What are you currently reading?

[mrhell]

I'm currently about half-way through: "Black Hawk Down - A Story of Modern War" by Mark Bowden Saw the movie years ago, but I found a copy of this book at a Goodwill store for ONLY $.35! I just couldn't set it back down for that price.

 

The other books I have read this year so far include:

 

 

"War Stories of the Green Berets" by Hans Halberstadt

 

"Voices of Courage: The Battle for Khe Sanh, Vietnam" by Ronald J. Drez and Douglas Brinkley

 

"Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's "Band of Brothers" Don Malarkey and Bob Welch

 

"Point of Impact" by Stephen Hunter

 

"Night of Thunder" by Stephen Hunter

[FriscoHare]

Just finished reading Time Life's "Return to the Philippines." Good read.

 

And now half way through Hampton Sides' "Ghost Soliders." It's about the the rescue of Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines by the joint operation of the Philippine guerrillas and the 6th Ranger Battalion.

[Jim Baker]

Finished "Tanks on the Beaches", K. Estes and R. Neiman last week. An excellent account of a Marine Tank officer in the Pacific and one of the few at Iwo and Okinawa.

Estes' book "Marines Under Armor" was also a very good book on early tank operations in the USMC

 

This morning I finished "With the Old Breed", E.B. Sledge.It was excellent, of course! It has been on my "to read list" for years and I finely got it for my bday earlier this month.

 

Tonight I started "Iwo" by Richard Wheeler. Im about 50 pages in and so far its a very detailed and personal account of the Japanese and there fortification of Iwo prior to the battle. So far it seems that this author has really done his homework. (Of course written by an Iwo vet, I wouldn't expect much less)

 

All above are excellent and highly recomended for a WWII Marine historian's library

 

 

Read them all, all great!! "With the Old Breed" is probably one of the best memoirs of WWII.

[DwightPruitt]

Read them all, all great!! "With the Old Breed" is probably one of the best memoirs of WWII.

 

Agreed wholeheartedly. IMHO the two best are "Company Commander" and "With the Old Breed."

 

 

If I'm allowed to plug another site, author Ken Estes posts under his own name over at Tank-Net.org. He's a hell of a nice guy, very approachable and always answers questions posted to him.

[cutiger83]

I just got back from vacation. I finished some great books

 

1) Helmet For My Pillow

2) Four Stars of Valor - The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (just started this one. It was recommended on this forum. Great so far)

3) Women at War - The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam

4) Amelia Earhart's Daughters - The Wild and Glorious Story of American Women Aviators From WWII to the Dawn of the Space Age (Excellent book)

 

Thanks....Kat

[RANDALL 1953]

With the Old breed at Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge.

[USAFnav]

Just finished Finding the Lost Battalion, by Robert Laplander, and Flags of our Fathers, by James Brady (about the six Iwo Jima "flag-raisers"). Both are excellent books and recommended. Now I'm re-reading The Doughboys, by Laurence Stallings, another good book.

Pete

[Bluehawk]

BEYOND THE WILD BLUE

By: Walter J. Boyne

 

An almanac kind of book, useful in writing biographies of fallen and deceased airmen.

[FriscoHare]

Just finished "MacArthur and the Fall of the Philippines" by Richard Connaughton. Very interesting read about MacArthur and his relationship with different officials in the Philippines, the War Department, etc.

 

Now reading "Hero of Bataan: The Story of General Jonathan M. Wainwright" by Duane Schultz

[frederik.geudens]

I'm now reading Semper Fi: Vietnam: From Da Nang to the DMZ: Marine Corps Campaigns, 1965-1972 by Edward F. Murphy

 

[ABrangerjoe]

I am currently reading Inside Delta Force- and can't put it down! I'm going to try and get a copy signed by the author. My mother's uncle is mentioned a few time in this book, he was in Delta and retired as a CSM. Great read so far! :thumbsup:

Joe

[Bones]

Just finished History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion by Buck Private McCollum. Very factual account of the lost battalion of the 77th ID in WW1.

 

Reading Splenid Little War by Charles Friedan. This book has explained the Spanish American War to me. Good book with lots of pictures.

