Nova Books

Dupuy describes his book as an attempt to devise a theory and model of combat which would in essence complete Clausewitz's work in this area. Dupuy's Quantified Judgement Model ("QJM") is essentially a reformulation and extension of Clausewitz's observations on the interplay between the quantity of troops, the quality of troops, and other relevant factors.

This book features the calculation of many (rather simple) ratios as Dupuy seeks to illustrate the workings and validity of the QJM. More interesting, as least to me, is Dupuy's well done analysis of issues such as Diminishing Returns in Combat, Advance Rates in Combat, Attrition in Combat, Friction in Combat (each of these is a chapter in the book) and other similar topics.

Ultimately, I found Dupuy's treatment of the QJM interesting, but I am dubious that the model will prove very useful to anyone (except perhaps wargame developers) because while the model correctly identifies the various factors to be quantified, I don't think that, despite Dupuy's attempts, many of these factors can be quantified with any degree of precision. The real value of this book, in my opinion, are the various discrete conclusions that Dupuy discusses in the book based on his extensive and perhaps unique "quant" analysis of historical campaigns. For instance, after analyzing numerous campaigns from Napoleon to the Arab-Israeli Wars, he concludes that the rate of advance of armies have not increased at all from Napoleon's time to our own, despite the advent of mechanization, etc.! If this is the kind of thing that interests you, this is the book for you.

I gave this book four stars rather than five because the book can be rather dry, and as I said, I ultimately didn't really buy into the usefulness of the QJM as a model of combat.

I love looking at clouds. But I don't often get the chance to read about them. "The sun, too, is a burning cloud..." writes John P. O'Grady in his essay in this collection. The theme of air includes atmospheres of various kinds, breathing (and not being able to), flying through the air (and what flight has and hasn't meant versus human dreams about it), wind, song and sound carried by air...all kinds of neat stuff.

There are a few fairly well known names among the writers but most are probably unfamiliar. There's verse by Lori Anderson, but no Laurie Anderson (though her "From the Air" riff would be perfect for this volume.) But mostly that only adds to the feeling of discovery. Unlike some anthologies, the selections don't seem like parts of something else; each is intriguing and usually satisfying. Just the right length to read easily one at a time and let them fill your sense of wonder with oxygen. It's playfully serious, thoughtful fun. This is a book that opens your mind and lets some fresh air in.

As an amateur genealogist researching the Yarmouth,N.S. area, and having spent years seeking sources, I can recommend this book as the single best source I have seen. It will save the user many hours of time because of its comprehensiveness. It will not eliminate using other sources but will lead to productive sources.

This was a very strange, disgusting book. It was well written, however. I just don't like reading about incest. Why did Oprah hail this as being such a good novel? I am just bothered by the whole book.

With eloquent words, and an intricately passionate story, this book took me into a whole new world. While some books I read pass through my memory through the years, this book will always stay in my mind.

I read the reviews before I started reading the book. I wish I had not...
This book is very well written. However it is not for speedreaders. I found myself having to read every single word just to appreciate it the way it deserved.

Overall it was a great read. I grew very interested early in the book with the characters. They are very different and unique from each other and although the book is very dark it is not thrown out in your face. It is described and written all very subtly...

I would recommend it...but only to people who I know would appreciate it.

I gave this book only 3 stars because for me, it was a really depressing read. While beautifully written, in a way that you could really "see" what the author was talking about, the content was just sad, depressing, and I struggled to get through it. I do have to say that most of the other women in my bookclub LOVED it.

Many layers to this book; all compelling. Can not put the book down until the end; then you want to read it again.db

I just feel that this book has WAY too many stars and I want to do my part to educate the public. As an avid, and well-seasoned reader, I must say that I usually manage to force my way through every book I start. Generally I can find something to hang on to, some reason to go on - even when there are elements I do not like.
However, I was not even able to make it halfway through this book. I felt terrible not finishing a book, but I realized that I was torturing myself for no apparant reason other than for the sake of thoroughness. It's really pretty horrible - as has been repeatedly mentioned (character development, dialogue, plot...UGH.) but this MAY just be the case for those of us who prefer to read LITERATURE. If you don't understand what I mean by that then go ahead and read the book you may like it, however if you do understand the difference, you will probably find the writing this book as laughable as I did - so don't waste your time.

Is it just me? I am an avid reader, I know enough to give a book a really good shot before I flip it closed and say,"I cant take it anymore" Im sorry, this book is in my opinion one of the worst books I have ever "attempted" to read. There is no "draw" nothing that keeps you interested, nothing to bring you back to the book to see what happens next. This book is painfully slow, it drolls on and on about nothing. The relationships are sketchy, the charachters are bland and the reference to animal abuse is offensive. I just dont get it. I think this is one of the worst books I have ever read.

