What I’m reading…

I particularly enjoy histories, and this year I’ve been reading about the great wars, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and a couple intriguing and detailed writings about Australia and the British in India.

Delights:

John Toland, In Mortal Combat: Korea, 1950 – 1953.

Churchill, WWII, all of his writings. I am fortunate to have the entire collection, from my father’s library. He is surprisingly easy to read, rather chatty at times. Of course the writings reflect his opinions, but what better transcriber of the times, challenges, background, and decisions.

Wade Davis, Into the Silence, the Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest.

Tuchman, Stillwell and the American experience in China, 1911 – 1945.

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: the Battle for Stalingrad.

Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten.

Robert Hughes, Fatal Shore.

Disappointment:

Max Hastings, Vietnam, an Epic Tragedy, 1945 – 1975. Terrible. He opines, speculates, second-guesses, through the entire history. I finally gave up on the book, and I’ll look for a more fact-based dialogue.

Update, since I will be in temporary accommodations for a few months, I just ordered the Nook ebook of John Toland’s The Rising Sun.

Coco