Five For Friday 36: Five Off-The-Beaten-Track Inspirational Books for Table-Top RPG Gamers (Appendix N)

If nothing else, I think I set a new personal best with the length of this post title. Here is an eclectic collection of books that were great reading and, for the purposes of this blog, surprisingly inspirational for gaming. Presented in alphabetical order:

• Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky. This book is perfectly described by its title. It is an atlas of fifty of the world's most remote islands.
• The Book of Legendary Lands by Umberto Eco. Italian scholar and novelist (The Name of the Rose) Umberto Eco's fascinating description of the legendary lands that we humans have come up throughout the course of our history. Eco's writing is, as usual, amazing and the illustrations are worth the price of the book.
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. This novel is set in the city of New York at the very end of the nineteenth century and tells of the unlikely friendship between a golem and a jinni, both of whom find themselves lost and friendless in a foreign land. Just a really great read.
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. This book has a lot going on, more than I can even attempt to capture in a brief description. Just two things: (1) I absolutely loved this book and (2) there is a house that grows a megadungeon at the heart of the story. Oh, and it is really creepy.
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Calling this book a novel might be a  bit of a stretch. A fictional dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, with Marco Polo describing fictional cities of Kublai Khan's empire, each city more fantastical than the one before it.

Related Post

Five For Friday 2: A Modern Literary Appendix N

Five for Friday 35: World War 2 Memoirs

Thanks to the influence of Max Hastings' Inferno, my WW2 reading has been sprinkled with more first-person narratives. Recently, I read these five books as a group (presented here in alphabetical order):

• And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway Breaking the Secrets by Edwin T. Layton, Roger Pineau, and John Costello. Layton, a U.S. Naval intelligence officer stationed in Hawaii, provides a front row seat to much of the decision-making prior to and after the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese. I found the narrative weighed down by Layton's apologetics with regards to the faultfinding and fingerpointing that occurred for decades after the Pearl Harbor attack. For those interested in that subject, on the other hand, this is a critically important source on that topic.
• Going Solo by Roald Dahl. Author Roald Dahl's little memoir of his days as a British fighter pilot in the opening years of World War 2. A quick and entertaining read.
• In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front by Gottlob Herbert Bidermann. Starting the war as a private in the infantry, Biderman spent the entire war on Germany's Eastern Front. He was captured in 1945 and spent several years in Soviet labor camps until returning before returning home to Germany. 
• Quartered Safe Out Here: A Harrowing Tale of World War II by George MacDonald Fraser. Fraser, author of the Flashman novels, writes about his time as a British infantryman in Burma. Funny and heartbreaking, it is considered by many to be a classic WW2 memoir. It is interesting to me that Fraser is able to express his understandable lifelong dislike of the Japanese while Gottlob Herbert Biderman and Saburo Sakai are silent with regards to their post-war feelings about their former enemies...perhaps expressing this is a privilege of the victors.
• Samurai! by Saburo Sakai: Memoirs of a Japanese fighter ace. It is actually a composite of Saburo Sakai's original memoirs and his interviews with journalist Fred Saito. Interesting and surprisingly even-handed.

Additional World War 2 Book posts:
My Favorite World War 2 Books
My Latest World War 2 Reads
More World War 2 Books
Even More World War 2 Books
Yet More World War 2 Books
A Stack of World War 2 Books

Five for Friday 34: A Stack of World War 2 Books

My most recent World War 2 reading has taken me a bit off the beaten path. As near as I can tell, I have read about 100 books on WW2, going back to childhood. I am still as fascinated as ever by the single biggest (and worst) event in human history, but I am more interested now in the cultural and political aspects of the war and less interested in the actual combat. Here are my latest five books (in alphabetical order):

• The Battle for History: Re-Fighting World War II by John Keegan. I am a John Keegan fan and picked up this book used. Keegan has a great recommended reading section at the end of his book, The Second World War. The Battle for History is an expansion of his recommended reading with more background on the academic debates around certain concepts and theories. I found it to be a quick and enjoyable read.

• Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel by Richard H. Minear. A forgotten side of Dr. Seuss. Some fascinating things here: (1) Before the U.S. entry into the war, Geisel was a liberal who advocated intervention against the fascists; and (2) Geisel wasn't perfect but he did a pretty good job of avoiding racial and ethnic stereotypes in a medium where it was rampant during WW2.

• Pandora's Keepers: Nine Men and the Atomic Bomb by Brian VanDeMark. Richard Rhodes wrote the definitive history with his The Making of the Atomic Bomb. VanDeMark takes this into account and focuses on nine physicists who played critical roles in the development of the atomic bomb as well as the postwar policy debates about the bomb. 

• The Red Orchestra by Gilles Perrault. I picked this book up used some time ago and finally read it. He focuses on the Brussels and Paris circles of the Soviet WW2 spy ring known as the Red Orchestra. The key figure here is Leopold Trepper and Perrault's book is based primarily on face-to-face interviews with former spies and spy-chasers. The book is flawed and subsequent research, using then unavailable documents and records, highlights the flaws. 

• Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra by Shareen Blair Brysac. Again, another book picked up years ago in a used bookstore. I read it after reading Perrault's book. It is well-written and sympathetic treatment of Mildred Harnack, an American woman executed by the Nazis, at the personal direction of Hitler, for her part in an underground resistance and espionage circle. It is very well-researched and balanced. I was surprised to find out that Mildred's husband, Arvid, was a cousin to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and theologian. Bonhoeffer is popular in a variety of Christian circles because of his role in the German resistance movement and his execution by the Nazis shortly before the war ended.

Previous World War 2 related posts:
My Favorite World War 2 Books
My Latest World War 2 Reads
More World War 2 Books
Even More World War 2 Books
Yet More World War 2 Books

Five For Friday 32: Yet More WW2 Books

My World War 2 reading over the past 18 months has been heavily influenced by the bibliography in Max Hastings' Inferno: The World at War 1939-1945, where he draws heavily on first person accounts by ordinary soldiers, sailor, airman, and non-combatants.

• Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 by Ian Kershaw--I thought this book was fantastic. Kershaw provides a lot of detailed, well-reasoned analysis, backed up by plenty of research. Well-written, but not a quick read.
• The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War by Martin Gilbert--I was frustrated with this book at first, until I understood it. It is more of a chronicle and witness to those who died, rather than your typical history book. There are a lot of names, places and dates and not much analysis. Reading this was more like participating in a solemn memorial ritual for the dead than was reading history. In the end, that is the power of the book. Absolutely gut-wrenching, but I am glad to have read it.
• Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James Hornfischer--A well-written and balanced account of naval actions in the fight for Guadalcanal, most of which happened at night. The Japanese had better tactics and torpedoes. The Americans had been logistics, intelligence and radar. In the end, the Americans learned from their mistakes and the Japanese did not.
• A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in a Conquered City by Anonymous--I had been wanting to read this book for awhile, but I kept putting it off, knowing that it would be an emotional experience. I did read it and it was emotional, but it was also funny at times and, surprisingly, full of hope.
• Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater by George Loving--A nice read.

Previous World War 2 related posts:
My Favorite World War 2 Books
My Latest World War 2 Reads
More World War 2 Books
Even More World War 2 Books

Five for Friday 30: Even More World War 2 Books

It has been awhile since I have posted any of my World War 2 reads. Here are some of my more recent World War 2 reads (I will post more next week).

• The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert Edsel and Bret Witter--The book on which the recent movie was based (I have not seen the movie). I read this book after ordering for my wife (her book club read it). It was interesting, as it was part of WW2 that I was not familiar, but the book jumped around a bit. My wife struggled a bit with it, as well, for the same reason.
• The Secret in Building 26: The Untold Story of How America Broke the Final U-boat Enigma Code by Jim DeBrosse and Colin Burke--Another interesting book, again because I was unfamiliar with the story. I was more familiar with the British side of things, which is barely mentioned in this book (a glaring weakness). Even so, it was a fun read.
• Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring by Gordon Prange, Katherine Dillon, and Donald Goldstein--Prange's books on the attack of Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway are well-written and balanced. They offer a lot of detail, based on Prange's extensive research. This book is very similar. It was finished posthumously by Dillon and Goldstein. I really enjoyed this book a lot and list it among my favorite WW2 reads.
• Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy--The is a solid, thorough book by a historian who has written extensively on the Eastern Front. I wasn't surprised by his conclusions, as most WW2 history buffs are familiar with them. However, his underlying reasoning made for good reading.
• Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure by Donald Kladstrup and Petie Kladstrup--This is a breezy book that, like some other books on this list, addressed a topic unfamiliar to me. It wasn't a bad read, but it left me wanting a bit at the end.

