Latest reading material

[Greg]

I was able to get "In the Stormy Red Sky", David Drake's new Leary book, through interlibrary loan. They had a copy available in Rockaway, which makes a certain amount of sense.

It's really good. (I have all the others, but I only buy them in paperback.)

[MiddleAgedKen]

Bandito, I would be grateful for a review of The Driver when you're finished. I read Mises.org daily and I took note of those. The Cleveland library system has a couple Garet Garrett books, but not that one.

[Rod]

"Horse Soldiers" is a good book. Tells about the first Spec Ops people in Iraq and the capture of the fort at Mazar-I-Sharif, the uprising by the Taliban prisoners there, and John Walker Linde's journey to the fort.

Hate to say it but the "Last Survivor" book is basically a retelling of how he became a SEAL. Last 1/3 is the battle and aftermath.

[martini]

I have a copy of the new Patriot's sitting on my desk, where it will stay unread until I finish Liberty and Tyranny(which is fantastic if dry) and Trail Safe, which is fantastic and enjoyable read.

[Bandito]

Bandito, I would be grateful for a review of The Driver when you're finished. I read Mises.org daily and I took note of those. The Cleveland library system has a couple Garet Garrett books, but not that one.

Thumbs up, and I'll be ordering two others from the Mises website. I'm not much of a reviewer, so do check out the introductory info on that website.

Don't expect anything like "that book." This is much shorter and doesn't have the character and plot development that one would look for in a lengthier work (not to mention presentation of a new philosophy). More along the general lines of "Calumet K", another business novel of the same general era.

It starts a little slow in the first chapter or so, which basically set the stage and get the narrator into position to tell the rest of the story. The writing style may be viewed as being a little dated, but you get used to it in a few pages.

I think the author was drawing from the real life histories of a number of great businessmen. I see some of E.H. Harriman, Andrew Carnegie, JJ Hill, and possibly John D. Rockefeller in the hero of the book, Henry Galt.

It's a good yarn of a visionary business hero living in the times of America when was great. It also has some messages for our current times, and some strong (and excellent) viewpoints on monetary issues. (ScottFree would like the sections on bi-metallism, and its inevitable results courtesy of Gresham's Law.)

The author even managed to get some bits on modern "art" into the plot--and I always love a good bashing of modern "art."

You'll have to read the book to find out if he gets the girl in the end (of the story, that is).

[workinwifdakids]

I'm reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I'm only 1/3 through, but it is really good.

[Drone 7 of lots more]

...Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton About the Special Ops guys in Afghanistan who fought at Mazar-i-Sharif and rode to combat on horseback.

I'm still wondering what's the big deal, you play the hand you're dealt...(this coming from a guy who spent the majority of his army career in the cavalry, a strangely horseless cavalry...)

[Drone 7 of lots more]

Would you believe I just got a library card yesterday? First time I've had one in about 15 years.

And in my little old town library I found volumes by Tom Kratman and Thomas Sowell on the shelf. So I took them out. (And the librarian didn't give me the eye. There are Republican pockets in Jersey.)

My library has all the Babylon 5 stuff. Been working my way though that.

apropos of nothing, I came of the opinion that B5 was more about Lando and G'Kar and only tangentially about D'len and Sheridan.

Oh yeah, and also I really wish that Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) was still around...

[HTRN]

One of these days, I've got to sit down and finish reading Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill. Interesting reading, but man, is it ever dry reading..


HTRN

[Greg]

Last week I read "Escape from Hell" by Niven and Pournelle. (I've read their "Inferno" and yes I've read Dante's Divine Comedy, the Mandelbaum translation.) I enjoyed it, though there were a few jarring BDS notes. Yes, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Pournelle LOATHES Bush and anything "neocon", and well, it's in the book.

This week I'm starting "The German Wars" by D.J. Goodspeed. Enjoying it already.