Thomas's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 10 Sep 2023 13:48:03 -0700 60 Thomas's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Louis XIV 2190196 320 Anthony Levi 0786713097 Thomas 0 currently-reading 3.37 2004 Louis XIV
author: Anthony Levi
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Time For Courage: The Royal Air Force In The European War, 1939-1945]]> 2253026 828 John Terraine 0026169703 Thomas 0 3.43 1985 A Time For Courage: The Royal Air Force In The European War, 1939-1945
author: John Terraine
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941]]> 2173237 392 Mark R. Peattie 159114664X Thomas 0 3.76 2002 Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941
author: Mark R. Peattie
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Cordelia's Honor (Vorkosigan Omnibus, #1)]]> 61900 This a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780671578282, newer one here.

In her first trial by fire, Cordelia Naismith captained a throwaway ship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a mission to destroy an enemy armada. Discovering deception within deception, treachery within treachery, she was forced into a separate peace with her chief opponent, Lord Aral Vorkosigan - he who was called "The Butcher of Komarr" - and would consequently become an outcast on her own planet and the Lady Vorkosigan on his.

Sick of combat and betrayal, she was ready to settle down to a quiet life, interrupted only by the occasional ceremonial appearances required of the Lady Vorkosigan. But when the Emperor died, Aral suddenly became guardian of the infant heir to the imperial throne of Barrayar - and the target of high-tech assassins in a dynastic civil war that was reminiscent of earth's Middle Ages, but fought with up-to-the minute biowar technology. Neither Aral nor Cordelia guessed the part that their cell-damaged unborn son would play in Barrayar's bloody legacy. This edition includes an author's afterword, and a chronology of the events in the Vorkosigan Saga series. Cover art by Gary Ruddell.]]> 596 Lois McMaster Bujold Thomas 0 4.33 1996 Cordelia's Honor (Vorkosigan Omnibus, #1)
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley]]> 25505462
In 2003, the Special Forces soldiers entered an area later called "the most dangerous place in Afghanistan." Here, where the line between civilians and armed zealots was indistinct, they illustrated the Afghan proverb: "I destroy my enemy by making him my friend." Fry recounts how they were seen as welcome guests rather than invaders. Soon after their deployment ended, the Pech Valley reverted to turmoil. Their success was never replicated. Hammerhead Six finally reveals how cultural respect, hard work (and the occasional machine-gun burst) were more than a match for the Taliban and Al Qaeda.]]> 382 Ronald Fry 0316341436 Thomas 0 4.42 2016 Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley
author: Ronald Fry
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space]]> 52716724 “This remarkable account of the 1961 race into space is a thrilling piece of storytelling. . . . It is high definition tight, thrilling and beautifully researched.”—The Times, London, Front Page Lead Review

“BeyondĚýhas the exhilaration of a fine thriller, but it is vividly embedded in the historic tensions of the Cold War, and peopled by men and women brought sympathetically, and sometimes tragically, to life.”—Colin Thubron, author of Shadow of the Silk Road

09.07 am. April 12, 1961. A top secret rocket site in the USSR. A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile—originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead—and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history.

ĚýTravelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour—ten times faster than a rifle bullet—Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows he sees the earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity â€� the first human to leave the planet.

Beyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its 60th anniversary. It happened at the height of the Cold War as the US and USSR confronted each other across an Iron Curtain. Both superpowers took enormous risks to get a man into space first, the Americans in the full glare of the media, the Soviets under deep cover. Both trained their teams of astronauts to the edges of the endurable. In the end the race between them would come down to the wire.

Drawing on extensive original research and the vivid testimony of eyewitnesses, many of whom have never spoken before, Stephen Walker unpacks secrets that were hidden for decades and takes the reader into the drama of one of humanity’s greatest adventures � to the scientists, engineers and political leaders on both sides, and above all to the American astronauts and their Soviet rivals battling for supremacy in the heavens.

