Reading Log

The amazing story of a World War 2 German Luftwaffe fighter pilot escorting a damaged American B-17 bomber back over the “flak line” as it limped home to safety. The German air force was generally not nazis and was culturally very honor code-bound. The German pilot, Franz Stigler, a Catholic did not see the need to destroy a bomber whose injured crew could not parachute to safety. Interesting theme of military officers not always agreeing with a 'ruling party' but serving the People nonetheless. Also, and specifically, more people could benefit from internalizing a concept of that people can be “combatants” without being “enemies.”  The two pilots actually reunited in 1980s and maintained a friendship in old age.

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

The anti-war book that WWII was bound to produce (so said great WWII author Stephen Ambrose). I read it long ago but rereading it as an adult with more experience, especially military-bureaucracy experience, made it a treasure. It is a hilarious, witty book that follows Yossarin, the bombardier, as unit leadership moves the flight requirement from 50 to 60 to 70 to 80 missions. The cast of well written and quirky supporting characters (Major Major re: mediocrity, Doc who speaks the title catch-phrase, Orr, the various Colonels) all intersect during like a Seinfeld episode. "Who's they?" Dunbar demanded suspiciously!  “That’s some catch, that catch-22!"

The Killer Angels - Jeff Saahra

The classic historical fiction about the Battle of Gettysburg. My family went to visit the battlefields and I returned home and reread the book for the first time since high school. I was amazed how the ‘old’ generals in the book were my current age and how important those same generals were in the chaos of land army wars. We went back to Gettysburg again and this time I sat on the spots described in the book with a different perspective then as a kid.

Leonardo DaVinci - Walter Isaacson

A detailed review of DaVinci’s life through a combination of historical timeline and the works he produced. Illegitimacy saved him from being a notary; personality and lack of formal education drew him toward learning through experience and experiment; and his true love of the process of learning meant he lost interest in finishing projects once he knew how he would finish...or he never finished because he enjoy the ability to always add more based on new information or a learned evolution in technique. He was fascinated by curls (hair), swirls (water), and analogous infinite things like lighting and shadows, perspective, etc. While productive, this genius was not what we would call busy (make work) but rather he spent time curiously thinking, observing, and reflecting. I enjoyed the notes on the three perspectives of art (size, shade, sharpness) and how he inferred scientific lessons by observing. The last chapter is a great summary.

The Hidden Life of Trees - Peter Wohlleben

A book that only scratches the surface of what foresters know about trees but still goes far deeper into trees than I've been while keeping my attention. It ultimately reinforces how old growth natural forest are a thing in balance and healthy - as a good community should be. Wonderful insight on lifecycles: benefit of slow growth in the forest under story while nurtured via parent’s roots until it is time to take top spots and also how even after death some stumps are nurtured and fallen trunks cool/fertilize for the next generation. Interesting sections about tree communications via underground mycorrhizae fungus or airborne scent/chemicals to warn each other about pest and start fight mechanism. Funny aside about "street kid' trees that grow up outside a forest and so grow up fast and unhealthy. Extending the discussion the book highlights how trees weather storms better in groups and by bending as well as how wolves reintroduced in place have restored balance in distrusted ecosystems.

War - Sebastian Junger

The author of The Perfect Storm and Tribe skillfully tells this story of military outpost life in the Korangal Valley of Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008. He notes how detached these units can be from national politics and even regional strategy but, importantly, that the members fight as they do for each other. As if to prove this, four months into his embedment, Junger describes Sergeant Sal Giunta running toward an ambushing enemy to assist one wounded teammate and then advancing again to retrieve a second wounded teammate who was being abducted. That Giunta kills a high-value Taliban leader and also becomes the first living Medal of Honor winner since Vietnam seems secondary compared to the lives successfully saved and lives regretfully lost. Two sections that juxtapose individual soldiers in the context of war warrant specific mention: 1) “Society can give its young men almost any job...and they’ll suffer for it and die for it and watch their friends die for it. [Evaluating that cost], ongoing and unadulterated by politics, may be the one thing a country absolutely owes the soldiers who defend its borders.” 2) “Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and the idea that it's fired by a guy who doesn't make that in a year at a guy who doesn't make that in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the war seem winnable.” This book left me both hurting for our soldiers, and so proud of them as well, while wondering how we can better evaluate the cost-benefit of using them.

