What Are You Currently Reading?

Reading Gates of Fire for the 'bout 10th time. I find the story of the Spartans awe-inspiring, and know more about their history and culture than I should (too much time on the internet, I reckon).
 
I just finished both “My Brother in Arms” by Thad Forester as well as “Guardian Angel” by William Sine. While the former seemed like a good tribute to the life of Combat Controller Mark Forester, much of the information in the book was copy and pasted from other sources(even if properly cited) and lacked flow of story. I enjoyed learning more about Pararescue in the latter book. It seemed to have done a better job of painting an overall picture. In this case, the training and life of a Pararescueman. (as it was written by a retired PJ).
 
Freefalling said:
Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot by Helmut Mahlke. Interesting book, the author was a Naval Aviator "given" to the Luftwaffe because the Graf Zeppelin wasn't ready and then stayed Luftwaffe because the carrier was never finished. I'm up to a post-Battle of Britain timeframe and the book is excellent so far. The Luftwaffe would stage aircraft at forward fields the day of or the day before a raid. It never said why this was done, but every raid over England described by the author had them flying to a forward field to arm and fuel before the actual sortie. Good book so far.
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Thank you Free....on the search for it now.

I always like to find books written by the German side....always find it very interesting, a lot like "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer.
 
Kraut783 said:
Thank you Free....on the search for it now.

I always like to find books written by the German side....always find it very interesting, a lot like "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer.
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De nada. The guy won a Knight's Cross and was shot down 3 times behind Russian lines. The last time he was wounded bad enough it was his last combat mission. France, England, Malta, N. Africa, Crete, and Russia ending in 1941. Rather impressive to have survived it all.
 
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.

Excellent history but a dictionary is recommended. She's improving my vocabulary with each page.
 
EchoBravo said:
I just finished both “My Brother in Arms” by Thad Forester as well as “Guardian Angel” by William Sine. While the former seemed like a good tribute to the life of Combat Controller Mark Forester, much of the information in the book was copy and pasted from other sources(even if properly cited) and lacked flow of story. I enjoyed learning more about Pararescue in the latter book. It seemed to have done a better job of painting an overall picture. In this case, the training and life of a Pararescueman. (as it was written by a retired PJ).
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I can agree about the flow of "My Brother in Arms" but I was glued to the book regardless. I live less than an hour from where he was raised and his passing made a lot of the local news. You better believe I had that book pre-ordered. He is a great inspiration and I would be honored if I turned out to be half the man he was.
 
x SF med said:
Oh, the irony..... I re-read the original book multiple times... and got through to God Emperor ... never got any further than that.
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It's funny - the book is widely lauded as the one of the great works of the sci-fi genre, but it bears a closer resemblance to Lawrence of Arabia and A Song of Ice and Fire... set against a sci-fi backdrop.

Like the Ender's Game series, I feel like a lot of the momentum was lost after the first book. I made it as far as Children of Dune when I read it the first time, and haven't really pursued the rest of the series on subsequent reads.
 
Right now I'm about a third of the way through "Gentleman Bastards", just finished "Lions of Kandahar". I prefer the former, but both are great reads.
 
Six-Two said:
As of tonight, Get Selected! - it's taken precedence over Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest and Salt by Mark Kurlansky.
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FWIW, I have a copy of Get Selected! that I'll give to a board member in need. Standard shipping paid to the lower 48.

Looking to send it to someone who is genuinely prepping for the pipeline or looking to contract 18X.
 
While looking for worthy additions to to the mental aspect of training, I stumbled upon the philosophy of Stoicism, and disregarding all of the theology and "physics" of the philosophy, it seems extremely applicable. In fact, I've seen most of the principles espoused in Stoicism put forth here as advice for wannabes if only in different words: 25m target, don't bitch-FIDO, earn it every day, and (my personal favorite) "it don't mind, and you don't matter".

In light of this, I decided to pick up a book described as a sort of primer on Stoicism, The Obstacle is the Way, and it was just the sort of kick in the ass I needed. I'll definitely be reading a lot more on Stoicism as time permits.
 
Dienekes said:
While looking for worthy additions to to the mental aspect of training, I stumbled upon the philosophy of Stoicism, and disregarding all of the theology and "physics" of the philosophy, it seems extremely applicable. In fact, I've seen most of the principles espoused in Stoicism put forth here as advice for wannabes if only in different words: 25m target, don't bitch-FIDO, earn it every day, and (my personal favorite) "it don't mind, and you don't matter".

In light of this, I decided to pick up a book described as a sort of primer on Stoicism, The Obstacle is the Way, and it was just the sort of kick in the ass I needed. I'll definitely be reading a lot more on Stoicism as time permits.
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Look up ADM James Stockdale's autobio.
 
It has been a few years, but I am restarting The Chronicles of Thomas Covenent, by Stephen R. Donaldson.
 

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