I have read very few books, if any, that have characters as complicated as Hoffman's in "Here on Earth." They are many-layered and unravel throughout the story like an onion's skin peels off. How I felt about the characters March and Hollis in the beginning of the story was quite different than how I viewed them at the end. It is not often that this happens, in my opinion. I could not put the book down, and when I did, it was unwillingly. I highly recommend it! You may think differently about domestic abuse after you read it. This book helps you to see how a woman can become enmeshed in a violent and unhealthy relationship, without quite realizing it.

Hoffman's book is a great introduction to her writing style.

I enjoyed this book more than I originally thought.

The story takes a twist, which I did enjoy.

This book has many of the themes in WH, the obsession, the secondary love story, the familial tie that is hinted at in WH, etc...But Heathcliff of WH while horrible in the second half of the book to most of the females he is involved with- Would never have hit Catherine- cheated on her ( I know, I know, what about Isabella?) this is different in this book. If fact Heathcliff declares how much he loves Catherine by saying, that he would relish killing Linton and Hindly but b/c Catherine loves them, he will not-

The supposed obsessive love in this book is not love at all- it is more along the lines of a true sociopath that is prone to domestic violence. I think in his own twisted sense he felt like he loved March, but NOT LIKE HEATHCLIFF LOVED CATHERINE. So- these two are similar, but if you want quality- stick w/ WH.

Waiting by Ha Jin is a tale set in China. It is story that stretches from the 1960s to the 1980s. The author presents a powerful story that tests the word love and documenting the that is evaporating feelings over time. Lin Kong is not a traditional man and he doesn't want to be trapped in the `old' Chinese way. However, he is unable to live the `new' Chinese way because he is trapped in an arranged marriage. While working for the Chinese army, Lin Kong met the love of his life, Man-na. Because he is still married, Lin Kong is unable to fulfill the love Manna needed. Each year, for eighteen years, Lin Kong went back to court and tries to divorce his wife, but each year he returned to Manna as a married man. Finally, Lin Kong's wish came true and he is able to marry Manna. However, living happily forever is far and remote. The stressful affair has stood up to the test of time, but the love is flushed away without a trace. At the end, all Lin Kong wishes for is peace and quiet.

What a read! So many lessons on writing can be drawn from this book, including a "what not to do" lesson. Ha Jin drew me into China with vivid settings, insights into the social culture, and the harshness of old Chinese law through an exploration of Chinese history through his character's eyes.
Jin's main character Lin is a self-deprecating man who believes himself incapable of loving another person. We can see through both plots and subplots that Lin not only can love, but loves deeply; two women and his children from two marriages, but perhaps not himself.
This book, at times, left me with the sense of wanting to shout at or shake Lin: Ha Jin drew me in that effectively. This example of creating a strong emotional reaction in a reader is of priceless insight to me. I want to move my readers and emotionally tie them to my characters as Jin does.
Jin teaches us lessons in respect through his characters, as well. He coaches us in proper human behavior through allegorical scenes as his story plays out. As his characters grow, we somehow grow along with them, experience their mistakes, and even learn from those mistakes when the characters do not.
He paints beautiful settings using descriptions of sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch. I believe, however, that his story would have been a bit stronger if Jin would have woven his setting descriptions into character dialogue or thought, instead of using multiple paragraphs to describe the surroundings in the midst of an active scene.

I can always tell when a book is well written -- I think about it days after reading it and observe more and more about it long after I've put it down. This is one of those books. It's written in almost folk-tale style and centers around Lin, a military doctor who pines for the life he thinks he wants, with his military nurse lover Manna. He longs to be free of his village wife Shuyu, who is simple and has bound feet (apparently long after such things were generally done) and who, frankly, embarrasses him. But year after year, she refuses to divorce him. So year after year, his life is one of longing. The situation does (slowly) resolve, but that's mainly the whole story -- the lives of these people moving along, marking time.

But what goes on underneath this little folk tale is what's so interesting. There is the obvious caution to be careful what you wish for. The parallels with The Good Earth cannot be ignored. All characters are affected in some way by the ongoing Cultural Revolution: in the way they live, react to their fates, see their place in their world.