America's war for the Greater Middle East - Andrew Bacevich

Traces U.S. middle east involvement to President Carter’s crisis of confidence and an interest in securing oil sources. This morphed into a new (just in time), post-cold war enemy rationalized under guise of spreading democracy (and consumerism) and as the latest phase of maintaining a worldwide ‘pattern of relationship’ to maintain US advantages (GDP, quality of life). I liked his warriors-author’s take on the need to adapt tactics (COIN), if not strategy, but also his note that there was a persistent "stubborn belief” that drone or special forces could decapitate the enemy, and not create deadly power vacuums that made the problems. On a personal note I’ll add that I went to high school and played soccer with his son, Andy, who died in Iraq in 2007. He was a great guy and just 27 years old.

Young Men and Fire - Norman MacLean

From the author of A River Runs Through it. Story of the 1949 Mann Gulch Montana where 13 of 16 firefighters died running uphill away from fire that raged first in lowland timber and then faster through hillside grasses. Notable as Forest Service Smokejumper’s first big loss and reminded me of USCG lessons learned through the Blackthorn and Cuyahoga accidents. MacLean was personally connected to the fire, visiting it first as a young man while it was still smoking, but also as a fellow firefighter and Montanan. As a retiree he took up the cause of writing the story (with his emphasis on it being a story, not report) since the facts he said had been told. "A storyteller, unlike a historian, must follow compassion wherever it leads him." "They were young and did not leave much behind them and need someone to remember them."  This book is up there with Boys in the Boat.

Measure of All Things - Ken Alder

The story of two men measuring the Paris meridian in ~1800, from Dunkirk to Barcelona, as part of defining the meter based on the size of the earth. A universal standard was already desired by scientists but it gained French Revolution support and it eventually took root internationally (except US etc). The melancholic Mechan obsessed over a measuring error while the more open Delambre knew to be a scientist is to acknowledge error.  Like most government initiatives, the meridian has actually been measured a few times before and even the size of the earth has been approximated/measured as far back as time of the Egyptians. In reality this time was just use of advances in tools and thinking to improve the accuracy/precision gaps. [Related in theme: Longitude and Drawing the Line...see below]

Hail Mary - Andy Weir

A high school biology teacher, who is a former researcher, travels to another star system to figure out solution to why an unknown organism is ‘eating’ our sun. In the process he meets and must cooperate with others in order to save humanity. Weir also authored of The Martian and Artemis which I also read and enjoyed. This is another well conceived and technically researched book by this engineer turned author.

All the light we cannot see - Andy Doerr

A beautiful fiction set in WWII France which dances among story lines and timelines. A blind Parisian girl, daughter of a disappeared museum worker who was entrusted with safekeeping a large diamond, is a refugee in Saint Melo with her shut-in great uncle who has a radio transmitter that he previously used to broadcast science shows. An orphaned Hitler youth who grew up listening to the radio science shows and is now charged with tracking French resistance radio broadcasts. A Nazi valuable hunter who is closing in on the diamonds location. Their timelines converge and events unfold just as San Melo is being liberated by Allies. Remarkably written prose: words and sentences like paint brush strokes - short and colorful!

Longitude - David Sobel

A true story about solving the harder dimension in maritime navigation. Where latitude was easily determined by celestial measurement, longitude needed a component of time. A contest sponsored by Britain attracted approaches based on astronomy (Jupiters moons) and clocks (which did not perform well at sea). Contestant John Harrison, a carpenter by trade, focused on chronometers (versions H1, H2…) over four decades, each iteration solving certain problems regarding balance, temperature, loss during winding, and each iteration performing increasingly well in sea-trials. The contest judges who were mostly astronomers and skeptical about a chronological solution, would change the rules on the fly. Versions H4 and H5, large pocket watches essentially, were ultimately granted the prize. This was a really interesting book about history, sea-travel, science, about not pre-determining solutions that may come from non-traditional sources.

Moonwalking with Einstein - Josh Foer

Interesting book about memory from historical, exceptional, and competitive perspectives as the author prepares for a memory contest. Among the tactics, my favorite was memory places which use familiar structures (like a childhood home) and associates each room, furniture, corner etc with things to remember in order. Other techniques use preposterous and crude images or similar sounds to help memorize. He notes memory is not a skill needed in a world of externalized memory, but ultimately it is the human capacity for memory that does the connecting and inventing by remembering people, places, and concepts.

Undaunted Courage - Stephen Ambrose

Story of Lewis, and Clark, Sacagawea, and others, by the author of the great Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldier books. I read this because Lewis and Clark were on my mind while I was leading a Coast Guard project to install a radio tower system along the Ohio and Mississippi River systems. The book details their 1803-1806 journey to explore and cross the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Many of the names of places they pass or ‘discover’ along the river are still communities today. The book has wonderful themes about preparation (how did they prepare for the excursion?!), empowerment (two junior officers had a powerful letter from President Thomas Jefferson!), the benefit of being an ever-curious explorer-scientist-botanist-navigator-biologist-adventurer (who isn't?), and persevering with poise in the face of unknowns, threats, and doubts (not sure which was most dangerous to them). I always hoped to one day to drive the length of their trail, from DC to Astoria and the book only increased the desire.

