Picked these up second hand the other day, the Severloh one is very interesting. He was the guy who became known as "The beast of Omaha beach" after manning his MG 42 machine gun all day on June 6th and mowing down hundreds of US troops. WN 62 was the bunker he fired from.
I'm still really fascinated by his tangential relationship with The Beach Boys and him being an aspiring/failed musician. Los Angeles during that time must have been some city.
I can hardly believe that he exerted such control over these people, absolute control. Watching interviews with him he is obviously insane.
@zippy I'm coming up on the end of the book I'm reading, is it worth it for me to give this one a go?
Finished reading it on Tuesday. I enjoyed it (if "enjoy" is the right word about such a case), the author, Bugliosi, was the chief prosecutor at the trial. I picked up a second hand copy on Amazon for about 6 euros. Yes I'd say it is well worth reading.
I'd recommend this one also, another very disturbing book but gripping reading. This case has a special relevance to me as Peter Sutcliffe (the ripper) was a lorry driver and delivered flour to my father's bakery so dad met him. Also the man who finally arrested him, Sgt Ring, was the father of my sister's then best friend.
Nuclear War: A Scenario - Wikipedia Scariest non-fiction book I've ever read (or listened to, am listening to the audiobook version)
Will keep an eye out for it, thanks! Did your dad notice anything from their interactions or did he seem like a normal guy?
Dad never noticed anything, he reckoned that Sutcliffe only delivered to the bakery two or three times. But after he was arrested and he saw the photos of him he recognized him when he heard which company he had worked for.
Conquest by Stewart Binns. The first of 4 novels about the aftermath after Hastings in 1066 and The English rebellion led by Hereward against Norman rule.
Another one re my Battle of Crete obsession, a few errors in it. Cover photo for a start, posed after the battle shot.
DNF'd The Remains of the Day because it lowkey bored the tits off me. Might try and finish it again sometime but it didn't grip the way Never Let Me Go did. Breezed through Emily Henry's Funny Story. Romance novels are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me and whilst this will never compete for the nobel prize the pages flew by. It's a fast food book. Nothing to make you think or go wow but hits all the right spots and leaves you satisfied after but still hungry for more. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars. Found a copy of The Elegant Universe on my bookshelf. Might give that a go next.
Loved his book on Oleg Gordievsky, this was just as good. An event I was aware of but had no idea about the whole situation and what it was about. Finished this in a couple of days.
I came across James when I first went on Twitter. He posts as x.com I connected because we had similarish farming backgrounds in our families and went to similar nearby schools but 20 years apart. I've already read and enjoyed his previous two books. The new one reflects a new step in his writing. He's a fascinating bloke and his writing is as good as anything I've read in capturing the ancient landscape and culture of a remote northern Norwegian island at the roots of the Viking heritage through a season spent with an old woman clinging to the old ways as she has a final season collecting down from wild Eider Ducks. Only just getting into it but it promises to be a treat. "...One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on. Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly – and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island. This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, building little wooden huts that will protect the ducks come spring; to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for the woman to gather, like feathered gold. Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not at all what he had previously thought. As the weeks pass, what began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness....."
One More Shot by Simon Garner. A very entertaining autobiography by the ex Blackburn striker who also played for Wycombe,he was a superb player even though he smoked like a chimney including at half time.