It's a very easy little tale to read, but will leave you thinking for days after you've finished. Go ahead -- give it a read!

thinks the main character in this story about tradition, family, love and loyalty. Army Doctor Lin Kong, at the urging of his family, agrees to an arranged marriage with a footbound woman from the country. They have a child together, but little else in the way of a relationship. She remains at their home raising their daughter, caring for her ailing parents (and his), while he works at a hospital in the city. Eventually, he becomes interested in having a relationship with a nurse named Manna, and, in order not to jeopardize his standing at the hospital and to comply with the strict rules involving relationships between members of the staff, he decides to divorce his wife. Year after year, he returns home, discusses the situation with his her and cajoles her into going along with it in front of a judge. But invariably, although sometimes with the intervention of her loyal brother, she gets cold feet. He waits "torpidly," knowing that at the 18 years of separation mark, the divorce can be granted without his wife's consent.

Novel negatives: The writing is on the stiff side, a particularly graphic scene is included, and getting through the first two-thirds of it is about as insufferable as the wait of Lin and Manna. Positives: With only a handful of characters appearing in the novel, there is ample space to learn what makes them tick and (patience being a virtue) the virtuous will be rewarded with an entertaining resolution. The story's message may fall somewhere between: "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence," "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with," and, "You reap what you sow." Whichever, it provides a lesson about how an individual's choices can affect the lives of many. Was it worth the wait? For the reader, yes, for Lin Kong, read and find out. Better: Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter and The Kitchen God's Wife and Anchee Min's Red Azalea.

When you write a novel about waiting, about the long sense of one's being suspended in anticipation of something that may happen and change everything, you inevitably try to incorporate the sense of dead time.
Unfortunately, if you do this successfully, what you get is a very boring reading experience.
Ha Jin is a skillful creator of character and setting. The reader breathes with the characters, sees what they see and feels what they feel. But his deadly accurate replication of the waiting experience will yield for many readers a deadening read.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and
bang BANG: A Novel ISBN 9781601640005

Link is a novel that reads very much like a movie, which is no surprise because Becker is a screenwriter. It is not the best adventure novel I have ever read, but it was thought provoking and a little different. If you are a fan of James Rollins type adventure and science fiction I highly recommend it for an escape book that is fun.

Want to be encouraged to question a number of the evolutionary, geological, archaeological and other, miscellaneous scientific truths you've hithertofore held dear? Want to read a ripping yarn full of sexy good guys, devious bad guys, exotic locations, ancient ruins and, yes, KILLER BEES?

Years after first encountering it, I'm still enthralled by Becker's mish-mash of speculative science and thrilling adventures. For page-by-page excitement and minimal eye-rolling, you can't do much better in the Scientist-in-Peril genre than Link.

Mr. Becker does a fantastic job with "Link". The story weaves in and out, telling a great story that envelopes the reader. Fast paced, action packed, with a little love story that even guys could like. Tracing scientific anomolies to logical conclusions, one gets a sense of the possibilities that Becker conveys. While somewhat simplistic at times, the simplicity does not detract from the book; but rather it speeds the read along to conclusion. In the interweaving vein of theories like "Da Vinci Code", "Link" ties together interesting aspects of buried science to spin a tale of fun and thrills that's hard to put down.

A paleoanthropologist, Samantha Colby, discovers a skeleton of a humanoid but not of human origin on a dig in West Africa. Along with this, her team finds a mysterious artifact made-up of a metal not found anywhere on Earth. She brings in Jack Austin into the picture and together they go around the world, trying to find the truth behind the find. They find the answer in the Andes - something not of this world which is the greatest discovery of our ancestors. Full of action, history, thrills and fun. An excellent adventure novel.

When I picked up the book and saw that the action took place in Mali and dealt with paleoanthropology, I just had to have it. To my disappointment, the chapters about Mali are so frought with mistakes(e. g. the Dogon are not a warrior society but peaceful farmers. They don't hop up and down like Massai. The Songhai don't live close to the Dogon but in the North of Mali. Mali is not in Central but in West Africa. Etc. etc.) Add to that the gratuitous violence and hairbrained action about the anthropologists being armed with machine guns and having South African guards. I spent four years in Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer and can guarantee that the author never set foot there or even did careful research. An awful book I don't recommend to anyone.

I don't even know where to start reviewing this book. It is one of the best books I've ever read, I enjoyed it very much. It represents a major step forward for Alex Garland as an author. His first book, "The Beach", was full of bravado and energy, as well as some genuine insight, but this one is much deeper and more poignant. His storytelling ability is superb, and it's just a shame that he got away from novels and started writing screenplays (as good as they are). All I can say is, you owe it to yourself to read this book. You won't regret it.

