Men's Book Club Titles Selected for  Reading in 2008

January 28th, Moderator; John Auld

Guerrilla Prince: The Untold Story of Fidel Castro, Georgie Anne Geyer.  

After seven years of exhaustive research Georgie Anne Geyer produced this 457 page book about Fidel Castro, one of the few remaining dinosaurs of the Marxist-Stalinist Cold War, Who still invokes communism as a governing policy. As readers of Castro's history are aware, he is at heart a murderous thug, the personification of that virulent alpha-chimp personage that can be found in every human society throughout history. His need to dominate and control his people supersedes any manifestation to the contrary putting him in the same category as a Hitler, Lenin or Stalin. Even a far-Left crank such as Noam Chomsky has averred that Cuba under Castro is a "Stalinist hellhole". Geyer follows Castro through his entire life weaving a surprisingly fair and balanced tale of a man who, while worshipped by Leftists, is abhorred by freedom loving conservatives whose lifestyle choices center around the touchstone of individual liberty. It's a remarkable tale of a driven, Machiavellian man who, borne of not inconsiderable bravery, assiduously fights for, gains, and builds a power base 90 miles off the coast of the U.S.A. The fact that he murders and jails his own accomplices, drives his remaining countrymen into menial poverty, and becomes a player on the world stage, is all documented in this terrific book (readers of Armando Valladare's book "Against All Hope", can seamlessly interweave both narratives to form a fuller picture of Castro).

February 25th, Moderator; Joe Harris

The River at the Center of the World, Revised: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time, by Simon Winchester. 

The subtitle "A Journey up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time" more or less explains this combination travelogue/history. Winchester 's aim is to travel the length of the Yangtze heading upriver. In doing so, he does a superb job of explaining the importance of the Yangtze River in Chinese history by blending in all manner of history from Western gunboat diplomacy to Mao's Long March to the Rape of Nanjing to the current Three Gorges Dam project. In fact, the book isn't bad as a way to sort of dip into Chinese history for the uninitiated. The travelogue aspect is also well handled, as Winchester travels with a Chinese woman translator/problem-solver. Modern China doesn't come across very well in his description, as he encounters the usual corruption, but also amazing episodes of lethargy and apathy from the locals. At times, the technical hydrology/geology stuff gets tiresome, but overall, it's an excellent read--especially for prospective travelers to area.

March 24th, Moderator; Tom Wells

Clash of Civilizations The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, by Samuel Huntington, 

Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington presents a powerful thesis to explain what has happened in the world since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. The thrust of Huntington 's argument rejects the notion that the world will inevitably succumb to Western values that seemed so triumphant in the early 1990s. On the contrary, Huntington contends that the West's influence in the world is waning because of growing resistance to its values and the reassertion by non-Westerners of their own cultures. He argues that the world will see in the twenty-first century an increasing threat of violence arising from renewed conflicts among countries and cultures basing their identities on long-held traditions. This argument moves past the notion of ethnicity to examine the growing influence of a handful of major cultures--Western, Orthodox, Latin American, Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, Hindu, and African--in current struggles across the globe. In so doing, Huntington successfully shifts the discussion of the post-cold war world from ideology, ethnicity, politics, and economics to culture--especially to the religious basis of culture. Huntington rightly warns against facile generalizations about the world becoming one, so common in the early 1990s, and points out the resilience of civilizations to foreign secular influences.

April 28th, Moderator; Jim Neibauer

Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage, by Joseph Persico

For anyone interested in FDR, World War II or wartime espionage this book is a must.
Persico is an unabashed fan of FDR. Some readers will doubtless take issue with the author's interpretations of a few of the more controversial aspects of the war as handled by FDR. But while generally lauding Roosevelt , Persico always gives voice to the president's critics. Persico is most forceful in his refuting the claims that FDR had foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attacks successfully attacking both the reasoning and assertions of revisionists.
The author also fleshes out all manner of other significant supporting players. The scandalized Sumner Welles, pal Vincent Astor, ally Winston Churchill, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, controversial OSS director Bill Donovan to name but a few.

May 27th (Tuesday), Moderator; Jim Brown

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed , by Ben R. Rich

Ben R. Rich joined the legendary 'Skunk Works' as a young engineer, worked on some of the most secretive military projects in recent history, and later ended up taking over management of Skunk Works. As a result, perhaps no one else in the world has as much first hand knowledge of these projects, and no one else is better positioned to chronicle some of America 's military crown jewels. Rich (and Janos) have crafted a unique book that gives Ben Rich story, with interesting first hand accounts from pilots, air force personnel, and highly placed government officials. Rich covers the struggles encountered while building various classified aircraft: the U2, SR-71 Blackbird, the stealth fighter, the stealth boat, among others. He also lightly delves into the darker side of the defense industry: politics, waste, and bureaucracy.

June 23rd, Moderator; George Kobernus

Rounding The Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives - A Deck's Eye View of Cape Horn by Dallas Murphy

It's a joy to read a book like this where a very literate author sits back and tells us in excellent and descriptive prose a fascinating story about Cape Horn and its environs, its geography, what it's like there, its history, its native people and how it is to sail a small boat in these stormy rockbound deceptive dangerous Patagonian waters. You'll freeze in the sleet and wind of Cape Horn weather. You'll be right there with the explorers who found a passage there and then you'll see and feel the worst with the resolute skippers who drove their ships into the teeth of the worst weather in the world to succeed or perish in an attempt at transit. If you're really interested it's got a great bibliography too. Unless you're some kind of a wimp you'll love it!

