2025: What are you currently reading?

[LRK]

David Drake: "Master of the Cauldron"

The 6th book in the fantasy series which began with "Lord of the Isles".

The first 6 books are rather self-contained - the main plotline of each book is concluded in that volume - so one is not left with a cliffhanger. I believe the three last books (7-9) have a more continusous story that concludes the series - but I've not got that far yet, of course. The first 6 are written in such a fashion that one is supposed to be able to read them as standalones.

Now, obviously, I cannot really say of my own experience if it would be a good idea to jump in directly on book 6 - since I'm not doing that. I'm already familiar with the setting and the characters. However, it has been a few years since I read the previous book, and the book does a very good - and smooth - job of catching me up with any backstorry and reminding me of details that may have slipped my memory. So, at the very least, I do feel that the books can be read years apart with littll to no trouble at all, and no confusion (and my emory is, frankly, shoddy at best of times.)

Anyway, I'm glad to be back in this world with the characters I'm very fond of.

 

[LRK]

P G Wodehouse: "Piccadilly Jim"

P G Wodehouse had a long writing career that spanned from the early 1900s to the early 1970s. This particular book was first published in 1917, so (realtively speaking) among his earlier books.

It's a re-read for me, though I honestly don't recall much of anything about it. I'm generally quite hard on my shoddy memory, but seeing as it's been maybe 35 years since I read it, I think I can give myself a bit of a pass on this score... maybe.

This is a P G Wodehouse, though, so I feel pretty safe in saying that the plot could probably be summarised with one word: Shenanigans.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Saw that they are going to re-release to theatres the Kiera K. version of Pride and Prejudice, digitally enhanced. While not a very faithful rendition at the end (you need 6 hours) its the most romantic. JA couldnt write a love scene to save her petuty.

I was sick the one day my school spent on 20th century History so I am back reading history books. I have for many years had questions about Japan 1945, what it was like there March through August. And why they acted the way they did. There are many Japanese books but few translated into English. We do have the diaries of the few westerners that were allowed to spend their time out of the internment camps. So I read 3 books. "Bomber Mafia" which tells the story on why anyone would think daylight bombing was a good idea (and the development of the fatally flawed Norden bomb site, the dream of a deranged genius who thought he could solve 26 algorithums at once, Napalm cluster bombs, and the B29, ) "Japan 1944-45" and the best , "Black Snow"...The fire bombing of Japan.
What I learned.
1. The home islands were almost untouched till 8 min after midnight, March 10th, when 16 sq miles of Tokyo went up in flames. 100,000 plus men, women, children and US/Allied POWs died. 4.5 million people left the capitol, meaning the other 5 raids on Tokyo which burned a total of 50 sq miles were not near as costly in human life. The people leaving had the effect of completely shutting down war production. Which was the one and only mission of the 20th Airforce in the Mariannas.
2. By late July, all the big major industrial cities and many small industrial cites had been burned. 1/3 of Japan was homeless. 3-4 cities had been saved for atomic weapons testing for the invasion. Operation Downfall.
3. With almost 60 cites half burned, 38 yr old Gen LeMay , Head of the 20th AAF, really felt bad about the civilians...his bomber crews did too...they were physically sickened by the smell of burning bodies. So LeMay sent planes over targets dropping leaflets to leave the remaining 11 cities NOW. He then hit 4 a night. His dream of ending the war by bombing with no invasion seemed to leave his grasp. About 145 sq miles of Japan was burned. The Japanese govt had torn down 600,000 homes in an attempt to make fire breaks to no avail.
4. No surrender came. People were starving to death, stealing food from anyone they could. The city folk were now in the country, where they were not welcomed. The first invasion was a go for November. The second in March.
5. Then 3 events happened. Russia declared war and was rolling up the Japanese Army in China. Atomic test one was done on Hiroshima. 4 square miles. The US now knew what it could expect out of a Uranium Atomic weapon on an invasion beach. Three days later a B29 carrying a plutonium bomb had to divert to its secondary target, Nagasaki. This beautiful city is hemmed in by mountains so the bomb only destroyed 2.5 sq miles, but the US now knew everything it needed to invade. First, Kyushu in November, then Honshu in March...Tokyo area. More A bombs would be ready then....
6. Truman had a hunch. He told LeMay to hold off and see what would happen. Nothing did. So a last B29 raid was launched. But Hirohito now had a way of saving face after lieing to the people. He talked to the people via radio and didnt use the surrender word but told them any further resistance was futile. At this point, Hirohito's approval rating wasnt very good. The home islands were ringed by US submarines. No ship could get past them but if they did, LeMay had put in sea mines everywhere he could...US carriers and battleships sailed just off shore, taking out the few factories left. There was no real functioning urban society and no food.
7. Thus, Hirohito saved Japan from invasion...and the POWs that would have been killed at the start by order...the B29s went to work showering Japan with crates of food, first at the POW camps.....
On Dec 7th, 1956, Japan gave Gen. Curtis LeMay the highest award it has ever given a non Japanese.
Now I need a book on the rebuilding of Japan....burned out cinder to bullet trains in 20 years.....

