Three Book Reviews

Full disclosure: I am a Kindle owner, so actually buying these books is pretty effortless. Still, a trip to a local bookstore is worth it for two out of three of these books.

The first is War by Sebastian Junger. Junger was embedded in the Konegral Valley in Afganistan for seven months and not only lived to tell about it, but gives an amazing portrait of how awful the life of an American soldier there actually is. I have never been in the military and know nothing of its life. I always figured that the scariest part of it all would be actually getting shot at. The problem is our troops are there is that they sit in makeshift "forts" and await the inevitable.

This inevitability comes at odd times and in all forms. They get shot at while eating breakfast, talking to someone or tying their shoes. The danger is everywhere, it is deadly and constant. This book gave me a view of the life of a soldier that I haven't experienced since Saving Private Ryan. It is non-political and is not so incredibly macho that you roll your eyes.

This is a must read. Go buy it.

Maxim Magazine's Justin Halpern shows us that Twitter can actually be used for something other than following Paris Hilton on her journey through life or knowing the inner workings of the Tito Ortiz-Jenna Jameson marriage. He added a good ten stories to his "Shit My Dad Says" lines and came up with a very good book. Downside is it is a very quick read, so it comes and goes quickly.

You can see it here. Again, a must buy, especially if you think you are too strict or direct as a parent. Sometimes I wonder . . .

Lastly, I went and downloaded Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. The upside: it is an incredibly well-researched story that explains every detail. You do actually learn something.

The problem, to me at least, was the pace. Marlantes' story is, in part, about the boredom and forced friendships that come up while in the Army and waiting for your next patrol through the Vietnamese jungle. The boredom of the soldiers translates to a very slow pace in its reading.

If you are a fiction fan, or have a particular affinity for the Vietnam era, pick this up. But it was too slow and I was too aware that I was reading to really get into this. It was a pass.