What book are you currently reading?

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Opsboi
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#261 Post by Opsboi » Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:25 am

om15 wrote:
Tue Jun 02, 2020 4:49 pm
Prince Rupert - The Last Cavalier by Charles Spencer
Try his 'Killers of the King' - I was surprised, I thought he was just a Rupert whose sister was Princess Diana

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#262 Post by Opsboi » Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:27 am

Pinky the pilot wrote:
Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:07 am


They will do until I can find some Aviation related books.
I take it you've read all Ernest K Gann's canon?

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#263 Post by Pinky the pilot » Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:35 am

I take it you've read all Ernest K Gann's canon?
Top
Read 'Fate is the Hunter'

Still sitting in the bookshelf behind me.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#264 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:07 pm

Too Much and Never Enough : How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
by Mary L. Trump

Not as scandalous as I expected. More about his father and interactions with his brothers and other family. There was a lot of hinkey financial doings, though.
An easy read as I liked her style. She does have an axe to grind as she and her brother were basically denied access to their father's share of his trust fund after his early death.
I'm sure there will be lawsuits after Trump is out of office and the other financial shenanigans that are being investigated by SDNY come to light.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#265 Post by llondel » Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:40 pm

That's the book I currently have in progress too. Plays nicely with my confirmation bias module.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#266 Post by om15 » Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:04 pm

This one, Fall of Man in Wilmslow by David Lagercrantz

I try to alternate subjects, I have just finished this one

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Centu ... dle/p/9819

I recommend this one to anybody who has an interest in the bomber offensive in WW2.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#267 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:56 am

I am, mostly, reading Richard Steyn's Churchill & Smuts from Enemies to Lifelong Friends. Not finished but this a very well written and detailed piece of historical analysis. Recommended.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#268 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Sep 05, 2020 5:43 pm

Just received a copy of "Wings of the Luftwaffe" by Capt. Eric Brown. Many copies available from UK on Big River Co. but few in US. US price a little more, but extra shipping and import fees were a consideration.
Also ordered "Wings on My Sleeve" and a DVD on him as well.
Any others I should consider, such his book on carrier tests?

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#269 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Sep 06, 2020 7:23 am

"Death on Small Wings: Memoirs of a Presidential Pilot" by ex FAA pilot Neville Atkinson who was for a time Gadaffi's personal pilot.

John Simpson's preface sums it up.
I met Neville Atkinson nearly thirty years ago, when I went to Libya to interview Colonel Ghadaffi for the BBC; then, as now he was a controversial and elusive figure, who was regarded in Britain with deep hostility. The Colonel sent his private plane to fly us from Tripoli to the area of desert near Sirte where he was living. I was frankly amazed to find that the pilot, the man he trusted to fly himaround the world, was British, had flown for the Fleet Air Arm, and still used his Royal Navy rank. We didn’t have much time to talk, but as I said goodbye to him I remember thinking that one day he could write a fascinating book about his experiences. This is it – and it is even more fascinating than I could have known. Neville Atkinson has flown a remarkable number of interesting people around the skies of Africa and the Middle East, and has come into contact with everyone from presidents to leading terrorists. It takes a special kind of man to ask Carlos the Jackal to sign a copy of Forsyth’s ‘Day of the Jackal’, but Neville did it. ‘The name is sheer “*****”’, Carlos wrote above his signature, meaning Forsyth’s title. Neville’s stories are fascinating, and the book is unput-downable. I admire him for writing it, and for doing his difficult and dangerous job so professionally. There must have been occasional clashes of loyalty, but Neville seems always to have dealt with them in the most honourable fashion. Most of all, though, I admire him for staying his own man. He wasn’t a courtier, even though he was constantly in the company of the men who regarded themselves as kings and emperors. When they asked him what he thought, he told them in no uncertain manner. This is the book of an adventurer, certainly, but is also the book of a man who has remained true to himself and loyal to his principles. And above all it is a book full of enjoyment and excitement. London, July 2006
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#270 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:26 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Sun Sep 06, 2020 7:23 am
"Death on Small Wings: Memoirs of a Presidential Pilot" by ex FAA pilot Neville Atkinson who was for a time Gadaffi's personal pilot.
Neville Atkinson was clearly fascinated by Egyptian history and writes well, if rather provocatively and, perhaps, inaccurately, particularly about the Hyksos. His obvious joy in Egyptian history is tempered by his wariness of Cairo, much like an esteemed pilot who used to post here and who was often lamenting another Venus to Cairo. Atkinson was not naive about Cairo and its culinary dangers as he writes in detail about his experiences in Cairo and the dangers of the food, and much else, and its preparation there.