Ěý]]> 512 Stephen Walker 0062978195 Thomas 0 4.58 2021 Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space
author: Stephen Walker
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[City of the Dead (The Rising #2)]]> 90577 357 Brian Keene 0843954159 Thomas 0 3.88 2005 City of the Dead (The Rising #2)
author: Brian Keene
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> Dead Sea 216215 337 Brian Keene 084395860X Thomas 0 3.87 2007 Dead Sea
author: Brian Keene
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> The Rising (The Rising #1) 216213
Joined by an elderly preacher, a guilt-ridden scientist and an ex-prostitute, Jim sets out on a cross-country rescue mission. Together they must battle both the living and the living dead…and the even greater evil that awaits them at the end of their journey.]]> 321 Brian Keene 0843952016 Thomas 0 3.81 2003 The Rising (The Rising #1)
author: Brian Keene
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> Their Master's War 257925 295 Mick Farren 0345345541 Thomas 0 3.94 1987 Their Master's War
author: Mick Farren
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> ShĹŤgun (Asian Saga, #1) 52382796
Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, ShĹŤgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, ShĹŤgun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: ShĹŤgun.]]> 1152 James Clavell 1982603844 Thomas 0 4.42 1975 ShĹŤgun (Asian Saga, #1)
author: James Clavell
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Krispos the Emperor (The Tale of Krispos, #3)]]> 101552 387 Harry Turtledove 0345380460 Thomas 0 3.76 1994 Krispos the Emperor (The Tale of Krispos, #3)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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]]> A World of Difference 101566
Humankind's first close encounter with extraterrestrials would be history in the making, and the two teams were schooled in diplomacy as well as in science. But nothing prepared them for alien war—especially when the Americans and the Soviets found themselves on opposite sides. . . .

Praise for A World of Difference

“A master storyteller.� � Houston Chronicle

“[Harry] Turtledove has proved he can divert his readers to astonishing places. he's developed a cult following over the years. . . . I know I'd follow his imagination almost anywhere.� � San Jose Mercury News

“Turtledove never tires of exploring the paths not taken, bringing to his storytelling a prodigious knowledge of his subject and a profound understanding of human sensibilities and motivations.� � Library Journal]]> 320 Harry Turtledove 0345360761 Thomas 0 3.53 1990 A World of Difference
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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]]> Give Me Back My Legions! 4190426 Arminius, a prince of the Cherusci, is playing a deadly game. He serves in the Roman army, gaining Roman citizenship and officer’s rank, and learning the arts of war and policy as practiced by the Romans. What he learns is essential for the survival of Germany, for he must unite his people against Rome before they become enslaved by the Empire and lose their way of life forever.
An epic battle is brewing, and these two men stand on opposite sides of what will forever be known as The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest—a ferocious, bloody clash that will change the course of history.]]> 310 Harry Turtledove 0312371063 Thomas 0 3.29 2009 Give Me Back My Legions!
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Krispos of Videssos (The Tale of Krispos, #2)]]> 101536
For trouble was brewing in every, quarter. Civil war erupted under Petronas, the late Emperor's uncle. A brilliant general and a canny politician, Petronas had a very personal score to settle against the upstart Krispos.

And even as rebel troops took the field against the untried Emperor, outland raiders swept down from the northlands in a tide of carnage. The power stemmed from foulest sorcery, and Videssos' wizards could not counter its evil curse.

Krispos reign showed every sign of being brief -- and very bloody...]]> 355 Harry Turtledove 0345361199 Thomas 0 3.82 1991 Krispos of Videssos (The Tale of Krispos, #2)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Krispos Rising (The Tale of Krispos, #1)]]> 101542
Driven by crushing taxes from the farm where his family had lived—and died—Krispos had come to the. city seeking what fortune a good mind and a strong back could earn. He had a single goldpiece to his name—the gift, years past, of a nomad chieftain to a ragged peasant boy. Now, though the night was raw and the inn was warm, he was loath to spend that coin, for the barbarian had claimed it carried magic.

Keep his lucky goldpiece or trade it for a warm, dry bed? Krispos tucked the coin away and stepped back into the wet streets—all unaware that so simple a choice would lead to a world of peril and possibility. . . .]]> 353 Harry Turtledove 0345361180 Thomas 0 3.82 1990 Krispos Rising (The Tale of Krispos, #1)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Legion of Videssos (The Videssos Cycle, #3)]]> 101549
Book Three of The Videssos Cycle

Since the Roman legion had been mysteriously transported to this world of magic, tribune Marcus Scaurus had served the rulers of war-torn Videssos well. He had been largely responsible for ousting the Pretender and putting Thorish Gavras on the throne. That, of course, made him a hero.

