Dave Nichols dot Net

  (out of 5 stars)

Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright embedded with Bravo Company of the 1st Marine Reconnaissance Battalion just in time for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Spending his time with 2nd Platoon, whose commander Nathaniel Fick published a memoir, One Bullet Away recounting his experiences a year after Generation Kill was published, Wright spent most of his time in the vehicle commanded by Sgt. Brad Colbert. Wright's narrative, which first appeared as a series of Rolling Stone articles, moves fast and presents a grunts-eye view of the first days of the Iraq War.

From crossing the berm and MOPP chemical protection suits, to rolling hot through sheets of gunfire, Wright's experiences are vividly conveyed to the reader in each chapter. I especially appreciated the way he frankly portrayed the men in the platoon. From raunchy jokes in the middle of gunfights to the daily highs and lows of the men, the narrative moves quickly through the whirlwind of battle and brotherhood.

Wright's book makes an excellent addition to the small but growing catalog of works on the Iraq War, and combined with Fick's memoir, the reader can gain a keen insight into small unit actions and the consequences of leadership decisions, superior training, and the frustrating necessity of the chain of command. Four stars. The HBO miniseries based on the book is also recommended and provides a very faithful depiction of Wright's narrative.

  (out of 5 stars)

Few eras in US history contain the dichotomic events which were widespread during the late 1960s. In David Maraniss's book The Marched Into Sunlight, a fascinating narrative presents parallel stories of US Army soldiers being killed in the devastating abush at Ong Thanh, Vietnam, and the violence which exploded out of a student protest of napalm-manufacturer Dow Chemical Company on the campus of Wisconsin-Madison. These events, which took place over the course of just two days, provide a fascinating dual myopic capable of framing the chaos and distress so often felt by those who lived it. Maraniss's treatment of these events is humane, vivid, and completely engaging from the very beginning.

One of the parallel stories involves a battalion of US 1st Army soldiers, most of whom are draftees or draft-pressured enlistees who are entering the Vietnamese theater for the first time. A handful of experienced NCOs and a couple of capable leaders are all that stand between these men and crippling terror at times, though as events would later show, many of these same soldiers would demonstrate extraordinary courage and resolve in the face of tremendous fear, screams of dying friends, and sheets of hot lead.

The key battle for most of these men, and the only one covered in detail in Sunlight, was the ambush near the Ong Thanh river, where a full regiment of NVA troops decimated two and a half undersized companies of 1st Army soldiers. Maraniss's description of the battle makes the reader claustrophobic and anguished as the reality of the situation becomes clear. One of the most heart-breaking descriptions of military defeat I've read, the pain and horror of the experience conveys as well as any writing possibly can.

The other parallel story being told here involves student protesters during an especially-heated day in Madison, Wisconsin. Taking place the day after the ambush at Ong Thanh, the protest against the Dow Chemical Company started with aggressive protest leaders attempting to walk a fine line between peaceful hindrance and agitated confrontation. After a few terrible tactical decisions by campus leaders and city police officers, violence breaks out as police attempt to remove protesters from a building. As billy clubs pound the students, the violent situation explodes, with dozens of students and police injured and severe consequences resulting from the day's events.

Peppered with glimpses into LBJ's White House and top Army brass, Maraniss weaves a narrative which will suck in any reader interested in military history, social history, or the 1960s. Fascinating and in-depth portrayals of many people involved in each event await the reader, and the result is a book which is unique, haunting, and highly-recommended to all. One of the best narratives of war and history I've read this year. Five stars.

  (out of 5 stars)

Neurologist Oliver Sacks catalogs his experiences with patients suffering unusual neurological conditions in his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. As the title suggests, the book is a collection of first-hand case studies witnessed by Sacks during his days treating these patients. I've collected several of Sacks' books, and having decided to start reading his work with this book, it may be a while before I pick up the next.

This was easily one of the more disappointing reads of the year. Sacks comes highly rated as an author, and in the few video lectures and discussions I've watched of him, I had high expectations for Mistook. However, the format is just dreadful, and the writing, while presenting interesting subjects, reads more like a dictation from a doctor to his fellow practitioners than a discourse meant for popular science readers.

Each chapter is self-contained, excepting a bare few references to similar cases across a couple of chapters, and presents Sacks' version of neurological patient exhibiting unusual behavior and/or symptoms. There is no apparent pattern to the stories, they are just thrown together as a collection of essays with no attempt to draw a narrative. Even within each chapter, the flow is simply bad as a specific detail might garner two full pages of description while an equally-deserving (and necessary) set of details are all packed into a single sentence. The balance is just wrong, and again, it feels like Sacks is writing a case study for a fellow neurologist and then, at the last minute, remembered to "dumb it down" a bit for some of his readers.

