What Are You Currently Reading?
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Devildoc
Verified Military
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Nice little article about a Englishwoman who opened an independent book store.
Client Challenge
Trying my best to support more local book stores as I jump back into reading.
Client Challenge
Trying my best to support more local book stores as I jump back into reading.
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Fun read, interesting idea, recruiting old people to fight. It's the first of 7 books, definitely good enough to read number 2.
4 of 5 Chanclas.
Fun read, interesting idea, recruiting old people to fight. It's the first of 7 books, definitely good enough to read number 2.
4 of 5 Chanclas.
Kraut783
SOF Support
Just finished "The Main Enemy"
Was very good and interesting....
The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Sho…
Was very good and interesting....
The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Sho…
Devildoc
Verified Military
The Cold War. The author is a Harvard history professor and has a pretty clean anti-US bias, but he does a good job of mostly keeping it in check. Great backgrounds on communism and socialism without getting into the weeds of political philosophy.
Recently finished ‘Advances in Decisions Analysis From Foundations to Applications.’ This came recommended to me by a long time DOD contracting officer. The premise of the book is framing issues, identifying risks, eliciting stakeholders holders, and suggesting alternative approaches. It was written by academics and very much reads as if it should be a college class book.
Just ordered three other books that haven’t arrived yet, though I have read at least one of them before online, just adding paper copy to my library.
The first is a book is from 1947 called ‘Wartime Correspondences.’ It’s a series of letters sent between FDR and Pope Pius XII during WW2 and was edited by businessman Myron Taylor who was tasked by FDR to be a personal envoy to the Pope. Taylor urged the US and Allies to not bomb Rome during WW2 in order to save the historical artifacts. For our Cornell grads, the law school there is named after him as he was an alumnus.
The second book is the one I have already read, ‘Nevves From America.’ This book is written by John Underhill about his view of the Pequot War, for which he was one of the commanders. Underhill would later be the Commander in Chief of Rhode Island.
And finally I ordered John Underhill, Captain of New England and New Netherlands, which is also an older book from 1932. It is a biography of John Underhill, who from reading the Wikipedia page sounded like he had quite the life, from a dad who fled England after a failed plot to overthrow the Queen, to leading the colonists against the Pequots, was banished by the Puritans, led attacks against the Lenape, led another attack against a different Indian tribe on Long Island and burned it afterwards, to finally acting as a Chief Advisor to the Lenape (curious how that happened after his group killed between 500 and 700 of them just years earlier).
Myron Taylor is a great great whatever number grandson of John Underhill.
Just ordered three other books that haven’t arrived yet, though I have read at least one of them before online, just adding paper copy to my library.
The first is a book is from 1947 called ‘Wartime Correspondences.’ It’s a series of letters sent between FDR and Pope Pius XII during WW2 and was edited by businessman Myron Taylor who was tasked by FDR to be a personal envoy to the Pope. Taylor urged the US and Allies to not bomb Rome during WW2 in order to save the historical artifacts. For our Cornell grads, the law school there is named after him as he was an alumnus.
The second book is the one I have already read, ‘Nevves From America.’ This book is written by John Underhill about his view of the Pequot War, for which he was one of the commanders. Underhill would later be the Commander in Chief of Rhode Island.
And finally I ordered John Underhill, Captain of New England and New Netherlands, which is also an older book from 1932. It is a biography of John Underhill, who from reading the Wikipedia page sounded like he had quite the life, from a dad who fled England after a failed plot to overthrow the Queen, to leading the colonists against the Pequots, was banished by the Puritans, led attacks against the Lenape, led another attack against a different Indian tribe on Long Island and burned it afterwards, to finally acting as a Chief Advisor to the Lenape (curious how that happened after his group killed between 500 and 700 of them just years earlier).
Myron Taylor is a great great whatever number grandson of John Underhill.
Someone recommended ‘Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster On the Edge of Space’ to me. Said it was a great read.
That's in my Amazon cart, I need to hit the go button on that one.
I have a lot of travel coming up, so I bought Blood Meridian. It’s from the early 90s but apparently is a classic novel that everyone should read. Apparently the book for is very violence forward and gorey. The book was a reference point for Red Dead.
For you hardcore history nerds, 1942: Crux of War by Jon Parshall is dropping on or about June 1. Clocking around 1250 pages (per the author on his podcast) it also has a bunch (150 or so) photos and custom maps.
$45 for the hardcover, but he's the same guy who wrote Shattered Sword about the battle of Midway. His various works are excellent and they already have my pre-order.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/1942-9780197848371?cc=us&lang=en&
1942: Crux of War: Parshall, Jonathan: 9780197848371: Amazon.com: Books
$45 for the hardcover, but he's the same guy who wrote Shattered Sword about the battle of Midway. His various works are excellent and they already have my pre-order.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/1942-9780197848371?cc=us&lang=en&
1942: Crux of War: Parshall, Jonathan: 9780197848371: Amazon.com: Books
Been recommended this book for a while, so I finally started The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander. I notices that it emphasizes putting the mission first, taking care of your people, and not letting ego get in the way. It reminds me of the book Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. Has anyone else read this? If so, what are your thoughts on it?
Topkick
Verified Military
I've not read the book and it sounds interesting, but this isn't SOF specific. It's what's expected of every leader in the US military.
TLDR20
Verified SOF
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I read it a long time ago, and thought that it was a common sense approach to leadership that I had mostly already seen exhibited by drill sergeants, cadre, and leadership before I read it.
Kraut783
SOF Support
Re-reading The Expanse novels….such a great series
Good vignettes and stories (I think this is the one with the gorilla suit in Bosnia), the leadership "lessons" are things every basic leader is taught and then promptly forgets. Tenets of leadership are unchanged over the years, people forget them or they are repackaged for the sake of someone's career/ financial gain.
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As much as I enjoy the James Bond films, I’ve never taken the time to read any of the Fleming books. Starting now with Casino Royale, and assuming I like it moving onto From Russia with Love or Goldfinger.
With all respect to Sean Connery, Daniel Craig is my Bond.
With all respect to Sean Connery, Daniel Craig is my Bond.
Topkick
Verified Military
I really liked Dalton, but he only did two. I'll take Daniel Craig over Connery as well.
I read that one and...maybe the second in the series? I'm not a fan of fiction, but really like Fleming's style. The books were short, told a great story without adding fluff, and provided details without bogging down the reader.
For comparison's sake, GRRM's "Game of Thrones" series (I know the title) is pretty good, Connelly's Bosch series is good if a bit formulaic and repetitive, Dan Brown is horrible, and Clive Cussler should be fired into the sun. The original Bourne books aren't bad, but the series kind of bogged down.
You should like Fleming's work.
