Rod Dreher’s recently released Crunchy Cons is a frustrating book. Dreher, a writer and editor at the Dallas Morning News, raises a number of issues worth discussing, and delivers interesting accounts of passionate people – including Dreher himself - who live out their ideals in ways difficult to categorize along simple right-left political lines. But the book’s tone, style, and structure undermine clear argument and limit its appeal beyond those already highly sympathetic to the label.

The epiphany for this entry in the ongoing hyphenization (or adjectivization) of conservatism came to Dreher when he mentioned to an editor at National Review that he had to pick up his organic fruits and vegetables at the local co-op. When she responded “Ewww, that’s so lefty” Dreher began to think about the political labels associated with certain activities.

After some thought, he realized that he was involved in a number of “counter cultural” activities that are usually associated with the left: organic and slow food, Birkenstocks, urban living, the Arts and Craft movement, giving up TV, etc. He went on to write an article for the magazine on the subject and was inundated with emails from likeminded individuals. With such an outpouring of interest, Dreher decided to dig a little deeper. Crunchy Cons is the result.

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One of the unique blogs I check regularly is Contemporary Nomad. A collection of authors from around the globe, it has a unique perspective and often unique content. Yesterday was a good example. Olen Steinhauer posted a short Q&A with fellow author and nomad John Nadler. Nadler’s latest work, A Perfect Hell : The True Story of the Black Devils, the Forefathers of the Special Forces, was released March 28 and only sat down with him to ask a few questions.

Here is a taste:

3. Reading A Perfect Hell, I was struck by the great sympathy you clearly have for the soldiers, and the respect you have for their experiences. The same is true in Searching for Sofia. It comes through in your word choice and the way you construct scenes and elaborate characters. Who do you think are your biggest influences as a writer?

As a teenager, I guess I was most influenced by the new journalists of the ’60s and ’70s: George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Peter Maas, Truman Capote, Jimmy Breslin, Tom Wolfe, and even Hunter Thompson, writers who pioneered the use of literary techniques to tell a non-fiction story. This technique seemed to create new vistas in journalism that even as a young guy I was really excited by. A fascinating sub-genre was the participatory journalism of Plimpton’s Paper Lion and Thompson’s Hells Angels, which inspired me in Searching for Sofia because circumstances demanded that I be part of the story. A Perfect Hell is straight narrative, but for me it was a fascinating writing experience because it was a literary non-fiction exercise, a journalistic exercise (based on my interviews with veterans), and a chance to try my hand at popular history.

I am sure Jeff will want to check this one out.

I have always respected the U.S. Army’s First Infantry Division – the “Big Red One” – but I have even more respect for it after reading The Fighting First by Flint Whitlock. It’s a combination of harrowing stories and narrative.

Whitlock briefly details the Division’s activity in World War II prior to D-Day – participation in the North Africa and Sicily campaigns. The majority of the book covers the training and preparation for, and the fighting on, D-Day. Whitlock then chronicles the exploits of the Divisions as it fought from Omaha - through Normandy, Aachen, and the Battle of the Bulge - to the end of the war. Of all American divisions that fought in World War II, the First Division suffered some of the highest casualties and was one of the longest serving in combat.

Whitlock does a superb job in bringing together stories of the rank-and-file soldiers and their commanders. I particularly liked Whitlock’s description of the Division’s hatred of General Patton. As one soldier stated about Old Blood and Guts, “Our blood, and his guts.”

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One of the great things about being a book blogger is the chance to learn something new; to widen your experience. I had just such an experience recently. As a student of the Cold War I am often intrigued by fiction that uses this period as a backdrop (see Olen Steinhauer for example). So when I received Pawel Huelle’s short autobiographical novella Mercedez-Benz in the mail I decided to move it to the top of the pile.

I am glad I did. It turned out to be a unique and captivating work. For such a short and simple work it has a lot of resonance and depth. It is both a tribute and a memoir; both a look back and a look ahead. If you enjoy elegant and humane writing you will enjoy Mercedes-Benz.

