|
This is a lovely placeholder OP for a thread where TFR can talk about books. Books discussed should relate to firearms somehow, and not as a dumping ground for your My Little Pony erotic fan fiction (gay cowboy romances still okay!) Currently I'm reading Brad Thor's "Full Black", which has been kinda cheesy but still entertaining. I also just finished "Where Men Win Glory", the book about Pat Tillman. It was one of the best books I've read, and if you don't come away from it infuriated over the way his death was handled, you are an unfeeling monster.
|
| # ? Jul 11, 2012 19:30 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2013 06:04 |
|
|
A few of my favorites / current reads are: "Six Days of War" by Michael Oren http://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-War-...six+days+of+war If you dig the Airpower / Cold War thread, you'll probably enjoy this book, because it's Cold War to the max. It's about much more than the war itself; descriptions of the fighting consume about half the book, with the first part being a thorough introduction to the people, places, and context that led to war, the second part being the actual war, and the final part being an examination of the repercussions of the war on the modern middle east. It is my favorite nonfiction book (and, as a history education major, that's saying something because I've read hundreds if not thousands in my life). If you don't know much about middle eastern history, go here first. Used copies go for $1. "Just Cause" by Malcolm McConnell http://www.amazon.com/Just-Cause-Am...nell+just+cause Operation Just Cause, the American invasion of Panama to topple Manuel Noriega, is rightly regarded as a dress rehearsal for Desert Storm. It saw the first use of the F-117, the first use of the HMMWV in combat, and was centered around the kind of "shock and awe" that was later used on Saddam. This book is a very tightly focused and well-written narrative, definitely worth spending a buck on. I would compare it favorably to "Black Hawk Down." The same author wrote this, which I haven't read but it looks awesome: http://www.amazon.com/Fulcrum-Pilot...lcolm+mcconnell "We Are Everywhere" by Michael Raeburn http://www.amazon.com/Are-Everywher...rywhere+raeburn I got this one after a recommendation in some TFR thread or another (I think). It's a series of accounts from guerrillas narrating their parts in the Rhodesian conflicts. Some of them saw combat; others didn't. The whole thing really gives a good sense of the different factions vying for control of the independence movement, the way the guerrilla actions themselves were haphazard and poorly planned, and the scuzzy tactics used by everyone involved - the first guerrilla is offered a scholarship to study in Canada, whereupon he is loaded onto a bus, taken to a guerrilla camp hundreds of miles from anywhere, and told to train and fight or else die. That's hair-raising stuff. I'll donate my copy to the first goon who wants to ask for it; jmb723 at gmail.
|
| # ? Jul 11, 2012 20:19 |
|
|
Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko http://www.amazon.com/Mig-Pilot-Esc...o/dp/0070038503 A complement to "Fulcrum" above, Belenko escaped in a MIG-25 though. Good stuff. The US returned Belenko's MIG in boxes after we examined it. A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West http://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Glor...keywords=custer Been on a Custer kick lately, this is a great introduction to the subject. The Little Big Horn is a absolutely fascinating battle. Many people tend to think that Indian repeaters beat Army single shot carbines. Donavon addresses this briefly but Custer was simply overwhelmed while 2/3rds of the command survived. Such a fascinating battle. BTW, one of my heroes is Benteen. Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-1918 http://www.amazon.com/Tommy-British...&keywords=tommy Tommy illustrates the life of the common soldier on the Western Front. Of course it's about the British soldier. Great section on the weapons and just how highly trained the BEF was trained in musketry. I'll add to this as well. I'm plowing through a few books right now.
|
| # ? Jul 11, 2012 22:50 |
|
|
Just finished up: Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World, Lee Child's The Affair, and the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Now I'm halfway through the 1986 edition of the International Law Enforcement Catalogue (contemplating a Let's Read) and Dean Ing's Spooker which I've read before but always entertains.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 03:49 |
|
|
Gtab convinced me to start Blood Meridian, which is basically art, but it takes too much concentration for me to read it casually. I'm also reading a low-effort novel about Britain's extremely bureaucratic, Office Spacey ultra-secret intelligence agency battling Lovecraftian security threats. It has a Chiappa Rhino.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 03:57 |
|
|
I don't actually read all that many books, but I do listen to quite a few audiobooks during my commute. I just finished "Last Man Out" by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin, about the US Marines' evacuation of the embassy in Saigon in 1975, along with thousands of South Vietnamese. It was both a bit depressing knowing how many people got left and a bit amazing that so many people did manage to evacuate. Also, Bronson Pinchot apparently has a second career as an audiobook narrator.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 04:10 |
|
|
Oxford Comma posted:Books discussed should relate to firearms somehow, and not as a dumping ground for your My Little Pony erotic fan fiction (gay cowboy romances still okay!)
