The Green Mile

Stephen King’s classic #1 New York Times bestselling dramatic serial novel and inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks!

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk “the Green Mile,” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final meeting with Old Sparky, Cold Mountain’s electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities over the years working the Mile, but he’s never seen anything like John Coffey—a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about John Coffey—a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs….

I regret having seen the movie before having read the book, or books as it were, as with most books made into movies.  King is such an excellent writer that it is almost a crime to not read his book but watch a video.  I am not a rabid (ha, ha, ha, ha) fan, but I have read several of his books.  This is by far the best of his works that I have read.

His descriptions are vivid.  He utilizes foreshadowing and symbolism skilfully.  I actually teared up in the last few pages.  I was moved by the characters and also that the book was coming to an end.  The only negative view of this work I have is that King is such a skillful writer I feel inadequate to write.

Of modern fiction writers, I believe King is the best.  I am not a fan of macabre.  Having read this great story of King's, I wished it wrote more like it.

Fortune's Favorites

With incomparable storytelling skill, New York Times bestselling author Colleen McCullough brings Rome alive in all her majesty—and illuminates the world of those favored by the gods at birth.

In a time of cataclysmic upheaval, a bold new generation of Romans vied for greatness amid the disintegrating remnants of their beloved Republic. They were the chosen...and the cursed—blessed with wealth and privilege yet burdened by the dictates of destiny in a savage struggle for power that would leave countless numbers crushed and destroyed. But there was one who would tower above them all—a brilliant and beautiful boy whose ambition was unparalleled, whose love was legend, and whose glory was Rome's: a boy they would one day call "Caesar."

This third book in the Master's of Rome series was another enjoyable read by McCullough.  She is such an excellent writer, I believe she could take boring parts of history and make them enjoyable.  Fortune's Favorites seems like a transition for the series.  Sulla dies.  The Spartican revolt is put down.  The republic struggles to continue to exist under the Sulla constitution.  And Gaius Julius Caesar rises.

Though this is a buffer book, it continues a great series that is a joy to read.  The fall of the republic is far to similar to our "republic".

The Brink

The incredible story of the 1983 war game that triggered a tense, brittle period of nuclear brinkmanship between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

What happened in 1983 to make the Soviet Union so afraid of a potential nuclear strike from the United States that they sent mobile ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) into the field, placing them on a three-minute alert?

Marc Ambinder explains the anxious period between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984, with the “Able Archer ’83” war game as the fulcrum of the tension. With astonishing and clarifying new details, he recounts the scary series of the close encounters that tested the limits of ordinary humans and powerful leaders alike. Ambinder explains how political leadership ultimately triumphed over misunderstandings, helping the two countries maintain a fragile peace.

Ambinder provides a comprehensive and chilling account of the nuclear command and control process, from intelligence warnings to the composition of the nuclear codes themselves. And he affords glimpses into the secret world of a preemptive electronic attack that scared the Soviet Union into action. Ambinder’s account reads like a thriller, recounting the spy-versus-spy games that kept both countries—and the world—in check.

From geopolitics in Moscow and Washington to sweat-caked soldiers fighting in the trenches of the Cold War, to high-stakes war games across NATO and the Warsaw Pact, The Brink serves as the definitive intelligence, nuclear, and national security history of one of the most precarious times in recent memory.

This book is an excellent telling of the end of the cold war and one of the near nuclear conflicts that occurred.  Having grown up in the 1980s, much of this book filled in the truth of the time that I was not aware.  The fear of the Soviet Union I understood well.  The Soviet fear of the United States surprised me.  I had never thought of my country as a threat to another.

The author does a great job of outlining the problems of Mutually Assured Destruction diplomacy.  He explains the efforts that President Reagan had to goto to engage the Soviets directly.  The complete lack of trust that the State Department had for the Soviets and the President surprised me.  I never realized the difficulty of implementing a new approach by a president.  The bureaucracy does run the town.