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Biblioholic Review: No Easy Day

4 Jan

no easyWith today’s  release of Zero Dark Thirty, the fictional portrayal of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. and last year’s launch of a first hand account of the raid that got the wanted terrorist, No Easy Day, the shadowy manhunt and assault has been thrust into the spotlight. The book’s release was not without controversy in a charged political environment, as well as cries of betrayal of secrecy from the community which former U.S. Navy SEAL Mark Owen served in.

However, strip away the noise, the haranguing and political posturing, what about the book itself? Having read dozens of contemporary military biographies and histories we cannot think of a single instance where information revealed wasn’t well known by scholars on the subject or easily accessible through magazines or industry journals. And No Easy Day falls squarely in that no great secret revealed class. What it does do is provide a clear, first-person account of the most momentous American history event of this century thus far. Co-written with journalist Kevin Maurer, No Easy Day follows not only Owen’s mission to find Bin Laden, but also his journey from novice SEAL to experienced member of the Navy’s most elite counter-terrorist team, DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six.

Owen and Maurer guide the reader through the nuts and bolts of selection to DEVGRU, the men that inhabit the legendary special operations team and the missions that drove the Alaskan-born SEAL from Virginia to every violent far-flung corner of the world. Owen gives the reader brief glimpses into the staggering operational tempo he and fellow Tier One operators have endured since 9/11. We fly from Iraq to Afghanistan, fight and withdraw, train for days, weary and worn, to then turn back around and ramp up for the next mission.

No Easy Day is also a work-man like look at the tip of the special operations spear here in the United States. It portrays the men of DEVGRU not as super human beings, glamorized by the familiarity lacking mainstream media or romanticized by the fans of both genders, but as blue collar soldiers. Men who have lockers filled with the most high-tech, yet deadly,and expensive tools fielded today. They love Taco Bell and obsess over the finest brewed coffee. They are the best soldiers we have and they normally inhabit the shadows. Yet when the burden of history, like that of the Bin Laden raid, weighs down it may be time to partially pull back the curtain for a view into their world.

So, you are curious about the Bin Laden raid itself and how much is revealed in the book? Well, it clears up some details and provides a methodical account, taking you through the days before to the thunderous accolades after. But it’s the intense lead up, the heavy training, the clear all obstacles efforts undertaken to ensure this operation would take place. The training, the dozens of walk through, the what ifs gamed out to the end, all provide the most insight into the historical event that would follow. And its in the hours before lifting off in the special operations Black Hawks do we see the gravity of the mission and how it effects not only Owen, but his fellow SEALs.

Overall, No Easy Day is a good first look at Bin Laden’s demise. And perhaps in the coming years equally as informed works on the operation will emerge and not be weighed down with political posturing and angry rhetoric. We have been given a rare opportunity to hear about this special moment in history and to get it from the point of view of one who was there. Think of historical events in the past 100 years that have become almost mythic, dogged by conspiracy and wild counter claims. No Easy Day provides the first data point for the history of the coming generations.

No Easy Day by Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer was purchased for review by the Boston Book Bums.

Biblioholic Review: Destiny Disrupted

5 Jan

Since the horrific day of September 11th, the world of Islam has become the focus of more Americans than ever before. And unfortunately, the information about the faith consumed by a many Americans was been shaped by those with political/business agendas, obsolete international strategies and even bigotry.

There have been some exceptions in print, but few with a crisp and calm perspectives on the entire history of the faith of over a billion human beings.

Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary is the history of world, from the perspective of Islam. Ansary, born in Afghanistan, undertakes an ambitious task. To provide a concise, clear headed but honest view of the world from the birth of Islam to its schism, wars, growth, glories and failures; to its maturity, slowing velocity and crisis of modernity.

Absolutely ambitious and sprawling, but somehow Ansary takes nearly 1,400 years of history and puts together one of the most outstanding, thought provoking pieces of non-fiction. Not overburdened with layers of footnotes and pompous intellectual posturing, Destiny Disrupted is simply excellent.

