The Book of War: 25 Centuries of Great War Writing…book review

The Book of War: 25 Centuries of Great War Writing…book review

up close to war, and personal

 

 

Book review:

The Book of War:

   25 Centuries of Great War Writing

 

John Keegan, ed. (1934-2012)

New York: Penguin Books, 1999

492 pages, with list of sources and index

 

The Book of War is an endlessly compelling collection of mostly personal accounts of the horrible experiences of war and combat and the death of comrades.

Keegan has collected the often obscure writings of many recognizable writers, such as Davy Crockett, Victor Hugo, Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Winston Churchill, and Studs Terkel. The reader also finds numerous contributions by authentic ordinary people who happened to get in the way of war that surrounded them.

There’s nothing pleasant about the book.

Every page is a revelation of the hurt and the loss and the heroics and the degradation of human warfare.

Read The Book of War before you decide to study war no more.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

We Were Soldiers Once…and Young

…too much death (book review)

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (ret.)

         and Joseph L. Galloway

click here

 

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

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a black southerner said…

a black southerner said…

getting closer…

 

 

“Years ago, a black southerner told me that in the South,

whites do not care how close blacks get

   as long as they do not get too high,

but in the North, she said,

whites do not care how high blacks get

   as long as they do not get too close.”

 

from:

The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family

by Bettye Kearse

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020

p. 72

 

Think about it—how much of this statement do you think is wrong?

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Ethan Frome

they were not satisfied with less…

by Edith Wharton

click here

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“the wall entire…”…“Wall,” my poem

“the wall entire…”…“Wall,” my poem

there is more…

 

 

Wall

 

The wall stands high,

it has nowhere to go,

it heeds no future,

and it will not speak the past,

 

its dirty stones are mute,

they’re strong,

but they merely make the wall,

each alone is naught,

 

the wall entire is a simple part

   of a simple world

      that blocks my path,

and flaunts the other ways

   that make a turn to left or right,

 

each an adventure,

more imagining,

a few steps

   to futures in the beyond.

 

January 1, 2024

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

 

Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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Body Heat, the movie…a review

Body Heat, the movie…a review

you see it coming…

 

 

Movie review:

Body Heat

 

Some like it hot. If that’s you, you’ll like Body Heat (1981, rated R, 113 minutes).

Ned Racine (William Hurt in one of his most intense performances) is a caricature of a small town lawyer who doesn’t mind dealing with small town crooks. He also likes the ladies, and he gets snared by a big-thinking criminal lady that he can’t handle.

Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner is an archetype of ambitious, erotic, and nasty) wants to kill her rich husband. She picks Ned to help her do it.

Ned doesn’t figure it all out until he’s in a prison cell.

Matty takes the money and runs.

Body Heat has a lot of sweating, a lot of smoking, some humor (thank you, Ted Danson), and quite a bit of richly filmed hot love and fully expressed humanity in full view.

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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Movie review: Same Time, Next Year

all-American adultery, oh yeah…

click here

Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“in moto perpetuo,” a baby poem

“in moto perpetuo,” a baby poem

she fills my horizons

 

 

in moto perpetuo

 

Surrounded.

By a baby.

She is in motion,

she is energy, all energies.

Does she move fast enough to fill all the space?

It seems true…

 

I follow her, she scampers on and around,

she fills my horizons,

I am surrounded.

 

I surrender, she has taken me alive.

Life is good.

 

May 26, 2012

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: To Serve Them All My Days

by R. F. Delderfield

A beloved teacher,

      you know this story…

click here

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

 

Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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