What’s on your bookshelf? (Share your recommended reading!)

I just finished re-reading "The Fall of Berlin" by Antony Beevor. Impossibly great. Convinced me that the era of tanks may have begun to come to an end when 12-year Hitler Youths & 50 year old Volksturm militia, with virtually no training, firing cheaply made Panzerfusts were able to destroy hundreds, maybe thousands, of Soviet T-34s and Stalin tanks in the war's last few weeks.

I am now re-reading "D-Day - June 6, 1944" by Stephen Ambrose. Fine book also. Convinced me that the era of parachute troops was a very brief one, really from 1940-1944. The Germans gave up on airbourne paratroop actions after Crete in 1941. The US & UK largely gave up on airbourne paratroop actions after Normany & Arnhem operations in 1944. Nobody has really used them in a big role since. However, US, UK & Russia (and maybe others) still train elite troops in parachute training to this day, though they'll likely never be deployed this way in combat ever again.
 
I've been rereading One Bullet Away lately. It's the only book I can think of I that I just could not put it down when I first read it.
I second this. My kid is reading this now in prep for beginning NROTC MO option.
 
This Kind and of War and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors are both excellent.
 
Has anyone read The Mosquito Bowl? Was thinking to get it for someone as a gift
 
Thanks for the suggestions! I did a lot of reading during my brief hiatus from this forum 😉. Most recently: The Psychology of Military Incompetence. It’s interesting how some of the major military blunders throughout history have common themes.
 
Based on suggestions from this site I recently read Gates of Fire and Red Notice by Bill Browder. I'm a big baseball guy and a big Joe Posnanski fan so I'm re-reading his Baseball 100 from last year while waiting for his new one, Why We Love Baseball. (If you don't read Joe you should, because he's far more than a sports columnist. His piece called Katie The Prefect is one of the finest essays I've seen in years. He's got a bunch of old popular stuff in his Throwback page. ) Anyway, I also picked up a couple used books recently that I'm slowly starting to hack away at, but the tower of unread books in my room is more a testament to civil engineering than literature.
 
Has anyone read The Mosquito Bowl? Was thinking to get it for someone as a gift

I just got it over Christmas. Tremendous read. Highly recommended. You don't need much prior knowledge of WW2 or the military before reading. Very sad though.
 
The Perfect Storm
Johnny Got His Gun
Catch-22
Henry V ( the Shakespeare play)
 
I've been rereading One Bullet Away lately. It's the only book I can think of I that I just could not put it down when I first read it.
That, Black Hawk Down, and (mentioned earlier in the thread) Can't Hurt Me were just impossible for me to put down.
 
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Got the kindle version for free with my Jungle Prime account. Written by Ed Linz, the former commanding officer of the boomer USS Kamahameha (SSBN 642). Ed is a graduate of USNA ('65). Each chapter is named after the person he interviewed. Pretty good read!
 
Blurb courtesy of Naval Institute website.

Porter Halyburton survived captivity as a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from 1965 until 1973. Those seven and half years were not wasted. Halyburton shares the valuable lessons he learned in the Hanoi Hilton and 8 other POW camps, along with many unknown stories in REFLECTIONS ON CAPTIVITY. These include: the significance of choices made under difficult circumstances, the importance of communication in forming a unified and well-functioning community, and the freedom of forgiveness. His many awards include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, three Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, and seven Air Medals. Porter Halyburton is from Davidson, NC, a graduate of Davidson College (BA), University of Georgia (MA), and the Naval War College. He was awarded Honorary Doctorate degrees from the University of Rhode Island and Greensboro College. Retired as Commander, U.S. Navy in 1984 and as Professor of Strategy Emeritus from the Naval War College in Newport, RI, in 2006, he currently resides with his wife Marty in Greensboro, NC. They have three grown children.IMG_5762.jpeg
 
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