Previous posts about World War 2 books:
My Favorite World War 2 Books
My Latest World War 2 Reads
More World War 2 Books

Five for Friday 27: More World War 2 Books

Several months ago, I posted a list of my favorite World War 2 books. I then added an update of some of my recent World War 2 reads. Here is another update, with the latest five World War 2 books that I have read (in alphabetical order):

• The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson: A masterpiece and a fitting capstone for his Liberation Trilogy. Of the 100 or World War 2 books that I have read, this easy is in my top five. This comes on the heels of my reading of Max Hastings' Inferno, another top fiver (I highlighted Inferno in my last World War 2 book post). The Guns at Last Light is excellent in every respect.
• Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones: Culled from interviews and private journals, this book is one of the heartbreaking books that I have read. Jones does a masterful job of painting daily life and death in Leningrad during the siege. While the fate of Soviet soldiers is touched upon, most of Jones' attention is on the average citizen of Leningrad during this terrible time. It is a well-told and moving history. 
• The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat by Michael Jones: A decent book, but not anywhere near as good as Jones' Leningrad work.
• Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941-1945 by Richard Overy: Overy's work was one of the first in English to be published after the opening of the former Soviet archives and history vaults. It is important in that regard, but it has been overshadowed by more recent research and published works. It is still a short, readable history of the Eastern Front after the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
• The Siege of Leningrad: 900 Days of Terror by David Glantz: I am a big fan of David Glantz's works, but this one left me cold. Not one of my favorites.

With the exception of The Guns at Last Light, all of my recent WW2 reading has been focused on the Eastern Front. I have been using the bibliography in Max Hastings' Inferno as my "to read" list, which is mainly focused on first person experiences of the war. I have been making lots of purchases of used books but haven't really delved into them yet.

My Latest World War 2 Reads

Buy It and Read It!

I was going to post the following five books as a "Five for Friday" blog post. Then I realized there are six books on the list. Oops. This post is a follow-up to my Favorite World War 2 Books post from this past March. These are in alphabetical order:

• The Battle of Midway by Craig Symonds. A decent and readable history of the Battle of Midway. This book is part of the Oxford University Press series, Pivotal Moments in American History. I am about halfway through the Pivotal Moments series. Most have been very good.
• Bougainville, 1943-1945: The Forgotten Campaign by Harry Gailey. Apart from Pearl Harbor, Midway, Iwo Jima, and two atomic bombs, you would think nothing happened in the Pacific in WW2, at least based on the history section of your local book store. This book does a great job telling the story of Bougainville, one of the stepping stone island battles of the Pacific. It is notable that a fair amount of the combat involved African-American troops.
• Inferno: A World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings. I have read about 100 books on WW2 over the course of my life. Inferno is in my top 5 of all time. I am a big Max Hastings fan but I went into this book a bit skeptical, with doubts as to how interesting or different yet another book on the whole war could be. Hastings doesn't aim for completeness. Instead, he aims to get it what it felt like for the participants, particularly the lower ranks, the civilians caught in combat, and those on the home front. Using the stories of the non-famous, he weaves a story that is heart-wrenching, horrifying and, at times, uplifting. This powerful narrative is coupled with Hastings unparalleled ability for critical analysis. Hastings created a book unlike any other that I have read.
• Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway-The Great Naval Battles as Seen Through Japanese Eyes by Capt. Tameichi Hara. This book was recommended to me by Mark Langsdorf and it is excellent.I enjoyed every page. The Japanese Navy had some excellent mid-level officers, Hara being a prime example. They also had excellent gunnery and airplane pilots. The U.S. Navy made huge leaps and bounds during 1942-45 in numbers of ships, planes, technology, skill, and command. Japan regressed in all these areas during the same time period and Hara recounts what this was like while on board a series of destroyers.
• A Measureless Peril: America in the Fight for the Atlantic, the Longest Battle of World War II by Richard Snow. Snow combines a simple history of the Battle for the Atlantic with the narrative of his father's time on a destroyer escort in that same battle. I actually listened to this book while driving on a work-related trip. It was a nice "listen."
• No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. She won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, although she was later embroiled in controversy over plagiarism, which included this book. Apart from that, there is a reason this book won the Pulitzer. The book is a look at the U.S. home front during World War 2, looking through the lens of the Roosevelts. It is not a biography and it is not simply a history. It is a different sort of book, but I really enjoyed it and recommend it.

