In the summer of 2010 I completed my goal of reaching the high
point of each of the lower 48 states and I set a new
goal – to read all of James A. Michener’s writings. Many of his books are very
long and the print is very small. I
completed The Covenant (1235 pages) this
summer, but not without a lot of breaks reading something else to rest my eyes. Here are some of the other books I’ve been
reading:
The Wrecking Crew –
Kent Hartman
The story of the musicians who recorded much of the Roll
& Roll music of the 60s and early 70s. In some cases they replaced members
of groups such as the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel during recording
sessions. Some members of the wrecking crew, such as Glen Campbell went on to become
famous on their own.
102 Minutes – Jim
Dwyer & Kevin Flynn
The 9/11 story from the perspective of survivors and
rescuers. It was 102 minutes from the time the North
Tower was hit until it collapsed;
the South Tower
was hit later but collapsed sooner than the North. I was surprised to learn that building codes
had been weakened over the years so that the Trade
Center towers had fewer stairways
than the Empire State
Building, and they were enclosed in
drywall rather than concrete.
A Tale of Two Subs –
Jonathan J. McCullough
The USS Sculpin and the USS Sailfish (originally named the
USS Squalus) were sister subs; built side by side. The Sculpin had helped
rescue Sailfish crew members after a test dive accident and in 1943 both were
involved in the war against Japan.
The Sculpin was damaged by a Japanese Destroyer and forced to surface.
Survivors were taken prisoner and divided between two Japanese aircraft
carriers; Chuyo, and Unyo. The Sailfish attacked and sank the Chuyo, unaware
that American prisoners were aboard.
The book also talks about the intelligence gained by
breaking the Japanese code, and about the problems with American impact and
proximity torpedo fuses.
Monstering – Tara
McKelvey
Subtitled “Inside America’s policy of secret interrogations
and torture in the terror war”, this book in centered on the problems at Abu
Ghraib. It seems that “enhanced interrogation” was justified as a way to get
lifesaving intelligence from high value captives, but was used on prisoners
randomly. Official approval at the top, lack of direction and control in the
middle, and depravity among some at the bottom resulted in prisoner’s injury
and death. Many Iraqis who might have
looked favorably on the US
became enemies as a result of mistreatment by the US
military, the CIA, and contract interpreters
and interrogators.
McKelvey says, “The vast majority of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
had no information about the insurgency or about possible future acts of
terrorism. Yet American interrogators, guards, and contractors applied harsh techniques
and then used some of their own methods that did not appear on the approved
list.”
Terminal Event –
James Thayer
This is a novel about a National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) and FBI investigation into the crash of an airliner. It is well written
and kept me guessing. It was loaded with authentic sounding tidbits about
investigative techniques and aircraft systems. For example, after a crash the
most common words found at the end of the recording from a cockpit voice
recorder are, “Oh shit!”
Gabby – Gabrielle
Giffords & Mark Kelly
This is a biography of Gabby and Mark going back to their
childhood, but concentrating on the period after she was shot, through her
appearance in Congress to vote for the debt ceiling bill. It covers the
behind-the-scenes events that mesh with what we were hearing on the news. There
is a very interesting chapter on Mark’s final space flight, STS-134.
The emcee at their wedding reception, Robert Reich, toasted to “a bride that
moves at a velocity that exceeds that of anyone else in Washington,
and to a groom who moves at a velocity that exceeds seventeen thousand miles
per hour.”
I’m continuing to read Michener, and I’ll talk about his
books at another time.
