Recent Books you have enjoyed

[keefe]

Speaking of Afghanistan, I really enjoyed and strongly recommend these autobiographies of two young American men and their experiences in that country:

ONE BULLET AWAY:  THE MAKING OF A MARINE CORPS OFFICER by Nathaniel Fick, and

THREE CUPS OF TEA by Greg Mortenson

Interesting choices. Fick was both an FMF and Force Recon Marine Platoon Leader and HBS grad whom I met once in Cambridge. I cannot agree with everything he wrote but then my experiences as an AFSOC TACP and III Corps Staff Officer gave me a different perspective on the fight. Fick has rather pronounced views on OEF and OIF that attempt to critique the strategic and operational dimensions of the war from the extremely focused horizon of the tactical level. His experience was also limited to the initial phases of both OIF and OEF. He has no first-hand insight beyond 2003 as the complexion, character, and complexity of both campaigns morphed into very different conflicts beginning in 2004.

Anyone who has logged time at any of the War Colleges (I was graduated from Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College) will understand the fallacy of Fick's extrapolating from the platoon to the MNC to the Oval Office. The tactical level of warfare has a very different rhyme and meter from every other echelon. A JTAC Team Leader may be an Air Force A10 Lt Col but his concerns are markedly different from the Air Force A10 Lt Col Close Air Support Coordinator for MNC-I.

Fick has compromised his message by politicizing the content. As one reads Fick it is important to bear in mind that the man has significant political ambition and that agenda is woven throughout his narrative. His platoon was featured in Generation Kill, a period piece written by a latter day Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo journalist wanna be whose take on contemporary warfare and the men who live through it offered little insight beyond the views of a handful of enlisted Marines. The author, Evan Wright, commits the same sin as Fick – suggesting that the experience of a few Marines in a small unit fully illuminates the problems with decisions made at higher echelons.

Fick is a warrior who went well outside the wire into harm's way with grim determination and is deserving of our respect. But every man who has been in combat has been changed though not always for the worse. There are two points on which I am in full agreement with both Fick and Wright: No one understands the moral dimensions and implications of combat more than the men who must wage those wars and the cultural and intellectual gulf between combat veterans and civilians is deep, wide, and expanding.

Fick's work is worth reading but keep a large grain of salt within reach as well as a jaundiced eye.   

[keefe]

The Tender Bar was the hangout for a good friend of mine. He knew all the principal characters and had some great stories not in the book to add.

Clever at times but too formulaic and far too many Fitzgerald references and allusions to take seriously. There is a depth to the dialogue that makes it entertaining but the thin characterizations and ultimate predictability of the of the plot makes it disappointing in the end. It's not The Great Gatsby but, perhaps, that was Moehringer's point all along? 

[keefe]

I was late to it but "The Road" is one of the best fiction books I've read in quite sometime.

Baseball fans will enjoy "High Heat" the new book about the history of the fastball and the pursuit of identifying the fastest pitcher of all-time. 

Someone here found The Road disappointing but I found it equal to McCarthy's other works. If one enjoys the dark, morally complex works of Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Melissa Marr, John Kennedy Toole, Erskine Caldwell, or Eudora Welty then McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Border Trilogy should be on your reading list.

The Road is different in that it is post-apocalyptic but it is no less engaging. Central to all of McCarthy's work is the eternal struggle between the brutality and weakness that inhabits Everyman's soul - an immense capacity for violence coupled with a cowering, craven, cowardice. How this struggle plays out within us determines the traction, texture, and tenor of our lives.

What may disturb some readers is McCarthy's seeming relish for exploring the random, arbitrary violence that defies rational explanation and yet intrudes on our existence with increasing frequency. Perhaps it is not the fact of intense violence but McCarthy's assertion that such actions can never be punished and it is our fate to live in an increasingly chaotic and dangerous world that makes his writing so compelling, in the same way people rush to the scene of the terrible car accident. But unlike the car accident, where we walk away thinking better him than me, McCarthy's world is characterized by the extreme injustice of capricious violence.   

[MUBillsTil2017]

Just finished "Neptune's Inferno, the US Navy at Guadalcanal" by James D. Hornfischer.

This book delves into the mental condition of warriors thrown into battles in which career training didn't prepare them for the speed and lethality of a well prepared enemy.  It's a story of officers in command using peace time methods to prepare their ships and ground troops for combat and those methods causing the death of thousands and the loss of many capital ships.  Its a story about the daily learning of the right lessons to defeat the Japanese Navy and Army, fighting close to all their bases and Americans fighting from thousands of miles from their bases.

