Since my last post I’ve finished another eight books.
The Saga of Pappy Gunn by GEN George C. Kenney. This is one of those quintessentially American books about some random person stepping forward and making a difference through ingenuity and persistence. Gunn was a civilian airline executive in the Philippines when the war broke and hooked up with the USAAF as a kind of general maintenance, product development, and troubleshooter. He evacuated the islands when fell, but couldn’t get his family out (they were interned by the Japanese) and stayed with George Kenney throughout the war working for GEN Kenney who was MacArthur’s air guy. If the book is to be believed, Gunn is the guy who decided to put four 50 caliber machine guns from wrecked fighters into the nose of a A-20 Havoc bombers turning them into strafers that were very effective against Japanese shipping. Anyway the book is full of all sorts of funny and daring aviation anecdotes and is well worth reading for aviation aficionados.
Starborn and Godsons by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes is the third volume in the Legacy of Heorot series. This time it’s a couple of decades after the previous books and the colony of Avalon is beginning to experience the first breakdowns in technology caused by the damage of the Grendel Wars. While they’re dealing with that, another star-ship shows up from Earth, with a very interesting group of people who have the technology Avalon needs, but very much their agenda. To be honest I wasn’t that wild about this one, but having read the first two I really did want to know what happened. So, read the first two and if they grab you, you’ll want to read this one.
Then There Was One: The U.S.S. Enterprise and the First Year of War by Eugene Burns is a straightforward book about the adventures of the storied aircraft carrier in 1942. The book is good, but not great, and its narrowly focused on Enterprise. It was free from the library and I reckon that’s about what its worth.
The Night Fire by Michael Connelly is the most recent Bosch novel, this time in tandem with Renee Ballard. The cases are interesting and move forward with a nice pace. I’m glad to see the 21st book is just about as good as the first ones, but with Connelly obviously winding up Bosch’s involvement I’m not sure Ballard is enough of a draw to keep me reading these…stay tuned
Breaking the Bismarck Barrier: July 22, 1942 – May 1, 1944 and Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944 by Samuel Eliot Morison are the next two volumes in this history of the USN in WWII. This is my second time through these and they’re fascinating. Particularly interesting is Morison’s accounts of he planning and strategizing that take place before each operation. If you’re at all interested in the US Navy in WWII, you owe it to yourself to read these.
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel was a pretty big disappointment. In 1986 a guy decided to live on his own in the woods of Maine. He abandoned his car, took some camping gear, and took up residence in a patch of woods that was secluded, but with ready access to dozens of summer cottages and a summer camp all located around a lake. For the next 27 years, he emerged at night, broke into the cottages and summer camps to steal what he needed. In 2013, tired of continuing losses, a game warden staking out the summer camp caught him. He was prosecuted for the most recent burglaries (most of them were beyond the statue of limitations), spent 7 months in jail and successfully completed his parole. That’s it. End of story. The guy had no philosophical motivation, he wasn’t an environmentalist, he just felt like he was entitled to steal from people instead of working. Don’t bother with this one.
Orphans on the Galactic Tunnel by E.M. Foner is the latest in a series of humorous, almost whimsical, sci-fi set in a universe guided by an almost omniscient AI called the Stryx. In this one some humans who were minor characters in a previous book investigate the disappearance of Earth’s children. Its fun, light, and enjoyable. If you want to give these a try start with Date Night on Union Station by the same author where it all began.
51 for the year
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