So... what are you reading?

[James Hood]

Battleship Nelson, The Story of HMS Nelson, Richard Careless, 1985

Sad on the author's parents for not changing their surname...?

Purchased from a Brit bookseller by a son-in-law (ah, the wonders of modern e-commerce) in honour of the new 1/200 scale kit of the only battleship class personally found fascinating-irresistable. Well-done and quite interesting little tome with some tasty, previously unpublished photos.

'Would have really liked and been willing to pay double, had the author also chronicled the life of Nelson's sister ship, HMS Rodney.

As a matter of historical interest, 74 years, 2 days ago, HMS Rodney terribly punished the German battleship Bismarck with 40+ direct hits from her 16-inch guns, near 100 from her 6" secondary battery and put a torpedo into the dying Bismarck, the only time a battleship torpedoed one of its own kind.

[Tarheel]

My grandson and niece's boys are doing summer reading (because they have great mothers.) I suggested, "Time and Again" by Jack Finney published about 1970. I can reread it as they do so we can chat.
It is a fantasy-suspense about time travel to 1882 New York city. The book includes circa photos of The Dakota (hotel), scenes around town and the statue of Liberty. Good mental workout for young folks.

Also, a dear friend from Canada, Dougie Shoals, has a new book out titled, "To Carolyn - A Song of Schizophrenia". He wrote poems based on his observations of his sister during the 1960s & '70s and her battle with the disease of the subtitle. There are the families issues of dealing with her at home included.

[GMan]

America's Great Game by Hugh Wilford

[Mike_Oettle]

I’ve just finished reading the ninth chronicle of Brother Cadfael, by Ellis Peters.
Ellis Peters was the pen name of the late Dame Edith Pargiter, and she wrote 20 such “chronicles”, mediæval whodunnits set in the England of King Stephen and his arch-rival the Empress Matilda. I picked up volumes four to nine of the series while visiting Cape Town in April, and am dead keen to read the rest of them.
The title of the ninth book is Dead Man’s Ransom, and perhaps the most intriguing title in the series is The Virgin in the Ice.
Right now I am busy with Sharpe’s Trafalgar, by Bernard Cornwell. I enjoy his various series, and have read several Sharpe stories (including four acquired in the past two months), a number from his series about Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and so far three from his American Civil War series.
Last week I finished reading Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion. People who accept his arguments are very persuasive (since he also is very persuasive) in pressing their atheistic agenda.
However I have found his opinions (supposedly based on hard fact) to be way off the beam. He has invented a cardboard cutout of an “evil God” and proceeded to pick it full of holes.
But he displays a woeful ignorance about virtually everything he touches and lumps together under the blanket term “religion”.
I now plan to read more of his works, and tackle his arguments head on.

[Dughlas mor]

I love the Cadfael mysteries. Good plots and a good glimpse into medieval monastic life. The old BBC TV series is pretty good too, if you can track it down. Derek Jacobi is perfect in the role. Cornwell`s archer series, set in the 100 years war, is also quite good, my favorites by him, I think. I see he has a new one out about the battle of Waterloo, should be good.
I finally came across a copy of Outlander, late to that party, I know. I`m about half way through, and so far I am not exactly bowled over but I will carry on.

[MacCathail]

A while ago I was watching "Casablanca" for the lebenty-lebenth time (and enjoying every minute of it) when it occurred to me that I actually know very little about Vichy France. Let's see, I know the French surrendered in 1940 (and hung the 51st Highland Division out to dry), got to keep - sort of - half their country, appointed Marechal Petain to run it . . . and pretty much nothing else. So I'm about a third of the way through "France, The Dark Years, 1940-1944" by Julian Jackson. I am indeed learning quite a lot, including w-a-a-a-a-y too much about French politics between the wars. The author could've taken a tuck in some of that and no harm done at all.

Cheers,

-John-

[The Q]

I too love the Cadfael Series of books I got them all after watching the TV Series, sadly not all the series was filmed as they were commissioned for slightly over half and since then it was deemed to expensive to film the few that were left. Even with the fact it was filmed in Hungary.
While Cadfael is portrayed by Derek Jacobi with a fairly well off English accent (and I enjoyed his performance0 , the character in the books is a Welsh seaman with a rolling gait!

[Mike_Oettle]

Since Cadfael’s character is so thoroughly Welsh, it is a great disappointment that the Beeb portrayed him as an Englishman (no Englishman had that name, anyway).

Forgot to mention that I had read some of Cornwell’s archer series, too.

And James, while Careless is an extremely odd surname, it was the name of a colonel who was stuck in an oak tree with the Prince of Wales (later Charles II) following a defeat at the hands of the Roundheads. But Charles seems to have persuaded the colonel to change his name, since when he was granted a coat of arms to commemorate the event, his name was given as Carlos.

[GMan]

Militant Anti-Fascism by M. Testa

[Dale-of-Cedars]

The Foreigner series by C. J. Cherryh; one of my favourite science fiction writers.