Post by rickthelibrarian on Dec 10, 2008 14:40:39 GMT -5
List updated.
Still some good books to pick up for winter reading. Some more good books on WWII are included, as well. And, the book no owner of a M1903, M1 or M1911 .45 should be without: “The Regulars” by Edward Coffman.
PLEASE NOTE:
A) Payment can be made by check or money order. I may have to hold checks until they clear unless you are known to me or other arrangements are made. Money orders will get instant next business day mailing.
B) All prices do not include shipping. Shipping is done by Media Mail, which I have found economical and secure.
C) Books vary in condition and I do my best to describe them properly. Books are hardback unless otherwise mentioned. Any questions will be gladly answered.
D) When you contact me about these books, please inquire by name, not number. You can contact me through this forum or at –rrsbls@msn.com-- (remove dashes)
Thanks for looking!
RtL
I. “Rick’s Picks”
1) “The Grasshopper Trap” by Patrick McManus. SPF
2) “Death March: The Survivors of Bataan” by Doanld Knox. SPF
3) “Ghost Soldiers” by Hampton Sides - SPF
4) “The Regulars” by Edward Coffman - Before this book came out, there was not a good social history of the U.S. Army in the pre-WWII era. Coffman effectively fills the bill, He discusses the U.S. Army from 1898 to 1941. Both officers and enlisted men, as well as their families are discussed. All branches and ranks, too. Much of the book is in their own words. Duty in far-off Pacific posts, the west and comfortable eastern posts is well described. If you have a Krag, 1903, 1917 or other weapon from this era and are interested in what kinds of soldiers carried these weapons and what their lives were like, you MUST have this book! Library copy but still Near new condition with nice mylar cover, $13.95
5) “Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War” by William Smallwood. SPF
6) “Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut. By P.J. O’Rourke. Depressed about the election? Read commentary from (in the style of Ann Coulter) a take-no-prisoners conservative, P.J. O’Rourke, who writes for the American Spectator. He writes with hilarity about politics and culture. One of my favorite conservative writers! New, trade ppk, $4.95 REDUCED to $3.50
II. World War II
1) “Band of Brothers” by Stephen Ambrose. SPF
2) “Return From the River Kwai” by Clay Blair. SPF
3) “A Special Valor: The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War” by Richard Wheeler. SPF
4) Northwest Epic: Building the Alaska Highway” by Heath Twitchell. Probably one of the most trying non-combat epics of World War II was the building of the Alaska Highway. The Japanese had attacked the Aleutians and an emergency highway was needed over 1500 miles of forest, tundra and mosquitoes. In addition to reinforcing Alaska during WWII, the Alcan highway opened up Alaska to post-war development and made Alaska a state. VG-Ex. $9.50
5) “S-Day” by James Thayer. A “what if” thriller of World War II. The year is 1942: The Soviet Union has been overrun and Nazi Germany is preparing a huge invasion of England. Rushed over are green members of the U.S. Army year-old help the British. Their leader is an enigmatic general named Wilson Clay. Written as “history” with maps. Ex. $9.00
6) “Bounce the Rhine” by Charles Whiting. SPF
7) “The Nightmare Years” by William Shirer. Shirer is best-known for writing the monumental “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Shirer was a journalist in Europe and specifically Germany for the first few years of the Nazi regime. As European correspondent for a number of American newspapers during the 1930s, William L. Shirer witnessed at first hand many of the pivotal events in the buildup to World War II. At the Nuremberg rallies, when Hitler roared through the streets celebrating his newly-won domination of Germany, Shirer was there. In Munich, as Chamberlain abandoned the Czechs, Shirer was there. In Vienna during the night of the Anschluss, in Berlin, when Hitler loosed his Blitzkrieg on Poland and began the war, Shirer was there. Through articles, broadcasts and translations of Hitler's speeches, Shirer tirelessly tried to warn the world of the terrible evil that was growing in Germany. The Nightmare Years, a No. I bestseller when first published in America in 1984. G-VG trade ppk. $5.00