 

[Diana Delafield]

Saw that they are going to re-release to theatres the Kiera K. version of Pride and Prejudice, digitally enhanced. While not a very faithful rendition at the end (you need 6 hours) its the most romantic. JA couldnt write a love scene to save her petuty.

I was sick the one day my school spent on 20th century History so I am back reading history books. I have for many years had questions about Japan 1945, what it was like there March through August. And why they acted the way they did. There are many Japanese books but few translated into English. We do have the diaries of the few westerners that were allowed to spend their time out of the internment camps. So I read 3 books. "Bomber Mafia" which tells the story on why anyone would think daylight bombing was a good idea (and the development of the fatally flawed Norden bomb site, the dream of a deranged genius who thought he could solve 26 algorithums at once, Napalm cluster bombs, and the B29, ) "Japan 1944-45" and the best , "Black Snow"...The fire bombing of Japan.
What I learned.
1. The home islands were almost untouched till 8 min after midnight, March 10th, when 16 sq miles of Tokyo went up in flames. 100,000 plus men, women, children and US/Allied POWs died. 4.5 million people left the capitol, meaning the other 5 raids on Tokyo which burned a total of 50 sq miles were not near as costly in human life. The people leaving had the effect of completely shutting down war production. Which was the one and only mission of the 20th Airforce in the Mariannas.
2. By late July, all the big major industrial cities and many small industrial cites had been burned. 1/3 of Japan was homeless. 3-4 cities had been saved for atomic weapons testing for the invasion. Operation Downfall.
3. With almost 60 cites half burned, 38 yr old Gen LeMay , Head of the 20th AAF, really felt bad about the civilians...his bomber crews did too...they were physically sickened by the smell of burning bodies. So LeMay sent planes over targets dropping leaflets to leave the remaining 11 cities NOW. He then hit 4 a night. His dream of ending the war by bombing with no invasion seemed to leave his grasp. About 145 sq miles of Japan was burned. The Japanese govt had torn down 600,000 homes in an attempt to make fire breaks to no avail.
4. No surrender came. People were starving to death, stealing food from anyone they could. The city folk were now in the country, where they were not welcomed. The first invasion was a go for November. The second in March.
5. Then 3 events happened. Russia declared war and was rolling up the Japanese Army in China. Atomic test one was done on Hiroshima. 4 square miles. The US now knew what it could expect out of a Uranium Atomic weapon on an invasion beach. Three days later a B29 carrying a plutonium bomb had to divert to its secondary target, Nagasaki. This beautiful city is hemmed in by mountains so the bomb only destroyed 2.5 sq miles, but the US now knew everything it needed to invade. First, Kyushu in November, then Honshu in March...Tokyo area. More A bombs would be ready then....
6. Truman had a hunch. He told LeMay to hold off and see what would happen. Nothing did. So a last B29 raid was launched. But Hirohito now had a way of saving face after lieing to the people. He talked to the people via radio and didnt use the surrender word but told them any further resistance was futile. At this point, Hirohito's approval rating wasnt very good. The home islands were ringed by US submarines. No ship could get past them but if they did, LeMay had put in sea mines everywhere he could...US carriers and battleships sailed just off shore, taking out the few factories left. There was no real functioning urban society and no food.
7. Thus, Hirohito saved Japan from invasion...and the POWs that would have been killed at the start by order...the B29s went to work showering Japan with crates of food, first at the POW camps.....
On Dec 7th, 1956, Japan gave Gen. Curtis LeMay the highest award it has ever given a non Japanese.
Now I need a book on the rebuilding of Japan....burned out cinder to bullet trains in 20 years.....

If they'd been paying attention at the beginning of the war, they would have seen how the RAF learned the hard way that daylight raids by bombers, without fighter support, were definitely not a good idea. On December 18, 1939, three squadrons from RAF Bomber Command were sent to attack German warships in harbours on the North Sea, in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight. There were 22 bombers in the group, and 12 -- more than half -- were shot down or crashed with 57 crewmen killed. My father-in-law's cousin was one of the casualties. He was 24, on his first mission since completing his pilot training, and the week before he'd been given 48 hours leave to marry his teenage girlfriend. Only two of the defending German fighter pilots died, both drowned in the freezing North Sea after bailing out of their planes.

