Category: book report

Walking yet another line

As I’m reading the 9/11 Commission report, I’m constantly frustrated by the frequent opportunities the U.S. had to stop Usama bin Laden before the September 11 attacks. We were stopped by small things like a lack of logistical support for covert operations or our standing national policy against assasination. These things seem so petty in hindsight. Those in charge seem guilty of lacking the political will to act. I keep feeling like I’m reading a story with the end written first, and the lead-up written as one long flashback. I keep wanting to yell to the key players, “They’re all going to die in the end unless you do something!”

Fast-forwarding to the present, our country is engaged in a lot of practices in our efforts against terrorism that draw legitimate questions from within our borders and throughout the global community. I’ts been recently revealed that the CIA has a network of prisons worldwide at which the United States ‘detains’ people without trial and uses questionable interrogation methods. I stand in a long line of people claiming to abhor that practice. But I can also imagine reading about the next attack in another commission’s report and wondering why we didn’t do more. I can imagine wondering why we were so squeamish when innocent lives were on the line and why we lacked the political will to act when so many lives were in danger. For now, I’ll suspend judgement and not choose a position for or against our government’s practices. Questioning such practices is healthy. Specifically, I ask you this question: How far is too far in trying to stop evil? It’s a classic ethical question with very observable outworkings. Are we going too far now? Should we have gone further before September 11, 2001?

I’ll keep reading the commission’s report. But I know how the story ends, and it saddens me. They all die.

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?

Is it a small world after all?

Book report: The World is Flat byThomas Friedman

I just finished The World is Flat, thenoted New York Times journalist’s enthralling commentary on worldaffairs in every dimension from technology to terrorism. At 455pages, completing it is no mean feat, but well worth the effort.

It’s clear that Friedman is Jewish:besides implying so in the last page before the book’s conclusion,the imprint of the Jewish message of hope for and from humanityemerges strongly.

The entire work takes a fairly simpleform. It first describes the author’s discovery of some facts aboutthe state of the world and where the world’s headed. Then itbacktracks a bit to describe the background behind said facts. Allof this was clarifying and enlightening for me. The end of the bookdiscusses force that threaten to undermine some of the really neattechno-economic progress humanity’s attained. These forces includesickness, poverty, and humiliation (and the terrorism that results). Terrorism and the despair and lack of hope that give rise to it aretreated especially heavily near the end of the book. Sprinkledliberally throughout are recommendations for making the world abetter place. These include personal skills for Americans hoping tocompete in the global job market, solutions for feeding the hungryand saving the environment, ideas for eliminating terrorism andpromoting religious tolerance, and notions related to fosteringcontinued technological innovation. These recommendations were loftybut realistic for about the first three-quarters of the book. By theend, I began to feel that Friedman was offering the answer to everyproblem that plagues humanity. The enormity of this task alone jadesme to the possibility that Friedman may indeed have some goodanswers.

Despite this, the book is well worthreading, both for people who want to seek jobs in this brave new(flat) world or for those who direly need to think about how best toconduct American affairs in it. If you have a stake in either,you’re welcome to borrow my copy of the book and read it.

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The World is Flat

Shinnfans, I’m in the middle (page 260) of Thomas Friedman’s landmark book, The World is Flat. I read Blink, which was interesting. I’m reading Freakonomics, which is also interesting. But both are interesting in a merely trivial manner. The World is Flat is riveting because of its relevance. The new shape of the world is something that the young need to worry about in order to stay employable in the future. And it’s something that the old should worry about on behalf of their kids. Shocking, revealing, interesting. Here’s what was happening in the rest of the world while America stared at our collective navel.

Read it soon. If you’ve read it, comment here!