My only experience of Cairo was a terrible night spent onboard a 707 at the airport in the 80's, not being allowed to disembark, due to my South African citizenship, after the aircraft had gone tech. I swore I would never put the dust of the place on my feet and never have subsequently, despite the fact that I would like to see some of the place's historical monuments and museums.
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#271 Post by om15 » Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:35 pm

The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham.
Re reading old favorites and finding new favorites.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#272 Post by tango15 » Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:51 pm

Just finished 'Driving over Lemons' by Chris Stewart. Interesting book, but I found it difficult to understand the geography (geology?) of the farm. Full marks to him and his missus, though. I'm not sure that, even in my mid-40s, I'd want to live with that level of deprivation.

Currently re-reading 'The Man from Odessa' by Greville Wynne. Yet another film has been made about Wynne, which is due to go on release next month, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Wynne. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the books.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#273 Post by Hydromet » Mon Sep 07, 2020 2:19 am

"My Brother Jack", an autobiographical novel by George Johnson. It paints an excellent, though not pretty, picture od Australia between the two world wars, and (so far) his experiences in WW II.
Should have read it years ago, but never got around to it.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#274 Post by FD2 » Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:07 am

'Searching for Charlie' by Tom Scott.

The second biography about Captain Charles Hazlitt Upham (NZIF) from Christchurch, the only combat soldier to win two VCs. The first biography, 'The Mark of the Lion', was written 60 years ago. Less than 1400 VCs have been awarded since its inception (by Queen Victoria) and only two other double VCs were awarded, both to medics, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Martin-Leake RAMC in the Boer War and WW1 and Captain Noel Chavasse RAMC in WW1, who was attached to the 10th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment.

When the recommendation for the second VC was made in 1945 after Upham's release from Colditz, King George 6th asked Major General Howard Kippenberger if Upham deserved it. The General replied ‘In my respectful opinion sir, Upham won the VC several times over’.

Tom Scott has written this book very well and it has so far been a great read and thrown light on how an intensely shy man achieved so much in battle. Highly recommended.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#275 Post by larsssnowpharter » Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:44 am

Over the last 6 months, I have enjoyed re-reading Iain M Banks' Culture novels in the order they were written.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#276 Post by EA01 » Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:17 am

The car owners manual, trying to figure out the fuel door manual release mechanism.....

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#277 Post by Woody » Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:19 am

EA01 wrote:
Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:17 am
The car owners manual, trying to figure out the fuel door manual release mechanism.....
Probably better off searching YouTube for an instructional video :))
When all else fails, read the instructions.

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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#278 Post by ian16th » Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:31 pm

Woody wrote:
Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:19 am
EA01 wrote:
Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:17 am
The car owners manual, trying to figure out the fuel door manual release mechanism.....
Probably better off searching YouTube for an instructional video :))
:-bd
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#279 Post by ricardian » Thu Sep 10, 2020 6:34 pm

Trying to read "The Mint" by TE Lawrence but it's heavy going. Life as an erk in the RAF of the 1920s does not seem to have a lot going for it
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Re: What book are you currently reading?

#280 Post by Hydromet » Thu Sep 10, 2020 10:30 pm

Hydromet wrote:
Mon Sep 07, 2020 2:19 am
"My Brother Jack", an autobiographical novel by George Johnson. It paints an excellent, though not pretty, picture od Australia between the two world wars, and (so far) his experiences in WW II.
Should have read it years ago, but never got around to it.
Finished "My Brother Jack", which takes s to the end of WW II. I'm now tempted to re-read his later novel, "Clean Straw for Nothing", which draws on his later life. Read it many years ago, but can't remember much of it except that It was a good read. In the mean time, I've started Louis de Bernier's "Notwithstanding", a collection of short stories about the inhabitants of a village of that name. So far, so good.

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