| Tuesday, July 11, 2006 |
| Joe's Library |
Mrs. Napalm has just recently added three new books to our library. Actually, she added two new books and replaced one.
The first book she added was Education of a Wandering Man by one of my favorite authors, Louis L'Amour. The cover says that the book includes "recollections of his life as a hobo on the South Pacific Railroad, as a cattle skinner in Texas, as a merchant seaman in Singapore and the West Indies, and as a bare-knuckle prizefighter across small-town America."
The second book was a replacement book. She bought John Adams by David McCullough. Several years ago, I was halfway through the book when I misplaced it during a National Guard annual training exercise. Since misplacing this wonderful biography, I have read two other books by McCullough -- The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge and 1776. I have longed to finish his book about the great Federalist and now have the opportunity.
My favorite storyteller and historian is the late Stephen E. Ambrose. I've read many of his books including Undaunted Courage, Pegasus Bridge, Citizen Soldiers, The Wild Blue, Nothing Like It In the World, and my Ambrose favorite, Band of Brothers. Mr. Ambrose -- Dr. Ambrose, actually -- brings history alive. His telling of history is accurate, exciting and relevant.
The third addition to the Joe Napalm Library is Ambrose's last book, To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian . It is a wave goodbye before his untimely death from cancer. Eschewing political correctness, Ambrose wrote in this memoir, "History should be studied by objective minds that refuse to view the people of the past through the eyes of our 21st century."
I'm giddy with excitement to get back home to finish chapter two. |
posted by Joe Napalm @ 9:16 AM   |
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