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Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on December 17, 2016 at 7:25pm

Glad the hand is getting better!  Finished Ardennes 1944- good book though written from the British point.  At least the ego-driven nature of Montgomery comes through though he's pretty brutal with Bradley.  

Currently listening to Spaceman by Mike Massimino - another good book. His personality comes thru!

Comment by Val on December 17, 2016 at 6:53pm

I slowed down a bit because I got busy and then had a mysterious hand injury which made everything more difficult for a couple of weeks, and caused a terrible traffic jam of work on my desk! (Don't know what caused it, but it is almost healed now.)

Anyway, I am getting back into Genius. And you also reminded me that I was near the end of Finding Things Out when I set it down several months ago! I should polish both of those off as the year winds down.

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on December 15, 2016 at 2:32pm

Hey Val....how you doing with Genius?  I'm currently reading another Feynman: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.  A bunch of snippets from things he has said.....

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on November 20, 2016 at 8:56pm

LOL!  Another great book is Classic Feynman by Feynman....get the hardcopy- it comes with a CD ROM of tidbits that Feynman tells.....

Comment by Val on November 20, 2016 at 8:49pm

OK, hacked into my e-reader. have you? That's the one I'm reading!

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on November 20, 2016 at 7:52pm

Val- read Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by Richard Gleick.  Great biography of the man!

Comment by Val on November 20, 2016 at 12:31pm

Hi Paul,

Funny that you updated, because I had just checked in a few days ago for some new ideas! I don't have much to share as far as military history. I did not get to that Armed Guard book (yet); started reading another Feynman book (have been on a Feynman kick lately) and also some light fiction.

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on November 18, 2016 at 10:24am

Back to my favorite genre -

Publisher's Summary

The extraordinary story of the World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the US Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower.

One of America's preeminent military historians, James D. Hornfischer has written his most expansive and ambitious book to date. Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts of Americans and Japanese alike, here is a thrilling narrative of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War, focusing on the US invasion of the Mariana Islands in June 1944 and the momentous events that it triggered.

With its thunderous assault into Japan's inner defensive perimeter, America crossed the threshold of total war. From the seaborne invasion of Saipan to the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, to the largest banzai attack of the war and the strategic bombing effort that led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas became the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender - with consequences that forever changed modern war.

These unprecedented operations saw the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams; a revolution in the fleet's ability to sustain cross-hemispheric expeditionary warfare; the struggle of American troops facing not only a suicidal enemy garrison but desperate Japanese civilians; and the rise of the US Navy as the greatest of grand fleets. From the Marianas, B-29 Superfortresses would finally unleash nuclear fire on an enemy resolved to fight to the end.

Hornfischer casts this clash of nations and cultures with cinematic scope and penetrating insight, focusing closely on the people who rose to the challenge under fire: Raymond Spruance, the brilliant, coolly calculating commander of the Fifth Fleet; Kelly Turner, whose amphibious forces delivered Marine General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith's troops to the beaches of Saipan and Tinian; Draper Kauffman, founder of the navy unit that predated today's SEALs; Paul Tibbets, the creator of history's first atomic striking force, who flew the Enola Gay to Hiroshima; and Japanese warriors and civilians who saw the specter of defeat as the ultimate test of the spirit.

From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring and deeply humane account of World War II's world-changing finale.

©2016 James D. Hornfischer (P)2016 Random House Audio

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on October 6, 2016 at 10:26am

Followers will know I listen to a ton of audiobooks while commuting- I've kinda temporally moved from the Naval genre but I do recommend these with a big thumbs up:

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Written by: Brian Christian , Tom Griffiths

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution: 25th Anniversary Edition
Written by: Steven Levy

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery
Written by: Sam Kean

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley
Written by: Antonio Garcia Martinez

The Gene: An Intimate History  (this is outstanding!!)
Written by: Siddhartha Mukherjee

The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers
Written by: Nicholas Stargardt

Wheels Stop: The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Space Shuttle Program, 1986-2011: Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Space
Written by: Rick Houston

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944 - 45
Written by: Max Hastings

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
Written by: Andrew Chaikin

The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II
Written by: Winston Groom

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight
Written by: Winston Groom

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Written by: Jocko Willink , Leif Babin

Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command
Written by: Sean Naylor

Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor
Written by: James M. Scott

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
Written by: Ben R. Rich , Leo Janos

Hell's Angels: The True Story of the 303rd Bomb Group in World War II
Written by: Jay A. Stout

Comment by Val on October 4, 2016 at 11:24am

Hello, I'm new to the group.

I went back through your recommendations and read Someone Like Me by John Quinn. I enjoyed it -- interesting story and remarkable perseverance, of course, that one little problem of fraudulent enlistment kept nagging at me.

I am also currently caught up in an E.R. Braithwaite reading arc; first the familiar To Sir, With Love (you may remember the Poitier movie and Lulu's song), followed by his compelling Paid Servant (detailing his time working in child services). I am now working through A Kind of Homecoming, which describes his first visit to Africa during the changes of the 1960s.

I think my next Navy book will be Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in WWII, because that's what my Dad did. Since he was still an avid reader in his later years, I always made a book part of any Christmas or birthday celebration. A couple of days after I gave him this book, I stopped by for a visit and he declared, "I had no idea [what I did] was so dangerous until I read that!" It's about time I read it for myself.

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