The Last Lion Volume 1: Winston Churchill: Visions of Glory 1874-1932

The Last Lion Volume 1: Winston Churchill: Visions of Glory 1874-1932 by William Manchester

I had known that William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill is widely regarded as the best of the lot.  What I did not know is that this retrospective was three volumes – each at about 1,000 pages.  That’s about 3,000 pages total.  Yikes.  So I approached this first volume with tiptoes and trepidation.  Could I actually make it through 3,000 pages?  Is it even possible to write so much about one person?  Would it keep my interest?

After finishing the first volume, for the most part, the progress report is highly favorable.  This is a very long, detailed account of one of the most celebrated figures of the twentieth century.  Now, when one says “long”, that usually means “too” long, but that really isn’t the case here.  Manchester is simply meticulous, and he doesn’t leave anything out.  It should also be pointed out that this first book covers 58 years of the man’s life, so the 1,000 pages or so can’t really be criticized too heavily for only reasons of excess.

What I found a bit peculiar is that the introduction to this book actually gives a brief (well, semi-brief – I’m guessing about 50 pages.  Since I read an e-book without page numbers, I’m not entirely sure) overview of the man’s entire life.  Why give a synopsis of the entire story right before you begin to actually tell the tale?  Perhaps the justification might be that the masses who are familiar with the man only know that he was the Prime Minister of England during World War II, and the author wanted to let us know that there was so much more to the story.  I didn’t find this cumbersome, yet it did seem a bit unnecessary.

Right after this introduction, he then goes into an….um…another introduction?  (Maybe it was a “forward” or something.  I can’t remember).  In this portion, the author takes another 50 pages or so to describe 19^th century England for the novice reader.  This, in fact, I found very helpful.  Maybe since I’m a citizen of the U.S. and know precious little about England’s varied history.  It was definitely an asset when describing not only all of the arms of the British Empire, but how the English Aristocracy actually functioned, and how it was drastically different that the vast majority of the starving peasants that lived in the fetid streets of London.   Churchill was born into that aristocracy, so it helps the reader digest a lot of the “normal” comings and goings of those relevant to the biography.

So we finally then get to Winston’s early years.  This book describes his parents to basically be a couple of pompous jerks who see their children as a major annoyance.  Winston and brother Jack are quickly sent off to public (similar to what Americans would call “private”) school, and their parents are more concerned with throwing lavish parties then wanting to be bothered with their children.  Winston feels the rejection, yet it never seems to overwhelm him too much.  Again, the forward to the book leads us to believe that this was perhaps a bit more common in the echelons of England’s high society.  Particularly annoying is Winston’s American mother.  I guess I could describe her as “promiscuous” (that sounds nicer than “slut”).  I couldn’t keep up with all of the men she was sleeping with – both while married and after Winston’s father died prematurely.

After school, Winston spends time in the armed forces.  He goes to a lot of places, and is in a lot of battles.  This never bothers him.  He, and all of the youth of England, actually crave the battlefield and have absolutely no fear of dying in combat.  It’s suggested that Churchill is using the battlegrounds as a step to politics, which is where most of the book focuses.

When Churchill does go into politics, this is where I frequently got lost.  It wasn’t that the writing was poor, but I simply don’t know that much about politics in England.  I really couldn’t tell you what a Prime Minister really does, what the relationship is between Parliament and the “Royals”, the difference between the labours and the liberals, nor the difference between the tories and the conservatives.  Let’s just say that I was very relieved that reading an E-book allows you to quickly look up stuff on Wikipedia.  I’ve never had to use a reference site as much as I did when I read this book.

So all of the details are here up until 1932.  A lot of them are good for his career, but a lot more seem bad.  Lots of mistakes are made in the man’s life, and he learned a lot of lessons the hard way.  Sometimes I felt the details were a bit too drawn out (the failed Dardanelles experiment in the First World War comes to mind), yet overall the story flowed very smoothly with all events packed in rather tightly.  

The main thing you have to admire about Churchill was that he was definitely his “own” man.  He never seemed to want to say what the masses wanted to hear, nor say what he was “supposed” to say.  He spoke his mind.  Rather brave for any politician.  So although this caused many problems in his political life, it’s easy to now see, in retrospect, how it was just this attitude that helped England win the Second World War.

I’m looking forward to the next volume – but my brain needs a bit of a break before I plow back into the man’s life.

