The monthly reading list for June, July and August 07.

Summer vacation, gone before you know it. Faster than in the states of course, cause it's only a month long here. But still.

Did a bit of reading, though not as much as it seems, as this is three months worth... but I never get through all the books I want to.

The stacked bookshelf remains, full of the unread, taunting me. The bastard.

So off we go.

A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey Through the World of Fighting by Sam Sheridan. From the Amazon blurb -

"Sheridan joined the merchant marines after high school, eventually graduated from Harvard, and worked his way to Australia on a yacht. There, in 1999, he decided to indulge his fascination with fighting, hoping to test himself... After some months of training in Australia, he moved to Bangkok to train with a legendary Muay Thai champion. That experience--and his first professional bout--expanded into a multiyear odyssey in which he trained with Olympic boxers, Brazilian jujitsu champions, and Ultimate Fighting combatants."

For anybody who digs this kind of thing, at all, this was a great book. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Some excerpts I particularly dug, to give you a flavor -

"You have a specific responsibility to existence... to taste, touch and smell what there is to experience. You have to do everything. If given an option between doing something and not doing it, you have to do it; because you've already done the "not do it" part. This can be juvenile and dangerous, I realize, and there are a lot of things I have chosen not to do... But I feel that you owe it to the world to be curious. Somebody asked me if I was looking for something. I am looking for everything."

"You're always going to be hurt; you'll never be a hundred percent healthy. This is fighting. But my strength is greater than my weakness."

"They train hard to win fights, so that no one will be able to dominate them, to damage them where they have been damaged - but in the end, they train to make themselves better... Fighting is not just a manhood test; that is the the surface. The depths are about knowledge and self-knowledge, a method of examining one's own life and motives. For most people who take it seriously, fighting is more about the self than the other."

Read volumes 6 Blood Rites, 7 Dead Beat , 8 Proven Guilty, and 9 White Night of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, which catches me up on the series. Addictively entertaining, the mix of hardboiled detective genre plus magic. And written with a wry wit and great sense of humor. Shame the SciFi series [based on the books] didn't get picked up for a second season. This is one of the few series, along with Barry Eisler's John Rain books and anything written by Greg Rucka [whose sixth Atticus Kodiak novel is enroute as I type, praise jeebus] that I'll make an effort to pick up in hardcover, because the idea of waiting for the paperback is just frustrating. Volumes 6-9 feature the usual assortment of vampires, political intrigue, magic, noir and uber-coolness. It wraps up some earlier dangling plot mysteries and gives out some brand new ones. Plus, you know, Zombie Dinosaurs. I say again, ZOMBIE DINOSAURS. C'mon, how much does that rock?

You Gotta Have Wa and The Samurai Way of Baseball: The Impact of Ichiro and the New Wave from Japan, both by Robert Whiting. I don't even really like baseball, but Whiting's two books on gaijin playing ball in Japan and the effects of Ichiro's [and others] playing in the MLB is as interesting and effective cross cultural comparison as I've ever read. Wanna "get" Japan? These'll do it. Remember, there's no crying in baseball. Unless you're Japanese. Really entertaining.

Requiem for an Assassin by Barry Eisler. The sixth John Rain novel. John Rain, half Japanese, half American assassin for hire. This time up against a rogue CIA operative who kidnaps one of the only people Rain calls a friend. Despite the fact that the plot might sound like a "by the numbers" spy thriller, Eisler writes some of the best, most complex, believable and interesting characters in modern espionage. And reading the tradecraft and everything else is always fascinating, knowing the man actually worked for the CIA. Great, great book.

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss. From the Amazon blurb -

"This ugly-duckling tale will affect different readers in different ways, depending on their degree of cynicism... When his story begins Strauss is, well, a Neil: an unconfident, self-described AFC (average frustrated chump). He is also, it should be noted, a well-known rock critic who penned porn star Jenna Jameson's autobiography, leaving one wondering just how pathetic women really found him. After paying $500 to join a workshop for aspiring PUAs (pick-up artists) led by a magician named Mystery at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel, Strauss becomes addicted to pick-up technique. He trains with several PUA gurus, including Ross Jeffries, a hypnotist rumored to be the basis for the Tom Cruise character in Magnolia. With his brains and dedication, Strauss renames himself Style and soon becomes a master of the game—able to get sex from beautiful women who once would have run the other way.But The Game doesn't get really interesting until Strauss deviates from his NC-17 Horatio Alger story and tells what happens when he moves into a Sunset Strip mansion with a group of other PUAs..."

