Just thought I'd throw this out there as we have threads that talk about reading recommendations.
I just picked up and read "Wearing the Green Beret" by Jake Olafsen.
The book is an autobiography that follows Jake Olafsen a young B.C. native who decides to go overseas and joins the Royal Marine Commando's.
For any kind of Military junkie this is the rare book written by a soldier on the ground at his rating.
I went into the book not expecting much, but I have to admit it surprised me, Olafsen is a fairly gifted writer who captures the emotion of the moment really well.
The book really doesn't cover much of his early life, but really gets started when he goes oversea's for his 30 week basic training. There is one way that you can sum up the training, and thats brutal. Repeatedly Olafsen talks about being in the hurt locker, a term where your at the point of breaking and the only thing that carries you through it is the fact that the Green Beret is waiting for you.
It also shows the very weird sense of humor of the British training officers who showered the NOBs (recruits) with their breakfeast and then made Olafsen present a slice of ham that he was hit with over a four day training excercise.
He also talks about survival training where he ended up spooning with four other recruits in a rain storm while dreaming of his girlfriend back home.
Upon completion of his training he was immediately sent to Afghanistan and you get a real sense of the danger for the average soldier over there as he talks about IED's ambushes and in a particularly brutal moment having to clean bone fragments and chunks of flesh out of a rifle after an suicide bomber attack.
From there he travels the world with the Commando's.
There are some things that are funny in the book as he doesn't talk about walking, he uses the very british term Yomping, he also talks about refusing to go on patrol without his lucky Canadian Flag.
Overall he keeps the book fairly light, he doesn't spend a lot of time doing the "Why are we here" reflections, instead he focuses on his mates and his mission and getting out in one peace.
Anyone who's interested in the Afghan mission, or the experiences of a elite soldier should definately give this one a read.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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The Windup Girl is a biopunk science fiction novel written by Paolo Bacigalupi and published in September 2009. It was named as the ninth best fiction book of 2009 by TIME magazine,[1] and as the best science fiction book of the year in the Reference and User Services Association's 2010 Reading List.[2] This book is a 2009 Nebula Award and a 2010 Hugo Award winner (together with China MiévillesThe City & the City), both for best novel.[3] This book also won the 2010 Compton Crook Award and the 2010 Locus Award for best first novel.
Just thought I'd throw this out there as we have threads that talk about reading recommendations.
I just picked up and read "Wearing the Green Beret" by Jake Olafsen.
The book is an autobiography that follows Jake Olafsen a young B.C. native who decides to go overseas and joins the Royal Marine Commando's.
For any kind of Military junkie this is the rare book written by a soldier on the ground at his rating.
Love that kind of stuff. Just starting a non-fiction book with the title: "A Man Called Intrepid", which according to the ol' father-in-law, is about basically the Canadian James Bond, during WWII. It's an old book (1976), and I'm only a few pages in, but it's pretty gripping stuff already.
Love that kind of stuff. Just starting a non-fiction book with the title: "A Man Called Intrepid", which according to the ol' father-in-law, is about basically the Canadian James Bond, during WWII. It's an old book (1976), and I'm only a few pages in, but it's pretty gripping stuff already.
There's a book out there, and I can get you the title of it when I get home tonight that I own thats a history of the Canadian intelligence services from World War 2 on
There's also a book called Inside Canada's Secret Commandos the history of JTF 2 thats a very good read.
And A Man called Intrepid is an outstanding book.
And if you look at it Ian Fleming who wrote James Bond had this to say about William Stephanson
James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is …William Stephenson.
Ian Fleming
The Times of London, October 21, 1962
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The Windup Girl is a biopunk science fiction novel written by Paolo Bacigalupi and published in September 2009. It was named as the ninth best fiction book of 2009 by TIME magazine,[1] and as the best science fiction book of the year in the Reference and User Services Association's 2010 Reading List.[2] This book is a 2009 Nebula Award and a 2010 Hugo Award winner (together with China MiévillesThe City & the City), both for best novel.[3] This book also won the 2010 Compton Crook Award and the 2010 Locus Award for best first novel.
There's a book out there, and I can get you the title of it when I get home tonight that I own thats a history of the Canadian intelligence services from World War 2 on
There's also a book called Inside Canada's Secret Commandos the history of JTF 2 thats a very good read.
And A Man called Intrepid is an outstanding book.
And if you look at it Ian Fleming who wrote James Bond had this to say about William Stephanson
James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is …William Stephenson.
Ian Fleming
The Times of London, October 21, 1962
The book is called inside Canadian Intelligence by Dwight Hamilton
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The best thing I've read in the last while was "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe."
Obviously the movie adaptation "Fried Green Tomatoes" was very popular, but the book is a fantastic example of well-crafted storytelling. It's also a very light read, so it's hard to put down and easy to pick up again.
I've never seen the movie, so can't comment on how the two compare, but if you're looking for a good yarn, this is one of the better ones I've come across.
Oh, and for those with kids, the "Un" series of short stories by Paul Jennings is brilliant.
He's basically the Australian equivalent of Robert Munsch for kids who are maybe a year or two too old for Robert Munsch. Lots of twist endings that are great for kids and their narrators too.
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare At Goats)
Jon meets a Broadmoor inmate who swears he faked a mental disorder to get a lighter sentence but is now stuck there, with nobody believing he's sane. He meets some of the people who catalogue mental illness, and those who vehemently oppose them. He meets the influential psychologist who developed the industry standard Psychopath Test and who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are in fact psychopaths. Jon learns from him how to ferret out these high-flying psychopaths and, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, heads into the corridors of power...
Combining Jon's trademark humour, charm and investigative incision, The Psychopath Test is a deeply honest book unearthing dangerous truths and asking serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges.
Last edited by troutman; 05-16-2011 at 09:09 AM.
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If you're looking for a good non-fiction, character driven narrative, I'd recommend Michael Lewis's 'The Big Short'. It gives a really entertaining explanation as to what lead to the housing and credit bubbles of the 2000s, the people who saw the collapse coming, and made billions of dollars as a result.
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Bump, just finished Nineteen Eighty Four and it was fantastic. Little disappointing with the ending, but overall was a great book. Even to this day it is a great commentary on human behavior and nationalism.
Thought this might be an appropriate place to pimp my brothers book.
He has self published it in amazon kindle format and has now sold several thousand copies.
For $3.99 it is a great read. The story is about a man stranded in texas and his attempted journey back to his family in Montana after an EMP strike disables all the electrical infrastructure in North America.
If Ms. Santa tosses a kindle under the tree for me I will definitely take a look at your brothers book, sounds like an interesting premise.
Last month a friend introduced me to the Sword of Truth series, I can't believe I had never heard of it before b/c it was incredible. I think I finished each book in the series in about a day and a half it was that good (all 12 books.....). I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Goodkind had written another book in the series that is now in hardcover. Will have to pick that one up.
Anyone else have any good suggestions? A few good books would be great over the non denominational holiday season.
Book Recommendation
