Review: Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is a very interesting war story and the battle memoir is different than most I have read. Luttrell of East Texas has pride in his state and is very cool to the idea of gov't decided rules of engagement. He holds forth on both topics with immense pride and vitriol, respectively. For the actual battle as related in this subjective discourse one has an amazing tale of courage, determination, luck, survival, generosity, and privation that comes across as waste of excellently trained superb physical specimens for one mission purpose? In what larger goal?

This is also the detailed backstory to the downed helicopter that was the worst special forces disaster.



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Review: Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.

Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc. by Howard Kaylan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I read many rock biographies and this is one of the best. It has inside scoops without mere name dropping. it is all the second and drugs without being merely salacious. Kalan's (and Volman's) camaraderie and partying with rock royalty was parlayed into longevity and pioneering roles. Still "Happy Together" over the years, I learned the group was the first to sue over sampling and also very innovative as radio talent augmented by their famous friends as guests. now I need to hear some of that! Kaylan's closeness to upper echelon rock stars provides some interesting insights. for instance, the documentary "Who is Harry Nilsson and Why is Everybody Talking About Him?" makes the Lennon - Nilsson studio screaming matches to be friendly rivalry, but Kaylan says shortly before his death Nilsson characterized the incident as cruel peer pressure that ruined his voice.

Narration by the self-effacing and honest Kaylan along with an over-the-top intro by Penn Jillette himself really makes this audiobook.



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Review: We the Living

We the Living by Ayn Rand

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Die Bajadere, an operetta in 3 acts composed by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kalman, features in the romantic notions and inclinations of tragic heroine Kira and now I'd like to hear that operetta. There is a lot of tragedy herein with two overlapping lover triangles off lives collapsing during the rise of a Communist police state in post-WW I Russia. Rand says it is the closest she'll ever come to an autobiography, so I wanted to read it and enjoyed the re-creation of this pivotal and dramatic time in Russia's history.



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