Book list

Fictional story about German paratroopers in the Second World War from Crete to Monte Cassino and beyond. Interesting and at some times touching story, but reading about real experiences would be more interesting than fiction.

Stories of the war fought against German shipping with torpedo bombers near United Kingdrom and in the Mediterranean. Real stories collected from actual pilots, as far as I understand.

Usually the story of a single attack is told from multiple points of view, so it's hard to follow individual pilots. Seemingly the book concentrates on the exploits of a few squadrons, but it is not explicitly mentioned anywhere.

Hans Metzger tells what it was like to wok in the German embassy in Helsinki between 1939 and 1944. This first book concentrates on the Winter War period and the events that followed until the Continuation War begun in June 1941.

If what Metger tells is true, the Germans were much better informed about events in Finland than I had previously understood. Very interesting.

The story of Ender's life up until the end of the war, and a little beyond. It's difficult to say anything without spoiling the story, but the notion of letting children learn military tactics on their own, without any apparent training is interesting. This sis surprising not because Ender is so superior in inventing new ways to confound the enemy, but because all the others seem not inventive at all. On some level it makes sense to have Ender do the inventing and teaching, though.

First in the series. Lots of things happen. Can't really tell anything about the details without spoilers. People tend to die a lot.

The settings is interesting, however. An apparently realistic medieval settings with a hint of fantasy here and there. A whole book on the history of the world might be interesting.

Second in the series. Even more things happen. It seems that the story is getting more fantastic elements, but without losing the realistic touch.

It's interesting that apparently there are some absolutely huge buildings in the world, for example the wall in the north and huge abandoned cities somewhere. It seems that the world on the whole is in decline, but the small people certainly don't realize that.

Metzger's second book about his work in the German embassy in Helsinki during the Second World War. The flow of supposedly-secret information from people who should know how to keep secrets to Germany and elsewhere is absolutely amazing.

Has some strange facts. Were Prinz Eugen and Admiral Hipper really in Helsinki 22.6.1944? It says so on page 245 of the book, but I can't find any mention of this anywhere else.

The human technology of 2200 seemed so very 1990s, except for small mechatronic devices.

This was a collection of early Jeeves-related Wodehouse stories. I also bought some larger collections, but the stories in them are not in any sort of order, so they are waiting now until I get my hands on the other volumes, so that I can proceed in order.

Stross writes interesting near-believable near-future scifi. Or near past, as Python 3000 was already released...

Deighton manages more-real-than-real hyper-detailed story of a single bombing raid over the Reich.

Carell tells the story of Rommel's battles in Africa.

Montgomery tells his general life-story until late 1950s. I understand he has written more detailed books on specific portions of his career as well.

My third-or-so read of Good Omens. It seems to get better every time. At least I got more of the music jokes this time.

Walter Schuck tells the story of his battles in the ranks of Luftwaffe.

My second or third read of this. Apparently re-read was in order, since I had mixed parts of other Death books with this one in my head. Time to re-read the others too, I guess.

Finally I managed to get through this one. An earlier attempt ended in defeat somewhere on the planet of the sunpups.

My second read of Sakai's war memoir. I remembered there to be more coverage of the late war, but apparently not.

A semi-believable thriller based on security holes in modern computer operating systems. Suffers from unbelievable actions on part of large companies and weird disconnects in the behaviour of the main character.

Second read of the book by Juutilainen. This was the old edition. The printing quality was bad, and I seem to remember som differences in the newer edition, but probably that's just my memory playing tricks.

A story of someone who went to Soviet Union willingly in the 30s, and pretty soon decided he wanted back out again. After several foiled attempts and some 20 years spent in prison camps he finally got back to Finland. The story is really touching at points, yet also demonstrates the stubborn belief in the Soviet propaganda by some people.

Kaufmann tells the story of his education and career in the Luftwaffe. The book is not very well written. The text is very impersonal and lacking in narrative.

Pratchett writes about football, romance and the people who make Unseen University tick. Or at least make sure that the candles stay lit and the tables heavy with food.

Hanna tells the story of her life from childhood until her surrender to the Americans. I wonder if the story is entirely thruthful, since at points it seems unreasonably naive.

An illustrated report on the British raid on St. Nazaire in early 1942. I'm not sure if I had read anything about this raid before coming upon this book. Enjoyable read.

I read this over the Christmas vacation. I don't think the story made much sense, although it was still a captivating read.

