Texas-Israeli War: 1999

I just started reading "Team of Rivals" which is so long I might not get through with it until the Fourth of July. So in the meantime, I've got to keep the site active.

("Buzz, I saw your girlfriend; Woof!")

After an interesting cover, there is little to say about this book. Characters, story line are as thin as the book itself (less than 200 pages). One of the few books I kept in my back pocket when carrying it around. I didn't know how to defend myself if someone asked why I was reading it.

Still there is something about this book that cheers me. Odd, that book about a post World War III world could be cheerful. Well its not the story, not the characters, not the action, not the cover...But this is the kind of book that cheers anybody who has ever earned any sort of existence writing.

This book got published! Every time I think about it, I feel a burdened lifted from my shoulders. This book got published! I don't have to concern myself with doubt over my skills...because THIS BOOK GOT PUBLISHED!

Writers, sportswriters, anybody who puts ink to paper are needy people. It takes one wise guy to say: "Don't quit your day job", or "You don't have a clue", or "You stink on ice" and you begin to bruise.

But something like the Texas-Israeli War 1999...This book got published!...can make you feel like your a little less of a hack...maybe not standing at the very end of the line.

The Shack

Hey, I should have a book on the New York Times bestseller list, but I don't. So good for the author on the success of this book.

I wanted to really like it and I came away with just an okay feeling.

Early on you discover this book is going to be more story than style, and the story is good...but then it breaks down into the theological aspect and starts to come across way too forced.

Even the story becomes very predictable. I'm not Nostradamus but very few twists surprised me, including the "Room 222" style break down of the celestial beings.

When we first meet God, he's revealed as an old black woman. I half expected her/him to say "My name is Abigail Freemantle, I'm 106-years old, and I still bake my own bread."

(Wasn't the Oracle in one of the Matrix movie disasters also represented by an older black woman?)

The author's efforts to incorporate ethnicity into the trinity are moronic...one minute you're pounding home a story...the next minute you're preaching at the reader between the lines.

Standard social justice themes like the rich feeding off the poor are played out...and I was kind of wondering what happened to the story. While I have my own issues with denominational structure the passages about there being no rules wasn't offset at all by any mention of an absolute. (Folks, there are absolutes in life)

The informality of the interaction between the lead character and the God-Head wears thin. I like an approachable Jesus, but I can't envision him saying; "True that."

But, hey, I'm not a smart guy. The smart guys love this book, I didn't,...thankfully, in this case, the light shines dimly on young grasshopper.

The Next 100 Years: A FORECAST for the 21st. CENTURY

Good, in that it is interesting, but even interest fades when the writing is sometimes passive, soft, and redundant.

The subject matter projecting, based on current situations and history (not with a crystal ball), what will take place over the next century is fascinating. George Friedman has a talent and expertise for this as he sees a second cold war with Russia but its ultimate collapse along with China. The increase in United States power and prosperity, but new superpowers in Japan, Turkey, and Poland.

Amazing stuff, but excruciatingly slow. This book was only 253 pages, but it felt like I was slugging through every paragraph. Unlike McCullough's "John Adams", which was 650 pages, but felt like a sprint to the eyes.

"John Adams" I was sorry to see end, "The Next 100 Years" felt like it was taking that long to read.

If you have a passion for the geo-political, let it rip. If your interest is only passing, and I'm someplace in the middle, then you might want to save your money on this book.

On a minor note Friedman apologizes for not dealing with the threat of "Global Warming" and its cause and effects. You get the impression by his statement, in quotes, of science "saying the debate is over" he is put off by it.

No problem with me on the fraud of man made global warming, but Friedman makes not a mention of religion in regards to its effects pro and con on the world at large.

Still very impressive.

We Were Soldiers Once...and Young

Yes the movie was pretty good, but this book was fantastic.

Having had the honor of meeting and knowing some people who served in Vietnam at different times, this is the one book that comes across as the most honest. These veterans, though reluctant to share with those just looking for a story and not understanding what it means to serve, fall, and die in battle, are the first to say that not every soldier in Vietnam was on drugs and not every soldier was disillusioned by the war.

