The Boys. Ron Howard. 2021. ISBN 9780063065260.  A fond autobiography of Ron and Clint Howard.  They started acting very young, and managed through all the times to keep their father’s country ideals intact. Quite a bit of insight into their careers and how young Ron was entranced by what a director does. This book is a trip down TV memory lane with a cast of actors we all grew up with. Decent holiday read plus it talks about some of the magic that the industry uses.

Charles Warren. Royal Engineer in the Age of Empire. 2020. ISBN 9781839523496. Quite a fascinating history. These are the storied times of the great Empire.  India, Africa and many stirring tales.  The author is trying to write the wrongs he feels that have been done to this quite brilliant man.  From his schooling, through military career the man had many successes. In context one could say his was a sympathetic colonial warrior sensitive to the plights and rights of the subjugated peoples.  However, the powers that be and his superiors were not as attuned to how their actions would lead to uprisings and unrest in the colonies.  I found this to be quite an interesting book that presented both sides of many arguments.

A Passage North. Anuk Arudpragasam. 2021.  ISBN 9780593230718. A curious book that hit my inbox. The author is a Tamil who lived in India most of the war of India vs the Tigers.  When he returns home he revisits the war years through the experiences of his family ad a family friend.  He uses descriptive language like DH Laurence – rich and fulsome.  He has a detached roundabout way of writing.  With numerous references to Indian poems on Buddha, you will gain some insights into this and perhaps one South Asian’s philosophical view.

21 Questions for the 21st Century. Yuval Noah Harari,. 2020. ISBN 978-0771048883.  I like this author’s work.  He makes you sit back and think in easy chunks. He is very thoughtful and has addressed these questions in a very strategic order.  He builds to good insights and makes one really take stock of their own ideas.  Would that many of our world leaders had the intelligence to read and work though this book. I found him positive enough to give me hope for the future while being aware of the challenges.  There will be progress to beat our challenges but it will not be regular nor linear. You owe to yourself and your family to read this book.

Inside Out. A memoir. Demi Moore. 2019.  I confess to not being that interested in the lives of the rich and famous, so much of Demi Moore’s celebrity life, marriages and so on was never on my radar. But her life story was something else. As well I learned more about Bruce Willis and Ashton Kushner.  To have made the life she has with all the issues she had growing up in a supremely dysfunctional family, was exceptional. The book lays bare her inner emotional turmoil’s at all ages. To say she had a hard life an understatement. The read is interesting and simply written.

The Bomber Mafia. A dream, temptation and the longest night of the second world war. Malcolm Gladwell. 2021. ISBN 9780316296939.  A riveting true story, how the US developed and then tried to apply the Norden bombsight, despite its huge limits.  The growth of the Army  Air Force and how it differed from the British model.  And an insight into Curtis Lemay.   Like any Gladwell book, there are life lessons in this.  One is the US love of technology over what actually works in the field.  How true believers will rewrite the story to fit what they believe vs what actually happens.  And for Curts Lemay how his firestorms in Japan hastened them to the table and shortened the war. One could suppose that the US did not have to drop the bomb as Japan was already teetering.   Useful read and an easy one.

The Edge of Eternity. Ken Follett. 2020.  Following two fictional families, one in East Germany and one in USA ( black) from building the Wall, the Kennedy years, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Bush, the fall of the Wall, Europe Spring.  The families, their contacts, their enemies are intertwined with these events in history.  If you lived through some or all of this, you may not be able to put the book down.   Leaders are not always shown in a kindly light, with JFK taking quite a hit on his morals ( or lack of).  Worth the read as it is recent enough to ring true.

Joe Biden. The life, the run, and what matters now. Evan Osnos.2020. ISBN 9781982174026.  Published just prior to the inauguration this is a decent reveal about who and what Joe is.  It seems he may be what the US needs right now to “get the job done” while being quietly competent at working the Washington levers of power.  ( I think we appreciate the quiet part now)    I was interested in the projected actions he may take in his first forty weeks of power, he is under no illusions as to how short a honeymoon he may have.  His actions seem to follow these projections and why they seem necessary. It’s a useful book for those of us who watch the US from a distance.

Simon Scarrow. Cato and Macro series (1-17).  Scarrow is a prolific writer on the Roman expansion era ranging from the invasion of Britannia, in the Med., and the Middle East, and Rome all the way to the wars with Persia.  His two heroes, Cato and Macro are regular Roman fighters who get in and out of many deadly scrapes. The author’s research gives you an on-ground view of the life of a Roman soldier.  His writing is fast-paced, but with enough detail to keep you intrigued. Very enjoyable if you are a historical fiction buff.

The Splendid and the Vile. A saga of Churchill, family and defiance during the blitz. Erik Larson. 2020.  ISBN 9780385348713.  A very well and tightly written story of the 57 days and nights of the relentless bombing of Britain by the Germans in WWII.  You see how Churchill and family ( and other govt ministers)  worked and lived through these horrendous days.  Lots of pathos and emotion in the pages as well as insights into the English upper-crust life. The author has researched diaries, written reports and memoirs of the English, American and German leaders at the time.  Well worth the read with the bonus of Churchill’s descriptive prose throughout the book.