Rome or Videssos, however, Fortune was a fickle goddess.

Now he and the legion were returning in triumph to Videssos the city after defeating a well-entrenched army of rebel mercenaries. But Marcus, betrayed by the one closest to him, was returning to be seized, dragged before the Emperor, and questioned under truth-drug like a traitor.

Of the court, only Alypia Gavra stuck by him—but consorting with the Emperor's niece was dangerous. It could lead to exile—or death!

Yet Alypia was attractive. And Marcus was lonely . . .]]> 413 Harry Turtledove 0345330692 Thomas 0 3.94 1987 The Legion of Videssos (The Videssos Cycle, #3)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Swords of the Legion (The Videssos Cycle, #4)]]> 101635
When their secret trysts were betrayed, Emperor Thorisin Gavras was forced to condemn Marcus as a traitor—but with a promise of freedom and Alypia, if he could reclaim a rebel province from a fanatic usurper, with no military aid. With only centurion Gaius Philippus, Marcus set out to try the seemingly impossible task.

But the fates conspired against them, driving them further westward, into the innermost sanctum of Videssos� great enemy Yezd—and toward the torture chambers of the evil, deathless wizard-prince Avshar.

But behind them, without orders, the men of the legion were on the march!]]> 394 Harry Turtledove 0345330706 Thomas 0 3.98 1987 Swords of the Legion (The Videssos Cycle, #4)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[An Emperor for the Legion (The Videssos Cycle, #2)]]> 101612
Wearily, Tribune Marcus Scaurus led his men through the chaos and enemy hordes in search of winter quarters, to regroup and seek to join up with Thorisin Gavras, now rightful ruler of Videssos.

But in Videssos the city, capital of the beleaguered realm, Ortaias Sphrantzes, whose cowardice had caused their defeat, now sat upon the throne. There, behind great walls that had always made the city impregnable to storm or siege, he ruled with the support of evil sorcery. Overthrowing him seemed impossible.

Grimly, Marcus Scaurus began the long march through hostile country toward that seemingly hopeless attempt.]]> 322 Harry Turtledove 0345330684 Thomas 0 3.93 1987 An Emperor for the Legion (The Videssos Cycle, #2)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Misplaced Legion (The Videssos Cycle, #1)]]> 974209
Book One of The Videssos Cycle

As they faced one another in a duel of survival, the Roman tribune Marcus Scaurus held the spell-scribed sword of a Druid priest, and the Celtic chieftain Viridovix held a similar sword, bespelled by a rival Druid sorcerer. At the moment they touched, the two found themselves under a strange night sky where no stars were familiar and where Gaul and Rome were unknown. They were in an outpost of the embattled Empire of Videssos—in a world where magic and dark sorcery would test their skill and courage as no Roman legion had ever been tested before.]]> 323 Harry Turtledove 0345330676 Thomas 5 3.91 1987 The Misplaced Legion (The Videssos Cycle, #1)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1987
rating: 5
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]]> In the Balance (Worldwar, #1) 101527 465 Harry Turtledove 034542056X Thomas 0 3.84 1994 In the Balance (Worldwar, #1)
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Another Day, Another Dungeon (Cups and Sorcery, #1)]]> 715320 342 Greg Costikyan 0812501403 Thomas 0 3.92 1990 Another Day, Another Dungeon (Cups and Sorcery, #1)
author: Greg Costikyan
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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]]> Japan at War: An Oral History 31040 A “deeply moving book� (Studs Terkel) and the first ever oral history to document the experience of ordinary Japanese people during World War II

“Hereafter no one will be able to think, write, or teach about the Pacific War without reference to [the Cooks’] work.� —Marius B. Jansen, Emeritus Professor of Japanese History, Princeton University

This pathbreaking work of oral history by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook was the first book ever to capture the experience of ordinary Japanese people during the war and remains the classic work on the subject.

In a sweeping panorama, Japan at War takes us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese home front during the inhuman raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, offering glimpses of how the twentieth century’s most deadly conflict affected the lives of the Japanese population. The book “seeks out the true feelings of the wartime generation [and] illuminates the contradictions between the official views of the war and living testimony� (Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan).

