junior’s reading….

Under Fire in the Dardanelles:  The Great War Diaries and Photographs of Major Edward Cadogan.

Not simply historical, but also topical.   Given the strange love – hate relationship between turkey and the european union; the middle eastern mess created largely as a result of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the meddling of Great Britain and France via the Sykes-Picot Treaty, I think I shall enjoy this.

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Next up is “The Jungle is Neutral“, a soldier’s two year jungle escape from the Japanese Army.

books – new on the shelf (bumped)

 March 18 2008:

Liberal Fascism – Jonah Goldberg.  Winston Churchill, George Orwell, Jeanne Kirkpatrick – they all understood.  Goldberg simply casts the socialist imperative for control of every aspect of your life into the American context.   A must read for all who oppose the creeping hand of state intervention.

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Feb 16 2008: 

One of the dangers of being let loose in a book store is that despite my best intentions, I never seem to leave with only one book:

My Battle of Algiers: A Memoir – Ted Morgan

The Road to Verdun – Ian Ousby

books (moved to main page)

Moved content from Books page to Main page:

Feb 10 2008:  Spending the kids college fund on books,

Prince of the Marshes – Rory Stewart. 

Update: just finished, and it strikes me that none of the arm chair warriors who second guessed just how long it ‘should’ have taken the US to rebuild Iraq paid any attention to just how corrupt, venal and absolutely feudal a society is Iraq.  Saddam simply appears to have normalized this way of life and in the absence of his totalitarian regime, things carried on in just as violent and but now chaotic fashion.  

 I am particularly looking forward to reading this as I had just finished “Places In Between“, a fantastic book purchased and read in honour of my uncle, Christopher Brown (1944 – 2008). 

The Hidden War – Artyom Borovik.  Just as soon as I complete Stewart, above, I intend to launch into this particular gem. 

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Jan 20 2008:  Juniors transatlantic reading,
I am about a third of the way through this very interesting book. Delpech treads the ‘those who fail to heed history are doomed to repeat it’ path but with strong arguments rooted in the recent European experience. Very compelling. More to follow.

Grateful thanks to Mrs Junior for an excellent Christmas gift.
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Jan 04 2008:  The Christmas Book Fairy was very good to Junior,

Savage Century (see below)

The Bottom Billion (also below)

Fifteen Days– Christie Blatchford

Villa Air-Bel – Rosemary Sullivan

The Mess They Made – Gwynne Dyer

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Dec 01 2007:  Junior’s TransAtlantic Readings

Nature Girl– Carl Hiaasen 

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 Nov 14 2007: If Junior had any spare change, he’d be buying these:

Discovery Of France – Graham Robb;

Savage Century: Back to Barbarism– Therese Delpech

The God That Failed– David Engerman

The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it – Paul Collier

Gates of Fire– Steven Pressfield

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Nov 12 2007: Juniors Current Reading:

I usually have about two or three books on the go at any one time.  Just finished reading Mud Blood and Poppycock by Gordon Corrigan. A very compelling revisit of some of the accepted wisdom surrounding the Great War for Civilization.    For anyone with a general  interest in military history, or of the First World War specifically I would recommend this.

On the go: 

 ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities‘ – Jane Jacobs; and

‘Flashman and the Dragon‘ – George MacDonald Fraser.  One of my all-time favourite authors; and I do like the new cover art.