Thread: READ ANY GOOD BOOKS RECENTLY?

I'm waiting for the next Nelson DeMille novel, and the next Lee Child novel. So easy to get lost for a few hours with either DeMille or Lee Child.

One of Our Submarines.
Edward Young.

Couldn't put it down.

Originally Posted by POD

Have you read the Aubrey & Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien? 20 books in the series, set in the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic era, similarly to Hornblower, but eclipses Forrester's writing style IMO. I've recently read them all for the second time.
Currently reading Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' for the second time also, probably the best novel I have ever read, although 'Anna Karenina' is possibly even better.

Personally, I prefer Forester's writing, possibly just because I came to it first.

Both characters are heavily based on Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald. But as Forester commented - - he could not use some of Cochrane's exploits, as they were so unbelievable that readers would not think the fiction was realistic.

Cochrane established his reputation as captain of the Speedy, which, under his command, captured or destroyed 53 ships, including a frigate about five times the size of the Speedy, before he was captured. However, he established a reputation for not getting on with peers, subordinates or superiors, for example by demanding that his admiral be court martialled after the battle of the Basque Roads.

Dismissed from the RN in 1814 after being convicted of involvement in a stock market fraud, over the next couple of decades he was employed by revolutionaries in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Greece, and is held in high esteem in those countries as one of the founders of independence. Except in Greece, where his employment resulted in British/French entry into the conflict and the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Navarino, he continued to do things that were unbelievable, including the capture of the largest Spanish ship in the Pacific. Chile has named five ships after him, most recently Almirante Cochrane (2006).

Pardoned and restored to to the RN in 1832, his knighthood was restored in 1847. During the Crimean War, he was considered as an Admiral for the Baltic fleet, but was passed over as being too likely to lose the fleet by taking risks (he was 77 at the time!).

John

The O'Brien series are great, I really enjoyed them a while back.


I'm currently reading a very interesting modern history of Afghanistan, by an author whose name I forget (don't have the book with me) but he works for the UN and seems to know his stuff. Explains a lot of things I didn't understand before about Afghani society and why groups such as the Taliban can get so much support.
Basically, the poor old Afghanis have been screwed by interfering foreigners over way back to the Mongols (whose descendants are the Hazaras). The British actually created the modern state of Afghanistan, but ignored the tribal divisions. The Russians thought they could turn them into good Communists to resist the Americans in Pakistan and the Chinese influence in India, but got a bloody nose. The Americans funded the mujihadeen through Pakistan to fight the Russians and then found they couldn't be controlled. The Taliban were earnest local Muslims who formed to defend their communities from marauding warlords. Now the country is just reverting to the underlying tribal divisions.
That's my summary so far. Interesting.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The O'Brien series are great, I really enjoyed them a while back.


......
Basically, the poor old Afghanis have been screwed by interfering foreigners over way back to the Mongols (whose descendants are the Hazaras).......

Actually, goes back a lot farther than the Mongols - the area was part of the Persian empire, and then was conquered by the Macedonians (Alexander the Great's wife, if I remember correctly, was a princess from what is now Afghanistan.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Actually, goes back a lot farther than the Mongols - the area was part of the Persian empire, and then was conquered by the Macedonians (Alexander the Great's wife, if I remember correctly, was a princess from what is now Afghanistan.

John

Yes, you could be right, my book doesn't go back that far, but I do know Kublai Khan and the Mongols did over the Afghanis and went all the way down through India and Korea to Burma.

Another book I am reading at the moment is "Samurai William", by Giles Milton.

While poorly written, this provides a fascinating insight into Japanese history as it tells the story of the first Englishman to visit Japan. The supercargo of a Dutch Ship that landed in Japan in 1600, he was stranded there for over twenty years.

Japan, at the end of the 16th century, had virtually no contact with the outside world except for limited trade with China and Korea, and a Portuguese Jesuit mission that had founded the city of Nagasaki as a trading enclave.

While Japan was nominally ruled by the emperor, effectively, it was ruled by a large number of warlords, who spent much of their time and effort having wars with each other.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Another book I am reading at the moment is "Samurai William", by Giles Milton.

While poorly written, this provides a fascinating insight into Japanese history as it tells the story of the first Englishman to visit Japan. The supercargo of a Dutch Ship that landed in Japan in 1600, he was stranded there for over twenty years.

Japan, at the end of the 16th century, had virtually no contact with the outside world except for limited trade with China and Korea, and a Portuguese Jesuit mission that had founded the city of Nagasaki as a trading enclave.

While Japan was nominally ruled by the emperor, effectively, it was ruled by a large number of warlords, who spent much of their time and effort having wars with each other.

John

Sounds like James Clavell's "SHOGUN".