The book is pretty damn fascinating, especially from a male/female psychology/relationship perspective. I dug it. A lot of it resonated with me... Like it said in Fight Club, my generation is a generation raised by women. Neither my dad nor my older brothers ever sat me down to talk about girls. No one ever taught me any social skills [as most who know me will attest - har de har], but women have a whole magazine industry dedicated to it and spend more than a little time talking about "relationships". Guys? Not so much. As an aside, one of the main characters in the book, Mystery, is now starring in his own Pickup Artist show on VH1. This show is pretty cool.

Flesh and Bone: A Body Farm Novel by Jefferson Bass. Second in the series. Fascinating forensic anthropology mystery stuff. Anybody who digs CSI at all would like this, I think. I enjoyed this one better than the first novel in the series, the writing felt tighter and better paced to me.

Unholy Alliance: A History of the Nazi Involvement With the Occultby Peter Levenda. I actually picked this up as a birthday present for a buddy of mine, but Nazi + occult? I soooo read it first. Remember kids, the world's not only stranger than you think, it's stranger than you can think. [I coulda sworn that quote was Heinlein, but the mighty Google finds attribution for it from everybody from Russell to Einstein to Heinlein.]

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore. Moore writes some damn funny books. [Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal remains a favorite.] His comedic stylings work in this book, ostensibly about a marine research biologist studying songs of the humpback whales in Hawaii. Until the day he sees the words "Bite Me" on the flukes of one of the whales. Hilarity and madcappedness ensues. Fun book, quick read.

THE Complete Keys to Progress by John McCallum. A collection of John McCallum's articles from the 1960s Strength & Health magazine. Inspiring.

Act of Treason (Mitch Rapp Novels) by Vince Flynn. Apparently, years ago, I read another Mitch Rapp book by Vince Flynn and passed it on to a buddy of mine. Forgot all about it. Apparently it was a lot more memorable to Kev than to me, 'cause when I went to Nagoya for his b-day, Kev insisted I take and read this installment of the Rapp saga. I knocked it off on the Shinkansen ride back to Fukutsu. And... well... I don't want to wax negatively on anybody who's doing their thing... but it was a little painful. Here's what I wrote to Kev about it.

"...I guess the steely eyed, nigh perfect, I'm breaking the rules and fucking over the system because in my heart I know what's really right as opposed to all these others who are soft and weak... well, I guess it's just not as entertaining when the idiots that run the US government REALLY think that way and have turned it all into such a godforsaken disaster.

But still, despite all that I was able to turn off the brain and the critical thinking and enjoy the explody and the gunfire until... I say UNTIL... he started in on the martial arts stuff. His dojo scenes, his fight scenes, and worst of all, his descriptions of training with the "Gracie brothers" [beating everybody in the dojo within a month, of course] made me want to jab my own eyes out with chopsticks...

You know, I don't wanna pat myself on the back for my insight and wisdom, but as I was reading it, I couldn't help but think "This is a guy who very much wanted to join the military, or thinks he wanted to join the military, but didn't for some reason. Cause his fantasy version of that world is outta control." And thanks to the magic of wikipedia [my personal deity], sure enough, Flynn was supposed to go Marine aviation, but didn't pass his medical qualifications. Short version, I AM A GENIUS.

[Comparing it to the John Rain series] by Barry Eisler who who actually worked for the CIA, and actually trained [and I think got his black belt] at the Kodokan in Tokyo. Like night and day from the Flynn books."

