Book Review: Lord of the Flies

 

“Why don’t I write a children’s story about how people really are, about how people actually behave?” asked the author of Lord of the Flies.

 

Indeed…

 

William Golding’s chronicle of the descent of Ralph, Jack and their minions into tribalism and savagery is only so horrific because deep down—without the guardrails of civilization—we know that it is true.

 

And here and now, watching the unrelenting rage of young protesters as they attack the icons and foundations of society, it gives me pause to wonder what kind of islands those “safe spaces” of academia actually are. (5 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: Brave Companions

 

You know, sometimes I just don’t want to plow through seven or eight hundred pages of biography. Besides Charles Lindbergh and Teddy Roosevelt, most of the information was new to me and for the most part entertaining. Personally, I enjoyed the Fred Remington, Washington Roebling, and David Plowden pieces the most. Sometimes a snack is much more satisfying than a five course meal and David McCoullagh delivers some tasty morsels. (4 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: Extreme Ownership

 

Hmmm…and what would you have a couple of Navy SEALs write about in a book on leadership? The Ramadi war stories are to the point and engaging. Real world stuff there.  Principals learned and applications to business situations might seem a bit repetitive, but it’s classic PowerPoint format:   Tell me what you are going to tell me; Tell me; Summarize what I just told you. Remember, it is a business book.

As for those who claim the information is simply what everybody already knows about:  “There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.” ~Frank Lloyd Wright   (4 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: PERFECT: Short Stories about the Dark Side of Perfection

 

“Everything that looks too perfect is too perfect to be perfect.”  ― Dejan Stojanovic

 

If you are a fan of The Twilight Zone, R.B. Weber’s stories often catch the ironical twists and turns of unintended reality intruding on our best intentions. While not “perfect” we should all be very careful about what we wish for. (4 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: Boomerang

 

I have to admit I lost track of the MacGuffin pretty quickly in this book, but that’s what MacGuffins and boomerangs are for, right? Who cares. The colorful cast of characters kept me entertained all along the way to the grand finale in suburban Phoenix. And being that I’m a sucker for anything labelled Gibson, Ted’s reunion with his L-5 CES was just deserts. (4 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: Guts 'N Gunships: What it was Really Like to Fly Combat Helicopters in Vietnam

 

You just keep your damn mouth shut and suck down your PBRs as Mark Garrison tells you what it was like driving a Huey in Vietnam. The tales sometime seem a bit disconnected like, “Oh, yeah, remember when we…” But he covers it all from flight training to checkrides to combat to coming back home to the very worst of America. (4 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: The War of Art

 

It seems pretty simple, but I’m kind of a simple guy:

 

1. Acknowledge the “Resistance” and fight it: every day, all the time, without fail.
2. Be a professional…and all that it means.
3. Honor the sacred mystery of the creative process — whether it is a muse, an angel  or gravity.

And yet in all the writers groups in all the world, there are so, so, so many books that have yet to be written. I wonder why…

 

You can fight it if you want, but Pressfield has laid it all out pretty clearly. 

 

Like I said, I’m a simple guy. (5 of 5 Stars)

 

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Field of Fire: A Novel

 

Of all the books I’ve read about the Vietnam War, only two have been novels: this one and Red Flags by Juris Jurvevics. Fields of Fire is definitely a Naked and the Dead/Thin Red Line foxhole kind of story. The home front and love interest stories seem like necessary dramatic distractions. But James Webb is dead-on with his battlefield reports. (4 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

 

The best thing about this book is the title:  Feakonomics.  Beyond that it mostly seems pretty banal:

 

The small club of professional sumo wrestlers work the system to help each other keep their status. Isn’t that what professionals do…

 

Some number of teachers in Chicago cheated on state mandated test grades. I am shocked, shocked I tell you…

 

When the sales price is actually going into a realtor’s pocket, they definitely want more of it.  Your point being…

 

To the bizzare:

 

So all those aborted babies since Roe v. Wade are why the crime rates went down in the 1990s.  Hmmm, that seems harsh on those parents, not to mention the unborn kids, too…

 

But then later, whether a child’s family is intact or not doesn’t seem to matter. Huh?

 

rogue [ rohg ] (noun):  An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.

 

It does give one pause… (2 of 5 Stars)

 

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Book Review: License to Lie

Man, I surely do not want to get on the bad side of those sleeze-ball government lawyers. (Is that redundant?) Granted, Enron has its own sacred pedestal in Dante’s Fourth Circle of Hell (Greed), but what the DOJ and the judge did to Sidney Powell’s client was level Eight and Nine Circle territory (Fraud and Treachery). And, yet, she lost the case. Ah, excuse me, General Flynn…  (4 of 5 Stars)

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