Old Man's War (series) - John Scalzi

This is a series introduced to me by my friend Dianna who saw, at the time, I needed a more light-hearted book. Old Man’s War is a science fiction series that follows old people from earth who get new bodies and serve in the space Colonial Defense Force throughout the universe. Over six books it evolves and tells the story of many characters and events. Scalzi has won the Hugo award and drawn comparison to Robert Heinlein. I'm grateful to be (re)introduced to science fiction and get a tremendous boost in creativity from them. I've since read a few other series by Scalzi and returned to Heinlein's classics.

The Sea Wolf - Jack London

A unique and great story that I'd never even heard of until moving to Oakland, CA, where London lived and tramped. Superbly draws out both the emotion and growth that can take place on a ship, specifically the progression from followership through membership, mentorship, fellowship, and on to leadership. (There really is no better classroom for learning 'all the -ships.') The character of Wolf Larsen is widely considered one of London’s most memorable for good reason. After I read this I re-read Call of the Wild and White Fang which truly held up since reading them in grade school. London was an amazing story creator and writer and a fascinating, if troubled, person.

Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown

Wonderful story of the 1936 Olympics 8-man crew team from University of Washington. A group of boys familiar with hard work from their upbringing but also benefitting from the presence of Coach Jim Pocock (a British boat builder and rower). The book includes depression/WWII-era greatest-generation themes and commentary on class divisions. The truly amazing takeaways were on teamwork and balance...the 8 strongest may not be the best team because all 8 need to be in sync, to trust that when they put their whole back into the oar the other 7 will too...and when the sync goes well "you will feel as if you have rowed right off the planet and are rowing among the stars." Ultimately they win the gold in the Olympics in Germany in 1936. This book stuck with me and left me wanting 100 more pages of the story.

Drawing the Line - Edwin Danson

Thematically alongside the books Longitude, Measure of All Things (creation of the meter), and Undaunted Courage (Lewis & Clark) and mentions all three events. Confluential book for a civil engineer who took surveying, a CG officer who took celestial navigation, and a Native Marylander.  I didn't realize the 'line' included Delaware segment and that it did not make it to end of Pennsylvania or that they also complete first degrees of Lat/Long measurements in new world. Good book about another group of 'adventurer scientists' who risked a lot, and figured out a lot, to help mankind make those incremental steps forward.  It does makes me wonder why MD lost those 15 miles to Pennsylvania when the meridian at the 12 mile New Castle tangent could have kept extending north and left Philly outside of Maryland.

Innovation Delusion - Vinsel & Russel

Obsession with innovation-speak and warped incentives draw favor toward new things (away from maintaining existing things) and creates unsustainable technical maintenance debt. 'Innovation' (meaning new tech) replaced progress as a buzzword but never attempted to drive structural/societal change. Innovation and Technology are but not by as abstractions or buzzwords. Institutional emphasis on innovation overlooks the crucial work and careers most people will end up doing and which our society needs. Meanwhile, it is the core maintainers and educators that struggle. Lack of maintenance is a leading indicator of decline...in aging people not cared for, in organizations not sustained, in infrastructure showing cracks. Positive materialism which derives joy from using and maintaining our stuff, and not from just buying them, offers hope.

Pioneers - David McCullough

Historical narrative about the settlers of Ohio Territory in early 1800s. Themes included the fight for public education and against slavery. Great descriptions of the rivers and natural settings, the tasks and economy of settlers breaking more ground (progress management), and the evolution of transportation over those few decades (horse and boat at first then steam ship and train later).

Johnstown Flood - David McCullough

This was the great author's first book, which was impressive.  It is the story of the flooding of the steel/railroad/canal hub town in 1889 as a result of a neglected damn owned by Pittsburgh elite.  2029 people died but there was no accountability - it was chalked up to weather even as manmade issues contributed: land striped bare, damn poorly repaired, drains removed, spill way blocked by fish gate, river narrowed and flood plane built on. Reinforces the lessons on trying to controlling nature and change a river (quickly)!  Note the area is home to the famous incline railroad and first rail tunnel that served the Pennsylvania canal, a modern amazing train track horseshoe curve, and one of the deepest gorges in the east. The hike from old damn down to town is 14 miles and a race on that course commemorates the event.