8) “The Last Battle” by Cornelius Ryan. Although not as well known as his famous best sellers, “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge Too Far” (both made into famous movies), this books takes the reader through the last 100 days of the Third Reich, and especially at “street level” with Germans, British, Americans, Russians and others involved in the fall. The Last Battle is Cornelius Ryan's compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military and political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate imperatives of survival, where, as the author describes it, "to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win." VG-Ex. $8.95
II. American History:
1) “Nothing Like It In the World” by Stephen Ambrose. Although Ambrose is better known as a military and political historian, he also wrote some excellent U.S. History. The U.S. government pitted two companies — the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads — against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomo-tives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. This was the last great building project to be done mostly by hand: excavating dirt, cutting through ridges, filling gorges, blasting tunnels through mountains. At its peak, the workforce — primarily Chinese on the Central Pacific, Irish on the Union Pacific — approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as fifteen thousand workers on each line. Ex. trade ppk. $5.95
2) “Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966” by Rick Atkinson. This is the story of the twenty-five-year adventure of the generation of officers who fought in Vietnam. With novelistic detail, Atkinson tells the story of West Point's Class of 1966 primarily through the experiences of three classmates and the women they loved--from the boisterous cadet years and youthful romances to the fires of Vietnam, where dozens of their classmates died and hundreds more grew disillusioned, to the hard peace and family adjustments that followed. Near new, $7.95
III. Civil War & Indian Wars
1) The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts” by Burke Davis - . SPF
IV. General Military and misc. History.
2) “A Short History of Airpower” by James Stokesbury. . Although the main emphasis is the two world wars, the author covers the history of the use of airplanes in combat from 1911 to the Falklands in 1982. Near new, $7.95. REDUCED to $6.00
3) “Seafaring America” by Alexander Laing. A beautiful American Heritage book on the history of ships and seafaring in America. Starting with Indian canoes, early settlers, sailing ships, all the way to steamships and windjammers. The usual American Heritage style with numerous pictures, maps and “sidebars. VG-E oversized (a little musty, but not bad) $10.00 REDUCED to $7.50
VII) Miscellaneous History/Fiction
2) “Elizabeth: The Shrewdness of Virtue” by Jasper Ridley - Elizabeth I, with her enigmatic personality and a large measure of charisma, has attracted myriad biographers. Ridley's work is, quite simply, one of the best. Indeed, it ranks alongside Sir John Neale's life. Carefully researched, balanced, and entertaining (as befits the subject), it belongs on the shelves of most libraries. No Tudor buff will want to miss it. VG-E trade ppk. $4.00 REDUCED to $2.95
3) “Never Sniff a Gift Fish” by Patrick McManus. SPF
4) “A Bell for Adano” by John Hersey. An Italian-American major in World War II wins the love and admiration of the local townspeople when he searches for a replacement for the 700 year-old town bell that had been melted down for bullets by the fascists. G, no d/j $2.00
5) “The Two Towers” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Second volume of “The Lord of the Rings”Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin -- alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go. Trade ppk. $2.00 REDUCED to $1.50
6) “Titanic: End of a Dream” by Wyn Wade. On that fatal April night in 1912, the world's largest moving object disappeared beneath the waters of the North Atlantic in less than three hours. Why was the ship sailing through waters well known to be a "mass of floating ice"? Why were there too few lifeboats, so that 1,522 people were left to perish at sea? Why were a third of the survivors members of the crew? Based on the sensational evidence of the U.S. Senate hearings, eyewitness accounts of survivors, and the results of the 1985 Woods Hole expedition that located and photographed the ship, this electrifying account vividly recreates the doomed vessel's last desperate hours afloat and fully addresses the questions that have continued to haunt the tragedy of the Titanic. Ex. trade ppk. $3.95 REDUCED to $2.50
Still some good books to pick up for winter reading. Some more good books on WWII are included, as well. And, the book no owner of a M1903, M1 or M1911 .45 should be without: “The Regulars” by Edward Coffman.
