You are indeed correct. He often lead from the front to rally his troops and was wounded in battle an absurd number of times (13 I believe).
One of his less admirable characteristics, to the modern reader at least, is that he had no patience for soldiers who were less daring than he - the contrast in this respect between himself and Marlborough was stark.
At the Battle of Blenheim, which Eugene and Marlborough co-generalled as it were, Marlborough was alleged to have seen a trooper fleeing the battle and called after him, with a touch of snark, something like “Sir, I believe you are mistaken - the battle is over that-a-way. Face the enemy, and the day’s your own”. This (again, allegedly) basically shamed the trooper back into the fight.
In contrast, Eugene is supposed to have personally shot dead two men under his command attempting to flee.
A friend of mine who is a huge Indiana Jones fan recommended Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made by Alan Eisenstock to me recently, so I checked it out of the library. This funny, heartwarming book tells the story of two young men who spent seven summers of their teenage years creating a nearly shot for shot remake of the movie *Raiders of the Lost Ark *in rural Mississippi. They sweet-talked classmates into wearing grass skirts, borrowed camera equipment from the TV station one of their moms worked at, used a gravel pit as the desert and otherwise, schemed, wheedled and occasionally appropriated what they needed to fulfill their vision. While it was Chris Strompolos’ idea to play Indiana Jones, he talked Eric Zala into becoming the director of this massive endeavor. Not only did these two boys show amazing creativity and stick-to-it-ive-ness throughout a tumultuous part of their lives, but the story of what happened to their film afterwards is literally a dream come true for both of them. Eisenstock does a great job of bringing their story to life, writing with empathy about two kids escaping their own lives through the creative act of filmmaking. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in the personal side of amateur film making and ended up buying this book on Kindle to share with my husband.
I also borrowed the Kindle version of Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith from the Indiana Digital Media consortium. After having read and thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Queen Takes the Train, I decided I wanted to know more about Her Royal Highness. Being an American in my 40’s - my main exposure to the royal family was through the media coverage of Prince Charles and Lady/Princess Diana; I hadn’t realized until the Golden and Diamond Jubilee celebrations just how young Elizabeth was when she ascended to the throne. But I found it quite enlightening to see The Queen’s entire life and career laid out so thoroughly, and with such detail. Not once did I forget that this was a real person, taking the mantle of a nation on her shoulders. The photographs were well chosen, and while Bedell Smith certainly seems of a monarchist bent, it was not a sycophantic biography. I can see why it won the GoodReads Choice Award for Best History & Biography of 2012.
Been away from this thread for awhile, so let’s see…
Recently I have re-read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln and I have to reiterate to anyone that hasn’t read it to do so. It is a fascinating and deep account of Lincoln’s upbringing, young adulthood, ascendancy to the Presidency and the skillful assemblage and governance of his Cabinet, many of whom were in fact Presidential aspirants themselves. It’s an extremely well done book.
I also read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln books which I found surprisingly good for lighter historical reading. No bias was evident in the Kennedy book which I suspected might impinge upon it. Eh, they were Christmas presents.
I also read a wonderful alt/history fiction book titled The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen Carter, in which Lincoln survives Booth’s assassination attempt only to undergo impeachment a couple years later, and has an interesting crew of characters legally representing him, including an African American female that aspires to become a lawyer. Good book.
I am currently reading The Generals by Thomas Ricks, which is an excellent, excellent study of the generalship of the US Army starting in WWII up through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The focus of the book is on how the qualities of leadership and the structure at the top of the command in the US Army shifted from one of accountability with guys like Marshall to a more career and management-minded type of leader like Westmoreland, Tommy Franks, etc. Superbly done so far.
In the queue I have Dying Echo by Judy Clemens and The Guerrilla Factory: The Making Of Special Forces Officers by Tony Schwalm, neither of which I know anything about.
Apparently the Dying Echo book is a part of a series of books that are “Grim Reaper mysteries” in which Death himself is an active participant/partner to the female protagonist.
I’m about to start Could Atlas tonight. Also in the queue are I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern of Shit My Dad Says fame, and Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead, as I dip my toes in the paranormal romance genre.
Thanks for the recommendation–I just ordered a copy and am looking forward to it. LA Confidential was very good, but my earlier impression still stands; it was very convoluted and had a lot of extraneous plot threads. It’s unfair to compare it to the movie, since I had seen the movie first, but I thought the filmmakers did a very good job of compressing some plotlines and generally tightening the story up.
It put me on a noir kick and I’m now reading Trouble Is My Business, a collection of Raymond Chandler short stories starring Phillip Marlowe. It’s apparently some of Chandler’s earlier stuff, but I wouldn’t have known it from the stories themselves. I’m about three quarters of the way through and the stories are just as strong as his better known novels.
Read Jar Jar Binks Must Die… And Other Observations about Science Fiction Movies. It was OK. The author, Daniel Kimmel, has a bug up his ass about science fiction being confined to some sort of disrespected “ghetto”, which made more sense in 1971 than 2011 (when the book was published.) Hates the LOTR movies (but doesn’t explain why), dislikes Spielberg (does say why, but I think his analysis is flawed - what, ET wasn’t as impressive to him as a teenager than it was when he was 11? Really? :rolleyes: ), talks a bit much about unimportant films… all-in-all, an OK book. At least, at 187 pages, it was a quick read.
