In case you have any fantasies of musical talent, allow me to crush them now:

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Bernard Lewis: Islam: The Religion and the People
(2/22/2012) (*****)
Gordon K. Andersen: I Hate to Criticize, But... Professional Writers and Broadcasters Are Murdering the English Language
(2/5/2012) ‘Abusing the English language is like picking your nose in public. It usually does little harm, but it certainly does nothing toward enhancing your image.’ (****)
Barbara W. Tuchman: Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
(2/3/2012) A monumental read! (At least, that's the usual euphemism for ‘Damn, that was big!’) But this is ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stilwell and Tuchman is brilliant as usual.
Tuchman doesn't think much more of ‘Generalissimo’ Chiang, of Chiang's field commanders, or of the British military leadership in CBI (the China-Burma-India theater of WWII) than did Gen. Stilwell, and the low opinion seems very well-deserved. ‘We can't’ is a lousy damned attitude to take when you desperately must, a point that was vividly made when first the Japanese going west and then Stilwell going east crawled through the eastern (Burmese) Himalayas with an intact, fighting army exactly as the Brits and the Chinese said couldn't be done. I don't think the Brit commanders ever forgave Stilwell for that one.
And Chiang demonstrated yet another shortcoming of nationalist fervor: Distrust of foreigners even when their interests clearly coincide with yours and you manifestly need their manpower and expertise is an entirely stupid and malignant attitude. (****)
Aristotle: The Organon (Logic)
(1/12/2012) (****)
Aristotle: The Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle
(1/10/2012) (****)
Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove: A Novel
(1/8/2012) If you haven't read this, what are you waiting for? (*****)
Robert A. Heinlein: Double Star
(12/27/2011) (****)
Barbara W. Tuchman: The Zimmermann Telegram
(12/26/2011) (****)
Christopher Hitchens: Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
(12/23/2011) This is a collection of his essays he wrote for Slate, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, etc. Damn, he will be missed!
(*****)
Isaac Asimov: Second Foundation
(12/18/2011) (****)
William Manchester: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory
(12/12/2011) (****)
Herman Melville: Moby-Dick
(11/14/2011) (****)
Jerry Pournelle: Birth of Fire
(11/6/2011) Mars is a Harsh Mistress? (For some reason, the nearby inhabitants of the Solar System are always rebelling against those fascist Earthlings.) Pournelle's physics is pretty good, here, but I haven't figured out why he had explosive lenses (i.e., an implosion core) in an enriched-uranium bomb. Everyone knows that's for plutonium bombs! (Yeah, yeah. I'm a nerd.) Still, I inhaled this book. Actually, I thought it was too short. I want more! (*****)
Stephen Kinzer: Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future
(10/30/2011) Absolutely not recommended. It's possible that Kinzer's historical analysis is better the farther back he looks, but his view of the last forty years is so jaundiced that I doubt it and his impression of Iranian intentions is most kindly characterized as sophomore and naïve. I wish I had looked into Mr. Kinzer's professional history before I spent dear money on this tripe. (Another kindly chosen word.) (*)
Bhagavad-Gita
(10/28/2011) (**)
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