But still, if you can shut off the overly critical faculties of the brain and enjoy the explodo and the occasional right-wing diatribe, it's a fun book. Good plot too, here's the summary -

"When an al-Qaeda–style bomb attack on the motorcade of the Democratic presidential candidate, Georgia governor Josh Alexander, in Washington, D.C., a month before the November election kills the candidate's wife and several Secret Service agents, Rapp uses all the tools at his disposal to investigate the claim of the now discredited head of the protective detail that a mysterious figure in a red baseball cap set off the fatal bomb. Rapp soon finds that the motive for the outrage may be personal rather than political."

On the other hand, back in high school my dad turned me onto the Remo Williams/The Destroyer books. Some older folks might remember the mid-80's Fred Ward Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins flick. Inscrutable asian martial arts masters, spies, espionage, tournaments to the death. Good times. Those books, despite their constant evisceration of the left wing, and occasionally the right... I've always enjoyed the hell out of. It's that light touch that humor, parody and satire can provide, I guess. Anyways, there's 100+ "The Destroyer" books out there and on occasion I pick up one, devour it and laugh my ass off. It's hit or miss though since one of the original creators/writers has died and the other went on a long hiatus from the series. The substitute writers were always hit or miss. But now Warren Murphy is back on the series [with co-writer James Mullaney], guiding Remo and Chiun adventures, and they are definitely worth picking up.

First up was a three novel omnibus reprint "best of." And it was. The Best of the Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. Included are: The Destroyer: Chinese Puzzle, where Remo and Chiun are called upon to smash an Asian conspiracy that could lead to a US-China confrontation. The Destroyer: Slave Safari, in Africa, countless feuds that have blazed for many centuries are quickly being resolved by death and massacre. A massive conspiracy is unearthed surrounding the centuries-old slave trade, and only Remo can unravel it. And one of my favorites, The Destroyer: Assassin's Playoff, where Remo and Chiun find themselves in battle after battle against Nuihc, Chiun's nephew, as they battle for the right to be the Master of Sinanju.

And the newest book was The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney.

"When a dozen border patrol volunteers are murdered in New Mexico, apparent victims of Mexican nationals, Dr. Harold W. Smith of the super-secret agency CURE worries the first salvo in a new border dispute has been fired. His worst fears are realized with the appearance of the charismatic Santa Ana, a uniformed, would-be despot with a silver tongue and a thirst for bloody revolution.

General Santa Anna has redrawn the border between the U.S. and Mexico to fit his own twisted version of reality, and thousands of illegal aliens are drawn to his message of liberation. The Southwest is on fire, and as the revolution explodes the entire nation is at risk. It seems the brazen general has planned for every eventuality. Except one...

...Remo Williams, CURE's one man enforcement arm, has returned to the U.S. just in time to prevent Armageddon. With his Korean mentor Chiun, the Master of Sinanju, at his side, America just might live to see mañana."

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. Read Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand years ago and really dug it. Here, Ellroy's fictionalized take on the '40s unsolved Black Dahlia case was likewise a really engrossing read. Ellroy's afterword to the book though, talking about his feelings about the case and how it all tied into his feelings about the murder of his own mother... well... it's a tragedy, and I sympathize, but it struck me as kind of creepily Oedipal. Or Oedipally creepy. I dunno.

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis is easily one of the best and most enjoyable books I've read this year. I've long been a fan of Ellis's comic book work, his way with character and dialogue, and his bitingly insane black humor that nevertheless somehow remains tinged with optimism. Can't recommend this book enough. Ostensibly, it's a noirish private detective tale that traverses the weirdness of the USA.

"Michael McGill, a burned-out private eye is hired by a corrupt politician to find a second "backup" US Constitution, which had been lost in a whorehouse by Nixon. What follows is a scavenger hunt across America, exposing its seedier side along the way. McGill is joined by surreal college student side-kick, Trix."

Buy this book people. Here's a taste.

"Want to know how much we paid Jim Nabors to shoot Reagan with a sniper rifle? Nothing. It was all done for the love of Rock Hudson."

"God, I hate that word. 'Appropriate.' It's like, hang a sign around my neck reading I Am a Boring Asshole."

