Current Reading - January 2019

First, happy New Year to all...

Also, the first book book of the year is done, Ferdinand and Elefant Tank Destroyer (B+). While I was happy with what is basically a tactical and operational history of the machine in question it still would have been nice to have some diagrams of its unique drive train.

Gave up after reading about halfway through The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle by Michael Stephenson. The book is about the why as much as the how, but by the time I reached WW1 it had gotten rather too anecdotal and repetitive.

And I think I have to say I have given up on Antony Beevor's Arnhem, which I started several months ago. Strange, because normally I really enjoy Beevor's books, but this one seems much more slow and stolid than usual.

In as much as I'm one of the Legion of the Non-Essential there's no shortage of time to read. Thus I've knocked off Ju 88 and In Command in the course of the week. The first is an artifact of a golden age of aviation book publishing whereas the second is a workmanlike military life of Teddy Roosevelt.

I'm currently reading The Life of Andrew Jackson by Marquis James. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1938. The book includes quite a bit of information about the fighting on the western frontier during the American Revolution, which Jackson took part in mostly as a courier (he was in his mid-teens). My reason for posting today, though, was to say that I'm finding the book's section on the War of 1812 and particularly on the lead-up to and execution of the Battle of New Orleans to be fascinating. I know there may well be more and better information on the battle now, and also that there are full-length books on the subject. Also, as the book checks in at almost 800 pages, 40/50 pages or so on this fight might or might be worth the full reading project for you, but I'm just reporting that I'm having a great time and learning a lot while reading these chapters.

>4 Shrike58: Your comment "artifact of a golden age of aviation book publishing". Isn't that the truth! I have so many books from back in the 70s, 80s and 90s from Orion, Crescent, Osprey, Arco and other publishers. Every once in a while I get the urge to splurge and pick up some of the missing titles to complete certain series, but I know that's a really expensive habit to get into.

No one did better work than Ian Allan and while Crecy isn't bad it still isn't the same.

Also the last military-themed book for the month is The Battle for Moscow; this has some operational aspects but it's really Stahel's effort to try and trawl through the depths of the German military mind and to emphasize that the only reason that the Germans got as close as they did to Moscow is largely because the Stavka wanted them to be that close before dropping the hammer.

Completed the Kindle version of Argentine Fight for the Falklands by Martin Middlebrook. As usual, Middebrook provides an enjoyable and informative narrative.

Currently reading Avenging Angels by Lyuba Vinogradova. It is a dense bjt fascinating read, combining details of their military deployment with biographical details of their lives before and after the War.