• Must Read - Required reading for well-rounded humans
• Creative mathmatics - Creativity and life beyond rote arithmetic.

Reviews:

• Sea Star : Orphan Of Chincoteague - OK children's tale of horses and life on an ocean island. Good exposure to a life outside [sub]urban environs, and a touch of religion. Being a sequel to Misty, spends much time wrapping up that tale's aftermath before addressing this books namesake.
  
• Winnie The Pooh (A.A. Milne) - The original adventures, before Disney bought & mangled it. Wonderful little tales; a staple for children, a reminder of childhood for adults. Observing carefully, there are some rather politically incorrect behaviors therein.
  
• The Brethren (John Grisham) - Low-key drama surrounding a scam. Three imprisoned judges implement an extortion plot against random subjects ... and very interesting prey bites. Hardly exciting, this is a subdued yet taut thriller. Easy entertaining read.
  
• Six Easy Pieces (Richard P. Feynman) - Brilliant and notorious modern physicist explains six basic principles of physics: atoms, basic physics, relationship of physics to other topics, energy, gravitation, and quantum force. A remarkable attempt at making core concepts accessable to beginners in a quick-read book.
  
• Unintended Consequences (John Ross) - Comprehensive tale of protagonist Henry Bowman as several lifetimes of characters, some fiction and some real, come together to unintentionally and inevitably collide, pitting upstanding and heavily armed citizens (minding their own business) against government agents out to disarm citizens at all costs. Extensive detail and suggestions resulted in author Ross getting a life-imitates-art visit from the BATF.
• Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior (Richard Marcinko) - An analysis of the Ten Commandments of SpecWar and their application to the business world. One of the better motivational books I've read, as it views life from an angle of stark survival.
  
• Letters to Philip (Charlie W. Shedd) - How to love a woman. Not a sex manual, not a guide to successful selfishness, but a guide to caring for one's beloved and helping her grow into a satisfied, radiant, Godly woman. Lots of fine tips on satisfying her as a whole person.
  I read this every couple years.
  
• Rogue Warrior: Detatchment Bravo (Richard Marcinko) - One of  his better re-treadings of the standard Rogue Warrior plot.
• The Four Loves (C. S. Lewis) - A fine analysis of the difference between different forms of love. Particularly good for those who confuse these forms IF they are willing to consider another view.
  
• The CEO of the Sofa (P.J.O'Rourke) - Meandering and cynical ramblings of one of the better political comedians of today. Much of it seems just filler between insightful political commentaries. Give War A Chance and Parliment of Whores were superior.
  
• Bridget Jones' Diary - An insightful (if fictional) view into the mind of the single thirtysomething. May help those who weren't understand those who are. Movie version is seriously abridged, yet a worthwhile companion.
• Rogue Warrior: Echo Platoon - Like a James Bond movie: more of the same, just the way we like it.
• Black Hawk Down (Mark Bowden) - A rare, detailed, honest view of combat. When peacekeepers start shooting, life gets ugly for everyone in the vicinity - especially when lots of people are shooting (but not all) and few understand why. The UN mission to feed the starving in Somalia sent in peacekeeping troops without fully realizing that the purpose of soldiers is to kill people and break things - and once they start, the peace mission is over. This fiction-like nonfiction book details the moment-to-moment accounts of many of those involved on all sides. VERY sobering.
• The Rants (Dennis Miller) - P.J. O'Rourke and Dennis Miller are remarkably similar: both are successful white middle-class male comedians whose humor style is steeped in pervasive (excessive?) use of metaphor and colorful adjectives. Both write chapter-sized rants on largely the same topics: politics, social concerns, current events, alcohol, and women. Both write in a fast-paced easy-to-read style. Both are sociopolitical centrists (Dennis is a hard-core moderate, P.J. is a right-wing convert with rich left-wing roots). The difference is that when one strips away the humor and common rhetoric, O'Rourke actually has ideas worth listening to.
• Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (P.J. O'Rourke) - Mostly interesting to fans of offbeat reporter O'Rourke, an ex-liberal turned right-winger who retained his wild streak, and is noted for insightful social & political commentary stuffed with overstatement and colorful adjectives, all managed even if he is writing about cars or golf. Contains un- or under-published material from his hippie-wannabee days (even he admits it's bad, just included for posterity) through his time covering the Gulf War. Read Give War A Chance and Parliament of Whoresfirst.
• Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors (translations by William Scott Wilson) - Similar to the aphorism style of Hagakure, this collects passages from the writings of other samurai, showing general consensus - and occasional striking disagreement - on how a warrior and leader should conduct his life.
• Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (Yamamoto Tsunetomo, translated by William Scott Wilson) - This is a translation of selections from a much larger work, made of aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes and admonitions intended to guide one in the way of the samurai warrior. Beyond the expected comments on combat and tactics, it admonishes one to balance one's life with arts and polite behavior.

