What are you reading now?

[taiwan_girl]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

Have not read that book, but strangly, I was just reading a article about that book. I guess that there is some controversy in that the arthur edited his "diary" after the fact. Some of his original diary entries were very favorable to Adolf Hitler, etc.

[George K]

Goodness...William Shirer. I think I read "Rise and Fall" when I was in high school

Any good, @jon-nyc ?

[jon-nyc]

It’s excellent. Living the reich in ‘real time’ through his diary, but also getting a glimpse of what the life of a foreign correspondent in the 30s and 49s was like. Remember he was one of the original ‘Morrow’s boys”.

I re-read Rise and Fall about every ten years. It’s excellent.

Last year I read his The Collapse of the Third Repubic. I loved it but you kind of have to be into French history not just the war.

[jon-nyc]

@taiwan_girl said in What are you reading now?:

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

Have not read that book, but strangly, I was just reading an article about that book. I guess that there is some controversy in that the arthur edited his "diary" after the fact. Some of his original diary entries were very favorable to Adolf Hitler, etc.

I was aware of that. But it doesn’t take away from the experience. He’s mostly reporting on events, it isn’t so much about him.

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

you kind of have to be into French history

These people exist?

[jon-nyc]

‘People’ is a strong word, but yeah.

[jon-nyc]

Finally.

[George K]

Funny, I was thinking about starting that yesterday!

[jon-nyc]

So did I, and I bought it. Started this morning.

[taiwan_girl]

Part "travelogue", part spiritual quest for the meaning of life, part mystery, it is the story of a US guy who disappears while hiking in northern India. Quite interesting, and is actually quite a good read. It is a beautiful, yet somewhat isolated area.

In August 2016, an experienced American trekker named Justin Alexander Shetler ascended to a high Himalayan lake on a pilgrimage in the Parvati Valley of northern India, never to be heard from again. He carried a walking stick that he’d partially fashioned into a flute, a woolen wrap and not much else, having shed most of his earthly possessions.

[taiwan_girl]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

I re-read Rise and Fall about every ten years. It’s excellent.

Jon, I just started The Third Reich Trilogy

According to Ian Kershaw, it is "the most comprehensive history in any language of the disastrous epoch of the Third Reich".[5] It has been hailed as a "masterpiece of historical scholarship".[6]

There are three volumes:

The Coming of the Third Reich
The Third Reich in Power
The Third Reich at War

I just started the first volume. A bit difficult for me, not really knowing much about European history (talking about Bismarck, etc. and how that set the basis for Nazi's), but I will continue with it for the time being. Mr. Evans, in his "preface" says that he tried to write it not too academic, but not too simplistic.

[George K]

William Shrirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" is a pretty easy read. I must've been about 16 when I read it. Of course, I've forgotten much, but I do remember how easy a read it was.

[Aqua Letifer]

[kluurs]

[jon-nyc]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

Finally.

I finished this yesterday. I kept thinking that there’s so much good detail in there that probably had to be left out of the miniseries. I’ll watch it soon.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

Finally.

I finished this yesterday. I kept thinking that there’s so much good detail in there that probably had to be left out of the miniseries. I’ll watch it soon.

Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan may be the two best Hollywood productions concerning WW2. I was very disappointed in The Pacific, which would have been much better if they hadn't tried to meld two books into one story.

I have not seen Masters of the Air..

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in What are you reading now?:

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

Finally.

I was very disappointed in The Pacific, which would have been much better if they hadn't tried to meld two books into one story.

You'd really not like Masters.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:

You'd really not like Masters.

It was OK - it just didn't have the cohesive feel that Band of Brothers did. I couldn't relate to the characters until halfway through. The fact that they tried to shoehorn so much real history into a relatable tale made it feel that way.

BoB, however, follows ONE set of guys, each of whom is relatable from the outset.

I thing "The Pacific" had the same flaw, though I don't remember much of it.

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

I’ll watch it soon.

BTW: The guy who plays Winters...he's British.

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K said in What are you reading now?:

@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:

You'd really not like Masters.

It was OK - it just didn't have the cohesive feel that Band of Brothers did. I couldn't relate to the characters until halfway through. The fact that they tried to shoehorn so much real history into a relatable tale made it feel that way.

BoB, however, follows ONE set of guys, each of whom is relatable from the outset.

That's how it happened, though. It's harder to write a cohesive story about the 8th Air Force because it's harder to find the exact same group of guys who stayed together all throughout the war.

I thing "The Pacific" had the same flaw, though I don't remember much of it.

I didn't think that was a flaw. Sledge and Leckie had very different perspectives about the same experiences. I think they didn't go hard enough with portraying that. To reject one over the other would have been a disservice.