On The Nightstand...Again

I went on a bender this past weekend. A reading bender mind you.

I ripped through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and loved every moment of it. A homage to the golden age of comic books, New York city and the Empire State Building, and the American Dream, seasoned with a dash of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and garnished with frequent references to the magical art of 'escape' as practiced by Houdini and others. This was the first one of Michael Chabon's books I've read; I think I'll be turning to others in the near future.

I wrapped up Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson. Amusing, diverting and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, but a still far from the heights of Hell's Angels and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I also worked my way through With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge, staying up late Monday night to finish it. I'll refrain from saying anything more about this remarkable book for now and save it for a later post.

There are a couple of other books I've finished in the last couple of weeks...

Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniques by Mark Bishop.
Probably of interest only if you're a practitioner of one of these styles, and then only if you want to learn more about the origins, history and prominent teachers of the martial tradition on Okinawa (this is not a 'how to' book). The 'Secret Techniques' bit of the title seems to me to be a bit of a misnomer (maybe added to 'sex it up?') ; the secret techniques are not so much actual moves or lost kata as they are breathing and training methods, and the philosophies behind them.

An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson.
One of the blurbs for this book claims that Atkinson is doing for WWII what Catton and Foote did for the Civil War in their respective historical trilogies (An Army at Dawn is volume I of the 'The Liberation Trilogy). I'd have to agree with them. This is an excellent general history of the Allied effort in Africa, from Operation Torch to von Arnim's capitulation in Tunisia.

Preludes and Nocturnes (Sandman, Book 1) by Neil Gaiman et al.
Brilliant. Reminded me of exactly what can be done within the realm of comic books in the right hands. "The Sound of Her Wings" was fantastic - Death personified as an upbeat girl with a markedly 'goth' look. I 'll be reading the rest of the series as soon as I can get my hands on them.