Reader’s Diary

Harold Coyle

This is the story of a US special forces unit defeated in Syria, the soldiers taken prisoner, and the ones sent to rescue them. That plot summary sounds like a typical military thriller, but Coyle breaks the rules of the genre by making his characters flawed and fallible rather then casting them as comic book heroes. That said, it’s not his best work. There’s less of the action that he’s so good at and the book would benefit from another 100 pages of detail.

In addition to being a good read, “More Than Courage” is a cautionary tale of what could happen if US forces are stretched too thin in an endless war against terrorism.

John Varley

No, it’s not likely that a bunch of young folks and a former astronaut with a drinking problem could weld together a bunch of railroad tank cars and fly to Mars, even with the help of a “squeezer drive” invented by the astronaut’s brain-damaged genius cousin. It’s not even likely that somebody could write a good novel with that plot, but Varley pulls it off.

This is a real page-turner. It’s reminiscent of Heinlein’s “juveniles” and would make a great kids’ book but for the gratuitous sex scenes, which seem to be designed to appeal to the Comic Book Guy demographic.

Michael D. Doubler

This is a detailed look at how the US Army taught itself to beat the Germans. It covers both the tactics and the way those tactics were disseminated to fighting units. The book is organized thematically, with chapters on fighting in the bocage, forrests, cities, and so on.

Doubler’s thesis is that the pre-war doctrines were, generally, sound, but that applying them required innovation at all levels. “Lessons learned” had to be taught to other units and to replacement troops. The soldiers and their leaders were creative in their warfighting, but just as important was the army’s institutional capacity for learning from experience.

Anyone with an interest in combined arms tactics, World War II, or in the attributes of flexible, effective organizations will appreciate this book.

Charles Portis

Lamar Jimmerson, an American soldier in France in 1917, meets a man who reveals to him the secrets of Atlantis. Lamar, who never realizes that he’s been conned, returns home to found the Gnomon Society. Protis’s novel chronicles the rise and fall of the Gnomons, an amusing collection of crackpots and scoundrels.

The book is full of deadpan humor seasoned with pathos. It doesn’t live up to the promise of its early chapters, but is nevertheless a fun read.

John Keegan

The “six armies” of the book’s title are the US, British, Canadian, German, French, and Polish armies that were engaged in D Day and the subsequent campaign in Normandy. Keegan uses each one a lens to focus on one aspect of the campaign. Thus he describes the US airborne drops, not the US landings; landings are covered from the Canadians’ perspective. It’s an interesting approach which lets the author venture down some interesting historical back roads, though at the expense of completeness.

The book is well-written and Keegan is skilled at picking illuminating details without getting bogged down in minutiae. His opening chapters on the Allies’ decisions about when and where to invade are especially interesting. Unfortunately, the book’s maps sketchy and too few in number.

John Gierach
Non-fiction 2003

This is a pleasant little collection of fishing essays. Gierach has mellowed a bit over the years, but the appeal of spending a few hours with him, at least as he presents himself on the page, hasn’t waned. I remain in awe of Gierach, not because he’s a fine writer, though that he is, but because he’s spent his entire life fly fishing and writing and has never, it seems, needed a regular job.