Perhaps Destiny Disrupted finds its most riveting and important stride with Ansary’s keen observations about Islam’s halt in growth, cultural innovation and broad thinking. Expansion and growth validated the truth of their religion, but starting with the brutal Mongol invasions through the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution, the Middle World was faced with an insecure “modern” tomorrow.

Collective body blows coaxed out three distinct personalities attempting to shape the future of Islam, each brilliantly outlined by Ansary in the profiles of Abdul Wahhab of Arabia, India’s Sayyid Ahmad and Afghanistan/Iran’s Sayyid Jamaluddin-i-Afghan.

Each man, founders of conservative Wahhabism, secular modernist of the Aligarh Movement and Islamist Modernism respectively, is painted in vivid historical fashion by Ansary. Reading these profiles your mind races as you recognize modern figures, both rogues and respected thinkers, violent and peaceful, that promulgate the beliefs of these men.

Ansary’s clarity in ‘talking it out’ is exemplified as the book concludes. He writes that the current discord between the west and Muslim societies is not a “clash of civilizations,” but something more simple. Muslims and European off-shoots were peoples going places. As they crossed, they collided. And as Ansary writes, “the crashing is still going on.”

Also a realist, Ansary notes that both blocs are at times incompatible, yet, “There can be no sensible argument, however, until both sides are using the same terms and mean the same things by those terms.”

Destiny Disrupted goes a long way at assembling a piece of human history long neglected or skewed by western historians speaking in non-analogous  terms and meanings.

Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary was purchased for review by Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: The Ghosts of Cannae

4 Oct

For the most part, non-fiction history books that reach the popular reading circles are pretty light on historical insight, analysis and context. Rare is the book that refreshes a weary segment and manages to vibrantly, concisely capture not only a single event in history, but its generational effects.

Robert O’Connell’s The Ghosts of Cannae is a book that enthralls and informs in a way that relies on brains and brawn. It lands in the hard to achieve middle ground, between intelligent and entertaining, where  most popular histories seek comfort in the fluff and surface skimmed facts.

The Ghosts of Cannae is the story of the battle of Cannae, where Carthaginian general Hannibal swept into Roman Italy and decimated a massive army. Less a book about Hannibal and his Roman opposites, The Ghosts of Cannae is a strategic historical perspective of the before and after of the battle.

Ghosts shows the political and economic forces at play in the early second century B.C.E that lead to Hannibal marching on Rome. It is extremely hard to wrap up centuries of history in an informed way and not put a general reader to sleep. O’Connell suffers no such problems.

From the martial rise of Carthage to the growth of Rome after the battle, O’Connell superbly renders history in ways that provoked our reviewer to contemplate how, or if, history is repeating itself today.

One of the more significant points clearly articulated by O’Connell is the idea that the eventual rise of dictators was spawned at Cannae. As Hannibal marched on Rome, penetrating the homeland of the nation, undeterred or defeated, Roman politicians sought a man to match the Carthaginian. This need for a strong, ruthless leader that did it all for the glory of Rome would eventually prepare the field for the rise of Caesar. It would create one of the mightiest nations in history, but it would also, as pointed out by O’Connell, destroy a republican government.

While not a straight military history book, The Ghosts of Cannae has an amazingly clear, concise and informed overview of the men, arms and techniques of both Rome and Carthage. These could be broken out of the book and become their own, outstanding, works. O’Connell has an amazing ability to bring out specific details in the weapons and formations that will receive appreciative nods from students of the period, as well as inform the non-fiction novice.

O’Connell excels with a painters eye for vistas as scene breaks of history. As Hannibal pushed through the Alps, emerging on the other side with a weary but cohesive fighting force, O’Connell engages the reader with text like the skilled brush of landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich. When O’Connell puts an army on the march, its mass is preceded by a dust cloud, heralding impending doom. A fantastic image that comes from a clear mind that snaps details from the air.

The Ghosts of Cannae has flashes of blood and battle, vividly portrayed by O’Connell. He punches out with imagery that drips with brutality, dust, sweat and death.

The Ghosts of Cannae is an about near perfect work of non-fiction.

