Little bit of a false start I’m afraid.
I’ve been busy during normal reading time and I can’t seem to concentrate on anything but the music in the Cabin at the moment…
I hope to get back to it tonight or at the weekend.
The amazing true story of America’s first Black generals, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Jr., a father and son who helped integrate the American military and created the Tuskegee Airmen.
Picked this up after seeing an interview with the author on the PBS News Hour. Certainly a story of the bravery of men to endure prejudice and rise above the barriers placed in their path. Just a couple of chapters into the book and find it to be an interesting read.
I have finished reading Len Deighton’s “bomber” for the second time in my life.
I read it for the first time as an 18 year old in 1976 and it had a profound impact on me at the time. Although it was fictional, i had watched enough war films then to know that it would have been very close to how war actually was. The reason i had never re-read it was the graphic description of a mid upper turret gunner in a Lancaster and the way he met his death, i remember vividly crying in 1976 while i was reading that section. 43 years latter as i read the same section, i started crying again before i even got to the description of how he died because i vividly remembered my first reading of the book 1976. When a book has a profound impact on you, it is something you never ever forget.
Interesting - there’s also that ‘in air’ broadcast by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas from an RAF Lancaster over Berlin in 1943, still available on BBC Sounds. At one stage you can actually hear the rear gunner take out a Luftwaffe night fighter, a very lucky moment for them. Apparently the recording was cut ‘direct to disk’ in acetate and it went out over the Home Service the next night !
Just starting this. With the release of the new film it reminded me how much I enjoyed studying Napoleon at school, most of which is long forgotten now.
I just received The World Atlas Of Wine, 6th edition, by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson.
It’s an excellent Bible of the wine world and quite an incredible compilation by mainly, Jancis.
It’s not as dry as you would think and its filled with detailed maps etc.
I had an earlier edition from the local library 6 or 7 years ago and read the whole thing. Now I’ll read the updated version again and hold on to even more of the information. These are really the only kind of books I read, technical publications and the like.
Just not a fiction fan.