Wholly clinical in its treatment of the subjects, the book does not try hard to draw the reader in and compel him to understand and explore the subject matter. The reader is left with a few interesting stories handled in a clinical manner which a few minutes of reading Wikipedia articles would have matched in terms of pleasurable reading. While undoubtedly of interest to many, and admitting that I seem to be in the minority in being disappointed by Mistook, the book is simply a let down to this reader who is greatly interested in the neurological behaviors Sacks witnessed. Two and one-half stars.

  (out of 5 stars)

Physicist Leonard Susskind weighed in on his support for string theory in 2005 with The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design. A book with high goals and, from me personally, high expectations, Landscape falls quite flat from the very beginning and only occasionally rises to a point worth mentioning.

I was familiar with the public debate between Susskind and fellow physicist Lee Smolin (author of three books on physics, including his latest: The Trouble With Physics) over the concept known as the anthropic principle. Susskind, very much in favor of anthropic solutions, favors the weak anthropic version, which holds that our universe allows life only because of the existence of a multiverse which offers an overwhelming number of opportunities to get the "details" of physics right. However, I really expected Susskind to dig deeply into the notion of Intelligent Design as it related to religious faith in a specific Creator of the cosmos. However, rather than address this far more common meaning of "Intelligent Design" directly, Susskind spends chapter after chapter meandering through physics fundamentals and pleading with the reader to see how string theory and its multiverse predictions are not just reasonable but "solidly grounded" in research.

Having read a great deal of physics books and knowing many of the arguments for and against string theory, the anthropic principle, and cosmological intelligent design, I found Susskind's treatment and defense of his stance to be disappointing and muddled. The reader is left with a great deal of missing steps in his thinking, and like many string theorists, Susskind assumes the reader will accept that string theory and a multiverse system are facts from which to explore the issues. However, Susskind never establishes just why the reader should make these assumptions, and it leaves a lot of hollow ground hindering his argument.

Combined with the lack of any real attack on the "illusion of intelligent design", this sort of writing is a let down for me. I like Susskind and have watched many of his panel discussions where he is both thoughtful and clear. However, I've also watched a few of his seminars and, unfortunately, this book reads much more like his rambling, at times incoherent lectures than it does his focused and insightful panel debates. Three stars and only recommended for curious physics readers wanting to get Susskind's arguments first hand.

  (out of 5 stars)

The story of Darby's Rangers, an elite group of specially-trained US Army soldiers which took part in Operation Torch in Africa, Operation Husky in Sicily, and the invasion of Italy during WWII, is one well-deserving of a comprehensive retelling. This version of that story is largely the result of a first-draft style set of notes and interviews conducted with Bill Darby, the leader of these Rangers, just before his death in combat in Italy.

The experiences of these rangers, from going ashore in North Africa and driving the invasion of Sicily, and on to the difficult and oftej disastrous days in mainland Italy, are fascinating military history, and show how an elite unit can take on and accomplish important missions. However, this version, which features a brief introduction to each chapter by its coauthors providing background and context to Darby's text, remains very raw and does not offer a robust, colorful treatment of the subject.

To be fair, Darby's text was never expected to go to print in this format, and given that it would usually have gone through many revisions and improvements before publication under normal circumstances, the cohesion is reasonable and readable. Still, compared to most popular military history memoirs on the market, it falls flat in many ways. It is a decent read and an important history to take in, but don't expect to be blown away by the pace or narrative. Three stars.

  (out of 5 stars)

Major Dick Winters, now infamously-known thanks to the character portrayal of his experiences in World War II with the 506th Parachute Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as depicted in the Stephen Ambrose book and HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers", has collected his thoughts and memories of those experience and written his own book about his role in winning the war in Europe.

For readers familiar with the Band of Brothers tales, Winters' stories will echo many of those same events, with the unique views that are belong to Winters himself. A relatively unassuming but sharp man, Winters portrays his role with humility and explains the war as it looked through his eyes and the eyes of his men.

From Toccoa to Normandy, and Holland to Belgium to Germany, Winters' role in the war was important and inspiring, especially to those who served under him. His frank descriptions of events provide a very nice compliment to the Ambrose versions of Easy Company, much of which relied heavily on Winters himself. Solid writing, engaging storytelling, and crucial events in a major war, Beyond is a strong but breezy read for any military reader. Four stars.

  (out of 5 stars)

US Marine Corps officer Nathaniel Fick's memoir describes his experiences in Marine Corps OCS, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War. As a Lieutenant, Fick was a lower-grade officer who saw a great deal of front line action, especially while commanding a platoon in Bravo Company, First Force Recon as part of the tip of the spear during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. His memoir is very well written and provides a key insight into the positives and negatives of fighting wars within the Marine Corps command chain.

Fick decided to join the Marines in order to test himself, and enlists in OCS prior to his senior year at Columbia. After completing his training, he finished school before officially joining the Corps and heading off for training which included a variety of tough tests, including SERE training.

Fick was shipping off for his first international deployment when September 11 took place, and while at sea, his unit got orders to prepare for the invasion of Afghanistan. He took part in a few missions in that theater before being offered a chance to join the elite Recon Marines.

