What book are you reading atm?? CHAPTER TWO

Ice Crash by Alexander Mckee. Umberto Nobile's flight in an airship to the North Pole. His second expedition to that region saw the airship crash, leaving most of the crew on an ice floe in the Arctic ocean - and the, often uncordinated, attempts to rescue them.

Courage, endurance, determination and loyalty are matched by egotism, nationalism, pride, selfishness, indifference and malice.

Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century by Helen Carr

Gripping, fast-paced account of one of my favourite periods of English history. Full of intriguing anecdotes and colourful anecdotes. TBH not seeing much new about it though, to me it's an exemplar of old-svhool popular narrative history, and all the better for it…

The Other Schindlers by Agnes Grunwald-Spier

Why some people decided to save Jewish people.

Churchill's German Army: The True Story of the German Refugees Who Defeated Nazi Germany by Helen Fry

A book charting the often untold contribution of the King's most loyal enemy aliens. There are numerous first hand accounts provided by the mainly Jewish German and Austrian refugees that took up the King's shilling in order to free their people and Europe from Nazi tyranny.

Re-reading Among Women by John McGahern, I was very taken with it when I first read it. John McGahern seems to have been a rather peculiar character, as it turned out.

From Dachau to D-Day: The True Story of the Man Who Escaped Nazi Germany to Fight for Britain by Helen Fry

First hand testimony of Sgt. Willy Field, a German Jew, who was incarcerated in Dachau for 5 months before fleeing to Britain, where he signed up to fight against Nazi Germany. It is a fascinating story of this man's journey from his youth in Nazi Germany, to refugee in Britain, to being transported to Australia, to joining the British Army and serving with the RAC.

I'm about a third of the way through The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco.

I like the setting and atmosphere it's creating and the depiction of life in the abbey/monastery but I'm finding there is way to much discussion about the schism in the Church within the book and too much rambling about fairly minor uninteresting interpretations of relgious matters.I get the feeling he could have cut out a lot of that stuff out and it would have had no impact on the quality of the book.

I'll see how it goes going forward.

A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm.

Highly recommended. Great depiction of the underbelly of Paris and also the hospitality industry. Fantastic read.

I read all this series before they made a series of it for television. They were really excellent. I liked the way he wasn’t sentimental about his characters and didn’t mind killing them off.

We have been watching Jack Irish on more 4 Guy Pearce is the star, the series is good, a bit clichéd, but all the better for that. Now I want to get the books. I have never read a book set in Australia.

If you're into crime fiction I would recommend Jane Harper. Two of her books (The Dry and Forces of nature ) were made into films starring Eric Bana, and a recent Netflix series called Survivors.

I keep meaning to read Wake in Fright, which was made into a film in the 1970's.

Nope, I don't think there is much out there that can shock me anymore and I just find it absolutely fascinating. But I do read quite a bit about polar exploration too, fantasy, etc. To be honest, if I won the lotto I'd go back to study military history.

Did you read Red Sky in Morning by Paul Lynch? I enjoyed that, a bit like No Country for Old Men.

On Germany by Giles MacDonogh

Potted history of Germany from the end of World War Two to modern times.

Heading to Germany for a holiday soon so a timely read.