Travels With Charley – In Search Of America — book review | |
Today’s review is for one of John Steinbeck’s later works, “Travels With Charley” (1962©). The book is a “supposedly” non-fiction relating of a road trip Steinbeck made around the continental United States (about 10,000 miles). Roughly, the trip is from his home in New York, up to Maine, across the northern states to Seattle, down through California, back east to New Orleans (via Texas), then up the Eastern seaboard back to his home. Steinbeck says the trip is to allow him to get back in touch with the common American whom Steinbeck feels he based much of his writing on. Having lost “touch” with his roots, Steinbeck seeks to rediscover America by seeing it again with his own eyes. Steinbeck makes the trip in a truck with a custom built camper shell. The truck is named “Rocinante” – for the horse ridden by Don Quixote. | |
Although quite a number of books touch me (as a reader), there are relatively few which seem to strike an internal chord. I am not a musician, so forgive me if I am misusing the term “chord”, but it is more than a single note. It is a combination of notes which creates their own harmony. This book is one of those few for me. It is hard for me to adequately put into words the effect this book had except to say I consistently felt Steinbeck was writing it just to let me know I am not alone in how I feel about certain things. From his description of his perpetual wanderlust, to his affection for his pet dog (Charley), to his observations about America – its history and its people – its cities and our civilization – I just felt a powerful bond of kinship with Steinbeck. | |
In the martial arts, it is frequently said that when the student is ready, the teacher will find him. I think it ironic for me to “discover” this work as I turn sixty (“ish”) and that I feel its call to me to continue chasing my own windmills. “On, Rocinante!!” I cannot promise you this book will touch you as powerfully as it did me, but my final recommendation is Highly Recommended Book / Reading. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | If You Do Nothing About Climate Change |
Standing By | |
2020 | Each Over All |
Rollin’ Along | |
2019 | And Integrity For Today’s Elected Republicans |
2018 | A Faulty Start, Too |
Honorable Resignation And Syria | |
2017 | Beneath The Tree Of Wisdom |
The Republican Rape Of The American Middle Class | |
2016 | Something Authentic Happened |
2015 | Back On The Bricks |
On, Rocinante!! | |
2014 | Changing Frequently |
2013 | Trifles |
2012 | Simple, Ordinary And Wonderous |
2011 | Humane Writers |
Posts Tagged ‘2015 Book Review’
On, Rocinante!!
Posted in 2015 Book Review, Book Review, Philosophy, Politics, Reviews, tagged 2015 Book Review, Don Quixote, Highly Recommended Book, Highly Recommended Reading, John Steinbeck, Philosophy, Politics, Rocinante, Travels With Charley: In Search Of America - book review on December 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
In The Not So Distant Future
Posted in 2015 Book Review, Book Review, Leadership, Politics, Reading, Reviews, tagged 2015 Book Review, Alderson Drive, Book Review, CoDominium, Highly Recommended Book, Jerry Pournelle, John Christian Falkenberg, Lazarus Long, Military Leadership, Politics, Robert Heinlein, West Of Honor - book reivew on December 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »
West Of Honor – book review | |
Today’s review is for “West Of Honor” (1978©), written by Jerry Pournelle. Pournelle is a famous Science Fiction writer who not only wrote great individual novels, he also wrote story lines which spanned several books – much like Robert Heinlein’s “Lazarus Long” story / timeline. In Pournelle’s case, the premise is that the United States and the Soviet Union come together to form a “CoDominium” to 1) control the Earth and the exploration of space; and, 2) maintain their relative positions in the “new” age of space exploration. The “future” is strangely both dystopian and optimistic. Dystopian in that surplus population is forced into space (as cheap labor) and optimistic as some of the planets manage to build workable civilizations. The faster than light Alderson stardrives used in the book / series “was” invented in 2004 and first used to go beyond the solar system in 2008. LOL!! So far, not even close… | |
