I just finished this after having seen your post and description and wanted to say thanks for the recommendation, I really enjoyed it! Very much looking forward to the series continuing.Originally Posted by Casey
I just finished this after having seen your post and description and wanted to say thanks for the recommendation, I really enjoyed it! Very much looking forward to the series continuing.
Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts
Interesting book and discusses some little know wars. Pretty much eviscerates Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden over Afghanistan. Self-serving a bit, or course.
Critiques Putin but since we might let Ukraine fold, it's still an unknown. Look forward to an insurgency and probably Ukraine is stashing weapons for such - as Saddam did.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Glad you liked it! I'm looking forward to future books being released, too. Enjoyed this one enough that I got into Sigler's Infected trilogy, which I found to be a nice variation on the overplayed zombie/world-ending virus theme.
House of Rain by Craig Childs
Part wilderness travelogue, part survey of Ancestral Puebloan archeology, the author follows the path of the Anasazi from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Northern Mexico. Narratively well paced there is a vague sense of dissatisfaction at the end. This is not a failing of the author, but the nature of this prehistory. There are facts known and speculations had but, ultimately, it's all blind men describing an elephant. Here there is trace of migration over centuries, there the literal bones of massacre, elsewhere signs of long ranging trade through the Americas. It's a lot of What's, with some maybe Who's, but never the Why's. There are more questions than answers to be had.
Bought at a museum bookstore in New Mexico, this one has sat unread quote awhile. Which is shame. I've visited at least some of sites mentioned but would love to revisit them with knowledge gleaned from this read. Others I'd love to see, never having been before. Growing up, and later living again, in the Southwest may cloud my vision here, but 4 out of 5.
no one sees what's written on the spine of his own autobiography.
Porting this over from the TV/movie thread: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.
The fighting on Okinawa in the mud was horrific. There is no other way to put it.
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
The image of sliding down a muddy slope into a shell hole filled with water and rotting corpses is one that sticks with me. When Sledge describes the odor from the rotting corpses I could smell it. The campaign on Okinawa was horrific.
Just a dog chauffeur that used to hold the dumb end of the leash.
Everybody knows the book exists, but if you haven't read it: Moby Dick
I don't know what brought it to mind, but I decided to re-read it. This is at least the 3rd time I've done so. Yes, the language is old-timey and it starts out with a bunch of quotes about whales gathered from all over, which you can skip if you like without impacting the story but should at least skim IMO, but so many of the themes are timeless and the writing is just *good*. The characters are fun and sympathetic, and while probably none of us are sticking sharp metal bits in whales for their oil nor considering the proprietary of taking your harpoon to breakfast and using it to reach food further down the table, it still feels universal and timely no matter when I read it.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Call me Ishmael.
I agree...one of the great books. (Though the "whale folio" does labor on quite a bit.)
There's nothing civil about this war.
Truly a classic. Sadly, there is no way in hades you could get it published today.
Huh? You can publish anything these days. It would have been much harder in 1851 to have a book published.
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