My "To Read" list continues to grow (you can see what it looked like back in March here, at the bottom of the post).

My Favorite Works of Fiction

Not much gaming content in this post, just so you know.

I read a lot...a little more than a book a week...and I tend to read non-fiction more than fiction. But I do like a good story. Here is a list of my favorite fiction. I haven't necessarily excluded fantasy and science fiction, but not many of them made the cut. My wife and I read a of books together--what we call our House Book Club--and some of my favorite books were originally one of her selections for us to read (Birdsong, Out Stealing Horses and The Road are good examples of books she picked for our little book club). Every gamer should read The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop by Robert Coover.

Some of my favorite fiction (I marked my Top Ten with an *):

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein*
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursala Le Guin
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov*
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova*
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll*
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien*
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco*
The Otori Trilogy by Lian Hearn
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger*
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee *
A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop by Robert Coover*
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo

Montporte Cosmology: Source Bibliography (The Appendix N)

I am not sure that the cosmology of the Montporte Dungeon campaign is particularly creative or unique. However, my sources of inspiration and influences might strike you as being a bit off the beaten path.

The Montporte Cosmological Appendix N
Baker, Keith, et. al.: Eberron Campaign Setting (Dungeons & Dragons 3.5)--I am not too proud to put this on the list. I do like the treatment of the planes in the Eberron setting, at least for 3.5e.

Butcher, Jim: "The Dresden Files"--I lifted my approach to the Fey from Butcher. Anyone can plainly see that fact. Demons, too, for that matter.

Copleston, Frederick: A History of Philosophy, Volume 1: Greece and Rome From the Pre-Socratics to Plotinus--I borrowed a bit from either end of the time frame represented in this book, the Pre-Socratics and Plotinus. 

de Lint, Charles: "Newford Series"--A loosely connected series of urban fantasy novels and short stories that rely heavily on Celtic and Native American myths. De Lint is one of my favorite authors.

Dent, Greg: Oathbound: Domains of the Forge (D20)--This detailed setting for D&D 3.5e gave me all sorts of ideas.

Elert, Werner: The Structure of Lutheranism--I know this is a strange edition to the list, but Elert was a deep thinker and his reflection on the nature of the Creator, the creation, time and eternity is very profound and thought-provoking, even if one has a different view or belief. This is not for the faint of heart, however.

Greene, Brian:  The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality and The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory--I am a big fan of Brian Greene. Check out his TED Talks: "Making Sense of String Theory" and "Is Our Universe the Only Universe?" He makes physics almost comprehensible. 

Grossman, Lev: The Magicians and The Magician King--Sort of a Narnia for slackers and hipsters. I like his travel between worlds and I have borrowed some specific things from him. The players in the Montporte Campaign should disregard this entry on the list and pretend they didn't read this.

Jung, Karl: The Red Book (plus other works)--Just in case anyone wonders where the funky metal trees originated.

Koyre, Alexandre: From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe--This book is even more fun than the title might hint at. I read most of it in one sitting while eating meatloaf at a diner on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC. That seems about right.

Le Guin, Ursula: "Earthsea"--Ursusa Le Guin's Earthea books have probably had a greater impact than any other books over the course of my gaming life. 

Moorcock, Michael: "Elric of Melniboné," "The Swords Trilogy"--Like the gamers before and after me, Moorcock is a major inspiration. However, as much as I love the Elric series, I have an even bigger crush on the "The Swords Trilogy," featuring Corum Jhaelen Irsei.