What tore them up and disillusioned them was their treatment coming home when they were called "baby killers" and spit on.

Respectful of the enemy and, better yet, respectful of the American soldier this book provides a stark contrast to other works like Gustav Hasford's "The Short Timers" (which became the film "Full Metal Jacket") and movies like "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now"

I'm not a ashamed to say it, and I'm ashamed to believe it, and I am not ashamed to teach it to my kids but for some reason in this culture we are ashamed to say we are the good guys. Our soldiers, though not perfect, are the good guys.

Media and academia is always looking for a moral equivalence in our soldiers and living with some pseudo idea that the Queens rules apply to war. As Tecumseh Sherman said: "War is all hell, you cannot refine it".

What Col. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway present in these few days in the Ia Drang Valley is the quality and bravery of soldiers when surrounded by hell.

The book also covers in depth the battle that took place after the movie ends, when a column of soldiers marching out is ambushed. The heroism on display can make you weep, and again increases your respect for the young people who serve in today's army.

Heartbreaking, yet enriching, is the end of the book that brings you up to speed on what became of the soldiers who fought in the battle and the children and wives of the fallen who went on with life after the Ia Drang Valley.

God Bless our soldiers.

John Adams

Long book, that took too long to read because there is never enough time in life to absorb it fast enough.

But a great book. I have to admit my feelings on the Revolutionary War period have always been pro George Washington, Benjamin Franklin I was indifferent, and not a big fan of Thomas Jefferson.

Adams, as seems the case in his life, was always an after thought. David McCullough not only does a wonderful job of delivering Adams life, but he does it warts and all. You see Adams personal failures, but you also see his under-the-radar greatness...

With McCullough you can count on one thing, he has always been a first rate historian unlike say; Howard Zinn or your standard classroom textbook.

My esteem for Adams has grown, Washington is shown to be truly great, Franklin I'm still indifferent about, but Jefferson...gross. Less of a Jefferson fan than ever before and not feeling so bad about missing the Jefferson Memorial when I was in D.C. back in 2005.

The mini-series on HBO last year was terrific and sparked an interest. But even seven well done installments is only an appettizer compared to the book. What a great read...unlike other things I have read...what a proper expenditure of time.

To get a sense of this country and how fragile it was at the beginning...this is by far the best accounting.

The Long Walk---2001

This is from the night Jim (Hickey Baby) Hickman got ordained...Other than nearly getting me killed by a man-eating beast up at Oakhurst, I have nothing but respect and love for this guy.

Honestly Hickman's magic tool box was capable of producing or fixing anything when at camp or on the road somewhere...Ask, say, urge, and Hickman will get it done. Just don't use the word "swushi"...

In this pic are (from the left/back row)...Mark Valadez, James Kinzler, "The Bus Driver", Traci Fenimore, Curt "X-Files" Gibson and Tim Olson next to him.
(front row) The Purpose Driven Alajaji, and Hickman.

The Real Animal House

True, when you are young you do stupid things, but you also are occasioned to go brain dead later in life as well. Case in point.

I was on vacation last summer in North Carolina and had blown through the books I brought with me. I saw this on a bargain table at Barnes & Noble. A couple of years before I nearly bought it at full price because like every other testosterone filled guy back in the 1970's I thought "Animal House" was the funniest thing ever. And this was the book that inspired the movie!

Thankfully this mistake only cost me a few bucks.

I won't say I didn't smile at times, but the humor was so rank, so base, so stupid I was embarrassed to have purchased it. More than that I was embarrassed to be seen reading it by my daughters.

When I finished it the decision was easy. Stories about prostitutes, drunkenness, puking, and excrement couldn't be kept. I tossed it in the trash and I usually keep everything I read.

The pleasure of reading is like a spectacular view of a green valley, the ocean at sunset, a mountain lake, or your kid playing dress up. There's never enough time to soak it all in. Bad books, like bad views, steal way too much time. Stay away from them.

George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution

An older book, 1993, but a great overview of the Revolutionary period.

What I liked about it is that while dispelling the myths of fighting the British, the British quitting, and the new nation being born, author Robert Leckie brings home the painful struggle these founders endured.

