The "what are you reading" thread:

[Cavalcadeus]

Just finished Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck. A great read as far as ww2 memoirs go.

The guy was one of the first into Poland, first across the Belgian border, at the lead of Rommel's drive through France. He was at the head of the force that was supposed to circle to the north of Moscow and cut it off (may have been one of the furthest NE german reaches of the war) before Rommel requested him to the Afrika Korps. Spent alot of time on the southern end of the battles through north africa fighting a suprisingly gentlemanly like war with the British there. He was pulled out of africa just before the end there and ended up leading the reserve troops in Normandy directly opposite of the D-day landings, fought through France to German territory before being transfered to the eastern front again to hold out in front of Berlin. Then spent 5 years in the USSR as a POW.

I'm not sure that many other soldiers spent time on as many different fronts throughout the war. He manages to tell his story excellently and comes off as a pretty good guy. Its an interesting view of the other side. He was an old school Prussian military type guy too, not a Nazi so its a bit easier to see it from his view. Not a huge amount of gore in the story but many well told tales from those years. I'd recommend it to anybody interested in the war

[Boris Godunov]

Penman has trouble with her beginnings. They tend to be long, rambling, and without much relevance to the rest of the story. This book will get a lot better once she starts concentrating on Maude.

I hope you got the hardcover, like I did. It is gorgeous!

Follow up--finished it a while ago but forgot about this thread.

While overall I enjoyed the book, it might well have been called "Scenes of People Receiving Alarming/Momentous News via Courier." With the exception of the Battle of Lincoln and the seige of Winchester, the reader tends to learn about the more action-packed bits after the fact...

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm just about finished with The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman. I enjoyed the His Dark Materials series so far. Last book is a bit overlong with a bunch of unnecessary parts, but I really liked the concept and its got some pretty good writing for childrens' lit.

[Traianvs]

I'm about to start 'The doubt of Salaì' by Monaldi & Sorti. I liked Imprimatur and Secretum especially. Although their third novel Veritas was not as captivating as the previous two, I have high hopes for this one.

[Lord Avalon]

Reading:

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Fresh for '01 ... You Suckas! A Boondocks Collection by Aaron McGruder

[duke o' york]

John Updike died today (as has probably already been noted in the Dead Thread).

Has anyone read any of the Rabbit series, or any of his other novels?

[snoopy369]

Reading:

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Finished Anathem a while back ... looooooong but pretty good stuff. Better than the SotW series, IMO.

[Lord Avalon]

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

[Zkribbler]

Are you sure you bought the english version?

But the Satanic Verses is one of those books eveyone heard about but nobody read.

The various words were in English. They are just arranged in a manner not seen before. [I shudda mentioned that Imran really likes the book.]


I am currently reading "Bloody Victory" about the Canadian part of the invasion of Normandy. It was pressed upon me by a Canadian friend of mine. The writing styple is AWFUL.

[Velociryx]

The Reckoning Trilogy, by Christopher D. Hartpence, of course.

-=Vel=-

[snoopy369]

Adverspam


Finishing (slowly) Gears of the City by Felix Gilman. A bit odd, he can't really focus on any one thing effectively, though it's easier to follow than his first (Thunderer).

Hopefully I'll be getting Dan Simmons' Drood in a few.

[Velociryx]

Nahhh, had it been advaspam, I would have put a link to the free book...

-=Vel=-

[SpencerH]

Cromwell by Antonia Fraser. Very interesting and much more 'readable' than the previous biography of the Lord Protector that I read.

[Traianvs]

Finishing 'Tales of Unrest' by Joseph Conrad, in English.

His vocabulary is stunning to say the least. I have to pay attention to understand his writing and keep myself immersed in the story. Of the five stories, An Outpost of Progress is my favourite, with Karain: A memory being a close second..

[self biased]

currently re-reading life, the universe, and everything in the hitchhiker's trilogy. i'm actually out of new books again, so i'm re-reading a few that i i haven't touched in a while. i might hit up the lord of the rings again, and possibly shögun. though i do own a copy of gai-jin, i can't get past the first thirty or so pages for much of the same reason i couldn't read more than fifteen pages of interview with a vampire. of course, i could break down and read some of those Feist novels my wife has been going on about.