What are you reading?

[TRDfan]

Been a long time since we've had a book thread.

I mostly read non-fiction, but I always like a couple good fiction reads for the week at the lake in June.

Let the suggestions begin!

[stroker]

"Peal Harbor; Warning and Decision" by Roberta Wohlstetter. I got it on interlibrary loan and am about 2/3 done. It's dense, very detailed and pretty academically dry, but it's a fascinating analysis of the organizational maze pre-December 7 and what information was available that might have been interpreted as a warning of the attack. What's so puzzling from our perspective is the Conventional Wisdom of the time that Japan was going to go after Siberia, not the Dutch Indies, etc. I've not seen anything revelatory about mis-interpretations of clues about the attack but if you're interested in History then I'd certainly recommend it for a glimpse of the 1940-41 Pacific mindset and how bureaucracy works in the political/military realm...

[dando]

"Killing Patton" is recommended.

[TKGAngel]

Great idea for a thread! I have a cross country flight in June that I need reading material for.

I'm currently reading "Written in My Own Hearts Blood" by Diana Gabaldon. It's the newest book in her Outlander series and at 848 pages in hardcover, can also double nicely as a doorstop.

My "To Read" pile is mainly US-history based non-fiction with the occasional romance novel thrown in.

[KLang]

I've been working my way through James S. A. Corey's 'The Expanse' scifi books. The Syfy channel has a series starting later this year based on the books.

[WickerBill]

My spring break beach material was catching up on the lesser Douglas Adams works, like The Salmon of Doubt and Last Chance to See. My more hardcore reading is generally history material, presidential bios, etc. A bit boring.

[opinionated ow]

Multisport Dreaming: The History of Triathlon in Australia

International Triathlon Union: The First 25 years.

detecting a theme?

[Gnam]

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
by Eric Schlosser

It's a couple years old and written by the same guy that made the documentary 'Fast Food Nation' about eating at McDonalds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/books/review/command-and-control-by-eric-schlosser.html?_r=0


CONS: He's not much of a writer: the story constantly bounces between different locations and points in history and includes a cast of thousands.

PROS: The stories are crazy, unbelievable, OMG. HOLY ****! :eek:

It is a miracle the US hasn't nuked itself accidentally.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Couple of short stories from the book:

When General Curtis LeMay took command of SAC in 1948, he ordered a training exercise where every bomber in the US was to make a simulated nuclear attack on Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. A large percentage of the bombers were down for maintenance and could not takeoff. The ones that managed to get airborne either had to turn back before completing the mission, or just simply couldn't find Ohio. Zero bombers made it. Freakin' zero!

The US had just promised to defend Western Europe against Soviet invasion but couldn't bomb Ohio.


The Air Force had nuclear bombs, and the Navy had nuclear missiles. The Army felt left out. They insisted they needed 32,000 "Davey Crockett" recoilless rifles capable of firing a 50lb nuclear grenade. The rifle had a range of about 1-2 miles and a nuclear fallout kill zone that exceed 2 miles. Anyone who fired it was dead meat.

[dando]

Having lived in Kettering...seeing the planes flying from Wright Pat was interesting. :eek: :saywhat:

[Pilgrims Drop]

Flyboys by James Bradley - so far it's good.... and horrifying

[stroker]

"Technopoly" and "Antifragile" are both books you need to chew on but they're worth the effort.

[opinionated ow]

I've started on Life in the Fastlane by Boris Johnson (the British Foreign Secretary). I'm only half way through the foreword and I read all of it in his voice

[nrc]

When General Curtis LeMay took command of SAC in 1948, he ordered a training exercise where every bomber in the US was to make a simulated nuclear attack on Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. A large percentage of the bombers were down for maintenance and could not takeoff. The ones that managed to get airborne either had to turn back before completing the mission, or just simply couldn't find Ohio. Zero bombers made it. Freakin' zero!

That's pretty amazing considering that just three years earlier the Army Air Force was routinely flying missions from a postage stamp in the Pacific Ocean to a target in Japan and back - a 3000 mile round trip over open ocean. I guess losing so many crews and re-organizing into the Air Force after the war took a toll.

