Good Reading

I've read some very good books recently, but I particularly enjoyed New Dawn: The Battles for Fallujah by Richard S. Lowry. He takes the reader inside everything that led up to and occurred during the two battles inside what was Iraq's most dangerous area at the time. Lowry gives the reader a very vivid description of the fighting and the strategy of the military. This was a book I could not put down! The soldiers that took part in these battles are people I would like to meet and THANK! The ones that were killed deserve our prayers.

I could name all of the soldiers that are mentioned in the book - because they are all incredibly brave- but one that stands out is a former U.S. Marine and that is Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch. He was wounded in the first battle of Fallujah in April 2004 and lost his right eye and hearing in his right ear as a result of getting struck in the head by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). Some may remember the picture of Popaditch on a tank smoking a cigar as his unit pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

As I was reading New Dawn and Popaditch's story was described, I stopped and thought and appreciated how great he and his fellow soldiers are. Inspiring is an understatement. This was something that happened for me several times while reading New Dawn; I would read a few pages and then just let the feeling set in that this was not a motion picture and was real life with real people.

Popadtich wrote a book entitled Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander’s Inspirational Memoir of Combat, Courage, and Recovery. I think I'll put that on my summer reading list.

I also finished reading the following:

Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison; a good book even though it took a while to get going. There is virtually no mention of the other band members which is a bit odd.

The Essential Rumi, new expanded edition, poems written by Sufi poet Rumi, translated by Sufi scholar Coleman Barks; I couldn't put this one down either.

Currently, I am reading Don Rumsfeld's memoir, Known and Unknown. Having read about 100 pages, it's too early for me to give an assessment of the book.