This book is a whirlwind character driven effort that really deserves critical acclaim. Garland paints a vivid picture with prose that's precise and never excessive. He imbues his characters with a level of depth and just enough random touches that you feel you know them one paragraph in. I loved how the story came together and I was thoroughly impressed with the author's range and depth -- this poignant story will make your head spin. Don't miss it!

Alex Garland is an experimental author, whose willingness to take risks has paid off in some outstanding books. (Beach, his take on utopia is one) Unfortunately, for most lay readers, the Tesseract isn't one.

By definition, a Tesseract is a mathematical construct with connective properties beyond the description of an Amazon review. The book is written in such an interwoven style. As a technical (and artistic) achievement, this is both unique and novel. As a readable thriller, not so much.

Perhaps the lasting impact of the book is it predates the Montage style movies (21 Grams, Crash, City of God) who try weaving less "mathematically perfect" stories toghether. Again, this is a successful artistic vision, but the readability of the novel suffers. It's not one the average reader will find gripping.

Think Quentin Tarantino movies. Now picture that in written form. Garland takes three individual stories and allows them to run their natural course, eventually overlapping with one another through brilliant twists pulled off by the author Alex Garland. If you have read his first novel, The Beach (much better than the movie) then you are already familiar with his writing expertise. He grabs your attention from the very first page, and doesn't let go until the last sentence of the novel. I would also suggest looking into the meaning of "Tesseract" which is quite an interesting concept in itself. Somehow Garland manages to take seemingly unrelated stories and intertwine them with ease. A must read!

Reading 'The Beach' (also by Garland) was what made me get The Tesseract. Being a fan of Southeast Asian set novels, and knowing that Garland is a master of the "Backpacker's Culture", I knew from the start that The Tesseract will not disappoint.

This book is no beach culture.It is set in the heart of Manila, in a seedy hotel along Roxas Boulevard. Garland describes the smallest of details of Manila with the precision expected only from one who has lived in Manila itself.

While The Beach has both its plot/climax and raw narration to offer, The Tesseract's gem is its fast but just right rhythm, and the way it unfolds how the characters of 3 separate 'stories' are interrelated, hence the title 'The Tesseract'. Take six cubes and arrange them into the shape of a crucifix, at the point where the cross is made. Thats the tesseract.

Sean the English seaman and Don Pepe, the aristocratic mestizo. Corazon, Rosa and her children. Rosa and Lito. Totoy and Vicente. All of their stories are presented independently but in the end they all climax in a common joint.

I also liked particularly how Garland personified Don Pepe, (a Spanish mestizo with assistant thugs). The author even knows the concept (and the word) of "sip-sip"--an irritating trait in the Philippine Society. This Don, who also has the mindset of most elite Filipinos, cannot seem to get enough of the irritating habit of uselessly comparing the Philippines to the countries theyve been to.

Its also pleasing to know that although Garland also touched on the provincial life in Infanta, Quezon, he didnt stick to the usual Maria Clara stereotype that most foreign authors, and even Filipino authors cast on the female characters.

I found out that there's been a movie adaptation produced, the movie altered a whole lot of details. It was set in Bangkok (maybe Manila wasnt exotic enough or marketable enough?), and a female assasin character (not present in the book) was wedged in...perhaps to add a sex factor to it.
Directed by some dude named Oxide Pang. That's what you get for tampering with a fantastic novel. A B-grade "Chuck Norris" type of film.

This is the first Greg Iles book I really disliked.
I kept waiting for a believable resolution to the whole
Mallory thing and it never came. It SHOULD be listed as a
supernatural or ghost story, NOT a suspense novel.
It was also not very well written.
I loved Mortal Fear and The Quiet Game, but this was awful.

I've read a lot of Greg Iles' books and this is by far the WORST!! I love keeping books so I can pass them along to others or simply add to my collection. This one...I actually threw it in the trash when I finally finished reading it.

Being a big Greg Isles fan, I must admit that I never expected the story to take the turn it did. I don't want to give anything away but the author really did move in a different direction and I'm sincerely not sure if I am disappointed or not. Either way, the resolution surprised me (whch, for me, is always a good thing). I enjoyed this novel and raced through it - extremely easy read - filled with a number of "the plot thickens" moments. Unusual, a little weird and even disconcerting at times. A tad repetitive in the last third but still most certainly worth reading.

Listened to the audio version of this book. Having read many of Iles' books, I was waiting for a plausible explanation or scenario at the end. That didn't happen. I like Iles' character development in all of the books that I have listened to so far, including this one. About the only thing that I got out of it is the message that when one cheats on his/her spouse, the third party will stay with them until the end. Thankfully, Iles hasn't gone back to science fiction since this work!