[ClaptonIsGod]

Jeff Shaara's Rising Tide a fiction about both sides, with personal closeup views of Rommel and Eisenhower and their staff working behind the scenes, as well as a M3 Grant tank crew and I am about halfway through

[mjerickson]

Jeff Shaara's Rising Tide a fiction about both sides, with personal closeup views of Rommel and Eisenhower and their staff working behind the scenes, as well as a M3 Grant tank crew and I am about halfway through

 

 

Just finished "Warning of War" by James Brady. Its a really good novel about North China Marines at the out set of WWII. Great read and IMPO would make a great movie.

[Stony]

I'm currently reading "A Dawn Like Thunder", the story about VT-8 at Midway and Guadacanal. For those that aren't familiar with VT-8, they are the Devastator squadron that was destroyed attacking the Japanese fleet off Midway and of which Ensign George Gay was the only survivor.

 

I have a flight log of an AOM 3/C that missed the battle because he shipped out to radioman's school, but there are entries from before the battle where he flew with Gay on patrols, etc. He rejoined them and fought at Guadacanal and has an entry in the log book where they sank two Japanese destroyers in their Avengers. Quite a historic and cool flight log book to read.

[eagle one]

Currently reading "General Kenney Reports". Great reading so far.

[USARV72]

Finished reading Joseph E. Garlands,"Unkown Soldiers". Excellent read on 45th ID, I&R Platoon of the 157th Inf Regt. They were called "Iron Heads", Willie and Joe would have fit right in with these guys,Mauldin is mentioned several times in the book .If you like the Italian campaign this book is for you and it includes the invasion of Southern France.

Many years ago while presenting a WWI display at the McArthur Memorial we met a 45th ID Veteran that had stories that had us laughing so heard we cried, and of course there were the serious ones but the humor stands out. Feel free to PM me for the story, I will not not post it here!

 

Picked up Franklin Miller and Elwood Kureth's "Reflections of a Warrior" from my RVN book case and am half way through again, read for the first time in 92. How did I forget so much? :think:

[DoubleTap]

Just started reading Alex Kershaw's The Longest Winter, though I'm not for enough into it to have formed an opinion yet.

[Steindaddie]

Just picked up a stack of new and used military books! I am starting with The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel. It deals with the small group of men, museum curators and the like, who were in uniform soley to locate and rescue the millions of art pieces and other cultural treasures that had been stolen or were threatened with destruction.

 

The book is available on the stands right now.

[marineamtracer]

Well I put it off long enough and finally read "A Rumor of War" by Phillip Caputo. Why didn't I read this sooner again? Wish I knew because it was great! I could really see his side of things as a platoon leader and relate. If you haven't read it you really should. I also just started "The Lions of Medina" by Doyle Glass. It is the story of C/1/1 during Operation Medina in Oct. of '67. About a third of the way into it now and so far it is excellent.

CJW

[dbirming]

Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island by John Wukovits. An excellent read so far.

 

read this book, and the majority of Wake Island books, and this is one of the better ones. Highly recommend. :thumbsup:

[Sads]

I am reading Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker. It's really a collection of inter-related chronologically arranged sound bites from reports, memoirs, newspapers, biographies etc. and makes fascinating reading. In 1922 Franklin Roosevelt noticed that one third of the freshman class at Harvard were Jews. He brought the matter to the attention of the board of overseers (of which he was a member) and it was subsequently decided that the number of Jews would be reduced by one or two percent per year until it was down to 15%. Lots more like that in the book.

[cutiger83]

I am almost halfway thru the book "Women Pilots of World War II: by Jean Hascall Cole. This is an excellent book about the WASPs with great first person stories.

Thanks.....Kat

[JimmCapp]

"Avenging Eagles" Forbidden Tales of the 101st Airborne Division in WW2: by Mark Bando. Can't wait until Volume 2 comes out.

 

"Another River Another Town" A teenage Tank Gunner Comes of Age in Combat-1945: by John P. Irwin. Excellent book about a young replacement who joins the 3rd Armored Division late in War. There's nothing better than first hand accounts by the guys who actually did the fighting.

 

Just finished E.B Sledge's "With the Old Breed" if you haven't read it yet, get it.

And I need to log off and go upstairs to finish his "China Marine." I was up until 6AM reading that last night, my bedtime is normally around midnight, but it was worth losing sleep over.

[Roy]

I'm currently reading "Port Hudson Confederate Bastion on th Mississippi" by Lawrence Hewitt. So far, it is a very good book.