Michael McCormick > Recent Status Updates

I am really enjoying this novel so far.

The Freedom Agenda, the Surge, Generals Petraeus and Odierno. All this rings true. Jenna's dream @ UT in '04: spooky. These are things not to be forgotten. All the personal details: V. Putin IS cold blooded. What am I doing? I ask myself where I was and what was I thinking/feeling when all of this was going on. It all fits. And now we have our guy, who they think is their guy, ERASING '08-'16, except Vietnam.

President Bush's memoir came out in 2010. It is really great to be reading it now, in 2019, despite it being nine years ago that it came out. I am really appreciative of the book and the detailed account President Bush gives for the events of his Presidency and the "Decision Points" he faced as leader of the free world. Anyone who thinks being President of the United States is not a complex undertaking is wrong.

I read through President Bush's "Day of Fire" chapter and really struggled to hold it together while doing so. It is 6:43pm. While all this is going on I am working through the book and interweaving my own personal experience and knowledge of those events back then, and all of this is unlocking a lot of meaning for me about my memories and the purpose of "Decision Points."

This is the first Presidential memoir that I have ever read and it is a good read. President George W. Bush, when elected to the Presidency and put in charge of the leadership of the free world, clearly demonstrates that he takes charge in every aspect of his job. I clearly enjoy reading about how President Bush understands that "personnel is policy" and works hard to get the right people in the right jobs.

I am reading this thriller/suspense/crime/mystery BECAUSE it takes place in Italy and I want to get a sense of what Italian people are like, what Italian police officers and detectives are like of what Italy is like. Believe me, the book is delivering on all those counts.

I have managed to read all of the material about the Marshall Plan. We need a Marshall Plan for Africa. All of our foreign aid is being wasted on NGOs and UNAID programs that don't work. And all the UN aid workers/officials know it as do those NGO employees. These people are wasting their time and energy for nothing and are wasting tax payer money. Only business pulls people out of poverty. Witness China's rise.

WOW this book is good. I read "Postwar" by Tony Judt and Westad's book is bringing all that back and then some. Westad's writing requires attention but is accessible and readable. I feel like I am thriving as I read it. Westad is really great at weaving together the macro picture and micro pictures of the origins of the Cold War up through the communist coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. Great read.

I have just finished some good fiction reading, but I am drawn to this book because of some truths I have stumbled into regarding the nature of "big government" and the Democratic party in the USA. So it was either this or the book about Ronald Reagan's education, but I thought that I would start with this because it goes back further than Ronny. I've heard that Eugene Debs still affects us, and I want to know how.

Great story so far. Novel requires a certain suspension of disbelief. I must admit that I am consumed by what I will read next despite that I still have a good chunk yet to read of "The Thousand Autumns...". Maybe something about our 40th President or the war he won, or both.

Still a great read. I wanted to finish two weeks ago. Still plugging away.

I just finished part one. My plan is to have this book done before the week is finished. As always I am blown away by Mr. Mitchell's genius writing. One thing is for certain: David Mitchell spins quite a good yarn. I am thinking that this is turning into a real struggle of a love story. Jacob De Zoet is so honest, and yet he breaks his promise to his bethroathed in Holland by beginning to court Ms. Abigawa.

I am so enjoying this novel. David Mitchell is clearly the genius everyone says that he is. I cannot believe that I have waited until now to read it despite that I bought my hardcover copy when the novel was published in 2010. I feel that I am at last doing the right thing by Mitchell and this book.

I have read 20 more pages only in the last seven days or so. This is vintage David Mitchell. It reminds me a lot of the feel of "Cloud Atlas." One innovation that I really like so far are the diagram in chapter one and the drawing later on. I am going to be with this book for a while. I skied last weekend and watched college hockey games last night and tonight. I'll be watching hockey next weekend, too.

Wow, what a start this book is off to! I did not realize how much I missed Mr. Mitchell's writing since I read "Cloud Atlas." And I have not heard much from/about him in a while which I feel somewhat responsible for that insofar as how I came to own my copy of this novel. Let it be known that I am turning a corner in reading it now, and in so doing will fulfill a debt I owe to its author.

I read the first thrilling chapter last night, finally after being a fool and accepting a gift card to a communist bookstore where like an idiot I used the gift card for this book. And of course David Mitchell was hurt because of it. When will I ever learn?

I am reading the paperback version of this book. It is amazing. Ms. Yanagihara's debut novel is turning out for me to be as impressive as all the book critics say it is. I remember reading that the author said in an interview that it took her 18 years to write "People in the Trees." If so, and if she can follow it up with another hit book that took her only 18 months to write, then there is hope for all of us.

I read the introduction. This book was published in 2012. A lot has happened since then.

When I read this book, I cannot help to remember my class in npd when we talked about how long it took for the zipper to catch on (about 60 to 70 years). And that is for a product everyone can see.

So all this is a 40 year revolution? Too bad. I need cash now.

There are stories in this book that I could only wish I could emulate in one thousandth the way that the heroes of this book do. The priest who asked that he take the place of a man condemned to die at Auschwitz is the most important for me. I haven't an iota of his strength and courage. All I ask of God is to let me be like him if it comes to it. And I pray to God that it does not come to that.

I am reading the paperback version of this book. This is the third book by John McCain, with Mark Salter, that I will have read in 2018. A full 10% of all my reading this year will have been McCain/Salter books. I find them quite reassuring and I like the one that I am reading now, with all its stories of amazing human beings. I pray to God that I am not put to the test and that if I am, that I live and thrive.

Enjoying "City of Ink" very much. It is a mystery in a mystery. Mr. Hart conveys a facile Asian aesthetic. I have gotten to know Li Du through her and know that he is in good hands.

Made the interesting thing of skimming the acknowledgements prior to beginning the book. Now am reading it, and so far it's better than the one prior, for reasons buried deep about conversations I had here in New York with a certain fellow who looked disgusted when I mentioned Mao starved 30 million to death with The Great Leap Forward. Ms. Hart has a great thing going here. Try Ha Jin's "Waiting" for China lit..