My reading has been kind of all over the place since my last update.
Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan White was a disappointment, that in retrospect, I probably should have expected. White has attempted to write a biography of Buffett without actually interviewing or interacting with him. Instead White has recorded dozens of interviews with, it seems lie, ANYONE who ever interacted with Buffett. The result is kind of a hot mess that runs more or less chronologically, but with lengthy and irrelevant discursions, and at the end of the day I didn’t really know any more about Buffett than I did when I started. Not recommended
The Wrong Stuff: The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator by Truman Smith was a fascinating first person account of a B-17 pilot who completed his 35 missions and made it home. The book is arranged with a chapter on each of the 35 missions interspersed with vivid and evocative accounts of everyday life on the airbase, trips on pass to London, and all the minutiae of day to day life for members of the 8th AF during WWII. If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to fly those missions, this is the book for you.
I’ve also knocked off another three volumes of Morisons History of Naval Operations in WWII; Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls: June 1942 – April 1944, New Guinea and the Marianas: March 1944 – August 1944, and Leyte: June 1944 – January 1945. As with the other volumes these were uniformly excellent. Despite their age and more recent scholarship they are very well written and still form an excellent basis for future reading. I recommend them.
Lee Moves North: Robert E. Lee on the Offensive by Michael A. Palmer was a good, but not outstanding book on Lee’s three attempts to invade the North. The book is an interesting restorative for the reams of Lee hagiography out there and really shows how strategically myopic Lee’s mind was in promoting these operations. I recommend it if only because it gives a little balance and perspective to the Lee worshiping books out there.
Next up were two sailing books by William F Buckley, Airborne: A Sentimental Journey and Atlantic High: A Celebration both books recount Buckley crossing the Atlantic under sail with several of his friends, once in 1975 (Airborne) and again in 1982 (High). The books are strange in that they really don’t have much plot or narrative beyond the rough chronological structure of the journey across the ocean. They are filled with personal observations from each of the crew, as well as discursions of electronic, sailing, navigation, and a raft of personal reminiscences from Buckley. If you’re a fan of Bill Buckley, or at least of his sailing adventures, you’ll enjoy this. If not into sailing on at least some level it probably won’t move you. If you dislike Buckley, you’ll hate this even though it contains little to no Conservative political content.
59 for the year
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