Warren Books

Here is a booklet that captures a piece of Americana from a Fire Department aspect. It documents that many towns and small cities needed a dedicated force of solid individuals to protect their communities and standard of living. All of this is becoming forgotten today as people assume that someone will always volunteer and be there to save their behinds.

This book is the first of its kind in print and discusses the burning characteristics of 62 different species of firewood. Characteristics discussed are burn rate, amount of heat produced, ease of starting, amount of sparks, flame color to name a few.

I first read about Mercy Otis Warren in a biography of John Adams. The sister of James Otis, one of the first American patriots unfortunately silenced due to illness caused by a severe beating over politics, Mercy married James Warren and had six sons. She was involved with the politics of her time and spent much time with John and Abigail Adams. She also was a political writer and during the American Revolution penned many pamphlets crusading for the cause of freedom. Her relationship with Adams was temporarily disrupted during the dispute over the Constitution and her epic history of the American Revolution further served to facilitate this break.

This story is particularly interesting because Mercy and her husband James were relatively minor characters during the war and the reader gets a well presented viewpoint of what it was like to gamble so much on the new government. Neither Mercy nor James were personally rewarded for their efforts and yet their strength of character and perserverance helped shaped our country. Mercy was able to function as a beloved mother and wife and yet maintain a role in the intellectual life of the new country. I would strongly recommend this biography. Yet I would also hope that someone current author would undertake the project of a new biography on this interesting woman and her times.

You wouldn't typically think it possible for something this instantaneous, this sudden--as a death in the family--to play itself out so loviingly over the course of a few well-written pages. But that's exactly what happens here in FIRST RITES. Told through the eyes of a 12-year old boy, the death of their Grandpa--"My Papa"--plays a pivotal role throughout the rest of their lives, and in their overall development. Having played a very seminal role in readying their grandfather for his funeral, Bobby's brother continues to revist this phase of his early life as if it was yesterday, proving to all of the naysayers that sometimes time doesn't heal as it should. Some memories are meant to stick with us forever.

--ADM in Prague

This must have book for anyone taking up salmon fishing or for those people that just want to know more about the subject. I consider this book the BIBLE of all Altantic Salmon fishing books. It covers it all in great detial.

This is the third Robert Penn Warren book that I've read. The first was All The King's Men, followed by At Heaven's Gate. If I were to rank them, ATKM would be first followed by Flood then AHG.

If you're familiar with Robert Penn Warren's writing you will know that it is rich in poetry and deep in meaning. His characters have profound ideas and there is a large scope of understanding within which they express themselves. In this book more than in his other two that I've read, RPW's storyline is driven by his characters and their interactions and less from a sense of action and plot. While I don't clamor for a detective-style fueled-up page ripper, I think giving the story a bit more of an internal engine would have eased the demands on this novel's sometimes fatiguing characters.

The main idea and plot begin with a town that is being flooded to make room for a dam. After reading over breakfast a newspaper article about these plans, a famous filmmaker comes to the little town of Fiddlersburg to make a film. He is joined by one of Fiddlersburg's more famous progeny, and the local reunites with his roots.

The book brings us to understand that this little town breeds a dispossessed clan who cannot make connections with the outside world but are never free from the self-consciousness of their own insularity.

Flood could be one of the best books of our time. I say that it *could* because I found the book to be flawed in some respects. At times it was too opaque and idle in its dreamy meditation of the characters' experience and circumstance. Yet I got to know the importance of Place from which people come and continue to grow, and I felt a tangible loss as this connection was lifted away and the waters rose and the people began to lament. I think this is a great comment on modernity.

RPW has written another long and very good book.

This book provides an intersting look at the many uses of poly yarn for tying flies. It has many, easy to understand, examples of popular flies.

FLYING INTO COMBAT WITH HEROES is a thrilling account by a genuine leader and warrior. Brigadier General Warren is the last of a dying breed. He bravely served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and also during one of the first early acts of terrorism on American soil. In the modest, laconic, matter-of-fact voice of a fighter pilot, Warren shares his insights and observations gleaned during three decades of service to his country.

Few people are aware that Charles Lindbergh who initially was against America's participation in a war with Hitler later served as a military consultant in the Pacific theatre helping to analyze aviation mishaps and improve tactics. Warren had several encounters with this celebrated aviator.

Warren's heroics during the Korean War read as if they came from the pen of James Mitchener in BRIDGES OF TOKO RI. However, Warren's were the result of his blood, toil, tears, and sweat!

During the violent anti-war demonstrations in 1970, then Colonel Warren commanded the Navy ROTC Unit at UCLA. A bomb ripped through one of the ROTC's locked spaces. While the bombing was attributed to the local Students for a Democratic Society, Warren offers a new possibility based on some undercover intelligence. It is possible that the bombing was the work of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber!

FLYING INTO COMBAT WITH HEROES will inspire new generations that the freedoms we enjoy in America come with a price. Warriors, like Warren, sacrificed the easy life back home to ensure all Americans could enjoy our way of life. He lived duty, honor, and country with every breath. All Americans owe Warren a great debt of gratitude for his distinguished service. Every leader should read this fine book!

Mr. Wind is the finest writer of golf in America and perhaps
the world. His stories bring the events to life and make you
feel as if you were there.

I recommend that you pick up as many of his books as you can
(it will take a lot of searching in used book websites and
stores, but it is worth it)

*on a side note, a couple of months ago, after writing Mr.
Wind a letter, it was a great honor for me to recieve a letter
back from him which is now framed and hanging on the wall"

Wind has written about golf in the way we think it should always be. In the days of golf carts and seven minute tee times it is refreshing to read about golf the way it should be played. In the unhurried country of Scotland or the demanding bunkers of Oakmont - it doesn't matter. Wind takes you there with his words. From Bobby Jones to The Putter Tournament Mr. Wind writes with such description and heart that it is hard to put this timeless classic down. It made me want to read all of Wind's classics and go across the pond to play the game in the old country.