Sunday, July 29, 2012

About face: I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior (Wasdin & Templin)


After Nicholas Sparks, I promised myself to get back to the grit I usually like to read, so I dug "I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior" out of my borrowed crate of books.  I needed some kick-ass inspiration that would tell me to quit being a sissy and get out there for my distance runs and to bust out some push-ups just for fun. I found it with "Seal Team Six Warrior."

Usually I get annoyed with authors and their frilly, unnecessary language, so I was refreshed and even a bit taken aback when I realized there were no spare words in this book. It was so stripped down that it almost felt naked.  I was almost embarrassed for the author at times because it just stated the facts so plainly that at times I actually wondered if I was reading it right and I even wondered if there was some hidden metaphor and I'd realize later that it was EXACTLY as Wasdin had intended it. 

Wasdin told about being raised in an abusive household and how he felt it helped mentally prepare him for his training as a SEAL.  He also used such a matter-of-fact tone that at times it would have seemed that he was bragging, but then there were so many flashes of humility through naivete that I realized he was just writing as he saw it without trying to make himself look cooler (or conversely, less-cool) that he really was.

Wasdin told about the multiple phases of training and supervised torture that was considered preparation for missions. With this, I particularly enjoyed the pictures he provided, even though some of them had his fellow-soldiers' faces blacked out-- no doubt to protect their identities.  Other pictures, provided by the Department of Defense and the State Department were very revelatory-- they showed the training conditions, some of the weapons and some of the terrain.

I particularly enjoyed Wasdin's anecdotes of fellow SEALs and snipers-- including a water rescue in which he returned in merely his underwear and how to create the best ghillie suits.  The key:  don't use too many grasses because they dry out quickly and then become a giveaway. Wasdin also does a nice job telling about their co-operations (or challenges) with Delta Force, the CIA and other government agencies; he tells of their egos getting in the way in such a way that he's remorseful and still pride-filled. 

As the book progresses Wasdin tells a lot about the key players his team was after while dealing with Desert Shield (Iraq, Iran & Kuwait) and later with in Somalia. There were lots of names of key players thrown out, but I felt like few stuck with me, and at the same time I was reminded of the large similarities of Wasdin's team's challenges and what I hear about daily regarding insurgents in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rebels and dictator within Syria (and last year-- with Egypt).  His story, while almost twenty years old, is still timely and a great tool for connecting our previous conflicts with today's conflicts. 

While I was reading this book with my high school students in mind, and I do feel that they'd be interested in this book, I feel this book would best connect with a freshmen military science class or even a political science class studying the Middle East and Somalia because of some of the deeper connections that could easily loose readers without some of this background knowledge (I was once a poli. sci & military science student so I feel that I may be a little exceptional in my connection).  Once I settled into the style of the book, I flew through it in just a couple of days and I noticed earlier this evening that Wasdin & Templin have another book out about Seal Team Six and it's about the outcasts, but it may need to wait until I finish a few other books I have waiting to be read and returned to their owners. 

Saturday, July 21, 2012

ALMOST eating my words about Nicholas Sparks (Safe Haven)


I confess: I have written haikus about Nicholas Sparks and all terrible-ness that he represents. I love to hate the idea of Nicholas Sparks. I must admit I forced myself to watch both Dear John and The Notebook-- knowing that I'd probably be mad afterward, but I was sick of being out of the cultural loop.  So, I pulled the trigger.   Why did I dislike him without being familiar with his work? He represents much of what I find terrible about women:  hopeless romanticism, the inability to move on (is there a word for this?), and strong men rescuing feeble women. I actually wondered if Nicholas Sparks was a woman secretly writing with an alias so that women would swoon at the idea of a man being so sensitive to write such sap... but instead, I'm pretty sure it really is just a sappy (or secretly macho?)  man who has alienated some strong women (my little sister also has a strong distaste for his work). With this disclaimer out there about my prejudices, here's what I actually thought about his reading (since I decided it was time to quite talking smack without having actually read his work).