I read this one for school. I don't think I remember tenth of the details, but I certainly got a better overall view of how electricity was studied. Especially the early studies on static electricity before 1800 and the order of developments in late 1800s were interesting.

Solid Pratchett. The setting was interesting, since I was in the middle of Aubrey/Maturin series at the time when I read this.

Peter Spoden's story about his career in Luftwaffe in the 40s. Enjoyable if you are into the "genre", I guess.

Memoirs of the founder of Low Tempterature Laboratory at HUT. He certainly led an interesting life. Some of the notes on political developments regarding Finnish university system seem relevant to the Aalto University project of today.

A classic. The concept of telepathy is scary.

Part of a series. I think espionage had a large role in this part.

More of the same. Not in a bad way, though. Contains tricks that were used in the movie.

Yet another Aubrey/Maturin. Somewhat saddening story of legal issues.

Direct continuation for The Reverse of the Medal.

A fact-oriented book about Waffen SS. Lots of references, very researchy.

Aubrey/Maturin continues. Direct continuation for The Letter of Marque. Start of a longer voyage for a change.

Direct continuation for The Thirteen-Gun salute. Longer voyage continues.

Direct continuation for The Nutmeg of Consolation.

Direct continuation for The Wine-Dark Sea. Return to England, for a change.

Bought cheap in Japan. The title is very fitting.

A new voyage. Larger ships and a squadron.

Bought in Abu Dhabi. Captivating. I recommend.

A less-than-satisfactory assignment for Aubrey. The war seems to end at last.

A cruise in the Mediterranean for a change.

The war is over, so glory must be sought elsewhere.

A collection of short stories. I'm not sure when I started this, and I don't remember most of the stories. I remembr having a good time reading them, though.

A fact-oriented book on the life of one man who refused to give up military intelligence when the Continuation War ended and nobody in the Finnish army was doing much of it.

A beautiful story of life and love complicated by the inability of the man to stay in the present. I heartily recommend.

A thriller that woud be much better if it wasn't based on the ridiculous idea that a DNA computer would immediately let one have access to pretty much any computer in the world, and that nobody would be able to do anything about it. Except blow up the DNA computer, of course. I don't recommend.

Read the whole book in one go. Very typical Paasilinna, but with more interesting environment than usually. Plot revolves around one family, mainly around the life story of one person: Antti Kokkoluoto. Antti gets to partake in an interesting period in Finland's history, being born in 1918. He survives the war, and also the other wars of his lifetime. This isn't very surprising, since a witch foretold his exact dying date already before he was born.

The book depicts the various periods in Finland's recent history through Antti's eyes. Paasilinna does this well - the depictions are mostly quite interesting and don't bother the telling of Antti's adventurous life. Individual events representative of some periods are also present. In a way reading the book is like reading the interesting parts of the Finnish hisory taught in elementary schools, but with a personal twist since it all happens to a character in the book with whom one can identify

The most interestign thriller I've read in a while. I recommend reading this n English for additional wham factor. The translation was good, but there are some language-dependent parts that would probably stand out better in English.

The story is about a private school that someone wants to bring down. Since the book is not American, the main character doesn't simply buy a ton of guns and start shooting around. Instead a contrived plan is revealed throughout the book, with some flashbacks for motivation thrown in.

The book has two main characters. One is a teacher at the shool and the other the one plotting against the school. The point of view alternates between the main characters, but time mostly advances continuously, letting the reader usually only see one side of any given event. The book ends with lots of revelations. The ending makes one want to re-read the book in order to better understand some events near the beginning.

A book on Escer's work, comments by Escher. I think the works in this book and the other Escher book I have are not quite the same. Also, this book has much less test.

Concentrates on presenting the ideas behind Escher's work rather than technique. See Der Zauberspiegel des M. C. Escher for more Escher.

A book on Escher and his works I found in a small bookstore in Vienna. I think I found this in a small book store that was in the lobby of a train station near the powerplant (re)designed by Hundertwasser.

Hard-cover, quite a bit of text, large format. Tells about Escher and his techniques, and shows lot of his work.

• An interesting concept, twin Earths.
• Written in the 60s.
• Good flow.
• Amusing style.

A real page-turner, considering I finished it in a week while doing a bunch of other stuff as well. Could easily be read in an evening or two if there wasn't anything more important to accomplish. Very enjoyable on the whole, I recommend.

