false 2 10 10 true 5796136 read 0 true 2515261 currently-reading 0 true 2515260 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42359248 to: Holding Fast: The Untold Story of the Mount Hood Tragedy (Hardcover) by Karen James
Karen James, the wife of climber Kelly James, does a good job in this book of describing the shock, horror, and devastation that occurs to those left behind after a loved one's untimely death. One also gets a very real sense that Kelly was a pretty special guy, even though she doesn't go much into his past, or his life outside of climbing. At least in the way she describes it, their relationship and marriage would have been something to envy.

The details of the accident in which Kelly and his two friends died on Mt. Hood are given such as they are known, but no one knows precisely anything more than the general outline of their demise, and so in the end this does not take up but maybe a quarter of the book. The rest is really a narrative of how Karen coped during the rescue efforts and the months that followed after she learned Kelly wasn't coming back.

I believe Karen's personal knowledge of her husband informs her theory of his final days such that her insight is probably uniquely accurate in ways other investigators would not be able to match. At the same time, as his wife she also seems entirely incapable of evaluating critically any of his decisions leading up to the tragedy. If the climbers made mistakes, she doesn't acknowledge them. She's an optimist, and optimists insist on seeing the glass half full at all times. If you're looking for lessons or things to avoid in your own mountain-climbing, you will have to read between the lines.

I also wonder how the book might have been different, had more time passed betweent the accident and the writing. Kelly died in December of 2006 and the book came out less than two years later. Her life is still wrapped up to a large degree in her past, and not quite fully yet her future. An example of this is the fact she had Kelly buried in a special plot in which a second casket is planned to be placed on top of his at some future date. This second casket of course will be her own. This in spite of the fact that she is a young and rather beautiful woman who almost certainly will remarry before she dies. My point is, and quite understandably, at the time the book was written she was still thinking almost exclusively about what she had left behind, rather than what she has to look forward to.

Finally, a good portion of the story involves Karen and Kelly's faith in God. Particularly for Karen, her reliance on the almighty is an important factor in her efforts to recover from the trauma and grief of unexpectedly losing her husband. However, and no doubt I am also biased, but it always seems to me that God comes off pretty badly in these Christian tragedy stories. The people believe in his goodness the most are ironically the ones who he essentially let down the most, if you are to count the "millions" of unrequited prayers. Little proof or evidence is given that he actually even did so much as help them cope after the fact, though attempts are made. For example, Karen offers as evidence of God's continuing care for her a fortune cookie that she received at a restaurant not long after the accident, which had a message she felt was somehow related to Kelly, but which I failed to see the connection to.

To be fair, a person could "feel" God's presence and have a rather difficult time explaining it in a book. To understand Karen and her experiences would mean having to go through a similar one to hers, which thankfully I have never done.

Certainly Karen is a very earnest, trusting, and optimistic person, and regardless of your beliefs, it is hard not to be inspired in some small way by her obvious love for Kelly, and his obvious love for her and the outdoors.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42106180 to: Assault In Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program (Paperback) by Thomas Gallagher
One of the best WWII adventure books I have ever read. The account of what can only be described as a suicide mission into occupied Norway to sabotage a Nazi nuclear facility is utterly engrossing. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42100518 to: Notes from Underground: with White Nights, The Dreams of a Ridiculous Man, and selections from The House of the Dead (Paperback) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Decided to read this once again as it had been a few years. Was just as good as I remembered it, though it seems to get shorter each time.

If I were to make a list of my top ten favorite books of all time, this one would certainly make it. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42099734 to: The Stand (Expanded Edition) by Stephen King
This is one of the worst books I have ever suffered through, and when I say suffered, I mean all 1,100 pages worth. It was the first Stephen King book I've ever read and I chose it both because it was an story of generally apocolyptical conditions and also consistently rated highest by Stephen King fans. How could I go wrong with that combination? Yikes...


I had a really long diatribe detailing all of the literary atrocities committed in this book but in the end it was so awful that it doesn't even deserve a review, or my time spent thinking about it. When I was through I tossed the whole ten pound mass of hardbacked paper into the trash bin. I decided I couldn't risk another person getting this book in the future and wasting a perfectly good week of their lives.

All I can say is the experience is over and for that I'm grateful. Time to move on.


]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42099494 to: The Road (Hardcover) by Cormac McCarthy
I don't typically care for post-modern writing styles; i.e., lack of punctuation, capitalization, or even coherent paragraphs, but in this case the story is so engrossing one quickly forgets the presentation. Clearly one of the better post-apocolyptic books I've read. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24736991 to: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (Hardcover) by James Bradley
This book was a gift from my brother and I read it while laid up in bed with an injury.