The main character in the time-line is a “Napoleonic” figure named John Christian Falkenberg. This book is the story of Falkenberg’s pacification of a planet. The story is told as a first person narrative by one of Falkenberg’s junior officers – Hal Slater. This really is a “good, old-fashioned” modern war story which just happens to take place on another planet. You read about planetary politics, military (and medical) technology and all that, but in the end war comes down to men bleeding and dying. To the extent Pournelle is able to convince you to believe the technology, you buy the SciFi. To the extent he convinces you to believe in the battles and the drama, you buy the war story. I “bought into” both and enjoyed the book tremendously. Interestingly, victory does not necessarily lead to a “happy” ending. | |
Full disclosure: I first read this book back in the early 1980’s. I also read a number of other books in the series, but I no longer have those. I’m not sure how or when I lost them, but I suppose it was when we moved to Liverpool (or back). In any case, I’m probably going to end up re-buying them and re-reading them. Final recommendation: highly recommended!! Particularly if you like SciFi Military Lit. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | My Fear Is She Loses This Bet |
Gotta Stay Hungry | |
2020 | Still On The Obstacle Course? |
Thunder | |
2019 | Expecting A December Correction |
2018 | Dominoes II (Update From Last Year’s Post) |
2017 | Dominoes |
2016 | Itchin’ |
2015 | In The Not So Distant Future |
2014 | Sources |
2013 | Three Essentials |
2012 | Just Looking |
2011 | Religious Lessons |
2010 | View From Under The Bus… (A mid-term report card on the Obama Administration. Long, but still worth reading for historical perspective.) |
A Trip To The Library
Posted in 2015 Book Review, Book Review, Faith, Philosophy, Reviews, tagged 2015 Book Review, Faith, Hermann Hesse, On the Meaning of Life, Philosophy, The Journey To The East - book review on July 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
“The Journey To The East” — book review | |
Today’s book review is for a book I finished last Saturday (July 11th), but never got around to posting about. The book is: “The Journey To The East” (1956©), written by Hermann Hesse. The book is supposedly autobiographically written by an un-named character “H. H.”, but as Hesse has written other books with main characters who share his initials, the intent seems to be to not make this novel personally semi-autobiographical. “H. H.” is a member of a secret “League” which exists to assist its members in understanding life (via shared personal experiences) and in advancing civilization (via the creation of a vast library containing all of human knowledge). | |
The group on the journey with H. H. fails to reach their destination and the individual members lose faith in the League, with each other, and with themselves. The author (H. H.), spends a good part of the rest of his life living as a “failure” and then decides to make himself whole by writing a book about the journey. The problem is he can’t remember the specific details of his trip. He seeks out a friend who’s advise is the find one of the other participants from his trip (Leo the servant) and to seek his (Leo’s) recollections. Leo is not receptive at first and then he lets H. H. have access to the League’s library – which contains the sum of human knowledge, including entries about every single person (living or dead). | |
The journey to the East seems to be a metaphor for growing up, or more precisely, for going on a vision quest to seek the meaning of life. The trip to the “East” is a trip to discover yourself and the realization from that discovery (for H. H.) is that the meaning of life is service to others. Thus, “East” is not a direction of travel. It is a destination. Your “home”. | |
The novel is very short (120 pages) and can be read in a couple of hours. It is a simple narrative told by the principal and is done in very straight forward language – so it’s easy to read. I found the book interesting for a number of reasons. The two main ones were (are): 1) the book created a reinforcing memory of a scene in the movie “Interstellar” where the main character is in a four dimensional representation of a library (actually behind a bookshelf in a bedroom); and, 2) because there are a lot of pseudo-Christian messages sprinkled throughout the book. The meaning of life being service to others is just one of many such messages. | |
So, final recommendation: Strong recommendation. The book is short, easy to read and promotes thought for the reader about what is the purpose of life. It worked for me… | |
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On This Day In: | |
2014 | Pass The Soul |
2013 | Zapping Music And Art |
2012 | Not Quite Fantastic |
That Kid Is Back | |
2011 | Wolves At The Door |
2010 | I’m Feeling Patriotic… (Well, more than usual, anyway.) |
Beating the Heat… | |
That You Shall Remain
Posted in 2015 Book Review, Book Review, Movies, Reviews, tagged 2015 Book Review, Cade Yeager, Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier - movie review, Casca Rufio Longinus, Casca: The Eternal Mercenary #1 - book review, Harold Attinger, Highly Recommended Book, Highly Recommended Movie, Historical Fiction, Jack Reynor, Joshua Joyce, Kelsey Grammer, Mark Wahlberg, Moderate To Strong Recommendation, Nicola Peltz, Shane Dyson, Stanley Tucci, Tessa Yeager, Transformers: Age of Extinction - movie review on June 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Over the last couple of days I watched a couple of movies and read a book. In order, the two movies were: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier“, “Transformers: Age Of Extinction“, and the book was: “Casca: The Eternal Mercenary #1” (1979©). | |
It’s been a year since my first review of CA:TWS (see original review here). Well, I picked up the DVD and thought I’d take another look. My initial review is still pretty much spot on… This is a look at the darker side of technology as used by today’s governments to try to “maintain” security and “protect” the people. It is also a general statement about the need to minimize secret organizations – even when they purport to be providing security and protection, as it is far too easy for them to fall into the wrong hands. Final recommendation: still highly recommended! | |
The second movie T4:AoE also came out in 2014 and stars Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager (a more-or-less unemployed robotics expert and single parent living in Texas and, of course, trying to mind his own business), Nicola Peltz as Tessa Yeager (Cade’s daughter, who when threatened, becomes daddy’s reason to get even with the bad-guys), Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce (a billionaire corporatist who thinks a lot of himself and yells a lot at his minions), Kelsey Grammer as Harold Attinger (the CIA bad-guy and front for the evil transformers), Jack Reynor as Shane Dyson (the daughter’s boyfriend and a race car driver). | |
This is a movie with lots of sound effect (explosions) and special effects (mostly computer generated transformers but also explosions), who’s main purpose seems to be to move away from the main human characters of the three previous movies and create a new thread for the franchise to follow. Fair enough, but is the movie any good? Within the strict paradigm of an action movie (large robots fighting, car chases, and multiple explosions) – yes, it does. Quite well, in fact. If you are looking for simple-minded entertainment (please don’t even try to think about the plot), this is a high quality production which delivers action and explosions. My one “real” fault with the movie is it is loonnggg – 2 hours and 45 minutes – and actually seems longer. I don’t usually say that about “action” movies, but this felt too long. | |
Final recommendation: moderate to strong recommendation. If you’re into the Transformer movies (and I am), you’ll enjoy this addition. If you believe this is just another movie to market toys to youth, well, yeah, it’s that too. | |
The book – Casca: TEM#1, is the first in an ongoing series of books about a fictional / mythical character – based on the Roman Legionnaire who put the lance in Jesus Christ’s side. There are 42 books in the series so far. In this first book, Jesus looks down at Casca and says: “You are content with what you are. Then that you shall remain until we meet again.” Henceforth, Casca is cursed to live forever – or at least until the second coming. Each book in the series is about a segment of his 2,000 years (so far). The series was initially written by Barry Sadler of “Ballad of the Green Berets” fame. I have the first 22 volumes in the series. These are the ones written by Sadler (or at least ghost written for him with his name on the book). I have not read any of the subsequent volumes. This volume covers most of his first two centuries of life – Roman rule times. | |
The books are adult, historical fantasy / fiction. The main character is Casca Rufio Longinus and is loosely based on the Christian legend Saint Longinus. Being Catholic and knowing a little (very little) about the Spear of Destiny, I picked the book up and thought I’d have a laugh. I was very pleasantly surprised that it completely captivated me. In fact, I’ve read the book several times, about once a decade, since I purchased it back in the early 1980’s. I’ve also re-read a few of the other volumes, but they never seemed to capture me the same way this initial book did. | |
Final recommendation: Highly recommended book (and series). If you enjoy historically based fiction about combat / war, this is a very good book / series. Caution: it can be graphic in the depiction of violence so this is not appropriate for youth – probably up to late teens. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2014 | True, Vibrant And Open |
