a modern classic
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Re-reading this for the n-th time. The final episode of the film trilogy inspired me. I was pleased to find out that my internal movie was still the same. I was...
View Articlethe anti-Biggles
Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson. This is Robinson’s first book about war in the air. The dogfighting over France in 1918 is presented as just as bad as the fighting in the trenches. Powerful stuff.
View ArticleMcKinsey meets the CIA
Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow. 20 years in the future, IRC pals from the same timezones help each other out to try to further their Tribes’ way of life — easygoing PST, hard-hitting EST, and...
View Articlewizard prang
Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson. A brilliant book about fighter pilots in France and England in the beginning of World War 2.
View Articlethe great war
The First World War by John Keegan A history of WWI. The opening and closing chapters are eloquent in their condemnation of this horrible conflict, the defining event of the twentieth century. But the...
View Article“precision bombing”
The Bomber War: Arthur Harris and the Allied Bomber Offensive 1939-1945 by Robin NiellandsA “fair and balanced” history of the Allied bombing campaigns during World War 2. A book similar to The Most...
View Articlewar is hell, and boring too
Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell.A blend of personal memoir, history, and literary criticism centering around WW2.”(…) what time seems to have shown out later...
View Articlegoing down in a spiral
Fire in the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald.An excellent history/reportage about Vietnam during the American War.
View Articlesecret war
Action This Day, Michael Smith and Ralph Erskine, editors. Bantam Press 2001. ISBN 0593 049101.A collection of essays about Bletchley Park during the Second World War.The most entertaining one is by...
View Articlebehind the wire
Colditz: the Definitive History by Henry Chancellor.An entertaining history of the famous WW2 POW camp.The most interesting thing about this book is the fact that Colditz, despite being the “prison of...
View ArticleAncient secrets
Venona: spåren från ett underrättelsekrig by Wilhelm Agrell.A history of the Venona telegrams intercepted in Sweden during the Second World War, and the implications of their decoding on the...
View ArticleThe all-seeing eye
Body of Secrets by James Bamford.An “exposé” of the NSA. This book has a hacked-together feel, as if it was composed of several magazine articles. The author veers from describing the NSA as an...
View ArticleDark Swedish plans
Svenska förintelsevapen by Wilhelm Agrell.A history of the Swedish plans to build WMDs, specifically a plutonium bomb and VX and mustard gas.Never got past the planning stage due to politics and a new...
View ArticleShort tales
Boys and Girls Forever by Alison Lurie.A collection of essays about children’s literature.
View ArticleStrange attractors
Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick.A well written popular history of nonlinear dynamics.
View ArticleBeware of brainwashed alien visitors
Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks.Although Banks’ Culture novels are always enjoyable, this one feels like he’s coasting.
View ArticleFore!
A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour by John Feinstein.I now know more than I thought I ever wanted to know about professional golf in the US. Synopsis: it’s damn hard, but if you’re...
View ArticleThe Anti-Rhodes
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux.This is the best book I’ve read in a long time. Partly because of the great writing, partly because my own background growing up in...
View Article“The fate of this universe — and others! — is at stake!”
Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds(Title shamelessly stolen from P.M. Agapow’s review of a different novel.)Space opera in the Iain M. Banks mould, with bold sweeping vistas and more or less...
View ArticleThe dark century
Brev från nollpunkten by Peter Englund.A collection of essays about the defining moments of the last century: the First World War, the Great Terror, the Holocaust, the Allied bombings of Germany and...
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