Andrew’s Literary Look-Ahead

This will be a summer of unfinished works. Here’s the meal slated to slake my literary palate during the coming summer months:

• The 9/11 Commission Report: I’m halfway through and actively engaged with this book. It is a detailed account of the terrorist attacks on America, including quite a bit if Al-Qaeda’s history. I feel like I’m studying terrorist-ology. It’s not difficult reading, but it has more characters to keep track of than a Tom Clancy novel.

• My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir: I picked this book up 8 years ago and read only the first chapter. I’m hoping that 8 years of additional maturity and my vicinity to the Sierra Nevada Mountains will render this work more interesting now than when I last attempted it.

• We Were Soldiers Once…. And Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.): This account of one of the U.S.’s first major engagements of the Vietnam War is simultaneously raw and eloquent. It covers with striking candor the ills of war and the hardships of battle. Written by a warrior, the slant is toward moment-to-moment accuracy, resisting the urge to glorify ugly events. I’m 300 pages into this 475-page work. What do I hope to gain from reading this? It’s history. I hope to have my repulsion for war and killing renewed and my respect and appreciation for those involved polished.

• A Son of Thunder by Henry Mayer: This work of history covers a different war, and men who made different sacrifices. Specifically, it’s about Patrick Henry. He’s one of those supporting actors on America’s historical stage whose colorful life and notable role in the founding of America hold interest from many angles. This is another one that I’ve started and not finished.

• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: This book is almost the archtype of old, thick, boring books. Tolstoy knew both aristocracy and war during his lifetime, and wrote this book as an epic struggle of men and nations. It comes highly recommended as one of the greatest works in world literature, and only cost me $5.98 in hardcover form at Barnes and Noble. I’m really looking forward to it.

• Washington, the Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner: My study of our founding father continues, and my amazement at the wisdom and far-sightedness with which they structured our country continues to grow. Though they had no idea what changes time would have wrought, they passed to us a government of rigid structure and flexible function. It’s a fascinating combination that has served us well for more than 200 years. I hope that others like me study the words and actions of our forefathers and gain wisdom for how to conduct our nation along the critical passages and rocky shoals of the future.

What’s on your summer reading list and why?