2013 | Remembering, Yet Again |
2012 | Something Of Value |
2011 | Sleep All Day |
All A Game
Posted in 2015 Book Review, Book Review, Leadership, Movies, Reading, Reviews, tagged 2015 Book Review, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, Ender's Game - book review, Ender's Game - movie review, Formics, Highly Recommended Reading, Hugo Award, Military Leadership, Nebula Award, Orson Scott Card, Reading, Recommended Movie, Sci-Fi movie, Sci-Fi Novels, U.S. Marines, U.S.M.C. Recommended Reading List on January 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Thursday I completed the novel “Ender’s Game” (1985©), written by Orson Scott Card. The novel is an expanded version of a short story Card wrote back in 1977 for a SciFi magazine. The book is fairly well know in SciFi circles and won both the Nebula and Hugo awards for best novel. Both awards are for best SciF novel with the Nebula being the American award and the Hugo being the international version of same. In addition to the “normal” SciFi crowd, the book is popular in the military community and is “expected” reading in at least one branch (U.S. Marine Corps). | |
Basically, the book is a coming of age story for a young (pre-teen) Caesar / Napoleonic / Alexander character who, through an undiscussed eugenics process, has been bred to lead the combined Earth forces in an interplanetary war against a race of giant ants called the “Formics”. They are more “affectionately” called “bugs” or “buggers”. The story traces his (Andrew “Ender” Wiggin) life from just before he leaves his family, through his “growing-up” at a military academy to the end of the war. To say much more is to give away a substantial amount of the ending. | |
Despite the implausibility of a story about an 11 year old being granted the authority to lead an interplanetary armada and the short span of time between “know-nothing” to force commander, the story is a pretty good one. The story is very much “Lord of the Flies” -In-Space, but I still found the book and the twist at the end enjoyable. In fairness to the reader coming at the book for the first time, I must admit, I saw the movie version first and enjoyed it too. The movie (same name) was released in late 2013, and having seen the previews, it piqued my interest. In the end, I never saw it at the theater because I thought it was going to be a “young Harry Potter saves the world from aliens” kid’s movie. Anyway, I remembered the movie preview and when I got a chance to catch it on the tube, I took advantage of the opportunity. I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed it as much as I did. This in turn led me to be on the look-out for the book(s) – there is a whole series – which I have finally gotten into. | |
The movie tracks the book pretty accurately, so the book’s ending wasn’t the surprise it might have been, but I felt (as usual) the book had the time and space to explain what was happening a lot better than the movie did. This isn’t a criticism of the movie as much as it is an acknowledgement that action movies don’t lend themselves to narration accept at the beginning and ending. In between, it’s the action which is supposed to tell the story (normally). | |
I found the military tactics, personal combat, team building, working on one’s craft, and the personal/internal conflict about the morality of inflicting pain and death on an enemy to all be accurate within my (very) limited experience of each. Fortunately, I was never placed in a position to shoot / kill someone, but I still have distinct memories of basic training and realizing there was a reason the “targets” were silhouettes of the enemy instead of simple concentric rings. We were being trained to shoot at other humans, not at bull’s-eyes’. | |
I found the movie interesting and enjoyable, but also troubling. Because the book explains more, it is more troubling. So my final recommendation for the movie is recommended, and, for the book, highly recommended. If it’s good enough for the Marine Corps “Recommended Reading List“, it’s good enough for me! | |
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On This Day In: | |
2022 | Do It |
2021 | The Honor Is To Serve… |
I Don’t Know That I Will | |
Only So Long | |
2020 | Each Meaning |
2019 | The Deep End |
Is Anyone ELSE Out There Listening? | |
2018 | Defining Characteristic |
2017 | Just Asking |
2016 | Still A Burden |
15 And Counting | |
2015 | All A Game |
2014 | Two Thoughts |
2013 | RIP – Dear Abby |
Half-Life Problems | |
2012 | To The Soul… |
2011 | Reverted!! |