What are you reading now?

I am reading now a book about Berlin during 1945. It is a book with details but also it is very "rude".

Too many details about violence..

 

Is this specifically a WWII thread? I'm actually not reading anything on the war right now, trying to give my mind a break. John Jakes' California Gold is about halfway through. Jakes is an excellent author on US history.

 

Oh well, I'm in something totally different. I am reading Finnish agent book and PURE fictional. Sooo easy to fall at sleep

But next I will have "Knightpilots" from Joppe Karhunen.

 

I am reading Erikson's "The Road to Berlin" and "QED and the Men Who Made It" by Schweber.

Although I found Erikson's "The Road to Stalingrad" not bad, I am having a hard time with "Berlin"; I have even set it aside for a while. It is more like a reference book than a story of the war. It seems to be primarily things like orders of battle, bios of commanders, alternate scenarios, and, worst of all, place names with no maps indicating where they are. "Stalingrad" was a bit like this, too, but had the story as well. British publishers have a lot to learn from American ones.

But the REAL reason that I am writing this msg is to tell you about two wonderful books which I have, and which are as rare as hen's teeth!

1
Back in the early 1970's. the U.S. Government Bookstore sold a series of green tomes titled "U.S. Army in World War II". I have searched for these books since then, but they are no longer available. Back then I bought the six volumes which I was interested in at the time:
- Pictorial Record: The War Against Germany
- Cross-Channel Attack
- Breakout and Persuit
- The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge
- The Siegfried Line Campaign
- The Last Offensive

All of them are just great, except the pictorial one.
They tell the real story of the battles, and in quite detail, and are well-written. They are not reference books, so they don't bog down in minutia. They weren't cheap, either. One of the best thing about them is the detail they go into, but even better is the copious number of large military maps which come with each volume. My favorite is "Breakout and Persuit".

2
This book is utterly amazing. Its title is "The Second World War" and the author is Deborin. Translated from the Russian by Vic Schneierson. Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I acquired it around 1980, but it is older. It is the history of WWII from the Soviet point of view - and WOW! My Polish immigrant friends tell me that this is just what they were taught in school under Communism.
It is truly amazing, how, on every page - almost in every paragraph - the Soviets were able to twist the facts of the war around to such an extent. Rather than a history book, it is a book of pure fiction who's purpose is only indoctorination.

Here are some excerpts from the first part, titled "Prelude to War":

----------------
"Step by step, the policymakers of the United States, Britain and France worked out schemes to utilize Germany and Japan for their ends. A war by Germany and Japan agianst the Soviet Union was to kill two birds with one stone. . . It was the American monopolists who initiated this project"

"The policy of 'non-interference' and 'neutrality' followed by the governments of the United States, Britain and France was, in effect, aimed at encouraging aggression and destroying, with fascist hands, all the democratic, national-liberation and revolutionary forces, especially the Soviet Union."

"But though Hitler came to power with the active assistance of the American and British monopolists. . ."

"American and British generals gave Hitler friendly tips and suggested the order in which he should make his seizures."

"It was [the imperialists of the U.S., Britain and France] who encouraged the nazi aggressors'
------------------

And that's only to page 17 of 560 pages! I skipped typing in most of the propaganda in those 17 pages in order to keep this msg a reasonable size. Every part of the book that I have read so far is like those quotes.

This is the education that hundreds of millions of people received and continue to receive about WWII.

Maestro Mysterieux
Whittier, California

p.s. Even in the U.S. I have found many people who, like the author of the book, refers to the NAZIs as fascists (right wing), instead of socialists (left wing). What do they think the 'Z' stands for?

 

I have and I've read Antony Beevors "Berlin 1945" ISBN: 9789510283479

It is a very hard to read but after all very interesting book.
He's done a very good job with it and its very detailed too. Is it fiction, I am not sure. Some things seemed a bit too colourful but after all, I read it in a week.

 

Giles MacDonough - "After the Reich". (2007) ISBN: 10: 0-465-00337-0. Covers the period of time between the end of WW II in Europe and the beginning of the Marshall Plan. Very insightful on life for German people within the four zones. Russian, French, British, and American. Russians by far the worsed; however, all had faults in providing basic services, food, clothing, and such for the old, women, children, etc.

Fascinaing period of time.

This is a late post (obviously).

Gerry

 

I just finished "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham about a man wrongfully convicted of murder who spent several years on death row before being exonerated by DNA evidence, along with the man convicted with him.

The local bookstore has a few books in English, mostly fiction. The next time I go to Berlin I willl look for other books. Someone told me about a bookstore in Prenzlauer Berg that has used books in English.

Linda, new member

 

Linda....Great to have you aboard....

Do you have anything in the book field you can pass on from the German perspective?

We are all very interested in the Axis side of the story.....anything new or interesting in the German literature field you can point us too would be much appreciated.

I live in Australia, in the smallest capital city of the country...and we are book starved.
The access you have to German litertaure would be marvelous to know...

Regards...Christopher

 

Hi, Christopher! Actually, I'm American and don't read much German, so I only read books in English. However, many of the generals wrote their memoirs after the war, as you know, and they are available in English translations. Some are quite interesting, although others are self-serving, i.e. why I am not a war criminal.

Greetings from east Germany.


Linda

 

Welcome Linda. Hope you like what you see here. I've been away few days but quick read your posts, I see you're from Germany. Hope we get many views from your site of Europe.

 

Anything you can point us to would be most welcome.....

We aim to provide balanced coverage on this site....I have an article in the works about the Warsaw Ghetto of 1943, comparing the "aktion" from a German AND Jewish perspective....

look for it SOON...Enjoy!

Other stuff in the works, but I'm trying to get a job on OILRIGS at the moment, and I just can't seem to fit my favourite pastime in.....that will change very soon....mark my words, VERY SOON...

Meantime...hope you like that which you see here already....there will be MUCH MORE...

Christopher...

 

I,ve been reading several books about Prison Camp break outs. The ones about Colditz, terrific reads, plus the comments about, and BY, former Kommandants, cracking stuff but a wee bit "Boys Own, Ripping Yarns" by modern standards I supose, then again, I,m asn old scrote so I couldn,t care less.

 

Has anyone read Frederick Taylor's "Berlin Wall"? I saw it today at bookstore but 42 € is, hmmm, a lot of money. Finnish reviews are good, I read...

 

greetings...

i just finished THE GHOST MOUNTAIN BOYS.

details the struggle for "bloody buna" in the fall of 1942
and the 32nd Infantry...my hat's off to the RED ARROW
DIVISION.

 

I picked this book up right from the publisher with the pre-order. I received an autographed book. As I had known this book was in the works I greatly anticipated its arrival and was not disappointed.

This book covers the authour's battlefield "tour" in Russia and ultimate fate in Stal...

More...

 

I picked this book up at Borders as I had not even heard of this title. As I collect memoirs, I thought it might be interesting to read on an unknown U-Boat commander, or at least unknown to me. I was not disappointed.

There are 13 chapters in 244 pages that cover his entire war time serv...

More...

 

I had this book as a "maybe to buy" and when the local bookstore had it at 50% off, I bought it. This book started off fairly dry with a lot of info on how the book was written and where the info came from. It only got a bit better after that.

The chapters cover the beginning of the war,...

More...

 

I have just ordered [SIZE=-1]Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949"
by Siegfried Knappe.

Anyone read it?
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I just bought "Berlin, The War, the Wall" on last week's trip to Berlin at a tourist shop on Unter den Linden. It's an excellent guide to the historical sights in Berlin from both the WWII era and the post-war era. As I read it, I marked the ones I most want to see on future trips.

 

Maybe a stupid question but is it in english?