Bowl of Heaven, by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. Grand space opera where a human built ramscoop spaceship comes across a Ringworld-type structure. WARNING: This one is the first in a series, a fact I didn’t know until the last page (but came to suspect about 50 pages to go.) Well worth the time, but I wish I knew going in that the story wasn’t going to be resolved by the end of the book. Will buy the next one, no problem.
Next up… I don’t know, maybe some C. S. Friedman, maybe a re-read of Michael Flynn’s Firestar, maybe a short-story collection. We’ll see…
I have to read this book. I didn’t pick it up at the past two Arisias, where I saw it on sale. But this year I was on two panels with Kimmel at Atisia, and attended his dissection of “The Year in SF Film”, which I found pretty interesting.
As for science fiction being in a ghetto, SF may be more respectable now than it used to be, but it’s still in a ghetto. Margaret Atwood may be cooler now, but she still doesn’t call her SF stuff what it really is. Check out the TV Tropes page on it: Sci-Fi Ghetto - TV Tropes
Continuing my trend of alternating between fun reads and entries on the Modern Library’s Greatest Novels of the 20th Century, I am now reading Salman Rushdie’s ***Midnight’s Children *** (that’s not supposed to be one of the fun reads, though Rushdie is a lot funnier than I expected).
I saw the movie a few years ago at the Cleveland Cinematheque! It was a lot of fun - anyone who loves the movie would get a kick out of it. One of the creators was also there for Q&A. He explained that they had to refilm some scenes because their voices were changing as they entered adolescence. They cast the cutest girl in their school as Marion Ravenwood just for the chance to hang out with her.
Nitpick: Her Majesty.
I highly recommend A Year with the Queen by Robert Hardman for a fascinating behind-the-scenes, very well-illustrated look at how the Queen and her Buck House staff actually do the work of the British monarchy.
It has been at least ten years, but I remember thoroughly enjoying Midnight’s Children. The Satanic Verses is much more famous because of the controversy, but I think Midnight’s Children is a much better book.
Elendil’s Heir - very jealous that you got to see the Raiders fan film AND attend a Q&A by one of the creators!
And I suspected I was going to choose the wrong royal sobriquet… I’m sure she’ll forgive me. Thanks also for the recco on A Year with the Queen, tho it seems the library only has his *Her majesty : the court of Queen Elizabeth II * - is that worth reading?
I used to participate in these threads. It’s been too long, apparently. **Khadaji’s **gone? Man! Time to jump back in.
Right now my Big Stack o’ Books includes:
Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant, by Michelle Cliff. This would be my **autographed **copy. Yes, I am bragging. I have two autographed books and only one of them is made out to me.
*Belgarath the Sorcerer *by David & Leigh Eddings. I refuse to be ashamed of owning the Belgariad/Mallorean. I like them and it’s my bookshelf.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I’ve only read this once and I remember liking it. I also remember being frustrated by the frequent language-switching. I can puzzle through the Latin but anything else I have to look up.
A Charles Dickens Christmas. This has “A Christmas Carol,” “The Chimes,” and “The Cricket on the Hearth.” I liked Christmas Carol, especially Dickens’ asides about the characters. Chimes, not so much. I had no idea what was going on in the middle part of the story. Haven’t started Cricket yet.
*The Hidden Life of Otto Frank *by Carol Ann Lee. This is a biography of Anne Frank’s father. As with most books about the Holocaust, I can only read a little bit at the time. I’ve just gotten to the part where the American version of Anne’s diary has been published.
Blow Hot, Blow Cold by Ellery Queen. This and the Dickens are part of a huge pile of books I got from my Dad’s house when my sisters did a long-overdue major housecleaning. My mom had a lot of Ellery Queen books. This is the third one I’ve read and so far I’m not impressed with them. Maybe they were better in the 70’s.
There’s a couple of others I have out that I’m reading for historical research purposes, but I can’t remember their titles right now.
I got my son to graduate to chapter books and he really likes the Animorphs as well as the Beast Quest series, so I am currently reading Back to Before to him. My son is 5 and I read to him every night – usually I get 3 chapters in but sometimes I’ll mix it up with another book or something. We have another book from the library that’s all about Spider-Man and was written a couple years ago. It’s cool to recall the stuff that I read in the 80s and some of the exposure that I’ve had to it since then but I’m also surprised at some of the stuff that’s in there. Ferinstance, Flash Thompson is crippled after being in the Army and saving some troops while in Iraq. He now hosts the alien symbiote as Anti-Venom.
Yes, it was a lot of fun. I gather the creators, now in their thirties, make the rounds to quite a few film festivals, cinematheques and the like, showing their juvenile (in the best sense of the word) masterpiece and talking about it.
Another book by Robert Hardman - yes, it’s worth reading, but it’s pretty much a straight bio, not all that different from Sally Bedell Smith’s book, which you’ve already read. More importantly, it’s not a “how does she actually do her job” book like the one I mentioned. If you can get A Year with the Queen by purchase or interlibrary loan, I encourage it.
Time to jump back in.