"...people are the same all over. It's not like you're flying into a jungle when you go south. Texans, Minnesotans, Montanans, other 'ans' beginning with Ts and Ms - all the goddamn same, same mix of heroes and pricks, same old bunch of nice and nasty."

Rock, Iron, Steel: The Book of Strength by Steve Justa. No bullshit book on real world "functional strength" training. Excellent.

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner by Dean Karnazes. Dean Karnazes is an an ultramarathoner who has won races 135miles in length. This is his story. It is awesome. From the Amazon writeup -

"Many would see running a marathon as the pinnacle of their athletic career; thrill-seeker Karnazes didn't just run a marathon, he ran the first marathon held at the South Pole. The conditions were extreme—"breathing the superchilled air directly [without a mask] could freeze your trachea"—yet he craved more. Also on his résumé: completing the Western States 100-mile endurance run and the Badwater 135-mile ultramarathon through Death Valley (which he won), as well as a 199-mile relay race... with only himself on his team. This running memoir paints the picture of an insanely dedicated—some may say just plain insane—athlete."

On Writing by Stephen King. I've never actually read a Stephen King novel. Or, I think, sat through a whole Stephen King movie. [Except Stand by Me.] But the man's effect on popular culture is HUGE. Neither do I have any aspirations to write. Regardless of all that, King's tome on the creative process and writing a book is utterly fascinating, and makes me want to scour the libraries to read as much of him as I can. Just an incredibly interesting book.

Payton by Connie Payton, Jarrett Payton, Brittney Payton. I can't say that I watch much football anymore. Even a few years ago, when I lived in the states, not so much. In fact, haven't seriously watched it since high school, when I played a little bit. That being said, on those Sunday afternoons when I'd sit down with my dad to watch a game, there was absolutely nothing so incredible, so inspiring, so beautiful, or so goddamn cool to watch as Walter Payton running the football. This book and the included DVD were absolutely fantastic.

Also read this year's 2007 JET Journal/Essay compendium. Same mix of interesting and not so interesting as any essay collection, though I'd have to say, overall, the 2006 edition had stronger material.


Graphic Novels:

Justice League: I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League (Paperback)
by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire. In the mid-80's these guys wrote the Justice League comic I grew up on. A mix of high adventure, second string heroes and goofy humor made for great comics. In the midst of the grim n' gritty, Dark Knight, Watchmen, Image comics, they offered another take. Here the guys give "their" team one more go, and it IS good. We shall never see the likes of these again...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Vol. 1 by Joss Whedon and others. Buffy rocks. That is all. From Amazon -

"The definitive comics collection of all things Buffy starts here. This first massive volume begins at the beginning - The Origin, a faithful adaptation of creator Joss Whedon's original screenplay for the film that started it all. The newly-chosen slayer's road to Sunnydale continues in Viva Las Buffy and Slayer, Interrupted. Next, high school, the Scoobies and an English librarian lead the way into Season One continuity. Plus, The Goon creator Eric Powell provides pencils to "All's Fair," featuring Spike and Drusilla at the 1933 World's Fair."

Checkmate, Vol. 1: A King's Game by Greg Rucka (Author), Jesus Saiz (Illustrator). How could you run a covert ntelligence agency in a world of superheroes? Here, Greg Rucka shows you how it's done. For my buck, nobody writes better spy stories, in prose or comics, than Rucka. From Amazon -

After the explosive events of INFINITE CRISIS and THE OMAC PROJECT, the United Nations formed this new agency to bring down heroes and villains that get out of line in a world that's more dangerous than ever. Now Checkmate uses unique abilities to deputize human and metahuman forces throughout the world.

Agents of Atlas by Jeff Parker. Classic comic book goodness. And it definitely is...

The spy. The spaceman. The goddess. The robot. The Gorilla. During the late 1950s, the U.S. government allowed FBI Special Agent Jimmy Woo to forge a team of unlikely heroes. Together, they stormed the fortress of a criminal mastermind to rescue President Eisenhower - but the group disbanded soon after. Now, almost 50 years later, an unauthorized S.H.I.E.L.D. mission goes down in flames - and from the ashes arise forces from the Golden Age of Marvel!