The recommendation of a friend spurred the timing of my reading of The Outpost but I intended to read it for some time. It’s written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and made me a fan of his for life. This is why it was originally a part of my to-read list: In 2009, I was deployed to Iraq. I’d been in the Army almost three years and I spent the majority of my deployment on a staff in Baghdad. I worked the night shift that […]
I shouldn’t know more than our culture’s leading experts…
While reading this, I found myself questioning beliefs I have held for many years. Not because this book presents novel ideas or is deeply informative about a subject I mistakenly thought I was familiar with (though it did represent what are to me novel ideas, and I am not overly familiar with this subject), but because its author’s views occupy the same space as mine, and he has fallen not only into controversy, but disfavor. Which, of course, makes me question how I see the […]
For you a thousand times over.
I want to write a review that is unwieldy with munificence, so great is my love of this novel. I’m almost 70 books into my year, and am already going to call The Kite Runner the best thing I’ll read in 2016. Set mostly in Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion, this book follows the maturation of a Pashtun kid named Amir and his best friend Hassan, a Hazara boy. Amir’s mother died in childbirth, so he was raised by his father, who he affectionately calls […]
In our hour of darkness, Oh Lord, grant me vision
In the summer of 2005, in the Korangal Valley of Afghanistan, a US Navy SEAL reconnaissance team was ambushed by local militia. Three of the four men were killed in the fight, and a quick reaction force helicopter sent in to rescue the team was destroyed by an RPG, killing all 8 SEALs on board. Only one man came out of the battle alive. This is his story. It’s a well-written book, both informative and entertaining. Luttrell sprinkles the book with humorous anecdotes about the […]