After that, the RAF largely abandoned daytime raids. The Luftwaffe, though, were made over-confident that their fighter planes could handle anything the RAF had, and this belief led them to make strategic errors that in part cost them the Battle of Britain.

 

[CoyoteChris]

If they'd been paying attention at the beginning of the war, they would have seen how the RAF learned the hard way that daylight raids by bombers, without fighter support, were definitely not a good idea. On December 18, 1939, three squadrons from RAF Bomber Command were sent to attack German warships in harbours on the North Sea, in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight. There were 22 bombers in the group, and 12 -- more than half -- were shot down or crashed with 57 crewmen killed. My father-in-law's cousin was one of the casualties. He was 24, on his first mission since completing his pilot training, and the week before he'd been given 48 hours leave to marry his teenage girlfriend. Only two of the defending German fighter pilots died, both drowned in the freezing North Sea after bailing out of their planes.

After that, the RAF largely abandoned daytime raids. The Luftwaffe, though, were made over-confident that their fighter planes could handle anything the RAF had, and this belief led them to make strategic errors that in part cost them the Battle of Britain.

An excellent story. And not uncommon. The USAAF learned the hard way that the Flying Fortress wasnt and that any attack in daylight without fighter protection was suicide. Churchill actually convinced FDR to give up daylight bombing, but a day later, a member of the bomber mafia went to Churchill and said basically look, you hit them during the night, we hit them during the day. They have to protect against both types of attacks. Let us go for awhile longer....Churchill agreed to try for awhile longer. Once the P51 B/C version long range escort appeared, US Bomber losses plummeted..., even though any bomb hits with the Norden Bomb site (about as good as the British site) from 30,000 ft were luck. Luck only worked cause of the shear number of B17s/B24s. The Brits were smart...using bomber streams instead of formations...one high explosive bomb to blow out windows and two-three thermite (primitive) fire bombs to get the fires burning. They also had a superior aircraft, the Lancaster, second only to the B29.
You are correct about the Luftwaffe. While the FW190 was a great fighter, the BF 109, E, F and G series not so much. Superior at first due to direct fuel injection over the carberators the Bits liked, when the US showed the brits that throttle body fuel injection was superior,and built them engines, (later) the tables turned and German Bomber developement and tactics were poor. They switched from cities to RAF bases and basically had to give up invading England. Thankfully. Most Americans have no idea of the bravery of the English pilots and the weakness of short range German fighters...The F model was made to compete with the Spits but the G was made to compete with the B17/24s. Both were too short of range to protect the primitive German bombers...meat on the table during daylight for a Spit pilot. The Brits, like the Germans, learned the hard way that rifle caliber machineguns were poor armament and they switched to 20 mm cannons. The Brits also helped a US officer shoe horn an English Merlin into a P51A model and created the best fighter of the war. Ironically, it was an English prof. , Meredith, who designed the P51 radiator.....which gave the P51 an effective 600 hp more than a Spit with the same engine. The Spit used a modified Meredith effect radiator. https://www.supercoolprops.com/home/articles/meredith_effect2.html

 

[Diana Delafield]

An excellent story. And not uncommon. The USAAF learned the hard way that the Flying Fortress wasnt and that any attack in daylight without fighter protection was suicide. Churchill actually convinced FDR to give up daylight bombing, but a day later, a member of the bomber mafia went to Churchill and said basically look, you hit them during the night, we hit them during the day. They have to protect against both types of attacks. Let us go for awhile longer....Churchill agreed to try for awhile longer. Once the P51 B/C version long range escort appeared, US Bomber losses plummeted..., even though any bomb hits with the Norden Bomb site (about as good as the British site) from 30,000 ft were luck. Luck only worked cause of the shear number of B17s/B24s. The Brits were smart...using bomber streams instead of formations...one high explosive bomb to blow out windows and two-three thermite (primitive) fire bombs to get the fires burning. They also had a superior aircraft, the Lancaster, second only to the B29.
You are correct about the Luftwaffe. While the FW190 was a great fighter, the BF 109, E, F and G series not so much. Superior at first due to direct fuel injection over the carberators the Bits liked, when the US showed the brits that throttle body fuel injection was superior,and built them engines, (later) the tables turned and German Bomber developement and tactics were poor. They switched from cities to RAF bases and basically had to give up invading England. Thankfully. Most Americans have no idea of the bravery of the English pilots and the weakness of short range German fighters...The F model was made to compete with the Spits but the G was made to compete with the B17/24s. Both were too short of range to protect the primitive German bombers...meat on the table during daylight for a Spit pilot. The Brits, like the Germans, learned the hard way that rifle caliber machineguns were poor armament and they switched to 20 mm cannons. The Brits also helped a US officer shoe horn an English Merlin into a P51A model and created the best fighter of the war. Ironically, it was an English prof. , Meredith, who designed the P51 radiator.....which gave the P51 an effective 600 hp more than a Spit with the same engine. The Spit used a modified Meredith effect radiator. https://www.supercoolprops.com/home/articles/meredith_effect2.html

