KITastrophe: October - December - Riots/Uprisings/Sieges/War/Invasions

This quarters thread is about all the bad things humans do to other humans for in most cases not much reason at all.

Here's the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_KITastrophe#KITastrophe_2021

Thanks for getting this set up!

I was initially thinking I'd try to get to this in October, but since I always do a November read for Remembrance Day, I thought I'd read this one for that, as well, so in November, I am planning on:

On Desperate Ground / Hampton Sides

I have many books from which to choose. Tentatively, I'm going with Chickamauga: A Novel of the American Civil War, which is described on the book jacket as "the most realistic re-telling" of this battle.

If I do read a book for this challenge, (which seems pretty unlikely), I'll probably read something by G. A. Henty, maybe With Lee in Virginia or For the Temple.

Korean War

On Desperate Ground / Hampton Sides
4 stars

This is about the Korean War. The Marines were ordered to come in to North Korea from the water, then over mountains during the coldest time of the year (in what turned out to be one of the coldest winters). There were a lot of stupid decisions made by two people higher up in the chain of command (sorry, I don’t know the military well enough to remember titles and who outranks whom), though the next in that chain knew they were stupid decisions and he did his best to follow orders, but to find ways to keep damage to a minimum.

I really liked this; it was really interesting. I know very little about the Korean War, and not only did this tell the stories of these Marines and how they (most? some? of them) got out of a bad situation, but I got a bit of insight into how the war started.

Not humans, but an alien Invasion

The Last Star / Rick Yancey
2 stars

This is the last book in a YA sci-fi trilogy where aliens have arrived to take over the planet and to destroy the majority of the humans (on a very broad level).

I should have reread my review for the 2nd book before grabbing the audio from the library. My review for the 2nd one specifically stated that I should NOT do the audio for the last book. Oops! Once again, there was very little to no recap for the previous books (or if there was, I missed it). Most of the characters have two names – their real name and their nickname, so it’s hard to remember who is who sometimes, especially when not fully engaged/interested in what I’m listening to. There were two different narrators, one male and one female, but more than two different viewpoints. Each chapter did say whose viewpoint it was, but because I missed things, I still had trouble knowing between the male or female characters whose POV I was hearing (combined with the multiple names and not really remembering their background because I couldn’t recall who was who…).

Chickamauga: A Novel of the American Civil War (Blair Howard's Civil War/Western Series Book 5) by Blair Howard was a fictional account of said battle. It was very dry, as I find much military history. I thought by reading it in novel form it would be more interesting, but not so much! In summary, the Confederates were successful, but at a great price in lives that they could ill afford. Many have said this victory was the death knell for the Confederates. General Bragg claimed the victory and left the battlefield to retake Chattanooga from U.S. Grant; which he failed to do. Grant cleared Chattanooga for General Sherman to make his way through the south. I read this book because I do not know a lot of specifics about the U.S. Civil War--I know, it's shocking as I'm a history prof....but I teach modern American history from 1876-current day and as such have not really studied this time period. I did have a few college courses 40 years ago, but they were just general survey courses of the Civil War. 352 pages 3 stars

I'm partway through The Terror by David Andress. I had picked it up to re-read it where I put it down many years ago, and couldn't pick up the threads. So I'm pushing through from the first chapter (the failed escape to Varennes) and reading a bit in the evenings, just to get it out of my TBR pile. It definitely does not fit the season, that's for sure!

OK, finished The Terror yesterday. I gave it 3 stars - the information is amazing and terrifying all at once, and the writing style is pretty convoluted. It is one I found I had to read all the way through, instead of putting down and picking up months later. There are so many people connected with this time/event/series of bloodthirsty grabs for power that immersion is the only way to even hope to keep them straight.