by Richard Subber | Jan 29, 2026 | American history, Book reviews, Books, History, Reflections, World history
…the last battle never comes…
Book review:
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young
Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway
New York: Random House, 1992
412 pages
Like Moore and Galloway, I salute the brave American and North Vietnamese soldiers who fought and died in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965 in the first major combat action of the War in Vietnam.
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young is a bloody testament to the grinding horror of war. It’s too much to read all at once. It has too much death.
A North Vietnamese commander who was on the ground in the valley recalled, many years after the war, that his guiding principle had been “win the first battle.”
He forgot to mention that no one knows how to win the last battle and end all of it.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Movie review: A Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen’s classic on abuse…
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 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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by Richard Subber | Jan 27, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
losing the green…
seeing more
Again the dried leaves drift as they will,
they find their place,
they give up shape,
they make a final damp.
The trees just seem to let them go,
they waste away to litter,
the wind just seems to let them go,
they lose their green,
they come to earth,
a brittling maze, the huddled leaves,
they cease their swaying,
they cannot catch the sun,
nor make a shade,
they don’t look back
to scan the sky,
to see the bosky dells,
to gaze at vistas
that now attract the light…
The leaves have done
with hiding the thrusting trees
and the valley views
and the glades that tempt the doe
and the empty nests
that warmed the chicks…
November 7, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The Reader (Der Vorleser)
Not just a rehash of WWII…
by Bernhard Schlink
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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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by Richard Subber | Jan 24, 2026 | Human Nature, Politics, Tidbits
it’s underprotection…
“…these two trends—
overprotection in the real world
and underprotection in the virtual world—
are the major reasons why children born after 1995
became the anxious generation.”
from The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt (b1963)
New York: Penguin Press, 2024
385 pages
p. 9
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Sketches by Boz
…the Miss Willises are a scream…
by Charles Dickens
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 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”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 22, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
think “victims”
Book review:
The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt (b1963)
New York: Penguin Press, 2024
385 pages
Haidt’s book is subtitled How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. If you think he’s talking about the internet, and cell phones, and computers, and television, and social media, you’re right on the money.
“Screen time” and all of the accompanying behaviors are making our kids sick.
It seems a bit strange to me that Haidt did not use the word “victims” in The Anxious Generation. All those folks didn’t ask for smart phones and devices when they were born.
Haidt makes compelling arguments that too much “screen time” is devastating too many young people, and old people too. Among his suggested pathways to remedy:
Just say “no.”
Don’t use social media today.
Use crayons with your young grandchildren.
You probably didn’t have a phone with you when you were a school student.
Your kids don’t need one.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A quote from General Custer
Hint: something to do with Indians…
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 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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by Richard Subber | Jan 20, 2026 | My poetry, Other, Poetry
clouds sound off…
cloud talk
I guess that clouds may skirr,
they are so far away,
they do stir
and frolic in the sky,
they may whir,
who hears the sound of clouds?
betimes they clap!
withal, they may purr…
October 1, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The poetic art of Grace Butcher
Poetry for reading out loud…
it’s that good
Book review: Child, House, World
–
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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