Horse Soldiers

The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan

By Doug Stanton

Recommended by Steve Applebaum

I finished this book Saturday night and in the Sunday New York Times in the Week in Review section was this article about Afghanistan, written by someone not mentioned in the book but apparently was in the battles described therein. Very interesting coincident. It just so happens I was reading this book almost to the day of the anniversary of their victory in Afghanistan in 2001.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/weekinreview/11baker.html

This is a fascinating story of a band of special forces soldiers sent into Afghanistan about a month after September 11, 2001. Highly skilled, highly trained, fearless men going behind enemy lines with stealth and the task of partnering with those already fighting the Taliban. This covert action was only acknowledged in the public media once the bombs started being dropped. Even then, the whole story was not released.

This is a well crafted story about an absolutely essential point in our history that we are clearly still dealing with today. The beautifully executed, targeted campaign still leaves us with many problems eight years later in Afghanistan as the Taliban has slowly returned.

The other very interesting thing to me was how much this mirrored Pressfield's book about Alexander the Great fighting against the Afghan people. There is something about the people and the terrain that just can't be beat in any traditional way we talk about winning a war. It is a very challenging idea.

A side story woven throughout is the story of John Walker Lindh, the young kid from Marin County, CA who got mixed up with the Taliban and picked up by this band of warriors.

The story is full of heroism, although none of them would like to hear me say that. It is just an amazing, well told story of a group of guys fighting for their country.

Why the horses? Most men had never been on a horse. Special forces had not trained them to be cavalry. But this handful of specialists dropped into Afghanistan and had to get from point A to point B, the only way to do so was on horseback. Awesome story!

Book 50

Soldiers & Sled Dogs

A History of Military Dog Mushing

By Charles L. Dean

Reading about working dogs, especially in the military, is such a treat. You cannot help but admire the brave, strong dogs that risk their lives in rescue and military operations just doing their job! This book is unique as it chronicles an art almost lost in the annals of military history. These teams were never fully understood or utilized during war and were slowly phased out as helicopters became more adept at rescue.

But this little book ensures that they will not be forgotten. In that regard, it meets the objectives laid out. There is a lot of technical information in the book about sled design and dog control but it is all for the purpose of remembering. Many of the people he interviewed were the last of the original crews.

"Less than two months after leaving Nome, dog teams with French drivers were hauling supplies and ammunition to areas that previously could not be reached. One group of these dogs delivered ninety tons of ammunition to an artillery battery in only four days. It had taken up to two weeks for a combination of men, horses and mules to accomplish the same thing." Pg 4

"John Eslick, a trainer at Camp Rimini, had a standard orientation spiel: 'A dog is not just a dumb animal. You need to be much smarter than the dog to be a dog driver. Few men are smarter than these dogs.' Army doctrine stated that experienced drivers should use whips only to break up dogfights. Many new drivers were inclined to believe they should crack the whip to ake the dogs run harder, in the romantic Hollywood image of a dog musher. Eslick would provide his own team for a new recruit's first overnight run. Eslick would warn the soldier driver not to use a whip, since his dogs would not respond to it. As soon as the team was out of sight, a new driver would give in to the temptation and crack his whip over the team. Immediately the team woud do a 180 degree turn, spilling the sled contents and the drive along the trail. Then the dogs would race back to main camp, where Eslick would be waiting. When the trainee finally caught up with the team, Eslick would dress him down and he would then have to drive the team back to recover the sled load scattered all along the trail and then catch up to the rest of his group." Page 31

Book 49

The Lace Reader

By Brunonia Barry

Recommended by Lisa Hoefs Nau

I don't know how to describe this book. To give even a terse account of it would probably give too much away. When my sister Lisa recommended it she said the end really took her by surprise, we talked about how rare that was and difficult to achieve as an author.

This ending was not foreseeable. In fact it really turned everything upside down. I could not stop thinking about it after I was done reading!

It is a family's story, a family with a lot of secrets both good and bad. They have gifts that others would consider supernatural. They also have some bad blood wreaking havoc on innocence within the family's borders. Woven in the pages are elements of a crime novel, an exploration of post traumatic stress and a loose study of the old craft of lace making in Salem, MA.

The story is pieced together with such care that the reader barely notices the tiny folds unfolding, the story lines being drawn in invisible ink. It is with this artistry that the true story, in all of its weight and depth, unopens itself to the reader.

This book made me miss the ocean, my sisters and even parts of myself.

Book 48

Catching Fire

Recommended by Stephanie Meyers

This is a sequel to Suzanne Collins book The Hunger Game.

I am not sure what else to write about it except . . . block off a chunk of time. Settle yourself down and read the book from cover to cover. It is worth it.

The original book and this sequel is geared to teens, the same demographic as Harry Potter and Twilight. It is a completely different book than either of those but equally compelling. This is a GREAT story with some beautiful character development, started in the first book and made even better in this one.

