Recently Read
- Letters of a Nation, Andrew Carroll, Ed.
Simply an excellent book! Over 200 Letters of every kind covering more than 350 years of American History. There is something for everyone here, from the mundane to the profound, from the renowned to the unknown. Love letters, declarations of war, cares, concerns, angst, and expressions of faith; if you cannot find something in this book that moves you, then yours must sadly be a bland existence.
- Dog Company Six, Edward H. Simmons
An OK book about the Korean War from one Marine Officer’s perspective--you could probably miss this one without missing anything. It’s shallow, slow-moving, loosely structured, and often trite, and from it one gains no real insight about the Korean Conflict, Marines, or war in general. It’s Battle Cry without the thrill, the horror, the fun, the characters, or the quality.
- A.D. 1000, Living on the Brink of Apocalypse, Richard Erdoes
A fairly well written, interesting account of life in Europe in the closing days of the dark ages, with its primary focus on the rise of one Pope Sylvester II. Erdoes isn’t nearly as interesting a writer as McCullough, and he’s British, so his European biases show through sometimes, but this relatively short book is nonetheless worth reading. If nothing else, Erdoes does a good job explaining some of the more complex relationships that existed between the nation states, the churches, and the cultures of the times.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling
Although not nearly as strong or interesting a story as the first few Harry Potter books, this longish book was well written, interesting, and fairly well paced, unlike the book that preceded it, which was boring, poorly wrought, and generally lame. Personally, I think Snape is innocent.
- 1776, David McCullough
Typically McCullough, in that it was a good book, and well written; however, it sort of raced to the end, at the end. True, there wasn’t much to tell after the Continental Army left New York, and before Trenton, but a little more author’s insight and day-to-day detail would have been nice. For example, I would have liked to know more about why McCullough thought General Lee’s capture by the British was so good for the U.S., and a few more on-the-scene details (a’ la Ambrose) would have been nice too. I learned a lot that I didn’t know, but overall, this felt like something that grew out of McCullough’s research for his John Adams book rather than the result of an independent effort. Well worth the read if only for what one learns about the battles of Boston, New York, and Trenton.
- Chiang Kai-Shek, China’s Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost, Jonathan Fenby
A large, slow-moving, relatively shallow recitation of dates, names, intrigues, battles, and relationships. Mostly, this book is a condemnation of Chiang, with the major focus on the way he manipulated everyone he ever encountered, his poor judgment of character, his tolerance and use of corrupt people, and his hypocritical declarations of values. The book does contain a lot of information, but it’s very much like a pond 5 miles wide and 2 inches deep. There is almost no real analysis of or discussion about Chiang’s motivations or the reasons for some of the things he did, though I am not sure a larger book would have been tolerable. This was a very difficult book to read because of the writing style, but it was still worth the time because it placed people and events in historical context.
- An Army at Dawn, The War in North Africa 1942-1943, Rick Atkinson
This excellently written book describes in almost painful detail how really, really bad the U.S. Army was in the early years of WWII, and how close it came to real disaster during Operation Torch. What it also describes, however--and is the whole point of the book--is how Americans learned fast to fight and win, unlike their British counterparts, who continued to make the same kinds of mistakes throughout the war. Interestingly, the recurring theme is that Americans were not nearly angry enough, or rather, not prone to violence enough to be good at war, and that it took a LOT of death and destruction to make American soldiers into the war-winning army they became. This book is not a flattering account of the American Army, but it is very well written and I heartily recommend it.
Currently Reading
- Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
- Cascading Style Sheets, The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, Eric Meyer, O’Reilly Books
- God Is A Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism, Rabbi David Cooper
- Savage Beauty (The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay), Nancy Milford
Next on the Shelf
- War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom, Oliver North
- Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
- The Christmas Train, David Baldacci
- Harvard Classics: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; The Journal of John Woolman; and Fruits of Solitude by William Penn
- Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale, Zig Ziglar
- Of Law and Life & Other Things that Matter, Felix Frankfurter
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