New York Says What to Read. Wait, What?

Review by Bill Doughty

The trouble with a book that recommends 1,000 books for your bucket-list is this: What prism is the editor/compiler looking through.

"A Thousand Books to Read Before You Die" (Workman Publishing, 2018, New York, NY) is a beautiful book offering an impressive spectrum of colorful titles and great authors.

You'll find great writers and thinkers like Isaac Asimov, Ulysses S. Grant, Maya Angelou, Stephen J. Gould, George Orwell, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, Oliver Sacks, Homer, Dorothy Parker, D.H. Lawrence, J.K. Rowling, Jon Krakauer and Agatha Christie.

There are a relative handful of selected books that would appeal to Navy readers, including Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October," Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front," "The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant," Shelby Foote's "The Civil War," Robert Hughes's "The Fatal Shore," William Manchester's "Goodbye Darkness," John Keegan's "The Face of Battle," David McCullough's "Truman," David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest," Herman Melville's "Moby Dick," Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," Joseph's Heller's "Catch-22" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game":

"...Just try to put it down. Tracing Ender's path to Battle School – a space center in which the best and the brightest children are trained for high-tech war – and, ultimately, to Command School, on the edge of the interstellar front lines. Orson Scott Card's novel is riveting... Ender's fierce initiation reveals his unparalleled gifts for warfare. As the stakes mount, the simulated battles he dominates are transformed from complex and dangerous games into sinister – and spectacular – realities."

Author James Mustich features his one thousand books, mentions many others and merely names a slew of extras. In other words, there are thousands of books discussed in this readable, interesting and hefty offering: a beautiful book about books.

So, what's the problem?

BM3 Ivan Naranjo reads aboard USS Anchorage (LPD 23), 2018. Photo by MC3 Ryan M. Breeden

As great as this book is, the personal lens of the editor understandably distorts reason, trumps objectivity, and begs questions as to how some of the authors and their works were selected. 

I mean, Anne Rice? Moss Hart's show business autobiography? Richard Ford's adventures in making artisan bread and pizza? "Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France"? "When French Women Cook"? "Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris"? "The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth"? 

Mustich, a New York bookseller with an apparent deep love of fashion, fine dining, Broadway, the Big Apple, Provence and France, all but admits his bias and certainly is upfront about his selections not being perfect. "Hot dogs to haute cuisine," as he says. But if comfort foods of literature are allowed, where are Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mario Puzo, Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey?

Stephen King gets "Carrie" and "11/22/1963," but where are "The Stand," "The Shining" and "Cujo"?

William Shakespeare

As one would expect from a polished bookseller, this is like a bookstore readers can hold, complete with a detailed general index and 1,000 book checklist.

Overall, Mustich does a pretty good job of ensuring diversity, including different age groups and interests – both fiction and non-fiction; poetry and philosophy; youth and adult; U.S. and international; escapist and pay-attention-this-is-important.

The Bhagavad Gita, Bible and The Book of Job find themselves co-located, thanks to alphabetical listings, as are Plato, Pliny the Younger and Plutarch. Shakespeare is the overall winner in number of works listed, with 13 titles.

Nice surprises include personal favorites such as Gould's "The Panda's Thumb," Loren Eiseley's "The Immense Journey," Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove," Richard Dawkins's "The Selfish Gene," "Portable Dorothy Parker," Taylor Branch's "Parting the Waters," "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden," Edward O. Wilson's "The Naturalist," and Charles Darwin's "The Voyage of the Beagle."

Thankfully there's a heavy helping of science, including Thomas's wonderful collection of essays, "The Lives of a Cell":

"Every genre has its native charms, and the allure of the essay is its easy way with rumination. In the best examples of the form, the essayist communicates not just learning, but thinking, inviting the reader to share the satisfactions of a mind at play on a field of observation or experience. When an essay's author is as masterful as Lewis Thomas, it can shine like a jewel, glittering with truths small and large."

