Yeah, they went on and on. I wonder what the conversations she had with her editor about that were like?Originally Posted by concerned
I still enjoyed the book. It was kind of Dickensian.
Yeah, they went on and on. I wonder what the conversations she had with her editor about that were like?
I still enjoyed the book. It was kind of Dickensian.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I recently re-watched all 5 seasons of The Wire. There is a newspaper manager in the 5th season that uses “Dickensian” a lot. Reminded me of you every time he said it.
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
Now I can’t say I made that word up.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II by Jonathan Jordan
An excellent history of America's civilian and military leaders during World War II, principally FDR, Henry Stimson, General George Marshall and Admiral Ernest King. There is, of course, a lot here for the author to cover, so it is not surprising that he does not give as detailed an analysis as you might like sometimes.
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Die Trying by Lee Child
In the second Jack Reacher novel, the drifter and a random stranger are kidnapped and driven across country in the back of a panel van. Who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Reacher or the woman? Where are they being taken and why? A lot of questions and few answers. Reacher has just one goal, to save them both, from the inside out, or die trying.
Excellent.
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The Hunter Killers: The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels by Dan Hampton
On July 24, 1965, a USAF F-4 Phantom, became the first American combat aircraft to be shot down by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). A few days later a major strike mission was launched against the SAM site that had launched the SA-2 that had destroyed the Phantom -- a mission that came to be considered a fiasco. Not long after this the first volunteers began training to take on the SAMs, first flying the F-100 Super Sabre, and later the F-105 Thunderchief. The Wild Weasels, as they came to be known, flew behind enemy lines, into the teeth of the threat, to suppress and destroy, to hunt and kill, and to revolutionize air combat.
To understand the Weasels, one must understand the air campaign they supported, and to understand that campaign, one must understand the Vietnam War. To that end, the author provides excellent analysis of the war in Southeast Asia, interspersed between the stories of the Wild Weasels, which makes for a fantastic book.
--
Hunter-Killer: U.S. Escort Carriers in the Battle of the Atlantic by William T. Y'Blood
In the spring of 1943, the U.S. Navy turned its escort carriers loose in the Atlantic, to hunt and kill German U-boats. The hunter-killer groups sink 53 submarines and capture 1. The baby flattops, the aircrews and their escorts would be responsible for 31 percent of the U-boats destroyed by American forces. The author provides an excellent analysis of the tactics used to achieve this success.
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True Faith and Allegiance by Mark Greaney
The final Jack Ryan novel for Greaney, and the author goes out strong with a story about a data breach involving security applications for U.S. military and intelligence operatives, cleverly paired with open source analysis of social media. The resulting targeting information is sold to ISIS operatives who use it to attack American servicemen and civilians on the home front. ISIS wants to pressure America into launching an invasion of the Middle East, the last thing President Jack Ryan wants to do.
Fantastic!
Last edited by USS Utah; 06-09-2018 at 05:52 PM.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
Men to Match My Mountains: The Monumental Saga of the Winning of America's Far West by Irving Stone.
A history of California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado from 1840 to the 1890s. After the period of exploration, the story in California, Nevada and Colorado is principally about mining for gold and silver, but in Utah it is about the Mormons and polygamy. Very well written, and I definitely enjoyed the beginning, but I wasn't that interested in mining -- not that it was very technical, it just wasn't what I was looking for. The chapters on Utah were excellent.
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Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, Vol. 1 by Clay Blair.
An excellent history of the war under the Pacific during December 1941, 1942 and 1943, with an excellent recounting of the development of submarines and submarine warfare prior to the war. The author provides strong analysis of strategy and tactics while telling the stories of the standout war patrols.
--
The Thief by Clive Cussler
A pair of scientists develop a machine which will revolutionize movie making and Imperial Germany launches an operation to try and steel the machine. Van Dorn detective Isaac Bell signs on to protect the inventors and the machine. Great.
