The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy - David Halberstam

A description of Robert Kennedy's fatal 1968 presidential run.

Anti war lobbiests initial pleading with Kennedy to run in 67, his refusal to run against a sitting Democractic president Johnson (desipite their mutual dislike) and their turning to Eugene, Clean Gene, McCarthy to run as the anti-war democrat.

After Johnson shock narrow victory over McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary, Kennedy enters the race at a significant disadvantage (the powerful anti-war movement having flocked around McCarthy and seeing Kennedy as a political opportunist).

The book follows the campaign, state by state, with a personal insight into the candidate and the day to day successes, failures and trials of running for president. The book ends abruptly after the win in the California primary with barely a reference to Kennedy's assasination.

The last sentence:

"Then he descended to acknowledge his victory, to talk about the violence and the divisiveness, and to let a nation discover in his death what it had never understood or believed about him during his life."

It feels like the book was being writen to describe a sitting president's road to office, was eerily cut short with Kennedy's death and published without modification.

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The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 - Antony Beevor

Renders the whole horrific, disastrous, atrocity of the Spanish Civil War from it's political beginings to it's brutal end, with no partisan bias, and a level of detail that isn't overwhelming. This book has shattered the generalized preconceptions I had about the war.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K.Rowling (Audio Book)

Last run through the series for a while.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K.Rowling

I was captured by the Harry Potter phenomenon a little after The Goblet of Fire came out (pre-dating this list), but I have been an avid fan ever since.

The speculation, waiting and anticipation has been a constant companion for such a long time that, now all's done, I wouldn't have been surprised if the departure of those feelings had left a void. It isn't so. That potential void has been filled with a satisfying elegant sufficiency. I felt, as I read the book, that I had in my hands, all the answers and that they could not have been revealed to me in a more enjoyable way. JKR has said that "Deathly Hallows' is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series.", and I couldn't agree more.

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Blue at the Mizzen - Patrick O'Brian

The end of my first voyage through the cannon is a melancholy one knowing that this wonderful series was cut short with the author's death.

In the course of mapping the books I have already started my second run through the series. The first of many I think.

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