Caleb Diffell > Recent Status Updates

Excellent, extremely detailed treatment. Very dense but rewarding so far.

THIS is the type of military historical novelization I've been wanting. I will get more books by Jeff Shaara. It makes Harry Turtledove's alt-historical writing feel amateurish by comparison. Thoroughly enjoying the characterizations of the 4 main characters. Just wish there was more Chamberlain, but I'm sure he's coming ;)

I'm uncomfortable with Leeman's definition of "politics" that seems to encompass all areas of life, including worship. It's suspiciously close to leftist, progressive conceptions of politics as pervading and affecting all aspects of life and relationships. I get what he's trying to do but I think it's a fraught definition with unhealthy implications.

Dull, uninspired, and depressing. Sort of like the Great War itself. Very short vignettes that do not showcase characters in any relatable way. This is not a very good book, but I will grind through it nevertheless. I think it sort of succeeds in what it sets out to do; it's just that what it sets out to do is uninteresting.

Interesting focus - on the literary deconstruction of Jackson's own and others' letters to him. I'm not sure if it's just an amateurish take to try to differentiate it from other, more well-known works on Jackson, or what. But I'm not too familiar with Old Hickory's backstory, so I'm enjoying it anyway.

Eh, not too impressed. These sorts of stories are nice for the "easter eggs" of coming across a historical figure in a different setting, so that's kind of neat, but other than that, it's a long cast of characters that it's hard to care about, and the battle scene descriptions all blend together after a while. I'm not sure I'll finish it unless something changes soon.

This is a great read. Very detailed and sometimes it's easy to get lost with all the unfamiliar historical characters, but overall presents a balanced, nuanced view of the incredible difficulties faced by the initial French project under Ferdinand de Lesseps.

Most noticed word: "preposterous" :)

McCullough has a wonderful way with words. I'd forgotten what a joy it is to read him. He simply can't write an awkward sentence. He strives for, and almost always achieves, utter clarity. So far, the story is fascinating. Why it didn't begin with a good map, though, is a glaring deficiency. There is a decent one of just the Canal Zone buried in the 500's or so, but ...

After the initial rather choppy BBC historical overview, the chapters on Lewis' talks were good. There was less history of what was going on at the time than I thought - I would've preferred longer extracts of the letters back and forth between Lewis and his producers. I did appreciate the exec summaries of each talk and how they fit into what became Mere Christianity.

I didn't care for the first couple of chapters setting up the history of the BBC. I understand why they were included, but they sort of assumed familiarity with British culture & radio personalities that I definitely don't have. So it was sort of just a list of names without a lot of context. Starting to enjoy the parts where Lewis actually makes an appearance though!

I like the focus on institutions and the importance of institutions shaping their participants. I'm thinking that the ability to achieve fame and validation direct from the masses via 24-hour cable news (first) and then Social Media is what has wrecked our institutions' ability to influence or shape the behavior of those who belong to them.