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Biblioholic Review: Area 51

26 Jul

This book, where do we start? Loved it, and yet felt a little uneasy about the veracity of certain components.

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen is the non-fiction story, in part about a parcel of land, out in the desert of America’s southwest known as Area 51. Officially this vast government base, bigger than some U.S. states, doesn’t exist. From the Dragon Lady, to Oxcart and MIGs, Area 51 is chock-a-block with mid-20th century aviation development and intrigue.

The true pivot point for Area 51 is not the tech and governmental post-war machinations, but the now infamous UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico. Yes, Area 51 tackles head on the now globally known standard setter of alien visitation and government cover-ups. Roswell and Area 51 are the Garden of Eden of 20th century conspiracy theorists.

The book hangs on anonymous interviews with a man that Jacobsen only identifies as an engineer for EG&G, a massive and powerful government contractor. Not just any engineer for any government contractor, but one man who was there at the moment of history and he has a real story to spin.

Some of the tales woven by Jacobsen’s EG&G contact are staggering. Rather than spoiling the revelations, we want you to read these gut wrenching ‘facts’ laid down by some unnamed and now apparently very elderly engineer.

Really, of all the data points mined from this EG&G engineer, the ‘Holy Grail’ of Area 51 is the “true” story behind the Roswell UFO crash of 1947, is almost too much. The claims start off with a twist of credibility, stark and logical ties to Nazi-era aviation technology, and then contort into grotesque near-implausibility of human experiments by Cold War combatants woven into a near intergalactic propaganda campaigns.

You see we were nagged by the concept of “maskarovas,” fake-outs, cover stories and wild fantasy designed to obfuscate the truth. Reading Area 51 we felt almost as if we were in the closing stanzas of Cold War maskarova perpetrated by both the Soviets and U.S.  Misinformation cast against misinformation make for an uneasy truth when reading a book that claims to be fact.

So, we have mixed feelings about Area 51. Our impulse is to take the book, and  its well researched construction, at face value. Accept it as a marvelous and stunning piece of post-Cold War secrecy busting journalism.

And yet, the shadow of an anonymous aging engineer with mind boggling elaborate claims, tempered our unreserved accolades, and it ends up looming large over the rest of an amazing book.

Area 51 is one of the most concise and popularly readable history about America’s national security apparatus, nuclear and secret aviation efforts from 1941 onward. And if the claims of one man, the witness to UFO history, are taken as truth then Area 51 is the biggest conspiracy buster of all time.

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen was purchased for review by Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands

31 May

Most U.S. presidents have some sort of biographical renaissance and Theodore Roosevelt is one such feature of book after book chronicling his time pre-and-post Oval Office. Another recent entry in this go-round is Theodore Roosvelt in the Badlands by Roger DiSilvestro.

A quick read at 263 pages Badlands covers Roosevelt’s move to the west and his discovery that his physical potential finally matched his unbound intellectual curiosity. And yet his journey west was propelled by the death of his first wife and mother within days of each other.

If you are familiar with the history of Theodore Roosevelt, the sketches of the future president are quick. While not precise measurement, we felt that almost half of the book about the Badlands was devoted to profiling a cadre of hunters, cattlemen and desperados that connected to Roosevelt. And while that is the function of a good and diverse biography, there were stretches where you found nary a Roosevelt reference except obliquely.

Our reviewer, the in-house historical buff, was not completely absorbed  in the vagueries of the cattle business and the mystique of the vanishing West. The rampant and wasteful slaughter of the fauna of the West was magnified by the subtle romanticization of the cowboy lifestyle.

However the reasoning of Roosevelt from classic 19th century hunter to naturalist was clearly defined in this book and showed his lasting influence on the culture of the hunting conservationist. DiSilvestro also quickly and effectively fleshes out in the closing stanza of Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands the strong relationships with the men who battled nature and the beasts of the West.

If you are a fan of western novels or Wild West histories, then this book will provide a presidential tint to the story of spurs and buckskins.

