Grand unified books thread

[CountDeMoney]

Traffic was so goddamned bad yesterday, I spun off into Pit Row to kill some time at the local Barnes & Nobles, and after perving through "New Paranormal Teen Romance", I was thumbing through The Generals by Thomas Ricks--the WP correspondent who wrote Fiasco and who blogs on FP--and he really takes a rather severe approach towards most of the modern post-war generals and American generalship, well, in general.  Trying to figure out how, in the premier military machine in the world, why it could produce such a fantastic junior officer corps, only and with rare exception to never see it elevated to command.  And, as he wrote on his blog, "I was puzzled by how the same U.S. Army that was so quick to relieve during World War II was so slow to relieve in Iraq, and it made me wonder if lack of relief is liked to lack of accountability -- and most importantly, if lack of accountability leads to lack of adaptivness."

Some good generals:  O.P. Smith (never truly acknowledged, even by the USMC), Ridgway and Abrams (who to the best of their abilities admirably tried to clean up their predecessors' political and military messes, respectively), and Betrayeus.
Some bad generals: Taylor, Westmoreland, Tommy Franks.   Really takes a dump on Maxwell Taylor.   Not that I disagree, but Taylor's chairmanship of the JCS was a little more complex than simply politicizing the position.  yeah, he manipulated the POTUSes, but he also protected them from the agendas of goofs like LeMay.
Even takes a few shots at Stormin' Norman and Colin Powell, who like so many that served in Vietnam as junior officers, were more products of the by-then indoctrinated post-Vietnam corporate risk aversion than solutions to it.

Big premises: George C. Marshall's established professional standards and demands on generalship devolved as the DoD increasingly adopted "Corporate America" management methodologies in the '50s and '60s, (hello, Mr. McNamara!) resulting in micromanagement and risk aversion (hell, we knew that);  and that the generals don't get fired for incompetency or bad fits to their commands as much as they're fired for personal moral issues or allowed to finish their tours like "tenured professors", whether they're up to the task or not (read: Sanchez).  Because firing for incompetency or being relieved of command because of square peg-round hole concerns makes things look bad.

Fun facts:  George C. Marshall fired over 600 officers before the US went to war, and "of the 42 senior officers who in 1941 commanded units at the division level or higher in the Louisiana Maneuvers, the testing ground for the Army's upper-level leadership, only 11 went on to command in wartime."  Fired something like 16 division commanders during WW2.

May have to go back and buy it so I can finish it. 

[11B4V]

 

THE VIAZ'MA CATASTROPHE, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon

This book describes one of the most terrible tragedies of the Second World War and the events preceding it. The horrible miscalculations made by the Stavka of the Soviet Supreme High Command and the Front commands led in October 1941 to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of their own people. Until recently, the magnitude of the defeats suffered by the Red Army at Viaz'ma and Briansk were simply kept hushed up. For the first time, in this book a full picture of the combat operations that led to this tragedy are laid out in detail, using previously unknown or little-used documents.

The author was driven to write this book after his long years of fruitless search to learn what happened to his father Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, who disappeared together with his unit in the maelstrom of Operation Typhoon. He became determined to break the official silence surrounding the military disaster on the approaches to Moscow in the autumn of 1941.

In the present edition, the author additionally introduces documents from German military archives, which will doubtlessly interest not only scholars, but also students of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. Lopukhovsky substantiates his position on the matter of the true extent of the losses of the Red Army in men and equipment, which greatly exceeded the official data. In the Epilogue, he briefly discusses the searches he has conducted with the aim of revealing the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Soviet soldiers, who to this point have been listed among the missing-in-action - including his own father. The narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs, color maps and tables.

[Savonarola]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

A lengthy discussion of fish interrupted on occasion by some story about a submarine.  If there was ever a novel written for The Larch, this is it.   

Still a classic, though I had forgotten how much of the novel is spent describing marine biology and oceanographic science.  I had also forgotten that Ned Land was Canadian .  I'm pretty sure the translation I had when I was young had them fight a giant squid; but it's an octopus (poulpe) in the original.

[Queequeg]

The Disaster Artist is wonderful.  Completely, totally wonderful.  One of the funniest things I've ever read.  Tommy Wiseau might be the weirdest person in history.

[Savonarola]

The Disaster Artist is wonderful.  Completely, totally wonderful.  One of the funniest things I've ever read.  Tommy Wiseau might be the weirdest person in history.

I enjoyed it quite a bit and it did go a long way to explaining "The Room."

[Syt]

There's an explanation for that ... thing? Mind you, I only know it from exhaustive internet reviews (Nostalgia Critic, Obscurus Lupa, mostly).

[Maladict]

Reading Das Boot on my way to Wilhelmshaven.
It's pretty good.

[Savonarola]

There's an explanation for that ... thing? Mind you, I only know it from exhaustive internet reviews (Nostalgia Critic, Obscurus Lupa, mostly).

So far as there can be an explanation.  Greg Sestero (Mark from the film as well as the production line manager) co-wrote the book.  Spellus is right; Tommy Wiseau (the writer/director/lead actor/producer) is one very strange person.

[11B4V]

Reading

The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss

Very good so far

[Scipio]

Reading

The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss

Very good so far

Marty Stu, thine ship hath come in.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/04/11

But yes, it's very, very good.

[Gups]

First half of Name of the Wind is great. Then it gets boring.

Reading "the Stars our Destination". Excellent so far.

[Habbaku]

I found the first half of The Name of The Wind to be boring enough to not read any further.

[The Brain]

It's no She's Like The Wind.

[Syt]

I've started with "A Splendid Exchange" a history of world trade.

[crazy canuck]

I've started with "A Splendid Exchange" a history of world trade.

Please let us know if you would recommend it.