Latest book received

[HerbyF]

The Zombie Survival Guide 'complete protection from the living dead' by Max Brooks.

  Have that one. It is a great source. I just picked up 'Armies of the Raj' by Byron Farwell & 'The English Civil War Day By Day' by Wilfrid Emberton.

[abelp01]

  Have that one. It is a great source. I just picked up 'Armies of the Raj' by Byron Farwell & 'The English Civil War Day By Day' by Wilfrid Emberton.

'Armies of the Raj' is an excellent book! Read it when it first came out in the 80's. Hope you enjoy it! Farwell and Barthorpe are two of my favorite writers of the colonial experience!

[Wirelizard]

Four from Naval & Military Press, with remarkably fast shipping from the UK to Canada. Say what you like about either the Royal Mail & Canada Post, the average time for mail, even for Surface shipping, is usually pretty damn good. Contrast that with shipping via the US Postal Service to Canada, which almost always takes far too long...

Anyway, the four books:

- The White Armies of Russia - facsimile edition of a 1930s military history focussed on the various White fronts and factions in the Russian Civil War. Well spoken of by various people, with some nice photographs.

- Gone to Russian to Fight: The RAF in South Russia 1918-1920 - a recent (2010) history of the RAF's expeditionary forces in the RCW.

- Notes for Infantry Officers on Trench Warfare - another facsimile edition of a March 1916 War Office/General Staff publication, this one is a skinny little booklet, under 100 pages, but with lots of diagrams of trenches, shelters and similar. Should be a fascinating read, and a good resource for terrain building, for the Western Front and elsewhere.

- Maual of Field Works (All Arms), 1921 - another facsimile edition; I was expecting a slightly larger pamphlet-style thing like the trench warfare book above, but this is a huge manual, over 300 pages, hardbound, with 175 line-drawing plates illustrating everything from trenches to camp layout to roadbuilding to bridges to minefield and demolition layout. I expect I'll be returing to this one for years for scenery inspiration and even scenario ideas.

I'll be doing full book reviews of these over on my Warbard blog in the next few weeks.

[oldskoolrebel]

A few purchases recently for me.

First off some leering wretch tried to sell me this:


Naturally I declined; it was the vacant look in his eyes, his drooling and strangle mumbling that put me off. Instead I purchased a very similar book from a famous online retailer


I also purchased this little tomb. Very nice, I love the collection and the beautiful binding. I was only slightly disappointed that it didn't have the same leatherette effect as the Necrocomicon


I'm not a graphic novel person at all, but I did spot Habibi and though the whole presentation looked stunning. I've given it a quick read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Lots of nice ideas for games. And a very interesting story.


Finally the kindle version of The owl Killers by Karen Maitland. I've read one of Maitlands book's before, company of Liars and I wasn't disappointed by this either. It's written from the point of view of various medieval 'people'. I know only a little about the era but it does seem very well researched and insightful. Plus I love that you are never quite sure if the supernatural elements are presented as being 'true' or just the medieval perception of strange occurrences.



Cheers
Andy

[Wirelizard]

Trench, by Stephen Bull. Picked it up yesterday before work, stayed up far too late reading it last night. Well written and beautifully illustrated, loads of period photos and period diagrams backed by new maps and images - as you'd expect from a book published by Osprey and written by one of the best modern military history writers!

[Aaron]

Inspired by Mark Hargreaves (of the "Over Open Sights" blog) and a neglected pile of Woodbine figures I searched out and downloaded about 35 books on the British operations in Palestine, Gallipoli, and Salonika during WW1. I doubt I'll get to all of them, but since they are all out of copyright it didn't cost me a dime. It looks like there are some real gems there!

[Keith]

COMRADE FOX: Low-living in Revolutionary Russia

A blast of a novel so far - very much in the spirit of Flashy but with it's own flavour.

[Poiter50]

Author & source, please? 

COMRADE FOX: Low-living in Revolutionary Russia

A blast of a novel so far - very much in the spirit of Flashy but with it's own flavour.

[Wirelizard]

Inspired by Mark Hargreaves (of the "Over Open Sights" blog) and a neglected pile of Woodbine figures I searched out and downloaded about 35 books on the British operations in Palestine, Gallipoli, and Salonika during WW1. I doubt I'll get to all of them, but since they are all out of copyright it didn't cost me a dime. It looks like there are some real gems there!

The Internet Archive (archive.org) and elsewhere can be a treasure trove of WW1-era documents, indeed. Copyright expiration and the public domain FTW, as they say out on the wider internets.

Any particularly good books or sources you found?

[Aaron]

Quite a few actually. I have started reading "The Long Road to Baghdad" and so far it is a real winner. If you send me an email to tobul at Pitt dot edu to remind me I can send you a list of titles on Monday (most of them are still on my machine at work).

I also saw a large number of works by and about Canadians. If you get into the WW I memoirs area and plug in Canada, Canadians, and maple leaf you could read on for months.

Some of my all-time favorite WW I books are available too. Books by Ian Hay, James Norman Hall, and Captain Macquarrie ("How to Live at the Front", a guide written by a Brit officer for Yanks preparing to go "over there") are all well worth having. Hall was an Americanwho was in England at the outbreak of the war and enlisted by posing as a Canadian. After serving with the first hundred thousand he went on to fly with the Lafayette Escadrille and then the US Air Corps. After the war he co-authoured a great book on the mutiny on the Bounty.

[Steve F]

The Drowned World by JG Ballard.  If I have the money when Ainsty produces Andym's wrecked Big Ben clock tower, perhaps I'll get some water effects resin to go with it.

[Keith]

Author & source, please? 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/COMRADE-FOX-Low-living-Revolutionary-ebook/dp/B005D53E1O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337431154&sr=8-1

[Anatoli]

Finished listening to this truly great audiobook version of Swedish historian Peter Englund's "Ofredsår" or "Years of war".

As I'm still a fairly new to 17th century warfare it was a great starting point/ "17th century for dummies" where the author describes the warfare, politics and battles of the 30 year war - mainly from the Swedish perspective (but including other countries involved as well).

Really learned a LOT, it was at times quite baffling and somewhat depressing to listen to how the same army just disintegrated for the 5th or so time in plague or starvation in the wartorn German states. Like 25 of some 500 new recruits died of disease in the army camp upon arrival before even seeing battle, the requirement of signing up for 30years of service when joining the army, people fighting in rotting rags as the long campaigns reduced even the finest of clothing to dirt.

How armies tried to avoid battle since it was a chaotic affair, while playing cat and mouse up and down the German states - chasing and being chased and hoping the other army would starve and run out of supplies before you do.

Crazy stuff. The battles themselves are also well described and the author writes about the introduction of the "Swedish style" formations that replaced the Spanish Tertio across Europe. It also chronicles the campaigns of all the Swedish commanders taking part in the 30 year war, from Gustav II Adolf to Carl Gustaf Wrangel.

Really great book. Not really sure if you can find it translated from Swedish to English though. I looked around and only found a bunch of Englund's other books in English which is a shame.

Full review on my blog:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2012/05/ofredsar-years-of-war-book-review.html

[answer_is_42]

My obsession with the Anglo-Egyptian war continues
Just finished this (which was jolly good):


Just in time for the arrival of this:

(a history of the war written by Wilfred Blunt an Egyptian nationalist sympathiser, published 1907)
Which I am rather looking forward to.

Also just got a copy of Childers' 'The Riddle of the Sands', to continue the period theme.

[CyberAlien312]

Nothing to do with minis really, but I recently bought Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and "Richard III". Well, maybe it has to do something with minis, as Richard III inspired me to go paint a War of the Roses Yorkist army!