Pratchett, Terry: Small Gods and the rest of the "Discworld" novels--Small Gods is my favorite Discworld novel and its approach to the gods have crept into my cosmology.

Rahner, Karl: Foundations of Christian Faith--This is heavy lifting. Rahner had a major theological impact on the Council of Vatican II and this book gives a hint as to the power of his intellect.

Suzuki, Shunryu: Zen Mind, Beginners Mind--I am not sure if I can explain how this book impacted my approach to gaming, but it has in some surprisingly profound ways.

Zelazny, Roger: "The Chronicles of Amber"--An awesome fantasy series with a cool approach to the universe and its multiple worlds. Thanks to Tim Shorts (Gothridge Manor) for recommending Zelanzy to me.

Excellent Reading Recommendations From the Commentors

I've had some very good book recommendations in the comment section of this blog. Thanks, you guys, for giving me hours of literary entertainment.

On the fantasy front, I am about a quarter of the way through the Chronicles of Amber (Roger Zelanzy), recommended by Tim (Gothridge Manor). There are ten books in the series, but they are short and they read fast. It feels a bit like reading Moorcock, which is a definite plus in my book, but Zelanzy has a vibe all his own. I also have Malazan Book of the Fallen (Steven Erikson) and the Garrett P.I. books (Glen Cook) on my To Read list. Both series were recommended by JD (The Disoriented Ranger). All of these recommendations were in response to my post on my favorite fantasy series.

On the World War 2 front, Mark (No School Grognard) recommended Japanese Destroyer Captain, which turned out to be a great read. Thanks, Mark! Butch recommended A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940, which is next up on my WW2 reading. It looks like an top-notch book. Butch also mentioned Flags of Our Fathers, which I am embarrassed to admit that I have not read (I have no idea why I haven't read it yet, except for the sheer volume of WW2 books out there). I will certainly correct that omission in the near future. These recommendations resulted from my post on my favorite World War 2 books.

The best part about writing a blog is the feedback in the comment section. I don't have a lot of followers, but I do get great comments. Thanks, guys, for the recommendations!

My Favorite World War 2 Books

I am a big time history buff. My favorite topics include ancient Greece, Medieval (particularly Byzantium), the Reformation, Central Asia, and the 20th Century (particularly cultural history and also science). But WW2 has always been the big draw...maybe it was having two uncles in the war. Anyway, I have read a fair amount of WW2 history over the years. The following is not meant to be a bibliography or reading list--there are some holes in my list (nothing on southeast Asia, the Balkans, or small unit tactics for example). Here is simply an annotated list of some of my favorites, in alphabetical order:

