Longitudes and Attitudes, Thomas L. Friedman

Longitudes and Attitudes:  Exploring the World After September 11 by Thomas L. Friedman is a short term retrospective on the authors columns and a work diary behind them.

Started:  8/11/2013

Completed: 8/15/2013

Recommendation: Not recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody, just saw the title and went with it.

Review:

This is a story about trying to come to grips with September 11th and doing so in both a global sense and on a global stage. Thomas Friedman's perspective on the Jewish/Arab conflict (whether accurate, correct, and complete or not) infuses the story with both an urgency to refocus on Israel or resolve all of the shortcomings of a variety of Arab states. I think that this is part of a desire to DO SOMETHING. There is a pervasive thought that America can solve the worldwide issues that led to bin Laden's attack. I wonder if this is true and believe it not to be despite some rather persuasive argument by Freidman. I think that he probably feels that American cannot solve this issue, but can be an impediment to its resolution. It was very interesting to learn about hte background of the terrorists who attacked the United States. It was particularly sobering to realize that bin Laden's perspective was that he had forced Russia out of Afghanistan and the subsequent collapse of the Russian economic state. The information in this book is so quickly dated, it is interesting as a near history read, but I'm not convinced beyond the few facts I have pointed out here, how much value can be derived from the book even as a useful historical document.

In The Garden of Beasts, Erik Larson

In the Garden of Beasts:  Love, Terror, and American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson is a book that I decided to read simply because I've found Erik Larson's other books (Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City) really compelling reads.

Started: 8/2/2013
Completed: 8/10/2013
Recommendation: Looking at the Nazi's is hard, but if you can take it in general, this is a pretty darn good book
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a look at Nazi Germany through the eyes of the unusual American Diplomat.  Dodd was a historian and teacher in his 60s who was sent by FDR to Germany as Hitler rose in power.  His initial predilections were pro-German based largely on time in his youth spend studying there.  He slowly came to understand the horror of the Nazi government and came to despise them.  Travelling with him is his wife and two children (both adults).  His daughter is a socialite who has many indelicate moments with a wide variety of men of many different nationalities.  Using largely original material, Larson reconstructs what life was like for the Dodds and takes us along for the journey.  It is an odd way to look at Germany during this period and I really appreciated the new perspective.  It is hard to walk away from this book "liking" it.  The Nazi's taint everything they touch and this book suffers from the subject mater, not anything with the author or his approach.

Boomerang, Michael Lewis

Boomerang:  Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis is a book that was featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  The interview caught my attention, so I thought I should read the book.  I'm familiar with another of his works, Moneyball.

Started: 7/26/2013
Completed: 8/2/2013
Recommendation: For the 99%
Recommended by:  Jon Stewart

Review:

There was a big financial crash a little while back and there was lots of talk about how the whole financial system could collapse if the American Tax Payer didn't TARP out a ton of bucks.  So we did.  Now banks are making record profits again.  For the most part, we got our money back.  This book helps explain what started then and why it hasn't stopped.  DON'T LOOK AT SPAIN.  If you wondered why the whole banking system was at risk, this book is for you.  If you are sketchy on what a sub-prime mortgage is, go check that out before you start.  You might also want to bone up on swaps.  DON'T LOOK AT SPAIN.  This book does a decent job of explaining what happens even if the why, in detail, is rather difficult to follow.  The huge burned swath of the financial market is easy enough to navigate and this book works hard at making that navigation easy.  DON'T LOOK AT SPAIN.  There are no prognostications of where and how our next financial issue is going to hit, but the book does a really good job of describing how things happened from a personal perspective.  DON'T LOOK AT SPAIN.  Michael Lewis takes you to the individuals who both caused and are trying to resolve the mess.  Vallejo, CA was particularly sobering.  Most importantly, keep your head in the sand and don't look at Spain (when the book was written Spain was not the issue it is today).

Me Again, Keith Cronin

Me Again by Keith Cronin is a novel that I picked up quite some time ago...it is about a stroke victim and that reminded me of my grandfather.

Started: 7/12/2013
Completed: 7/24/2013
Recommendation:  Great, uplifting story that is well written
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

This book is not what I thought it would be.  I was expecting a Rocky Balboa feel-good recovery from stroke story.  What I got was a much more interesting story.  This book focuses on the internal effects caused by a stroke.  Everyone can see the outside damage.  The changes that come inside (not damage) can profoundly effect a person's personality.  It seems obvious that if a stroke can make it hard to walk, it can change the way one thinks or even what one thinks about.  Even fundamental things can be changed.  This book is a hard look at finding out about those changes and learning to get comfortable with them.  As a first person narrative, you really only "get inside the head" of one person, but you can see how he looks at the world in a way that would have been alien to his pre-stroke self.  In the narrator's case, this is broadly a really good thing.   Another character has to decide if she will try to become her old self or embrace the new.  A carefully, well written book that caused me to stop and think more often then just turn the page.  Just the way I like them :).



Imperial Cruise, James Bradley

The Imperial Cruise:  A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley was recommended to me by a relative of a friend who is of Phillipino descent.  It was made clear to me that this book would be troubling.

Started: 7/21/2013
Completed: 7/26/2013
Recommendation: Conservatively recommended
Recommended By: Relative of a friend

Review:

There is no doubt that James Bradley thinks little of Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft.  I was frankly stunned at the amount of evidence he put together to demonstrate why he holds this opinion.  The American policies toward the "Far East" starting in the late 1890s is simply repulsive to a modern reader.  I think that you have to be a skin head to find the policy anything less than reprehensible.  I have known that Teddy had some edges to him, but I had no idea how bad it was.  The horrible things we did in the Philippines and in the far east in general are simply unspeakable.  We visited the Aryan myth on the Far East before Hitler could do the same on Europe in general.  Bradley argues that  the actions of the United States led inevitably to the Japanese attack on us in WWII.  While his argument may be overly strong, it has legs.

Degrees of Freedom, Simon Morden

Degrees of Freedom by Simon Morden is the sequel to Theories of Flight which I have enjoyed as the on-going saga of Samuil Petrovitch

Started: 7/9/2013

Completed:  7/18/2013

Recommendation: Very good

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Sam is at it again, saving the world (or at least the Metrozone).  Now he faces the CIA and the entire United States while trying to free Michael.  There is also an evolution in Sam's character as he becomes introspective and some of his own motives for his behaviors start to become clear to the reader as he realizes them for himself.  Most of the main characters from the previous books become bit players in this book with the possible exception of Tabletop who seems to have her own epiphanies that just sort of appear in this first person perspective story.

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik is a book I've had sitting on my kindle for years.  Not sure how or why I picked it up.  It might be because it was nominated for a Hugo Award.

Started:  7/2/2013

Completed: 7/12/2013

Recommendation: Really good, fun, read

Recommended By:  No idea

Review:

WHAT A GREAT STORY!  Dragons as ships of the air is a great concept.  The real problem, however, is how they can't be "disposable."  What if they bond with their Captain and only work well with the person to whom they are bonded?  What if they are rare?  Oh, man, now you have a story.  There is Napoleon, too.  1700s formality meets "Top Gun" aces/dragons.  The dragons can be wicked smart as well.  Fantastic concept, beautiful execution...oh, yeah, I'm gonna read the next one.