Book Reports

...to have this story documented to this level of detail is an important contribution to understanding the beginnings of Himalayan mountaineering and how the WWI experience of its participants helped to shape the overall effort.

This book centers around Allon's second attempt to end Salidin's career of terror.

We learn that the new Russia is not ruled by laws, but by capricious men in search of power an wealth.

This is an esoteric book about a WWI victory against German forces by a consolidated Canadian force ensconced within the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and how that victory has been massaged over the last one hundred years to serve as a symbol for Canadian national unity.

"We have left everything, but I don't care for that. We ave got through with our lives. Don't let this letter dishearten anybody. Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can."

Virginia Reed (Letter to cousin from Donner Party survivor).

By the way, I remain an inveterate supporter of buying real books from independent bookstores. I prefer reading real books... as opposed to reading e-books.

I had a hard time restraining my schadenfreude (but, I did!) in reading the book's riveting accounts of the shock, tears and disappointment of Hillary's supporters on learning that she would lose the election.

The account of Carmack and Skookum Jim coming upon the gold is thrilling to read.

The book has more of a human face than most of the WWI accounts I have read, to date, by focusing on the experience of individuals. The book covers a diverse array of subjects, yet brings the far flung events together putting the war in understandable context.

Keegan's "The First World War" ties it all together.

I knew a fair amount about the Pacific War when it involved the United States. But, the Brit's fiasco in Singapore had eluded me... until this trip.

Behind the scenes was developing a long and passionate love affair between Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.

The two young men, Churchill and Gandhi, together on the South African veld during the Boer War, would go on to become two of the most recognizable icons of the twentieth century. Their forty-year rivalry would seal the fate of India and the British Empire.

McArthur was against dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.

I think a part of every man wants to be Reacher. He carries only a tooth brush and a bank card in his pocket. He doesn't need a watch to tell the exact time. He has no home. He lives on overnight busses and in cheap motel rooms. He buys new clothes at Walmart every three days or so, and trashes the dirty clothes he wears. And... of course.... he's a real bad ass.

Look. The idea of "elites" managing world affairs by assassination arising from the collective, "managed," powers of kidnapped, telekinetic and telepathic kids is a pretty wild idea.

Thor does a great job in informing on current dynamics in the Middle East.

The hope that French Muslims would accept liberal values and embrace the virtues of a secular state, he says, was based on little more than "self-flattery and naivete."

There's two kinds of people that don't ask a lot of questions. One is too dumb to and the other don't need to. p. 298

The cultural foundations laid by Catherine buttress Russian cultural resiliency today. That is why it is important to understand Catherine the Great.

A modern equivalent would be Al Gore pushing his cause for man caused warming by using no fossil fuel fired transportation. He would start by only riding a bicycle. If he had to meet discuss with people out of his area he would do by teleconference.

One of Silva's best. I thought the series was getting a little tired with the last offerings, "English Girl," and English Spy."

Carry this book with you for an eloquent description of how America is being undermined by its Ruling Class and what can be done to reverse the decline.

Anne Frank's diary entries show remarkable depth of insight into human character, particularly coming from an early teen.

Is the author's message that Gregor was already living an alienated life? A life void of any humane appreciation? Were his emotions cold and his ability to communicate constrained so as to have already turned him into the equivalent of an insect?

And what about us?

Mike Callen has been very kind to ghost write my book review, though his review is of the movie (scroll).

The echoes of the disposition of these Ottoman territories in 1918 reverberate today, almost 100 years later.

I learned, for one thing, that I had known of the level of low grade Islamic insurgency still going on in the Caucasus while we were there, I might not have wanted to go there in the first place in 2014. But, then, ignorance is bliss?

He's all there. Classic Reacher.