Great story and one that should be taught in any American History class in middle school and high school.

[ATWizJr]

Reading and enjoying Dan Brown's Inferno right now. It follows the same premise as his other Langdon books, but like all of them is a great page-turner and has some interesting art history woven into the plotline.

Really?  Probably too picky, but I found it less than believable.  I know, I know, it's fiction, but for me, it has to bear some resemblance to reality.  I thought it was a good premise, but a tale poorly told.

[ChicosBailBonds]

With Tom Clancy's recent death, I still need to read 2 of his books.  They are on my bucket list.

[Lennys Tap]

Really?  Probably too picky, but I found it less than believable.  I know, I know, it's fiction, but for me, it has to bear some resemblance to reality.  I thought it was a good premise, but a tale poorly told.

Not a Dan Brown fan.

[Lennys Tap]

Someone here found The Road disappointing but I found it equal to McCarthy's other works. If one enjoys the dark, morally complex works of Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Melissa Marr, John Kennedy Toole, Erskine Caldwell, or Eudora Welty then McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Border Trilogy should be on your reading list.

The Road is different in that it is post-apocalyptic but it is no less engaging. Central to all of McCarthy's work is the eternal struggle between the brutality and weakness that inhabits Everyman's soul - an immense capacity for violence coupled with a cowering, craven, cowardice. How this struggle plays out within us determines the traction, texture, and tenor of our lives.

What may disturb some readers is McCarthy's seeming relish for exploring the random, arbitrary violence that defies rational explanation and yet intrudes on our existence with increasing frequency. Perhaps it is not the fact of intense violence but McCarthy's assertion that such actions can never be punished and it is our fate to live in an increasingly chaotic and dangerous world that makes his writing so compelling, in the same way people rush to the scene of the terrible car accident. But unlike the car accident, where we walk away thinking better him than me, McCarthy's world is characterized by the extreme injustice of capricious violence.  

I didn't find "A Confederacy of Dunces" particularly dark or complex, but I loved it. It was the last book I read that made me laugh out loud (often) and that was probably 30 years ago. Toole's own life, though, now that's dark, complex and tragic. Dead at 31 - imagine the books that were never written.

[Lennys Tap]

With Tom Clancy's recent death, I still need to read 2 of his books.  They are on my bucket list.

Your still a young man, Chicos. Fly or jump out of an airplane, climb Mt Everest, run with the bulls or run the Boston Marathon. Reading a couple of Tom Clancy books might deserve a "note to self" but not a place on your bucket list.

[keefe]

I didn't find "A Confederacy of Dunces" particularly dark or complex, but I loved it. It was the last book I read that made me laugh out loud (often) and that was probably 30 years ago. Toole's own life, though, now that's dark, complex and tragic. Dead at 31 - imagine the books that were never written.

I found that Toole's acerbic wit provided mere pin pricks of light in a otherwise darkly somber weltanschauung. He tempered morose observations on the meaninglessness of life with wry commentary that prevented me from wanting to re-enact Papa Hemingway leaves Ketchum.   

"It smells terrible in here.'

Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate."

The beauty of Toole is his ability to resurrect some semblance of hope from the absolute depths of despair. The real tragedy is that Confederacy of Dunces can now be seen as the shrill cry for help that unfortunately culminated in Toole's suicide. Imagine the penetrating insights on this post-industrial world lost for that one irretrievable act.   

[Lennys Tap]

I found that Toole's acerbic wit provided mere pin pricks of light in a otherwise darkly somber weltanschauung. He tempered morose observations on the meaninglessness of life with wry commentary that prevented me from wanting to re-enact Papa Hemingway leaves Ketchum.  

"It smells terrible in here.'

Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate."

The beauty of Toole is his ability to resurrect some semblance of hope from the absolute depths of despair. The real tragedy is that Confederacy of Dunces can now be seen as the shrill cry for help that unfortunately culminated in Toole's suicide. Imagine the penetrating insights on this post-industrial world lost for that one irretrievable act.  

We agree on his genius. I just found his observations on the meaninglessness of life more stone cold hilarious than morose. I didn't see the book as a cry for help - I was under the impression that his feelings of persecution and his depression didn't so much pre-exist the book as resulted from his problems getting it published. Could be wrong on that.

