History is a story.  There’s a timeline; a plot (even if it’s derived later); heroes and villains; uncertain conclusions; some resolutions and loads of stuff to be learned or enjoyed along the way.  Just like in a good novel.  Well, sort of.  History writers have great fodder for books, but often don’t execute well enough to tell a story like a good novelist does.  This is NOT the case for Charlie Wilson’s War.  This book is outstanding.  The author, George Crile, long time producer of the show 60 Minutes, uses the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction facts available to him to tell a story about a totally wild, frequently drunk, womanizing, power abusing Texas Congressman who was responsible for “the CIA’s victory against the USSR in Afghanistan.”

Who knew that while Ronald Reagan was unsuccessfully funding rebels in Nicaragua, it was an out-of-control Congressman who was making sure that the USSR bankrupted itself trying to fight their own Vietnam against the Afghans?  The characters are straight out of a good novel, although I doubt any writer would be inventive enough to manufacture stories like the real ones recounted in this book.

At times, the book is a scary lesson in how politics inside the Beltway really work.  At times it’s about military strategy and at times it’s like a great spy novel with real super-covert CIA guys.  It’s about what I expect would be produced if Tom Clancy and Bob Woodward got together to write a book.

If you like history, spy stuff, underdog stories or just plain ol’ good historic story telling, check this book out.  You’ll have a blast.  Absolutely one of my new all-time favorites and great summer reading.

Note: When googling the book, I found out that there is a movie being produced due out this year based on it.  Starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and directed by Mike Nichols.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Most of the books that I’ve read recently have been of the mindless, for-entertainment-only variety.  Completely enjoyable and filled with unreal torrid sex, death-defying drug usage, flagrant murder and spies that would put James Bond to shame.  While I thoroughly enjoyed these novels while I read them, not a single one of them is worthy of consuming space in my memory or reliving on this blog.  The last two books I’ve read, though, represent an intentional return to reality or, at least, to politics, politicians and world affairs.  As much as that represents reality.

The first, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama is his treatise on who he is and what he believes in.  Of course, it’s the introductory book for his run for the presidency, but I liked it more than most of books of this kind.  I enjoyed his writing thoroughly and his folksy style makes it a pleasant read.  Whether you like his policies and beliefs or not, his point of view on the current state of American society is interesting and his pragmatic viewpoint is refreshing.  He’s a little short on the detail of his solutions, but he does paint a picture of what he believes is wrong and the direction he would take the country if he were in charge fairly well.

The second, Jimmy Carter’s, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid had a far greater impact on me and I can’t say it was entirely pleasant.  If you strip away Carter’s promotion of the work of the Carter Center and his references to international trips with his wife Rosalynn, you expose his indictment of Israel and the country’s responsibility, in Carter’s view, of being the biggest issue in Middle-Eastern peace.

As I started reading this book, I found I was incredibly defensive.  Having consumed the pro-Israel Kool-Ade my entire life.  But, as the I made it further into the book, I realized how much propaganda I’ve been subject to over time about the state of things in the region and about who’s responsible.  Carter’s arguments certainly are flavored by his personal involvement with peace in the region and are a bit self-aggrandizing, but in general, they are factual and indicate more than just his own views.

I think that Carter could have done a better job presenting both sides of the story in this book.  While he describes the Israeli side of things, he doesn’t do so in a balanced fashion.  In most cases, he spends a chapter describing the problem and how the Israeli’s exacerbate it, then wraps up the section with a brief statement on why Israel is compelled to act the way it does in the particular circumstance.  By writing this way, he ignores a zillion years of history and only does justice to the pain felt in one camp.  Then again, this may be my defensiveness showing . . .

In the end, though, Carter’s argument is compelling.  Both sides need to make compromises in their positions, of course, but Carter shows how, outside of its concessions to Egypt (for which he gives Sadat the most credit), Israel hasn’t given up much since the 1967 war, including any of its gains from that war.  Carter never ignores the complexity of the issue, but boils down the solution to simple terms; there must be two states - Israel and Palestine - that mutually recognize one another; Israel is going to have to give back some land to create a real Palestinian state out of the land it took in the 1967 war; and some international cross-religious group is going to have to broker access to the holy places in the region including, of course, Jerusalem.

