Post by Solomiranthius on Mar 12, 2018 21:23:44 GMT
Just completed Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel by Mark Sullivan. It's based on a true story of an Italian boy turned underground railroad guide, turned German soldier, turned personal driver to/spy of German General Hans Leyers. Very interesting and a good read.
Now I am looking for other recommendations for other historical novels for someone who typically prefers fiction (fantasy or sci-fi generally).
Feel free to chime in on any other books you are reading and enjoying.
"You like ships. You don't seem to be lookin' at the destinations. What you care about is the ships, and mine's the nicest." ~ Firefly ~
The Bliven Putnam books have some promise. I read the first one over the course of about seven months and haven’t cracked open the second yet. It was a Christmas gift both times I think.
The Shores or Tripoli: Lieutenant Putnam and the Barbary Pirates A Darker Sea: Master Commandant Putnam and the War of 1812
By James L. Haley
If you like naval yarns start with Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series and then take on some light reading with C. S. Forester’s Hornblower books. By then there ought to be more Putnams out there.
Post by Capt. Strange on Mar 13, 2018 14:46:09 GMT
I just finished the Great Halifax Explosion by John Bacon.
Easy read with very interesting personal stories relating to the incident as well as some naval & legal history to boot.
I really enjoyed it (full disclosure: I have been drowning in 100 year war books for a boardgame I'm working on - so maybe it was just a great change of pace...)
My grandmother was 60 miles away at the time and felt the ground shudder.
Arborists in the city have to take extra precautions when cutting trees down. Many chainsaws have been damaged hitting shrapnel still stuck in the trees
That explosion was closely studied during the development of the Manhattan Project
The 1140 lb anchor shaft from the Mont Blanc was blown 2.5 miles away and is now a memorial on the site where it landed
To you from failing hands we throw the torch be yours to hold it high. -In Flanders Fields. John McCrea
I picked up James Hornfischer's The Fleet at Flood Tide the other day. If you like impressionistic, journalistic popular histories, this one is one of the better recent entries in the genre. Not my cup of tea; I tend to prefer more straight operational histories and how-the-sauasage-is-made command histories in the vein of a lot of Carlo D'este's work.