For decades, American and Japanese readers have turned to Japan at War for a candid portrait of the Japanese experience during World War II in all its complexity. Featuring essays that contextualize the oral histories of each tumultuous period covered, Japan at War is appropriate both as an introduction to those war-ravaged decades and as a riveting reference for those studying the war in the Pacific.]]> 496 Haruko Taya Cook 1565840399 Thomas 0 4.38 1992 Japan at War: An Oral History
author: Haruko Taya Cook
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942�1944 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 2)]]> 28789720
This masterful history encompasses the heart of the Pacific War—the period between mid-1942 and mid-1944—when parallel Allied counteroffensives north and south of the equator washed over Japan's far-flung island empire like a "conquering tide," concluding with Japan's irreversible strategic defeat in the Marianas. It was the largest, bloodiest, most costly, most technically innovative and logistically complicated amphibious war in history, and it fostered bitter interservice rivalries, leaving wounds that even victory could not heal.

Often overlooked, these are the years and fights that decided the Pacific War. Ian W. Toll's battle scenes—in the air, at sea, and in the jungles—are simply riveting. He also takes the reader into the wartime councils in Washington and Tokyo where politics and strategy often collided, and into the struggle to mobilize wartime production, which was the secret of Allied victory. Brilliantly researched, the narrative is propelled and colored by firsthand accounts—letters, diaries, debriefings, and memoirs—that are the raw material of the telling details, shrewd judgment, and penetrating insight of this magisterial history.]]> 688 Ian W. Toll 0393353206 Thomas 0 4.59 2015 The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 2)
author: Ian W. Toll
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942]]> 13707735
"Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." � San Francisco Chronicle On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible ―through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies―tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative. 24 pages of illustrations; 12 maps]]> 656 Ian W. Toll 0393343413 Thomas 0 4.66 2011 Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
author: Ian W. Toll
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U. S. Navy]]> 39000 How "a handful of bastards and outlaws fighting under a piece of striped bunting" humbled the omnipotent British Navy.


Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the new government. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce against the Mediterranean pirates, or drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? The foundersparticularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adamsdebated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once. How much of a navy would suffice? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships.


From the decision to build six heavy frigates, through the cliffhanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of Founding Brothers and a narrative flair worthy of Patrick O'Brian. According to Henry Adams, the 1812 encounter between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere "raised the United States in one half hour to the rank of a first class power in the world." 16 pages of illustrations; 8 pages of color.]]> 560 Ian W. Toll 0393058476 Thomas 0 4.34 2006 Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U. S. Navy
author: Ian W. Toll
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
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]]> <![CDATA[Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Naval Campaign of World War II]]> 33584203
Hamstrung by arcane pre-war thinking and a bureaucratic mind-set, the US Navy had to adapt on the fly in order to compete with the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy, whose ingenuity and creativity thus far had fostered the creation of its Pacific empire. Starting with the amphibious assault on Savo Island, the campaign turned into an attritional struggle where the evenly matched foes sought to grind out a victory.

Following on from his hugely successful book Rising Sun, Falling Skies, Jeffrey Cox tells the gripping story the first Allied offensive of the Pacific War, as the Allies sought prevent Japan from cutting off Australia and regaining dominance in the Pacific.]]> 468 Jeffrey R. Cox 1472826388 Thomas 0 4.30 2018 Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Naval Campaign of World War II
author: Jeffrey R. Cox
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2018
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]]> <![CDATA[Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II (General Military)]]> 21864009 493 Jeffrey R. Cox Thomas 0 4.17 2013 Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II (General Military)
author: Jeffrey R. Cox
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Blazing Star, Setting Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign November 1942–March 1943]]> 48744678 From popular Pacific Theatre expert Jeffrey R. Cox comes this insightful new history of the critical Guadalcanal and Solomons campaign at the height of World War II.Cox's previous book, Morning Star, Rising Sun, had found the US Navy at its absolute nadir and the fate of the Enterprise, the last operational US aircraft carrier at this point in the war, unknown. This second volume completes the history of this crucial campaign, combining detailed research with a novelist's flair for the dramatic to reveal exactly how, despite missteps and misfortunes, the tide of war finally turned.By the end of February 1944, thanks to hard-fought and costly American victories in the first and second naval battles of Guadalcanal, the battle of Empress Augusta Bay, and the battle of Cape St George, the Japanese would no longer hold the materiel or skilled manpower advantage. From this point on, although the war was still a long way from being won, the American star was unquestionably on the ascendant, slowly, but surely, edging Japanese imperialism towards its sunset.Jeffrey Cox's analysis and attention to detail of even the smallest events are second to none. But what truly sets this book apart is how he combines this microscopic attention to detail, often unearthing new facts along the way, with an engaging style that transports the reader to the heart of the story, bringing the events on the deep blue of the Pacific vividly to life.]]> 529 Jeffrey R. Cox 1472840453 Thomas 0 4.44 2020 Blazing Star, Setting Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign November 1942–March 1943
author: Jeffrey R. Cox
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2020
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]]> <![CDATA[Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor]]> 286430
Yamamoto was a cigar-smoking, poker-playing, English-speaking, Harvard-educated expert on America, and that intimate knowledge served him well as architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next sixteen months, this military genius, beloved by the Japanese people, lived up to his prediction that he would run wild in the Pacific Ocean. He was unable, however, to deal the fatal blow needed to knock America out of the war, and the shaken United States began its march to victory on the bloody island of Guadalcanal.

