Friday 4 April 2014

NYR update March: books I read


Bought no new books, while awaiting some of the stuff that I had ordered in February. Managed to read a dozen. So still slightly behind the curve toward 150, but that should not be hard to regain when I have more time on my hand from September.



Two tougher books to get through was me finally finishing Lieven's Russia Against Napoleon, a great work which shows how the Russian army managed to get from Moscow to Paris in less than 18 months. The other was Gregor Dallas' 1815 The Roads To Waterloo, which is more about the reordering of Europe than about the campaign. A book which in content and approach is a clear precursor to Zamoyski's The Fall of Napoleon.




With my modelling efforts came three Osprey's on the M3 Halftrack, Stuart and Panther.

One small subject was the smaller German contingents, from Bavaria to Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen. I enjoyed John Gill's With Eagles to Glory on the 1809 campaign, and his article on the German troops in Spain. To this I added the book on the Poles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars by Nafzinger. Great research but I’d wish that man could write better and get an editor.



The last week has seen me racing through some books on the Prussian Army: Classics by Craig, Goerlitz, Demeter and Paret. All together throwing a much more nuanced light on the reform period. Paret's book towers above the others as far as I'm concerned.

And a quick Suske & Wiske as well. This one is about WWI and much darker than any S&W I’ve read.


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