Books and Beer

Edited: Books you may have read and 'interesting' beer you've drunk (stick to the post formats if you can).

Because:

DJ Smerk said:

I'd like a thread on interesting books & beer

Iain Pears : An Instance Of The Fingerpost:



The plot hinges on a murder in Oxford in 17th century England, some time after Cromwell's death, as recounted by four characters.

Reminded me of Wilkie Collins' Moonstone, pretty much because of the structure. There are some interesting passages on the development of the spirit of scientific enquiry and the resistance it faces from the traditional Oxford academia hierarchy, plus the hierarchical social life in England.

This is a pretty good book; dunno how I missed this guy before. But I thought the ending was a bit contrived.

Thats all very nice but the thread title refers to two classes of object. Your post only mentions one of them.

He'd drunk too much of the latter to remember...

When I remember the latter, TYA!

Written from the perspective of an American tanks maintenance officer in WWII.

Cooper's division saw a loss rate of 580% on some 240 M4 armoured tanks in WWII, Normandy onwards. Some interesting factoids:

To me, one of the greatest tragedies of war was that our armoured troops had to fight the Germans with a grossly inferior tanks compared to the heavy German panzer units...We had been led to believe that the M4 Sherman MBT was..capable of dealing with German armour on an equal basis. We soon learned that the opposite was true.

Once in combat it was virtually impossible to get...trained replacement tank crews...It was necessary to take raw infantry recruits who had just come off the boat....In some cases the training times amounted to only several hours or maybe a day at most.

Get me a beer.

Right ho, zatboy.



Good beer, I thought.

Whi is going to post Homer?

Go on then, post Homer and impress us all.

In the original, mind.

Ἰλιάς, ναι?

You read it in the original?

Meanwhile:



As good as an example as any of extreme viciousness and civilian strife. Both sides were equally unpleasant, and displayed extreme brutality, although Franco and friends (Mussolini, Hitler) edge it over the assorted Communists/ Anarchists combo supported by that other madman Stalin.

Now that I look back, I became interested in this war because I saw this picture as a child:

I saw this thread the other day but wasn't sure if it was just a joke thread or not

I only read war books - so the tank book and The Spanish War one have caught my eye.

I'm finishing off Gallipoli by Les Carlyon this weekend, then will start Armageddon by Max Hastings - can't wait to get into this one because I really enjoyed Nemesis.

Anyway, I've practically cleaned my local bookshops out of war books so I have to order them in now. If anyone knows a really gripping account of Stalingrad - perhaps the Antony Beevor one? - then I'd love a recommendation.

Decline and Fall . . . one the greatest Waugh books of all . . . give it a look, simkat.

Some german artillery officer wrote a good book about the campaign. Pretty depressing at times but gives you a good perspective especially as the Soviet books were a touch sanitised. There's also a good one written by a civilian woman who was raising her son there at the time. Not really military but when your under siege no-ones really a non-combatant. Can't get a sniff of it on Google, though i'm trying.

furriner wrote:Now that I look back, I became interested in this war because I saw this picture as a child:

one of capa's most famous images

For simkat, who only reads war books - well met. For if I were told that from here on I could read only one genre and nothing else, I would read war books.

Stalingrad is a difficult choice because I am yet to find a satisfying account of the battle although so much literature exists on the subject. What do you like to read - for example military history, socio-political analyses, soldier's memoirs?

Beevor's book is one, also try this (ignore the film art cover, the book has almost nothing to do with it)

The One wrote:[.............
one of capa's most famous images

A lot of people say he he faked it!

More military/ war books for simkat.

This is a very good WWI memoir, a recognized classic, although mystical/ stoic in a way that can be somewhat unpleasant.

Rick Atkinson's liberation trilogy, of which he has thus far published two, is becoming a military classic. The trilogy deals with the US campaigns in North Africa and the liberation of Europe. I'd highly recommend it.

Starts with the the North African campaign in WWII,



and goes on to the battle in Sicily and Italy (won a Pulitzer for this one),

I prefer the Milligan version of the African campaign.

furriner wrote:

The One wrote:[.............
one of capa's most famous images

A lot of people say he he faked it!

The first casualty of war. Maybe he was making a point?

Invader Zim wrote:I prefer the Milligan version of the African campaign.

They were pretty damn good. For example,



and,

Bradman wrote:

furriner wrote:

The One wrote:[.............
one of capa's most famous images

A lot of people say he he faked it!

The first casualty of war. Maybe he was making a point?

The truth, yeah that's one way of looking at it.

Funny, his D Day landing pictures were actually ruined by the lab assistant, so the blurry, grainy images that are now so famous were a result of someone's f*ck up.