What are you reading now...?

[craigepo]

Just finished "Heaven is for Real". Finished in about 5 hours. Amazing.

[Requiem]

The Raid. Benjamin Schemmer. My lucky find at the thrift store this week.

S.

Jack Dale gave me a copy of Matt Taibbi's book, "GRIFTOPIA".

The detailed history of the current financial situtation of America and the world.

Best chapter so far, "The biggest Asshole in the Universe", a quick glance of Alan Greenspan.

Get a copy, and you can be pissed off, just like me.

[Flame Magnet]

Just finished "Lone Survivor", about to start reading "The Only Thing Worth Dying For."

[Richard]

Latest issue of Veritas which came in yesterday's mail - focus is ARSOF in the Korean War and PSYOPs.

My tax dollars at work!

Richard

[Guntry Kong]

The Paleo Diet the caveman approach to eating right. Next up is Raising a Gifted Child

[Richard]

African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study - a study of African American authors from slave narratives and antebellum newspapers into fiction writing which analyzes works of modern African American mystery writers, focusing on sleuths, the social locations of crime, victims and offenders, the notion of doing justice, and the role of African American cultural vernacular.

[Hammock]

Noticias de un Secuestro and Relato de un naufrago by Garcia Marquez; Do the Work by Steven Pressfield.

Incidentally, I use the Kindle app for my phone for most of the new books I read. Whenever I have downtime or time that would otherwise go to waste (like waiting in line at the supermarket), it's really easy to pull out the phone out and and lose myself in whatever I am reading.

[Richard]

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens; Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces; Sister Wendy's Impressionist Masterpieces.

Richard

[Holyfire23]

Just finished:

I just finished a book called Kill or Capture by Matthew Alexander. I really enjoyed this book. It provided a nice glimpse into how an interrogator with the Air Force was able to solicit information from captured Al-Qaeda supporters in Iraq. Most of the book is just recorded interrogations between him and the targets he captured. But it's great because you get an inside look at the different techniques he uses. He's a big advocate of non-enhanced interrogation techniques (I don't know the technical name), but basically building rapport with the target and gaining information through persuasion and psychological slights. I really loved it.

Currently Reading:

The Good Soldiers by David Finkel: I like this book so far. It's kind of giving me a reality check on the reality of war. That's kind of the purpose of this book: to emphasize what this battalion really went through over there. I'm sort of ticked with myself as I read this book. I keep realizing how much I've romanticized war---a negative side effect of all the episodes of The Unit and Call of Duty games that I have seen and played. As mad as I am at myself for being so naive, I'm glad I get to read this book. I'd rather suffer some introspective humiliation and move on with a more informed perspective than live with my head in the clouds.

A Greif Observed by C.S. Lewis

Miracles by C.S. Lewis

On my list:

Brotherhood of Warriors by Aaron Cohen

Counterinsurgency by David Kilcullen (I bought a counterinsurgency book way back by a guy named Leroy Thompson. I heard some opinions about Thompson that led me to conclude he wasn't the best source to be learning about counterinsurgency from. I wondered if David Kilcullen was any better, but I took a chance. If anyone has any info about Kilcullen, I'd love to know. Basically I'm wondering if he's legitimate.)

Sorry for all the talking. I'm done now.

[SCT27]

Just finished reading "The Heart and the Fist" by Eric Greitens.

Eric Greitens, a young college student at the time, wanted to help in the humanitarian effort in impoverished countries. He traveled to many third world countries to help in the humanitarian effort, and it made him realize that you can't cure the worlds problem by just having humanitarians that have 'hearts'. You need Strong Men to stand up and fight the causes of these problems. So he became a Seal Officer to 'fight' back.

Great book that shows, as Greitens mentions on the dust jacket, "sometimes you have to be strong to do good, but you also have to do good to be strong".

[craigepo]

Originally Posted by Holyfire23

A Greif Observed by C.S. Lewis

Miracles by C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis was great. Mere Christianity was a heckuva book. It was written from the talks he gave while London was being bombed. Very intelligent guy, very gifted.

[Holyfire23]

Originally Posted by craigepo

C.S. Lewis was great. Mere Christianity was a heckuva book. It was written from the talks he gave while London was being bombed. Very intelligent guy, very gifted.

I agree. It's taking me a little longer to get through his books compared to others. I have to take it one chapter at a time, chew it over, and then move on.

[wildelectric]

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield and Critique of Pure Reason by Kant. Both are developing me as a warrior.

[Quietus]

I'm halfway through a 2000 novel by James Carlos Blake called "Wildwood Boys." It's a sympathetic portrayal of the life and times of a Missouri partisan who we have come to know as "Bloody Bill Anderson."

I'm reluctant to praise the writing talents of fiction writers, but Blake writes well. Besides telling well a story, he is pretty accurate about the making of paper cartridge loads for cap and ball revolvers, and the carrying of spare loaded cylinders for the pistols.

The book does trouble me some, because it makes me think about how thick (or thin) the veneer of what we think of as our USA civilization might be. Knowing of riots and of post-Katrina behavior does not in any way compare to the way participants from both sides of this relatively recent conflict, treated their enemies. I had known from reading, about what a bad place Missouri was during the war between the states. This book gets down in the dirt, regarding what we now call "atrocities", done right here.