Actually...

"The Inside of a Dog" got bumped. I warned that this would happen. I got through 20-30 chapters (which were very difficult), and Brad Thor's "The Athena Project" came in. It immediately went into the CD player. So, without further ado...

Brad Thor's "The Athena Project".

The Good: Alot. This is the book that I have been most looking forward to reading, and it didn't disappoint. The book centers around a super-secret Delta force-trained counter-terrorism unit. And did I mention, they're all hot chicks!!! If you don't know, I am a huge fan of female protagonists. I am also a big follower of Brad Thor - his "The Last Patriot" is my favorite novel of the last decade. His traditional protagonist, CIA agent Scott Horvath is a well-crafted character, but in his last novel, "Foreign Influence", Thor introduced Horvath to The Athena team. Since then, Thor fans have been aching for more. And, we get it. The character development and interplay between Casey, Cooper, Erickson, and Rhodes is intriguing and entertaining. I want even more. There's even a couple of Horvath cameos. Real good.
It has Nazi's, KGB agents, alQaeda, quantum teleportation, a Venice boat chase, beautiful women with guns. What more could you want? So much fun.

The Bad: Not much. I am very particular when it comes to female protagonists, and there are but a few storytellers that can do it well. Greg Rucka is just about the best. Brad Thor doesn't reach that level. His girls are a little single-dimensional and, at times, very campy. It feels as if he is fishing for someone to snatch up the movie rights. But that's okay, it's the level of camp that I'm looking for with this story. Just needs slightly more depth. Also, the narrator was not my favorite.

The Ugly: The villians. I'm still unclear of who they were, and what their motivations were. This is the setup for the next novel, which I anticipate will be titled "The Amalgam", but it does absolutely nothing to intrigue me in "The Athena Project". I don't want the bad guys to be brought to justice bad enough, because I'm not quite clear who/what/where/when/why/how they are the bad guys. That was the only, but definitive, disappointment of the novel. Brad: a great villian makes a novel.

Next up...

Peter Schweitzer's "Architects of Ruin"

Disclaimer: Schweitzer was a speech writer for President Bush 43. He is a right wing nut job, like myself. I have read everything he's ever written - and I suggest all of you do, too. His book, "Do as I say, not as I do" is a must-read for contemporary American politics.

The Good: Everything. If Krakauer's book is the Cliff Notes for the Global War on Terror, then this should be called "The Great Recession of 2008 for Dummies." I have noticed that there are 3 groups of people when discussing the economy: people who understand the problem (which would include myself), people who want to appear as though they understand the problem (they say things like "tax cuts for the rich, and Bush lied, people died"), and then the largest group - the ones whose eyes glaze over when you bring it up. The apathetic masses, cultivated by years of public school indoctrination, are starting to stand up and take notice. They are starting to wonder why their friend's husband lost his job, or their sister's son lost his house, or why it costs them $300 at Wal-Mart now when it used to cost them 1/3 of that.
The answers to those questions are in this book. Who, what, when, why, where, and how caused this problem are listed in easy language in only 184 pages. And, newsflash folks, ain't nothing changed. All of the faces and practices that caused the problem are still in place, and running along as if nothing ever happened. Oh, and fully funded with your great-grandchildrens' lunch money.
In case your getting glazed over again - he spells it out better than I could, and easier.

2nd Disclaimer: if you are part of the 1st group, you should still read this - but also check out Michael Lewis' "The Big Short". He's the guy who wrote "Moneyball" and "The Blind Side", and he explains what happened in excrutiating (but entertaining) detail, minus the partisan political rhetoric. It's fantastic. Read it.

The Bad: Very little. It is short, and written very simply. I'd have preferred more details, but I understand why he wrote it this way.

The Ugly: None.

Overall Rating: Like 4.99 out of 5 for educating Joe Q. Public on the Recession, and the current state of affairs in our economy. Please, please read this.

Next up...

Steven Adler's My Apetite For Destruction...

