Good Books

I polished off a few good books this weekend. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King is Lost on a Mountain in Maine meets Joe Castiglione meets, well, Stephen King. All around a good read (for a Sox fan), and the scariness isn't all that scary.

On the scholarly side, For Cause and Country is one of the best books on the Civil War I've ever encountered. It's a quick read - 200 pages - and is basically a study of 1,000+ diaries and papers of Civil War combatants, written during their service. The question is, Why did they fight? The answer is of course mixed, but author Stephen Ambrose finds that most soldiers joined, stayed, and gave it all in combat because they truly believed in the causes they fought for and had strong loyalty to their comrades. Unlike later American wars, discipline and training were not strong, and officers were not automatically respected. Worth the time to read this one; it sheds light on a different view of manhood from a time and culture not far removed from our own.