PLEASE NOTE:
A) Payment can be made by check or money order. I may have to hold checks until they clear unless you are known to me or other arrangements are made. Money orders will get instant next business day mailing.
B) All prices do not include shipping. Shipping is done by Media Mail, which I have found economical and secure.
C) Books vary in condition and I do my best to describe them properly. Books are hardback unless otherwise mentioned. Any questions will be gladly answered.
D) When you contact me about these books, please inquire by name, not number. You can contact me through this forum or at –rrsbls@msn.com-- (remove dashes)
Thanks for looking!
RtL
I. “Rick’s Picks”
1) “The Grasshopper Trap” by Patrick McManus. SPF
2) “Death March: The Survivors of Bataan” by Doanld Knox. SPF
3) “Ghost Soldiers” by Hampton Sides - SPF
4) “The Regulars” by Edward Coffman - Before this book came out, there was not a good social history of the U.S. Army in the pre-WWII era. Coffman effectively fills the bill, He discusses the U.S. Army from 1898 to 1941. Both officers and enlisted men, as well as their families are discussed. All branches and ranks, too. Much of the book is in their own words. Duty in far-off Pacific posts, the west and comfortable eastern posts is well described. If you have a Krag, 1903, 1917 or other weapon from this era and are interested in what kinds of soldiers carried these weapons and what their lives were like, you MUST have this book! Library copy but still Near new condition with nice mylar cover, $13.95
5) “Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War” by William Smallwood. SPF
6) “Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut. By P.J. O’Rourke. Depressed about the election? Read commentary from (in the style of Ann Coulter) a take-no-prisoners conservative, P.J. O’Rourke, who writes for the American Spectator. He writes with hilarity about politics and culture. One of my favorite conservative writers! New, trade ppk, $4.95 REDUCED to $3.50
II. World War II
1) “Band of Brothers” by Stephen Ambrose. SPF
2) “Return From the River Kwai” by Clay Blair. SPF
3) “A Special Valor: The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War” by Richard Wheeler. SPF
4) Northwest Epic: Building the Alaska Highway” by Heath Twitchell. Probably one of the most trying non-combat epics of World War II was the building of the Alaska Highway. The Japanese had attacked the Aleutians and an emergency highway was needed over 1500 miles of forest, tundra and mosquitoes. In addition to reinforcing Alaska during WWII, the Alcan highway opened up Alaska to post-war development and made Alaska a state. VG-Ex. $9.50
5) “S-Day” by James Thayer. A “what if” thriller of World War II. The year is 1942: The Soviet Union has been overrun and Nazi Germany is preparing a huge invasion of England. Rushed over are green members of the U.S. Army year-old help the British. Their leader is an enigmatic general named Wilson Clay. Written as “history” with maps. Ex. $9.00
6) “Bounce the Rhine” by Charles Whiting. SPF
7) “The Nightmare Years” by William Shirer. Shirer is best-known for writing the monumental “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Shirer was a journalist in Europe and specifically Germany for the first few years of the Nazi regime. As European correspondent for a number of American newspapers during the 1930s, William L. Shirer witnessed at first hand many of the pivotal events in the buildup to World War II. At the Nuremberg rallies, when Hitler roared through the streets celebrating his newly-won domination of Germany, Shirer was there. In Munich, as Chamberlain abandoned the Czechs, Shirer was there. In Vienna during the night of the Anschluss, in Berlin, when Hitler loosed his Blitzkrieg on Poland and began the war, Shirer was there. Through articles, broadcasts and translations of Hitler's speeches, Shirer tirelessly tried to warn the world of the terrible evil that was growing in Germany. The Nightmare Years, a No. I bestseller when first published in America in 1984. G-VG trade ppk. $5.00