The basic story line is simple as Pawel narrates his experiences taking driving lessons in the Polish city of Gdansk in the post-Soviet 1990’s. The seeming simplicity of the style and story, however, obscure the underlying depth and emotion. As Pawel learns to drive with the help of his instructor Miss Ciwle, he tells her stories of his parents and grandparents. These stories center around his families ownership of a series of Mercedes-Benz automobiles - hence the title. Through these stories Pawel gives the reader an insightful glimpse into the last century of Polish life. In a way that straightforward history can not, these stories - based on actual events and illustrated with real photographs - take you inside the personal emotions and activities of the people on the ground as the world changing events take place around them; from pre-war independence to the long communist years to the new world of the post-communist era. The cars, and the driving lessons, serve as a useful hook to hang these vignettes on. Pawel nicely moves between the past and the present comparing and contrasting the periods and the people’s lives.

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One of the eternal mysteries of the blogosphere is how Glenn Reynolds finds the time to post so much on his InstaPundit blog. After all, this is not some unemployed socially challenged teenager posting from his parent’s basement (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Reynolds is a law professor; columnist; musician, producer, and record label owner to name just a few of his varied activities. Add in the fact that he is married and has a daughter and it is hard to imagine where he finds the time to post all those entries or read just a fraction of the unending stream of emails he receives.

Clearly, Reynolds has a curious mind and a lot of energy. In the midst of all of the above, he found time to write a book. The recently released An Army of Davids, gives those unfamiliar with his writing an idea of the breadth of his interests. Subtitled “How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths,” the book is also a guided tour through some of the more interesting ways technology and markets are changing society.

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I had some technical issues over the weekend that resulted in a couple of posts disappearing (been that kind of week) so content will be delayed yet again. Below are some links to interviews you might find interesting.

- John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has an interview with Claire Berlinski, author of Menace In Europe and the novel Loose Lips.

- Robert Birnbaum continues to crank out the interviews. Here is one with Thomas Beller, author of How to Be a Man: Scenes From a Protracted Boyhood and The Sleep-Over Artist. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Yardley had this to say about Beller:

Thomas Beller is a smart, funny, interesting guy who labors under the misfortune of knowing that he’s a smart, funny, interesting guy, but for the most part he manages to avoid the pitfalls — narcissism, self-absorption, self-congratulation — that such knowledge often creates. To be sure, he is an accomplished navel-gazer — “How to Be a Man” is all about Me, Me, Me — but he is disarmingly self-deprecatory and gets his laughs, of which the book has a number, mainly at his own expense.

The interview includes this interesting exchange:

RB: What is it you think you can do [laughs] as a writer?

TB: Hmm.

RB: [still laughing] What do you bring to the table?

TB: Another thing I can’t do is answer questions that directly. But I can tell you apropos of what I can do as a writer that I did a radio interview with the North Carolina NPR affiliate. And the guy who conducted it was not a local. He was subbing. He had come down from Washington. A very nice guy, very intelligent. Had read at least a respectable amount of the book. And understandably wanted me to discuss some of the thematic offshoots of what that issue [raised by How to be a Man] might bring up. I just went into this thing of what I do—I just won’t do what is asked of me. I did have things to say and afterwards this very nice producer said, “You know, you wrote a really good book and you are really self deprecating in your book and that’s great, but when you go on the radio you have to get over that and say that you wrote a good book and say what it’s about.”

- Mr. Birnbaum also recently spoke with Alberto Manguel. Here is the teaser:

Should “America” only include the United States? Does art criticism matter when it doesn’t account for emotions? Our man in Boston talks to author Alberto Manguel about working with Borges and responding to paintings.

- National Review Online has an interview with Charles Murray, author of In Our Hands : A Plan To Replace The Welfare State. In the book the famous libertarian proposes to end the welfare state by replacing it with a grant system. The gist of it is given in this exchange:

Kathryn Jean Lopez: First things first. $10,000? Who’s getting and when? And can I use it on my credit-card debt?

Charles Murray: If you’ve reached your 21st birthday, are a United States citizen, are not incarcerated, and have a pulse, you get the grant, electronically deposited in monthly installments in an American bank of your choice with an ABA routing number. If you make more than $25,000, you pay part of it back in graduated amounts. At $50,000, the surtax maxes out at $5,000. I also, reluctantly but with good reason, specify that $3,000 has to be devoted to health care. Apart from that, you can use the grant for whatever you want. Enjoy.

Yet another non-fiction book I would like to read. But I am hopelessly behind so I doubt I will get to it.

Took some books to half-price books today and here is what I got in return:

- The Cossacks (Everyman’s Library) by Leo Tolstoy :

I have a weakness for the Everyman’s Library. Plus, I figure this way I can read some Tolstoy without tackling War and Peace.