--
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton
When al Qaeda hijacked four airliners and crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, America was unprepared to fight a war in Afghanistan. Two teams of Green Berets, U.S. Army Special Forces, were put on the ground to operate with the Northern Alliance in their fight against the Taliban. At the time, it was thought that the teams would be preparing for the campaign to take down the Taliban in the Spring of 2002. Instead, the U.S. Soldiers helped the Northern Alliance take Mazar I Sharif, the Taliban's principle stronghold in north Afghanistan, and this led to the fall of the Taliban, quicker than anyone had expected. But that victory was then threatened when Taliban prisoners held at a fortress in Mazar launched a deadly riot.
Excellent.
Last edited by USS Utah; 06-09-2018 at 05:53 PM.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
Just finished The Spoonbenders, a fun fiction about a family with mixed psychic powers in Chicago in the 90’s. I listened to it on audible and the narrator was fantastic, but I think reading it would be fun as well. It’s entertaining from the beginning, and jumps around in time and by character. Includes teenage angst, mobsters, federal agents, and a magician/con artist patriarch. Very much worth the time if you are looking to be entertained.
Last edited by chrisrenrut; 03-17-2018 at 07:25 PM.
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack by Steve Twomey
The author covers more than just the last twelve days before the attack, using the each of those days as a spring board to events and personalities key to understanding the Day of Infamy. An excellent introduction to the subject, some readers, at least, will be inspired to read more about the road to Pearl Harbor and America's participation in World War II. Twomey is a great story teller.
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Ballistic by Mark Greaney
The third installment of the Gray Man series finds Court Gentry fighting a war he didn't want against a Mexican drug cartel to protect the family of a man who once saved his life. Excellent.
--
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
The road to 9/11 may have begun in New York in the 1950s with the arrival of an Egyptian dissident, who later returned to his home country to be jailed and tortured as a radical Islamist. This man would inspire a movement in Egypt, some of whose members would later join forces with a group started by a wealthy Saudi dissident. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, many from Saudia Arabia and Egypt went to the Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight with the Mujahideen. The experience of the Osama bin Laden and the Arab Afghans, as they were called, bordered on the farcical, but out of it a legend was born. Because the truth did not match the legend, few in America could take it seriously when bin Laden declared war on the United States in the mid-1990s -- those that were aware of it, that is. Even after al Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in Africa, and a navy destroyer in a Yemen harbor, only a handful of people considered the organization a threat. Part of the reason was that the FBI and the CIA were not sharing the information each had collected on bin Laden and al Qaeda.
A fascinating book that everyone should read.
--
Admiral Arleigh Burke by E. B. Potter
After excellent biographies of Admirals William Halsey and Chester Nimitz, Potter turns his attention to Arleigh Burke. After becoming a legend commanding a squadron of destroyers in the South Pacific, Burke was appointed as chief of staff to Admiral Marc Mitscher, commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force as it fought in the Marshall, Marianas, the Philippines and off Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After the war, Burke would be caught up in the Revolt of the Admirals before becoming a negotiator in the Korean War peace talks. Then President Eisenhower would select him over a long list of senior officers to be the Chief of Naval Operations; as one of the few to serve three year terms, Burke completed his service after the Bay of Pigs fiasco under President Kennedy.
Fantastic.
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Murder Games by James Patterson
The inspiration for the new TV series Instinct, the story features a former CIA officer turned college professor and author who is called in to consult with the NYPD after a serial killer leaves his book on criminal behavior at a crime scene. I have found a certain humor in both the book and the TV series as neither takes themselves too seriously
Very good.
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The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train and Three American Heroes by Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone, and Jeffrey E. Stern.
In the summer of 2015, three friends who grew up together in Sacramento, California, reunite for a backpacking trip through Europe. On the recommendation of an American they meet in Berlin, they elect to make an unplanned trip to Amsterdam, which they enjoyed so much they contemplated skipping their planned trip to Paris. Instead, they decide to make the trip to France, which puts them on the 15:17 to Paris on August 21, 2015. These are just a few of the coincidences that put the trio on the train -- had they not gone to Amsterdam, they would have taken a different route to Paris, had they stayed in Holland, they would not have been on the train -- that Ayoub al-Khazzani boarded in Belgium, armed with an AK-47 and enough ammunition to kill hundreds.
Excellent.
Last edited by USS Utah; 06-09-2018 at 05:52 PM.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
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