Theodore Roosevelt in the Badland by Roger DiSilvestro was purchased by the Boston Book Bums

Biblioholic Review: Popular Crime- Reflections on the Celebration of Violence

17 May

Bill James, perhaps best known for his historical research, and statistical influence on modern baseball (specifically through the field of sabremetrics), now directs his obsessive attention to detail to another topic many Americans spend much of their free time reading and debating about: popular crime.

In his new 456 page tome, Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence, James reflects on dozens upon dozens of popular violent crimes, mainly in America from the 1880s until the present day.  Peppered throughout the revisiting of each of these crimes is James’ opinions about why the convicted may not have actually committed the crime, why that particular crime was so newsworthy in its day, and what about the state of the judicial system, the prisons, or organized police force played into said crime and its moment in America’s checkered criminal past.

In revisiting the Lizzie Borden case (Borden was acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in 1892), James questions the amount of evidence that ever existed in the first place, let alone the time for Lizzie to commit the dirty deeds.

According to all of the “ear” witnesses, as well as the forensic reports, her parents were killed between 10:55pm and 10:58pm with their maid having heard Lizzie’s screams for help by 11pm.  Once Lizzie was in view, she had not a trace of blood on her, which certainly would have been hard having just finished murdering her parents with an ax! James points to these discrepancies, as well as presents his 100 point system for evidence.

Of the many flaws and foibles with the American justice system, or popular culture’s notion of how violent American history actually is, James seems most intent in communicating that JonBenet Ramsey was not killed by either, or both, of her parents.  James pleads on page 406 “my greatest fear in writing this book, is that I will be unable to convince you that John and Patsy Ramsey had nothing to do with the death of their daughter.”

If you are interested in crime rates, the history of violence in America, older popular crimes that may not have been on your radar, as well as well-researched, primary documentation, and intriguing opinions as to why some of the more contemporary popular crimes today might not have “all the facts” then Popular Crime is the book for you.

Popular Crimes- Reflections on the Celebration of Violence by Bill James was received free for review by Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: War on the Run

21 Apr

Military historians have centuries of men and women to follow, recount and examine as pivotal or under-appreciated contributors to the story of mankind. History is replete with martial characters, from antiquity to the 21st century. And Americans, it’s said, aren’t particularly interested in their history, military or social. That point can be argued, but not for the lack of uninteresting domestic characters.

One American example of military character was Major Robert Rogers, a pre-Revolutionary War soldier who defined unconventional. Rogers is the subject of John Ross’ War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America’s First Frontier.

Ross is meticulous through the book, exploring the rise of Rogers from New Hampshire farmer to the greatest unconventional warriors of the French and Indian War; and of all time. Rogers in War on the Run deserves the accolades heaped upon him as one of the longest lasting and most influential forces on military tactics and doctrine.

The strongest and engaging elements of War on the Run are Ross’ command of fleshing out, exploring and making viscerally real the battles which Rogers led from Lake George into southern Canada. In War on the Run Ross puts you on foot, on the line, you smell the acrid black powder, feel the stinging pain and brace for one brutal assault after another. Ross reminds you that it wasn’t just the French and their Native American allies that conspired against Rogers and the forces of Britain, but also the cruel weather and remorseless terrain of North America that decided many engagements.

Ross plots out each campaign, each raid or assault in perfect detail. He details the Battle of the Snowshoes, the devastating ambushes and massacres, as well as Rogers near death flight from pursuing forces leading to the renaming of a geographic feature now known as Rogers Slide. Also, Ross’ addition of Rogers Rules of Ranging, the first codified unconventional warfare manual for America, shows the genius of the officer and how many of his ‘rules’ for rangers can be applied to small unit warfare today.

If War on the Run has lackings, they lay in coverage of Rogers Revolutionary War life- from French and Indian War hero, to accused spy and debt ridden disgraced loyalist. Also, warfare of the period was defined, in part, by the constraints of weapons and equipment, which we would have liked more detail from Ross.

If you are regular reader of military history, this work will be a quick but well crafted read, with Ross’ battlefield tactical descriptions proving superb. And if you are military history novice, War on the Run has good detail where it counts to inform you about warfare of the age without leaving you in the nomenclature or jargon vacuum.