- Love and Friendship by Allan Bloom

Bloom is a tough read and I have heard that some of the chapters are uneven, but it was only a dollar and I wanted to have it on the shelf.

- The Brass Cupcake by John D. MacDonald.

What a great title! And who wouldn’t want to read a hard boiled detective story from the 1950’s.

This is my inaugural wish list for books. I hope to post future wish lists every month. The first book is Vasily Grossman’s A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, 1941-1945. Vasily has been desrcibed as Russia’s Ernie Pyle. This appears to be a personal viewpoint of the Russian/German conflict in World War II.

The second book on my wish list is Catherine Merridale’s Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945. In contrast to Grossman’s book, Merridale takes a more traditional, objective look at the war between the Russians and the Germans. These two books will hopefully shed some light on an area of World War II that has not been discussed much in the West - the Russian side of the war.

The third book is Dick Winters’ Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. As the title infers, this appears to further detail the exploits of Easy Company from the book Band of Brothers. I look forward to reconnecting with Easy Company.

The last book is Sean Naylor’s Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda. I have become more interested in America’s recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope that Naylor’s book will explain what happened in one of the war in Afghanistan’s most reported battles.

***Big catch-up “In The Mail.” Mostly non-fiction as that is what the publishers are sending.***

Tin God by Terese Svoboda

Booklist:

When G-O-D broadcasts in Svoboda’s fictional realm, it’s not a message of revelation sent from on high. That would be way too predictable. Instead, this edgy, irreverent supreme being would rather spread grass than gospel over the rolling fields of the midwestern heartland. But there’s grass, and then there’s grass, and it’s the eponymous latter that has captured the attention of Jim and Pork, two hapless jokers who have somehow managed to lose a bag of the “good stuff” in tough guy Rolf’s field. It’s the same field, where, eons ago, a Don Quixote-like conquistador flummoxed a tribe of whispering natives when, on his horse, he catapulted to earth from out of the blue. As Pork starts digging for his lost stash, he uncovers evidence of the earlier man’s presence. Is there a message here, a cosmic connection that spans centuries? Only G-O-D knows for sure, and she’s not saying. Svoboda’s fiercely symbolic and brashly audacious allegory is a fanciful yet cautionary tale.

White Ghetto : How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay by Star Parker

Book Description:

Much has been said about Bill Cosby’s incendiary remarks about urban black culture and its “dirty laundry.” But in this provocative book, Star Parker, one of today’s most controversial commentators, goes even further, proving that urban plight simply reveals a decay that is gnawing its way throughout American society as a whole.

The sexual chaos, values disorientation, and social turmoil we see in our inner cities, Parker argues, is just a magnified reflection of the moral collapse happening all over America: in our schools, our churches, our homes. And this slide toward moral decrepitude is all due to a flagrant dismissal of and assault on America’s tried-and-true values.

Muzzled : From T-Ball to Terrorism-True Stories That Should Be Fiction by Michael Smerconish

Book description:

This brazen, furiously funny book is the antidote to today’s poison of political correctness. With humor and chutzpah, attorney, commentator, and popular radio host Michael Smerconish takes on today’s oversensitive culture with a collection of entertaining, outlandish anecdotes about PC gone wild-stories that are hilarious, horrifying, and unbelievably true.

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If you want to read a hard-hitting, fast-paced book, read Tim Pritchard’s Ambush Alley. The book is about the U.S. Marines’ own version of Blackhawk Down – the battle to capture two bridges in Nasiriyah, Iraq.

Pritchard’s book is based on the events that occurred on March 23, 2003. On that date, the U.S. Marines were expected to wait twenty-four hours before entering a city that was supposed to capitulate quickly. As many military planners know, the best-laid plans often go awry. After a U.S. Army convoy is ambushed near the city, the Marines are forced to advance their attack by twenty-four hours to rescue the missing soldiers from the convoy and seize the bridges. Unfortunately, the Marines find themselves in a life-or-death struggle with Iraqi forces.

Pritchard does not give a bland, general description of combat – he throws his descriptions in your face. You really feel as if you are with the Marines as they fight to survive. His raw descriptions of the casualties are heart-rending and moving. Anyone who has any romantic ideas of combat after reading Pritchard’s book needs to have their head examined.

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