Obelisk Odyssey

Obelisk Odyssey: 26 Ancient Monoliths, 4 Continents, and 1 Man's Monumental Search for Meaning by Mark Ciccone

Part travelogue, journal, history. This rambling but fun 'odyssey' follows the travels of Egyptian oblelisks from their origin to where they and up in cities all over the world. This is very entertaining and allows the author to describe his travels as he tracks down the oblelisks and describes the history of each one along with the travails that followed the monuments to their present resting places.

The Army that Never Was

The Army that Never Was: George S. Patton and the Deception of Operation Fortitude by Taylor Downing

This WW2 history documents the 'deception' strategies of the Allies in their attempt to confuse the Nazis as to the real strategies and troop strenght of the Allies. In particular the attempt to make sure the Germans did not know that the D-Day invasion of Nomrandy was 'the' invasion, leading them to believe that the real invasion would take place in Calais. This worked wonderfully and the Germans held large numbers of troops at Calais that could have been used to interupt the Normandy invasion. Surprisingly despite the title Patton plays a very minor part in this book.

The Scapegoat

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

This is the story of James the first of England, told through his 'favourite' the Duke of Buckingham. James I was the successor to Elizabeth the first, he was the son of Mary Queen of Scotts and was raised in Scotland and was the scottish king James VI. James had many 'facourites' who were people he apparently had a physical relationship with, but he appointed them to high offices. The Duke came for an average family, not royal, which was part of the issue with people who thought he was reaching above his status. However, he appeared to be a talented hard working person who was more than a pretty face.

The history is very detailed and in some ways too much so. The author gets bogged down in details that don't really enhance the story, I found myself skipping large sections of the book to move ahead.

The Forbidden Garden

The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice by Simon Parkin

The largest seed back in the world is in St Petersberg, but it was founded in the 12920s when the city was Leningrad. The see back was world renowned and created by a world renowned scientist. During WW2 and the seige of Leningrad, the dedicated workers at the seed bank protected the collection, even at their own peril.

Into Unknown Skies

Into Unknown Skies: An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight Around the World by David K. Randall

The true account the first flight to go around the world, in stages and over 175 days. The Douglas World Cruiser aircraft was a 2 seater open cockpit plane. The US team started in Seattle and flew west, flying through freezing arctic conditions and through broiling desert heat. The US team started with 4 planes, each plane had a pilot and mechanic. Any time something brokde on the planes, the crew had to fix everything themselves. The US team had one plane actually finish the race. Other attempts were made by the UK, France, Portugal and Argentina. Each of these had a single plane. The major advantage the the US had was the US Navy havnig ships that supported the effort. This race was the idea of Gneral Mitchell in an attempt to get support for a more robust US military air effort.

Henry V

Henry V by Dan Jones.

Henry V was king of England in the early 1400s. A relatively short reign but a very active one. He brough Wales back to England after a very tough rebellion, and spent many years and battles in France, mostly Normandy. The most famous of his battles was Agincourt, where he was outnumbered in troops by the French. This was a very well written history, which I wanted to keep going. He fought so many battles in Normandy that I began to wonder if the Allies had studied these battles before launching D-Day.

The Notebook

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

Not to be confused with the Nicolas Spark book, as the subtitle says this is about paper and it application to notebooks. The basic premise is that when paper started to be mass produced in Italy in the 1400 this allowed the renaisanse to take off. Before this writing was done on velum, time consuming and expensive to produce and basically used the the Church to illuminated manuscripts. With paper readily available artists could carry a sketch book with them wherever they went and practice their craft. The best known of the notebooks are Leonardo Da Vinci's, of which a portion survive. Cheap notebooks allowed for diaries, journals, sketchbooks, thought diaries, lists, idea books to be carried by many people. There is also the premise that writing changed the way people think and work and the act of writing in a notebook allowed people to become better writers and thinkers.