But where are shining lights by Christopher Hitchens, Steven Covey, Desmond Morris ("The Naked Ape"), John Hersey ("Hiroshima"), Thomas Paine ("The Age of Reason"), Steven Pinker, William Zinsser, Mary Roach, Craig Symonds, Jared Diamond, Nathaniel Philbrick, Erik Larson, James D. Hornfischer, Hector Hugh Munro a.k.a. Saki, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Thomas Friedman, Noah Yuval Harari and Stephen Hawking?

It's a tragedy that Mary Roach and Hope Jahren ("Lab Girl") are missing.

So many great authors are left on forgotten shelves, so many books. It can be difficult to choose any individual one. That's where a book like this can help. Perhaps there will be more versions of "1,000 Books to Read" – even someday "1,000 Navy Books to Read."

Bazelon, Richardson and Plotz of Slate's Political Gabfest.

This book first came to my attention after hearing it recommended by David Plotz, anchor of Slate Magazine's Political Gabfest podcast with Emily Bazelon and John Richardson.

Plotz said this about editor Mustich: "He's a reader of such joy and bouyancy. ... He has a real knack for recognizing what in a book is wonderful ... He's a spirit you'll want to spend time with."

And Plotz said this about the book itself: "Over 948 magnificent pages, well-illustrated. The familiar and the highly unfamiliar ... It's so much fun."

Gabfest's John Dickerson said, "So, does that make it a thousand and one?"

The best endorsement may be through the prism of writer, historian, producer Ken Burns: "If you've ever doubted that books were the greatest invention of all time, and that they carry within them our collective memories and dreams as well as any semblance of intelligence we have as a species, pick up this book and start reading."

How John McCain Sees Character, Destiny

Review by Bill Doughty

Complex and complicated, Senator John McCain -- son and grandson of admirals, former U.S. Navy pilot and Vietnam Prisoner of War -- thanks his mother with helping develop his character and credits his father with giving him the gift of conscience.  "I don't think there is anything greater a parent can do for you," he writes.

"Character is Destiny" John McCain and Mark Salter is subtitled, "Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember."  Random House published the book in 2005 as one of three bestsellers by the authors that "may be their most influential and enduring book yet."

McCain introduces his mother, Roberta McCain, "raised to be a strong, determined woman who thoroughly enjoyed life, and always tried to make the most of of her opportunities."  He praises her curiosity, courtesy and humility.

McCain's grandfather and father in World War II.

He writes of the integrity and "demands of his conscience" of his father, John S. McCain Jr., former Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command (CINCPAC), in the face of difficult choices.

"He fought in three wars [including WWII and Korea], and in his last war, Vietnam, he commanded all our country's forces in the Pacific, including those who fought in Vietnam.  I am his oldest son and namesake, and I fought under his command.  For several years I was held as a prisoner of war in the enemy's capital, the city of Hanoi.  When the president of the United States [Richard Nixon] and his advisors decided to try to shorten the war by bombing Hanoi, it was my father's duty to order it done.

President Nixon meets McCain.

"The planes that flew to Hanoi on his orders were B-52s.  They were the largest bombers in the air force.  They could carry the largest and the most bombs.  They flew at high altitudes, but unlike those aircraft used by our air force today, they did not have the technology to be very accurate in their targeting.  The pilots knew Americans were being held captive near their targets.  So did the man who commanded them, my father.  he knew where I was, and he loved me.  He prayed on his knees every day for my safe return.  Whenever he visited his soldiers in Vietnam, he would end his day by walking to the northern end of the base and standing quietly alone, looking toward the place where his son was held.  But his conscience required him to do his duty, and his duty required him to risk his son's life.  And so he did."

McCain meets with President Barack Obama to discuss Syria.

