WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
• What did you recently finish reading?
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
This is the nonfiction memoir by Nathaniel C. Fick as he recounts his experiences training as a marine officer and then deploying for the first time — just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Fick soon found himself in Afghanistan, and later at the “tip of the spear” during the invasion of Iraq. A fascinating recounting of both war and the incredible challenges of becoming a successful “recon” marine.
• What are you currently reading?
Generation Kill by Evan Wright
In One Bullet Away Nathaniel C. Fick mentions a reporter who was embedded with his platoon during the Iraq invasion. That reporter was Even Wright, and Generation Kill is his version of the events. I’m only about 15% through as I write this, but so far the narrative is fascinating. What’s equally fascinating are the differences between Wright’s and Fick’s versions of events — not in the raw recounting of events, but in what each author chooses to describe and discuss, and in the tone in which their recollections are presented.
• What do you think you’ll read next?
After two nonfiction books, it will probably be time for a novel. I don’t have anything picked out yet. I’ll know when I get there. 😉
What about you? What are you reading, have you been reading, wanting to read next?
Steadily plowing through Victorian research. Stick a fork in me, I think I have to be done soon. I am going to read QUICKSILVER, by Neal Stephenson, and Gaskell, on Sherwood’s recommendation, but then I swear I will be done…
I read a lot this week:
Read:
The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Journey by Aaron Becker
Folktales of Greece by Georgios A. Megas
Folktales of China by Wolfram Eberhard
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
Russian Wonder Tales by Post Wheeler
Reading:
Of Sorcery and Snow by Shelby Bach
To Read:
French Folktales by Henri Pourrat
Warlord reviewed here
Journey reviewed here
Greece reviewed here
China reviewed here
Homage reviewed here
Lake reviewed here
Wonder reviewed here
I just finished reading Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett, and I’m currently reading Die With A Kiss by Elizabeth Hambly and Lightspeed: Women Destroy Science Fiction! Next up: probably Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older, eds. and Skin Game by Jim Butcher.
What did you think of Raising Steam? I read that one a few months back.
I read it a few month back myself.
I think he’s losing his grip on Lord Vetinari’s character, alas.