• Armageddon: The Battle for Germany by Max Hastings. Max Hastings writes books around which I could build a library. He thinks deeply and critically. He writes clearly and interestingly. His Retribution, Overlord, Bomber Command, and Das Reich are all excellent. I also liked The Korean War. His Inferno is on my To Read List.
• An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson. This book, the first volume in Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, was a Pulitzer Prize winner in History. It is an awesome book. Volume 2, The Day of Battle, is listed below and volume 3, The Guns at Last Light, is due in May 2013.
• The Battle of Kursk by David Glantz and Jonathan House. Glantz is my favorite historian of the Eastern Front and this is my favorite of Glantz's books.
• The Battle of Leyte Gulf: 23-26 October 1944 by Thomas J. Cutler. Simply a well-written book. I'd like to read C. Vann Woodward's The Battle for Leyte Gulf, as I have read some of his non-military history (e.g. the history of Jim Crow laws).
• Battle: The Story of the Bulge by John Toland. This is still the most compelling retelling of the Battle of the Bulge. Toland has penned a number of excellent books on WW2, including The Last 100 Days, The Rising Sun, and a biography of Hitler. His Infamy is a bit more controversial.
• Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941 by William L. Shirer. A first person account of an American journalist in Berlin during the pre-WW2 Nazi regime and the first two years of the European portion of the conflict.
• A Bridge Too Far: The Classic History of the Greatest Battle of World War II by Cornelius Ryan. "Greatest Battle" is quite an overstatement, but this is my favorite of Cornelius Ryan's WW2 books. This was also made into a movie and, like Lord of the Rings, I am not sure how the movie makes sense to someone who hasn't read the book. Ryan's The Longest Day is a classic and The Last Battle is a decent read.
• D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor: There are so many books on D-Day, it was hard to select my favorite. However, in the end, Beevor's masterpiece wins for me. I would include Keegan's Six Armies in Normandy, Ryan's The Longest Day, D'Este's Decision in Normandy, and Hastings' Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy are all top notch. I guess I shouldn't leave out Stephen Ambrose when it comes to D-Day (author of Band of Brothers)--my favorite Ambrose book is Pegasus Bridge (I did enjoy BoB, BTW).
• The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson. The second volume in Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy reaches the same bar as An Army At Dawn (listed above).
• Desert War: The North African Campaign 1940-1943 by Alan Moorehead. A classic military history trilogy in one a one-volume edition.
• Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire by Richard Frank. A powerful and detailed account of the fall of Japan, based on recently declassified documents. Lots of good analysis surrounded by an excellent narrative. Hastings Retribution covers much of the same ground and is also very good. Frank's Guadalcanal is also excellent.
• Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan by Ronald Spector. My favorite overview of America's war in the Pacific against Japan. Spector creates a lot of context by detailing pre-war plans and doctrines of both Japan and the U.S. He manages to do all this and give a good account of the military engagements without creating a multi-volume monster. Toland's The Rising Sun is also very good.
• Fire in the Sky: The Air War in the South Pacific by Eric Bergerud. This is a fantastic book on a topic that gets little coverage in pop history books. I had yet read the companion volume, Touched With Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific (another To Read item).
• Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David Kennedy. This book is part of The Oxford History of the United States, a series that will ultimately comprise 12 volumes. I try to get one of these books for Christmas or my birthday every year. They are incredible and Kennedy's contribution is equal to its peers.
• Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis. A classic. I read this in junior high school and it piqued my interest in history of all kinds, not just military history. I think Frank's Guadalcanal is the definitive history of WW2 on this little island, but Tragaskis work is near and dear to me.
• Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer. I wasn't sure if I wanted to include this book or not. Speer somehow managed to escape a death sentence at the Nuremburg Trials, getting only a 20 year prison sentence despite his role in the use of slave/forced labor as Minister of Armaments. It is an important book and I came away with a much better understanding of the Nazi's rise to power and the unsettling mix of the ordinary and the diabolical. Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil provides some exegesis (to use a big fancy word) in some sort of weird way...in the sense that evil is less obvious and alien that we might suppose.
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. This is a big weighty tomb but it lured me in and wouldn't let me go until I finished it. Rhodes did an extraordinary amount of research and it shows, but his fine storytelling makes this work. Who knew the Soviets had their fingers in all of this? (really their eyes and ears). I had to read Rhodes sequel of a sort right away, Dark Sun, on the making of the hydrogen bomb (not to be confused with the D&D setting of the same name*).
• Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman. My wife and I read this for our "house book club" (just her and I) at her suggestion. Art Spiegelman tells the story of his father's Holocaust experience in graphic novel form. It was compelling and gut-wrenching, all the more powerful because of the graphic rendition of the story. It also had its funny moments.
• Miracle at Midway by Gordon Prange. Midway and Stalingrad are considered the turning point battles of WW2. Prange's work is my favorite Midway book. His account of the attack on Pearl Harbor, At Dawn We Slept, is also very good (and balanced).
• Ortono: Canada's Epic World War II Battle by Mark Zuehlke. I am not sure how I ended up with this book in my library, but it is a good one and not easy to find. It covers the Battle of Ortono, in Italy, where the Canadians squared off against the Germans. Zuehlke does an nice job of telling the story of this little-known battle.
• The Second World War by John Keegan. This book, boys and girls, is my favoritist of the favorites. I have worn out one copy and my current copy looks like it went through a cycle in the washing machine. Keegan's Six Armies in Normandy is also quite good. This makes up for his book, The Iraq War, which I found to be abysmal. His annotated list of 50 recommended books on WW2 is worth the price of the book.
• Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1933-1945 by David Kahn. Since the declassifying of Ultra in 1974 there has been an explosion of books on WW2 codes and codebreaking. I admit to being a junkie. Kahn's book, Seizing the Enigma, is still my favorite. The highlight of my trip to The Spy Museum in Washington D.C. (a daddy/daughter day trip...her idea) was seeing an actual German Enigma machine. Someday before I die (it will have to be, come to think about it), I want to plow through Kahn's 1200 page monster, The Codebreakers.
• Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 by Anthony Beevor. Beevor is one of my favorite WW2 authors and this is one of his best. His book, D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, is listed above. I also liked The Fall of Berlin 1945.
• Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler's Defeat in the East, 1942-1943  by Joel Hayward. A part of the epic battle that gets lost in the shuffle. I really enjoyed Hayward's history and analysis.
• To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority Over Germany, 1942-1944 by Stephen McFarland. An offering from the Smithsonian History of Aviation series. I consider it the best in the series. Hastings' Bomber Command is the more influential book on the topic and focuses more specifically on the role of Great Britain's strategic bombing in WW2, its value, and its cost to both GB and Germany.
• Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands. This is the only biography on my list, although there is a lot of good stuff on political and military leaders that I could have included. Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time and David McCullough's Truman are both very good bios of U.S. Presidents for the period in question.
• The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War by Samuel Eliot Morison. "Short" seems a bit inaccurate when looking at this massive tome, unless you know that it is a condension of a 15 volume work by the same author. Morison is an excellent scholar and an amazing writer. This is good stuff.
• When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption by Wesley Adamczyk. My wife and I read this for our "in house" book club (just she and I). A memoir of Poland and the Eastern front from the perspective of a child. We found this book to be horrifying yet ultimately uplifting and full of hope in the face of unspeakable violence and deprivation.
• With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge. John Keegan states that this is the single best memoir to come out of WW2. I concur.
• A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard Weinberg. This book is a big fella, devoting a lot of pages to covering the full sweep of WW2. It is probably the most complete history of WW2 that I have read, yet I plowed through it without trouble because it is so well-written.

