What Are You Currently Reading?

I just finished Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960 by James Hornfischer. Not his best work, but we'll get to that in a moment. It dwells a little too long on non-US Navy stuff such as Korea. It is a great primer to the Korean conflict, but he describes unit movements and actions, tying in the Navy at times to show how it supported these actions. It does a fantastic job of breaking down a lot of the post-war politics and the wretched state of our Navy in the years immediately following WWII. It was well on its way to being his usual powerhouse of a book, but...here's the rub.

He died while writing the book and his wife finished writing for him. It was a lengthy illness (a brain blastoma I think), and that had to affect his writing. How much was her work and how much was his? No idea, but I think the bit about Korea above wouldn't have passed his earlier rigor had he been healthy. His recounting of a 4-sub training mission to the arctic that resulted in one sinking is a masterful piece of story telling and what you'd expect from him.

I'm not taking a dump on this giant of naval history. The fact that they were able to complete the book says a lot about the work he'd already completed. It is still an excellent book though and I don't regret the purchase. He was a naval historian and literary agent with few equals. If you haven't read his books, you are missing out.

Blue Skies.
 
AWP said:
I just finished Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960 by James Hornfischer. Not his best work, but we'll get to that in a moment. It dwells a little too long on non-US Navy stuff such as Korea. It is a great primer to the Korean conflict, but he describes unit movements and actions, tying in the Navy at times to show how it supported these actions. It does a fantastic job of breaking down a lot of the post-war politics and the wretched state of our Navy in the years immediately following WWII. It was well on its way to being his usual powerhouse of a book, but...here's the rub.

He died while writing the book and his wife finished writing for him. It was a lengthy illness (a brain blastoma I think), and that had to affect his writing. How much was her work and how much was his? No idea, but I think the bit about Korea above wouldn't have passed his earlier rigor had he been healthy. His recounting of a 4-sub training mission to the arctic that resulted in one sinking is a masterful piece of story telling and what you'd expect from him.

I'm not taking a dump on this giant of naval history. The fact that they were able to complete the book says a lot about the work he'd already completed. It is still an excellent book though and I don't regret the purchase. He was a naval historian and literary agent with few equals. If you haven't read his books, you are missing out.

Blue Skies.
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He is a prolific author and historian, and I have read most of his stuff.

I just finished Jack Carr's The Devil's Hand, The last book so far in the series. I've only read that one and The Terminal List. "They" claim you can read the books out of order, but there is alluding to storylines in other books that you have to take with a grain of salt because you don't understand the background. Can it be a standalone? Sure. Should you read the other ones in the series before? Yes.
 
AWP said:
That saga is ridiculous. I've read a number of WWII sub books or general histories and the Navy's Ordnance Bureau was criminal in its negligence. Sink 'Em All by Charles Lockwood is a great one...I can't remember the others. Clay Blair is maybe THE sub history expert of WWII (and a former sub officer), so his books (especially the series on German U-boats) are golden .

One note is both the US and Germans had very similar issues with their torpedoes. One nation was responsive to its skippers, but another was not...I'll let everyone guess which was which.
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If the issue would have been pursued properly, the submarine campaign would have been far more effective in the first year. A lot of skippers were beached for "incompetence" after coming home empty handed despite firing all their torpedoes. Others were fired for "lack of aggression." I wonder how many of those were gun shy after risking their boats only see their torpedoes hit their targets with a dull thud, explode prematurely or run wild. Mush Morton's couple of patrols with Wahoo, for whatever reason, he had torpedoes that worked and racked up huge numbers before going out on a mission with a load of duds and damn near got everyone killed with little to show for it. One has to wonder what would have happened if he had gotten defective fish on first two patrols. In addition to the lives lost for nothing because of bad torpedoes you have to wonder how many potentially excellent captains had their careers ruined because the brass and BuOrd didn't want to admit they had a problem with the Mark XIV.
 
Stretcher Jockey said:
Checked Fahrenheit 451 off my list. There’s a lot to unpack with that one.
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The original film adaptation from 1966 by Francois Truffaut is excellent. One of the things they did was use narration in lieu of title credits. Nice nod to the idea of universal illiteracy. You might find it on DVD via Amazon.
 
JedisonsDad said:
Class 11 is a good read for anyone curious about CIA case handling.

Starting ”Confessions of a Spy” which is from a journalist who had exclusive rights to Aldrich Ames.
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I enjoyed how he got that access just about as much as the rest of the book. Great research and writing.

Jaknight said:
I have begun reading 4 Ball One Tracer which is about a Commander with the Mercenary Group Executive Outcomes and his experiences in Africa
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I have this one too. It's dry but good. His writing style is almost like a debrief. I suspect because he's dictated it to the other guy credited.
 
I'm getting through three currently; Commandos & Rangers of WW2, by James Ladd. I'm about half way & it begins with the Brit navy & their beach reconnaissance, leading to the SBS. There's some really great old maps, charts & diagrams which I'll attempt to get up here. It continues with the US Rangers & then the Australian Independent Rifle Companies, who were the forerunners of the commando regiments & SASR. It's really informative read with some great historical detail. Well researched & easy to get through.
The second one is Tiger Men: An Australian Soldiers Secret War in Vietnam by Capt. Barry Peterson with John Cribbin. Peterson worked up the Montagnard tribes in Dalat Province. Plenty of skulduggery, with a very conservative style of writing, conservative as in not wasting any words.
Finally, Uncommon Soldier by Chris Masters about the making of the modern Australian SF, which is mainly centred around deployments in Afghanistan, though does offer insights into our Officer Cadet School, Duntroon & Kapooka, which is the ADF Recruit Training Centre & outlines how the products of these two establishments build the basis for todays ADF. Masters really has an affinity with those who deployed & he interviewed a legion of diggers, both male & female for the book.
When I've finished those, I'll probably reread The Looming Tower. It's like the Titanic, (the boat sinks) but IMO it's the book to read on 9/11 even though everyone knows the ending.
 

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