Book Recommendations

[Coyotesfan97]

I might have already posted this one but Sympathy For the Devil by Kent Anderson is a great read. I’ve read it multiple times. There are two sequels Night Dogs and Green Sun. I’ve read Night Dogs but not Green Sun. I highly recommend it. Here’s an excerpt.

“Hanson stood just inside the heavy-timbered door of his concrete bunker, looking out. There was no moon yet. The only sound was the steady sobbing of the big diesel generators, but Hanson heard nothing. Had the generators ever stopped he would have heard the silence, a silence that would have bolted him wide-awake, armed, and out of his bunk if he were asleep.

He stepped from the doorway and began walking across the inner perimeter toward the teamhouse, a squat shadow ahead of him in the dark. His web gear, heavy with ammunition and grenades, swung from one shoulder like easy, thoughtful breathing. The folding-stock AK-47 in his right hand was loaded with a gracefully curving thirty-round magazine.

As he got closer to the teamhouse, he could feel the drums and steel-stringed guitar on the back of his sunburned forearms and against the tender broken hump on his nose. Then he could hear it.

Hanson smiled. "Stones," he said softly. He didn't have enough to pick out the song, but the bass and drums were pure Stones.”

The 13th Valley by John Del Vecchio is another good Vietnam novel about the 101st in I Corp.

The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib is another great one. There’s a lot of courage, honor, love and loss in this one. The speeches by the character General “Blackjack” Beaurive gave me goosebumps. It’s main character William Stuart is a Naval Officer ultimately assigned to ANGLICO and most of the characters come together there.

[Sero Sed Serio]

I might have already posted this one but Sympathy For the Devil by Kent Anderson is a great read. I’ve read it multiple times. There are two sequels Night Dogs and Green Sun. I’ve read Night Dogs but not Green Sun. I highly recommend it. Here’s an excerpt.

“Hanson stood just inside the heavy-timbered door of his concrete bunker, looking out. There was no moon yet. The only sound was the steady sobbing of the big diesel generators, but Hanson heard nothing. Had the generators ever stopped he would have heard the silence, a silence that would have bolted him wide-awake, armed, and out of his bunk if he were asleep.

He stepped from the doorway and began walking across the inner perimeter toward the teamhouse, a squat shadow ahead of him in the dark. His web gear, heavy with ammunition and grenades, swung from one shoulder like easy, thoughtful breathing. The folding-stock AK-47 in his right hand was loaded with a gracefully curving thirty-round magazine.

As he got closer to the teamhouse, he could feel the drums and steel-stringed guitar on the back of his sunburned forearms and against the tender broken hump on his nose. Then he could hear it.

Hanson smiled. "Stones," he said softly. He didn't have enough to pick out the song, but the bass and drums were pure Stones.”

The 13th Valley by John Del Vecchio is another good Vietnam novel about the 101st in I Corp.

The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib is another great one. There’s a lot of courage, honor, love and loss in this one. The speeches by the character General “Blackjack” Beaurive gave me goosebumps. It’s main character William Stuart is a Naval Officer ultimately assigned to ANGLICO and most of the characters come together there.

It’s funny, but a friend of mine just returned my copy of Night Dogs, and when I saw this thread make it’s way to the top, I thought about recommending it. I recently reread it, and found that it really struck home with the current state of our society. I’ve always thought that Anderson used the story as a way to tell a stylized account of PPD which couldn’t be told in non-fiction due to the statute of limitations. If ever there was a novel that captured the true heart of a street police, Night Dogs is it.

Haven’t read Sympathy for the Devil, but want to. Never heard of Green Sun...have to look into that.

I think this is the second time we’ve been on the same page (pun intended) on current reads...

[Coyotesfan97]

Nice one! I just saw Green Sun tonight on Amazon. It looked like another cop novel with Hansen returning to LE.

[11B10]

Two books I've read recently are guaranteed page turners.

The first is "Blood on the Risers," by John Leppelman, who served for 35 months in Viet Nam. It's not for the squeamish - as told by "the man on the ground," not a co-written book.

The second is "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer. I've always been interested in anything about mountain climbing - especially Mt. Everest. This is also a first person/he was there retelling of a grueling expedition that didn't end as planned.

No one who reads these two books will be able to forget them. I know I can't.

[blues]

Two books I've read recently are guaranteed page turners.

The first is "Blood on the Risers," by John Leppelman, who served for 35 months in Viet Nam. It's not for the squeamish - as told by "the man on the ground," not a co-written book.

The second is "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer. I've always been interested in anything about mountain climbing - especially Mt. Everest. This is also a first person/he was there retelling of a grueling expedition that didn't end as planned.

No one who reads these two books will be able to forget them. I know I can't.

Re: "Into Thin Air": I learned to technical climb in 1974 with Scott Fischer in the Wind Rivers of WY on a NOLS mountaineering course. Scott was an assistant instructor during the five week course. We stayed in touch from time to time for years after he started Mountain Madness which was his guiding business when he lost his life on Everest.

His future wife was also on the course with us back in 1974.

[11B10]

Re: "Into Thin Air": I learned to technical climb in 1974 with Scott Fischer in the Wind Rivers of WY on a NOLS mountaineering course. Scott was an assistant instructor during the five week course. We stayed in touch from time to time for years after he started Mountain Madness which was his guiding business when he lost his life on Everest.

His future wife was also on the course with us back in 1974.

blues - this story is so well told that you feel like you're on the mountain with them. I could almost feel the wind and cold. Just an incredible story recounted by a very good writer. If you haven't read it yet, please do - I've already read it twice.

[blues]

blues - this story is so well told that you feel like you're on the mountain with them. I could almost feel the wind and cold. Just an incredible story recounted by a very good writer. If you haven't read it yet, please do - I've already read it twice.

I've read all the published accounts of that fateful event. (And several of Krakauer's other books as well.)

[11B10]

I've read all the published accounts of that fateful event. (And several of Krakauer's other books as well.)

IMO, Krakauer is a truly gifted writer.

[Cheap Shot]

IMO, Krakauer is a truly gifted writer.

You guys are probably already aware of this but Dave Roberts, Greg Childs, John Roskelly, and Mark Twight are all worth reading.

I'll have to see if I can add more after I get home and check my bookshelves.

And I agree about Krakauer writing about climbing. However, my faulty memory tells me when I read his book about the kid that starved in AK I found it disappointing.

[11B10]

You guys are probably already aware of this but Dave Roberts, Greg Childs, John Roskelly, and Mark Twight are all worth reading.

I'll have to see if I can add more after I get home and check my bookshelves.

And I agree about Krakauer writing about climbing. However, my faulty memory tells me when I read his book about the kid that starved in AK I found it disappointing.

Cheap..I was less than candid when I called Krakauer a "truly gifted writer." I haven't read everything he's written, but what I have read has been excellent.