[keefe]

I have just begun three books:

Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, Richard B. Frank

The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai

Let Me Wear Your Coat, John Basil

I will post reviews when I am finished and time allows but each looks interesting thus far.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Your still a young man, Chicos. Fly or jump out of an airplane, climb Mt Everest, run with the bulls or run the Boston Marathon. Reading a couple of Tom Clancy books might deserve a "note to self" but not a place on your bucket list.

Marathon...check
Jump out of airplane...check

I enjoy Tom Clancy's stuff....I wasn't asking for a look down your nose to validate it's prose worthiness.  Sometimes, just reading something for fun is a pleasure. 

[4everwarriors]

Maybe Tony can help with jumpin' out the plane, hey?

[ChicosBailBonds]

I have just begun three books:

Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, Richard B. Frank

The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai

Let Me Wear Your Coat, John Basil

I will post reviews when I am finished and time allows but each looks interesting thus far.

Read Downfall probably 10 years ago ....I'm curious to how you like it.

[Lennys Tap]

Marathon...check
Jump out of airplane...check

I enjoy Tom Clancy's stuff....I wasn't asking for a look down your nose to validate it's prose worthiness.  Sometimes, just reading something for fun is a pleasure. 

I've got nothing against Tom Clancy's books and certainly would not look down my nose at anyone who reads them. I've read a couple myself and liked them fine. I just don't think they merit a spot on a bucket list. I love reading, I just think a bucket list should involve doing something a little more outside the box than reading a book. Feel free to disagree.

[keefe]

We agree on his genius. I just found his observations on the meaninglessness of life more stone cold hilarious than morose. I didn't see the book as a cry for help - I was under the impression that his feelings of persecution and his depression didn't so much pre-exist the book as result from his problems getting it published. Could be wrong on that.

There is no question his commentary is wryly insightful but I have always found it tinged with the monotonous languor so typical of the Southern Gothics. There is a musty, dank feel to his narrative that makes one want to find the writhing energy that must certainly exist beneath the languid surface of the bayou.

As for his suicide, retrospect usually provides a clarity not available in the swiftly flowing current of events and what appears to me all too obvious may in fact be nothing more than droll musings.

I posted the passage on Twain as it is likely the most unique take on one of America's most gifted humorists. In one brief paragraph, Toole manages to trash both Classical and modern American aesthetics through comments on Schiller and deodorant. His segue from body odor to decay through Twain is at once stark in its effect yet so deftly executed that the reader never actually notices the transposition. Pure genius by a truly tortured soul.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Marathon...check
Jump out of airplane...check

I enjoy Tom Clancy's stuff....I wasn't asking for a look down your nose to validate it's prose worthiness.  Sometimes, just reading something for fun is a pleasure. 

Anything "Tom Clancy and" is complete garbage. When he still wrote the books himself he wad great.

I'm reading jake tapper's The Outpost. a lot of A-10s coming to save the day.

[keefe]

Read Downfall probably 10 years ago ....I'm curious to how you like it.

Yea, Downfall has been out for a while. I saw it this weekend at Half Price so I grabbed a copy. First few pages look great. From what I understand, Frank's thesis is that the savagery of Iwo and Okinawa combined with the Imperial Forces build-up in Kyushu projected millions of casualties just to take the southern most island of mainland Japan. With the threat of Soviet intervention and demonstrated Japanese intransigence Truman had no choice but to use nukes. I'll let you know what I think.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Anything "Tom Clancy and" is complete garbage. When he still wrote the books himself he wad great.

I'm reading jake tapper's The Outpost. a lot of A-10s coming to save the day.

Agreed

[ChicosBailBonds]

Yea, Downfall has been out for a while. I saw it this weekend at Half Price so I grabbed a copy. First few pages look great. From what I understand, Frank's thesis is that the savagery of Iwo and Okinawa combined with the Imperial Forces build-up in Kyushu projected millions of casualties just to take the southern most island of mainland Japan. With the threat of Soviet intervention and demonstrated Japanese intransigence Truman had no choice but to use nukes. I'll let you know what I think.

They don't make men like Truman anymore.  In today's day and age, you couldn't pull off dropping a nuke, let alone two (nor the bombing of Tokyo).  The press and the anti-war crowd wouldn't allow for it, even if it mean shortening the war, winning the war and ultimately saving lives.  The world is upside down, and we don't fight to win.   My wife and I socialize with some older vets, have lunch with them or breakfast, etc, and it drives these guys crazy.  I don't blame them.  They just shake their heads.  Of course, this is some of the same group that says life was a lot better back in the day so I should probably ignore what the greatest generation has to say.

