What are you reading?

from the earth to the moon - jules verne

pretty cool how he wrote about the americans being the first to the moon, back in 1860

 

"Once Upon a Stump - Times and Tales of Powell River Pioneers", by Bill Thompson.

 

strangely, i already have it on order

 

Just finished:


Interesting to me in particular as a former ESM operator who has heard a Nimrod's outstanding Searchwater radar in action....and besides....who doesn't love vintage warplanes like the Avro_Vulcan?

His insights on SIOP and Operation_Black_Buck were VERY interesting.
I never quite realized that the UK brought children into their armed services as young as 16 (at least in the 60's and 70's.)
Maybe WE ought to try that ourselves....


On Deck:
Re-reading Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice
Written by: Mark Makos
Re-reading so that I can watch the new movie and see what Hollywood does with it....
Like ALL great stories, it's NOT fiction, and Makos wrote a captivating book about it!

Devotion tells the story Lt Tom Hudner, a rich white new Englander and Ensign Jesse Brown, a poor black kid from Mississippi.
Both Naval Aviators in the Korean War.
Brown was not merely America's first black Naval Aviator, but he was in a front-line carrier squadron which is significantly tougher than showing up on a flight line before kicking the tires/lighting the fires.
Like the Marines in the Frozen Chosin that they served, protected, and sometimes sacrificed their lives for - those flyers slept, ate, and fought in very close quarters....all years before America's militaries were formally integrated.
Brown was acknowledged as the best stick in a group that would normally take it as an article of faith that THEY THEMSELVES are the best pilot in the group.

Mark Makos also wrote "A Higher Call."
An equally great book.

 

'the personal librarian' was excellent! what a story (true) and very well written.

half way through 'the storied life of aj fikly'. another very good book, and new movie.

the author has 4 others i will be perusing.

in between, i read 'animal farm' and 'appointment in sumatra'. neither very good imo. tried a couple others but gave up at my customary hundred pages

 

just finished the storied life of aj fikry, it was excellent.

started the guernsey literary and potato peel society, very good, different. all letters of correspondence between characters

 

Three re-reads:

Just finished Devotion by Makos so that I can see how badly it gets hacked up by the movie.
Also tossed off Artemis, by Andy Weir, and The Last Paladin by Deutermann
On Deck:
Think I'll re-read Gladwell's, The Bomber Mafia while I'm pondering my next first read.

I learned that the eensy-weensie little Destroyer Escort in Deutermann's book is based in no small part on the real-life USS England (DE-635) which sank SIX IJN submarines in just twelve days in 1944, a phenomenal achievement even if you're reading the other guy's mail and you know about where to look for the boats.

Warships, you see....can shoot back.

 

Just finished Zen, classic coming of age story from a 60’s university professor with a touch of insanity.
Horrible book, reminded me of why I hated philosophy, rhetoric, Greeks and other mental gymnastics

 

Wanted something lighter than Gladwell's book and so I re-read Grisham's A Time to Kill and I'm about 9/10ths of the way through Sycamore Row.
I hadn't remembered how many times the N-word was used in Grisham's 1989 freshman novel but it seems to me to have been a bit more than Blazing Saddles, Huck Finn, and maybe two or three hip-hop videos combined.

By the time I got to that middle tomb in the Jake Brigance trilogy (2013) the NWC was way...way...WAY down....almost to the point where I was comfortable with the novel being open on my phone while at work.

While I was passing through Ford County, MS, I also knocked out The Last Juror and I'll probably finish with A Time for Mercy and then go in search for another genre.....

Western?
Sci-Fi?
Historical Fiction?

Maybe I'll bite into Gladwell's book......

 

Just read one of the brigance novels, not bad

 

A few by Bill Bryson. I find I can put up with reading about scientists' personal foibles. Better than I can withstand Stephen King describing every little gol darn thing.

Day of the Falcon (Forsyth) was also good.

 

just starting cider house rules. a large tome with very small print

 

I started "C++ For Dummies" only to discover my Mac languages have different goals and objectives, a user interface and App. Worse, the author has fallen into DoD employment ... no longer 'online.'

I wanted to research something and have fallen back to using OpenOffice spreadsheet. At least I'll get the design right even if slow. But I have a ThinkPad with Debian which I can fire up. Using OpenOffice as the prototype, I should still achieve my end goal.

Bob Wilson

 

Haven't dipped my toe in yet...


Still Reading :



On Deck......

 

Rewire your Anxious Brain.
Catherine Pittman PhD Elizabeth M. Karle, MLIS

Just finished the 478 Page Manual on the.......
EVS XT-VIA Server Unit. very informative.

 

One of the few books that will give one a snapshot of what it was like to be a teenager during the Viet Nam war and what awaited you after high school graduation when you became eligible for the draft.