Countdown 1945…book review

Countdown 1945…book review

imagine that you had been there…

 

 

Book review:

Countdown 1945:

The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb

and the 116 Days That Changed the World

 

by Chris Wallace with Mitch Weiss

New York: Avid Reader Press, 2020

312 pages

 

There is quite tolerable intensity in Countdown 1945, in tandem with the horror of the use of the atomic bomb in Japan at the end of World War II.

There are gripping revelations from all of the principals involved in the development of the bomb and the decision to use it. There is dialogue more or less on every page. Countdown 1945 is not so much a book as it is the integration of tales told by the men and women who were there, doing it, and living through it.

This is one of the very few books I’ve read from cover to cover in the past several years.

It was a learning experience, and I was completely aware that I was vicariously sharing the terrible experiences of the folks who had anything to do with Little Boy and Fat Man.

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

 

“The beginning is always today.”

(quote, Mary Shelley)

so get started…

click here

 
My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 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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reach out, “touch the music,” my poem

reach out, “touch the music,” my poem

that toe is tapping…

 

 

touch the music

 

The horn is a sweet river

   of hot icing,

sprites chase the notes,

toe tapping just happens,

the sax galumphs

   and then it’s power and pout

      and plaintive moan

         and tickled scales,

a raft of rhythms that pushes through

   to almost endings,

the growly sax can make a joy

   to bounce inside our ears,

all dulcet, warm, and lazy…

 

January 26, 2024

 

easy listening in the Fireside lounge on a Friday afternoon

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

–

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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the third kind…  “Arrival,” movie review

the third kind…  “Arrival,” movie review

doing the right thing…

 

 

Movie review:

Arrival

 

2016, 116 min, rated PG-13 (brief strong language)

 

Arrival is a reflective experience of first contact with aliens who are not like us. These are aliens who, ultimately, want to do good, but the humans have to learn how to deal with this reality.

Amy Adams plays the linguist Louise Banks, and Jeremy Renner plays the physicist Ian Donnelly. They combine their robust talents to learn how to communicate with the aliens, and to try to convince their human superiors to do the right thing.

Banks and Donnelly fall in love. She saves the world. The aliens depart in peace. Her life is changed.

It’s a movie you can enjoy, no matter how many times you watch it.

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

 

Book review: “The Gentle Boy”

The Puritans had a dark side…

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

click here

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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation (book review)

“credit” is P.C. for “lending money”

 

 

Book review:

American Bonds:

How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation

 

by Sarah L. Quinn

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019

288 pages

 

Quinn writes plain academic prose, and she has a lot to say.

“Credit” is a very polite way of saying “lending money,” which is a very polite way of describing what is elsewhere called “usury.”

It’s no surprise that lending money has been part of the social, economic, and political landscapes since money was invented, and certainly credit markets have always existed in America since colonial times.

American Bonds is a deeply engrossing text (it’s not a casual read) about how folks with money and businesses and the government have used credit availability for personal, corporate, and policy advantages. Credit has always been part of the American story.

You might try reading it a chapter at a time.

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

 

Home Team: Poems About Baseball (book review)

Edwin Romond hits another homer…

click here

My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 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”

*   *   *   *   *   *

“…these languid clouds…”…  “Vigil,” my poem

“…these languid clouds…”…  “Vigil,” my poem

see the curtains of dawn…

 

 

Vigil

 

Impatient skies

   that rend the clouds,

the slowly tumbled clouds,

   in their shades of gray,

the skies peek through

   these languid clouds…

 

October 23, 2023

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

–

My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 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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