Book recommendations
 

A few years ago, we had a thread recommending books. Any chance trying it again. Just a book, no commentary regarding it's merits. No opinions. Just a title. Got some time on our hands. Pretend your sitting in the cockpit and you're talking to another pilot.

I just finished Black Thursday.

The Dog Stars

Perfect, follow that example and thanks.

Say Nothing

The Perfect Machine

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

The Overstory

Station 11

I tend to favor military history...

American Sniper
Lone Survivor

Army at Dawn
Day of Battle (both excellent history)

Fighter Pilot
Spitfires, Thunderbolts and Warm Beer
All the Way to Berlin
Unbroken

Stuka Pilot
Panzer Leader

Band of Brothers
Beyond Band of Brothers
Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends

Night

30 Seconds over Tokyo

With the Old Breed

The Predatory Female.

Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis

Educated

Where the Crawdads Sing

Last mission of the wham bam boys
 

Great WW II event. Short read but will remind you of the great people that came before you.

Wool by Hugh Howey. It’s post apocalyptic so fitting for the situation.

World war Z.


its 1000 times better than the movie. The movie shares the same title, that’s about it.

Good one,

Flying Drunk, by Joe Balzer

True story of a NWA Pilot arrested along with the rest of his crew for flying intoxicated. After revocation of all certificates and a year in jail, the author re acquires all certificates and is ultimately re employed as a pilot for American Airlines. Currently LAX Captain. True story.


To one of the finest men I have ever know, Captain Cecil Ewell, May you Rest In Peace. Cecil Ewell was a man of Faith. He was a man of courage. He was a man of honesty. He was a man of great wisdom. Many men had the opportunity to help me in a time of great need, but Captain Ewell was the man who’s actions and courage changed my life. Not a single major airline would even send me a postcard reply to my applications. I walked into his office in December 1998, playing the last card I had in my hand. Nobody in the majors was ever going to hire me to fly. As I walked into his office, He was signing letters to personally congratulate each and every new hire pilot, welcoming them to AMERICAN Airlines. I told him I was a convicted felon, that I had been fired from a major airline, lost all of my licenses through emergency revocation, and spent 5 years in the penal system including a year in prison. I told him “I had to attach my heart to this application because nobody else would even read it” With that he put his pen down, looked up at me, and asked me to take a seat. He was already late for a meeting at headquarters, but he didn’t care. I told him my story. He said to me, “You haven’t done anything all the rest of us haven’t done, you just got caught.” I almost fell out of the chair. He told me later that he was almost falling out of his. He told me , as he drew a large circle on his desk with his finger, “you know Joe, some times you make a mistake in life, and things go full circle, and you get back to a point where someone is willing to give you a second chance”. Having been through a lot of hell the previous 9 years, emotions in that moment are impossible to describe. I knew I was in the presence of a very special man. He set me up for an interview with as he put it, “no special treatment”. “Just go down there and do a good job, it will be up to the board”. I was totally flabbergasted. He said to me, “You are my hero, you never gave up on your dream”. The next week after the interview, I went back in to thank him. He told me the board was unanimous and gave the thumbs up to hire me. Only one catch. This honest man told me he had to take it to his boss, Mr. Bob Baker, the man who was running AMERICAN Airlines. A few days later I received a call from Renee Hair, knowing I was rejected by American (because Cecil always made the calls himself) my heart sank, and I again felt the lead in my stomach and the rejection I had experienced so many times before. Renee apologized to me and said Captain Ewell was out of the office, and he didn’t want to keep me in limbo over the Christmas holiday, and wanted to know if I was still interested in flying for American? My knees buckled and I hit the floor. The rest is history. After my first line trip and completing OE, Mr. Baker called me at home and welcomed me to American Airlines. To quote Cecil again, he told me, “To hell with the naysayers!!!!!” I am a civilian pilot. I told Cecil a few weeks later at our class indock that I had a squadron of civilian pilots who I would love to recommend for hire. One of them didn’t even have a college degree (happens to be one of the smartest guys and best pilots I’ve ever known) . Cecil hired them all. I have been blessed to fly with many fine men. Captain Cecil Ewell is in a class of his own. God Bless you Cecil, your wonderful wife Rhoda, your fine son and your grandchildren. You will be sorely missed. Captain Joe Balzer LAX

Raven Rock

“Sapiens”
”Better Angels”

All the Light we Cannot See

Talking to Strangers

Born a Crime

12 Patients

When Breath Becomes Air

Water for Elephants

Unbroken

Cryptonomicon

Rocket Men

Without You There Is No Us
(An inside look into North Korea written by a Korean-American teacher who lived there)

Sons and Soldiers
(Jews who escaped the Nazis and returned with the US Army as translators)

The Hare With the Amber Eyes
(A wealthy family’s history - Vienna, Paris, fleeing Hitler)

In the Garden of the Beasts
(US Ambassador to Germany and his family in Berlin during Hitler’s rise. His daughter dated the head of the Gestapo,
explains Night of the Long Knives, and more.)

Kaputt
(An inside look of the Eastern Front)

Midnight In Chernobyl: The Inside Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster
(Scariest thing I’ve read in awhile.)

Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Health and Violence
(Self explanatory. Not good.)

Vince Flynn's 'Mitch Rapp' books. "Transfer of Power" introduces the character.

"Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart—Until You're 80 and Beyond" by Chris Crowley and Harry Lodge, MD

The Body Keeps the Score
Shooting Ghosts

Fantasy: All of these books are the first in their respective series. All very good.

The Way of Kings..........Brandon Sanderson

The Eye of the World..........Robert Jordan

The Name of the Wind.................Patrick Rothfuss

Denny

Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are

John Kaag

what a great and relevant recommendation.

The Cannibal Queen - by Stephen Coonts

Nice story that he wrote about him flying a Stearman all over the United States one summer. Simple, pure flying.

Beat me to it about Flynn's books. I'd start with the first chronolgical book "American Assassin" Some of the best fiction I've ever read

Tigana

I’ve been a sci-fantasy fan for over 30 years and Guy Gavriel Kay is the best author out there. If fantasy is your thing, he’s got a lot more than just that one title. I keep a word document that is over 5 single spaced pages long of the books I’ve read since HS so if you like this one I’ve got a lot more recommendations from where that came from.

Second for the Dog Stars. Absolutely beautifully written. As if suddenly everything every literature teacher I ever had made sense when I read it. Excellent.

“In the Garden of Beasts”

Ambassador to Germany in the 1930’s story.

The Boys in the Boat

Race of Aces

Another Up vote for the Dog Stars, I was actually telling the guy I was flying my last trip with about it. Stumbled across a cheap paperback at Oshkosh; Termite Hill by Tom Wilson. It may be hard to find but it turned out to be an excellent read, historical fiction centered around F-105’s in Southeast Asia. I liked it so much I read the second book in the series Lucky’s Bridge which my library tracked down, and plan to read the third and finish out the series.

Some other really good ones that come to mind are Danger’s Hour about the Kamikazes that hit USS Bunker Hill, does a good job explaining both sides. Also someone else mentioned it, A Higher Call about the German pilot that let a crippled B-17 fly on was real good too. The same author wrote Devotion which gave a great overview of Korea while focusing on the Corsair pilots, and I picked up his newest book Spearhead at Costco but haven’t gotten to it yet but look forward to.

if you like Flynn and/or Thor, check out Jack Carr. The Terminal List and True Believer, in that order. A third book is due out next month.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet

Charm School -Nelson DeMille

+1......filler

haven’t read “better angels”, but I agree wholeheartedly on “Sapiens”...a good read that encourages some time reflecting on his takes