"Character is Destiny" is filled with short biographies arranged in seven parts -- Honor, Purpose, Strength, Understanding, Judgment, Creativity and Love.  Each profile is preceded by a quality of character.  For example: Respect - Gandhi, Self-Contol - George Washington, Dignity - Viktor Frankl, Resilience - Abraham Lincoln, Discernment - Leonardo da Vinci, Enthusiasm - Theodore Roosevelt, and Selflessness and Contentment - Mother Teresa.

In Part Five, Judgment, McCain chooses a diverse group to illustrate qualities of fairness, humility, gratitude, humor and courtesy:  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower, Tecumseh, Mark Twain and Aung San Suu Kyi.

McCain showcases the citizenship of Pat Tillman, former Arizona State and NFL Arizona Cardinals football player, who, along with his brother Kevin, was moved to join the Army Rangers in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.  About the brothers, McCain writes:

"They intentionally refused to talk about their decision.  They shunned all publicity.  They refused all requests for interviews ... They were special, but no more special than the Americans they served with.  But their modesty, as much as their sacrifice, taught us the first lesson of patriotism.  Patriotism is a lot more than flag waving or singing the anthem at ball games.  Patriotism is the recognition that each of us is just one small part of a cause that is greater than ourselves, one small part, but a part we are honor bound to play.  America is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, and have an equal right to freedom and justice. That is our cause: to prove the truth of that proposition.  And that cause is far more important than the ambitions and desires of any individual."

Pat Tillman, in a photo illustration on Reddit.

Tragically, Pat Tillman was killed on a mountainside in Afghanistan, and the murky circumstances of how he was killed -- and how his death was reported -- compound the tragedy.  The full story can be read in the 2010 bestseller by Jon Krakauer, "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman."  Krakauer, a favorite author of Tillman, brings out the essence of Tillman's character and intelligence.  

Tillman's honor, courage and commitment mirror that of Navy SEAL Michael Murphy, whose heroism is portrayed in "Lone Survivor" and chronicled in Gary Williams's "SEAL of Honor: Operation Red Wings and the Life of Michael P. Murphy, USN."

McCain's book about "remarkable people who chose well" implies how important it is to make good choices and to have the freedom to make those choices.

Frankl's "Man's Search For Meaning" is "considered by many to be one of the most important books of our time."  Even in the face of death under Nazi persecution Frankl had the power of choice -- to be good or bad.

McCain calls William Shakespeare "the greatest writer in the English language" and quotes several passages, including a father-to-son quote in "Hamlet":  "This above all: to thine ownself be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou cannot then be false to any man."

McCain writes, "In other words, being true to our conscience, being honest with ourselves, will determine the character of our relations with others.  That is the concise definition of integrity."

Another Shakespeare quote shared, this one from "Henry V": "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.  For he today that sheds his blood for me shall be my brother."

In "Tolerance: The Four Chaplains," McCain writes of the sinking of U.S. Army troop transport ship USAT Dorchester in World War II and the four Christian and Jewish chaplains who helped others escape before going down with the ship.

McCain writes about the brilliance of da Vinci, an artist "without any equal"; of Twain: "The Great American Novel was published in 1885 ... 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'"; and of Darwin, who explained "the theory of natural selection, the key to the mystery of mysteries."  Darwin's "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" is listed as a source.

"Character is Destiny" lacks an index.  Its glossary of sources is slim and includes references such as Wikipedia and numerous .com and .org sites, "readily recommended."

The authors also highly recommend books for children and parents alike. 

Lt. j.g. John McCain and his parents in 1961.

"Happily, reading books remains among the most satisfying of experiences.  As a means of transporting us into other lives and times, they still have no equal," McCain and Salter write.

Reporter Mark Leibovich, New York Times magazine’s chief national correspondent and the author of “This Town,” wrote a recent in-depth piece, "How John McCain turned his cliche's into meaning," with cooperation of McCain and including an interview with daughter Meghan McCain and friend Senator Lindsey Graham.  Leibovich's story touches on some of the points and principles raised by McCain and Salter in "Character is Destiny."