Where It All Began

Sunday, February 12, 2012

A little blurry but this is the group of us going.

1 comment:

DADMarch 16, 2012 at 7:54 AM
I was just thinking..will everyone continue to wear what I call fatigues as long as there are troops in combat? Is this what you told me? Is there another uniform that is not "dress" that is worn anywhere?
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Reading List

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (Not my typical book but it was well written and short enough to allow me to get through it :). It deals with how we see our past and the responsibility we have for how our life turns out, including the impact we have on others. A search for meaning without God but he does raise interesting ideas about actively living vs. letting life happen to you.)
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (I liked East of Eden more (I prefer the individual to the group) but I can see why it is a favorite of lit classes. There are so many different themes he explores through one family. It gives you a good sense of the desperation experienced during the Depression.)
The Training of the Twelve - A. B. Bruce (I have been working on this one for a while. It is not only long but very dense - not something to be absorbed the first time through. Bruce does an excellent job of using the gospels to show how Jesus brought a group of rather non-descript men together and trained them to be the Apostles that would oversee the development of his Church. He has a lot of very good insight on why Jesus taught what he did when he did.)
Airframe - Michael Crichton (I think he got interested in airplanes and how they are made so he decided to write a book to subsidize his research. The plot is weak but interesting if you are curious about airplanes.)
84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff (a wonderful little book of twenty years of letters between a book loving writer in New York (Helene) and a used book store in London)
The Hunger Games (book III) - Suzanne Collins (now that I have read all three I have to adjust my first impression - the writing is still about average but there are ideas and plot lines that got me thinking. Too complicated to discuss here)
The Home of the Blizzard - Douglas Mawson (a very entertaining story of the Australasian Antarctic expedition. I had only read reference to this expedition as it happened at the same time as Scott's but they had their own share of hardships)
East of Eden - John Steinbeck. (there is a reason some books are classics - it's fun to read a really good writer. He does a good job of exposing the weakness of man in his sinful nature)
The Hunger Games (book II) - Suzanne Collins (best described as cotton candy for the mind)
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift (I don't think I have ever read the whole book before, I enjoyed it and it is amazing how much of the critique is still applicable today - I guess people don't change much :)
In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin - Erik Larson (interesting personal look at the beginning of Hitler's reign from the American ambassador but too much in the weeds for me)
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (another attempt at light fiction with better results)
Killing Lincoln - Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (why you would put your name to this I don't know - grade school level reading and added nothing to the much better books on the subject already out there)
The Commanders - Bob Woodward (a good analysis of the lead up to Desert Storm)
The Girl With The Dragoon Tattoo -Stieg Larsson (something to break up the non-fiction but I don't recommend it)
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur - William Manchester (I learned a lot about a man I knew very little)
Blink: The power of thinking without thinking - Malcom Gladwell (a fascinating look at how our subconscious can process vast amounts of information without us even realizing it)
Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris (the third book in his biography - excellent)
Christian Science Monitor - still the best news magazine I have found
Daily Bible - so far I am keeping up :)
Foreign Affairs - A subscription I picked up before I left, so far I am not disappointed - I read them cover to cover