Donald A. Davis meticulously tracks Yamamoto's eventual rendezvous with death. After American code-breakers learned that the admiral would be vulnerable for a few hours, a desperate attempt was launched to bring him down. What was essentially a suicide mission fell to a handful of colorful and expendable U.S. Army pilots from Guadalcanal's battered "Cactus Air Force":

- Mississippian John Mitchell, after flunking the West Point entrance exam, entered the army as a buck private. Though not a "natural" as an aviator, he eventually became the highest-scoring army ace on Guadalcanal and the leader of the Yamamoto attack.
- Rex Barber grew up in the Oregon countryside and was the oldest surviving son in a tightly knit churchgoing family. A few weeks shy of his college graduation in 1940, the quiet Barber enlisted in the U.S. Army.
- "I'm going to be President of the United States," Tom Lanphier once told a friend. Lanphier was the son of a legendary fighter squadron commander and a dazzling storyteller. He viewed his chance at hero status as the start of a promising political career.
- December 7, 1941, found Besby Holmes on a Pearl Harbor airstrip, firing his .45 handgun at Japanese fighters. He couldn't get airborne in time to make a serious difference, but his chance would come.
- Tall and darkly handsome, Ray Hine used the call sign "Heathcliffe" because he resembled the brooding hero of Wuthering Heights. He was transferred to Guadalcanal just in time to participate in the Yamamoto mission---a mission from which he would never return.

Davis paints unforgettable personal portraits of men in combat and unravels a military mystery that has been covered up at the highest levels of government since the end of the war.]]> 400 Donald A. Davis 0312309074 Thomas 0 4.21 2005 Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor
author: Donald A. Davis
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2005
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]]> <![CDATA[The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won]]> 34184217 A definitive account of World War II by America's preeminent military historian

World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had a war been fought on so many diverse landscapes and in so many different ways, from rocket attacks in London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya.

The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory.

An authoritative new history of astonishing breadth, The Second World Wars offers a stunning reinterpretation of history's deadliest conflict.]]> 652 Victor Davis Hanson 0465066984 Thomas 0 4.42 2017 The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won
author: Victor Davis Hanson
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
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]]> <![CDATA[Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal]]> 8575701 516 James D. Hornfischer 055380670X Thomas 0 4.26 2011 Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal
author: James D. Hornfischer
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze]]> 1435381 448 M.G. Sheftall 0451218523 Thomas 0 4.17 2005 Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze
author: M.G. Sheftall
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> At War With the Wind 5247255
Told from the perspective of the men who endured this horrifying tactic, At War with the Wind is the first book to recount in nail-biting detail what it was like to experience an attack by Japanese kamikazes. David Sears, acclaimed author of The Last Epic Naval Battle, draws on personal interviews and unprecedented research to create a narrative of war that is stunning in its vivid re-creations. Born of desperation in the face of overwhelming material superiority, suicide attacks-by aircraft, submarines, small boats, and even manned rocket-boosted gliders-were capable of inflicting catastrophic damage, testing the resolve of officers and sailors as never before. Sears's gripping account focuses on the vessels whose crews experienced the full range of the kamikaze nightmare. From carrier USS St. Lo, the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by an orchestrated kamikaze attack, to USS Henrico, a transport ship that survived the landings at Normandy only to be sent to the Pacific and struck by suicide planes off Okinawa, and USS Mannert L. Abele, the only vessel sunk by a rocket-boosted piloted glider during the war, these unforgettable stories reveal, as never before, one of the most horrifying and misunderstood chapters of World War II.

