In the summer of 2017 I was coming to the end of a two year tour in Germany. Melissa was coming over for a two-week visit. We set up to meet in Edinburgh, Scotland. We drove from the airport up into the Scottish highlands ending up meeting one of Melissa’s distant relatives for a wonderful tour through the countryside near Loch Ness. (I even got to meet a well-known Loch Ness researcher (No Nessie)!)
Back in Edinburgh we took a Hop On Hop Off bus tour (“Ho Ho” for insiders!) through the city. The tour guide mentioned a local detective story author but I didn’t catch the name.
A couple days later at the airport’s W. H. Smith book store I saw a banner for a detective story by Ian Rankin. I looked. It was “the right guy” – Edinburgh detective John Rebus – but I decided to start with book one from Amazon. I ordered the first two new. Then the next 15 used, sometimes in three-in-one volumes for just a couple dollars*. Book 18 and Book 19 came from the local library in the last couple weeks, with Book 19 making the trip to Tennessee with me. When I read the next three Rebus novels, all available through the local library*, I will have read all 22 novels in two years. Landmarks mentioned in each book remind me of my visit to Edinburgh with Melissa.
Holyrood Castle in the Queen’s residence when she is in Scotland. It’s often mentioned in the Rebus books.
*I have roots in both Scotland and the Swabian part of Germany. Both are known for their, uh, “thriftiness” – used books and the library save a lot of money! However, if you do buy anything from the Amazon links I will get a few cents. I’ve made a couple dollars in the last year. Gonna get rich!
I VERY MUCH LIKE reading as an indoor pastime, enjoying both fiction and non-fiction. It’s good to have a mix of the two. My reading interests overlapped my dad’s in many ways, so we would often exchange books. I inherited several hundred of his books. Some, Civil War history for example, were donated so others could enjoy them. A few went to my kids. The others I’ve been reading myself, then donating. (Museum links go to the respective museum; book links go to Amazon.)
Recently Melissa and I visited the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Savannah. At the entrance I saw a poster for Journalist/Historian Andrew Nagorski’s new book 1941, The Year Germany lost the War. Actually, the poster was about his upcoming visit to discuss the book in a few weeks. We bought three books between us.
When we went to Savannah I was reading David McCullough’s book John Adams. This was from my dad’s collection. It was a fascinating book to read. I learned a lot about the era and the people that combined to form the United States. I’ve read several of McCullough’s books, and this one is as good as the rest. I’ve read maybe three or four books about this era in the last few years, and really enjoyed them. Politics was, perhaps, just as contentious then as now, though without social media!
In addition to Andrew Nagorski’s book above, I bought Double Cross: the True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben MacIntyre. I have been reading books about the World War II era since reading William Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as a 12-year old and Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich a couple years later. What I’ve noticed in the past 15-20 years is that I really enjoy reading the exploits of the actual people involved rather than looking at maps showing grand strategy – maybe grand strategy got boring after 20 years.
The British captured every German spy who landed there. Many of them were willing to serve the British government as double agents. Others in various countries volunteered to spy on the Germans on behalf of the British. Double Cross describes the background and motivation of many of several of these men and women, as well as their wartime exploits, and what they did postwar if they survived. The elaborate XX (“Double Cross”) system very effectively mislead the German intelligence community, preventing them from understanding the true nature of the Normandy Invasion until it was too late to stop it.
Nagorski’s 1941 was a great read. He weaves a story from the historical timelines of the various belligerent nations, then inserts anecdotes and details about decision makers and experts large and small. I really enjoyed the insight into the thought processes of those involved. For example, German generals and industrialists told Hitler “we need time to get ready.” Instead of waiting, Hitler responds “then I’ll attack before the enemy has time to get ready.” Great reading if you have an interest in this time period or how it impacted the next 50 years.
1941 had only just been out a couple weeks when I bought it. Hence the scheduled presentation I mentioned above. I decided, on rather short notice, to take the day off and attend the book discussion. Very glad I did! Now I have an autographed copy of the book.
Autographed copy of Andrew Nagorski’s book – this won’t be donated.
Brief insightful segue… I enjoy reading. A lot. But, I had become rather overwhelmed with quantities of books and nowhere to hold them. Other than expensive railroad reference books, I realized one day that most books I had would never be read again. “Read and store” is too expensive to sustain. What to do? I’ve since given hundreds, perhaps several hundred, books to the local libraries and Goodwill. “Read and donate” isn’t much cheaper than “read and store” if I’m honest. For authors who have been publishing for a while, but I’ve just discovered, I now buy many books used from Amazon – often from Goodwill! For new books from authors I like, I simply pre-order them from Amazon and read them when they arrive. In both cases the books are donated for others to enjoy.
In both cases the books are donated for others to enjoy.
Now, back to talking about what I’ve been reading. I was recently at the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, TN. A book I saw there was John Bruning’s “Indestructible: One Man’s Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII.” It turned out to be a bio about Paul “Pappy” Gunn’s life during World War II and the parallel story of his wife and four kids in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines. I knew Gunn was the inventor of the B-25 gunship, but didn’t know anything else. This book reads like a suspense novel. It’s a great story of ingenuity, commitment to service, and a man’s love for his family. The book is really well written and avoids arcane technical jargon that would make it difficult for non-pilots/non-historians to enjoy.
Transitioning from non-fiction to fiction and skipping two books that will get their own page, I read Daniel Silva’s newest Gabriel Allon story The New Girl: A Novel in one full day. Great story will all Silva’s usual twists and turns, starting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabian turning to Israeli intelligence for help. I’ve ready all the Allon books in order since the first one. This is a series I enjoyed sharing with my dad – suspend reality for a little bit and just enjoy a good spy novel!
