Monday Book Pick: Amateur Night
Amateur Night: A World War II Historical Adventure by C.P. McKechney
An interesting, but long, story about a Nazi attempt to knock out the Panama Canal just before the US becomes involved in WWII. The plot is foiled by a collection of ‘expendable amateurs.’ This book was interesting to me personally in several ways. First, I’m a more than average history buff, I enjoy military fiction, and most of the action occurs in the Canal Zone, where I lived for a couple of years as a kid. There are some interesting characters in the book, some of which are slightly more filled out than your typical cardboard cutout character. The action scenes are well written and are clearly carefully story boarded. There is also a very good, and shorter, book trapped inside this novel waiting to get out. I was reminded of an interview with an author who pays his mortgage with sales from e-books, in which he points out that he budgets for an editor for all of his books. Those carefully story boarded actions scenes I mentioned, you read almost all of them multiple times as the author provides multiple viewpoints for each fight. These are not blended together to provide a fast narrative that conveys the chaos of combat. You get the full action sequence played out, in full, from two or more perspectives, one right after the other. If you enjoy this type of book, and have the time to kill, give it a go. If you don’t have the patience to slog through a book that really is much too long, then don’t start this one.
Monday Book Pick: Attack of the 50 Ft. Democrats
Filed under: Monday Book Pick, Political Books, Politics, When democrats attack
Attack of the 50 Ft. Democrats by R.K. Delka
R.K. Delka mixes a few genres in this story. Political satire, B-Movie SciFi Horror flicks, and a good dose of humor. Word of warning, anyone who cried in disappointment when Keith Olbermann was tossed off MSNBC won’t find this funny. People who pay attention to a wider spectrum of news will. While Mr. Delka approached this subject with tongue firmly planted in cheek, aspects of the story struck home with precision accuracy. The majority of the “mainstream” media giving up all pretense of objectivity to become ‘fan boys’ of a President who can’t be trusted to speak without a teleprompter (he messes up words with a silent ‘p’, just like President who said ‘corpsemen’, twice, while giving speech honoring US Navy Corpsmen) is one example. The more subtle one was the 50 ft democrats roaming the nation destroying sections of cities. They don’t need to be 50 feet tall to do that. Just look at Detroit. 50 years ago it was a thriving, vibrant city with one of the highest per capita incomes in the nation. 50 years ago was also the last time a Republican was involved in the city government. 50 years later, large sections of the city lies in ruins, the people are impoverished, almost half the streetlights don’t work, and the city is bankrupt. Attack of the 50 Ft. Democrats is funny, but it is also a warning. Congressional democrats may not actually have the brand of certain billionaire who spends orders of magnitude more money than the Koch brothers, but they are certainly more under the influence of his money than they are the votes of the people they are supposed to represent. So laugh away, but pay attention to the message, which includes this, It Is Not Too Late. Oh, and he set the stage for a sequel. So expect more adventures featuring the former US military fighter pilot turned politician.
Quote of the Day
Filed under: economy, Obama Economy, Political Books, Politics
“A liberal would star at you slack-jawed if you explained that the federal government, via Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, forced politically correct lending policies on the banks — policies that were attacked by Republicans but ferociously defended by Democrats–and that banks’ suicidal loans were then bundled into mortgage-backed securities and dispersed throughout the entire financial system, which poisoned the economy, bringing down powerful institutions, such as Lehman Brothers, and destroying innumerable families’ financial portfolios.”
— Ann Coulter, Demonic
Monday Book Pick: The Third Girl
The Third Girl by Agatha Christie
It’s been a while since I’ve read murder mysteries. I’ve started back in with some of classics. This is one of her later ones, written in the 1960s. Complete with Beatniks, Mods, and shaggy haired artists on drugs. This one features Hercule Poirot, the fussy Belgian detective, along with a cast of larger than life, yet stereotypical characters, including the dotty old British military officer writing his memoirs. A fun read. Agatha Christie mysteries are classics for a reason folks.
Monday Book Pick: Damn Few
Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior by Rorke Denver
Memorial Day Special. Rorke Denver was one of the actual Navy SEALs who starred in the movie Act of Valor. He is a combat vet, having lead a SEAL team in Iraq and has been of of the officers in charge of SEAL Training. An interesting book that goes into how the program molds highly motivated men at the peak of physical conditioning into highly skilled special operators.
Monday Book Pick: Scope of Justice
Filed under: Global War on Islamofascism, Monday Book Pick, US Military
Scope of Justice by Michael Z. Williamson
The first of MZW’s MilFic Sniper series. The story of two US Army snipers taking on a dangerous mission in Pakistan to take out a high ranking al Qaeda member. It’s full of SNAFU, FUBAR and TARFU. In other words a good description of a military mission. An engaging and interesting read.
Monday Book Pick: The Sting of the Scorpion
The Sting of the Scorpion by Warren Stockholm
Delightfully dark pulp. Kurt Reinhardt is the product of Nazi genetic engineering in a world were the Germans won WWII and occupied America for sixty years. He was bred to be super solider but didn’t like the job. After another war which saw American regain its independence, he immigrates to America and works his way to wealth. Of course he has serious issues, which he works out by fighting crime in slums of Pittsburgh It’s dark, gritty, and nasty. Just what you want in Noir Pulp.
Monday Book Pick: Time’s Last Gift
Time’s Last Gift by Philip Jose Farmer
This classic is back in print, so if you haven’t read it yet, go do so! In the not so far future from now, time travel is discovered. You can only travel backwards in time, and there is a limit of how far back you can go. So a team of scientist is sent back as far as possible, to the early days of Homo Sapiens. So far back, North Africa was lush plains and forests. Here is the plot twist, one of the team members is not quite what he presents himself as. He is in fact, much older than his other team members, since he been given the gift of immortality (or an extremely long life span) by a Witch Doctor he saved from a leopard in the African jungles he was born in. If you haven’t guessed who the tall gray eyed ringer is by now, you haven’t read enough Farmer.
Monday Book Pick: The Five Tibetans
The Five Tibetans: Five Dynamic Exercises for Health, Energy and Personal Power by Christopher S. Kilham
I learned these yoga exercises at a martial arts seminar a couple of decades ago. Found the book years later. I find them very useful in jumpstarting your metabolism. Best done in the morning. I find that if I do them in the evening, I’m up past 2AM.
Monday Book Pick: The Mad Goblin
The Mad Goblin by Philip Jose Farmer
I’m seeing a lot of Philip Jose Farmer’s work come back into print, which is a good thing. The Mad Goblin is one of two parallel sequels to A Feast Unknown. This one focuses on James “Doc” Caliban (yes, based on Doc Savage), half brother of the fellow Tarzan was based on. Both are former agents of “The Nine.” A group that discovered the secret to extremely prolonged life thirty thousand years ago and has ruled the Earth from behind the scenes since then. This is adventure pulp at its finest, with Farmer paying tribute to one of his favorite fictional characters.