BillP's Book\Miniature\Wargame Blog

Did you ever read a pair of books and were totally struck by the contrast between them? Well my first pair in this update is like that.

The first book was Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener, which was simply sublime. Unfortunately, it was followed by The Last Word: A Novel Of The War In The Pacific by Ron Miner which most assuredly wasn’t. Michener’s book, which won the Pulitzer prize, is a collection of more or less connected short stories with an overarching theme of first getting ready, then executing, the US amphibious landing on the fictional island of “Kuralei”. The book has excellent characters, dialog and a fascinating juxtaposition of the intersections of American, Polynesian, and European Colonial cultures and the backdrop of the savagery of WWII in the Pacific. Finally, it is terribly humorous, especially for such a serious book dealing with serious themes.

As good as South Pacific was, The Last Word was just that bad. The characters were one dimensional, the WWII stories, meant I suppose to be the main feature of the book, were just boring and non-descript. There are a couple of meandering sub-plots that don’t really go anywhere, and finally it’s all capped off by some really poor research. One example of which caused me to actually snort in derision. This poor benighted author actually described his protagonist visiting the island of Iwo Jima and walking through “meadows”! Every man and his dog knows that Iwo Jima was an island of volcanic sand almost totally devoid of any vegetation beyond some scrub brush. The island is actually volcanically active enough that the US Marines, seeking to warm their rations, would simply bury the cans in the black volcanic sand for 20 minutes or so which would render their Spam “piping hot” as the saying goes. Meadows!! Forsooth!.

The Lola Quartet was another outstanding book by Emily St. John Mandel. This one covers about ten years in the lives of four members of a high school jazz quartet (the eponymous Lola Quartet) and features all sorts of twists and turns in the plot that will, if you’re like me, surprise you at every turn. I especially didn’t see the end coming. I continue to be impressed by Ms. Mandel and look forward to anything she writes in the future.

Resurrection: Salvaging the Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor by Daniel Madsen was an outstanding account of the salvage and repair efforts of the engineers, divers, and shipfitters in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack. Madsen has not only extensively combed the official record to provide a detailed day by day timeline of the operation, he has managed to provide enough of the human side and interesting considerations to make the book consistently engaging. Just a couple of examples, when recounting the operations to refloat USS California we hear about the difficulties of disposing of tons of decomposing meat that was left to rot when the ship’s refrigerated storage lockers were accessed 5 months after the ship sank. We also hear about three men who survived for 16 days in a store room aboard USS West Virginia eating emergency rations and keeping track of the days using a calendar, and how horrified the salvage crews were when the bodies of these men were discovered. This book is not only a treasure trove of how all but two of those ships were raised and returned to service, but a tribute to the skills and professionalism of the US Navy in WWII.

Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers By Roger Chesneau is basically everything you ever wanted to know about these ships. The book starts with the design, in the context of the Washington naval treaty, continues with construction, and summarized their service. Particular attention is paid the to appearance of the ships at various times. The book was mainly intended as a source for modelers and that why I read it since I was just about the build a 1/700 model of USS Enterprise.

15 for the year

2021 seems like its off to a good start reading wise. I finished ten books in January and they were mostly pretty good.

Staff Ride Handbook for the Battle of Shiloh, 6-7 April and Staff Ride Handbook for the Vicksburg Campaign both by The Combat Studies Institute at the US Army’s Combined Arms Research Library were an outstanding pair of books covering two crucial events in the Western theater of the Civil War. I read them because I am planning a weeklong Civil War trip sometime this year for a small group of friends. While I have not yet actually driven the tours, I spent 8-10 hours using Google Earth to trace out the routes and (where possible) view the stops and stands from the ground perspective. Long time readers of this blog may remember that in the past I have relied on the US Army War College ride guides to the various battlefields. Well, I think these are much superior to those, mainly because the authors have provided much more actual information about the stand; what happened, who was there, and teaching points. This is much better than the War College’s propensity to take the reader to a physical location then dump a dozen pages of OR on them. Anyway I was very impressed by the guide, can’t wait for the trip, and I’m very much looking forward to using other guides for Civil War battles, particularly Chickamauga.

Death’s End by Liu Cixin was the final volume in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. I must say this book totally wrapped up the series in a surprising and thought-provoking way. It is truly unlike ANY other science fiction I have ever read, and I’m certain I will be re-reading all three books at some time in the future. I recommend the series very highly, but warn readers this is very dense reading. Its not something you can breeze through while watching TV or doing something else. That being said it is totally worth it.

Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis was in interesting book that does for competitive Chess what the author’s previous book The Hustler did for competitive billiards. The book tells the story of Elizabeth (Beth) Harmon a nine year old orphan in a Kentucky orphanage in the mid-1950s. Beth is exposed to chess more or less accidentally by the janitor of the orphanage and in short order becomes a nearly unbeatable chess prodigy. The book overs her various adventures as she comes of age, is adopted, and embarks on a career as a professional chess player. The book is very engaging and well written, and somewhat surprisingly doesn’t actually have much technical chess in it. Instead using its very faithful portrayal of the competitive chess world more as a milieu for Beth’s development. I enjoyed the book immensely. As a bonus to readers, I will say that I also watched the Netflix mini-series of the book and while that production was good, as is so often the case, the book is loads better.

You Can Keep That to Yourself: A Comprehensive List of What Not to Say to Black People, for Well-Intentioned People of Pallor by Adam Smyer was an eye opening little book in which the author makes a series of wry, but still biting observations about the (largely) unintentional racism inherent in the conversational forays of many white people. Several examples: calling a Black person articulate actually reveals that your prejudices make you surprised when a Black person is well-spoken, constantly using “dark” as a negative description gets wearing on people whose skin is dark, calling something “urban” or “ghetto” isn’t actually race neutral, and many others. This was an interesting book on a couple of levels, first of all, many of the items the author objects to were things I had innocently said over the years which I now find a little cringe-worthy or embarrassing. Second, the author never loses his sense of humor about this, even while the book has a more or less sarcastic and biting tone. I recommend it highly to any white person who doesn’t want to unintentionally offend Black friends or co-workers.

The Promised Land by Barack Obama is the first volume (the book ends with the 2011 death of bin Laden) of the 44th president’s political memoirs. The book starts with a bit of family history, continues with his childhood life in Hawaii, his education, and his political career. It was very engaging, humorous, and well written. Obama has the knack of writing in his own voice, I’m not sure whether it’s the word choices, rhythms, and syntax, but the book is very much in his own voice. He also demonstrates a fairly well developed self-awareness, especially for a politician. I recommend it if you want to know more about what makes the 44th POTUS “tick”.

Battleship Bismarck: A Design and Operational History by William H. Garzke is literally everything one could possible want to know about the famed German battleship. The book starts with a nice overview of the German naval designs of WWI, the German navy’s political situation both domestically and internationally, proceeds to the design trade-offs the German’s made. Next up is the operational history which is, in places, especially dealing with combat incidents, almost hyper-detailed. Finally there’s a survey of the wreckage (discovered by Dr Bob Ballard in 1989. Garzke covers EVERYTHING. If you’re at all interested in Bismarck, you NEED this book.

Raised by the Church: Growing Up in New York City’s Catholic Orphanages By Edward Rohs and Judith Estrine. Ed Roh tells his story from being left as a baby at a Catholic orphanage in NYC in 1946. The book covers his childhood and adolescence in a series of Catholic institutions until he was discharged in 1965. From his account Roh seems like he was adequately cared for within the context of the times and situation. With the notable exception of one instance of sexual abuse the book is remarkably free of the horror stories one so commonly finds in memoirs of this type. Roh is remarkably candid throughout the book and seems fair when both accepting and assigning responsibility for some of the problems he experienced. For example, Roh’s parents never signed over their parental rights to him. This precluded the institutions from placing him for adoption which would have removed him from the highly regimented institutional environment. When Roh was four, he had a brief examination and cognitive testing session during which he was relegated to the “vocational” education track. A categorization he himself assumed responsibility for reinforcing when at the age of 14 and worried about going to public high-school with (as the stories in the orphanage had it,) gangs and crime, he intentionally flunked 8th grade to spend one more year in the orphanage school. Because of his categorization his educational opportunities did not include college. He did later in life graduate from Fordham. This is one of those books that I’m glad I read, but I’m not sure I can recommend it. It was a sad story, albeit not as sad as it could have been.

Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev is an outstanding book to improve your chess once you’ve reached the level beyond rank beginner. The book consists of a series of thirty-odd chess games with each and every move of each game annotated by a player of the “national master” class. Going through each game while following the commentary and the various thoughts that occur to an expert player, is extremely useful for anyone trying to improve their game. This is the second time I’ve gone through the book (motivated by my above mentioned experiences with The Queen’s Gambit ) and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time 20 or 30 years ago. I recommend it very highly to anyone with a serious interest in Chess.

Traders On The Galactic Tunnel Network by E.M. Foner is the latest installment in the author’s humorous sci-fi universe. This time it seems that Earth’s cultural and biological treasures are being systematically looted by unknown entities. It is much the same as other works by this author, a fun, light, read. I’m glad Foner is still producing these and I always look forward to the next one. As I’ve said before, this book, even this series isn’t the place to start. If you want to try one of these out, try Date Night on Union Station by the same author which is $.99 on Amazon or free with Kindle Unlimited.

10 for the year