July 28th, Moderator; Ron Kuhn

Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today by Tom Brokaw

I still remember the anxiety all of my friends were experiencing waiting for their draft notice after graduation and how hard we all prayed the war would end before we were inducted. Working class kids worried about those things, but the "silver spoon brigade" never related. This isn't required reading for the boomer generation, but it should be for the children and grandchildren of the boomers because they learn none of these event in any depth in school anymore. As parents we all experienced the blank looks from our kids when we spoke about those days and the horrible events when all they had heard about the sixties was it was "the summer of love", or sex, drugs and rock and roll. Brokaws book will give them a better view without being preachy or too academic. Then maybe Bush should have it read to him so he will know what he missed, and what men like McCain, Murtha, and Kerry went through. And for those who lived through it they all know what it means when someone says: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

August 25, Moderator, Oral Carper

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, By James Bradley

Mr. Bradley uses the story of eight aviators shot down over an island called Chicha Jimo (neighbor to Iwo Jima ) as the thread that holds the book together. Fortunately, the book is far more than that. Mr. Bradley gives a thumbnail history of Japan for the 250 years preceding Pearl Harbor . With that history he explains the evolution (devolution?) of that country's thinking about colonization (why can't it do in China what the European powers were doing all through Asia ?), the Kamikaze military and honor system and then the bastardization of that system. He is even-handed in his relating Japan's history as well as our own hypocrisies in the waging of the war. Although he points out our short-comings, he by no means takes the revisionists' side in the anti-atomic and anti-American strategy debate. He also provides the history of aviation in American military history starting with Billy Mitchell's extremely accurate predictions on air dominance and its ability to ruin Japan . As he follows the air war in the Pacific, he provides great insight with amazing supporting statistics about the effectiveness of our air power in the that theatre. He also includes surprising insight to our aviation losses.

September 22nd, Moderator, Andy Gerben

Blue Highways a Journey Into America, William Least Heat Moon by William Least Heat Moon

William Least Heat-Moon's journey into America began with little more than the need to put home behind him. At a turning point in his life, he packed up a van he called Ghost Dancing and escaped out of himself and into the country. The people and the places he discovered on his roundabout 13,000-mile trip down the back roads ("blue highways") and through small, forgotten towns are unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and full of the spark and wonder of ordinary life. Robert Penn Warren said, "He has a genius for finding people who have not even found themselves." The power of Heat-Moon's writing and his delight in the overlooked and the unexamined capture a sense of our national destiny, the true American experience.

October 27th, Moderator Brad Spencer

A Bend in the River,  by V S Naipal

What a great novel this is! It tells the story of Salim who left his family home on the coast to start a business in central Africa at a town on the bend in the great Congo River . The inhabitants of the town, natives and expatriates, are described with empathy and an eye for detail. Naipaul also narrates the history of the town as it is connected to the ups and downs of history, with great detail. His writing style is compelling and elegant, while the plot and characterization are superb. In many ways, the book illumines the post-independence history of those Africans that are of Indian descent. Most of them were traders and many of them went into a second diaspora after the tumult and political upheavals in Africa of the 1960s and 70s. I was particularly impressed by Salim's first experience of the voice of Joan Baez, when a record of hers was played at a party in the academic suburb next to the old town. Naipaul's extraordinary talent comes through in every flowing sentence and in every well-chosen word. I'm not a great lover of fiction, but this book has enriched my mind. I highly recommend it to readers of serious fiction and to historians alike. I also recommend the travel book North Of South by Shiva Naipaul, the record of a journey through Africa that ties in very well with A Bend In The River.

November 24th, Moderator Dick Raabe

A Tale of Two Cities (Collected Works of Charles Dickens) by Charles Dickens

"A Tale of Two Cities" begins in 1775, with Mr. Lorry, a respectable London banker, meeting Lucie Manette in Paris , where they recover Lucie's father, a doctor, and mentally enfeebled by an unjust and prolonged imprisonment in the Bastille. This assemblage, on their journey back to England , meets Charles Darnay, an immigrant to England from France who makes frequent trips between London and Paris . Upon their return to England , Darnay finds himself on trial for spying for France and in league with American revolutionaries. His attorney, Stryver, and Stryver's obviously intelligent, if morally corrupt and debauched, assistant, Sydney Carton, manage to get Darnay exonerated of the charges against him. Darnay, a self-exiled former French aristocrat, finds himself compelled to return to France in the wake of the French Revolution, drawing all those around him into a dangerous scene.

December 22nd, Moderator Pete Albers

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond set out to do two very difficult things in this book: first, by his own admission, to summarize in one book 13,000 years of homo sapiens' history, and second, to write a popular, entry level book about the complexities of geographical and environmental determinism. To his credit, he brings both off very well. Diamonds' thesis is that the triumph of western culture traces in large measure to accidents of geography and environment. In particular, the east-west orientation of Eurasia and the abundance of usable crop species and animal species in Eurasia in general and the Fertile Crescent in particular. The ability to create domestic crops and domestic animals, by his reasoning, led through a series of steps to the development of larger communities, the development of technology, and the triumph of the West.