*** I Find That Offensive *** by Claire Fox

This is an essay about the "snowflake generation" in US and UK.

The book is divided in 3 parts.
First part is about taking a snapshot of the situation with examples of "outrages" as they appeared in the news in recent years.
Second part is trying to explain how the snowflake generation came up. The POV of the author is that this generation is the result of how they were generally raised up by their parents (the baby-boomers generation), the "paranoia" of safety ads campaigns, the "narcissism epidemic" (I also have that book but haven't read it yet) and the "client" relationship with universities.
Third part are open letters to the snowflake generatio and the anti-snowflakes.

As a continental European, it's not really an issue we have here so while I have some vague interest in the subject, I didn't really got interested in the matter and have speed-read this book.However, I liked the fact that there are plenty of footnotes provided with sources and references so it's useful if you want to dig up stuff later on.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Find-That-Offensive-Provocations/dp/1849549818/
https://www.amazon.com/Find-That-Offensive-Claire-Fox/dp/1849549818/

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The book had a few more background scenes about Tom Riddle than in the movie. I particularly liked when Tom Riddle came back to Hogwarts after he had made his Horcrux's and he was all weird looking.

Some parts of the movie explained things better than in the book, like the ending with Draco and Snape, which is interesting. Like J.K.Rowling added a little bit more to the movie.

The Plutonium Blonde (John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem)

This book is a comedy/sci-fi/detective story about the last private detective on Earth in the year 2057. And somehow it accomplishes all three of those genres quite well (although the sci-fi element is perhaps the weakest of the three), it’s action-packed and the comedy is non-stop. Recommended :)!

The Neverending Story

Finally! Now I can go and see the film! Overall I enjoyed the book. It's a bit too, uhm, fantastical for my tastes. Very high fantasy. I probably would've enjoyed it a lot more as a kid.

Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, by Paul O'Brien. It's a crime novel set in the early 70s. Specifically the pro wrestling industry. Sort of a historical fantasy about how wrestling might have evolved if the territorial promoters back then were as bloodthirsty as they sometimes liked to sound (supposedly Vince McMahon got a lot of death threats back in the day, but obviously no one had the guts to really go after him).

If you don't know anything about wrestling, this book will give some great background on how it works, especially back in the kayfabe era. If you do know wrestling, you'll probably enjoy seeing a pretty good crime story play out with parts inspired by real incidents and personalities; e.g., wrestlers laying out people who call wrestling fake, or the South African giant Babu coming across like a mesh of Andre the Giant and Kamala. The book stresses behind the scenes stuff over ring action, and the plot is complex and has the wry humor of an Elmore Leonard novel or maybe the Coen Bros. crime movies. Note that this is the first part of a trilogy - the book tells a complete story but also leaves a cliffhanger that leads into the second volume.

*** Why Do We Lose War? *** by Gérard Chaliand

Written by a recognized expert in warfare and conflicts, this essay tries to analyze why the Occident is losing wars against the rest of the world since the middle of the 20th century. For a better understanding, he takes us back to the colonization wars and how our ancestors didn't only rely on a superior weapon technology but took advantages of the local beliefs, languages and acquaintances, tribalism, "poverty" and such to compensate their low number of soldiers. Then there was an intermediary period where the local population gradually adopted occidental ideologies like nationalism and marxism and turning them into insurgency conflicts (which got more or less tamed). Third phase is where the Occident both lose touch with the local population and the way of war thus leading to the debacle in Vietnam and closer to us, in the middle east.

The main reasons are:
- A lack of connection between occidental troops and local people as our forces are just there to accomplish their mission and not stay within citizens and participate to the improvement of the society.
- A lack of knowledge of the enemy (his local influence, supports, methods, etc.)
- The influence of occidental public opinion on faraway conflicts
- The fear of losing soldiers

The subject and the timescale (from the colonization of South-America to our present days) is huge and with only 175 pages, this book is quite dense and would have benefited from having at least 100 pages more. Thankfully, it provides lots of sources and references for further studies.

One good example of reference used is the 2009 report of the US General McChrystal on the Afghan situation:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002920.html?sid=ST2009092003140

Overall I found it too short but still liked it.
https://www.amazon.fr/Pourquoi-perd-guerre-nouvel-occidental/dp/273813405X/

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I started out liking Tom Riddle and his dark power the most, but now I like Dumbledore the best. He's a better wizard than the dark lord because he's good, which I like the sentiment.

It has a lot more information about what exactly is going on than the movies, like why Lord Voldemort can't harm Harry, and why Harry always wins his duels with Voldemort. A particularly like the story of the Deathly Hallows, it doesn't specifically mention it in the movies but Harry's invisibility cloak is one of the three Hallows.

Tripwire

The third Jack Reacher novel.

Beautiful women seem to just fly at Jack Reacher, which in my life never happens. It was as excellent as I thought it would be, not quite as good as The Killing Floor. If you ever start reading Jack Reacher, start at The Killing Floor.

Still ebook freebies. This was a temporary one I sure was lucky to just happen to spot at the right time, because it's good stuff. Maybe I pointed out what seem like some serious issues there in the 2nd part of the quick review (copied the one I posted on GR and blog, as usual), but it really doesn't matter at least once you get to the Night of Dragonsong & Fire part.