An interesting book. I didn't really get into the story at any point. Events seemed disconnected until the very end. Even after finishing the book many of the subtle elements about the characters didn't connect to the storey. Perhaps Deighton uses the main character again in another story? Perhaps I'm just used to shallow characters?

Deighton uses appendices in an interesting fashion. Already the fact that thee are any is interesting, but their use to add depth to both factual and fictional aspects of the story is eveb more so.

An interesting read. Shows that radar was fairly well understood by some experts in Finland even when it was "new".

The book starts with some discussion on the fundamentals of radar technology and early radar development. It proceeds to list and compare various devices used in the second world war. After presenting the devices used, it tells about actual usage in teh war, starting with Chain Home (called Home Chain in the book), and ending with experiments in surface warfare (mainly counter-artillery) during late war.

There are also chapters on the use of radar in everyday world, such as air and sea navigation. Near the end the book also discusses probable developments in radar use during the rest of the century. Ideas about unmanned aircraft and use in space exploration are presented, for example.

A collection of short scifi stories from the 40s and 50s. I found this in a used book store, and first noticed it because of the editor's name. Of course I had to buy it.

See Wikipedia for the table of contents. I found "The Tourist Trade and "The Rainmaker" indifferent and "Absalom" disturbing, but the others were rather good.

In short

Read or listen to Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Apply to New York in the 60s. Add romance and politics.

In short

Very enjoyable space adventure. Like reading a good movie.

Related work

Youngsters venture into space and have adventure. Oh wait, that was Rocket Ship Galileo. Close enough, though. This time youngsters venture to join the Space Patrol, the elite peacekeeping force of the Sol system. This is one of the Heinlein juveniles. Check the link if the term is unfamiliar.

Plot (some may consider what follows spoilers, although I wouldn't)

The space patrol has high standards, so the youngsters must first pass tough training. After training, their first mission is described. Because this is an adventure novel, the mission is exciting. With a few twists a rescue mission to the asteroid belt turns into an investigation of an uprising on Venus.

Setting>

The world history is not described in great detail. Apparently Space Patrol was started sometime after space travel, and it controls all nuclear weapons in the world. It appears to be a fairly standard world police organization.

The world police theme has come up in other Heinlein stories as well, in a similar manner. Candidates are recruited from all over the world, and they swear loyalty primarily to Space Patrol when they are accepted as cadets. The idea is that world police can only be impartial if it's not tied to any single community.

Even though the world is not described in great detail, some space technology is. Descriptions of space suit handling, movement in free fall are detailed. Notions of space vehicles are also interesting, and Newtonian mechanics of space travel are very much present. Heinlein's interest in engineering is apparent and appreciated.

Quick start, slow in the middle, an intriguing end, only to cut the story short in the middle of a bloody battle! Silly way to end a book, but I guess it makes people pay for the next fix. At least I did.

Another installation in the Aubrey-Maturin series. Exciting times, adventure etc. Can't say much without spoiling the whole plot. Perhaps I'll comment on the first book in the series at some point.

When I started reading For us, the Living, I thought it was the only story by Heinlein I hadn't already read. It also happens to be Heinlein's first novel, not published until after his death. The setting was clearly too dramatic to be true, since I later found out that I had overlooked one other novel.

The text describes a version of United States partially familiar from later Heinlein publications, with a history of religious tyranny and the following liberal society keen on upholding privacy. The issues of voting, economy and limiting legislation on matters where there is no physical or economical damage also come up.

The plot revolves around a young naval officer who experiences a car accident and wakes up in far future. He falls in love and has some difficulty adapting to the mores of the new society. The result is a lot of lecturing by supporting characters, in order to help the protagonist settle in his new surroundings.

The economic examples presented by Heinlein through an in-story economist and expanded in an appendix without the pretense of a story are rather interesting. I should probably try to find some more reading on large-scale macroeconomics.

I picked up this book because of the interesting name. Opening it at random produced an illustration of the difference between Lévy flight and Brownian motion, so I took it home.

The book consists of 10 chapters, each exploring some area of mathematics connected to randomness, usually through real-world phenomena. The first chapter is fairly boring, explaining throuhg the usual coin-flipping examples the basics of randomness and some history, but the later chapters are actually quite interesting. The subjects explored include error-correction codes, correspondence of features of an and its spectral response and pseudo-random number generators.

Peterson's text is very clear and light on formulas, which is fine for a popularization. The sources listed in an appendix seem extensive, providing more material for the interested reader. The author also manages to use his own work as a source, which is always commendable.