I just finished Sebastian Junger's War, and I think it is essential reading. For me, the war in Afghanistan has been almost entirely abstract. I hear reports on NPR and read newspaper accounts of the fighting there, but there are almost no popular images to place the actual combat in my imagination (everything I know about WWII, I learned from Band of Brothers).

With that being the case, I think it's hard or me to calculate the actual cost of war, if that makes sense. Maybe it's weak minded of me, but I need to be anchored, on the ground, before I have a take. This book has done that for me.

Junger renders the battlefields and American soldiers of Afghanistan with the immediacy and storytelling flair that made The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air so compelling. What's different in this book is that Junger is in the thick of the action. He is embedded with the units in question, and out with them on patrol. This gives him greater insight into the lives and psychologies of the soldiers, but also brings him into the picture. I didn't come away suspecting that the author had misrepresented or exaggerated his role any way, but I was acutely aware that his presence was altering the portrait itself.

The book is even more timely as one of the actions described within resulted in the awarding of the Medal of Honor to a living soldier for the first time since Vietnam.

This brief book is an important piece of the puzzle when struggling to understand our role in that far-off country. After reading War, 2014 looks equally far away.

Hello All, this is my first post as a DadLabs member. I read about this site on usatoday.com and figured I would check it out; I like what is happening here and look forward to being a part of it.

Ok, enough thread hi-jacking. I really enjoy reading just about everything. I would have to say that Clive Cussler's series of books featuring "Dirk Pitt" are my all-time favorite reads. They are not as far-fetched as some action/adventure reads (but are kinda far out there) and are very light-hearted and highly entertaining. Dirk Pitt is a man's man and always up to his neck in adventure. Every time I pick up one of Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels, I feel as if I am in the company of a good friend.

If you haven't read any Clive Cussler, I highly recommend all of the Dirk Pitt novels, but my personal favorite is SAHARA...or maybe Valhall Rising...or Inca Gold...ehhh you get the idea. They are all awesome.

PS- they don't need to be read in any particular order.

@austin_asu

Thanks for the rec.

(On a side note, I think it's interesting that you found us through USAToday. That article is pretty old now. Glad to know it's still doing us some good.)

I have been reading up on making coffee and tea. A good espresso will come in very handy during those 4am mornings my daughter has been experiencing lately.

I'm not a caffeine junkie, but the teething and crawling is making for some very, very, early mornings.

I'm surprised that I decided to read Patrick O'Brian's swashbuckling classic "Master and Commander" this fall. This should have been a summer read for me, all the way. Something with plenty of well-plotted adventure and a nautical theme that I would typically read on the beaches of Cape Cod.

Fortunately for me, there are 19 more installments in the Aubrey/Maturin series. I can't imagine my summer reading "stack" on my Kindle not including one of these books for the foreseeable future.

Even though this novel was first published when I was Cooper's age, it wears it's age well. This book is so much about the authenticity of the scene that time has been very kind. I really geeked out on the operations and culture of the early 19th century warship. And there is plenty to geek over here; sailing operations, nautical warfare, politics, and an utterly odd community, all pasted over with a patina of Old England. I was charmed pretty much from the outset.

The relationship between the brave but somewhat limited captain and his scholarly ship's surgeon reminded me of nothing so much as Star Trek. What year did Jim and Bones hit the air? Maturin and Aubrey are ringers. As a matter of fact, the whole book is much like science fiction in its alien-ness to a modern reader. But "Master and Commander" has the ring of obsessively researched truth. And that's half the fun.

I wonder if I'll be able to wait until summer to read the next installment.

A good one for the adventurous minded and historically inclined.

I just finished the semester, well, at least classes are done. So if anyone needs any recommendations for books on modern France, the emergence of industrial America, or the politics of the 1960s, let me know. I don't know how much of it I would designate as 'fun,' but I've been through at least 4 dozen books this semester. So, I have a lot to choose from.

I reccomend The Unsinkable Bathroom Reader for lots of laughs and cool facts.

Just finished The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille (audio) and it has me wondering, can a thriller be over-researched? I finished this pre-9/11 story of a dogged NYPD cop on the trail of a Libyan terrorist, and definitely had moments of frustration as DeMille paused to observe the scenery, sit in on a bureaucratic meeting, or watch cops shag.

The protagonist, John Corey, is a likable enough example of the species, but I found his wisecracking dialogue creaky (downright colorless when compared to, say Elmore Leonard, but then...). The plot was plausible (see research above), and I appreciated the narrative techniques of switching back and for the between cop and terrorist -- PC points scored on that one.

It's not that this is a bad book (I listened to all 25 hours of it, after all), it's that it took our heroes a good 16 hours (of listening time) to even pick up the bad guy's trail. I felt the Corey romance with his partner Kate, was cookie-cutter and given an awful lot of air time. Lion's Game had it's hair raising moments, but it took a lot of meetings to get there.

In other words, cut to the chase.

