DIMITRI'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2017

[Dimitri]

97. by Svetlana Alexievich
Finish Date: 18 November 2017
Genre: political journalism
Rating:A
Review: How do you understand the Russian soul? By reading the generational classics of Gogol, Tolstoj and Dostojevski ?
Literary revolutionaries such as Gorki or Tsjernysjevski's What Is to Be Done? Soviet mainstays such as Boris Polevoj, the Bible of the future Afghantsy, or that of the kitchen rebels, Children of the Arbat ?

Perhaps Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets strikes closer to home. The main theme of this Götterdammerung-ish symphony goes easy on the ear.

"We wanted something more. We wanted something else. We wanted oranges more often than just for the New Year. We wanted enough sausages to eat. But we wanted it for everyone; nobody must suffer poverty nor invoke depressing jealousy through his vast wealth. We wanted to keep the good parts of the Soviet Union."

"Instead the country, the big pie, has been cut & gobbled up by a minority of Kalashnikov-toting nouveaux riches clad in jogging suits with a ton of jewellery like so many Mr. T's and corrupt oligarchs who make millions of selling the country's natural resources to the West, with a KGB judo champion lording over it all."

"Our world is gone, all our hard work is rewarded with poverty, the younger generation despises us as relics and money makes the world go round. The possession of a good library, of an intellectual & spiritual treasure, used to be beyond value. Now it has none."

This last part hits me hardest. Hannah Arendt was convinced that Walter Benjamin committed suicide on his way to Spain in 1940 not because of the prospect of captivity, but because his frequent emigration away from the spread of Nazism had dispersed his library. The most important part of him was already dead... but the Soviet outlook on the Russian classics is a puzzling one. Totalitarians hate books as the cradle of independent thought. How did the Father of Nations and his Central Committee successors assimilate these novels and plays which more often than not will hide a trumpet against the Romanovs ? Sergei Michaelovitsch Eisenstein was saved by the stroke of his failing heart from a stern talk with Stalin over Ivan the Terrible, part II (of 3).

Any dictatorship produces more obedient bloodhounds than it nurtures talent. Septuagenerian nuclear physicists can keep their plants running & the Soyoez capsule is still the primary taxi to the ISS. The U.S. Air Force "Top Gun" training was an attempt to even the odds in arial combat with the Vietnamese Air Force's MIGs. But a qualified Armenian engineer becomes a worker without degree in Belgium. Was Soviet education so out of touch, so far behind? Not every Soviet citizen was destined to be a mindless uniform, such as the beefy black shields that faced the ice fortresses of the orange revolution and still keep Bellorussia in place as the last Hitlertum in Europe.

Svetlana can only give us the outcome and what the victims perceive the cause to be. Some of the witnesses are to be expected: the 'common man' vs. middle-level Party members vs. Gulag victims and their families. We are just getting started, we'll soon stray off the path illuminated fleetingly by Western universities for 20th century Russia 101. The domestic violence, the drunkenness, times ten when an Afghanistan veteran is involved whose only pride in life was the uniform... that repeated snide "Moscow is a city for tourists, go beyond if you want the Real Russia" starts making sense. Gorbatsjov and Jeltsin follow us everywhere, though. The Twin Boogeyman. One to destroy the Soviet Union and another to ... I am insufficiently informed on the 1993 counterrevolution to make sense of it. What is clear is that neither had a plan for the future, hence oligarchs. Or so the last of the Soviets see it. With Clinton and the CIA lurking in the shadows.

But we don't need to leave Moscow to hear the omnipresent rascism directed against the Tadzjiki guest workers, basically Russia's niggers. They appear rather late, just when you think you have it figured out. Because first there is the Caucasus, where absolutely everybody plays Yugoslavia, taking turns being Serb or Bosniak*. Azerbedji vs Armenian, Russian vs Tadzjik, Armenian vs. Russian ... your life-long neighbours became your murderers almost literally overnight, with a speed and a spent-up warped logic that was hard to see through the customary settling of old scores. Over your chickens in the next-door vegetable garden. Over an unrequited love ... [ shamefully familiar. When I got my driving licence, all my close friends joked : now don't go running X over, it won't make Y love you after all ! ]