Ender's Game

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

I confess that I’m not that much of a Science-Fiction fan.  To me, it seems like every Science-Fiction book 1) Takes place In the distant future (unless it’s in a galaxy far, far away) 2) Involves interplanetary travel, and 3) Revolves around a society where the masses aren’t too happy for whatever strange reason. 

Ender’s Game fits into all three of these categories.  It takes place on Earth sometime in the future, and the biggest worry is a repeat of an alien invasion by a group of extra-terrestrials known as The Buggers.  Therefore, it’s society’s main goal to do everything to repel such an invasion if a repeat is to occur.  We must not let The Buggers destroy the planet (and other surrounding planets where humans live – I think).

Specifically, the Earth must have some smart soldiers to command our galactic fleet.  Very smart.  How smart?  Well, it seems that selective breeding is even done between sets of genius parents.  One group of parents breed a couple of kids who are very close to being “able”, but their two children aren’t quite the caliber needed.   They come close, however, so  this set of parents are allowed to breed a third child – practically unheard of in this future world, and little Ender Wiggin is born.

By the time Ender is only six years old, he’s recruited into Space School. He’s been “observed” since his birth, and this kid does, in fact, have what it takes.  He’s not forced to go to this school, but he’s highly encouraged.  The human race, after all, needs someone like Ender.  So he has to leave his parents and older siblings.  This really isn’t that big of a deal – the only family member he really cares about is big sister Valentine.  His older brother resents him so much that he’s constantly beaten and bullied, so there’s no love lost there.  So Ender is now off to learn how to beat The Buggers in Space School.

Space School isn’t really a happy place either.  There’s many other kids there as well.  Ender is young for his advanced abilities, so he’s placed with older kids.  Older kids mostly resent him just as his brother did, so Ender gets picked on a lot.  The Powers That Be realize this, but they’re o.k. with it.  After all, they’re teaching this boy to be a fighter.  Plus, he’s homesick.  A little, anyway.  A lot of time at school is not necessarily spent on study, but rather on “battle” games.  There are a lot of these games within these pages.  I envisioned these things looking like the lazer tag games that kids today play at the pizza parlor – only without gravity.  They’re in space, remember.  So, after each and every game, Ender “learns” something to help him on his way to becoming a leader in the field of space battle.

After he’s at school for about five years, the head honchos (who observe everything these kids do all the time, it seems), decide that Ender is now ready for “Command” School even though, like when he first arrived at Space School, he’s extremely young.  So Ender arrives at some other galactic post, and many of the same types of lessons are taught.

This book was a very quick read.  By the time I only had about fifty or so pages left, I began to worry that this book was going to leave the reader hanging  (I think there are 4 other “Ender” books, and didn’t want to have to read 4 more to figure out the conclusion), yet the author actually brings the story to a very satisfactory ending.  Anytime you’re transported to a Sci-Fi world, you’re never going to know everything there is to know about your new surroundings, but I was happy with Ender’s “ending”.

I also found it kind of neat (and eerie) that although this book was written in 1985, this futuristic world featured devices similar to what people use today.  Things such as portable work stations that people used called “Desks”, that seemed to function exactly the way that laptop computers operate.  Society uses these “desks” to globally communicate with others through something called “Nets”.  Whoa. There’s another scary coincidence.   Maybe author Orson Scott Card knew things 30 years ago that no one else did?

I was also very pleased that this book was only about 300 pages or so.  I can see where another author could take such a story and drag it into the same tale, yet take twice as many pages which would probably have put me to sleep.  As I write this, a long awaited film adaptation has just been released (starring Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley).  Of course, most seem to really like the movie except the purists.  

I wouldn’t mind reading the other four books some day.

Where is Heaven?

Where is Heaven?  By Phil Bowie

I debated whether or not to even include this one in my blog.  Not only was this book awful, but it was awfully written as well.  A note to Kindle users everywhere: Beware of “free” books, or books offered very cheap.  They’re probably heavily discounted for a reason.

I thought this book would be a nice read.  The tag of this book describes it as written by a man who is a skeptic about faith, yet has a Near Death Experience and now believes in God.  I’ve always been interested in so-called Near Death Experiences (especially as I get older, and death isn’t quite as far away as it once was!)  Are these experiences “real”?  Or are they result of a dying brain not getting enough oxygen?

Let’s just say that this book has absolutely nothing to do with any Near Death Experience.  The author basically fills up the pages with his own personal tirade against religion.  He talks about a lot of “good things” that he sees in churches and in religion, yet also the “bad things”.  The bad far outweigh the good in his mind, so he goes on and on and on.  This book is basically just a rant.