My maternal grandfather's company, CanCar, built some of the Hawker Hurricanes in Canada. I'm told he used to get so annoyed that the Spitfire got all the glory while the Hurricane was seen as a sturdy little workhorse. He and my other grandfather, so the story went, bonded over a shared resentment. The other grandfather had served as a cook's boy on the clipper ship Thermopylae out of Aberdeen and got quite crabbit about the Cutty Sark's greater fame.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Love the Thermopylae! IIRC I built a model of her. San Diego has a first class ship museum with a still usable three masted sailing ship. The Hurricane doesnt have the performance envelope of the Spit but did a great job in 1940...most had rifle caliber machine guns which hampered them and they also had short legs.

 

[CoyoteChris]

I found a number of books on the occupation and rebuilding of Japan which I bought as I do, used on Amazon. One is a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II .​

Others deal about the Japanese people during the war specifically, and another deals with the major role Hollywood played in producing movies for the Japanese market.... I dont think I can recall one country that came so far so fast after WWII. I think they did that by keeping the good parts of their culture while abandoning (for the most part anyway) the bad.

 

[CoyoteChris]

My maternal grandfather's company, CanCar, built some of the Hawker Hurricanes in Canada. I'm told he used to get so annoyed that the Spitfire got all the glory while the Hurricane was seen as a sturdy little workhorse. He and my other grandfather, so the story went, bonded over a shared resentment. The other grandfather had served as a cook's boy on the clipper ship Thermopylae out of Aberdeen and got quite crabbit about the Cutty Sark's greater fame.

Thought about you today. The last remaining "Battle of Britain" Pilot, a Hurricane pilot named John Patty Hemmingway, died this week at 105. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/world/europe/john-a-hemingway-dead.html

 

[LRK]

Patricia Bray: "Devlin's Honor"

The second book in a fantasy trilogy. It's been some time since I read the first book ("Devlin's Luck"), but I got back into this quite quickly.

 

[DemTuppesSeine]

The Wicked series by Gregory Maguire. It's been about 20 years since I read the original novel, and after seeing the movie I decided it was time for a re-read. I bet fans of the movie or the musical who pick up the novel for the first time will be a bit confused because the stories are quite different

 

[skylark]

The Wicked series by Gregory Maguire. It's been about 20 years since I read the original novel, and after seeing the movie I decided it was time for a re-read. I bet fans of the movie or the musical who pick up the novel for the first time will be a bit confused because the stories are quite different

My favorite story: the author Gregory Maguire didn't believe that his book could be made into a musical. I would have agreed, because the novel is dark, for my taste.

Fortunately, someone (producer, songwriter?) convinced him, and the rest is history. I love the musical for its optimism and humor ... and absolutely stunning performances of the brilliantly conceived songs.

 

[DemTuppesSeine]

My favorite story: the author Gregory Maguire didn't believe that his book could be made into a musical. I would have agreed, because the novel is dark, for my taste.

Fortunately, someone (producer, songwriter?) convinced him, and the rest is history. I love the musical for its optimism and humor ... and absolutely stunning performances of the brilliantly conceived songs.

The whole series is quite dark...I'm on volume three, A Lion Among Men, right now. Also a re-read. The last one, Out of Oz, I haven't read yet.

Defying Gravity gives me goosebumps every time I hear it, and it did even more so when I saw it performed live. I've seen the musical quite a few times and it was never not awesome.

 

[skylark]

The whole series is quite dark...I'm on volume three, A Lion Among Men, right now. Also a re-read. The last one, Out of Oz, I haven't read yet.

Defying Gravity gives me goosebumps every time I hear it, and it did even more so when I saw it performed live. I've seen the musical quite a few times and it was never not awesome.