– AJS

Book Report

Ok, so Blink was good. Really good. So good, in fact, that I devoured its 250 pages in 2 and a half days (and still managed to eat, sleep, and stay married). The back of the book promised that you’ll never think about thinking the same way again. (Lisa told me this is called meta-cognition.) And it certainly lives up to its promise. But I think the thing that fascinated me most about the book is the author. His phrasing, his approach, the material he chose to include, how he handled it, and the way he related the pieces to each other taught me about more than just rapid cognition: they also told me a lot about Malcolm Gladwell. Reading a book to understand the author is always an interesting endeavor. Some publishing companies, editors, and other intermediaries can do a pretty fair job of disguising the author’s persona, but never completely. For instance, when you read JFK’s Profiles in Courage, you get a sense that you’ve known Kennedy, the efforts of his ghost writer notwithstanding. A small amount of that effect is intended, but most of the clues about the author emerge unbidden and probably unintended.

Just thoughts,
Andrew

Other book stuff

Alright, so I thought I’d share some other stuff I’ve read recently. This summer, I read The Oxford Book of American Detectives Stories(new window). It was a fun little romp through the development of a genre. I also read The Power of One(new window) by Bryce Courtenay. It’s interesting in that it’s told very effectively from a child’s perspective when the main character is a child, and just as effectively as a growing and grown boy later in the story. I also bought The 9/11 Commission Report(new window) at a military bases in Spain, but have yet to read it. Before I left for Africa, I read God’s Politics(new window) by Jim Wallis. I don’t know that I agree with everything Wallis said, but it was certainly worth reading. I doubt that any critical reader will fully agree about anything as highly controversial as the intersection of politics and religion. But most of the value of his work is that it drove me to think about the issues, so in that regard whether I agree or not is immaterial. I’m also in the process of reading The Harvard Business Review on Entrepreneurship(new window) by various authors and Six-Week Startup(new window) by Rhonda Abrams.

Anyway, I have to leave to go to church. More later.

Cheers,
Andrew

My Book List

Hey, Shinnfans. I’ve been meaning for a while to post some recent books have captured my fancy. I intend to read these soon. Some of them I’ll read very soon (like as soon as I finish this blog post). Ok, here they are in no discernable order:

  1. Blink(new window) by Malcolm GladwellThis book is about the power of immediate
    decision-making and assessment. I started reading it
    today, and it’s every bit as good as I decided it would
    be when I picked it up. Why that is I may have to read
    further in the book to find out.
  2. The Tipping Point (new window) also by Malcolm GladwellBy the same author, this book explores change,
    epidemics, and what drives these things today in many
    different spheres. I don’t know much about it, and I
    don’t have the book yet. Anyone else read this? I
    think I may be the last person in America to read it.
    Talk about being behind the change curve.
  3. Good Business (new window) by Giles Gibbons and Steve HiltonI started reading this book a few years ago and never
    finished it. It’s haunted me ever since, because the
    very little I read changed my life. It really did. It
    radically altered my view of business, it’s purposes,
    and its global impacts. The authors say
    that if you want to change the world, you should
    use business. And if you want to do good for your
    business, you should try to change the world.
    Profound? Yes. Obvious? Maybe to most. It wasn’t to
    me. Worth Reading? Definitely. I checked out a
    version of this from a school library, but I want to
    own a copy to finish, keep, refer to, and share.
    Probably my favorite book of the past several years.
  4. The World is Flat(new window) by Thomas FriedmanI think God wants me to read this book. It’s alarming
    the frequency with which this book (and recommendations
    to read it) cross my path. In the space of four days,
    I’ve been referred to it by a good friend (thanks,
    Alex!), recommended to read it and ordered to read it
    for one of my classes, and saw it mentioned in the
    letters to the editor of the Lodi News Sentinel. I
    walked into Borders last night with Lisa, and it was
    the first book I saw. Knowing that fate would sooner
    or later clobber me with this book, I beat the bugger
    to the punch and purchased it (but on my terms: at 30%
    off the cover price). I’ll let you know how it is. If
    you ever want to borrow it, it’ll be on my shelf.

Well, that’s the short list for now. Has anyone read any of these books? Can you tell me what to expect? Any comments?

Cheers,

Andrew