Book Disscussion

I know this group has been inactive, but it was suggested I reactivate it instead of starting my own group. Would anyone be interested in participating in a book discussion? I would love to hear suggestions for books.

I got about 1/3 of the way through Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie, about the sea war, before Stuff Intervened. Was quite good to that point, but of course the trenches are the main thing about that war.

I just finished the World War I section of Michael Korda's Hero : the life and legend of Lawrence of Arabia, which I would highly recommend, but it is only half the book.

I just began July 1914 by Sean McMeekin, and I have it to be very good. I knew (broadly) the events that led to war, but not the play-by-play of the first month. I would be open to a book discussion on this work, would anyone else want to join me?

This sounds interesting, but I won't be reading anything new in December. I've got a large stack that has to go back to the library ...

This Guardian review of current history books mentions Max Hastings' Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 and Saul David's 100 Days to Victory: How the Great War Was Fought and Won. An earlier article mentions some more. I hope people don't mind if I also link to a list at Goodreads.

Hi,
I am interested in joining a group on WWI because I am trying to organize a year long reading group at my local library.
I am finishing July 1914, and while I find the incredible, day by day, hour by hour recounting somewhat tedious, it does really point out how it was really a close run thing.
Are you reading anything else about WWI? I am also reading the War that Ended the Peace, and that is quite good.

I'm glad you revived this group with the coming of the 100 year anniversary. I'm about a quarter of the way through "Guns of August. I can see why it was a best seller. I'm also sitting through the BBC Great War documentary from 1964. The whole series is on YouTube. I've also been buying up a lot of Kindle books about the war. I hope we can keep this going for awhile.

Thanks for letting us know that the 1964 BBC documentary is on YouTube, Railsplitter. I've wanted to see this for quite a while.

Glad I could help, MaggieO. No one does history like the British, in my opinion. The Great War video is wonderful, since they are talking with the veterans that were still living back then. I never really saw newsreels of the early open country fighting. It looks like a different war.

I am currently reading The Germans on the Somme. It is interesting and I like the photographs, but don't care for the typeface used in the book. I have a number of WWI books on my TBR pile.

to rgurskey:
The Pen and Sword Books, or at least "The German Army at Passchendaele" by Jack Sheldon, do have a peculiar typeface. It is called "Sabon" and perhaps the book designer thought it mimicked the Gothic typeface used by German books on WWI up to the Nazi times. I'm not impressed with it, either.
The Castles of Steel is an interesting read, and the other book by Massie, Dreadnought is also informative about the German cabinet, as odd a collection as the Asquith Cabinet at the time IMO.
There's also "Allenby: Soldier and Statesman" by Archibald Wavell, a unique book, as British Middle East Supreme commanders haven't written any other books about each other. An interesting book about WWI, written by an informed participant is "The World Crisis" by Winston Churchill.