Painful but compelling book.  A must read.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I haven’t done a book review in a while, but having just finished You Suck: A Love Story, I had to write a few sentences about it.  While I don’t think it’s nearly as good as A Dirty Job, or Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Moore’s irreverent writing is still a hoot.  If you haven’t experienced Moore’s off-beat humor, my favorite passage from the book is a great example:

“But apparently, the entire fucking country shuts down on Christmas, slammed under the oppressive iron fist of the baby Jesus, so out of nine Starbucks we try, all are closed.”

It’s a very quick read and a lot of fun.  If you’re looking for your first Moore experience, though, I’d start with A Dirty Job or Lamb.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Listening to the President’s speech made me think about Woodward’s book’s on Bush and Iraq.  Wasn’t General Shinseki fired for saying we needed more troops in Iraq at the beginning of the war?

During December, the release of Bob Woodward’s third book on the Bush administration and the war in Iraq finally compelled me to read all three in his series,

• Plan of Attack
• Bush at War
• State of Denial

First, I can’t recommend that anyone read all three unless you enjoy the rehashing of the same data in multiple forms.  Also, Woodward seems to change some of his points of view of the data between books, drawing different conclusions as the series moves forward.

Second and more importantly, what can I say . . . reading the books made me fell sad, distraught, embarrassed, disappointed, disgusted and a flood of other emotions with almost too many adjectives required to describe them.

I am always a bit wary of any one historian’s view of events.  History is very easy to shape and virtually all historians do so to make their own point.  Revisionist history from the cheap seats is very easy and frequently invoked.  With that in mind, Woodward’s characterization of the events leading up to, entering and continuing the war in Iraq certainly made understand the extreme egotism, idealism and a range of other goals and agendas that were at play.  After reading the books, though, I was surprised how much I felt like the biggest issue was actually one of mismanagement, incompetence and poor decision-making.

Tenent’s abdication of his guardian role and Powell’s ultimate good soldier capitulation represented the ultimate breakdown in any checks and balances that should exist.  Of course, President Bush, as the buck-stops-here manager didn’t appear to work too hard to get at any dissension in the ranks either.  The President’s misguided and distorted patriotism clearly caused him to blatantly disregard the facts.  Of course the various lies, bullying and personal agendas only served to make the situation that much harder to deal with.

By now, everyone has an opinion on the good and the bad, the right and the wrong.  Again, my breakthrough was the concept of seriously screwed up management in the White House.  Not a good sign for the future.  As if I need another bad harbinger.

Tenent’s and Powell’s failures to sway the administration remain the points from Woodward’s writing that will echo in my head long after I forget the amazing quantities of stupid other stuff that went on.

Of course, the President asked Colin Powell for his opinion on the matter of war with Iraq.  Powell clearly stated his opinion against going to war.  In the summer of 2002, according to Woodward, Powell told the President:

“You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people . . . You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You’ll own it all.

Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called this the Pottery Barn rule: “You break it, you own it.”

They appear to have been correct . . .

Popularity: 8% [?]

I’ve been reading loads of fiction lately, but I squeezed in a couple of non-fiction books just to keep myself slightly aware of the real world.  The first was iWoz by Steve Wozniak (duh).  I was really disappointed in this book.  The jacket has a quote from Guy Kawasaki that states that “iWoz is the personal computer generation’s Soul of a New Machine.”  Sorry, while it’s interesting to learn about the other guy from Apple, the comparison just isn’t reasonable.  There are one or two chapters that discuss Apple, and you get a little feel about Woz and Apple in other chapters, but mostly, the book is Steve Wosniak’s memoir - and he clearly wants you to know that Apple was a relatively small and, perhaps, less-significant part of who he is than we might think otherwise.  Quick read; interesting guy; not what I was looking for.