War on the Run expertly captures Rogers audacity, bravery, brutality and merciless determination in the quest to defeat the French in America.

John Ross’ War on the Run is a thrilling work of non-fiction that makes you appreciate the rise and fall, within one generation, of America’s first greatest unconventional warrior.

War on the Run by John F. Ross was received for free for review by Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: The Rite

17 Mar

Not too long ago, Hollywood rolled out another exorcism movie, The Rite. While the Anthony Hopkins film didn’t burn up the screens at the box office, it reminded us the book of the same name that inspired, piquing our interest previously. So, we picked up a copy during a road-trip to an indie bookseller in Portland, Maine and dove into the story of real exorcisms, training and examination of true evil.

Journalist Matt Baglio makes Rome his home for work and as a by-product he is in perfect position to tackle the subject of the Vatican and it’s world-wide renewed call for pastors to become exorcists. Yes, those who’ve seen the movies from the titular Exorcist to The Last Exorcism think they know the world of a cleric banishing a demon from a once devout person. The rituals seems slightly authentic, but inevitably you feel its a celluloid construct.

In Baglio’s The Rite, you learn early and often that to the devout, to every day clerics that love their baseball and had ‘normal’ lives prior to donning the vestments, the devil and his minions are always pushing at the boundaries of the soul built by God and fortified by the faithful.

The Rite follows Father Gary Thomas from his diocese in California to the Vatican and learning the rites and nuances of exorcisms at a school run by the conservative Legionaires of Christ. Baglio excellently portrays the exorcism world from the simple to the strange, lack of translators in the all Italian lectures to doubting the authenticity of the rite of possession banishment.

The stand-outs in The Rite are the perfectly paced details and the simple portraits of terrifying possessed terror. Baglio’s detailed examination of not just the Rite of Exorcism, but the examination on the levels and layers of possession, what the devil or demons can or cannot do; as well as the finest definitions of evil.  It is all fascinating and engrossing.

Sometimes a simple prayer and a talking to will clear up clouded souls, The Rite reveals when it comes to the possessed. Also, there is a distinct appreciation for modern clinical approaches to mental health, a scientific barrier requiring hurdling first in the arsenal of exorcists. And then there are those in need of for repeated and lengthy sessions where battles with the devil sometimes gets physical. When Baglio follows Gary into his first exorcism field training, it starts of slow and rather dull; yet quickly we read about absolutely frightening and monumental battles with evil.

The Rite is much more than frothing mouths, guttural cursing demons and freakish strength from the diminutive possessed. Yes, The Rite is plenty scary, but it is like following a tradesman in the most strangest continuing education course ever conceived.

Some might consider The Rite an assault on liberal secularism, believing it is a right-leaning treatise. However, read The Rite as secular non-fiction, with a religious tint, and it will rock you as a profoundly scary story. As H.P. Lovecraft once said, write horror fiction as if it was a great hoax. Meaning, make it as real as possible to enhance the paranormal fright. Well, whether you believe in a God or not, The Rite builds fright with fact that could school most horror fiction writers.

The Rite by Matt Baglio was purchased for review by the Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: Atlantic

1 Nov

There are two types of water lovers, brown and blue. Brown water lovers enjoy remote rivers or glacial lakes. The latter, blue water lovers, find relaxation and soul nurturing solace along the shores of the sea.

We at Boston Book Bums are collective ocean lovers and we are unabashed fans of author Simon Winchester. So, when news came that Winchester was crafting a history of the Atlantic Ocean, our ocean, we could not wait.

Winchester ambitiously unifies patches of history to create Atlantic. How can one write a history of such a massive expanse, a sea? By finding pocket portraits and reminding readers the Atlantic Ocean can be considered a unfathomably large living entity.

Winchester is peerless when it comes to ferreting out history’s littlest pictures to form the complete story tellers quilt. A documentary following Winchester during research for his A Crack at the Edge of the World, captured an intellectually gifted scribe with a boyish vigor for history. That personality is captured once again in Atlantic.

History bores most Americans. Not this proud reader. And when you read the vivacity of Winchester’s work, his ceaseless search for those small facts that illuminate the bigger picture, his love of things past and how they reflect the future is contagious.