Like a tween watching her first horror movie, I have a tendency to shout at my books. While this can startle my wife into hiccups, I generally think of it as a good thing. It means that I’m completely carried away with a book. I had to speak with Detective Hunt and Johnny, the object of his attention and cause of his investigations, several times before I finished “The Last Child” by John Hart.

The last couple of thrillers I’ve read fall into the “leisurely” category when it comes to pacing. "The Last Child," which I guess is technically a police procedural and not a thriller, was a welcome change, moving briskly but credibly from event to event, alternating chapters from the perspective of the boy and the cop.

The two share a history and a modus operadi. Hunt was the lead investigator in the case of Johnny’s sister’s disappearance, and both are compelled to the point of obsession even two years later. Both undertake investigations that ultimately yield some pretty shocking results. Both are under pressure and take great risks. Both hope for the best for Johnny’s long-suffering (yet beautiful) mother.

If you object to kids in danger as a way to generate melodrama, then read no further because the portion of North Carolina that serves as the setting for "The Last Child" is just crawling with pervs, pedophiles, bullying teens and abusive boyfriends. And the rest of the populace consists entirely of asshole cops. Oh, and there’s violence aplenty in this book as well.

Like a lot of pot boilers, this story groans a little toward the end and gets freighted with a bit too much allegory for my taste, but it certainly kept me turning pages. The book had enough literary qualities for my to keep my eye out for future titles from Hart, the same way I follow Richard Price, Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy.

This is a top quality procedural with literary dimensions. If you like detective fiction, this is well worth a read.

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Audiobook

On a sweltering Dallas afternoon in 1979, when I was twelve, an otherwise reasonable adult, an attorney who claimed the Shah of Iran as one of his clients, took his son and me to a movie theater. My friend and I emerged, dazed; seared, for the first time I think, by a work of art. The movie was Apocalypse Now, and the experience fixed me with an interest in the Vietnam War that lasted throughout my adolescence.

My uncle, himself a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, learned that I had seen and liked the movie. That Christmas he gave me the three LP set of the complete soundtrack of the movie. He never otherwise spoke of the war with anyone. I played that record until the grooves wore out. I’ve seen all the other movies. Liked some, but none ever had the same impact as Apocalypse Now, even though the argument could be made that later movies were more meritorious.

I also read every book I could lay my hands on regarding the war, from big Time/Life tomes with diagrams and illustrations of weapons and uniforms, to the novels pulpy and literary alike: From James Webb’s Fields of Fire to Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

Which is all a rather long windup to the following statement: Matterhorn is a brilliant book about the Vietnam War. Maybe the best. Maybe the definitive work of narrative fiction in all forms on the subject.

I think what makes this novel so very good is that it has the personally observed authenticity of Platoon or The Things They Carried, a bit of the insanity of war that Apocalypse Now captured so brilliantly, and also the political sensibility that informs Full Metal Jacket. The scope of Matterhorn is larger, giving us not only a realistic glimpse of the horror of squad level combat, but also a revealing portrait of the forces and motivations that guide the staff officers deciding the squad’s fate.

We’ve met the green, Ivy League idealist as the protagonist before (a pre-coke Charlie Sheen in Platoon comes to mind), but Marlantes’ Waino Mellas has a distinctive trajectory: from ambitious officer to veteran soul-searcher. There were moments when his philosophical soul searching seemed beyond a harried 22-year-old. Marlanthes also seemed to struggle to find words to capture the powerful feeling the soldier had for squad mates. Their chests swelled a lot in this situation.

Quibbles aside, the emotional power and scope of this novel set it apart. A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject.

Finally, a quick shout-out to none other then Balki himself, Bronson Pinchot, for providing an understated, multi-faceted, multi-accented narration of the audiobook edition. A truly outstanding interpretation that was nothing but additive to the novel.

Body Work by Sara Paretsky

I'm trying to find a reason that I didn't like this book, other than the fact that the detective/protagonist is a woman, but I come away almost as disappointed in myself as I am in this piece of detective fiction. I don't think my problem is with female authors of genre fiction: I loved Kate Atkinson's "When Will There Be Good News" and read all the Ripley novels in one sustained binge.

The problem, from the very outset, was credibility. You might assume that my first credibility issue was with the flying fists and fashionable footwear of the lady-detective protagonist, V. I. Warshawski. Not so.

My initial problem has a much less macho derivation. I found the depiction of performance art to be silly. I've got an MFA in playwriting, so I've suffered through and inflicted on others all kinds of avant garde performance dreck. Mea Culpa. The "Body Artist?" Maybe in 1986. Just read dumb to me.

But back to my sexism. Can my patriarchal mind simply not accept that a female detective can be as hard-bitten, haunted, cynical, bedraggled, drunken, smart-assed and violent as my favorite detectives? Probably not.

Maybe someone can suggest the Anti-Miss Marple, so I can come correct on my femme noir?

The last couple of flights I was on I read Thomas Sowell's "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" and "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong, both great reads.