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 04:12 |
|
|
Neal Stephenson's REAMDE is by no means a great book, but holy poo poo the first chapter or so is all TFR, all the time. I did kind of get a sense that Neal didn't know too much about guns before the book, did a poo poo ton of research on then, and then smirked every time he talked about bullet buttons or the capacity of a G19 or whatever, it just felt smug to me. Some fun stuff, though, and guns are around for pretty much the whole thing. This is really just an excuse to plug one of my favorite doesn't-know-when-to-end-his-stories authors, Tim Powers, who likes to talk about metal and weapons a lot, though guns are somewhat rare. Makes sense, considering the time periods he sets his novels in. I don't remember if there is a single gun in either of these, but I loved The Stress of Her Regard and The Anubis Gates both a lot. There are definitely guns in Declare and Last Call, but I didn't like either of those quite so much (still loved them). If you like Terry Pratchett, I read the Diskworld book "Men at Arms" a little while ago, and a gun may or may not have been pretty loving central to the plot, which is interesting for a classical fantasy setting. I like books.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 06:54 |
|
|
Samfucius posted:Neal Stephenson's REAMDE is by no means a great book, but holy poo poo the first chapter or so is all TFR, all the time. I did kind of get a sense that Neal didn't know too much about guns before the book, did a poo poo ton of research on then, and then smirked every time he talked about bullet buttons or the capacity of a G19 or whatever, it just felt smug to me.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 09:42 |
|
|
Pitch posted:Gtab convinced me to start Blood Meridian, which is basically art, but it takes too much concentration for me to read it casually. I'm also reading a low-effort novel about Britain's extremely bureaucratic, Office Spacey ultra-secret intelligence agency battling Lovecraftian security threats. It has a Chiappa Rhino. Apocalypse Codex   read the other ones in the series if you haven't!
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 09:44 |
|
|
If any of you haven't read Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller, do so immediately. I won't try to explain the plot, but imagine Arthur Dent or Bertie Wooster as an assassin, and you'll get the idea. The author: Pitch posted:Oh it was terrible. But I thought he accidentally made a good point with it. He goes on to no end about the kind of detail gun owners complain about when it's missing--characters explicitly chamber checking unloaded guns, being concerned about muzzle discipline, etc. Doug Preston and Lincoln Child have similarly done their research (well, one of them has -- in some parts all the gun stuff is perfect, and sometimes it's just close enough); their protagonist carries a name-brand custom 1911 (except for the one time in the first book, when he killed the monster with a Colt Anaconda in .45 LC). Stephen King, on the other hand, doesn't. I forget the exact wording, but in the second Dark Tower book, when Roland is in somebody else's body in our world and buying ammo, was really obviously terrible. Of course it was written in the '80s, so he didn't have the luxury of Googling the proper name of the .45 revolver cartridge. And he was quite literally out of his mind on coke for the entire decade.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 10:03 |
|
|
Delivery McGee posted:Stephen King, on the other hand, doesn't. I forget the exact wording, but in the second Dark Tower book, when Roland is in somebody else's body in our world and buying ammo, was really obviously terrible. Of course it was written in the '80s, so he didn't have the luxury of Googling the proper name of the .45 revolver cartridge. And he was quite literally out of his mind on coke for the entire decade. 
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 12:04 |
|
|
Aleksei Vasiliev posted:Just how related to firearms does the book need to be? I have a feeling it won't matter in a page or two. As for books heavily about firearms, Stephen "Bob Lee Swagger" Hunter's books exist in a kind of literary junk food state for me. I know there's better out there, but sometimes I want some trash, drat it (And then feel stupid and bad about reading it afterwards). For soldier books, I like Arkady Babchenko's One Soldier's War about his experiences as a Russian soldier during the Chechen stuff in the 90s. Charles Robert Jenkins' The Reluctant Communist is good, too, but that's mostly about him being stuck in North Korea. Another book I like is Donald Ray Pollock's The Devil All the Time which features a dude killing people with a Luger quite a bit (And a lot of killing in general, since it's about a serial killer couple). Currently reading Mornings on Horseback about young Teddy Roosevelt (He's just been elected to the NY state assembly/legislature). Features guns in the context of shooting animals for natural history purposes. I also just started Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard (my first Leonard book), so I'm anticipating Raylan Givens being awesome.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 12:29 |
|
|
Mad Dragon posted:.44 (or what is .357?) Magnum semi-auto Ruger pistol. Ruger's logo is an eagle. The Desert Eagle is the only halfway common .44 or .357 Mag semi-auto. Might be a bit of a stretch, but maybe this is how he made the mistake?
