Welcome to ASFN Fan Forums! We're glad to have you here. Please feel free to browse the forum. We'd like to invite you to join our community; doing so will enable you to view additional forums and post with our other members.
Registered Members don't see these ads. Register now it's free!
I just finished readin The Assassins' Gate, which was absolutely phenomenal (it really carved its own niche admist the deluge of books on the Iraq war). I'm currently reading Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, and the parallels to modern American government are astounding. I'm only ~100 pages in, but I can already tell that this one is going to keep me up past midnight.
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
It had taken me awhile to listen to this one...but man it is really great stuff. Watching John Adams on HBO got me picking this up again. Not the same things, but the same timeframe. Slavery, Jefferson's paranoia about the Federalists, the Indian Policy with Washington and Knox, this book has it all.
Quote:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This subtle, brilliant examination of the period between the War of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase puts Pulitzer-winner Ellis (Founding Brothers) among the finest of America's narrative historians. Six stories, each centering on a significant creative achievement or failure, combine to portray often flawed men and their efforts to lay the republic's foundation. Set against the extraordinary establishment of the most liberal nation-state in the history of Western Civilization... in the most extensive and richly endowed plot of ground on the planet are the terrible costs of victory, including the perpetuation of slavery and the cruel oppression of Native Americans. Ellis blames the founders' failures on their decision to opt for an evolutionary revolution, not a risky severance with tradition (as would happen, murderously, in France, which necessitated compromises, like retaining slavery). Despite the injustices and brutalities that resulted, Ellis argues, this deferral strategy was a profound insight rooted in a realistic appraisal of how enduring social change best happens. Ellis's lucid, illuminating and ironic prose will make this a holiday season hit. (Nov. 5)
I really can't say enough about this book...it's great.
__________________
Quote:
Mr. Garrison: Kenny, would you please climb that ladder and take down the star above the stage?
Finished up Jane Austen's Persuasion and am now onto Sense and Sensibility. I'm trying to read more, and I figure I should start with my favorite author. I am looking to read other books, not just "the classics."
edited to add: Also reading Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace.
__________________
I.D. badges are long overdue. Security in this office park is a joke. Last year, I came to work with my spud gun in a duffel bag. I sat at my desk all day, with a rifle that shoots potatoes at 60 pounds per square inch. Can you imagine if I was deranged? - Dwight K. Schrute
Last edited by thirty-two; April 20th, 2008 at 09:41 PM.
Brotherhood of Warriors by Aaron Cohen.
I'm finished now, and it was a real page-turner. GREAT read. Thought I'd read a chapter or two a night before bed and instead I've sat up reading till 2 AM.
Now operating a high-profile security service and counterterrorism training center in California, Cohen was a rich Beverly Hills brat who was sent to a Canadian military school to get him out of his parent's hair. He developed a passion for the Israeli military ideal and at 18 went off to Israel to join the commandos.
Of course, it's not quite that easy! He describes the incredibly grueling selection and training process he went through -- he survived and passed phase one, only to then be told that since he wasn't native-born, he couldn't join the real elite commando forces anyhow. He could, however, join the unique 'pure CT' force that infiltrates Arab communities to identify and track down terror leaders, and after a year of even more extreme, harsh training, he did direct-action and undercover CT work, before returning to the US.
It's very well-written, an exciting, intense story of a young man's coming of age, and his learning how to be a warrior, not a normal man. He talks about the rationale and effects of terrorism and the nature and costs of effective CT actions from a hands-on, often gruesomely graphic, non-theoretical perspective. He also frankly talks about the permanent changes in men's character, both good and bad, that this really brutal type of warrior training and work accomplishes, and how the reputation of the Israeli Spec Ops warrior may be deserved, but the myth of the Israeli military in general is only that -- mythology, rapidly disappearing in an increasingly Americanized and socially divided Israeli society.
If you have any interest in the military, in counterterrorism, or in a really fascinating and honest autobiography, I think you'll really enjoy this. It has best-seller and 'oughta be a movie' written all over it.
__________________ Hoping for Audacity
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
Last edited by AZZenny; May 4th, 2008 at 08:54 PM.
Space Invaders Champion!
Tetris Champion!
Linear Mode