We have a tendency to look back, knowing and experiencing the outcome of American independence, and wave it off, but from 1775 to 1781 this cause was in serious doubt.

George Washington's greatness, though not overdone in words by the author, shines through the lines and pages.

Not a religious book, but the improbable revolution that sustained itself against the world's greatest power at the time, with no history to draw from of successful revolutions of this nature past, "George Washington's War" compels the reader acknowledge ---or at least consider--- a divine intervention into history.

Where I Was 14 Years Ago This Summer

This is a pic of most, if not all of the Los Angels District Nazarene Youth Pastors ("...Now the Jedi are all but gone.")

We were in Phoenix for NYC (Nazarene Youth Congress)in 1995. Great week. Newsboys were there, Tony Campolo was there---and actually preaching the gospel, we floated the Salt River, played paint ball, and survived a bus with no air conditioning as the heat crested at 122 degrees.

This was when I learned the myth of the statement: "Everything over 100 degrees is all the same." NO. For several days we hovered between 119 and 122 and then winter set in and the temperature dropped to 113 (burr!)

From left to right (to the best of my memory): Ray Baker (L.A. Grace and still in the biz), Bill Carroll (Newhall Church, now in Idaho I think), Benny Gonzalez (Rowland Heights, now a missionary), Becky Piatt (Pasadena 1st., moved to Ohio, I never gave back her "Lost Dogs" tape), Joe T. (Temple City, I don't know what happened to him), Alan Holmes (Santa Maria, now living in Bakersfield), Jim Morwood (Pasadena 1st., I believe he is still the campus dean at Azusa Pacific), Steve Cobbs (Had just arrived at Atascadero from Ridgecrest, and is now pastoring in Apple Valley), in front of Steve is Traci Fenimore (District NYI President, serving at Camarillo, currently pastoring in Ventura), to Steve's left, barely in the picture is Keith Stephenson (Pismo Beach, he went into missions. When I met Keith he made a joke, I smarted back; "Like you're a rocket scientist", it turned out he was really a rocket scientist at Vandenburg who went into the ministry), to Traci's left Mike Schoonover (Pasadena First, retired and living la vida loca), and Mike Kipp (San Luis Obispo, who I believe is now Dr. Kipp teaching at Northwest Nazarene College in Idaho.)

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I know. I know, I know, I know...how can a guy who lists "To Kill a Mockingbird" as one of his favorite all time books read a ridiculous book like "World War Z" written by the son of Mel Brooks? ("I didn't get a "harrumph" out of that guy!")

On the surface, I agree, ridiculous but in execution Max Brooks does a great job. In fact he did such a good job he creeped me out the way Stephen King used to back in the old days.

This was a solid to great read.

How did I come about this book? I saw the cover and thought it might be something about a terrorist war in the future, looked at the back cover, and then my wife asked me what I was doing with that book in my hand.

She was in the process of purchasing some Nicholas Sparks yawnfest, so I held my ground and said I was taking the zombie book...I ended up reading "Nights in Rodanthe" afterwards...Max Brooks was far more fun.

Playing For Pizza

I don't read too much John Grisham. The lawyer in trouble genre to me is as old as Greg Brady getting caught smoking after school. Interesting for a moment, but what's next?

I read "The Firm" a thousand years before and it was okay. Chasing my daughter through Borders a few months ago I came across "Playing For Pizza" and read the back cover.

Third string quarterback costs his team a trip to the Super Bowl and now has no place to go except Italy. I didn't buy the paperback then, but after former Temple City offensive lineman Josh Ouellette recommended it to me, I picked up a copy in early February.

Grisham is a very good writer, he tells a great story, but I wasn't necessarily enthralled with the football side of things. His description of a player intercepting a passing and "running to the Promised Land" is old, stale, and revealing of a lack of effort on his part to get inside of football...His characterizing the tormenting sportswriter as fat, out of shape, balding, and disgusting...fits the stereotype but he should have invested a little more time reading columns like "Fanview" or some others to get the writing style down. Grisham's attempts to replicate a column are very poor.

