I picked up The Unforgiving Minute as it was on the 2014 U.S. Army Chief of Staff’s Professional Reading List. As I’ve mentioned before, I love to read fiction for fun but I was commuting an hour to work each way so I decided to listen to audiobooks to pass the time. I thought it would benefit me professionally to read the books recommended by the leader of my branch of service. This book became available in April and I listened to it over the […]
More like Unreadable
The Age of the Unthinkable is the most underwhelming book I’ve read this year. It was written by Joshua Cooper Ramo who is a former foreign editor for Time magazine. I assumed that meant the book would be insightful and interesting but it was not. The Age of the Unthinkable reads like a really long magazine article but not even a Time article. It is way more sensationalist and bold without any facts to support the assertions. Ramo originally earned renown as the creator of […]
The Best War Reporting I’ve Encountered
War, as the title suggests, is the best war reporting I’ve encountered in my reading thus far. Like everyone’s favorite war-ish cliché, War is visceral. It is heartbreaking. It evokes rage. It harbors contempt. It loves. In the summers of 2007 and 2008 Junger embedded with Battle Company 2/503 Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. He was joined by photographer Tim Hetherington. Junger stated that his goal was to just report and even said “It’s a completely apolitical film. We wanted to give viewers the […]
There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here!
This was my second foray into the world of Malcolm Gladwell during the Cannonball and it’s not the last. I really enjoy his books and the way he reads them. Gladwell performs his own narration which I believe improves the quality of an audio book. Gladwell is a smooth, easy reader with an inviting tone. David and Goliath discusses how there may be inherent advantages in perceived disadvantages. Right away, the conclusions are loose and not definitive in anyway but I do not think hat […]