Strong Men Armed - The United States Marines Against Japan - Robert Leckie

A detailed account of the extraordinary conflict that made its way across the vast ocean from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. This is not a personal history (despite it's author being a marine veteran), instead it reveals the scale and significance of the sacrifices made during that long Pacific war.

Probably the most striking insight of the book is the deliberate description of every instance of soldiers who had thrown themselves on live grenades to save their comrades. Their frequency is difficult to comprehend:

Among the Americans serving on Iwo island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.

Admiral Chester Nimitz

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No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 - Richard Slotkin

My understanding of the Battle of the Crater prior to reading this book was a vague impression of misguided troops stumbling into a breach made by a mine explosion, trapped by the sheer sided walls and shot to a man by a ragged line of Confederates perched along its rim.

The battle was dramatized in Cold Mountain and my view of events certainly came from that film. The reality was incomprehensible gallantry in the face of infuriating incompetence, horror, slaughter and racist violence played out over twelve hours under a relentless Virginian sun.

This book reaches to the core of the brutal, racist world view that permeated society at that time and drove a nation to war with itself.

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In The Plex - Steven Levy

A compelling, inspiring look at the inner workings of one of my favorite companies. The early years particularly interesting.

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Rainbows End - Vernor Vinge

This future, imminent, plausible and so appealing (to me anyway) had me enthralled from first page to last.

Augmented reality apps on the iPhone have always struck me as clunky and pointless. This story made me realise that those apps are the necessary baby steps (on inadequate hardware) towards a future that I hope I am around to see.

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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

When I saw the first three books on Audible for a single month credit, it seemed like a good idea. I had heard some favorable comparisons to the Potter books and I liked the premise. Sadly the books didn't live up to my expectations and by the end of the 16 hours of audio, I was quite happy to be finished with it.

This might be unfair, but the series seems like a pale Potter imitation with some owl biology thrown in. Perhaps if I had never read the Potter books (and found the audio narrator less annoying) I would have enjoyed this more than I did, but I doubt it.

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