All of that aside, he did make Italy (a place I have never wanted to visit before reading this book)sound very interesting. While he might not have spent much time acquainting himself with football, he certainly knows the culture, the wine, and the foods...

A good read.

The Wild Geese

Not a book at the top of any list, except mine.

Now the movie, adapted from the original novel, was great; action, blood, guts, everything a guy wants in a movie. The book is okay in a literary sense, but I love it for a pair of reasons.

The story is interesting and it gives great insight to what was going on in Africa during the period of nationalization and the booting of the colonial powers. As America still reflects what took place in the 1960's, Africa is still feeling the effects of this period in history.

Over the years I've met missionaries who were in the field during this time that supported the background of Daniel Carney's novel. As with the other books I've posted on this blog, "The Wild Geese" gives a perspective to the complexity of the South African apartheid system.

Apartheid was awful, terrible, no argument there, but what is neglected---as we label all white South Africans as racists---is that these people saw what was happening in the Congo, Mozambique, Uganda, Angola, and Rhodesia.

I have memories of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith being vilified in the press, in public opinion, by the U.S., and by the United Nations for fighting the call to surrender power...The whites were the minority, colonial period was ending, it was time for the majority to come to power. Everyone agreed, everyone rah rah'd...But South Africa saw what happened in all of these countries so they clung to apartheid, determined not to let it happen to them...

The South Africans knew, so did the missionaries...that while the colonial system was far from acceptable...they knew those taking majority rule were at best Marxists and at worst dictators...Carney's story again highlights (my word of the month)the complexity of it all and the unbelievable tragedy that is Africa.

On the other hand I really liked this book because Carney shows himself, I think, to be a blue collar, lunch pale, writer with no concern about being considered an artist...I love to write sports but I know exactly what I am and I am no artist...Fitzgerald, Faulkner,Steinbeck, heck even Stephen King, have an artistic style that is awesome to read. They are the thoroughbreds...I'm more along the lines of a hack, the literary version of a mutt.

I say that in the positive...Writing doesn't always have to be artsy...it could be as honorable as hanging drywall or framing a house..."The Wild Geese" is a book that tells me I'm okay if I'm not as talented as Harper Lee...I don't have to be...Writing my column every week, tapping out my football stories...I'm the lunch pale guy...and that's okay...and that should eliminate the fear of those who have always wanted to try but were too afraid to start.

Where I Was Ten Years Ago

This summer will be ten years since I was in Toronto, Canada for a huge gathering called NYC (Nazarene Youth Congress).

For most of the week I was struggling during the services during worship and with the speakers...so I pulled out my sketch book.

Now needing to keep this site active, without sports, I have decided to reach back into the vaults and pull out a few memories.

Ninety-nine percent of you are not going to get this or some of the meaning...but I thought it was funny.

Last Add: My week changed when Carolyn Arends came out live on stage and sang "Seize the Day"...it was a very profound spiritual moment in my life.

April 1865: The Month That Saved America

Overwhelming in its detail (then again all good history books are overwhelming) author Jay Winik hits on subjects of this most crucial month beyond Lee's surrender and Lincoln's assassination.
Some of the great points in this book;
The great debate between Lee, his generals, and Jefferson Davis to take the South's cause to the hills to fight a guerrilla war which may have extended the conflict for years and left an entirely different country.
Lincoln's determination to save the Union when it would have been so easy for him to gain the favor of the people by agreeing to a peaceful settlement with the Confederacy.
Winik's lessons about previous transfers of power from president to vice-president. Explaining first John Tyler's succession to the presidency after the death of William Henry Harrison and then Millard Fillmore's becoming the 13th president after the death of Zachary Taylor. We tend to think of these in terms of just being a matter of fact, but nothing was as easy as time would make it seem.
The flaws of all these great men, and the opportunity to understand them in the context of their times not ours. Southern honor is anathema to us in the year 2009 when they held on to slavery. The Northern indifference and peace movement that was willing to settle for two nations instead of one is not alive in our thought process today.
Winik does an outstanding job and this book should be a must read for every high school student.