Atlantic is divided up in seven parts, taking a cue from Shakespeare’s The Seven Ages of Man, examining the life phases of the mighty ocean. From its birth, to its discovery, cradle of advancement, to its exploitation abuse and decline, Atlantic reads like a complex biography of a figure lost to history.

No dull oceanographic or geologic tome, Atlantic lives and breaths. Winchester’s skill at imbuing words on a page sounds and smells is brilliant. Sea spray tastes salty on your lips, the darkest depths are killing cold and those hearty men and women who walked to sea and dared to conquer it, are vibrantly real flesh and blood.

Winchester’s acute writing ability meshes science, war, commerce, technology and even some human psychology in Atlantic.

Atlantic faultlessly wrestles the story of a sea, vibrant and loving, hateful and deadly, into one book. Atlantic, without a question, belongs on your shelf.

Atlantic by Simon Winchester was received for free by Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: The Gun

20 Oct

When World War II ended, combatants returned to their barracks and weapons were packed back into armories. Yet as the fog of war cleared from the battlefields of Europe, engineers, politicians and warriors in the Soviet Union were already planning for the next war. And the next generation of warrior would need a new weapon and they would turn to a former tank sergeant to design the ubiquitous small arm of the 20th century, the AK-47.

C.J. Chivers, magazine and newspaper journalist and former Marine, ambitiously grapples the development not only of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s rifle but the creation of automatic weapons and their effect on the course of history. Kalishnikov, still alive and revered in Russia as a hero, could only get to the point of designing the rifle that would become the AK-47 after generations of weapons designs and wars that would reshape small arms future.

Chivers expertly retraces the history of Dr. Richard Gatling, father to the hand-cranked mutli-barreled gun, and Hiram Maxim, Mainer and creator of history’s first effective  sustained fire machine gun. These two character portraits, especially riveting that of the sarcastic, rough and ruthless Maxim, lead to the closing days of World War II and the birth of the AK-47.

From the slaughters of British colonial wars to the killing grounds of the Somme, Chivers finds pivotal moments in warfare directly reshaped by a fusillade of fire. Chivers shows the AK-47 as a mechanism of change, in the hands of soldiers, guerrillas and freedom fighters alike.

Shrouded in secrecy and with most information heavily doctored by wistful recollection or calculated misdirection, Chivers manages to smartly render in words the design and refinement of the AK-47. It’s loose fit, simplicity of construction and resulting reductions in accuracy were the antithesis of the ‘rifelman’ culture of Western armies. But, when a weapon could double the ammunition and killing ability of one man, its few shortcomings were rendered moot on the battlefield.

Chivers demonstrates the meticulous changes in Kalishnikov’s design, borrowed from other designers, his own ideas and previous weapons, show levels of refinement that eventually create the roughest, most reliable weapon fielded in battle.

Importantly, Chivers does not treat the reader as a complete novice when it comes to the mechanical or tactical aspects of small arms in The Gun. Now for those unfamiliar with firearms and their methods of operation. The Gun is clear enough to inform, but not so simplistic that those familiar with the subject will be bored to tears.

Throughout The Gun, Chivers hops back and forth between war and the weapon being wielded. He also devotes considerable time detailing the comical and tragic history of America’s entry into late 20th century small-arms development in the M-16. His description of the M-16, unreliable at its creation and forced into service by politics, counter balances the rough and singular minded simplicity of the AK-47 entry to the battlefield.

Smartly, Chivers does not delve into the at times puerile debate gun enthusiasts engage in. No foot-stomping arguments for or against calibers, methods of operation or even aesthetic. Nor does he make The Gun an indictment nor endorsement of gun rights domestically. The Gun is clear, it is a book about a man and his creation and its dizzying variants, effects and impacts on everything from war planning to nation states and even yes, vodka.

As others have written books about cod, salt and cotton, Chivers has crafted the singular general history of modern man’s most plentiful and efficient killing machine.

The Gun by C.J. Chivers was received for free as a review copy by Boston Book Bums

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