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mc1911
03-19-2011, 07:55 PM
I just finished a great book, Hero Found by Bruce Henderson. It is the story of Dieter Dengler, one of our pilots shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War. Captured and tortured, he managed to escape and survived in the jungle for almost a month before being spotted and recovered. Incredible story.

Anyone else enjoy quality books, either fiction or non? Throw out some titles and authors.

NickA
03-19-2011, 11:06 PM
I tend to alternate between fiction and nonfiction. Right now I'm working on Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, the final book of his trio (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex). Good stuff..like him or not TR was a MAN. Another great TR book is River of Doubt (can't recall the author) about his expedition to chart a river in Brazil. The sheer amount of things he did and books he wrote is staggering. He must have needed a truck to haul around his gigantic b@lls :)

F-Trooper05
03-19-2011, 11:19 PM
"One Rough Man" by Brad Taylor. Brad was a Military Science instructor at The Citadel when I was a cadet, and he spent 11 years with 1SFOD-Delta before that. This is his first novel (about a bad ass Delta guy) and it's pretty damn good. It's currently number 24 on the NY Times Best Seller.

Joe in PNG
03-20-2011, 01:40 AM
"Dreadnought" and "Castles of Steel" by Robert Massie. The first is about pre WW 1 Great Power diplomacy, and the second is about the WW 1 naval war between England and Germany. A really good pair of books, and one that will give you a lot of exercise if you carry it around (“Dreadnought” is 1006 pages).

“Hyperion” and “Fall of Hyperion” by Dan Simmons. One of my favorite SF books. As for Col. Kassad’s FORCE multipurpose assault rifle- WANT!

Frank D.
03-20-2011, 02:27 AM
One that might not be found on your average gunny's bedside - Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.

Probably one of the most convoluted, funny books ever.

#08-76
03-20-2011, 07:13 AM
A few I like:

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri


Norwood, by Charles Portis


Naked Lunch, by William Burroughs

mnealtx
03-20-2011, 07:35 AM
The "Honor Harrington" books by David Weber are a fun read - a Hornblower-esque main character set in a future space navy.

There's 12 books in the 'mainline' at present, as well as a few offshoots and anthologies.

"On Basilisk Station" is the first book, available through Baen.

mc1911
03-20-2011, 08:02 AM
"The sheer amount of things he did and books he wrote is staggering. He must have needed a truck to haul around his gigantic b@lls"

So true. One can only imagine what it would be like to have him as a president now. Funny story, when I was a naive college student, I had a class called The Gilded/Progressive Era, which included TR's time. One month, the American Rifleman featured an article about some of TR's personal weapons. I thought it was great, it fit right in with the class, so I brought it in to show the professor. I wasn't dialed in on the liberalism of professors back then, but I think because I had a good batch; mostly liberal, but professionals, not activist nutjobs. He flipped through it and even asked me what A.C.P. meant before giving it back. Were I a college kid today, I wouldn't have bothered.

NickA
03-20-2011, 08:13 AM
TR definitely liked to do some hunting. This book opens with a safari he took after leaving the presidency; he killed close to 300 animals in a few months. Kind of excessive but he was collecting specimens for the Smithsonian.

Business_Casual
03-20-2011, 09:31 AM
"Kill Bin Laden" by Dalton Fury

"First Seal" by Roy Boehm

B_C

Kyle Reese
03-20-2011, 10:50 AM
Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History , by Robert Kaplan

ACP230
03-20-2011, 03:30 PM
One I read recently was Greetings From Afghanistan: Send More Ammo by Capt. Benjamin Tupper.

In my collection are a lot of Jeff Cooper books, Hatcher's Notebook, Fast & Fancy Revolver Shooting by Ed McGivern and a couple books by Elmer Keith.

Pistol Shooter
03-20-2011, 04:50 PM
Well written by John Valliant. A very well done book and a real page turner. :cool:

A true story of men vs. man eating tigers in the most remote area of East Russia.

