Blades upon Books - Traditionals

[Arathol]

 

[5K Qs]

A year ago, we rented a cabin for a couple of weeks on Lake Huron in Cedarville, MI. I read a book then titled The General's Daughter whose protagonist was named Paul Brenner, an Army criminal investigator. I liked the book very much. My wife found a sequel to that book that I completed recently. In it, Brenner goes to Vietnam to find a former North Vietnamese soldier who wrote a letter to his brother 30 years earlier, claiming to have witnessed a US Army captain murdering an Army lieutenant during the Tet offensive. Brenner had been a young soldier with the Air Cavalry in Vietnam at the time. During his investigation, Brenner begins to suspect there's more to his mission than he's been told. As part of his "cover", he's pretending to be a former soldier returning to Vietnam just to see what the places where he served in his youth look like 30 years later. So about half of the 800-page book is the "current mystery" and half is descriptions of what various areas of Vietnam were like during the war compared to when he returned. (Apparently, the "service record" of the fictional Brenner matches that of the author of the book, so the war descriptions and memories are essentially autobiographical.) Good story with lots of interesting information about Vietnam in 1968 and 1998.

- GT

 

[doulos]

.

 

[mbkr]

A year ago, we rented a cabin for a couple of weeks on Lake Huron in Cedarville, MI. I read a book then titled The General's Daughter whose protagonist was named Paul Brenner, an Army criminal investigator. I liked the book very much. My wife found a sequel to that book that I completed recently. In it, Brenner goes to Vietnam to find a former North Vietnamese soldier who wrote a letter to his brother 30 years earlier, claiming to have witnessed a US Army captain murdering an Army lieutenant during the Tet offensive. Brenner had been a young soldier with the Air Cavalry in Vietnam at the time. During his investigation, Brenner begins to suspect there's more to his mission than he's been told. As part of his "cover", he's pretending to be a former soldier returning to Vietnam just to see what the places where he served in his youth look like 30 years later. So about half of the 800-page book is the "current mystery" and half is descriptions of what various areas of Vietnam were like during the war compared to when he returned. (Apparently, the "service record" of the fictional Brenner matches that of the author of the book, so the war descriptions and memories are essentially autobiographical.) Good story with lots of interesting information about Vietnam in 1968 and 1998.

- GT

Over the years I've read several of DeMille's books and enjoyed them all

 

[5K Qs]

Over the years I've read several of DeMille's books and enjoyed them all

I agree, Mike, he's a good author. I had read Up Country many years ago, but remembered very little of it. I had a strong memory that I thought the novel was quite depressing when I first read it, but that didn't seem to be the case in this second reading. I've read and enjoyed several of DeMille's novels featuring John Corey, a NYC homicide cop who eventually does a lot of anti-terrorist stuff. Maybe I'll reread one of those; it seems I'm at a stage of life where my memory deficits allows me to pick up a book I've read before and essentially have a new book experience.

Here's another novel I recently read. It's a new-this-year novel by Scott Turow, an author whose "courtroom dramas" I've enjoyed in the past. The new novel, Presumed Guilty, is Turow's third book featuring Rusty Sabich, who was the protagonist of the first Turow novel I read, titled Presumed Innocent (which was also a good movie starring Harrison Ford). In this newest installment, Rusty is a retired judge who has moved out of the city to live in a small lakeside town and lives with his fiance and her young adult son. The son gets charged with murdering his girlfriend, and Rusty agrees to serve as his defense attorney, a court role he has never played throughout his long career. Good story with lots of surprises!

- GT

 

[mrknife]

 

[Ironbut]

 

[JB in LV]

mrknife , the author, Selwyn Raab, is a significant contributor to a youtube video I watched a couple days ago . It is a Mobsters series.

Biography Channel (unable to link it). Carmine Persico: Mafia's Most Ruthless Godfather

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

 

[Invoice]

 

[mrknife]

mrknife , the author, Selwyn Raab, is a significant contributor to a youtube video I watched a couple days ago . It is a Mobsters series.

Biography Channel (unable to link it). Carmine Persico: Mafia's Most Ruthless Godfather

aka the immortal or the snake if your on the gallo brother's side!

 

[5K Qs]

That school cookbook looks like a classic!
After I finished college and was "setting up housekeeping" in a different state, my Mom gave me a similar cookbook (from the 1960s) that her women's group had compiled as a fundraiser for the local Christian grade school. I used it a lot (had a pie crust recipe that was a huge hit whenever I made pies) but somehow I lost it in one of many moves among apartments I made between 1973 and 1984.

I reread this book recently after first reading it many years ago. Actually, I only reread Part 3's baseball-related discussion.

- GT

 

[Wharn]

Finally got around to updating my Sanford Guide

 

[A.L.]

 

[Railsplitter]

Blood Trail is book #8 in the Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box. I have already read the first 7 books and each one gets a little bit better.

It’s kind of like Longmire only Joe Pickett is a Wyoming Game Warden instead of a Wyoming Sheriff. Each book is a new story and I plan to read all 25 books.

The knife is a modified Schatt & Morgan Cattle knife from the Heritage Series that Glennbad turned into a single blade for me.

 

[RLB0414]

Nice ring.
Would you recommend the book?

 

[Ironbut]

 

[mrknife]

Nice ring.
Would you recommend the book?

yes, its an interesting read if you are a fan of mob history

 

[5K Qs]

Blood Trail is book #8 in the Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box. I have already read the first 7 books and each one gets a little bit better.

It’s kind of like Longmire only Joe Pickett is a Wyoming Game Warden instead of a Wyoming Sheriff. Each book is a new story and I plan to read all 25 books.

The knife is a modified Schatt & Morgan Cattle knife from the Heritage Series that Glennbad turned into a single blade for me.
View attachment 2969047
View attachment 2969048

I've read the first 2 or 3 Joe Pickett novels and thought they were OK, but so far I haven't developed an irresistible urge to read the rest - so many books, so little time.

Your knife is kind of like a "grass is always greener ..." story for me. I have this single blade which I think is great:

But I'd have probably traded it in a heartbeat for your corresponding cattle knife before you had it modified!

Here's one of the books I read while I was at Lake Huron for the last 2 weeks of August. I didn't really learn any new knots from it, although there were plenty of knots in the book I don't know. I did learn some variations for a couple of knots I already knew and I now know where I can find some info about the strength of various knots in various types of rope. The book is also the first one I've seen that included illustrations for left-handed versions of some of its knots. I'm hopelessly right-handed, and hadn't even thought about how knots might be tied differently by someone who's "sinister" (as we used to say in high school Latin class).

- GT

 

[RLB0414]

yes, its an interesting read if you are a fan of mob history

Thanks.
I am a fan.