My World War 2 To Read List

• The Battle of Midway (Pivotal Moments in American History) by Craig Symonds
• Black Cat Raiders of WW II by Richard C. Knott
• The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe (Liberation Trilogy: Volume 3) by Rick Atkinson
• Heigegger and Nazism by Victor Farias
• The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto by Nehemia Polen
• In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
• Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings
• Kasserine Pass by Martin Blumenson
• Kursk: The Air Battle, July 1943 by Christer Bergstrom
• The Second World War by Antony Beevor
• Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 by Barbara Tuchman
• To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942 by David Glantz and Jonathan House
• Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific by Eric Bergerud
• Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure by Don and Petie Kladstrup
• A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City, A Diary by Anonymous

And when I retire (or win PowerBall) I will finally read Morison's 15 volume work on the U.S. Navy in WW2 and Winston Churchill's classic 6 volume history of WW2.

Five for Friday 11: Favorite Fantasy Series

A Fantasy Come True--The Castle of Books

I never connected with Game of Thrones, sad to say. I felt the same way trying to slog through Kate Elliot/Alis A. Ramussen's Crown of Stars series and some of the books by David Eddings. I don't really read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, at least not at the rate that I did while I was in my teens. However, there are some fantasy series that I do enjoy. Here are five (in alphabetical order), plus some "honorable mentions:"

• Dresden Files: Jim Butcher's best-selling series was not love-at-first-read for me. I really struggled to make it through the first book and I wasn't all in until book 4, Summer Knight. Sadly, there was no love connection between me and Butcher's Codex Alera series.
• Earthsea: I recently reread Ursala Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy, plus the sequels, and found that they still do it for me.
• Elric of Melniboné: Anything I write will only detract from Michael Moorcock's masterpiece. I am also a big fan of the Moorcock's other books, particularly the two Corum trilogies.
• Newford: I am still working my way through Charles de Lint's sprawling Newford series. Set in a fictional North American city, his series features an overlapping cast of slackers, hipsters, and musicians whose lives intersect a powerful, yet unseen world, where Native American and Celtic mythologies run wild.
• Tales of the Otori: A series of five novels by Gillian Rubinstein (written under the pen name, Lian Hearn), the Tales of the Otori is set in a land very much like medieval Japan. An added bonus is that the individual book titles all utilize Japanese poetic style (waka and haiku). You know me...I love me some haiku.

