I may have to tweak my reading list

From J. Ford Huffman: The best military books of the decade.

via The Best Defense

Two takes on war

First two books of 2010: a nonfiction view of life in the US Army--Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams--and a fictional view on the last few moments of John Kipling's life--Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen.

Love My Rifle More Than You ... I've been trying to write this review for a couple of hours now, but it's coming out like crap. Saying I liked it feels wrong, and I don't know that you can like a book like this.

It's not a likable book. It's a demanding book. It's a hard book. It's a challenging book. It dares you to acknowledge things, issues, problems and then deal with them. It wasn't an easy book. Still, I think I liked it.

From the prologue:

A woman soldier has to toughen herself up. Not just for the enemy, for battle, or for her death. I mean toughen herself up to spend months awash in a sea of nervy, hyped-up guys who, when they're not thinking about getting killed, are thinking about getting laid. Their eyes on you all the time, your breasts, your ass--like there is nothing else to watch, no sun, no river, no desert, no mortars at night.

And her story just runs from there.

My back went up a few times, not because of Kayla's actions--OK, sometimes her actions, but more the situations she found herself in while in Iraq. I couldn't help but picture myself in those situations, trying to understand how I would have dealt with them. I honestly don't know what I would have done.

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I linked to Colleen's review of Kipling's Choice above because her review was the reason I read this book. I really don't know much about Rudyard Kipling--I watched The Jungle Book cartoon, but that's about it--but a few months ago I happened upon a line from one of his poems and I decided it was time to read more.

As I understand, Rudyard Kipling desperately wanted to serve in the Navy, but couldn't because of his horrible eyesight. Despite all of his future successes, this failure would haunt him throughout his life. His son, John, had the same problems with his eyes, but at this point Rudyard had enough clout to get his son into the Irish Guards as a second lieutenant. Untried, untrained, and just days after his eighteenth birthday, John dies in a ditch somewhere, body destroyed by poison gas and mortar, his family left without word of his fate.

Kipling's Choice moves from the moments leading up to John's death to the days, weeks, months, and even years that lead him to that point. It's skillfully done, with John flashing back and forth, moving from moments spent with Daddo to letters home to tearing around the country side to leading him men into battle to lying flat on his back, bleeding, to smiling at a pretty girl, to letters home, to his days at school hunting ghosts to letters from his father.

The story's written incredibly well, in my opinion, both detailed, well-researched, and interesting. I've gone from knowing very little about Rudyard Kipling and his family to knowing a bit more and eager to read more.

Book 1 of 178, done

Finished Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams on the subway yesterday. Actual review to come, but I'll say quickly that I liked it. It was a different take on the military and the war, with the additional trials and tribulations of being a female in the military.

A look ahead to 2010

Things you can anticipate from me in 2010:

• Saying 20-10. Not 2000 & 10, but 20-10. Anyone else doing this?
• Military nonfiction. Yup, you read that right. Lately, it seems that all I want to read about is the military. And not even military fiction; I burned through that genre when I was a teenager and I haven't looked back.* No, instead it's memoirs about serving, or following a platoon through boot camp, or a historical view on battles throughout history. I've come up with a list longer than you'd think of books I want to read on military conflicts, women serving throughout history, and--God forbid--politics. (And I despise politics.)

As it stands now, my reading list:

One Bullet Away--reread (Finished this one last week)

Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army--finished 1/4/10

Generation Kill--reread

Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground

Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and

Beyond House to House

First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps

American Spartans

AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country

and finally, Fiasco

• A complete avoidance of reading challenges. Seriously, I'm swearing off of them. (Note the irony in this statement when compared to the above point.)
• A possible move. I'm becoming... tired of Blogger. Nothing wrong with it, but I'm kind of feeling like a change might possibly be in order. We'll see.
• More posting. I'm putting myself on a schedule.

*I wish I could remember that book. It was about a platoon, two platoons, in Vietnam, the Double Deuces, or Double Aces, and the nurses at the camp. A guy died, I think his name was Ace, and Susan/Sue--one of the nurses--married the dead guy's friend, who was a the head of one of the platoons. And there a was a nurse named Jane who was sleeping with someone. If I recall, there was a sequel/second book too. Ugh.This is going to bug me now. If anyone wants to be, I don't know, psychic and tell me what book this was, my brain would really appreciate it.

So it's November

And I think that no matter how much I want to post fun, interesting things, it's not going to happen this month.

I literally don't have enough hours in the day.

So instead: Teaser Tuesday

From The Light in High Places by Joe Hutto, page 89:

At Kathy's, a biologist can pull a plastic container from her refrigerator, casually sit down at the dinning room table, and spend two hours sorting through a hundred ziplock bags filled with fecal samples from bighorn sheep, mountain lions, and bears, and she will never bat an eye. "Make sure my cats don't get into that."

I know, a nonfiction book about biologists in Wyoming studying the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep; so not my usual taste. But I'm branching out, or trying to anyway.




Disclaimer: No one asked me to read and review. And it's my book.

Sick, sick, sick

Sick, sick, sick...

From over at A Work in Progress, Danielle is recommending her recent read, “We Were Young and At War,” which looks very good. I’m adding that to my library queue.

I finished my reread of “Good Omens” and I have to say that it was funnier the second time around. That dry, British humor gets me every time.

I’ve started reading two new books, “The Return” by Victoria Hislop—found this one on a newsletter I subscribe to—and “Dear Mr. Unabomber” by Ray Cavanaugh. I’ll be posting reviews this week, and snippets tomorrow!

I think I’m trying to cram everything I want to read—and can get my hands on—into October, because I know once November starts, I’m not going to have any free time left, not with NaNoWriMo taking up all my non-work and non-sleep time. Oh, the insanity that is NaNoWriMo.

I can’t wait!

Also to be reviewed, once NaNo is over

Three Cups of Tea, One Bullet Away, Midnight's Daughter, and Cast in Fury.

*Note: two of those books are nonfiction, which means I have indeed read six nonfiction books this year!*

ETA: The Graveyard Book (wonderful), Jellicoe Road (beautiful and gripping), Saving Francesca (engaging), and A Foreign Affair (plucky) need to be reviewed too.

Nonfiction books

Huh. I just realized that I've read three four nonfiction books so far, and I'm in the midst of reading two more! Will wonders never cease? Will I actually read five six nonfiction books this year?

In an incorrect order...

Looking for Trouble: One Woman, Six Wars, and a Revolution by Leslie Cockburn
The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O'Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea by Barbara Sjoholm
The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts by Sian Rees
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman