Dark Descent, a book about wreck-diving on hte Empress of Ireland, a follow up to Deep Descent, a similar book about the hazards of diving the Andrea Doria wreck. I don't dive, the thought of it scares me spitless, but I enjoy studying steamships and shipwrecks, and these books dovetail into my area of interest.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

How was it?

I'm reading Heinz Guderian's book, currantly he is getting pissed off at Hitler for forcing them to invade the Ukraine, and not march on Moscow.

I just picked up, "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradey.

He also wrote "Flyboys".

The book is about is the store behind the photo of the six men who raised the flag atop the mountain on Iwo Jima.

Stephen Ambrose wrote that "Flags of our Fathers" is "The best battle book I have ever read. There stories, from the time the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima enlisted, their training, and the landing and subsequent struggle, fill me with awe."

Here is a quote from the foreward:

"Of the six men who raised the flag, three were killed in action in the continuing battle.

Of the three survivors, two were overtaken and eventually destroyed - dead of drink and heartbreak. Only one of them managed to live in peace into an advanced age. He achieved this peace by willing the past into a cave of silence."

The author's father was one of the six men who raised the flag, but his father never spoke about it, actually refused to talk about it. He might have taken it to his grave had James Bradley not of stumbled onto a cardboard box a few days after his death.

"World of Wonders" by Robertson Davies.

Mark

John Kennedy Toole?
 

Anybody here read A Confederacy of Dunces? It is a truly great novel and very entertaining. Somewhat timely, too. It's set in New Orleans.

Though he had help writing the book with a published co-author, it is definitely Winter's voice that drives the book. The man is in his late eighties but has an indomitable spirit that just shines.

I was expecting more of a first-person remembrance, and it is that. But it is also an awful lot more. You want to understand the value and rarity of leadership as compared to management, read this book.

i am working on "Pea Ridge" a book about the civil war battles in northwest arkansas.

it is pretty good. it has a lot of detail about overall planning and strategy. in the civil war, a lot happened because they simply had no good way to communicate with each other. they would lay out a plan for the day and the various parts of the army would go off and try to execute their part of the plan. when the battle didnt go the way they thought often the improvization necessary would just lead to some very astonishing results.

in this battle, the confederates had at least twice as many men and twice as many cannons, but lacked provisions, tents and basic winter clothing. this was a result of their commanders poor planning. they also held poor ground which was a lot lower than the federals and thus they tried and tried to fight their way out of a deep valley but never really made it til the federals were so dug in that they couldnt beat them. the southern army lost about 1/4 of its men before it engaged the enemy to hunger and exhaustion.

and then they marched so far ahead of their supply wagons that they couldnt get ammo when they needed it and had to withdraw from lack of it.]

it was a fiasco from start to finish. the confederate general was apparently the biggest problem for them.

i am nearing the final parts of the book.

i recommend it.

tom w

dear mom
 

a book about a viet nam war sniper. his account of his experiences in the war as a marine sniper. including letters home to his mom. just started it. it is very good reading. has a fair amount of technical gun stuff in it.

tom w

I gave that to my dad for Father's Day, and he just let me borrow it when he was down this weekend. He is reading one now called Ninety Days.

I am also reading Samuel Beckett's collection Malone, Malloy Dies and the Unnamable again ( I don't know why, other than I was home alone one night and couldn't sleep)

Yeah, it kind of won an award in another thread here about funny books a while back. :D

Dennis Lehane
 

I'm reading a book of short stories by Dennis Lehane called Coronado, but am not liking it as much as his novels. Those are fairly dark and disturbing, but good. Anybody else read his books?

Intermediate Financial Management
Techniques of Financial Management
Do You Speak American
And...
The 153 page Applied Materials annual report
All for school.

The Small-Mart Revolution . . .
 

Too early to tell though hearing an interview with Michael Shuman intrigued me enough to make the purchase. Others include, repair manuals (sick but necessary) and CAD for Dummies (not the official version - QuickCad).
Steve

Shock Wave
 

I'm reading Shock Wave by Clive Cussler today. Not too deep, but usually pretty entertaining.

As far as Cussler is concerned, boy, what a car afficianado. There's a picture on the back of every one of his books with a different restored car. Don't know how many he has, but it must be a lot.

I guess being a best-selling author is not a bad-paying gig.