Lots has happened since my last update back in February, but not much of it has been reading. The main time sink has been a 3D print Napoleonic Army project. So far this year I’ve printed and painted approximately 1200 6mm Napoleonic figures organized into 230 bases to play a variety of Napoleonic rules sets including General d’Armee2, Et Sans Resultat, Blucher, and Volley & Bayonet. Anyway, since February I’ve finished 15 books bringing me to 37 for the year which is far off the pace to get through 100 this year. I guess we’ll see what happens during the second half of the year.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley was just OK. The story is that the British government has figured out time travel and brought individuals from various eras forward into the present. These people come from the ECW, Elizabethan London, the 1847 Franklin Expedition, and the British Army on the Somme in 1915, and each of them is assigned a full time, live in, “bridge” who helps them navigate the modern world and reports back to the ministry on their progress. The main characters of the novel are the RN officer brought forward from the Franklin Expedition and his female, Cambodian-British, bridge. As might be expected from the setup, romantic sparks fly. There is also a rather murky overlaying plot of conspiracy and skullduggery. It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Get it from the library.
Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov is a collection of Asimov’s early pulp stories and is mainly interesting as a glimpse into the beginnings of the Golden Age of science fiction. It was OK, but none of the stories really stuck with me.
Table for Two: Fictions and The Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles were both excellent! Gentleman was a re-read of an outstanding book triggered by the book being made into a mini-series on Showtime featuring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov. Table for Two was a collection of interlocking short stories that collectively form a novel about Hollywood in the 30s featuring one of the main characters from Towles’ earlier Rules of Civility. It too was outstanding, but to get the most out of it, read Rules of Civility first.
Sharpe’s Rifles by Bernard Cornwell. I had to read this just to see what all the fuss was about among my Napoleonic wargaming friends. It was OK, not as compelling as Hornblower or the Aubrey/Maturin novels but still a fun read. I’ll read more of these, but probably only as they become available from the library.
Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the Marriage That Shook Europe by John Guy and Julia Fox was an outstanding, exhaustive, thoroughly researched look at the relationship between Henry VIII and his second wife. The authors have diligently dug through the primary research and assembled it into a comprehensive picture of not only the relationship itself, but it’s impact on the entire European geo-political scene of the time. The book’s main strengths are its extremely detailed account of the relationship, and placing that relationship within the context of what else was going on in Europe at the time. It is thus far, my favorite book of the year.
50 Battles That Changed the World by William Weir was an interesting and valuable book covering what the author considers the 50 most important battles ranging from Marathon (490 B.C.) to the Tet Offensive (1968). Each battle has a brief account of the battle and the war it took place in and a concise explanation of why it is so important. It was generally well done and I must confess that I had never heard of a few of the battles. I recommend it if only as a sort of “survey course” to generate further interest.
The Evening and the Morning: A Novel by Ken Follett is the fourth installment in his Kingsbridge series that started with Pillars of the Earth. This one deals with the actual formation of the town of Kingsbridge way back in the 11th century and features a Saxon Earldomen marrying the daughter of a Norman count, a gifted and intrepid but common builder, and a wide variety of both good and evil clergy. It was fun to read, but won’t stick with me like Pillars.
The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Duane’s Depressed, When the Light Goes, and Rhino Ranch by Larry McMurtry are basically a multivolume exploration of the life of Duane Moore, Texas oilman, from his teenage years, through his career, life, and loves, until his death at a ripe old age. Two of the books, Duane’s Depressed and When the Light Goes particularly speak to me because of my current stage of life. But all of them are excellent and I enjoyed them immensely.
The Maisky Diaries: Red Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, 1932-1943 by Ivan Maisky, Gabriel Gorodetsky (Editor) is, as it says on the tin, the internal musings and thoughts of Stalin’s ambassador to the British before/during WWII. It was fascinating to see the interwar years and the whole appeasement period from the perspective of a Soviet diplomat. I recommend it for anyone interested in that period.
The Maps of Spotsylvania through Cold Harbor: An Atlas of the Fighting at Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor, Including all Cavalry Operations by Bradley M. Gottfried was another outstanding entry in Savas Beatie’s series. For those of you not familiar with the series, these books feature a full page, full color map, on the right-hand page with a comprehensive account of the action on that particular map on the left-hand page. When you turn the page, you get another full-page map and another full-page account of the action. Lather, rinse, repeat for (in this case) 387 pages. The books are not only an outstanding source for the battle or campaign they cover but are equally outstanding as a companion volume to whatever other poorly mapped work of military history you might be reading on its topic. For example, this volume, and its companion on the Wilderness, would be an invaluable reference while reading Gordon Rhea’s volumes on the Overland Campaign. Any reasonably serious student of the ACW needs these books.
37 for the year
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