[Gnam]

Exactly. But, everyone's perception of the U.S. military was that it was still this great war machine. Nope.

Even a decade later when they had B-52s, and bigger bombs, and trained personnel they still couldn't deliver. The Pentagon figured (35) Soviet ICBMs dropped on five or six locations would be enough to decapitate the entire U.S. civilian/military leadership and prevent a retaliatory strike. There was no early warning system capable of detecting a missile launch. All they could do was wait for a city to explode and hope the Pesident wasn't vaporized before sending the Launch codes. The promise of Mutually Assured Destruction was a bluff.

There is an Air Base in Greenland called Thule. The Pentagon figured it would be destroyed first because it was so close to the USSR. It became the canary in the coal mine. The problem was in the event of an attack Thule wouldn't be around long enough to call and say, "Hey, we just got nuked. Watch out." So everyday, a fully armed B-52 flew from the U.S. to Greenland and orbited above Thule all day long just to make sure it was still there and we weren't at war. WTF?!

[dando]

Does Bloom County count as reading? :gomer: :D

Nothing current, but my fall back is Steinbeck. :)

[datachicane]

C&C sounds pretty interesting- I'll have to check that out.

Back when I was a callow college lad I had an eye-opening exchange with a SAC general. My folks were buying a good-sized sloop from him, which he kept moored at his private dock in front of his compound on Lake Washington, and I was there with my father for sea trials. I'm sure he was showboating a bit for this long-haired hippie kid, but even now the whole thing feels like something out of a bad conspiracy novel. The name of the boat, and I am not making this up, was The Royal Tarquinnarian, which struck me as more than a bit odd. Coincidentally, at the time I was completely obsessed with classical Greco-Roman history to the extent that I was considering switching my major.

(Cliff's Notes version for non-history geeks- the Tarquins were the last kings of Rome before they were run out of town, the very model of tyrants, and were so universally loathed and despised that the Romans never got over their hatred of the very concept of kings, even to the point of killing guys like Julius Caesar at the slightest whiff of the idea. Shortly after the coup, The Tarquinian conspiracy sought to abolish the newborn republic and return the Tarquin king to the throne, and was one of the bloodier episodes in a period of history not lacking for bloody episodes.)

Anyway, as we're getting underway my father mentions something about the name, and the General says that it's named after a small society of military officers of which he's the president. Errm, OK, I think, that's a bit scary, but maybe there's some other reasonably cool guy with the unfortunate name of Tarquinius that I've overlooked. A while later we're out on deck and making small talk. My father makes a side comment to me about changing the name, and the General looks me right in the eye and asks if I know what Tarquinnarian means. Why he would choose to open this door, I have no idea. Anyway, I say yeah, Tarquinnarians were supporters of the Tarquin kings, Titus Junius Brutus and guys like that. He looks a bit taken aback for about half a beat, and then says that's correct.

Anyway, that was 30+ years ago, so either there's a very slow-simmering secret coup-plotting cabal out there or this guy had an absolutely evil sense of humor. I mean, he put it on the back of his boat in gold letters 2' tall- that's no way to run a conspiracy, is it?

[stroker]

Flyboys by James Bradley - so far it's good.... and horrifying

Just started it. You got THAT right...

[Napoleon]

The Power Broker (bio of Robert Moses) by Robert Caro (I have had this book for 25 years and just got around to reading it in prep of my NYC trip), the Fifties by David Halberstam and a book on dinosaurs/paleontology by Jack Horner,

[datachicane]

Robert Moses was one scary/interesting guy, arguably had as big an impact on American life in the late 20th century as anyone.

Nabokov's Pnin, which I'd previously skipped somehow.
By turns hilarious and very sad. Nobody yanks the parallel story/metaphor chain like Nabokov.