Safe Haven is predominantly set in North Carolina, like Dear John and The Notebook also seemed to be (Sparks lives in NC).  The protagonist is a late twenty-something named Katie.  Katie is starting a life in North Carolina because her husband, who she's run away from, beat the hell out of her on multiple occasions.   She waitresses to support herself and pay for a small cottage off a back road.  Katie meets the local grocer, who is a widower with two children and they slowly build a relationship.  In the meantime a woman moves into the cottage next to Katie's and the two women become friends and the friend, Jo, counsels/gossips with Katie regarding the relationship.

The relationship progresses slowly since the two are both trying to get over their spouses-- one who was an abuser and the other, a victim of cancer. As Katie and the grocer, Alex, become increasingly acquainted, the readers find out more about how Katie escaped from her estranged husband and we find out he's most likely looking for her.  We also find out that the estranged husband is a police detective, which lends to the credibility of the story as to why Katie is so terrified that her husband will come to find her.

The reader is also able to get more about the estranged husband, Kevin, through sections told from his perspective. It works for a few reasons:  It helps build the suspense as he finally picks up her trail and comes after her and it shows that Sparks can effectively switch the storytelling perspective and he can execute this switch well.

While I flew through the story because it had some edgy-ness to it (dealing with issues of abuse), I liked the resolution of the main conflict (no, I won't spoil it for you), but I can't say I liked the final twist (which I am going to spoil).  The final twist?  Her friend, Jo, is the ghost of Alex's deceased wife.... That's right. A GHOST.   Booo....  (and not in the ghost-sort-of-way).  I couldn't help but felt like I'd been slapped for reading the whole book and then getting something so cheesy.  I guess I got what I was looking for-- cheese.  It was just such a shame because it was such easy reading and mostly believable story (although then when I looked back Kevin's word choice seemed over the top) and I was just getting to the point where I could defend Sparks... and then, I couldn't.  

Monday, July 2, 2012

I don't know either: What My Mother Doesn't Know (Sonya Sones)

 Since I finished On Writing, I've started burning through a few books over the past week.  I took two evenings to read What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones-- which was really more like 2 1/2 hours of reading. It was a particularly fast read because it was written in lyric poetry (which is almost so common now that it's a slacker's version of story telling).  I enjoyed having something light-hearted and easy to read, but I'm ambivalent about whether or not to recommend it.

The story follows a teenage girl (almost 15) named Sophie who is boy crazy and has two equally boy-crazy girlfriends.  Sophie's parents are on the verge of a divorce and Sophie is trying out what it means to be an attractive young woman.  She seems to feed on the attention and is desperately in love with her new boyfriend Dylan. The only problem is that Dylan and Sophie don't really seem to have anything in common and we later find out that Dylan's mom has some issues with anti-Semitism, which doesn't bode well for Sophie since she's Jewish.

Sophie also begins to entertain the acquaintaince of a fellow chatroom-goer... but then she starts to feel guilty and luckily finds out he's a bit more pervy than what she's looking for.  Sophie particularly kicks herself for spending so much time with the pervert because she was toying with the idea of meeting him in person. 

Meanwhile, Sophie secretly entertains the idea of getting affectionate with a nerd named Murphy that she often spends time feeling sorry for.  Her thoughts keep creeping up on her and she stifles them when possible.

Overall, the book was compelling because Sophie has some rebellious moments and I kept hoping she'd have some more-- since I was curious about the book title.  I was hoping for something really juicy that would put her in a bad situation that she'd need to deal with.  I was a bit disappointed in this way in that I never really felt like there was a climax.  Sophie mainly has a series of small rebellions that we can only assume come from being a teen and/or come from her misdirected angst regarding her parents' impending divorce. 

I'm torn in that I liked that there wasn't MAJOR drama, but I also didn't feel like I could take away any lessons either.