A Certain Point of View, Too

Category: Books

On Books & Reading: ‘Hell to Pay’ Gets Added to My TBR Stack

Nov 4, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Books, Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947, Military History, Operation Downfall, To Be Read (TBR) Stack, World War II, World War II (1939-1945)

As I reported yesterday on my blog post Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, November 3, 2022, or: Movies, Moods, and Aspirations, Amazon Prime delivered my copy of D.M. Giangreco’s Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947, a non-fiction book about the plans, projections, and preparations for the U.S.-led Allied invasion of…
Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, November 3, 2022, or: Movies, Moods, and Aspirations

Nov 3, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Amazon, Books, Disney+, Emmanuelle (1974), Emmanuelle 2 (1975), Emmanuelle 3/Goodbye Emmanuelle (1977), Erotic Movies, Films by Steven Spielberg, Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947, Military History, Movies, Movies & Television, Operation Downfall, Star Trek: The Original 6-Movie Collection, Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, The Color Purple, The Mist (2007), To Be Read (TBR) Stack, World War II (1939-1945)

From Books to Movies Since yesterday I posted about my infamous To Be Read (TBR) list and how I tend to read different books about the same topic (for instance, the invasion of Japan that mercifully did not take place), today’s installment of A Certain Point of View, Too will be about the To Be…
On Books & Reading: Another ‘Downfall’ Book Becomes an Addition to the Ol’ TBR Stack

Nov 2, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Blogging, Books, Code-Name Downfall: The Top-Secret Plan to Invade Japan – and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb, Downfall: The Fall of the Imperial Japanese Empire, Fire & Steel: The End of World War Two in the West, Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947, James D. Hornfischer, Life in Florida, Life in the Tampa Bay area, Life in the United States, Military History, Operation Downfall, Personal Thoughts, Peter Caddick-Adams, Star Wars, Star Wars Books, Star Wars: Brotherhood, The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle: Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger, To Be Read (TBR) Stack, Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960, World War II (1939-1945)

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! Well, Dear Reader, here we are on Wednesday, November 2, 2022. The 11th month of the year began yesterday,[1] and although the weather is…
On History & World War II: Commemorating the 77th ‘Non-Anniversary’ of ‘X-Day’

Nov 1, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Alfred Coppel, Books, Code-Name Downfall: The Top-Secret Plan to Invade Japan – and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb, Downfall: The Fall of the Imperial Japanese Empire, Operation Downfall, The Burning Mountain: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan (1983)

As you – probably – know if you’re a frequent visitor to this space, I have been a World War II buff since I was a young boy (of six!) living in Bogota, Colombia. Because the war was massively global in scale – far more so than the First World War, in fact – and…
On Books & Reading: The Joy of Reading (and Rereading) Books…It’s in My DNA!

Oct 22, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Blogging, Books, Emmanuelle (1974), Erotic Movies, Family History, Ian Doescher, Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Life in South Florida, Life in the Tampa Bay area, Life in the United States, Military History, Movies, Personal Thoughts, Rick Atkinson, Star Wars: A New Hope, The Liberation Trilogy, William Shakespeare's Star Wars

On Books and Reading “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”― Oscar Wilde Over the years, as I have grown older, grayer, and more set in my ways, I’ve noticed how many habits I have that are like those of my mom…
On Books & Reading, or: Reading Habits, the TBR Stack Got Bigger, and a Quick Life Update

Oct 10, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Adults-Only Games, Amazon, Beatriz Diaz-Granados, Books, Computer and Video Games, Family History, Fire & Steel: The End of World War Two in the West, James D. Hornfischer, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad, MicroProse Software, Movie Magic Screenwriter 6, Popcorn Sky Productions, Regiments (2022), Screenwriting, Screenwriting & Producing, Star Wars Books, Star Wars: Brotherhood, The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle: Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, Thomas Wikman, Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960

I cannot live without books. – Thomas Jefferson I love books. I love to read. I learned to read at an early age. I don’t remember when I started to read, but my mom used to tell me (and anyone else, for that matter) that Tata, my maternal grandmother, taught me to read before…
Book Review: ‘The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11’

Sep 25, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Books, Garrett M. Graff, Oral History, September 11, 2001 Attacks, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, U.S. History, Watergate: A New History

We have some planes. – Mohammad Atta, Hijacker I look at the clock, and every time I look at the clock, it seems to be 9:11. I’m like, “Oh, 9:11 again.” It just happens, something so simple like that. – Sharon Miller, Officer, Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) On September 10, 2019, Avid Reader Press…
Book Review: ‘The Third World War: The Untold Story’

Sep 21, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Alternative History (Alt History), Books, Cold War (1945-1991), Cold War-Turns-Hot Games, Computer and Video Games, General Sir John Hackett, MicroProse Software, Military Fiction, Red Storm Rising (1986 novel), Regiments (2022), Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III, The Third World War: August 1985, The Third World War: The Untold Story (1982), Tom Clancy (author), U.S. History

Dies Irae: The Story Continues…. In early 1982, Sidgwick & Jackson of London and Macmillan Publishing of New York published The Third World War: The Untold Story, a war novel co-written by General Sir John Hackett and seven collaborators, many of whom had co-written The Third World War: August 1985, published four years earlier and,…
On Books & Reading: An Oral History of 9/11, and Observations About ‘The Third World War’ Duology

Sep 19, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Amazon, Books, Computer and Video Games, Conservatism in the U.S., International Relations, MicroProse Software, Regiments (2022), The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, The Third World War: August 1985, To Be Read (TBR) Stack, U.S. Politics

The Growing TBR Stack My copy of Garrett M. Graff’s The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 arrived yesterday at 4:56 PM. I retrieved it from our front porch where the Amazon Prime driver had dropped it off, and within a few minutes I had taken it out of its shipping…
Book Review: ‘The Third World War: August 1985’

Sep 15, 2022

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Alex Diaz-Granados

in Bird's Eye Games, Book Reviews, Books, Cold War-Turns-Hot Games, Computer and Video Games, MicroProse Software, Red Storm Rising, Red Storm Rising (1986 novel), Regiments (2022), The Third World War: August 1985, Tom Clancy (author)

On May 1, 1978, London-based Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. published The Third World War: August 1985: A Future History, a work of near-future speculative fiction by Sir John Hackett, a retired general in the British Army, and a group of co-authors that, according to the publisher, included an admiral, an economist, and a diplomat, all…