Michael McCormick > Recent Status Updates

Here is real literature. I am swept up in it. It is revolutionary and momentous.

Starting next book: heard a lot about this one in the WSJ and am excited to begin it today!

I got the idea to read this book from a librarian at the Inwood branch named "Isaiah" who's blurb write up about the book intrigued me. Now Isaiah has his own little stand of books that he has reviewed with blurbs all their own. When I saw this book, I asked a librarian behind the checkout desk if I could, you know, check out the the book. He said that the blurb was there "to entice you." So I checked it out.

"Caveman" is a great read so far: Romulus Ledbetter will crack the case because he is a truly rare kind of human being. The book is quite intense. I renewed it again, thank God. I'm thinking that I'll reach my Goodreads challenge for the year, and what is more, I will have read more total pages than last year, though fewer books. With one hour of reading per night, I might read 25-30 books next year. Awesome.

I know the cave. I know the church. I know the one-eyed lady. I've seen a mountain man in the area, a disheveled homeless man who was not asking for handouts. I know Inwood Hill Park, and the North and South bound lanes of the Henry Hudson parkway that pass through it. Maybe George Dawes Green used to live around here. I want Romulus Ledbetter to hold it together and solve the case; I know he will. God willing

Can't wait to read this book. I'm jumping right in: It's great to read about real places in my neighborhood in a novel.

Someone needs to tell Andrew Roberts that, 'alright' is 'all wrong.' Strunk and White: "Elements of Style," 4th edition, page 39: "All right. Idiomatic in familiar speech as a detached phrase in the sense "Agreed," or "Go ahead," or "O.K." Properly written as two words--'all right.'" I can't believe I am seeing this mistake over and over again in "Churchill." I want to kill the author for this.

My strategy for this doorstopper of a book is the daily, deliberate, decisive destructive power of the literary frontal assault. I am going to hammer at it all day, every day until I am finished, until I can bid a fond farewell and adieu to Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, at least for the time being. Andrew Roberts is a hero for bringing Churchill into so many lives with this book. I desire to read more of him.

Read the long chapter today about the fall of France. Winston Churchill is so inspiring that even today he inspires us when we read about his leadership.

Thrilling. As compelling as any Raymond Chandler novel. Again, as usual, reality intervenes to reset nature's balance. Two extremes, one evil in Adolf Hitler and one good in Winston Churchill, are about to fight for the future of civilization. Make no mistake, the future of every autocrat/despot, be it Hitler then, or Putin, Xi Jingping, Erdogan, Duterte, Orban today is on the ash heap of history.

FINALLY, back reading this extraordinary book after taking a break to work early voting here in NYC and to attend my uncle's funeral in New Jersey. Plan to keep on reading steadily until I finish. Churchill had a lot of courage, standing up to the refuseniks about Hitler.

Winston relishes combat and defends his decisions as a member of the War Cabinet. The book is taking on a rhythmic quality. He is a Tory-Democrat. He seeks a "centre" government. He has quite an intellect: the whole "two opposing ideas in one's head at the same time" thing. Like me: I want Stephenie to be prosecuted for 1st degree murder, and I love her because she is my mom.

Churchill says his biggest blunder was to bring Britain back onto the gold standard as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Baldwin's government in the 1920s. John Maynard Keynes was right all along that fluctuating exchange rates would have allowed the UK to devalue to remain competitive. We hear this same gold standard drivel in the USA by people like Steve Forbes and his ilk.

World War I is tough to read about. This book is about Winston Churchill. I don't know what else to write tonight besides that Churchill was unstoppable.

The last chapter hurt me and everyone I can imagine who read it. But once again, the chapter concludes with Churchill returning to his ever strong, everlasting light emitting central core, namely that of being a soldier. Out of the war cabinet, he rejoins his unit fighting in France. Thanks go to Andrew Roberts for the 'black dog' information...Churchill learned. I am learning from reading about him.