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 12:41 |
|
|
Aleksei Vasiliev posted:Just how related to firearms does the book need to be? If its a book that's read by someone who both owns a firearm and has read/posted to TFR, then you can talk about it here.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 14:03 |
|
|
Delivery McGee posted:If any of you haven't read Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller, do so immediately. I won't try to explain the plot, but imagine Arthur Dent or Bertie Wooster as an assassin, and you'll get the idea. The author: The Gun Seller was pretty amusing. He even talks about OODA loops.  Preston and Child though? The guys who have such glaring gun-related errors in their books that my wife can pick them out without even trying? Things like "His Glock's magazine was empty, so he knew he only had two shots left." Maybe they've gotten better. I don't think she's read much beyond Still Life with Crows, whenever that came out. Edit: Just started Michael Marshall's The Straw Men. No impressions yet, other than it seems a little implausible for two guys to gun down 68 people in a McDonald's in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1991. First of all, why are there 68 people there? Can you even fit 68 people in the average small McDonald's? And every McDonald's I've ever been in has at least two public exits. 
infrared35 fucked around with this message at Jul 12, 2012 around 15:49 |
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 14:26 |
|
|
Craptacular posted:I just finished "Last Man Out" by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin, about the US Marines' evacuation of the embassy in Saigon in 1975, along with thousands of South Vietnamese. It was both a bit depressing knowing how many people got left and a bit amazing that so many people did manage to evacuate. I will really have to check this out. Only just today I had a new urge to study Vietnamese-American refugee history. infrared35 posted:"His Glock's magazine was empty, so he knew he only had two shots left." one shot for the threat, and one shot at love
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 16:25 |
|
|
infrared35 posted:No impressions yet, other than it seems a little implausible for two guys to gun down 68 people in a McDonald's in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1991 Inspired by the Luby's massacre?
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 19:06 |
|
|
Sperglord Actual posted:Inspired by the Luby's massacre? Probably, but when you triple the body count it starts to tug at my suspension of disbelief.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 21:05 |
|
|
Pitch posted:I'm also reading a low-effort novel about Britain's extremely bureaucratic, Office Spacey ultra-secret intelligence agency battling Lovecraftian security threats. It has a Chiappa Rhino. That sounds fun; what's the title? In the spirit of the cold war recommendations above, I'd recommend Project Orion by George Dyson. Being Freeman Dyson's kid, he's got a unique perspective, and the book illuminates some of the mindsets and processes that gave us batshit ideas like Project Orion and Project Pluto.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 21:55 |
|
|
Sperglord Actual posted:Inspired by the Luby's massacre? Or this.Dude shot 40 people in a McDonalds with an Uzi.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 22:03 |
|
|
CMS posted:That sounds fun; what's the title? Are they the "Laundry Books" by Charles Stross? If not, consider this a ringing endorsement for those. Actually, consider this a ringing endorsement for the Laundry Books either way. They're really fun, for being the apex of nerddom.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 22:35 |
|
|
Further recommending "The Gun Seller" - it is utterly impossible to read it in anything other than Hugh Laurie's voice, as he describes his own dream spy world, which makes it all the better.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 22:40 |
|
|
IuniusBrutus posted:Further recommending "The Gun Seller" - it is utterly impossible to read it in anything other than Hugh Laurie's voice, as he describes his own dream spy world, which makes it all the better. gently caress I have to read this now. Anyone have any good suggestions for Westerns, either fiction or not?
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 23:18 |
|
|
I am reading the Sano Ichiro series. It's about a samurai who gets promoted to be a head detective for the shogun and he runs around and solves crimes mainly based on deduction since 1690 wasn't exactly a turning point in forensics in Japan. Pretty well written. I like political intrigue and historical settings. A lot of gay sex though because SAMURAI.infrared35 posted:Edit: Just started Michael Marshall's The Straw Men. No impressions yet, other than it seems a little implausible for two guys to gun down 68 people in a McDonald's in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1991. First of all, why are there 68 people there? Can you even fit 68 people in the average small McDonald's? And every McDonald's I've ever been in has at least two public exits. 68 people from PA in a small town McDonald's? No way that there aren't at least 13 people in that restaurant that are packing heat or have a hunting gun in their truck unless this is like small town "Reading, PA" or something.
|
| # ? Jul 12, 2012 23:22 |
|
|
Oxford Comma posted:gently caress I have to read this now. I liked Rudy Wurlitzer's The Drop Edge of Yonder about mountain man Zebulon Pike. I also liked "Uncle Dick" Wootton by Howard Louis Conard, but a good part of that is because he's my maternal great-great grandfather (I think, there might be another great in there). At one juncture, he meets Joseph Smith and gets invited to dinner, but is a little concerned about his appearance since he doesn't know how many of Joe's wives will be at dinner.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 00:19 |
|
|
CMS posted:That sounds fun; what's the title?
