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Excellent links Jonny, thanks for posting the details.

I'm currently reading Hampton Sides' latest book; "On Desperate Ground" which covers the Chosin Reservoir campaign during the Korean War. I liked this quote from the book on Chinese soldiers:

"Most of Mao's soldiers were powerless and desperately poor young men. They came from the lower echelons of an ancient society that did not particularly value the individual and had traditionally viewed warriors as an expendable class. ('As you do not use good metal for nails,' went an old Chinese proverb, 'so you do not use good men for soldiers.')"

On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides

What are other group members reading at the moment? Let us know, it might be a book of interest for another group member :)

I recently made a start on
Kill Them All: Cathars and Carnage in the Albigensian Crusade
and I'm halfway through
Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket
which is proving to be an excellent, if not exactly uplifting, read on a neglected aspect of this campaign.
Then I've got
Tornado Down
pencilled in as a joint Remembrance/RAF 100 read. Depressing when events you remember occurring are listed as history, isn't it?

More good books Jonny and a very good point about reading 'history' that you actual remember :)

Hi. I am not depressed, but rather enlivened. I remember reading the newspaper at the age of six: Hitler's troops were entering Czechoslovakia. I wondered what was going on. / The end of WWII was an awesome sight in Los Angeles, paper raining down from office windows on Broadway, streetcars stalled, businesses closed. No, it wasn't a movie: It really happened and is still in my mind.

The author of "On Desperate Ground" mentioned a big storm that hit America in 1950, later labelled the 'Storm of the Century':

"The event, which continued to rage through Thanksgiving weekend and beyond, would affect twenty-two states and would kill 353 people. On some of the worse-hit highways, National Guardsmen were brought in to remove snow with tanks and flamethrowers."

I'm listening to this as an audiobook:

Women of the Blue and Gray: True Civil War Stories of Mothers, Medics, Soldiers, and Spies by Marianne Monson

It's on the short side, so it doesn't go into a lot of detail, but I'm enjoying it.

I'm also reading this (got a copy via ILL):
The Fate of Admiral Kolchak by Peter Fleming

It's a good read so far!

"The Fate of Admiral Kolchak" sounds like it would be a very interesting account. Keep us posted A.L.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "The author of "On Desperate Ground" mentioned a big storm that hit America in 1950, later labelled the 'Storm of the Century':

"The event, which continued to rage through Thanksgiving weekend and ..."

That's some storm!

Just finished one great book by one of my favourite author's; Hampton Sides, now hitting another new book by another great author:

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick

I liked this story about Benedict Arnold from the book; "In the Hurricane's Eye":

"At one point, Arnold asked a recently captured militia officer what he thought the Americans would do if they caught him. 'If my countrymen should catch you,' the officer replied, 'I believe they would first cut off that lame leg, which was wounded in the cause of freedom and virtue, and bury it with the honors of the war, and afterwards hang the remainder of your body in gibbets'."

I also liked this story from the book in regards to the French admiral de Ternay:

"The situation in Newport had been complicated by the recent death of French admiral de Ternay, whom Lafayette sardonically claimed had 'found no way to bypass [the British blockade] except by way of the next world'."

Seems a bit harsh 😂

From the book;"In the Hurricane's Eye", in regards to the construction of a man-of-war ship:

"While the smaller frigate was built for speed, a 74, which had a crew of between 500 and 750 men, was more like a large floating tank constructed of wood. It took two thousand oak trees, or fifty-seven acres of forest, to build a single 74, whose ribs and planking were so thick that cannonballs, if shot from a distance, regularly bounced off the ship's sides."

I found this account from; "Revolt in the Netherlands" quite interesting:

"The last major operation by the Republic's fleet before the signing of the Twelve Years Truce was the Battle of Gibraltar in 1607, under the command of Jacob van Heemskerck. It was as if forty years of pent-up hatred burst forth in one afternoon. Because the Spanish ships were larger than those of the Republic, each one was hemmed in by two Republic ships and boarded, in the old-fashioned way. Most of the Spanish ships were lost, and not one of those of the Republic. Four thousand Spaniards perished, and only 100 on the side of the Republic, though Van Heemskerck was among them. He was the first commander to be given a state funeral and a modest, state-sponsored memorial stone."

The Battle of Gibraltar - 1607:


Jacob van Heemskerk:

Started on my first book of 2019,
Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster
last night, getting through the first chapter Erich gave a potted history of radiation, nuclear power and it's accidents from Madam Curie up to about 1980. I was amazed by the uses Radium was put to:
"Radithor, a 'modern weapon of curative science' and one of several medicinal radium products of the time, boasted that it could cure people of rheumatism, arthritis and neuritis. Radium cosmetics and toothpastes promising to rejuvenate the skin and teeth were popular for a few years, as were various other proud-to-be-radium products, such as radium condoms; chocolate; cigarettes; bread; suppositories; wool; soap; eye drops; the Scrotal Radiendoctrinator to enhance a man's virility; and even radium sands for children's sandpits. The true hazardous properties of radium, which is around 2.7 million times more radioactive than uranium, were not realised or acknowledged by the public until the 1930's and 40's."