8) “The Last Battle” by Cornelius Ryan. Although not as well known as his famous best sellers, “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge Too Far” (both made into famous movies), this books takes the reader through the last 100 days of the Third Reich, and especially at “street level” with Germans, British, Americans, Russians and others involved in the fall. The Last Battle is Cornelius Ryan's compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military and political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate imperatives of survival, where, as the author describes it, "to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win." VG-Ex. $8.95
II. American History:
1) “Nothing Like It In the World” by Stephen Ambrose. Although Ambrose is better known as a military and political historian, he also wrote some excellent U.S. History. The U.S. government pitted two companies — the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads — against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomo-tives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. This was the last great building project to be done mostly by hand: excavating dirt, cutting through ridges, filling gorges, blasting tunnels through mountains. At its peak, the workforce — primarily Chinese on the Central Pacific, Irish on the Union Pacific — approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as fifteen thousand workers on each line. Ex. trade ppk. $5.95
2) “Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966” by Rick Atkinson. This is the story of the twenty-five-year adventure of the generation of officers who fought in Vietnam. With novelistic detail, Atkinson tells the story of West Point's Class of 1966 primarily through the experiences of three classmates and the women they loved--from the boisterous cadet years and youthful romances to the fires of Vietnam, where dozens of their classmates died and hundreds more grew disillusioned, to the hard peace and family adjustments that followed. Near new, $7.95
III. Civil War & Indian Wars
1) The Civil War: Strange and Fascinating Facts” by Burke Davis - . SPF
IV. General Military and misc. History.
2) “A Short History of Airpower” by James Stokesbury. . Although the main emphasis is the two world wars, the author covers the history of the use of airplanes in combat from 1911 to the Falklands in 1982. Near new, $7.95. REDUCED to $6.00
3) “Seafaring America” by Alexander Laing. A beautiful American Heritage book on the history of ships and seafaring in America. Starting with Indian canoes, early settlers, sailing ships, all the way to steamships and windjammers. The usual American Heritage style with numerous pictures, maps and “sidebars. VG-E oversized (a little musty, but not bad) $10.00 REDUCED to $7.50
VII) Miscellaneous History/Fiction
2) “Elizabeth: The Shrewdness of Virtue” by Jasper Ridley - Elizabeth I, with her enigmatic personality and a large measure of charisma, has attracted myriad biographers. Ridley's work is, quite simply, one of the best. Indeed, it ranks alongside Sir John Neale's life. Carefully researched, balanced, and entertaining (as befits the subject), it belongs on the shelves of most libraries. No Tudor buff will want to miss it. VG-E trade ppk. $4.00 REDUCED to $2.95
3) “Never Sniff a Gift Fish” by Patrick McManus. SPF
4) “A Bell for Adano” by John Hersey. An Italian-American major in World War II wins the love and admiration of the local townspeople when he searches for a replacement for the 700 year-old town bell that had been melted down for bullets by the fascists. G, no d/j $2.00
5) “The Two Towers” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Second volume of “The Lord of the Rings”Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin -- alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go. Trade ppk. $2.00 REDUCED to $1.50
6) “Titanic: End of a Dream” by Wyn Wade. On that fatal April night in 1912, the world's largest moving object disappeared beneath the waters of the North Atlantic in less than three hours. Why was the ship sailing through waters well known to be a "mass of floating ice"? Why were there too few lifeboats, so that 1,522 people were left to perish at sea? Why were a third of the survivors members of the crew? Based on the sensational evidence of the U.S. Senate hearings, eyewitness accounts of survivors, and the results of the 1985 Woods Hole expedition that located and photographed the ship, this electrifying account vividly recreates the doomed vessel's last desperate hours afloat and fully addresses the questions that have continued to haunt the tragedy of the Titanic. Ex. trade ppk. $3.95 REDUCED to $2.50