A fantastic introduction to strategic bombing and the Air Corps Tactical School. It’s fairly high level, but this is the book I’d recommend to the interested.
…And the Air Force and the Norden bombsight.
Yup. Gladwell does a good job with the topic. I feel like he started the project with an agenda to dismantle the concept and came away with a realization that it’s…complicated. Those are the kinds of books I enjoy. (NGL, I approached with an agenda myself as the winner of the paper that was the best “Advocacy of Airpower” at Air Command and Staff College. Gladwell treated all sides fairly.)
The Norden bombsight is a fascinating device. I have a soft spot for computers that existed before digital tech that depended upon extraordinarily complicated mechanical systems to work. Like an IBM Selectric typewriter. Or an ENIGMA code machine. Incredibly complicated devices.
Saw this in a “local authors” section of a small bookstore in Asheville, NC, where we’re vacationing right now, so I bought it:
Anyone who is interested in pipe organs probably will enjoy the portion of this book the author spends with actual organ builders. It’s absolutely fascinating and historical.
Seriously, if you’re a pipe organ aficionado, the last chapter of this book is worth the price of admission. If you can’t find it, DM me and you can borrow it. I’ll put together a list and you can send it to the next reader and so on and when everyone is finished, just send it back to me. And I annotate too, so anyone who borrows it is free to do so as well. I learned more in this last chapter about organs and their use than I could have imagined. Fantastic read.
“Only beautiful things will lead us out to join the world that is beyond our heads.”
I read SJG’s Burgess Shale when it was published. A most interesting read about evolution for those interested in natural history. 
I an looking forward to this one 
A surprisingly readable and entertaining historical mash-up of history, geopolitics, commerce, supply chains and demographics. Spoiler alert for those concerned about the current state of supply chains: we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, according to the author. A Bestseller for good reason . . .
Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winning “A Visit from the Goon Squad.”
While clearing out hundreds of books, I came across “Agent Zigzag”. One of my faves.
Re-reading some Pushkin short stories. These are among my favorite fiction, period. So human, so entertaining, so thought-provoking.
I popped on Doom Town today based on your comments. Thanks!
Based on a true story. Entertaining, exciting, fascinating.
Just finishing this up. Based on a true story about JP Morgan’s personal librarian, building a collection of Renaissance books and arts beyond all others.
Just picked this up, Ignorance, How it Drives Science, while at the Pilsen Community Bookstore. Just starting in, Firestein, Columbia University Chair of The Department of Biology, turns what we think we know regarding scientific inquisition on its ear. His premise being what the general public thinks they know regarding scientific investigation is all wrong partly due to what we’ve been fed from popular media as well as university teachings from the science illuminati.