What are you currently reading in 2017?

[Backwards Observer]

The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud


The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess

[Backwards Observer]

Modern Man In Search Of A Soul by C.G. Jung


SS-GB by Len Deighton

[Backwards Observer]

Ghost Riders of Baghdad by Daniel A Sjursen


The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

[RTK]

Just picked up Nadia Shadlow's War and the Art of Governance

First couple chapters in and it is a quick read. Great synopsis of how Army forces have, out of necessity, performed tasks to consolidate military action into sustainable political gains while not optimized to do so.

Highly recommend.

[AmericanPride]

The Romanovs by Montefiore

The Ghost Warriors by Katz

[Bill Moore]

https://www.amazon.com/Indestructibl...Indestructible


Indestructible: One Man's Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII October 11, 2016

by John R Bruning

I had no idea what to expect when I bought this book, but once I started reading it I had a hard time putting it down. I guess we'll always be cursed by not knowing and honoring all the real heroes who made a difference in the world. Hero is term we throw around too loosely in today's politically correct world, but it is no exaggeration to call Pappy a hero, and we have the opportunity to learn about Pappy thanks to Bruning's book.

It is a love story, a story of deep courage and commitment to winning the war, a story of how man overcomes a bureaucracy, a story of innovation, and a story of how a Mother and her three children survive in a Japanese Detention Camp in Manila. It contains almost unbelievable episodes of daring in combat and in garrison, such as Pappy stealing American made aircraft given to the Dutch in the Indonesia. These aircraft were more modern than the ones the Army Air Force had, so he and his band of merry men stole some to fight the Japanese. The story of how Pappy progressed from a member of the flying Chiefs in the Navy, one of the best Naval Air Squadrons at the time and most of the pilots were enlisted, to establishing a Philippine Airlines Company in the Philippines (prior to WWII and again afterwards), to getting recalled to serve in the Army Air Force. Even the short epilogue is fascinating.

[Bill Moore]

https://www.amazon.com/Connectograph...y+parag+khanna

Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization
April 19, 2016
by Parag Khanna

This is the most insightful book I read this year, and it certainly adds to the stories told in previous books I posted about here such as "The Rebalance" and "The Seventh Sense." I will address the arguments made by the author in strategy for a 21st Century in the forum. To save time, I'll refer you to one my favorite book reviewers review of the book on Amazon. I certainly couldn't say it any better.

6-Star Utterly Brilliant Survey and Strategy

By Robert David STEELE HALL OF FAME

The author of this book has done something no one else has done – I say this as the reviewer of over 2,000 non-fiction books at Amazon across 98 categories. For the first time, in one book, we have a very clear map of what is happening where in the way of economic and social development; a startlingly diplomatic but no less crushing indictment of nation-state and militaries; and a truly inspiring game plan for what we should all be demanding from countries, cities, commonwealths, communities, and companies, in the way of future investments guided by a strategy for creating a prosperous world at peace.

This is a nuanced deeply stimulating book that makes it clear that China’s grand strategy of building infrastructure has beaten the US strategy of threatening everyone with a dysfunctional military that crushes hope and destroys wealth everywhere it goes; that connectivity (cell phones, the Internet, roads, high-speed rail, tunnels, bridges, and ferries) is the accelerator for wealth creation by the five billion poor that most Western states and corporations ignore; and it provides to me more surprises, more factoids I did not know, more insights – than any five to ten other books I have read over time.

At one point it occurred to me that in some ways the author is our generation’s successor to Alvin Toffler, Peter Drucker, and Robert Kaplan, combined. I really am deeply impressed, in part because the author’s insights come from years of crisscrossing the world and touch reality in a hands-on manner not achieved by any diplomatic, intelligence, commercial, media, or academic network in existence today; and in part because the book comes with 38 glorious color maps that are each alone worth the price of the book [an appendix points to 38 web sites that supplement the book and are a discovery journey of their own].

This is the best book – the deepest and the most useful – the author has produced to date. This is a book that should be read by every prime minister, president, senator, organizational chief – and by those who aspire to such positions. Many people publish content – few publish context – this book has both.