21 Books – Conclusion

Posted on | August 9, 2013 | 8 Comments

Von Ryan’s Express, David Westheimer
” …if only one man gets out, it’s a victory.”
I have to admit, I like the movie version of this book a lot better, even though the book does a better job of explaining why Ryan is such a martinet and also has a sequel, which the movie can’t. Still, the book is excellent, quite the period piece and an interesting counterpoint to Hogan’s Heroes. Sorry, no deep meanings here, just a book that spawned an excellent movie…and made me aware of Westheimer’s Lighter than a Feather, one of the two novels spawned by the stillborn Operation Downfall.

Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi
“I’m Ranma Saotome. Sorry about the mess.”
I started reading this while I was getting into anime and manga and the associated fandom, and despite the failure to wrap the series up with a happy ending I still think this is some of Takahashi’s best work. Martial arts death machines tied up in love triangles, rhombuses and polygons, complicated by the title character’s involuntary gender switching and his utter retard of a father…it’s the soap opera to end all soap operas, and has spawned a million fanfics.

American Caesar, William Manchester
Love him or hate him, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was one of America’s great generals, perhaps its greatest, and Manchester gives this incredibly complicated man his due justice in a wonderful biography. American Caesar delves into MacArthur’s ancestry and family ties, studies his suicidal bravery, and carefully unravels the complicated, incendiary issue of his relief by President Truman during the Korean War. There is no better book on the subject, period.

The Coming Fury , Bruce Catton
The first volume of Catton’s Centennial History Of The Civil War, and it’s good to see that it’s back in print. Catton was a magnificent writer who made the Civil War his life’s work, and it shows in this account of how well-meaning politicians stumbled their way into the bloodiest war ever fought by these United States. There are many books about the Civil War, but this one is mine, and it should be yours, too.

Hell In A Very Small Place, Bernard Fall
The definitive account of Dien Bien Phu, the disastrous battle that cost France her empire in Indochina, and eventually (as Jean Larteguy’s The Centurions showed) Algeria as well. Goes well with Street Without Joy, Fall’s account of the battles that led up to the debacle at Dien Bien Phu. Both are really necessary if you want to understand the mistakes that we made in Vietnam a little more than a decade after the final bunkers fell in that miserable Laotian valley.

To Lose a Battle, Alistair Horne
The final volume in Horne’s superb trilogy covering the Franco-Prussian Wars from 1870 to 1940. I don’t think it’s possible to overstate what a shock the French campaign was to the world; certainly nobody expected the German Wehrmacht to rip through the largest army in Europe like a chainsaw through rotten cheese, drive England from the Continent, and bring France to its knees in a mere sixty days – but it happened, and Horne goes back to the Victory Parade in 1919 to expose all the reasons why.

The 13th Valley, John Del Vecchio
More than just another novel about Vietnam; it’s a close study of the men who fought that war that avoids the facile cliches that so much Vietnam War fiction suffers from. I think this may be a better book than James Webb’s Fields of Fire; at any rate, it deals with the Army’s airmobile infantry instead of the Marines and the highlands of the II Corps zone instead of the wretched lowlands of the I Corps area.

Category: Books

Comments

8 Responses to “21 Books – Conclusion”

MrEvilMatt
August 9th, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

21 Books – Conclusion: – Wombat-socho Von Ryan’s Express, David Westheimer ” …if only one man gets out, it’s … http://t.co/1zlPlCbv68
CHideout
August 9th, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

21 Books – Conclusion: – Wombat-socho Von Ryan’s Express, David Westheimer ” …if only one man gets out, it’s … http://t.co/4XUEExIwam
Citzcom
August 9th, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

21 Books – Conclusion: – Wombat-socho Von Ryan’s Express, David Westheimer ” …if only one man gets out, it’s … http://t.co/0o4tmnHO65
jwbrown1969
August 9th, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

21 Books – Conclusion: – Wombat-socho Von Ryan’s Express, David Westheimer ” …if only one man gets out, it’s … http://t.co/imcgWe8U11
Lockestep1776
August 9th, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

21 Books – Conclusion: – Wombat-socho Von Ryan’s Express, David Westheimer ” …if only one man gets out, it’s … http://t.co/0pXsZ90wb5
Quartermaster
August 9th, 2013 @ 8:21 pm

I agree with you on Manchester’s book. I would recommend anyone reading it, however, also read MacArthur’s “Reminisces” as well. Manchester grinds a few axes, but not hard and you actually get a more balanced account by reading both. I found the same to be true about Curtis LeMay and the book “Iron Eagle” written about 1986. LeMay gives insight the other book does not and actually makes “Iron A**” look somewhat more human.

An interesting aside – Manchester hated MacArthur, and the book is surprisingly good even knowing that. LeMay, OTOH, was cordially hated by my Father who served under him in the early 50s.
thatMrGguy
August 9th, 2013 @ 10:14 pm

21 Books – Conclusion http://t.co/3aFqFDHTK7
MrSaturn
August 10th, 2013 @ 5:40 am

Never would have expected to see Ranma 1/2 mentioned here.