Dragon of Ash & Stars

I’ll just say it right away: Great book, constantly growing alongside its protagonist and narrator, who’s quite a character himself and whose “voice” and style fit almost perfectly and significantly add to the experience. The perhaps simple and humble beginnings are followed by ever more captivating and impactful stages, each relevant, each with a purpose, each leading into the next until the reader may find it difficult to contain the effects of what they see and experience. I know I did, at least, and you may think you know what I mean once you reach the Night of Dragonsong & Fire… But you may wish to take that as a warning to prepare for what’s to come, because it merely marks the beginning of a series of truly powerful scenes.
I once again find myself wishing for half-star ratings, because I may have wanted to add one here. Then again, considering the very end, maybe not, as it didn’t need to go where it did and shouldn’t have done so. Other than that, it may need a little more editing, as there are a handful of things that slipped through, perhaps including the fact that the hundred keeps being added to and yet remains a hundred. Much more notably, the world of sticks and the few sticks that appear as characters may be said to be more of a sketch, or stick figures if you will, but the fact that it’s all presented from the point of view of a dragon helps with that, as it’s understandable that he neither knows nor cares much about such matters unless they directly affect him and it’d be quite out of character if he did. The fact that this also applies to the notable other dragons is somewhat more troubling, however.

The Doomsday Brunette (John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem)

The further comedy/sci-fi/detective adventures of the last private detective on Earth in the year 2057. Not quite as good as the first book, but still an enjoyable read.

SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson. An 'end of the world' novel (quite literally, actually) that deals with how humanity comes back from near extinction after the moon is destroyed by a mysterious 'agency', which subsequently destroys the entire surface of the earth. This one's a long one with quite a bit of set-up and spans a period of around 5000 years.

I love Stephenson's novels, and this is no exception, with some very cool concepts that he expores with as much scientific accuracy as he can (while excercising creative license to tell a good story as well). My biggest beef with this one is the fact that the end, despite the length of the novel, is fairly abrupt. It leaves you hangin and wondering what's going to happen next and where he intends/intended to take the story. I can't help but think he plans more for this, and I sincerely hope he does. I want to see what he's got in ind and where it's going from here. Hopefully he gets the green light from the publisher for more. Recommended.

The Abominable by Dan Simmons. Another author I like a lot. This is presented as a manuscript left to the author by someon he met while researching ideas for a different but somewhat related story. It revolves around the period after the expeditions in 1922 and 1924 to conquer Everest and deals with a fictional account of the conquering of the mountain by an expedition of which the manuscript writer was a participant. There are plot twists, nazis, mythical creatures, and a pretty cool adventure story all wrapped up in this one.

A pretty satisfying offering from Simmons, in my mind, and having read the account of the 1922 and 1924 expeditions to Everest and the disappearance of Sandy Irvine and George Mallory in 1924 (the excellent non-fiction book Into the Silence by Wade Davis), you can tell that Simmons did his research, capturing the spirit of the times and the state of mountainerring in the early part of the 20th century. Recommended.

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. A horror novel? One of his early ones, I think (maybe his first one?), and one that I really didn't feel all that connected to, although for some strange reason I felt compelled to finish it. Short, and worth reading if you're big fan of Simmons. Otherwise, I'd recommend a pass on this and going for some of his more recent offerings.


Full List.

The Visitor

The forth Jack Reacher Novel

Had a pretty stunning storyline this one, a murder mystery, and a twist you could not see coming.

* The French Countryside * by Christophe Guilluy

This ain't a tourism book but rather a follow-up to the author's precedent book "French Fractures" (post 216 in this thread).

I have mixed feelings about it as it makes the usual mistake of repeating some aspects of the first book and the new ideas/aspects are underdeveloped. The interesting parts were the shift in politics to accomodate the new electorals groups as they don't correlate anymore with the classic "class" system from the 20th century. The question of the social identity (and counter-power) in the countryside and more practically, the return to the sedentariness (as opposed to the mobility induced by the globalization).

So, while "French Fractures" was a must-read, this one is optional. I still have his third book on the French upper-class to read.

*** The Calculation Error *** by Régis Debray

It's a small essay (54 pages) about how France lost its ideals of religion and nation to trade them with the ideology of economy and capitalism which are leading the country into nowhere. A bit dissapointing as it feels like a long manifesto where the writing style prevails over the development of ideas (like how USA is powerful by having kept religion alongside economy) so you can't really get something out of the text as reference. A good example of "style over substance".

Still freebies, another temporary one I just happened to spot while it was like that. Author's first, or at least the first he published, as at the end it says "The Joined Realm was my first attempt to share something that I wrote with a wider audience." As usual, just copying the quick thingy I put on Goodreads and on blog. May sound a bit worse than it is.

<span class="bold">The Joined Realm</span>

The author created an interesting world here and the book does take you through a significant part of it. Does so by using a lot of shortcuts though, so I'd quite like to explore and understand more of this world, The Joined Realm being a pretty short single book that focuses on what a single character knows and sees in a relatively brief span of time. There's much that's not shown and, despite some information dumps that I'd say are more necessary than jarring, plenty not even told.
There's also the matter of the series of fortunate events that allow the characters to keep going and the fact that, in spite of a number of less typical elements, the action is steered down a pretty cliche path. Still, it is enough to keep you interested throughout and overall makes for a decent read, even if the writing style is a bit rough. There's a fair need for more editing though, to get rid of quite a number of obvious mistakes.