The next book was How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander.  I really liked this book, but if you’re not into military history, it may be boring for you.  I’ve written several posts previously on the relationship between military leadership and business leadership.  This book offers a glimpse of the achievements of the greatest military leaders of all time - Hannibal, Mao Zedong, Stonewall Jackson, Napoleon, Rommel, Scipio, etc.  This is not a business book, per se, but I believe there are loads of business lessons that can be drawn from it.  A bit of a long read, but the author does a good job at building a flowing story around each general and his exploits.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I’ve never read a comic book in my life.  But, like every guy on the planet with Luke Skywalker-esque delusions of saving the world (universe?), I’m fascinated by the prospect that superheroes might exist.  OK, maybe my fascination is with the idea that I might secretly be one.  So, the idea of mapping real science to the powers of comic superheroes drove me to pick up this book in a second.  After all, if I did have super powers I needed to know how to unleash them.

I have just two words to describe my disappointment in the book: “don’t bother.”  The book goes into long, boring descriptions of why the powers of superheroes are impossible (duh!).  This, of course, destroyed forever my dreams of being or becoming one.  OK, so the super gravity of Krypton wouldn’t be enough to enable Superman to fly on Earth.  Who cares?  Just go ahead and burst my bubble.  Jeez!  No new information here.  I guess I was just ignorantly hoping that at least one superhero had powers supported by physics.  Batman comes close, but who wants to wear that costume.

In any case, my non-x-ray vision did help me finish the book.  I did enjoy the brief descriptions of the origin of the comic books and the characters a lot. This was all new to me.  The brief discussions about the authors and artists was also quite interesting.  These sections were relatively short and few and far between.  Not enough to redeem the book.

Once again I was suckered in by a book’s cover.  Isn’t there some warning about that?  Like I said, don’t bother.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Overthrow documents the US’s effort at regime change over the last 125 years.  The author, Stephen Kinzer, goes to great lengths to discuss not only the actions themselves, but the reasons behind them.  While having a slightly liberal view of what went on and why, Overthrow is an interesting read for those less initiated (like me) in all the US did to support corporations, expand its military presence and prevent the adoption of communism outside of it’s own borders.

The book often spends too much time pounding home the idea that the US screwed up most of these actions in retrospect and not enough time trying to detail the situation at the time that drove the decision.  Also, Kinzer often assumes that without America’s interference, the best-case scenario would have existed in the country affected - true democracy would have prevailed, wealth would have been better distributed, dictatorships would have been quashed.  Unlikely, of course.  It is reasonable to assume, though, that in several of the cases in which the US supported dictators, that the country might have been far better off without any US involvement.

Most of the governmental overthrow actions by the US were clearly driven by America’s efforts to support its large corporations overseas - manufacturing and exporting bananas, oil, sugar, etc.  Taft’s “dollar diplomacy” drove most of America’s international policy for many years.  I was surprised though at how much the fear of the spread of communism did to drive many of the country’s actions.  Note that it was not usually communism itself, but the fear of communism.  It was clear that during several administrations, communistic myopia was the driving force behind the initiation of many otherwise pointless coups or coup attempts.

If you’re interested a bit of the dark side of American history and can stand a little too much detail in exactly how each action took place as well as slight left slant to the story, then this book is worth a read.  Not a terrific book, in my opinion, but informative and mostly enjoyable.

Popularity: 7% [?]

 

• Narrator: Joe Mantegna - One of My Favorites
• Genre: Murder, Detective
• Writing: Excellent
• Story: Very Good
• Time: 15 hours 6 minutes

I’m not a huge fan of murder mysteries, but having read and enjoyed one of Deaver’s other books about his master, limb-challenged (quadriplegic) detective, Lincoln Rhyme, The Empty Chair, I thought I’d give another one a shot.

This book was thoroughly enjoyable and kept me guessing all the way.  Matching wits with the ace ex-NYC detective Rhyme, is a serial killer they call The Watchmaker.  A virtual equal to Rhyme in terms of skills, although converted to the dark side of course, The Watchmaker seems to always stay one step ahead of Rhyme and his team.

I found Deaver’s ability to intertwine two cases far better than the usual coalescing of stories that you find in this type of novel.  At points in the story, it’s not even clear that the plot lines will ever converge.  When they do, though, it’s subtle and meaningful to the story.

The only downside to Deaver’s style is his desire to review all of the forensic evidence to date many times throughout the story.  This results in the reciting of long lists of information already obvious from the telling of the story.  The technique creates breaks in the suspense that are unneeded and distracting.