Say the predicatibilty of the first 150 pages or so had left me lukewarm, then there is always the chocolate cake served as ac second course: an original Bolshevik, Party member since 1922 and a ripe 87 at the time of interview. "We were not slaves ! We were building a new country with enthousiasm, on 3 hours of sleep !" Once the chaos of the Civil War, the Ukranian famine & the industrialisation of the first Five Year Plan was built upon more corpses than St. Petersburg.... yes, maybe life had gotten better for the provincial commoner than under the Tsar ?
The citadel of Brest-Litovsk held out from 22 to 29 june 1941. One of her Tartar defenders travelled anually from East Siberia to revisit the site, see his fellow veterans, bask in the knowing admiration of the museum staff. Until 1992, when he felt he had become a useless relic in the eyes of the average Russian and threw himself under the train. In his best suit. 7000 Roebels left on the platform to pay for his funeral. I don't give a damn where you're from, what your country was & what it is, but you never stop honouring your war veterans. And give them a decent pension, for God's sake !

Svetlana barely speaks for herself, she lets the memories flood without showing the questions. She has something in common with the Great Russians. You can learn the plot from a threatrical version or a movie, but you need to sit down & take your time talking to the pages to really mine the diamonds beneath the surface. These 480 pages, trimmed down to 24, already enter my mind like butterflies, fleeting around amidst bits of war stories. Ready to open my eyes in Moscow in september 2018, where a dissident book shouldn't be in my luggage. Physically.

There's more on the shelf. Time to pour a vodka. It is Polish Zubrovka. Doesn't matter. Time to cut a sausage. Spanish Chorizo. Doesn't matter; Pickled herring. Dutch, doesn't matter.
Tell me about why you loved Tsjernobyl and War’s Unwomanly Face.

*[ I apologise for the simplification: I know Bosian SS & Croatian militia slaughtered Serbs in WWII and these patterns resurfaced in the 90's too]

[Dimitri]

98. by Paul G. Halpern (no photo)
Finish date: 30 November 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B
Review: Paul Halpern wrote the bible on the naval war in the Mediterranean back in '87. Judged by the number of peers who write on the Great War at sea, it has enjoyed a comfortable reputation since as a standard work. The man treads familiar waters, floating on an impressively multilingual array of sources to give us a look at the closest thing to a Mediterranean Jutland.

He certainly plunges depths akin to Gordon's study of British tactics at Jutland*, starting with a mini-biography of the KüK marine. Custom commissioned maps convey the peculiar environment of the narrow sea, where coastal artillery and small surface ships could easily outmatch Dreadnoughts like ants to a termite. Termites who had eyes in the air that prefigure Taranta in 1940. This made possible the "Serbian Dunkirk" on the beaches of Albania, the mid-winter evacuation to Corfu Conversely, tactical support from battleship's main armament could decide the outcome of a terrestial fight, as it did at Montenegro. Submarines felt more at home in the Adriatic, both domestic Habsburgs and German imports, disassembled and transported overland. In turn, even wooden motorboats armed with torpedoes launched from the east coast of Italy could face them. Even nets - linked to mines and alerts for depth charge-toting surface vessels - were not without success.

The powerful Allied fleet at Brindisi put the cork on the narrows at Oranto. If not, towed subs could've threatened the naval expedition to Gallipoli, for example. Inevitably, there was a showdown between the capital ships.

This is told in exhausting detail. Cursive reading is imminent. Hence, a mild four stars for the quality of the writing but two for the content. The best thing to take away from it is how the war at sea was fought by 'second-rate' forces (on the Allied side) and the odd threat of the Basburg navy as a fleet-in-being.

*I apologize for the inconvenience of not being allowed to cite other books.

[Dimitri]

DECEMBER

99. by Sarah Andersen
Finish Date: 6 december 2017
Genre: cartoon
Rating: A
Review: Bibliophile, introvert and unfashionable. I can relate strongly with Sarah's cartoon alter ego.
Pity these girls are such hard to spot singles, they sound like great partner potential.