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 00:43 |
|
|
I strongly recommend the Matt Helm novels by Donald Hamilton. Sadly that are all out of print but you can find lots of them on ebay for pretty reasonable prices. They are pulp adventure/spy novels in the James Bond/Mack Bolan. They are told in first person and the protagonist is a pretty funny guy for being a Charles Askins-level psychopath. I am not sure if the author intended these very, very formulaic books to be some kind of subtle character study or if he just thought that was the way people should behave but they are great reads non the less. The author was a minor gun writer in the 60's so the gun stuff is, for the most part, super accurate but not in a John Ross fetishist way. The books do go down hill after the 8-9th one but they are still kind of fun. Roughly, the protagonist worked for an unnamed part of the US gov during WWII as an assassin of spies and enemy leadership whom, years after he retired and started a family, gets dragged back into working for his old boss. He then spends the cold war killing russian/commie spies. The books are pretty "realistic" in that the killings are not glamorized, he tracks his target and kills them, often in a really anticlimactic manner and almost never allowing the villain a chance for a big expository-then-death speech. Sometimes he just shooting them in the back and walks away. The books do all have really bad romantic sub-plots but even they work to show what a coldblooded loon the hero is. They are not fine literature by any means but are really great fun reads and worth picking up for a few bucks.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 01:35 |
|
|
So, guys, when did Tom Clancy become a lovely author? Red Storm Rising was pretty good. Actually, it was great! So was The Hunt for Red October. But its all been downhill from there.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 03:32 |
|
|
Oxford Comma posted:So, guys, when did Tom Clancy become a lovely author? Red Storm Rising was pretty good. Actually, it was great! So was The Hunt for Red October. But its all been downhill from there. I like Clear and Present Danger and Cardinal of the Kremlin. 
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 03:37 |
|
|
I can list about two zillion combat memoirs and similar books I guess. I'll just list what is currently on my shelf, which means these are the books I liked enough out of the mannnnny war memoirs that I have read to select for my small apartment space and leave the rest in boxes elsewhere. I'll bold the best ones, which I am judging based on the quality of writing, attitude presented by the author, and how interesting the story told is. The ones with asterisks are absolutely the best of the best.
I could basically do this for pages if I felt like going out to the boxes and digging out the hundred others I have. I have read so loving many books because I am a godforsaken autist. Other fun or great books:
WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF BOOKS, HERE ARE SOME OBJECTIVE FACTS. NO AMOUNT OF ARGUMENT OR DISCUSSION WILL CHANGE THESE EMPIRICAL TRUTHS: Cormac McCarthy is the greatest American author of the last hundred years; probably ever. If you read GRRM books you should kill yourself. Not a joke. They are poorly written nerd fiction produced solely to give a fat man's incest child surprise sex fantasies a voice. Thoreau is enjoyable to read. Murakami Haruki is an incredible author and easily one of the greatest of the 20th and 21st centuries.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:00 |
|
|
Gtab posted:[*]The Coldest Winter by Eric Halberstam David Halberstam. 
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:11 |
|
|
GOD drat IT THAT'S LIKE THE FOURTH TIME I'VE DONE THAT
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:16 |
|
|
Gtab posted:
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:27 |
|
|
I'll be goddamned if I don't try to uplift these quasi-literate goons by any means necessary, Pitch. You know that. Guns or not.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:31 |
|
|
Gtab posted:GOD drat IT THAT'S LIKE THE FOURTH TIME I'VE DONE THAT It is a great book, and reveals in no uncertain terms what a nut MacArthur was.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:40 |
|
|
Oxford Comma posted:If its a book that's read by someone who both owns a firearm and has read/posted to TFR, then you can talk about it here. For books somewhat more relevant to the topic at hand, I liked the Vatta's War series by Elizabeh Moon. It has guns and spaceguns and pistol crossbows. Gtab posted:quasi-literate goons I should probably read some of the books in this thread.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:57 |
|
|
Oxford Comma posted:It is a great book, and reveals in no uncertain terms what a nut MacArthur was. Oddly enough there still seems to be a pretty large portion of the population that thinks he was a genius and hero
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 04:59 |
|
|
Delivery McGee posted:Doug Preston and Lincoln Child have similarly done their research (well, one of them has -- in some parts all the gun stuff is perfect, and sometimes it's just close enough); their protagonist carries a name-brand custom 1911 (except for the one time in the first book, when he killed the monster with a Colt Anaconda in .45 LC). There are factory made Colt Anacondas in .45LC http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vi...?Item=295626538 They were a bit of a culty gun for making high pressure .45LC loads at one time.
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 05:03 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2013 06:04 |
|
|
Delivery McGee posted:Stephen King, on the other hand, doesn't. staeben kign posted:"Okay," the sergeant said, turning around. "I want to get back to Carthage by one o'clock and I don't-"
|
| # ? Jul 13, 2012 05:04 |
|
