Review: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I noticed one reviewer roped in the Eleanor Roosevelt quote: "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." I think that is a good brush with which to paint this work. It mostly goes into the Democratic primaries and the Hillary-Barak contest and their personalities. It makes the case that Edwards' vanity (and philandering) and Clinton's inability to treat Barak as an equal caused those campaigns to founder. McCain-Palin is, justly, a third act and not gone into as much detail. Still, McCain comes across as even more of a loose canon unfettered by reality and Palin even more clueless than came across to me through news reports and debates of the time. Well, to go back to the quote, this is how electioneering is done in American today; more like People magazine than [b:The Federalist Papers|110331|The Federalist Papers|Alexander Hamilton|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327865541s/110331.jpg|707252] and it should be told that way.



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Review: Winter of His Discontent: Jack Kerouac in Detroit

Winter of His Discontent: Jack Kerouac in Detroit by John Cohassey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



An interesting, if matter-of-fact, overview of Kerouac's life focusing on his time in and orbit around Detroit (Grosse Pointe) and his first wife, Edie. Mostly biographical, this work brings in quotes from the scroll version of [b:On the Road|70401|On the Road|Jack Kerouac|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1395353795s/70401.jpg|1701188] and more of [a:Jack Kerouac|1742|Jack Kerouac|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1287257192p2/1742.jpg]'s earliest novels.



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Review: The New Order

The New Order by Time-Life Books

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This book was almost donated to Purple Heart, but I saved it. Finally, I thought its oversized dimensions in a set of three was awkward in my library. And, how good could WWII history distilled from magazine journalism be? I decided to pull it out and, peruse it, and dispense with it. At least with this volume, I was pleasantly surprised. Like [b:The Bridge at Andau|42959|The Bridge at Andau|James A. Michener|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388899681s/42959.jpg|42402], this work charts the dramatic changes through named individuals, personalizing the heavy boot beat to war.

War is not a topic in this volume, although it looms ominously on the horizon. This work gives an overview of something I am very interested in; how Nazism took root and hold of the German nation. It took over a decade, but this book tracks the tendrils into paramilitary your organizations, encompassing once unallied farmers, the Junker landed aristocracy, labor movements and industry.



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Review: Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I didn't like this book as much as [b:Infidel|81227|Infidel|Ayaan Hirsi Ali|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388256729s/81227.jpg|1133588], but I admire this strong woman's courage and adaptability. This memoir goes more into her life in Holland, including finding her feet missteps included, after going AWOL in her family's attempts to force her into an arranged marriage. She proclaims her atheism and decries the female circumcision, female subjugation, and honor killings of East Africa Islamic cultures.

She is articulate and, when writing her future daughter, poignant. This audiobook is very well narrated by the author.



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Review: Bucher: My Story

Bucher: My Story by Lloyd M. Bucher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Beside being a pivotal and important part of U.S. and Korean history, reading this book is to help form an opinion on who is at fault here: North Korea, Bucher, the U.S. Navy? Now, I think all three.

My opinion? All three.

It is easy to read between the lines here that Bucher was a second-rate leader already hopeless for sub command and grasped at this mission to command even the humble Pueblo. It seems he was not the most capable man for the job and also went to sea with a poor XO that did not have his respect. In the pivotal moments when surrounded by elements of the North Korean navy, he did not have the means and discipline to get his secret material destroyed, although I agree with this decision not to engage the ships in battle.

As for the Navy, despite the the USS Liberty incident, the Navy was not prepared to protect or even rescue the Pueblo which is should have especially been prepared for nothing North Korea was on alert after their failed attempt to assassinate South Korea's President Park.

Bucher I also fault for the type of discipline he kept on his fellow POWs. His lengths to ridicule the North Koreans, such as having his men photographed with the middle finger as the "Hawaiian Good Luck Sign" seemed to do nothing more than earn them additional torture and privation. Surely morale could be maintained in other ways. The "full confession" included in the appendix with references to Barney Google and Sol Loxfinger and the "fickle finger of fate", etc. is hilarious.

My hardcover copy is personally inscribed to "Bob Wallace". I like to think this is the edgy radio operator/DJ of the Yorktown that was on the verge of responding to the Pueblo incident. I see online this Wallace was involved in organizing Yorktown reunions, so I like to think with his love of history he met the author to get this copy personalized. I will never know for sure, as Wallace passed away.



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Review: Bucher: My Story

Bucher: My Story by Lloyd M. Bucher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Beside being a pivotal and important part of U.S. and Korean history, reading this book is to help form an opinion on who is at fault here: North Korea, Bucher, the U.S. Navy? Now, I think all three.

My opinion? All three.

It is easy to read between the lines here that Bucher was a second-rate leader already hopeless for sub command and grasped at this mission to command even the humble Pueblo. It seems he was not the most capable man for the job and also went to sea with a poor XO that did not have his respect. In the pivotal moments when surrounded by elements of the North Korean navy, he did not have the means and discipline to get his secret material destroyed, although I agree with this decision not to engage the ships in battle.

As for the Navy, despite the the USS Liberty incident, the Navy was not prepared to protect or even rescue the Pueblo which is should have especially been prepared for nothing North Korea was on alert after their failed attempt to assassinate South Korea's President Park.

Bucher I also fault for the type of discipline he kept on his fellow POWs. His lengths to ridicule the North Koreans, such as having his men photographed with the middle finger as the "Hawaiian Good Luck Sign" seemed to do nothing more than earn them additional torture and privation. Surely morale could be maintained in other ways. The "full confession" included in the appendix with references to Barney Google and Sol Loxfinger and the "fickle finger of fate", etc. is hilarious.



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Review: Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power:the Battle for World Mastery

Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power:the Battle for World Mastery by Daniel Yergin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



With the tile, including its promised "epic" I expected a wild ride from gushing Spindletop to Red Adair frantically fighting oil fires in Kuwait in the first Gulf War. In this brief (abridged?) audiobook, these and more are touched on, but only briefly. Instead, the evolution of contracts from concessions to more fair division of wealth is more the bulk of this. Much is given over to the Iraq-related conflicts including the epilogue narrated buy the author.



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