[Dimitri]

100 by Peter Barton(no photo)
Finish Date: 7 December 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: A-
Review: I love Peter Barton. He has much more to offer than just panoramic photos or the pwettiest battle maps you've ever seen. His books always make for the perfect first read on any given Western Front battle, with eyewitness accounts that neither interrupt nor illustrate his own text, but complete it.
Every word counts. Take your time, oh, and a magnifying glass for some of the pictures.

[Dimitri]

101. by Margaret Atwood
Genre: dystopian SF
Rating: A-
Review: There is no existence more horrible than life under the Sharia... Unless Trump traces the path to its WASP equivalent. Kebab & hummus beats steak with ketchup any time.

provisional review, but OMG do people dig it :-)

[Dimitri]

102. by Hubert Mingarelli(no photo)
Finish Date: 9 december 2017
Genre: novella
Rating: D
Review: Some very nice middle-aged German soldiers take a break from mass executions in Poland and end up at a cabin in the woods. They capture an impossibly passive Jew. An almost toothless yet very proud Pole joins them for a meal. Most of the furniture is sacrificed onto the fire. That's all.
Ordinary Men meets der Ewige Jude . Or something. Novellas were never my favourite format - too long for a story, too short for a novel proper - and this one fails to make any point within its length.

[Dimitri]

103. by Patrick Delaforce(no photo)
Finish Date: 17 december 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B
Review: A rather conflicting read during this year's Bulge weekend.

On one hand, it has the academical depth of a herring pond. The bibliography is a who-'s-who of overly familiar Ardennes books in English, with virtually everything in the winter sky pulled from Dennis Parker, albeit with acknowledgements. There's a few minor errors* and the chapter length is minute.

On the other hand ... it's simply fun. Delaforce utters a suggestive "Drama!" when Patton is told to release a division and when Monty's temporary command is debated. Those tiny chapters offer a thematic treasure above and beyond many Ardennes titles. The air war of course, with air supremacy accredited as the decisive factor to victory.

My favorite concerns the misconceptions of the U.S. intelligence , spoiled by four years of ULTRA's crystal ball glancing but unaccustomed to Germans that weren't forced into defense. The best they could figure was a build-up to contest a Ruhr crossing or, more modestly, a tactical disturbance by a few divisions towards Hodges' 1st Army. Even when breaking the railway code in late 1944 revealed 400 transports (half the real total) to the Ardennes of troops from as far as Norway, the total estimated strength in the West stood at 20 divisions - while Dietrich and Manteuffel were reconstructing 32 out of 76 remnants.

This thematic approach incorporates a geographical & chronological backbone for further reading. You always know WHERE you are and WHEN, following one unit or the other. The fabled "Screaming Eagles" share their glory in full with the 10th Armoured and whichever unit knew how to breathe fire onto the infantry-heavy German attack force 'mopping up' Bastogne while the Panzer spearpoints race ahead- until the weather clears and the 9th Tactical Air Force blunts them.
The victims of the opening assault each get their own header: the cavalry of the 14th Recon, the "Checkerboard" 99th, "Ivy" 4th and the rookie "Golden Lions" 106th infantry...On the other side of the zone, Horrock's XXX Corps shows up as less of an aftertought than in tales of Market Garden, holding the Meuse bridges in case of a penetration as early as the 21st - which would've been late according to Hitler's 4-day shedule.

Neither is it difficult to follow the separate adventures of the German 6th & 5th Armies' Tiger-studded SS Panzer Corps or the fanatically screaming Volksgrenadiers - their NCO's recollections provide a low-level reminder that cold, hunger and seeing your friend shot straight through the head were not an American prerogative. Especially not in the 7th Army, which mostly put boots on the ground in the rugged Luxemburg terrain. Peiper & Skorenzy shrink in this story, the former without a verdict on Malmédy and the latter with little to show for in terms of strategic impact.

Chester Wilmot, Charles MacDonald, Hugh Cole & others all have their say in an appendix as to why the offensive failed and the defence held. On one thing they can agree. From the first, frozen men in foxholes that survived the initial peppering by gun to see other men armed with handguns they could match, said F***you! and fought rather than flee. Those that ran... lived to fight another day, after they passed on weapons & ammo to the 10% 101st Airborne that went in unarmed - Vincent Speranza with a knife instead of an MG and his Lieutenant "Stop Bitching !" with no bullets in his .45...