This is the candid story of a war within a war-a relentless series of furious and violent engagements pitting men determined todie against men determined to live. Its echoes resonate hauntingly at a time of global conflict, when suicide as a weapon remains a perplexing and terrifying reality.]]> 502 David Sears 0806528931 Thomas 0 3.75 2008 At War With the Wind
author: David Sears
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay]]> 6443714 421 Warren Kozak 1596985690 Thomas 0 4.15 2009 LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay
author: Warren Kozak
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> Fatherland 56842
The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel�

What if Hitler had won?

Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.

As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth -- a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.]]> 380 Robert Harris 0061006629 Thomas 0 4.01 1992 Fatherland
author: Robert Harris
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Where Is Joe Merchant? A Novel Tale]]> 62838341
Where is Joe Merchant? That's what his sister, Trevor Kane, the hemorrhoid-ointment heiress, wants to know. For Desdemona, Merchant is the missing link in her ongoing communications with space aliens. Tabloid journalist Rudy Breno only cares that Merchant gets bigger headlines than Elvis. And for renegade seaplane pilot Frank Bama, the mystery of the presumed-dead-but-often-sighted rock star is turning his life upside down.

In his debut novel, Jimmy Buffett cooks up an irresistible gumbo of dreamers, wackos, pirates, and sharks, as he leads Trevor and Frank on a wild chase through the Caribbean Islands to a place where anything can happen . . . and everything does.]]> Jimmy Buffet Thomas 0 4.08 Where Is Joe Merchant? A Novel Tale
author: Jimmy Buffet
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> The Guns of the South 101599 January 1864 –General Robert E. Lee faces defeat. The Army of Northern Virginia is ragged and ill-equpped. Gettysburg has broken the back of the Confederacy and decimated its manpower.

Then, Andries Rhoodie, a strange man with an unplaceable accent, approaches Lee with an extraordinary offer. Rhoodie demonstrates an amazing rifle: Its rate of fire is incredible, its lethal efficiency breathtaking--and Rhoodie guarantees unlimited quantitites to the Confederates.

The name of the weapon is the AK-47...

]]> 528 Harry Turtledove 0345413660 Thomas 0 3.95 1992 The Guns of the South
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> The Terror 3974 Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.

When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape.]]> 769 Dan Simmons 0316017442 Thomas 0 4.06 2007 The Terror
author: Dan Simmons
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics)]]> 38169 323 Pat Frank 0060741872 Thomas 0 4.07 1959 Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics)
author: Pat Frank
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1959
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> Footfall 116356
The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods.

Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender--or death for all humans.]]> 524 Larry Niven 0345418425 Thomas 0 3.93 1985 Footfall
author: Larry Niven
name: Thomas
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945]]> 43447675
Drawing on eyewitness accounts, historian Florian Huber tells of the largest mass suicide in German history and its suppression by the survivors—a fascinating insight into the feelings of ordinary people caught in the tide of history who saw no other way out.]]> Florian Huber Thomas 4 4.09 2015 Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945
author: Florian Huber
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Saint's Magic Power Is Omnipotent (Light Novel) Vol. 5]]> 59493591
Now that Sei has performed multiple miracles in the capital and beyond, her reputation is on the rise, as are her business ventures. Unfortunately, not everyone harbors entirely noble intentions for the Saint. Some would use her for their own ends. That's why Sei's friends and benefactors want to help her start her own company, as well as to secure her official place in high society--before someone tries to claim everything she's made, and everything she is, for themselves.]]> 191 Yuka Tachibana 1648279554 Thomas 4 4.35 2020 The Saint's Magic Power Is Omnipotent (Light Novel) Vol. 5
author: Yuka Tachibana
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/11
date added: 2022/01/11
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]]> Schism 54697600 620 R.D. Meyer 1732482756 Thomas 5 4.23 Schism
author: R.D. Meyer
name: Thomas
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/26
date added: 2021/12/26
shelves:
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]]>