Jonny wrote: "Started on my first book of 2019,
[book:Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the..."

That's amazing information Jonny, thanks for posting those details!

Some things probably happen for a reason:
" Preventing a radioactive release is the highest priority at any nuclear facility, so power stations are built and operated with a safety philosophy of 'defence in depth'. Defence in depth sins to avoid accidents by embracing a safety culture, but also accepts that mechanical (and human) failures are inevitable. Any possible problem - however unlucky - is then anticipated and factored into the design with multiple redundancies. The goal, therefore, is to provide depth to the safety systems; akin to the way Russian dolls have several layers before reaching the core doll. When one element falls, there is another, and another, and another that still functions. The first barrier are the fuel ceramic pellets themselves, followed by each fuel rods zirconium alloy cladding. In an ordinary modern commercial nuclear plant, the nuclear core where the fission reaction takes place would be contained inside a third barrier: an almost unbreakable metal shield enveloping the reactor, called a 'pressure vessel'. The RMBK forgoes a conventional pressure vessel and uses reinforced concrete around the sides if the reactor, with a heavy metal plate at the top and bottom. Adding a proper pressure vessel, bulky to the standards and complexity required by the RBMK design, was estimated to double the cost of each reactor. The fourth and final barrier our an airtight containment building. It is well known that nuclear containment buildings are very, very heavily reinforced, with concrete and/or steel walls often several metres thick. They are built to withstand the external impact of an airliner crashing into them at hundreds of miles an hour, but their other purpose is to contain the unthinkable breach of a pressure vessel. Unbelievably, the RBMK's accompanying reactor building is insufficient to be labelled as a true containment building, presumably as part of further cost saving measures."
Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster

After reading your excerpts, I have decided to order the Chernobyl book.

Careful Betsy; the disaster bits are great, the tourist portion less so...

My review of Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster is on the books here: /review/show...
Sadly a game of two uneven halves; might need to hit the bookshops again...

Jonny wrote: "My review of Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster is on the books here: /review/show...
Sadly a game ..."

Good review Jonny, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the book with the rest of the group.

And so fairly seamlessly onto
Jerusalem: The Biography
which art least starts way outside my comfort zone...

I've enjoyed seeing what you all are reading:) Right now I am reading "John Adams" by David McCullough. A very good book, I'm savoring it.

Glad to hear you are enjoying your book Gia. David McCullough has written some pretty good books, have you seen his latest title:

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough

Am currently reading MAXIMINUS THRAX by Paul N. Pearson. I must admit to being puzzled at why so many wanted to be emperor when they were frequently assassinated. It certainly wasn't a position with job security.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Glad to hear you are enjoying your book Gia. David McCullough has written some pretty good books, have you seen his latest title:

[bookcover:The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brou..."

Aussie Rick, I haven't seen that one. It looks wonderful! I'm going to look for it. Thank you!

I've just started this new release:

The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found: A History in Seven Cities by Violet Moller

Betsy wrote: "Am currently reading MAXIMINUS THRAX by Paul N. Pearson. I must admit to being puzzled at why so many wanted to be emperor when they were frequently assassinated. It certainly wasn't a position wit..."

Let me know your thoughts on the book Betsy as I have a copy in my library waiting to be read.

I liked this statement from the first chapter of: "The Map of Knowledge":

"While it was true that Christianity had emphatically triumphed in the battle for people's souls, classical scholarship retained its hold over their minds. Everything about it was superior, from the brilliance of the ideas and sophistication of the arguments down to the beauty of the language and dexterity of the grammar - early Christian writings were notoriously clumsy, which was a matter of great embarrassment to churchmen. As one sixth-century writer put it: 'We need a Christian and a Pagan schooling; from one we gain profit for the soul, from the other we learn the witchery of words'."

I liked this bit of information about Galen from the book; "The Map of Knowledge":

"Galen began writing as a teenager, and this explains, in part, at least, his extraordinary output - 'fatiguingly diffuse', as one historian put it - some three million words that are collectively known as the Galenic corpus. Astonishingly, this makes up around half the surviving literature of ancient Greece, but is only a fraction of the ten million words he is estimated to have written."

I liked this story from my book; "The Map of Knowledge" in regards to the chapter on Córdoba:

"The process of freeing al-Ándalus from Abbasid political influence was accelerated, in 763, when Rahman defeated an army sent from Baghdad, and then had the heads of its leaders labelled, packed in salt and delivered to Caliph al-Mansur. On receiving the gruesome delivery, Mansur apparently exclaimed, 'God be praised for placing a sea between us!' After that, the Abbasids left al-Ándalus alone."

