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What Are You Reading Right Now?

I just finished reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. There are not enough superlatives to describe how much I enjoyed reading it. Perhaps it was surpassed by Unbroken, by the same author. It is too bad that this author has not written more.

While the book had an inevitable focus on the famous horse, a wisely also concentrated on the trainer and the various jockeys. My grandfather always said come with horses, “watch the jockey more than the horse” because “the horse is just an animal.” Obviously the trainer must have material to train, and the jockey must have material to ride. The trainer often gets less notice than even the jockey. The names Secretariat (Triple Crown 1973), Seattle Slew (Triple Crown 1977) and Seabiscuit are household words. Their trainers and jockeys are relative unknowns.

Overall, it is the kind of book that leaves one with a good feeling. It shows what is possible. And to always aspire to excellence.
 
A book given to me by a monk during a visit to the new Tiantai monastery. It is called, "Emptiness and Omnipresence."
Screenshot_20250810_222444_WeChat(1).webp
 
The Expanse-Caliban's War. Just finished Leviathan Wakes
 
I just finished reading Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper. I was always taught as a child never to kick someone when they are down, and never pick on someone weaker than myself. While a thrilling and quick read, this book violates those rules and more.

The book lays out in detail the cognitive and frightening decline of President Biden. Clearly he was never, at least after the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, making too many decisions. That may have been for the better. And Tapper outlines how the 25th Amendment is well-intentioned but impractical.

I borrowed this book from the library since I would not contribute one thin dime to the owners of the "intellectual property" of this work. Most objective people arrived at the same conclusion with the June 27, 2024 debate; he could not run or serve again. Presumably, Jake Tapper, once a leading Biden sycophant, was among them. He then wrote this book, which is like between traded from a losing team to the opponent in a game in the eighth inning. While I did not vote for him, ever, I consider this book an A-1 act of bullying. That is why I give it one star.
 
Afghantsy by Roderick Braithwaite - former Brit diplomat to the USSR and Russia.

archive.org

Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89 : Rodric Braithwaite : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org

Tracks the Soviet Afghan war from start to finish. The politics behind, how the got involved, bogged down and eventually got out. The lives of the soldiers there. The legacy after. Absolutely riveting.

So good, it's my second read through in six months.

In between I also read Emma's War: its the story of a British aid worker who married a Sudanese warlord and also a great primer on that country's history and troubles.

books.google.co.nz

Emma’s War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan

Love, corruption, violence and the dangerous politics of aid in the Sudan, by an exciting new writer. Emma McCune’s passion for Africa, her unstinting commitment to the children of the Sudan, and her striking glamour set her apart from other aid workers the moment she arrived in southern Sudan...
books.google.co.nz
 
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I've been reading the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (Actually 2 writers working together). As good as the TV series was, and it was good, the books are better. More in depth and more humor. I'm on book 5 of 9, plus there are a few novellas that go along with series.


Now I have a rant. I've read almost everything John Ringo has written, but his latest, Behind the Veil, is unreadable. This is what happens when you let other people write books and they do the bulk of the writing. I feel the same about Lee Child.
Ok, rant over.
 
I just finished reading The Year of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub. I will give this book a 3 1/2. Since that is not available, I rated it a four. In an effort of personal disclosure, I gave some weight to the fact that the author is alumnus of my Alma Mater, Cornell.

The writing flows well. There is some humor. The book makes points that I believe needs to be made, which is that we torture ourselves to be environmentally perfect, to little real effect. She does praise the widespread effort to do better. She analyzes, in excruciating detail, what is wrong with most personal environmental efforts. She never calls it environmental theater, but she may as well have.

What is wrong with the book and why do I not give it a higher reading? Like many books there is an apparent effort to inflate the number of pages. There was enough repetition that I skimmed much of it and actually skipped half of a very long chapter. Quibbles aside, the book is worth reading.
 
The Serpent and the Wings of Night. A vampire/human love story that's way better than Twilight.
 
I just finished the Lion Women of Tehran by Morgan Kamali. I'd give it a 4 out of 5. It's a great story of female friendship, set in Tehran during political upheaval.
 
Munich Wolf by Rory Clements

"MUNICH, 1935 - The Bavarian capital is a magnet for young, aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars.

What they don't see - or choose to ignore - is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home.

When a high-born English girl is murdered, Detective Sebastian Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. Wolff is already walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors. Now Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case.

Followed by the secret police and threatened by his own son, a fervent member of the Hitler Youth, the stakes have never been higher. And when Wolff begins to suspect that the killer might be linked to the highest reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, he fears his task is simply impossible - and that he might become the next victim."

Damn good read so far. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys well written WWII spy novels. You can see the striking parallels between Nazi Germany in WWII and the current fascist madness in the United States.
 
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I just finished reading For a Time Such as This by Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove.

The first two parts of this book were inspiring. They were an interesting exegesis on Jewish history and theology. This focus was on the book of Esther and secondarily on Elijah, the prophet who allegedly visits every household during Pesach. What dropped the book from 4 1/2 or five stars was the concluding part of the book. The concluding part was a warmed over rehash of typical Reform and Conservative Jewish views about a “two state solution.”

My views on this are not material to the review; Suffice to say that I consider his solutions not to be well thought out. I know this Rabbi can do better. The ultimate solution to a two thousand year old problem is inessential to the topic of being a Jew today.
 
I finished The Unmaking of June Farrow. It started out really good and then was just okay the rest of the way.
 
Just finished the mystery of Edwin Drood, well I didn't finish it actually as Dickens died before completing it but it was pretty interesting if rather disappointing as you never find out what happens
 
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