Read any good books lately?

[Dave Ambrose]

On 10/7/2016 at 2:27 PM, CometMan said:

I read "Descent Into Darkness" by Commander Edward Raymer, who was one of the lead Navy salvage divers sent into Pearl Harbor to clean up after the attack. Very interesting book!

I've read that too. Very interesting. Those guys were far braver than I. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ian Rankin's The Impossible Dead.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I read a lot of sci fi to unwind in the evenings. Currently alternating between Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series and the ancient "Bolo" series originated by Keith Laumer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_universe

[imarriedawitch]

The Reason You Walk   (Wab Kinew)

[Calb56]

22 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I read a lot of sci fi to unwind in the evenings. Currently alternating between Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series and the ancient "Bolo" series originated by Keith Laumer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_universe

Iain M. Banks is great, it's been a long time.

Also, John Crowley is good with his Aegypt series.

 

[Bugatti Fan]

If you like geo political techno thrillers have a look at the series of books by Frank Gardiner who still works for the BBC. He was shot whilst on an assignment in the Middle East a few years back and paralysed from the waist dosn. His books due to his personal experiences and being still very much hands on as a studio researcher reporter give him a very good insight into the political, espionage and military things happening in the world today.

[meechum68]

Currently reading: Dungeon Crawler Carl series. On book 6 and have enjoyed it. I have read the Farseer Trilogy as well and it was great. 

I tend to bounce between fantasy and sci-fi with a very very small selection of biographies or non-fiction works.  

[Volzfan59]

How about re-reads? My other hobby is bass fishing. I read “Them Ol’ Brown Fish by Billy Westmorland and River Smallmouth Fishing by Tim Holschlag. 

[Calb56]

5 minutes ago, Volzfan59 said:

How about re-reads? My other hobby is bass fishing. I read “Them Ol’ Brown Fish by Billy Westmorland and River Smallmouth Fishing by Tim Holschlag. 

Re-reading "Supercharged Gas Coupes : Remembering the Sixties" by Don Montgomery. 

 

[TarheelRick]

The Vietnam Air War: from the Cockpit, by Col. Dennis M (Mike) Ridnouer. This is a collection of war stories from pilots, ground crews, and support personnel who were either in Thailand or Vietnam during the war. Some of the stories are somewhat crude in writing style and occasionally in language. Some are comical, others plain, and all too many are tragic. What has really got me excited with this book is that I was at Udorn RTAFB, Thailand from February '71 to February '72 and can remember some of these events as they transpired. Col. Ridnouer was also in Thailand during part of the same period. Although I did not know him then, I met him in 2011 while I was serving a small church in Union County, NC where he was a member. At that time, he was working in the aviation industry buying and selling aircraft parts and spent most of his time in California, so I only got to talk with him a couple of times.

The Vietnam Air War: First Person, by Col. Dennis M (Mike) Ridnouer. Am currently reading this one, it was the first book, the one mentioned above is the sequel.

If you have any desire to learn more about the air war in Vietnam, I will highly recommend these books. They are stories straight from the "horse's mouth."

[meechum68]

On 6/27/2025 at 1:32 PM, TarheelRick said:

The Vietnam Air War: from the Cockpit, by Col. Dennis M (Mike) Ridnouer. This is a collection of war stories from pilots, ground crews, and support personnel who were either in Thailand or Vietnam during the war. Some of the stories are somewhat crude in writing style and occasionally in language. Some are comical, others plain, and all too many are tragic. What has really got me excited with this book is that I was at Udorn RTAFB, Thailand from February '71 to February '72 and can remember some of these events as they transpired. Col. Ridnouer was also in Thailand during part of the same period. Although I did not know him then, I met him in 2011 while I was serving a small church in Union County, NC where he was a member. At that time, he was working in the aviation industry buying and selling aircraft parts and spent most of his time in California, so I only got to talk with him a couple of times.

The Vietnam Air War: First Person, by Col. Dennis M (Mike) Ridnouer. Am currently reading this one, it was the first book, the one mentioned above is the sequel.

If you have any desire to learn more about the air war in Vietnam, I will highly recommend these books. They are stories straight from the "horse's mouth."

I am gonna have to find these!  

I just made a note so on my next hunt at B&N and Amazon digging gonna make plans to get them. 

 

[John M.]

I read a good book recently. However, I'd to read it in front of a fire place with a hot drink on a snowy night while listening to jazz. 

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 6/27/2025 at 2:32 PM, TarheelRick said:

The Vietnam Air War: from the Cockpit, by Col. Dennis M (Mike) Ridnouer. 

The Vietnam Air War: First Person, by Col. Dennis M (Mike) Ridnouer.

Thanks for the heads-up on those.

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi! 

I recently read "Who owns this sentence? ", an interesting survey of the story of copy rights around the world, and how the new electronic media muddied the water.

You discover that not much in this world is "public domain" anymore. Oh well...

CT

[1972coronet]

Most recently : Time Between : My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother , and Beyond  by Chris Hillman .

[SSNJim]

"Submerged: Life on a Fast Attack Submarine in the Last Days of the Cold War" by Henry Rausch. What a great book. It sheds a lot of light on the life of a junior naval officer. It's a very accurate depiction of life in the submarine business in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I've read the book 5 times or so since I got it in April. Disclaimer: he was the Weapons Officer supervising my job on another submarine, and I flew back to the US with him from the Mediterranean Sea many years ago.

[RSchnell]

Punching Out by Paul Clemens. I'm finishing this one up now. Dude hangs around the closed Budd stamping plant in Detroit and documents the going ons of the plant liquidation. I found it a good read.

The American Icon book I have read a few pages so far and looks good. It's out of my wheelhouse of Ford history which is why I thought it'd be a good one to read. I hope to finish it on my flight out to CA first of the week. 

[redscampi]

Just re-read William Gibson's Neuromancer for the umpteenth time since the late 1980s. Funny, I found out about this book through a Commodore 64 video game of the same title. 

Other than a few anachronisms such as the failure to predict the cell phone it holds up really well as a dystopian vision of what the internet might have been. The entire Sprawl Trilogy is excellent, as are some of his other works. They really bear re-reading because there is so much detail and nuance, it's easy to miss the first time through.   

[iamsuperdan]

Recently finished something that is a bit of a departure for me.

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum

 

It's an interesting read.

 

 

 

I read a lot of cryptide fiction though. Werewolves, Bigfoot, etc.

A really excellet book is Devolution by Max Brooks. Would love to see this made into a mini-series.

[Bugatti Fan]

Sink the Belgrano

A very interesting account about a British nuclear attack submarine HMS Conqueror sinking the Argentine Cruiser Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War. The only time since WW2 that an active belligerent warship was torpedoed by a submarine.

The book outlines the strategy of the RN nuclear subs operating in the South Atlantic.The main target was the Argentine's aircraft carrier that managed to evade being targeted by sailing within Argentine territorial waters.

Edited Saturday at 08:32 PM by Bugatti Fan