This book was used as the basis for the interesting film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai which explored what happens when an unguided person devotes himself to this ancient Japanese way, and is the only person to do so in the modern 'hood.
• You Can't Do Business With Hitler (Douglas Miller) - The author is an American businessman who worked in Berlin during the rise of the Third Reich. Through his extensive involvement in German business at the time, he became very familiar with Nazi business and government practices, and gained insight about their methods and ultimate goals. Published in 1941, this book is a warning to law-and-order-and-freedom Americans, warning them of the profound degree of win-at-all-costs of the German business/government culture. The two most important aspects, so hard for Americans to understand, was cultural narcissism (total love of enthic country) and total embracing of beneficial evil ("truth is anything which will help the German cause"). Miller expands greatly on these and related points, and predicts where they will lead whether or not the USA enters WWII. An interesting aspect, not widely taught today, is how influential Germany was in manipulating foreign markets into submission despite a lack of adequate goods to trade.

The lesson to the modern reader, a thought which prompted me to read this, is to observe the growth of such organized evil within our own country. Our current leader and his minions think nothing of blatantly lying to advance their agenda, and show no concern when confronted with their deceit. Their narcissim is so profound that they see nothing wrong with doing wrong, be it lying under oath, lying about and obfuscating issues, launching distractive campaigns on imaginary opponents, oppressing and disarming their opponents through libel, obfuscation, and indirect legislation, de-sensitizing the public to excessively violent handling of the uncooperative, etc. etc. The only thing they lack - at least as apparent to outsiders and oppressees - is a clear purpose. Germany's modus operandi, according to Miller, was to become a superior race served by inferior races as part of a nearly worldwide scientific slave state. Our own current power-mongers have not yet revealed their own ultimate purpose beyond undirected megalomania. Or, perhaps as the victims of the Nazis, my own paradigm of good prevents me from seeing the obvious evil. (5-1-00)
• Rogue Warrior: Seal Force Alpha

Rogue Warrior: Option Delta (Richard Marcinko and John Weisman) - Volumes 6 and 7 in the Rogue Warrior series. I list them together because, like the previous four volumes, they are the same: hero and narrator Richard Marcinko starts in some secret special-forces military operation, discovers a big nation/world-threatening conspiracy, pursues the bad guys while fending off supposedly friendly superior officers, gets lots of people mad enough to either try destroying his career or eliminating him completely, and has a two-part grand showdown with opposing forces and his arch enemy. Only difference between the books (other than volume 1, which is his fascinating autobiography) is location, bad guys, and consipiracy. Read one, and you'll know what's coming next...and it's all such delightful manly pulp that I keep going back for more. Watch for Echo Platoon, coming soon...and like James Bond, nothing will be different yet the public will lap it up.
• Sun Tzu: The Art Of War (Samuel B. Griffith, translator) - An excellent, ancient book of conducting war. Everything seems so obvious, yet so many military leaders have failed to follow its principles and thus been vanquished. (Why is common sense neither?) While superbly written for and intended for military applications, the philosphy is obviously rather applicable to everyday life. This translation includes a rather complete history of the book, its translations, and commentary. It would be advantageous to find a companion copy which provides only Sun Tzu's text, without the valuable yet distracting history and commentary.
• The Looking Glass War (John Le Carre) - The detailed tale of a British spy agency preparing to send a spy into East Germany. The bulk of the text is indeed about preparations, showing the tremendous amount of dull work needed to prepare a simple spy mission that can go very wrong very easily. While clearly a well-written book, it failed to engage me and I had to force myself to finish it.
• Lucifer's Hammer - Exact opposite of Deep Impact (comet is gonna kill us all, everyone mope for a week, it hits, and survivors are all happy happy joy joy). Comet is discovered, and the chance of Earth impact keeps getting higher until...BOOM. Long, interesting, detailed account of the impact event takes up the second third (the ultimate-wave bit was a nice touch). Finally settles into a survivalist wannabe's dream scenario, with society reborn. The technical details greatly improve the tale beyond 1998's spate of big-things-hitting-earth movies.
• Another Fine Myth - Amusing tale about a magician's apprentice. Takes many of the standard fantasy concepts and presents them in comedic forms (ex.: devils are actually simply money-grubbing residents of the land/dimension of Devia). Ending is a bit contrived, more deus ex machina than not. Much of story is setup (ex.: acquisition of a juvinile dragon) for subsequent books in the Myth series.
• Chaos In Wonderland (Clifford Pickover) - Three books in one. First, a technical description of a hypothetical non-carbon-based race obsessed with chaos mathematics. Second, a rapid and eventful trip of two humans(?) thru this hypothetical world. Third, a miscellaneous collection of lots of really neat thought-provoking mathematical puzzles, games, equations and other ideas. Next in the logical sequence of math-world books (The Dot and the Line, Flatland, Sphereland, Planiverse).