Honorable mentions: Fritz Leiber, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; Terry Pratchett, Discworld; Glen Cook, The Black Company; Robert E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian; Robin Hobb (pen name for Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden...you can see why), The Realm of the Elderlings; and, yes, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter.

Hall of Fame: J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle Earth novels

What is your favorite fantasy series?

Five for Friday 7: Constantinople for Gamers

As I continue to work on Onyx, my medieval urban fantasy campaign, I am doing a fair amount of reading. Fortunately, I have decent history library, featuring a couple of bookcases of medieval history. That can also be bane, as too much reading and research doesn't necessarily help. I have found that most history books do not provide a lot of useful information in terms of campaign design, so here are five book recommendations for gamers wanting to swipe ideas from Constantinople and Byzantium (in alphabetical order):

• Byzantine Armies, AD 1118-1461 (by Ian Heath, Illustrated by Angus McBridge): Part of Osprey's Men-at-Arms series, I picked this one because it corresponds to my particular focus in Constantinople (c. 1150). There is not a lot of depth, but there is a lot of useful gaming info here and the illustrations are great.
• Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (by Jonathan Harris): If I could only read one book on Constantinople, this would be it.
• The Digest of Roman Law (by Justinian I): Player characters in trouble with the law? Perish the thought! Here are excerpts from Justinian's codification of Roman law. The introductory material, by C.F. Kolbert, is worth the price of the book and is very useful to gamers.
• The Oxford History of Byzantium (edited by Cyril Mango): The title is a bit misleading (which is true of many volumes in the Oxford History series). It is not a typical history book; rather it is a collection of essays on Byzantium. I wouldn't start here but if you already know a bit about Byzantium, some of the essays can be mined for gaming goodies (particularly the religion articles).
• What Life Was Like Amid Splendor and Intrigue: Byzantine Empire AD 330-1453 (edited by Ellen Anker): A lavishly illustrated book that is part of Time-Life's What Life Was Like series, this is a great place to get a feel for Byzantine history and daily life.

Notes:
If you are looking for an easy-to-read book on Byzantine history as a starting point, I would recommend A Short History of Byzantium by Julius Norwich (just don't cite it in your doctoral dissertation). I also liked Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World by Colin Wells and Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin. Both books are fun reads.

Steve Jackson Games has a groovy online bibliography of Constantinople and you can purchase their GURPS Hot Spots: Constantinople, 527-1204 A.D. as a PDF.

Five For Friday 2: A Modern Literary Appendix N

Here are five books that I have influenced how I think about gaming that fall outside of the sci-fi and fantasy genres (with the possible exception of Bones of the Moon, which could be shelved with the fantasy books at your local bookstore).

• Bones of the Moon (by Jonathan Carroll): A whimsical dreamworld gradually turns creepy (a Carroll hallmark). I discovered Jonathan Corroll through his first novel, Land of Laughs.
• The Historian (by Elizabeth Kostova): This is one of my all-time favorite novels, right up there with The Name of the Rose and To Kill a Mockingbird. Creepy turns to horror in this historically detailed literary suspense novel. I read it one sitting...at 720 pages, it was a bit of a sit for me.
• The Lock Artist (by Steve Hamilton): An award-winning suspense novel that will have you rethinking your lockpicking characters. A plus for me is that much of the action takes place in Milford, Michigan, one of the places where the teen-aged Rusty Battle Axe used to hang out.
• The Night Circus (by Erin Morgenstern): A dark, dreamy, and evocative tale of magic and romance, set in western Europe and North America (c. 1900) that has me rethinking all sorts of gaming things.
• The Shadow of the Wind (by Carlos Ruiz Zafón): A dark literary suspense novel, set in post-WW2 Barcelona. I was able to sleep soundly until I finished the book.