*Peiper destroyed his own last vehicles; not U.S. Artillery. Skorenzy did not disguise German tanks as Shermans but as M-10s; some aircraft debuts are misdated...

[Dimitri]

104. by Alex Kershaw
Finish Date: 19 December 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: A-
Review: This is the book that Band of Brothers should've been. This is one of the best reconstructions of the sheer terror of the opening offensive in the Ardennes ever written. It is also required reading for all the fans of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

While most of the individual characterising of our ASTP grunts occurs in the first chapters, during the stateside training, it takes hold. We are able to form a mental picture of the German Jew that zealously exchanged his Wehrmacht uniform for the U.S. , the Greek whose tongue-twisting name necessitates a moniker or the Mexican with the ambition to become a doctor. The photo section shows our mental image of them to be on the mark amidst that parade of wiry country boys molded by youthful hardship during the Depression.

This is not, strictly speaking, that Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon's poetry of war. The entire 394th regiment comes into view once the 6th Panzerarmee unleashes one of the war's most saturating artillery bombardments on the thinly held ground of the 99th "Checkerboard" Division.

The intimacy of battle is felt in all its terror as the focus shrinks to the size of a football field: M-1's score successive headshots, grenade blasts illuminate the scarce yards between lines, men whose seasickness we felt as their Atlantic transport was surrounded by waves 20 ft high a chapter ago are wounded. As the copious footnotes based on Kershaw's interviews with the survivors mark, not all will survive even the trip to the forward hospital.

The book takes an odd turn as we follow survivors of the 394th into captivity. The disease-ridden passivity of the Stalags, the morbid irony of being straffed in a French 40-and-8 car by American Jabos and the apocalyptic aftermath of destruction they witness in Koblenz before the company rails into Dresden in time for the inferno that inspired Vonnegut to write his surreal anti-war classic. Some historiographic discours is included in the appendices. Next, Patton's attempt to rescue his son-in-law a hundred km behind enemy lines as soon as the 4th Armoured crosses the Rhine is painted as the egocentric farce that it was.

Peace and rememberance mirror the (mis)fortunes of war: one profited from the GI Bill to launch a new career or fullfill that dream of becoming an MD in El Paso, another become a soft-spoken bus driver with only a shredded coat and a medal tucked away at home as a souvenir, yet another slowly drowned in the loneliness of alcohol, his demons swimming around him.

Those embracing their wat experience were at hand to recount to John D. Eisenhower about their time in the bitter woods. One thing they agreed on: war is a young man's game for a reason. Only at 20 are you "stupid" enough to stand and fight against such odds - the enormity of which only became clear after the war. They also ran into a few of their favorite erstwhile adversaries: that Volksgrenadier who didn't shoot them when he could, or a camp guard that left some good things unpillaged in their Red Cross parcel.

[Dimitri]

105. by Andrew Rawson(no photo)
Finish Date: 22 December 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: C+
Review: A plain battle history in dire need of a pinch of salt.

At its worst you don't see the wood through the trees at brigade level and are forced to puzzle things out for yourself. In short, the whole offensive went almost to plan.

The 4th Corps cleared the first two lines of the Hindenburg defences, but the always unfortunate 51st Highland Division (who'd seen the worst of the Somme and would miss the boat at Dunkirk) got stuck before Flesquières. 3rd Corps captured all of its first and second objectives for a joint total of a 7 by 4 km rupture, but the topographical obstacles of Bourlon Ridge (4th Corps) and the St. Quentin Canal (3rd Corps) remained in German hands. A spirited counterattack on 30 November diminished these gains towards Cambrai to just another faillure in terms of ground.

You can pack a lot more into the same space for superior quality. Even the conclusion only wraps up things by halves. In retrospect, Cambrai is counted as a success. It is easy to see why; an almost modern combined arms operation hot on the heels of the icy Passchendaele mud is attractive.

