{of books}

I haven't been reading a great many books this year, but I'll tell you about a few I've read in the past couple of months that I remember of:

1) Squaddie: A Soldier's Story by Steven MacLaughlin

An interesting read, described by a certain review as being the British Jarhead, but of course with differences. This is the story of a British Army infantryman in the new millenium, as opposed to Jarhead's tale of a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper in the first Gulf War. I'll recommend this book to anyone who would like to take a look at the life of the average modern-day British soldier. The book is the telling of his story starting with a glimpse of his childhood and why he wanted to become a soldier in the first place, and on to his tours of duty in both Iraq and Northern Ireland, and what happened there and afterwards.

2) Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

I haven't seen the miniseries but I've been wanting to for quite some time. Got to read the book first though, and I guess now that it's better I did the reading before the viewing. I think the book basically tells the same story as in the series (duh!) and more, because they can only fit so much on screen. It tells the story of Easy Company, 2d Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 101st Airborne Division (the famous Screaming Eagles), US Army, right from their start while undergoing training in Toccoa, Georgia, to their time in England, then D-Day, then in various battles against the Germans and finally into Germany and the end of the war. I'll recommend this to anyone with the slightest hint of interest in the military and/or WWII history.

3) A Dirty Distant War by E. M. Nathanson

My father bought this for me. Seeing that it was fiction but based around true events, I started reading it albeit reluctantly. However, after the first few pages, I was kinda gripped. The book's location and setting weren't exactly my favourite (the India-Burma-China Theater, WWII), but I appreciated the differences between that and the traditional image of WWII projected by books like Band of Brothers. The book tells the story of an US Army Major sent to China, and all the tangles the war had created in China. Not for the average reader I think, but again, anyone with an interest in WWII fiction could consider this.

4) A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

THE popular science book. I'm convinced that anyone thinking of doing Astrophysics or Physics at undergraduate level will want (and need) to read this book. And everyone else, for that matter. I just have this feeling that everyone should read it. It offers an insight into the workings of the mind of one of the most prominent physicists of the past century. I particularly liked Hawking's playful scientific prejudices, which just go to show that even at the forefront of discovery and at the highest levels of science, humans are still human. The first couple of chapters were easy to digest but as the book progressed, the language got a bit tougher and the ideas a bit high-level. Anyhow, again, I recommend it to everyone: read it a couple of times if necessary, but at the end of it all, you'll come out enlightened. A tour de force.