Recommend A Book, Part II

xxo

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No hard feelings!


By John Lewis Barkley


This may be the finest First World War memoir I have read – if you liked Elton Mackin's Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die or Hervey Allen's Toward the Flame, you will love No hard feelings!.


John Lewis Barkley, chronicles his experience in world war one as a scout sniper serving in the 3rd​ Division, including his use of a captured German machine gun that he fired from a knocked out French tank, driving back a German advance, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.


You can read it here:


https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000009944960&view=1up&seq=1




BTW you can read Toward the Flame here:


https://archive.org/details/towardflamewardi00herv/mode/2up



Another outstanding memoir from the Great War – this one by German naval intelligence officer Captain Franz von Rintelen writing in Dark Invader, tells his incredible story as a master spy and saboteur who waged war against the allies in the United States in 1915, setting up a network of spies, built fire bombs on an industrial scale, which were planted on ships carrying war materiel and laid the ground work for the German agents who blew up black Tom island in New York harbor. Von Rintelen managed to stay one step a head of allied agents and the New York bomb squad until he was mysteriously recalled to Germany and captured by the British.




You can also read Dark Invader for free here:


http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0801121h.html#ch-2
 

AlienBug

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John Adams Under Fire
Dan Abrams
2020

Fascinating and well-researched profile of the second president, 26 years before he became president, when he was the only Boston lawyer willing to defend the eight British soldiers and their captain accused of murder in the Boston Massacre.

Interesting to see how the law was basically in its infancy then too.
 

xxo

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A great WW II memoir by British intelligence officer, Norman Lewis, later a renowned travel writer, is "Naples '44." Amazing tale of graft, culture, survival, and humanity.


Thanks for the recommendation! Just watched the movie, looking forward to reading the book.
 

xxo

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The most famous German ww I memoir was "Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger, who was quite a character and played an interesting role in Paris and Russia during ww II.

Found it here:


https://archive.org/details/ErnstJngerTheStormOfSteel/page/n13/mode/2up


…..seems interesting, will have to start reading it tonight.


While on the subject of First World war memoirs, here is Guy Empey's Over the Top (full audio book):




Empey was an American who joined the British Army and was badly wounded during the start of the battle of the Somme. Empey was among the first to publish a first world war memoir from the perspective of a front line soldier in 1917.
 
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ledbetter

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Thanks for the links. Junger's personal journals of his days in Paris as part of the occupation we're recently published and are very odd since he was really more interested in the arts and sciences than being a soldier. Btw, he was never officially a Nazi but that doesn't necessarily make him guiltless.
 

SCEMan

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I'm Your Huckleberry

Val Kilmer's autobiography. Fascinating insight into a complex actor.

9781982144890_p0_v5_s550x406.jpg
 

orbital

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Yesterday I ordered up a copy of John M Browning: American Gunmaker

= why am I recommending a book I have yet to read:

the book is rated very highly
Browning has 128 patents, (of which are still produced to this day)
personally could use some creative inspiration
..Browning, born January 23, 1855, was a genius

= so, I'll say confidently in advance, it'll be interesting

note: do you know how involved it is to patent something now,, Ibuprofenfest
 

ledbetter

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Yesterday I ordered up a copy of John M Browning: American Gunmaker

= why am I recommending a book I have yet to read:

the book is rated very highly
Browning has 128 patents, (of which are still produced to this day)
personally could use some creative inspiration
..Browning, born January 23, 1855, was a genius

= so, I'll say confidently in advance, it'll be interesting

note: do you know how involved it is to patent something now,, Ibuprofenfest
Sounds interesting. In the same vein, and with a historical perspective, The Gun by Chivers gives the history and influence of the AK-47.
 

ledbetter

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Had to dig around for this thread. For any history fans, Hero of Two Worlds - the Marquis de Lafayette by Mike Duncan is a great read. Non boring style and very informative even for those with some knowledge of the American and French Revolutions.
 

Monocrom

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Unintended consequences
The first edition is worth a bit of money now. It included a certain political character based on a real life one who, in the book, gets what he deserves. Subsequent editions omitted the character.
 

SCEMan

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Great read and introduction to criminal forensics and profiling. If you aren't familiar with the recent cold case arrest of the Golden State Killer, this book is a good primer. I've read many books by FBI profilers and forensic DNA experts over the years and this is one of the better ones.
content.jpg
 

bykfixer

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"To the last man" is a paperback written by the Gods and Generals author and tells very detailed stories of fictional characters involved in real events of WW1. A foot soldier, a pilot and others lives are chronicled in a way you can smell the stench or hear the bombs explode.

"In His Wake" is a hardback biography about the life and times of Soichiro Honda (pronnounced Soh-ee-chee-roh). From his younger days to his last days he had an influence on the automobile industry starting with Japan and eventually planet earth. If you like the history of cars this is a very good record of the events leading up to the current state of the automobile industry and why not every combustion engine propelling automobiles did not end up being built by Mr Honda or use his design. Despite all odds including his own win at all costs racing program Mr Honda managed to succeed. In His Wake explains how.
 

SamKormak

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Great read and introduction to criminal forensics and profiling. If you aren't familiar with the recent cold case arrest of the Golden State Killer, this book is a good primer. I've read many books by FBI profilers and forensic DNA experts over the years and this is one of the better ones.
View attachment 37187
Sounds interesting. Anything else in this style you can rec?
 
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