It's a thrill to read this book. I am loving every page of it. The details that the author includes within the pages of his biography of Winston Churchill I find are simply astounding, such as the first time Churchill uses the word 'appeasment' but uses the word in French, not English. I cannot wait to read more. This book is more than about Winston Churchill: It is about World history and politics and love, too.

Whoa, talk about awesome. This book is addictive just like someone said on the back cover. I am annoyed that I have other things that I have to get done besides reading this Roberts book. As I read it I get the feeling like Churchill is rubbing off on me, making me a better person. So, Andrew Roberts is doing a real service to humanity with his writing. And I have only read the first chapter.

I ask myself why am I reading this book. It is because a guy from college, from Montana, who I served with in the Army and who now lives in Portland, and who works the Army Corps of Engineers as a mechanical engineer, sent me a crafted note a while back about getting married, at age 50, to some nurse 18 months older than him, and who had never married, either, and like him, is childless. No wedding invite, though.

Loving this read immensely; regret needing to put it down to go to sleep for tomorrow.

What fun it is to make progress on this book. I read all those sanctimonious excerpts from reviewers on the back cover. Of course, I realize that my last progress review compared this book to the bible. Oh well. Now I am thinking that somewhere along the line I'll have to read Andre Dubus's "The Winter Father" anthology as sort of a battle royal versus McGuane. The best story in the English language? We'll see.

I remember Maj. Campbell saying, "If it's not fun, I don't do it." Then we, HHT 2Cav would be on some exercise and he would say, "people killing people... I guess we are doing our jobs," or something like that. I devoted a big slice of my evening tonight to reading "Cloudbursts" and only racked up a whopping 74 pages. Was it fun? Yeah, I guess so. I honestly feel like not doing anything else, until I'm finished.

Sometimes I have to psyche myself up to read. I tell myself, "A book is just a book, even the Bible," I tell myself. And sometimes I find myself deep in something, and sure enough, I'm looking for the exits. I am feeling, "when will this betrayal of my commitment to finish finally be over?" And I feel more and more risk averse and turn to checking things out from the 'brar. "Cloudbursts" is all good news.

"The writing sings," the Journal said. It does.

Reading "Cloudbursts" reminds me very much of what it's like to be living a real life, no matter what. It reminds me of what I have to hold onto, namely my graduate education, and even a few things from my undergraduate education. Reading this book helps me grasp what the point of it all really is. It reminds me of the importance of a purpose driven life, instead of one buffeted by the whims of fate.

Enjoying book a lot. Flying right through it seems like. For me, I keep seeing the protagonist as that surfer husband of that beautiful, tall volleyball player female, Ms. Gabrielle Reece. The best parts are the people parts of the book; I can't believe that there is a woman who hears the hum of tectonic plates sliding against each other. I have tinnitus; I guess I can relate a little. I hope NASA lady is cool.

I am reading this book based on a review by Tom Shippey that appeared in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. Last year I read Daniel Suarez's "Change Agent," also based on a Tom Shippey review in the Journal. I am liking "Delta-V" just as much as "Change Agent," which is to say a lot. And that is the point, right? I have read that one should step outside one's comfort zone, though. Sorry. No scary movies.

This book is starting off in a highly entertaining way. I'm looking forward to enjoying the whole thing as I read more and more.

What a great novel; what a great read. I continually ask myself as I make my way through "High Dive," how does Jonathan Lee do it? How does he come up with all of the great stuff that his characters say, do and are? Reading this book is like witnessing a minor miracle: that one man just conjured it all out of his imagination is almost impossible to comprehend. This book is going to stay with me for a long while.

I've finally found some momentum reading "High Dive" again. What strikes me most about Jonathan Lee's book is the verisimilitude of the characters in the novel. The characters come to life on page after page after page. I know them and love them all and I'm not even half way through the book yet. I have also found that I get further in my life by reading books more than anything else, over magazines and news.