The Good: Not much. For us GN'R fans who have been desperately longing for the band to recapture its glory of the original album, anything attached to that timeframe generates great nostalgia. It takes alot of reminding yourself of this to make it through this book. The retelling of the stories from that era are fun. That's about it.

The Bad: It's all pretty much bad. The writing is like a note passed between freshman girls in the school hallway. I mean, let's face it, Adler is who he is and he doesn't swerve from that. I thought that the ghost writer might improve upon that, but I was wrong. Very wrong.

The Ugly: Even the pictures aren't that cool. If nothing else, you would expect the pictures from the Apetite From Destruction tour to be cool. But, no...

Overall rating: I'm not going to even rate this. I would love to get a signed copy of this, along with Slash's book. Mostly just to attain the autographs. As far as reading it, don't bother.

Next up...

Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory...

Jon Krakauer’s, Where Men Win Glory
For each book, I will do a quasi-review using the following Sergio Leone-inspired layout:

The Good: For starters, and I will lead with this every time, Scott Brick was phenomenal. He could read the alphabet, and it would hold my attention. I can’t speak for other audio book readers, but for me, the narrator makes such an enormous difference. With novels, Dick Hill and George Guidall are legends, and rightly so, several of the novelists that are must-reads for me, are so because of those 2 guys. Scott Brick is quickly becoming one of those narrators for me. It is just incredible. I have a personal rule: for non-fiction texts, the author had better be the narrator. How can you properly communicate the message of your book, if you’re not doing the reading? Well, now there’s an amendment: if you’re not going to read it yourself, use Scott Brick. He was fantastic.
Having said that, even if you’re not an audio book reader, I think nearly all Americans should read this book. If nothing else, Krakauer does yeoman’s work of explaining the history of Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, and all of the events that have led to that theatre’s inclusion in the Global War on Terror. It is very necessary.

The Bad: Of course, Krakauer is a pinko loon, granola Leftist partisan, without a doubt. I don’t care about that, for the reasons stated above. But, he really just doesn’t get it when it comes to Pat Tillman’s significance. I have, through my graduate studies, encountered a surprising number of American men aged 18-28 who have been to Afghanistan or Iraq, who have contributed to the insurance of our lifestyle and Western civilization. They truly are the new “Greatest Generation”, just heroes, all. However, outside of my academic universe, there is very little interaction or sacrifice being made by me or my peers in this global conflict. We are at war. And so little of the American public has been impacted by that. This is atypical of the American experience of our wars, and that is not a good thing. Pat Tillman really, really understood that. And that is the importance of Tillman’s story. So many of our heroes of past generations; athletic, pop cultural, political, they all were also war heroes. They gave back to the nation that gave them so much opportunity, and they pitched in, unflinchingly, when she was threatened. The fact that Tillman has become the anomaly in that capacity is a sad, sad statement as to where we our as a nation. Pat Tillman should be the standard for our heroes, and that should be the message.

The Ugly: There isn’t much. But Krakauer does suffer incessantly from Bush Derangement Syndrome. He spends vast expanses of words and pages railing needlessly, and vitriolic, against the Bush Administration. It seems strangely out of place, and does a disservice to the seriously good story telling that he presents. It’s just sad, really.

Overall Review: 3.5 out of 5. It is a must read, simply because it is like a Cliff Notes for the Global War on Terror. If you can look past the Bush-bashing.

1st Up...

The 1st book of my quest is Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory, the story of Pat Tillman. I will stipulate the following going in:

1. Pat Tillman is a hero. I don't look at his story as a way to disparage the US Army, or the war effort, or the Bush Presidency. I just look at his story as a hero's story. Period.

2. I am assuming that Jon Krakauer, who wrote Into the Wild, will not echo my sentiments and will attempt to do all of the above. So, I'm very skeptical.

3. To be fair, I didn't read Into the Wild, I only saw the movie. But the movie was a pinko-leftist anti-capitalist piece of crap, and it was boring. So, I'm very skeptical.

4. That being said, Scott Brick is reading it, and he is just phenomenal.

I'll report back on Monday with my review.