As part of First Force Recon, Fick led his platoon across the berms and into Iraq during the invasion, and was often involved in heavy firefights. Fick, an intelligent and tactically-aware commander, often chaffed under the rigid Marine Corps command structure and openly challenged his CO a couple of times when the orders were clearly wrongheaded. His attitude was not necessarily acceptable to his commanders, and once or twice nearly caused him to be punished, but his men knew they had a strong leader looking out for them and ensuring their ability to accomplish the mission was never compromised.

Fick's insights into the early days of the way, and especially the ways in which the strategies played out, open a unique view of the seeds planted which later turned into a full-blown insurgency. An easy read from start-to-finish, One Bullet Away is a solid addition to the shelves of any military reader, along with Generation Kill, journalist Evan Wright's book (and HBO miniseries) which saw Wright embedded in Fick's platoon. Four stars.

  (out of 5 stars)

Lewis "Chesty" Puller may well have been the baddest mutha to ever put on a United States uniform and go to war. A career soldier who saw action all over the globe, Puller is a legendary figure to today's Marines, much as I imagine El Cid was to the generations which followed. Here, in Burke Davis's biography of the ultimate soldier, Puller's experiences are drawn together into a swift and enjoyable narrative.

Puller's military career started as WWI came to a close, and he soon found himself serving in Haiti and Nicaragua, garnering praise from superiors and civilians alike. Puller was a natural leader of men, and those who fought for him in those parts of the world would not be the last to think of him as a tremendous warrior.

After spending time in Peking, China, Puller took part in the bloody battles in the Pacific Theater of WWII, including the Battle of Guadalacanal. Despite terrible and misleading orders from his superiors, and the ever-present problems of communications, supplies, and the fog of war, Puller maintained his cool, took responsibility for his men, and displayed enormous guts and tactical leadership during every battle. Later, in the Korean War, Puller oversaw the difficult and deadly rearguard action during the Chosin Reservoir withdrawal.

One of the great warriors of any age, Puller's story as presented by Burke is a fantastic tale of a dedicated and highly-intelligent military legend. Well recommended for any military fan, and especially for anyone with an interest in the US Marine Corps.

  (out of 5 stars)

Colonel Hackworth's memoir Steel My Soldiers' Hearts records his experiences in Vietnam with the US Army 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry. Hackworth, a staunch disciplinarian who believes strongly in maintaining order even under the worst of conditions, describes how he arrived at the battalion when the unit was suffering low morale, poor preparedness, and dangerous security, and then transformed the men into a first-rate combat team.

Hackworth's style makes for engaging and easy reading, and I love that he is not afraid to question the rigid Army system he was expected to enforce. At first, the men hate Hackworth, who shows up like any other disliked battalion CO: instituting rigid discipline and training; eliminating the comforts (such as hot food); enforcing rules which the previous CO had been lax to enforce. At one point, a bounty was even placed on Hackworth's head by his own men.

However, Hackworth was not an officer who lead from the rear. At one point early on, the Colonel flew into a hot and dangerous combat zone to help evacuate men wounded in battle. He routinely put his own life at risk in order to protect his men, and pretty soon, the soldiers understood that their new CO was something special. The bounty on his head would quickly disappear.

Hackworth's descriptions of battle are also fantastic. You get the usual battalion-level strategy and tactics, but you also get Hackworth's first-hand observations as he was often under fire with his men. The accounts of his soldiers are also included, and the narrative of each key battle unfolds with excellent vividness and anguish.

One of many excellent books on Vietnam, Hackworth delivered a fascinating and troubling look at how the war should have been fought and, often, was not as a result of higher-level military politics and posturing. Never shying away from the awful and gruesome details, this narrative is well recommended for any military reader. Four and one-half stars.

  (out of 5 stars)

Matt Ridley presents his arguments for the development of sexual reproduction through a variety of insights in The Red Queen. Much like the world in which Alice met the character referred to in the title, Ridley's approach is jumbled, disjointed, and too raggedly-paced to enjoy fully.

Ridley bases his thoughts on strong evolutionary arguments, such as those for sexual selection, arms races, and symbiogenesis. For the purely biological discussion, this works quite fine. However, as Ridley moves into human sociological and cultural points, which take up most of the book, he loses the narrative and often slips in assumptions which are either unproven or have (since publication in 1994) turned out to be wrong. This, combined with a ragged flow of thoughts and chapters which only marginally relate to each other, leaves the reader with a less-than-enthusiastic support for Ridley's thesis.

Still, there is much to glean in Red Queen, and Ridley certainly gets his facts in order when discussing biological aspects. Readers new to the subject should pick up some interesting tidbits, but should also update their knowledge with more recent works by Richard Dawkins and others. Ridley's later book Genome is much better written and presented, and is recommended to anyone who enjoys this book or wants to delve into genetics and disease. Three and one-half stars.