First let me get my one minor complaint out of the way, as the book truly was exceptional. The author, James Bradley, could have spun a more cohesive storyline, but instead he prefered to jump somewhat willy-nilly between the past and present, and the here and there. I recall telling someone that I was reading this book when I was about halfway through it, and I was also going to tell them what it was about, but I stopped myself short because I wasn't quite sure yet. What was the story? He starts off with ancient history and moves from this and that and although we know generally that we are supposed to come to the fate of some American airmen, their stories are actually just one more piece in a jumbled collection of smaller stories.

However, this is a minor complaint indeed because each of these individual stories in the jumbled collection is so intriguing and spell-binding that the book is nearly impossible to put down. Indeed, the accounts of the individual "Flyboys" themselves paled somewhat in comparison to all the "sturm und drang" surrounding them.

Of particular interest was the history of Japanese-American political contact from Commodore Perry's visit in the 18th century to the start of the second World War. I never found this history taught to me as a child and it went a long way towards making Pearl Harbor a somewhat explicable occurance. As a child one gets the impression Japan just up and decided to bomb us one day for the fun of it, or rather, due to their evil-ness. But aside from the morality of the attack, I was fascinated with its genesis.

Speaking of morality, Mr. Bradley goes to great lengths to detail in equal portions the atrocities committed by both the Japanese and the Americans. His not-so-subtle point seems, at times, to be that we are both the same in war. However in balance he still leans a bit towards a typically American view of things. For example, while he relates equally the bad, from reading the book one might get the impression that Americans were the only ones with derring-do or uncommon bravery. Part of this can be excused since that is pretty much the topic of his book, and undoubtedly also because Japanese stories are much more difficult to come by.

It is always interesting to me in all the war books I have read how hubris, inflexibility, and rigid adherence to tradition have such an impact on outcomes. The Americans and Japanese both suffered from these limiting tendencies, only the Japanese had the worst case of it. So many thousands and millions of coincidences and interacting situations contribute to the final result of any war, but I would be tempted to say the three things listed above have a major if not primary influence in the end. Japan was a small, island nation that could never have matched the US in productive capacity; nevertheless it is quite possible with certain successes they could have sued or negotiated for a quite favorable position in the end. Size or productive capacity is not everything, but in addition to their intrinsic constraints they added managerial blunder after blunder - a losing combination if ever there was one. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24734887 to: Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 (Paperback) by Antony Beevor
Although I believe Beevor wrote this book after "The Fall of Berlin," it actually comes earlier in time, and you might want to read this one first. It details the German campaign in Russia generally and the assualt on Stalingrad specifically. This was an atrocious battle, particularly in the winter months as conditions were horrific on either side. When one keeps in mind the brutality exhibited by the Germans towards the population of Stalingrad and the Russian soldiers there, it may be easier to understand the similar ravages inflicted on the German people by the Russians later on in the war, and which Beevor details in the afore-mentioned book, "The Fall of Berlin."

Beevor does a good job of giving historical context and painting a very large picture. One must be prepared however for a lot of technical jargon and quite a few passages dealing with the movement of this battalion or that corps east or west and to and fro. Maps are included but to keep all the battlefield movements straight in one's head is nevertheless a challenge.

All the same the author is an excellend writer and the story is gripping. It is when he swoops down to the individual level and relates the stories of the poor souls on either side engaged in this combat that the book really shines. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24734867 to: The Fall of Berlin 1945 (Paperback) by Antony Beevor
This book is quite similar in style to Beevor's other book on Stalingrad, so I won't repeat myself on what I said about it. The two books make a nice pair and relate the two major assaults by the Germans and the Russians against each other in the second World War.

I found this book more enlightening from a historical perspective than I did Stalingrad. In addition to relating the actual facts of the battle for Berlin, Beevor's narrative brings to light the distrust between the Allies and the Russians, and the manner in which this led to the partition of Berlin after the war. Although the Allies and the Russians were ostensibly on the "same side" towards the end of the war, they were at heart still enemies and it didn't take long for this attitude to reassert itself in the political realm once hostilities ended. The Germans knew this as well and the book often cites cases where civilians and even some soldiers had hoped to rather be captured by the Americans to the West than the Russians to the East.

They were right to have wished so, as the Russians visited uninhibited brutality and savagery upon the German countryside, populace, and soldiers during their advance. Again, it is the individual accounts of the conflict that I found the most absorbing.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24734828 to: Paris After the Liberation 1944-1949: Revised Edition (Paperback) by Antony Beevor
Not a leisure book for sure but if you have an interest in the topic, meaning, the immediate post-war years, particularly in France and Paris specifically, then you will have a gratifying learning experience. Focuses on the political and artistic events primarily. ]]>