One point concerning the preparations is made crystal. For the first time, tanks took over multiple roles of the heavy guns. They had not only to crush wire and traverse/fill trenches but also neutralize strongpoints together with the infantry's Mills bombs and Lewis guns. This left 2/3 of the massed artillery park to focus solely on the newest sophistication of the creeping barrage. Cambrai 1917 will forever be a tactical milestone, but it was small comfort at the time.

At its best the book offersthe day-by-unit narrative that even at divisional level, the thousand details that stand between the soldier and victory come to the fore. Allow me two examples that stand out.

How does a Tommy on foot communicate with an RAF plane ? the plane toots a foghorn; he answers by launching a flare. Accurate progress report for HQ and artillery guaranteed !

One alinea about the preparations reveals just how much work went into firing a gun, apart from the laborous stockpiling of ammo [not an exact citation] :

"The gun pits had to be surveyed & camouflage set up before digging them, so enemy observers could not identify a new battery. The "battery boards" were prepared: a map with a large, graduated arc centred on your own battery to quickly calculate the correct angle and range to any target, if necessary blind. The individual guns were - new in late 1917- calibrated on a testing range behind the lines for their unique deviation of shot, based upon recoil or barrel wear, as well as for their exact muzzle velocity. Signal communication was set up for the Forward Artillery Observers, which were still needed for triangulation-based corrections such as flash spotting and sound ranging. All this preceeded the physical hauling of the pieces into the pits under the cover of night."

A daily recap from the brain of Douglas Haig comes off as positively mercurial: either furiously disappointed by lack of progress or thrown into hubris by the fata morgana of imminent breakthrough.

[Dimitri]

106. by Tim Cook
Finish Date: 23 December 2017
Genre: military history
Rating: B-
Review: Sword-carrying girls, resplendent mounties, the assembled services of the Canadian armed forces in dress uniform under a canopy of banners... on their way home they made a memorable appearance at the Menin Gate on April 14, 2017. I caught them, having re-visited Vimy and its new museum in their wake, three days prior.

Time to read up. A centennial publication seemed ideal. It proved to be less than that.

The operative title word here is AND. The battle itself is wrapped up in 60 or so pages, which means there is little that
hasn't been said before.

The legend concerns itself in detail with the ever belated construction of the Memorial on top of a conspicuously flat portion of ridge; and with the rich symbolism carved into its painstakingly sought after marble - last used for a palace of Roman emperor Diocletianus.

The commemoration of Vimy tends to follow the same curve as that of the Great War in general. The state-orchestrated hero worship in the 1920's gave way to bitterness and pacifism in the 1930's. The site of Vimy saw a shocking yet surprisingly polite visit by Hitler himself. The 50th anniversary smelled of Donkeyism and there was emotional disagreement over the old red flag of the Dominion vs. the new Maple Leaf. The 90's gave WWI a piggyback ride on the popularity of the 50 anniversary of WWII in Europe, to make the 90th anniversary of 1917 an occassion only bested by this year's centennial, including the uneven collection of articles in "Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment".

It's all very interesting, but it does not emotionally resonate unless you are Canadian

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

Yet another reader who has passed 100 books read! I don't know how you folks do it, but it's great.

[Dimitri]

Vicky, how long before these "50 books read in 2017" are archived? Still got a few december latecomers to rate, review & copypost here.

[Pamela]

Dimitri wrote: "97.bySvetlana Alexievich
Finish Date: 18 November 2017
Genre: political journalism
Rating:A
..."

Typically good review, Dmitri. Certainly sounds like it portrays the complicated nature of Russia, Soviet or otherwise.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

Dimitri wrote: "Vicky, how long before these "50 books read in 2017" are archived? Still got a few december latecomers to rate, review & copypost here."

I have no idea. I'm pretty sure Bentley is the one to do that, and I don't know when he/she will be back. Just keep adding your books.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Dimitri - I will be adding your 2018 thread next. And you can still add your latecomers here and add new ones to the 2018 thread. The book threads for the previous year are not closed - they are simply moved to the Archive section but you still have time so no worries.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Here is the link to the 2018 thread for you:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...