Guess who wins?

dookie1481
03-20-2011, 06:52 PM
“Hyperion” and “Fall of Hyperion” by Dan Simmons. One of my favorite SF books. As for Col. Kassad’s FORCE multipurpose assault rifle- WANT!

You should read the Endymion series too; they seemed boring at first but they were also excellent. The Ilium series was good also.

Frank D.
03-20-2011, 07:05 PM
One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick is fantastic.

Chipster
03-20-2011, 07:38 PM
Brad Thor writes some pretty good books. For the most part they appear to be accurate (as far as super agent/lone government approved assassin can be) on weapons and equipment.

Joe in PNG
03-20-2011, 07:49 PM
You should read the Endymion series too; they seemed boring at first but they were also excellent. The Ilium series was good also.

I've got Endymion, and will get "Rise of Endymion" in a couple of months.

No bookstores in the country, and Amazon can be pricey... plus the Evangelion 2.2 & FLCL dvd orders pretty much took care of this quarter's entertainment budget.

dookie1481
03-20-2011, 08:19 PM
I've got Endymion, and will get "Rise of Endymion" in a couple of months.

No bookstores in the country, and Amazon can be pricey... plus the Evangelion 2.2 & FLCL dvd orders pretty much took care of this quarter's entertainment budget.

If you send me postage I will give you the books.

Business_Casual
03-20-2011, 08:33 PM
Well written by John Valliant. A very well done book and a real page turner. :cool:

A true story of men vs. man eating tigers in the most remote area of East Russia.

Guess who wins?

"Man-eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett

"Lions of Tsavo"

Anything by Peter Capstick (whether or not he wrote in the bar at the hotel)

B_C

turbolag23
03-21-2011, 09:02 AM
I just finished a great book, Hero Found by Bruce Henderson. It is the story of Dieter Dengler, one of our pilots shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War. Captured and tortured, he managed to escape and survived in the jungle for almost a month before being spotted and recovered. Incredible story.

Anyone else enjoy quality books, either fiction or non? Throw out some titles and authors.

On a similar note "Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam" by Lynda Van Devanter was pretty good. I read it in college for a War and Morals class.

On the fiction side I've been reading Vince Flynn novels lately "American Assassin" and "Protect and Defend" were good, I'm reading "Memorial Day" currently.

JDM
03-21-2011, 06:44 PM
Many may find this book a bit, ahem, foul. BUT, if you want one of the best reference points of how the mind of the average 18-30 year old single male's mind works,

the average american male (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061231673?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1)

mc1911
03-21-2011, 07:02 PM
Another great Vietnam read is SOG by Major John Plaster. I re-read that every couple of years. Amazing men, those Green Berets.

Dick Couch writes good fiction and non-fiction.

Another decent fiction guy is C.J. Box. His protagonist is a game warden, which is pleasantly unusual.

peterb
03-22-2011, 11:54 AM
The USMC professional development reading list has some good selections:
http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/lejeune_leadership/LLI%20Documnets/2010ProReadingBrochure.pdf
http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/lejeune_leadership/Pages/proprogbranch.aspx

Keegan's The Face of Battle should be in any military history library.

Miller's Meditations on Violence is good for thinking about self-defense mindset.

Less "gunny", the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series is good, especially the audio versions read by Patrick Tull.

Kipling is always worth reading. The Jungle Books have a lot more blood, honor, and duty than the Disney version.

Structures, or, why things don't fall down by J.E. Gordon is a great introduction to basic structural engineering. Minimal math, reads like sitting in a pub with a good professor.

Here if you need me by Kate Braestrup, chaplain for Maine's fish & game department, who lost a police-officer husband in a line-of-duty accident. Nice look at dealing with faith and grief as part of your job.

On the lighter side, Terry Pratchett's discworld books are good fun, especially the Watch storyline.