[Napoleon]

^^^

Robert Moses is arguably one of the most important people in this country’s history that most people have no idea of who he is, although having said that a few years ago the Cleveland Indian’s radio announcer, during a game I was listening to (vs the Yankees in NYC) as part of some filler chatting between onfield action just brought up Robert Moses as if the average listener to the ballgame would know who the heck he was. NY Times stories where he gets mentioned seem to presuppose that the reader knows exactly who he is, and he lost his position with NYC and NY State what, 40 years ago or so (for the most recent example see below, but this is typical - how many people can name the park commissioner of their state/city from the time FDR won the presidency)?

He was a real a-hole. You have to say this though, he got things done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/arts/design/central-park-conservancy-to-raise-300-million-dollars.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FMoses% 2C%20Robert&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

[Napoleon]

Data,

PS, speaking of that book on Moses, this appeared a couple of months ago in the NY Times on the book, Moses and an unlikely fan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/nyregion/mark-rutte-robert-caro-robert-moses.html

[datachicane]

I recall a quote somewhere to the effect that Moses had displaced more people than Hitler. Whether or not it's true, the fact that it's plausible at all is terrifying.

[Napoleon]

^^^

Oh that just has to be BS and off by a factor of 100 or something. Caro's book puts the figure at something like 250,000, and of course a good number of them were for things like building parks that the city should have been building all along but did not (other than Central Park). NYC is a big city that grew tremendously while Moses was active. People had to be displaced for necessary infrastructure. I think the real argument is the blend of what he built and whether it was done in a more disruptive way, or even in an intentionally disruptive way (Caro clearly calls Moses out for his racism), then it should have.

[datachicane]

...in context, the discussion wasn't limited to Moses' activities in NY, but across the country. Still seems like a stretch, I agree.

[chop456]

The Journals of Lewis and Clark - Unabridged version. Painful reading unless you're bIF and can OVerlOOK tHE sPelING. I may give up and find the edited version.

[nrc]

I was reminded of "Slaughterhouse Five (https://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Novel-Modern-Library-Novels/dp/0385333846)" while reading "Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany (https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Air-Americas-Against-Germany/dp/0743235452)".

While it's generally recognized as "Kurt Vonnegut's great anti-war novel," as a character in the book itself asks, "Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?" So consider it Vonnegut's great anti-glacier novel. It's a brilliantly creative and poignant story about the nature of life and death, the horrors of war, and the random injustice that it metes out. Plus it has aliens.

[datachicane]

Wow, just finished Pnin. What a total mind-#@%^. Halfway through I thought it was uncharacteristically light and breezy for Nabokov, but by the end... holy crap. It has an amazingly complex structure for such a short work, but all of the bones of the thing are beautifully hidden until the loose threads left in the last chapter unravel it all. It's subtle enough that an inattentive reader could probably just gloss over the whole thing.

What an absolutely stunning work of art.

[stroker]

I know alternate reality novels aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I just started "Dominion" by CJ Sansom based on a recommendation from a friend. I'm about a third into it. The basic set up is that England signed a peace treaty with Germany in 1940 when Churchill fails to become PM (that's the break with our timeline). England (and her empire) basically become a vassal state to Germany, which gets bogged down in an endless war to take Russia. Absent a war in Europe, FDR signs a non-aggression treaty with Japan per the isolationist mood in the US. The story is set in 1952. The general story is good if you can keep track of the characters. What's really getting me is how well the author is describing the gradual erosion of the English culture and the slide into Nazi fascism. I'm at the part where the British Government, in a deal with Germany to get help in maintaining domination of India and Africa, accedes the German demand to deport all the Jews (British Citizens, mind you) remaining in England for "relocation". The reaction of the public and the characters to the circumstances is fascinating because it rings so true of the current political situation here. I can't recommend the book as I haven't finished it, but I thought I'd throw this out there if it was something that might be interesting to you.