That said, the book is a no-brainer if you enjoy murder mysteries.  It is well put together, reasonably fast-paced and loaded with surprises.  Highly recommended

With this book/audiobook review, I’m going to start to add a couple of additional categories; relative amount of sex that takes place, approximate numbers of deaths that occur and the overall description of gore.  A reader of this blog suggested that she could not possibly find my reviews useful unless I included these facts and I suppose I agree.

Without being as eloquent, I’m going to try to mimic Joe Bob Briggs’ great drive-in movie reviews in which he always included at least the breast count, pints of blood spilled, number of kung-fu fights and so forth.

The Cold Moon included no sex; less death than you’d expect from a murder mystery, although detailed descriptions of planned methods of murder; and gruesome details about the few deaths that do occur.

Popularity: 7% [?]

After reading Moore’s latest book, A Dirty Job, one of the funniest books I’ve ever read with a truly inventive story line, my good friend, Brad Feld strongly recommended I read this book.  I think Brad said something about it being the greatest book ever written . . . Since he reads about 10,000 books a year, I consider that a sound endorsement.

This book is incredible.  Not the same deep belly-laughs that A Dirty Job brought on for me, but extremely funny – challenging ALL of the stereotypes created in the Bible as well as the folklore that surrounds it while still respecting the the fundamental teachings of the Book and not being offensively sacrilegious (in my view – right-thinking Christians take notice, you may be ended).  Extraordinarily done.

The story is told from the point of view of Christ’s best friend, Biff.  Biff, recounts what happened in the 30 un-chronicled years of Christ’s life – between birth and death, basically.  During this time, Christ (Moore refers to him as Joshua) and Biff travel throughout the world so that Joshua can learn how to be the Messiah.  On the way, they learn kung fu, how to raise the dead, what it is to be a Jew and enjoy bacon and a lot about sex – Joshua learns voyeuristically through Biff, of course.

The secret to much of Moore’s humor is his ability to hit the nail on the head in a comedic way.  When Joshua and Biff are learning how to focus on the moment in a Buddhist Monastery, Biff ponders:

“It’s hard for me, a Jew, to stay in the moment. Without the past, where is the guilt? And without the future, where is the dread? And, without guilt and dread, who am I?

Perfect.

This book is an absolute must read.  Those who are non-religious will find it a blast as a story.  Those who are mildly religious will find it funny and maybe even enlightening – a fresh view that doesn’t change the message of the beginning or end of the life of mankind’s Savior.  Those who are strongly religious should remember – it’s only a novel and isn’t meant to be a re-write of the Bible.

Popularity: 7% [?]

• Narrator: Armand Schultz - Just OK
• Genre: Espionage, Thriller
• Writing: Good
• Story: Good
• Time: 4 hours 40 minutes

First, I should say that my view of this audio book is severely tainted because it’s abridged.  I couldn’t find an unabridged edition.  I suppose publishers think that long audio books are too long for the attention span of an average American.  Perhaps they’re right, but I hate abridged books.  I don’t care if it takes me a month to finish a good audio book – just tell me the whole story.  From what little I heard of the story, I think that the unabridged version would be quite good.

This is my second Vince Flynn book and the second time I’ve read about Mitch Rapp, Vince Flynn’s CIA superhero.  My first Vince Flynn book was Consent To Kill, which was very enjoyable.  Rapp isn’t one of those heros that has super-human skills, other than the fact he narrowly escapes from being killed frequently.  His power comes from having saved the President of the United States several times and having kept Americans relatively holocaust free during his many years of service.  For that, he gets to pretty much boss the President around and do what he feels is the right thing for his country.  Yeah, silly, but it works.  We all want to be like Luke Skywalker, but we all want guys like Vince Flynn covering our backs.

I like the story – Israeli, Palestinian, Middle-Eastern destruction and terrorism have taken over for the cold war.  The abridged book skips all the detail and, therefore, the intricacies of the story and its real flavor, though.

I wouldn’t hesitate to read or listen to an unabridged version of this book.  Just don’t bother with the Reader’s Digest edition.

Popularity: 7% [?]