn. War tourism? Maybe.

 

Has anyone read this one?

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Permalink Reply by Nadir Elfarra on January 25, 2011 at 7:27pm

I read it and thought it was a very, very good book.  I felt there was much to  learn about men in war, particularly with some "reading between the lines."  I agree that it's not a campaign history or traditional military history as we know it, but I still felt it was a book worthy of being recommended to others.

 

You should seek out an opportunity to see the documentary film that Junger and his co-producer Tim Hetherington made about one of the platoons described in Junger's book.  The film is called "Restrepo" - it has appeared on National Geographic TV and is also available on DVD.  Well worth the time to watch.

-Nadir

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Permalink Reply by Chuang Shyue Chou on January 26, 2011 at 2:33am

Thanks. I will. I did hear of the documentary 'Restrepo' but I did not find it at the local HMV store. I may have to order it. National Geographic TV. I will look as well.

 

As you have said, read between the lines. It is very very telling actually.

 

I also note many passages of weapons jamming.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph on January 23, 2011 at 9:35pm

Read: "Mark Antony's Heroes: How the Third Gallica Legion Saved an Apostle and Created an Emperor" by Stephen Dando-Collins. This legion had a heroic life of saving Mark Antony's butt a couple of times, helped Vespasian become Emperor and made sure St. Paul made it back to Rome in one piece as his escort. If things had not turned out the way they did, a lot of history would of been different. Very Good and Recommended.

 

"Roman Warfare" by Jonathan P. Roth. The title says it all. A good but short overview of Roman Military History from the founding of Rome to the fall of the western part of the Empire in 476AD. Recommended.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Hicks on January 25, 2011 at 7:15pm

Reading "Barbarossa" by Alan Clark.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph C. Beard III on January 26, 2011 at 9:10am

I have just finished rereading Lt. Col. Karl-Heinz Freiser's "The Blitzkrieg Legend" (for a future book review on my blog) and now plan to make yet another attempt to get all the way through (I have never managed to get beyond the first section in my several previous tries) "Why The South Lost The Civil War."  I know that the Beringer, et. al. book is not particularly well thought of, but I have decided to actually finish it along with McFeely's carefully-researched (but surprisingly unsympathetic) "Grant" before moving on to read something that I actually know that I will really enjoy. 

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Permalink Reply by Kai Jensen on January 27, 2011 at 10:30am

Just starting "Islands of the Damned" by R.V. Burgin.

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Permalink Reply by Chuang Shyue Chou on January 27, 2011 at 8:12pm

I have just finished H. G. Well's 'The Island of Doctor Moreau'. Somehow, in my youth, I had missed a number of his novels. I am remedying that now. I have also last read the last Battle Angel Alita book, the only manga thingie that I read. This last one is a drag. It seems that the English translations lag the Jap originals by some years.

 

 

 

I am now finally getting down to reading 'Bloody Shambles, Vol. 1: The Drift to War to the fall of Singapore' by Christopher Shores, Brian Cull and Yasuho Izawa. I have been eyeing this book for years. Now that the US dollar and UK pound are weak, I have been doing a lot of online purchases.

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Permalink Reply by Chuang Shyue Chou on January 30, 2011 at 8:24pm

I found this 2010 volume at the Kinokuniya bookstore on Saturday.'Questioning Arms Spending in Malaysia' by Kua Kia Soong. I am already midway through it. The anti-Semitic Mahathir regime up north had bought quite a number of disparate systems over the years. This examined the individual purchases bought then and now. Since then, Mahathir, the longest serving dictator in the world, had been succeeded by two different prime ministers.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Werbaneth on February 26, 2011 at 9:52pm

I'm reading The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam.  Despite a few nagging editing errors, such as an initial mention of North Korea's "A-34" medium tanks, it's a good read, with excellent analysis of MacArthur's imperial leadership style.

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