Absolutely agree with this. I haven't pursued reading the rest of the series. I appreciate your words; they confirm that I have no intention of continuing. (I've been reading the Baum and Thompson Oz books since I was seven years old, so my conception does not agree with Maguire's, to say the least.)

The first time we saw Wicked, our whole family was sitting in the first balcony, straight back from the stage. When Defying Gravity came on, it was like she was going to fly right into us. And oh, that incredible voice. Like you, I still get chills when I hear it. Also, I sing along at the top of my voice with "Popular." LOL The actress who created the role of Glinda, Kristin Chenowith, is a fellow Oklahoman, like me. And the writer wrote the role for her, because he'd heard her sing and witnessed on stage what she conveyed with her humor.

 

[skylark]

Absolutely agree with this. I haven't pursued reading the rest of the series. I appreciate your words; they confirm that I have no intention of continuing. (I've been reading the Baum and Thompson Oz books since I was seven years old, so my conception does not agree with Maguire's, to say the least.)

I must add, however, that I really enjoy and appreciate Maguire's characterizations twisting around to widen and question "good" and "bad," and his whole idea of seeing people and things from another perspective. He did that well. And the musical created a way to make all that even more visible, surprising and relatable.

 

[LRK]

"Regency Christmas Wishes"

An anthology of traditional Regency stories. The authors included are:

Barbara Metzger, Emma Jensen, Sandra Heath, Edith Layton & Carla Kelly

I read a similar Signet collection ("Regency Christmas IX") a few years ago, and very much enjoyed it - I hope this will prove equally as pleasantly cosy & feel-good.

 

[Diana Delafield]

"Regency Christmas Wishes"

An anthology of traditional Regency stories. The authors included are:

Barbara Metzger, Emma Jensen, Sandra Heath, Edith Layton & Carla Kelly

I read a similar Signet collection ("Regency Christmas IX") a few years ago, and very much enjoyed it - I hope this will prove equally as pleasantly cosy & feel-good.

No Georgette Heyer? Or are these more recently-written stories? I'll have to hunt around for that.

 

[LRK]

No Georgette Heyer? Or are these more recently-written stories? I'll have to hunt around for that.

No, this is a collection from 2003 (which is when I bought it.... ), and definitely these were authors currently writing books for the then traditional Regency book line Signet (defunct not that long afterwards).

These are nothing like Georgette Heyer - these are written in a much more modern style, which sometimes completely takes me out of them. (Like a character using the word... "Nope." No, really.) How irked I am - or not - by this tends to (apparently) depend on my mood. I think I was disposed to be rather forgiving at present, but even so, I didn't quite enjoy this collection as much as "Regency Christmas IX" which had many of the same authors. Just a matter of taste, really.

Note: I have only a few Georgette Heyer historrical novels left to read, which are on my Reading List. I'll be rather sad when I don't have any new (to me) ones to look forward to. I've begun acquiring her mysteries now - since I also enjoy Vintaage mysteries - but obviously I won't be getting to any of those any time soon.

 

[LRK]

Patricia Bray: "Devlin's Justice"

This is the third & final book in a fantasy trilogy. (The first two being "Devlin's Luck" & "Devlin's Honor".) I'm about a hundred pages in, and am findiing it more compelling than the second book (which I did like), so - so far - it seems that the series bids fair to end on a strong note. (I will say, however, that I am not a fan of the covers.)

Self-Ironic Side Note: Yes, I'm reading the next book in a series before I've had time to forget what happened in the previous one. Shocker.

 

[Diana Delafield]

No, this is a collection from 2003 (which is when I bought it.... ), and definitely these were authors currently writing books for the then traditional Regency book line Signet (defunct not that long afterwards).

These are nothing like Georgette Heyer - these are written in a much more modern style, which sometimes completely takes me out of them. (Like a character using the word... "Nope." No, really.) How irked I am - or not - by this tends to (apparently) depend on my mood. I think I was disposed to be rather forgiving at present, but even so, I didn't quite enjoy this collection as much as "Regency Christmas IX" which had many of the same authors. Just a matter of taste, really.

Note: I have only a few Georgette Heyer historrical novels left to read, which are on my Reading List. I'll be rather sad when I don't have any new (to me) ones to look forward to. I've begun acquiring her mysteries now - since I also enjoy Vintaage mysteries - but obviously I won't be getting to any of those any time soon.

My favourite Heyer is Friday's Child. All her other romances have older sophisticated heroes with, often, older heroines who are "on the shelf" marriage-wise. In Friday's Child the central couple and all the hero's friends from his schooldays (including the friend who is also bumbling around messing up his own romance) are so young and a bit clueless, but trying hard to be responsible adults .