[keefe]

Anything "Tom Clancy and" is complete garbage. When he still wrote the books himself he wad great.

I'm reading jake tapper's The Outpost. a lot of A-10s coming to save the day.

Of course they did. The A 10 Warthog. The Ultimate Killing Machine.

[keefe]

They don't make men like Truman anymore.  In today's day and age, you couldn't pull off dropping a nuke, let alone two (nor the bombing of Tokyo).  The press and the anti-war crowd wouldn't allow for it, even if it mean shortening the war, winning the war and ultimately saving lives.  The world is upside down, and we don't fight to win.   My wife and I socialize with some older vets, have lunch with them or breakfast, etc, and it drives these guys crazy.  I don't blame them.  They just shake their heads.  Of course, this is some of the same group that says life was a lot better back in the day so I should probably ignore what the greatest generation has to say.

One of our greatest Presidents. Truman applied common sense but his decisions were grounded in principle, not politics. He accepted the Balfour Declaration and endorsed Wilson's statements on an independent Jewish state but in recognizing Israel he confided to his closest associates he was doing it because it was, "the right thing to do." That move is something FDR never would have done and was contrary to what Whitehall and Foggy Bottom wanted.

HST exhibited a courage that has been conspicuously absent from political decision making. One of my favorite authors, David McCullough, has a superb biography of Truman.  The beauty of McCullough's work is in showing us the very human Harry Truman, perhaps our most down to earth President alongside Lincoln. Harry Truman made tough decisions learned as a farmer, haberdasher, and Jackson County Judge under the shadow of Tom Pendergast. One of the most remarkable men of the 20th Century.

[keefe]

Just finished "Neptune's Inferno, the US Navy at Guadalcanal" by James D. Hornfischer.

This book delves into the mental condition of warriors thrown into battles in which career training didn't prepare them for the speed and lethality of a well prepared enemy.  It's a story of officers in command using peace time methods to prepare their ships and ground troops for combat and those methods causing the death of thousands and the loss of many capital ships.  Its a story about the daily learning of the right lessons to defeat the Japanese Navy and Army, fighting close to all their bases and Americans fighting from thousands of miles from their bases.

Great story and one that should be taught in any American History class in middle school and high school.

I just started Downfall which is about the endgame in the Pacific War by Richard Frank. Frank also wrote the definitive work on the Battle for Guadalcanal, Guadalcanal. What is fascinating about that engagement is that it was fought in all three battle spaces with daily contact between combatants lasting more than 6 months and a physical and emotional intensity not seen in the western ETO. What is particularly appealing about Frank's work is his articulation of the fight from the vantage point of the individual marine, aviator, and sailor on both sides.

Perhaps the most comprehensive study of the Solomon's Campaign is contained in Samuel Eliot Morrison's 15 volume History of US Naval Operations in WW II. Morrison's work is monumental in scope yet meticulous in detail and worth every second invested in reading about our senior service's most magnificent moment. The scope, scale, and intensity of the Pacific War makes it one of this Republic's grandest undertakings.

The battle rhythm you mention in Hornfischer's work has characterized virtually all of our foreign wars. The spool up time for a citizen-based military is always more substantial than for our more authoritarian adversaries. One feature of today's volunteer force is that the chasm of perspective between those who serve(d) and those who have not is wider than at any time in our history. We have for the first time a professional military that has been blooded and that experience is not shared by 98% of their fellow citizens. Unlike the great wars of the 20th Century, where American society as a whole was mobilized, the military today is a thin sliver of the total nation. On the positive side, though, is that our volunteer force is the most educated and socially representative force we have ever had.

[mu03eng]

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Very interesting look at some of the new research that suggests that the Americas could have actually been more populous than Europe before Columbus, but that massive disease outbreaks may have killed as much as 80% of the native population.  This is based on both eye-witness accounts of massive settlements that were mentioned by early explorers, that were gone just a few decades later. 

The author also points out some drawbacks to these theories...mainly "where are the skeletons?"

Also mentions a number of theories that suggest that humans may not have come over strictly on the land-bridge from Asia to the Americas.

If you are into this kind of stuff, it is a very good book.

I thought this was a very good book, though pretty technical from an anthropological and historical perspective so not a "light read".  I found the discussion of the America's as some untamed nature perhaps being a myth pretty compelling.  Have the follow-up to this book on my dresser to read but have to get through grad school before I take up anything else too serious