Another great story from my book also on the chapter concerning Córdoba and one I can relate to:

"The book markets were crowded with wealthy men on the lookout for the best volumes to fill their library shelves. However thia wasn't good news for scholars - one complained that, when a book he had been seeking for months finally turned up in an auction, he found himself caaught in a bidding war. The price went so high that he had to give up and lost the book; his disappointment turned to anger when the man who outbid him admitted that he had no idea what it was about, he was simply, 'anxious to complete a library which I am forming, which will give me repute amongst the chiefs of the city.' The age-old squabble between wealthy dilettantes and penniless scholars had reached al-Ándalus."

This is from the chapter on Palermo concernig one of the Norman rulers of Sicily, William I:

"In the introduction to his translation of Plato's Phaedo, Henricus Aristippus claims that William was an incomparable king, 'whose court is a school, whose retinue is a Gymnasium, whose own words are philosophical pronouncements, whose questions are unanswerable, whose solutions leave nothing to be discussed, and whose study leaves nothing untried'."

Some king eh!

Another great story from the chapter dealing with Palermo:

"We do not know exactly where Adelard went, but he must have taken the major land route from Northern Europe to Rome, the Via Francigena. Popular with pilgrims, it passed through Laon, then on to Rheims. From there, it led south into what is now Switzerland, through the Alps at the San Bernardino Pass, where enterprising locals had set up toll gates at which they charged travellers to cross. (This was a lucrative source of income, as long as the Normans weren't passing through. They smashed the barriers, stabbed the toll collectors and marched on into Italy - the normal rules simply didn't apply.)"

The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found: A History in Seven Cities by Violet Moller

I've been detecting a certain degree of... sarcasm in some of the books I've been reading on Russia lately (for example, Victor Sebestyen's tart observation "As usual, where the violence was, Lenin wasn't" in Lenin the Dictator).
So I got a laugh out loud moment when I read of this little bit of Tsarist staffing difficulty:
"When challenged by St Petersburg over the parlous state of affairs within the exile administration, officials routinely pointed to ‘the shortages in secretarial resources needed to cope with the growth in the number of cases following the 1823 edicts in vagabonds.�� In this, they had a genuine case to make. In 1856, the staff of the Tobolsk Exile Office, charged with equipping, processing and distributing almost every exile entering Siberia, had a total of just seven members of staff: a director, two assessors, two bookkeepers and two secretaries. By 1873, the number had leapt to nine."
The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars

Johnny, that almost made me snort. Good quote!

Just started on ‘Inside the third Reich�� by Albert Speer :) Been wanting to start that one for a very long time. Finally got to it..

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Am currently reading MAXIMINUS THRAX by Paul N. Pearson. I must admit to being puzzled at why so many wanted to be emperor when they were frequently assassinated. It certainly wasn't ..."

The part about Maximinus as Emperor was interesting, but I thought there was lots of padding. I think the author added lots of stuff to make a short book longer. What a time to live in, especially if you were emperor! Make your will out early. (I gave it 3 stars.)

Thanks for the update Betsy, it may sit on my to-read list a little bit longer :)

I'm sure you are more familiar with the names involved so that would help. The part about Maximinus Thrax himself (what there is) is interesting, but you have to read a lot to get there.

Made a start on
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia
I'm only kind of hoping for some Indiana Jones-style malarkies... it seems somehow unworthy of my childhood not to...

Jonny wrote: "Made a start on
[book:Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the ..."

I think you will have a fun read ahead of you Jonny, keep us posted.

I've decided to read Tom Holland's book on the birth of Islam which as been sitting in my library 2012. I have enjoyed nearly all of his books so far so I have high hopes for this account.

In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland

I started reading this yesterday afternoon and I'm finding it very easy to read, informative and quite enjoyable:

The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History by Paul Andrew Hutton

Another addition to Mt. TBR.

Have just started a book on Frederick the Great by Dennis Showalter. It's kind of in preparation for a book I hope to read on Field Marshal Blucher later in the year.

If I recall I quite enjoyed Dennis Showalter's book on Frederick the Great.

Frederick the Great: A Military History by Dennis E. Showalter

My favourite book on the subject is still this title:

Frederick the Great: King of Prussia by David Fraser

Thanks for the info. I had a chance to get the Showalter book for a good price, but the Fraser book sounds good too.

I liked this story from the book; "The Apache Wars":

"Commanding general William Tecumseh Sherman had little patience with the problem of Arizona, for the territory was busting his budget. 'The cost of military establishment in Arizona,' he declared in 1869, 'is out of all proportion to its value as part of the public domain.' The enchantment of the desert Southwest was lost on the blunt general. 'We had one war with Mexico to take Arizona,' Sherman famously carped, 'and we should have another to make her take it back'."

The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History by Paul Andrew Hutton