I'm a real fan of Greg Iles, but this book was a big disappointment. If you like nonstop sex crossed with The Body Snatchers, you just might enjoy this book. But I found it very trite. OK, I admit I finished it, just to find out what happens to Malory, but it was painful.

I love Jack Reacher novels--he's a great anti-hero. I was given a bunch of Lee Child books and have been reading them in no particular order. I assumed this was the first in the series because of so many character discrepancies ... what a disappointment to discover it wasn't. For example, Reacher checks his watch (even though in other books he never wears one because he has an odd always-knows-the-time ability), he lives in a house and has a girlfriend (even though he's all about nothing to tie him down), and he's under surveillance for a week and doesn't know it (that's not the Reacher I know and love!). I was ready to forgive these and other "errors" when I thought it was just the beginning of a developing character for the author, but not as a third or fourth book. I can suspend my disbelief when reading Child novels, but appreciate character consistency.

Follow Jack Reacher, an ex-MP, as he falls into another mystery to solve. Reacher uses his knowledge and past experience to put the pieces together in unorthodox ways.
Child creates vivid scenes, interesting characters and a twisted story. His dialog patterns are just enough to keep the story moving and Reacher true to form.
Try a Lee Child novel and you'll find yourself reading them all.

Make this my fourth entry into the world of Jack Reacher, having already read the first three books in this series. Of those, I loved Killing Floor, didn't love Tripwire and enjoyed Die Trying. When I started Running Blind, I was just happy to be back with Jack Reacher, a character who guys can relate to and women can fall for. Who doesn't like the brooding bad boy type with the Robin Hood vigilante mentality?

I was so caught up in this book right from the beginning. As a matter of fact, I emailed a friend of mine just to say how much I was enjoying the Child's book I was reading. At the time of that writing, she was already on his current book so I was far behind her. This book was everything Tripwire wasn't in my opinion. It was fast paced with Reacher helping the FBI, obviously under duress, and his relationship with Jodi is still in tact. As with all of Jack's appearances, things will start to fall apart shortly.

While Jack is always chasing someone very smart, we all know that he is that much smarter. In this case, it's a serial killer bent on doing away with former Army employees who have left the force due to sexual harassment. The FBI profilers have narrowed it down to the exact type of person the killer is....someone exactly like Jack. This hunt will take Jack from the east coast to the west coast and back again until he figures out who the culprit is. We already know he's smarter than they are so we know he's going to be successful.

I loved this book until......it got to the ending. I see many other reviewers have complained about this so just add me to the list. When are authors going to stop neatly tying up their books with ridiculous scenarios. I have something else to say and I don't want anyone who hasn't read the book yet to read what I'm going to say so please move on to the next review.

I said move on to the next review or else you're going to read something you don't want to read. Okay so here's my beef. Am I crazy? Weren't there more than two paragraphs in the book where a colonel is sitting at his desk, forty to forty-five minutes away from Quantico, looking at the list of eleven women, four of which had already been killed. If this wasn't the killer, who the heck was he? Was he the chaplain who appears out of nowhere in the end. A chaplain who comes walking, not even driving, up a hill in the Pacific Northwest. And I'm so sick of authors making everything an inside job. It's like if a woman gets killed, the authorities first look at the husband. I'm now beginning to think that every time I pick up a mystery, I should just look at the cops investigating the case to come up with the killer. I'm sick of it, I tell you. Okay, enough of my rant. I'd love any of you who have read this book to please leave me a comment so I can know who the heck this colonel was and what part he played in the book.

Up until the ending, this book was almost five stars for me....the ending dropped it down to three and a half.

Not much to say about this book. In a review of another Reacher book ("Echo Burning"), I said that these books were fun reads despite their many drawbacks as novels (careless and sloppy writing, no attention to factual accuracy, one dimensional characters, plots that rely on coincidence etc). This book is not fun, just stupid.

The plot is literally incredible in many respects. The mysterious villain is telegraphed. The facts are wrong (my favorite: Fort Dix as a Marine Corps base--at the time the novel was written, it was an Army and Guard/Reserve base as it had been for over 80 years). If you can even faintly buy the ending and explanation I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I could sell to you. Don't read it. It will only encourage the author to do it again.

I am reading the series in order. I think this was the best one yet. It leaves my very excited to continue the Reacher series. We began to see more depth in Reacher as he struggles with understanding himself. The story moves forward at a wonderful pace. It was just great. While reading this I had the opportunity to hear Lee Child speak. He gave some insights that I think will be helpful. First he said he starts the book at the beginning and does not really know how it will turn out until he gets there. He also said that when he is stumped he has Reacher get a cup of coffee. Child does the same.