is the second book in the series. I'm feeling a little nostalgic. The book was actually better than I remembered since there was some subtext I hadn't noticed the first time. it continues the story of the dysfunctional Mole family described by their oldest child in diary form. Very funny. Also a very good look at 1980s England.
OK its young adult literature I'm feeling nostalgic. Surprisingly the book does still hold up and there's a bunch of rather subtle references I didn't pick up when I first read this thing back in grade 6.| What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane. | |
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My work is, as they say, cut out for me. At a reading level of one, an adult will be able to make out important words like “stop” and “sale” but will not be able to read simple sentences. Thirty percent of adults in the state of Mississippi are at level one. Thirty-four percent of adult Mississippians read at level two—equivalent to an eight-grade level.Makes me wonder what Alberta's statistics are like.
discusses the issue of war termination. Basically the author has written a book that shows various examples of the concept of war termination put forward by Clausewitz. The examples range from World War I to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. There is some reference to the First Persian Gulf War in a new introduction and some talk about al-Qaeda. He doesn't believe that negotiation is possible with them.This Christmas, a grassroots coalition of concerned citizens and elected officials have come together to conduct a public awareness campaign against the nation's most prominent undocumented worker: Santa Claus.Terrific web site. Obviously Santa also violates minimum wage and working condition laws. Somebody call Lou Dobbs!
That embarrassment also extends very specifically to the Blair government. According to FBI records, the unnamed "foreign government" was asked for permission to release its documents on Lennon back in September 1997, just a few months after Mr Blair first took office. The foreign government said no, saying that secrecy remained necessary to avoid "serious and demonstrable harm to its sources, which remain sensitive".What happened to you Tony? You used to be cool.
is a short anthropological study of the African tribe. The Kikuyu of Kenya are perhaps most famous for their membership in the Mau Mau insurgency against the British. This was responsible for the emergency in Kenya during the 1950s. The author was a member of the Kikuyu.
is an unofficial manual on guerrilla warfare produced originally by the Swiss veterans Association back in the 1970s. The book contains a massive material everything from basic organizational structure through the nuts and bolts of sabotage techniques [including homemade explosives]. There isn't just material on guerrillas but on the general resistance and what average members of the population who aren't willing to pick up a gun can do. Basically waste time and money for the occupier.
is an often very graphic account of the authors experiences as an infantryman in the Canadian army in northwest Europe in 1944 and 45. The book starts out with his joining and going through training. Most of the book discusses the operations to close the Falaise pocket and the campaign to liberate the Netherlands. The accounts of combat is very vivid and graphic not for the squeamish. The violence of battle is often not described in war memoirs but is here.
describes a British soldiers experience attempting to help a guerrilla resistance to the Japanese in malaya [now known as Malaysia] in world war two. He didn't really accomplish much but the book does provide an excellent perspective on the nucleus of the communist insurgents which were the opposition for the British during the Malayan Emergency.
is a reprint of the New York times version of the Pentagon papers. This printing contains a new introduction, forward to each document and a bibliographic further reading section. This is based on a secret pentagon study about America's involvement in Vietnam. The coverage is from the end of World War Two through early 1968 and the Tet invasion. With the perspective that the intervening years has given the new material is excellent.
is A brief history of the war between Russia and Finland. This is from a larger series of books on world war two campaigns. Instead of just getting descriptions of heroic exploits of Finland's military we also get an excellent discussion of tactics and strategy from both sides. There are pictures on just about every page. A superb book I will be looking for more in this series.
describes a rebellion against Henry VIII. There isn't much on this rebellion as far as secondary sources. The book does an excellent job of looking through primary sources. The underlying issue was one of religion the break with the Roman Catholic church. Interestingly enough Hendry's advisers were criticized and not the King himself. Not that it made the reprisals any less violent.
discusses the technology that assisted the European nations in creating their overseas empires in the nineteenth century. The book talks about weapons technology, steamships, antimalarial drugs, railways and submarine cables. The book isn't just a listing of technical specifications but also talks about the sociological effects. There's a section on further reading. Most, if not all, were asleep at their posts when Canadian soldiers recently dropped by to inspect. When they were awake, some had errantly fired their rifles in the direction of the Canadians.
"Randomly throughout the night, there were shots going over our heads," recounted Warrant Officer Michael Jackson of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man.
"We knew it was them, but they said, 'No, no, it wasn't us shooting.'
Apparently they have a tendency to shoot first and identify what they're shooting at later. Not only does this put the Canadians operating with them at risk but also means they will be miserable for counterinsurgency since their likely to blow away some innocent civilians.
Canada
NATO
Afghanistan
counterinsurgency
is a social history of Byzantium published in the 1970s' recently reprinted. Actually it may be overstating it to call it a social history it's more like a history of the intelligentsia since there aren't really sources for the common people. There's basically no military or political history but inexplicably there is a list of the emperor's as an appendix. The book mostly talks about forms of literature particularly religious texts some of this is actually interesting they did their best to force Greek and Roman mythical events into the old testament. There's no discussion of the empire collapse.
is possibly unique in Napoleonic biography. It is the memoir of a conscript from one of the German states allied with Napoleon's France. The material is quite short primarily containing his experiences in the retreat from Moscow in 1812. The soldier doesn't really sugarcoat the relationship between soldiers and civilians both in Russia and Germany. You would not want him as a house guest. There's also an underlying Anti--Semitism to the work. There are explanatory endnotes not to sure why they weren't placed as footnotes which would be more convenient. Also included are six anonymous letters of German soldiers describing the retreat.
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is a massive History of warfare coming in at over 600 pages with very small type. The work deals with warfare from different areas and time periods. Each author writes on their own area of expertise and manages to cut through much of the jargon and myths the have grown up around some of the events. Particularly good for this is the section on ancient warfare which is somewhat of a minefield even for experts. An excellent further reading section is also included. A nice place to start if you want an overview that is very readable even considering its length.