This winter I read "From Hiroshima to Glasnost: At the Center of Decision Making. Paul Nitze: A Memoir". Nitze was involved in U.S. foriegn policy one way or another for an awfully long time and the book gives many insights into world affairs. (One example is when he hand picked a small crew to go behind enemy lines into WWII Germany to study the effectiveness of the U.S. bombing strategy . Upon studying a bombed out ball bearing plant, Nitze found that you could not infact blow up a ball bearing , so the enemy could simply drive a truck over to the site and pck up all the existing ball bearings and take them to whatever tank assembly plant they needed to go to. Who'd a thought? Great reading if you're into that sorta thing like I am.

I also read "1066:The Year of the Conquest". I can easily trace my family back to a manor home in England beginning with the Norman Invasion of 1066. I found this book to learn more about the Norman Invasion to get a sense of where the family came from prior to that. Good stuff.

With the newborn arriving this fall, I found myself digging out an old favorite: "The Greatest Miracle In the World" by Og Mandino. Love the miracle part of how a baby is created.

The last novel I read was a few years back called "Precious Cargo" by a friend of ours Clyde Ford. It's a really fun detective story that takes place in our town of Bellingham, Wa and involves the protagonist getting shot at on our favorite hiking trails, eating at our favoite little diners, and includes a kayak chase scene. (Morgan Freidman has brought Clyde out to his house to discuss a movie deal, possibly with Will Smith playing the protagonist).

For fun I usually read the trip reports on ADVrider.com and ExpeditionPortal.com or browse garagejournal.com. for good ideas.

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

Exactly what I'm looking for in a diverting procedural -- a great sense of place (in this case Wyoming), zippy dialog, and brisk pacing. I'm not crazy about the over-the-hill protagonist as a rule, but Walt grew on me. His back-and-forths with his old bud Henry Standing Bear had me guffawing out loud. I felt that the Native American characters and scenes set on the reservation were interesting and authentic without being exploitative. The action of this book is as smooth and dependable as the action on the Sharp's Rifle at the story's center.

The plot cruised along, and the ending surprised me. I probably won't be back to this series any time soon -- which is not to say that it wasn't fully satisfying. A fine example of the breed. But not quite enough grit to keep me coming back again and again.

Room by Emma Donoghue

A compelling narrative voice certainly, and there were moments when I experienced something akin to anxious nausea as the plot twisted. The whole thing is a pretty tough stylistic stunt, and it's well pulled off. I generally resent child-in-danger melodrama, and was worried I would hate this book as a result. I didn't, but part of me was glad when it was over. It's not searing to a parents psyche the way the "The Road" is, but it is certainly squirm inducing.

It's pretty hard to write about this book without spoilers, so I'll skip any attempt at summary and say that the plot here is surprising and diverting. There is plenty going on to keep the pages turning. Mechanics and melodrama are all admirably under control. What I like best about this book is that it is both a literal and metaphorical exploration of how a five year old experiences the world. It's all Room to them, and crawling for a moment into Wardrobe to remember that is a worthwhile exercise.

I'm prepping to bring Norman Wirzba into our church for a lecture series in May. The church is studying his book, Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight, through Lent. I'm a few chapters ahead, but I'll miss a good number of weeks. It's a nice read, but tough and academic. I'd recommend it if you want to find ways to make your work integrate better in your regular life, or your weekends for that matter. It uses a Christian approach, but it's not a "typical Christian" worldview. It's very based on Wendell Berry and the Agrarianism movement. He has a lot to say about food, work, economics, and home life. Worth a read.

I'm also reading his Essential Agraian Reader. It's a compilation of short pieces by people in honor of the 30th or 40th anniversary of Wendell Berry's publication of an essay that is attributed to launching agrarianism. Several pieces are Wirzba's.

He's going to be releasing a book, Faith & Food: a Theology of Eating, a week after he's with us. I'm putting together a workshop focused on that topic, so I'm trying to get a full read of how that book will come out so I'm ready to run the panel that will respond to his talk.

The Devil's Company by David Liss

This is the second novel by Liss that I've read, and in both I found the narrator's formal and ironic voice to be completely beguiling. In this book, Benjamin Weaver, the "thief-taker" is our guide, and while he might not be quite the rascal that Ethan Sauders of "Whiskey Rebels" is, he still has pointed wit that made me chuckle out loud several times.

It was fun to read this historical mystery alongside Bill Bryson's pop history "At Home" as they paint complimentary portraits of London in the 18th Century. Who knows if either of these guys are right, but they sure are convincing and entertaining.

The book is a mystery and the pacing is breezy and the story lines satisfyingly complex. While Big Business as the bad guy is a familiar theme (the corruption goes right to the top!), it is freshened by the historical setting. The political intrigue as historical study is also good fun.

I'll probably continue to read in Liss' backlist. This author carries off the history, the voice and the plot with impressive skill.

One note: I listened to "Whiskey Rebels" and read "The Devil's Company" so I'm not exactly how to attribute the fact that I liked the Whiskey better. Is the scoundrel more fun? The plot more compelling? How much is that about the skill of the actor reading the book. Impossible to know. I recommend both highly.