Read: "Battlelines: the last good war" by James Reasoner.

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Read: "Killing Floor" by Lee Child

Read: Killing Floor by Lee Child, 1997, 0515123447.

Very

good. This is the fourth Jack Reacher book I've read. Two of those

novels were so-so. Some of the mystery aspects were good in those two

books but the stories ended up blah. I suppose Reacher himself is the

real draw for readers anyway.

Reacher

is eating breakfast in a small town Georgia diner when four cops burst

in and arrest him for murder. Several hours before, and a few miles up

the road, a guy had his face shot off and was kicked to a pulp. The

usual happens: Reacher does really smart things, Reacher out thinks

people, Reacher draws on his extensive experience, Reacher wears the

same clothes, Reacher pours the pork to a gal cop, Reacher uses his

bulk and muscle to kill without remorse.

The

plotting was good. Of the four Child books I have read there are one or

two things that are a real stretch. This one has the town being paid

off at $1,000 to each shop owner with the town leadership not only

rotten but viciously violent. I liked this one though. It was fun to

read.

Read: "Long Road Home: one step at a time" by G.B.Trudeau

Read: Long Road Home: one step at a time by G.B.Trudeau, 2005, 0740753851.

That was quick.

Flipped Through: "Ditch Medicine" by Hugh L. Coffee

Flipped Through: Ditch Medicine: Advanced Field Procedures for Emergencies by Hugh L. Coffee, 2002, 1581603908.

Read about this online and reserved it.

An introductory technical guide. More for third world, and disaster medicine. Made me think more of medics or special forces soldiers out in the far boonies without hospital care.

Interesting to look through because it goes beyond first aid or advanced first aid. Has instruction on field techniques for intravenous therapy, decompression and drainage of the chest, infected wounds - including photos of a gun shot wound through the foot, small wound repair - with illustrations of a buttocks injury opened up and bandaged. The amputations section is gruesome, "The PCHP holds the amputation knife firmly in his hand ans starts the incision at the side of the extremity opposite to where it stands...after the deep muscles have been retracted, the periosteum of the bone is incised and the femur sawn through flush with the retracted muscle."

TO GOOGLE SEARCHERS: I read several good comments about this book and that is why I took a gander at it. But, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of those reviewers or their training or skills; my experience is limited to very basic first aid instruction. If you search through some of the online forums for guns, police, or survival you'll likely find more information on Coffee's book and similar books.

Read: "War Stories, Vol. 1" by [a bunch of people]

Read: War Stories, Vol. 1 by [a bunch of people], 2004, 1401203280.

Comic book short stories by several writers and artists.

Four fictional stories set in the Eastern Front, Germany, convoy duty, and Italy. The stories were okay - nothing spectacular. The artwork was okay - nothing spectacular. The advantage in this is the format and how they plan the images. The artwork for the convoy duty story stunk.

I think I ran across this comic while selecting for the Library. It came from Watertown. I should browse their shelves or shelf list sometime.

Read: "Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon

Read: Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, 2007, 97780007149827.

Good and bad. Chabon is a literary darling. I hate to slur him like that but it's true. So I spend time thinking of there is some deeper literary meaning to his work I should be catching onto.

This was a good book but I suffered under the Yiddish, European, and Russian names. Chabon also uses a lot of Yiddish language or slang and it was hard to catch on to what the hell the characters were talking about.

Det. Meyer Landsman is a drunken cop in Sitka, AK. Sitka was given to the Jews 50 years ago and is now facing Revision back to the U.S. in just two months. No one knows what will happen after Reversion and most people are hoping to emigrate elsewhere or get a green card. Kind of like Hong Kong I suppose.

Landsman lives in a flophouse of a hotel where a fellow resident is shot in the back of the head. Landsman takes the case but is told to shelve it because his new boss and ex-wife, Bina, wants all cases cleared out before the turnover. Landsman and his cop cousin Berko continue to investigate and cause trouble.

A good crime novel. There is brief but very well done action scene with Meyer getting a round grazing off his head during a gunfight. I just kept lost among all the names and locations. I kept thinking of Arkady Renko the whole time with the cold weather, powerful and competing interests, a depressed protagonist.

Mostly read: "Combat Techniques" by Chris McNab and Martin J. Dougherty

Mostly read: Combat Techniques: an elite forces guide to modern infantry tactics by Chris McNab and Martin J. Dougherty, 2007, 9780312368241.

A basic primer on how things are done. Has a British emphasis. I bought this for the Library because I got Chris McNab confused with Andy McNab.

Covers infantry movement, tactics, heavy support, terrain, etc.

Just another attempt to figure out how the hell they do things in Iraq and Afghanistan.