Rrgh. I want to divulge some story but it really would ruin it. Please trust me on this one, it is one of my number one books this year and it is an easy, entertaining read.

Kids pitted against other kids to the death. Does THAT intrigue you?!

Book 47

Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt

Recommended by the New York Times book review in an article memorializing his death

I have been reading, just needed a break from blogging. It is a whole different ball of wax.

This is supposedly one of the first in the memoir genre, if it is McCourt set a very high bar. I love his style. Very stark, straight forward, telling the story like it is writing style. This is a particular challenge when you are telling the story of your younger years. There is such a temptation to etherialize or romanticize what you experience when you are little because you are trying to make sense of it in the context of who you have become. McCourt will have none of that.

This is a fairly brutal true story of Frank McCourt's life growing up extremely poor. Step back from whatever impression you have about the term "extremely poor" and magnify it by ten. Maybe even twenty. The family lives in New York, they cannot hack it and go back to Ireland where conditions are far more harsh and the family faces far deeper struggles. Half the little brood of children die of what ostensibly is from starvation. The cold and lack of food, and with that the quest for some semblance of hygiene, is the families sole focus. The babies are constantly fed sugar and water in a bottle.

Angela is McCourt's mother. I suppose the title is a tribute to her endurance and suffering for the sake of the family. His father, although extremely lovable and charismatic, when sober, is a stereo-typical catholic Irish who can't keep money in his pocket for "the drink." He will spend two weeks of wages in a night, forego the next day of work and be out on his ear until the next job rolls around. Which is not that often to begin with.

I love Court's writing. He seems to become more animated as he moves into puberty and is trying to figure out how his body and his religion work together. He has the Catholic guilt (can I call it "the guilt"?) and tries desperately to be good. During this time, he also spends excessive amounts of time in the hospital. For him, they are some of his best times. Not only does he get three square meals (something he literally has never had) but he gets inspired by poetry and Shakespeare (even though its English).

"I wish I could talk to the girl in the blue dress or anyone about the books but I'm afraid the Kerry nurse or Sister Rita might find out and they'd move me to a bigger ward upstairs with fifty empty beds and Famine ghosts galore with green mouths and bony fingers pointing. At night I lie in bed thinking about Tom Brown and his adventures at Rugby School and all the characters in P.G. Wodehouse. I can dream about the red-lipped landlord's daughter and the highwayman, and the nurses and nuns can do nothing about it. It's lovely to know the world can't interfere with the inside of your head." Pg 202 (emphasis mine)

I look forward to reading more McCourt.

Book 46

Fat Girl

A True Story

By Judith Moore

Recommended by New York Times Book Review

Stark and honest. Moore writes her story with a brutality of self without succumbing to pity, excuse or blame. She writes what happened and what she experienced as a fat child growing up. She tries to strip away even her attempts as a writer to make certain facts more palatable to the reader. This is an excellent book which challenges the reader with its honesty.

"I am fat. I am not so fat that I can't fasten the seat belt on the plane. But, fat I am. I wanted to write about what it was and is like for me, being fat.

This will not be a book about how I had an eating disorder and how I conquered this disorder through therapies or group process or antidepressants or religion or twelve-step programs or a personal trainer or white-knuckling it or the love of a good man (or woman). This will be the last time in this book you will see the words 'eating disorder.'

I am not a fat activist. This is not about the need for acceptance of fat people, although I would prefer that thinner people not find me disgusting." Pg. 1

Book 45

The Secret Speech

By Tom Rob Smith

A sequel to Child 44 (reviewed below) it was also its equal. Taking place in post-Stalinist Russia it takes an intimate story of one families life and ends up telling a broader story about Russia at this time period. Moreover, this is done through a very exciting, ever surprising storyline of murder and betrayal that apans from Moscow to the gulags to Budapest and into a million smaller terrains of each characters' interior landscape. A harsh landscape, formed through a brutal system under Stalin where mistrust was a given, betrayal always a possibility and where simple survival was a major accomplishment (and in turn made you a suspect).

When one experiences unfair cruelty what kind of a person is forged? When one works along side coercive power and participates in unmentionable acts how do they reconstruct a person of honor? When both of these and every experience in the middle have agonized an entire people with brutality and fear, how does the collective move forward, how does a people purge the wrongs of the past?

"It can't be true. How could it be? But it was here, with a State-stamped letter, containing information only the State would know, with sources, quotes, references. The conspiracy of silence, which Nikolai had presumed would last forever, was over. It was no trick. The speech was real." Pg 55

"I know about the changes you've made. You're no longer KGB, your militia. You deal with real crimes, not political ones. You've adopted two beautiful young girls. This is your idea of redemption, yes? What does any of it mean to me? What of the debt you owe me? What of the debt you owe the men and women you arrested?How is that to be paid?" Pg 117

"I have done things of which I am not proud. It is time I asked for your forgiveness." Pg 225

"The three year pretense had come to an end. He was no father, no husband, and certainly no hero. He would join the KGB." Pg 297