The frustrating thing is that he refuses to expound on any of his observations.  Example: He easily dismisses Jesus’ “water into wine” miracle because it’s (get this) “only in one of the four gospels”.  Yes.  He actually wrote that.  He doesn’t spend any time talking about the reason for this miracle, and what the true meaning behind it was.  He seems to think that Jesus was simply putting on a “magic show” and since people enjoy drinking wine more than they do water – he’ll just pull a rabbit out of his hat and improve the beverage selection.  Now, to be fair, there are a lot of Christians that don’t understand the point of this miracle either (I would recommend a Google search or two), but this is simply lazy writing.  In fact, he purposely avoids a bibliography because he states that anyone can “look up this information on the internet or on Wikipedia”.  

O-kaaayyy.

So what, then, is the answer to the question in the title of his book?  You know, the one about where Heaven is?   According to this author (and he spends very little time discussing this) is that there is no real heaven.  Not a place, anyway.  I mean, if there was, how come we can’t see it with the Hubble telescope?  Heaven is merely in our hearts and in the memories we leave others.  Same with Hell.

Now, even though I don’t agree with this author’s beliefs, that’s not why I hated the book so much.  I think the main reason was, again, the description of the book, and the fact that it was highly misleading.  Although I got it for free, I noticed that the very next day the price of this book was now $4.99.

Please don’t spend $4.99 on this book.  If you do, I can promise you that you will then be in “Hell” - according to how this author describes it.

The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum

Remember when you were a kid in school and you would lean back on the back two legs of your chair, and you would ALMOST fall down, but you’d CATCH yourself at the last second?  Remember how you felt during that second?  That’s about how Jason Bourne must feel for the entire 650 pages of this book.  Talk about non-stop action.  How this guy can survive all of this constant turmoil is beyond me.

When we met Bourne in the first novel, The Bourne Identity, we pieced a bit of his history together.  Apparently, he was a good-guy killer used by the U.S. Government.  The problem was, he didn’t know who he was at the beginning of that story since he was suffering from  amnesia.  As that story unraveled, we found out that he was really a man named David Webb, but he took on this alter identity after suffering the horrors of Vietnam and witnessing his young family become slaughtered.  So the government uses him for their dirty deeds in the world of foreign espionage.  He’s real good at that sort of thing.

As this story opens, the government needs him again, but he’s “retired” living with his wife (the one he kidnapped in the first book).  They need him because there’s a “counterfeit” Jason Bourne knocking off people in Asia, and the government pieces together that the Chinese government is trying to sabotage the forthcoming handover of Hong Kong from the British Government (this event actually took place in 1997 - about a decade after this book was written).  The only way the government can get the real Bourne to act out his mission, is by kidnapping his wife.  So the rules are simple - find the counterfeit Bourne, do away with him, and you can have your wife back.

So the pissed off real Bourne (really David Webb, remember) is back in action.  I should probably capitalize the word “action”.  Holy cats.  Every time Bourne turns around there’s an explosion, a kidnapping, someone being tortured, someone being raped, et cetera, et cetera.  Such scenes usually work better in a film as opposed to a book, but Robert Ludlum knows how to make scenes like this work on the printed pages.  That’s not to say this book is necessarily easy to follow.  Although the main story is simple enough to keep you from getting lost, I confess that I got very confused many times during the smaller scenes within the story.  Maybe there were too many characters with too many identities, or maybe it’s just Ludlum is very “thick” with his writing.  I kept asking myself things such as: “How did he know there would be an assassination attempt?”, “Why did he garrote  that guy in the alley?”, and “Why, exactly did Mao’s tomb blow up?”.  After awhile, I simply gave up and just accepted that Bourne knew what he was doing, and I shouldn’t try to keep up with his thoughts and actions.

Tons of action isn’t necessarily a great thing.  Although it was overall enjoyable, there were times when I wish that Bourne would stop and take, you know, a nap or something.  Unlike James Bond, this guy has no time to enjoy a drink, a game at the casino, or the company of a gorgeous woman.  I felt exhausted at times just reading about how Bourne felt after going (what seemed like) days without any sleep.

As much as I enjoyed the book, I thought it was a bit too long.  As I mentioned, the book is about 650 pages in length, yet these are also dense pages - with small print etc.  After I finished about 500 pages, I was more concerned with how soon I could finish the thing than I was about the outcome of the story.  Never a good thing.  I think there’s one more “original” Bourne.  I’m sure I’ll get to it one of these days, but I’m definitely not in a rush.  I need to rest awhile.