[Gnam]

I know alternate reality novels aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I just started "Dominion" by CJ Sansom based on a recommendation from a friend. I'm about a third into it. The basic set up is that England signed a peace treaty with Germany in 1940 when Churchill fails to become PM (that's the break with our timeline). England (and her empire) basically become a vassal state to Germany, which gets bogged down in an endless war to take Russia. Absent a war in Europe, FDR signs a non-aggression treaty with Japan per the isolationist mood in the US. The story is set in 1952. The general story is good if you can keep track of the characters. What's really getting me is how well the author is describing the gradual erosion of the English culture and the slide into Nazi fascism. I'm at the part where the British Government, in a deal with Germany to get help in maintaining domination of India and Africa, accedes the German demand to deport all the Jews (British Citizens, mind you) remaining in England for "relocation". The reaction of the public and the characters to the circumstances is fascinating because it rings so true of the current political situation here. I can't recommend the book as I haven't finished it, but I thought I'd throw this out there if it was something that might be interesting to you.
"A fun, lighthearted book for the beach."
- Max Mosley

;)

[stroker]

"A fun, lighthearted book for the beach."
- Max Mosley

;)

The author seems to have done their homework and lots of folks do not come off looking good in this novel...

[nrc]

I know alternate reality novels aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I just started "Dominion" by CJ Sansom based on a recommendation from a friend. I'm about a third into it. The basic set up is that England signed a peace treaty with Germany in 1940 when Churchill fails to become PM (that's the break with our timeline). England (and her empire) basically become a vassal state to Germany, which gets bogged down in an endless war to take Russia. Absent a war in Europe, FDR signs a non-aggression treaty with Japan per the isolationist mood in the US. The story is set in 1952. The general story is good if you can keep track of the characters. What's really getting me is how well the author is describing the gradual erosion of the English culture and the slide into Nazi fascism. I'm at the part where the British Government, in a deal with Germany to get help in maintaining domination of India and Africa, accedes the German demand to deport all the Jews (British Citizens, mind you) remaining in England for "relocation". The reaction of the public and the characters to the circumstances is fascinating because it rings so true of the current political situation here. I can't recommend the book as I haven't finished it, but I thought I'd throw this out there if it was something that might be interesting to you.

What? No Brexit?

[nrc]

I was reminded of "Slaughterhouse Five (https://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Novel-Modern-Library-Novels/dp/0385333846)" while reading "Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany (https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Air-Americas-Against-Germany/dp/0743235452)".


I figured it would make sense to follow-up Slaugherhouse Five with another classic anti-glacier novel, Catch-22. I had high hopes for it based on the first few pages. Hopes which were quickly dashed as I proceeded to slog through the first two-thirds of the book. It's just so tedious. There is no tangent too far afield and no point that cannot be driven to the ground. Yes, the satire is brilliant and witty at first but it just goes on and on without advancing the story much. As Norman Mailer said, you could cut 100 pages out of this book almost anywhere and they'd never be missed.

I understand the attraction of this novel in 1961 but in 2017 I'm probably unable to fully appreciate it. I grew up with books, movies, and TV that influenced it and were influenced by it so I suspect that much of the freshness and impact were lost on me.

It does pay off a bit in the end. In the last third of the book some of the loose threads come together and the remaining characters come more into focus. It all becomes more worthwhile even if the ending is not entirely satisfying.

[Gnam]

Read Catch 22 twenty years ago. I remember Minderbinder's lesson that war was business and Yossarian's lesson that a soldier's most dangerous adversary is his own military.

I can see why the WWII generation ignored it and the anti-war boomers loved it so much they taught it to their children.

[TRDfan]

Digging this thread out of the mothballs.

Looking for a couple good novels for upcoming screen-free vacation.

Have read tons of Vince Flynn, Grisham, Baldacci but open for most anything.
Something that will keep my interest while listening to the waves.

[stroker]

I'm not reading much fiction these days but I'd put "Project Hail Mary" on your list if you read any SF.

[RaceGrrl]

Digging this thread out of the mothballs.

Looking for a couple good novels for upcoming screen-free vacation.

Have read tons of Vince Flynn, Grisham, Baldacci but open for most anything.
Something that will keep my interest while listening to the waves.


If you like Vince Flynn, you might like Harlen Coben's books. He writes thrillers also- great vacation books, IMO.

[TRDfan]

If you like Vince Flynn, you might like Harlen Coben's books. He writes thrillers also- great vacation books, IMO.

Will keep that in mind when browsing. Thanks!