'The Gamble' by Thomas E. Ricks

'The Gamble' by Thomas E. Ricks

Reviewed By Michiko Kakutani at the New York Times

Thomas E. Ricks’s devastating 2006 book, “Fiasco,” provided a lucid, tough-minded assessment of the Iraq war, brilliantly summing up the political and military mistakes that had brought the United States, after more than three years of occupation, to a terrible tipping point there. Drawing upon the author’s reporting on the ground in Iraq and his many sources within the uniformed military, “Fiasco” chronicled how the United States “went to war in Iraq with scant solid international support and on the basis of incorrect information,” and how flawed assumptions, drastic planning failures and plain old-fashioned hubris led to a “derelict occupation” that fueled a burgeoning insurgency.

In his equally powerful and illuminating new book, “The Gamble,” Mr. Ricks, who covered the military for The Washington Post from 2000 to 2008, takes up the story where he left off in “Fiasco.” This volume recounts how Iraq came close to unraveling in 2006, how the Bush administration finally conceded it was off course, and how a new set of commanders — headed by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno — began putting a radically different strategy in place.

That strategy, often referred to as the surge, not only involved the addition of some 30,000 troops but also, more important, featured new counterinsurgency tactics (which made the protection of Iraqi civilians a priority) and a new realpolitik approach to dealing with insurgents.

Mr. Ricks writes as both an analyst and a reporter with lots of real-time access to the chain of command, and his book’s narrative is animated by closely observed descriptions of how the surge worked on the ground, by a savvy knowledge of internal Pentagon politics, and by a keen understanding of the Iraq war’s long-term fallout on already strained American forces.

While Mr. Ricks praises General Petraeus’s success in helping the military regain the strategic initiative in Iraq as an “extraordinary achievement” — reducing violence and reviving “American prospects in the war” — he also reminds us that the surge was meant to “create a breathing space that would then enable Iraqi politicians to find a way forward,” and that that outcome is still unclear. “The best grade” the surge campaign can be given, he says, “is a solid incomplete.”

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Patrick Swayze signs book deal

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

Actor Patrick Swayze, who has been fighting stage-four pancreatic cancer for the past year, has signed a deal to write his life story.

The memoir, to be written with his wife, Lisa Niemi, will be published this fall by Atria Books.

The announcement was made Thursday by Judith Curr, executive vice president and publisher of Atria.

The memoir, still untitled, will give an intimate account of the star's life, including his battle with cancer.

"With everything I've been fortunate enough to do in my life, and covering such a wide range of diverse subject matters, I'm told that my story has been inspirational to people," Swayze, the 56-year-old star of Dirty Dancing and the A&E series The Beast, said in a statement. "I will write from my heart about these experiences and aside from the sheer pleasure of doing it, if people happen to garner inspiration from it, or incentive, or find a new way to love, it would be wonderful."

Top Shelf: Recommendations of recent books from the staffs of Bay Area independent bookstores

Found at the San Francisco Chronicle

This week's list is from Copperfield's Books, 138 N. Main St., Sebastopol. (707) 823-2618. www.copperfields.net.

Fiction

The Risk of Infidelity Index, by Christopher G. Moore: Think Dashiell Hammett in Bangkok. A hard-boiled, street-smart, often hilarious pursuit of a double murderer. In paperback.

White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga: Dark, humorous and real. This novel lets us see that morality and money don't solve every problem, but decency can still be found in a corrupt world. In paperback.

Hotel de Dream, by Edmund White: This story within a story finds Stephen Crane dictating his final work to his wife, Cora. What emerges is a strange, dreamlike novel of a boy prostitute in 1890s New York and the married man who ruins his own life to find love. In paperback.

People of the Whale, by Linda Hogan: Hogan employs just the right touch of spiritualism in this engrossing tale of a world that once was and still might be.

Tales From Outer Suburbia (ages 10 & up), by Shaun Tan: A thought-provoking book about everyday happenings that morph into remarkable and imaginative stories for adults and children.

Nonfiction

The Killing of Major Denis Mahon, by Peter Duffy: Duffy's storytelling skills render vividly the harsh realities and the alternately heartbreaking and appalling politics of the Irish Famine. In paperback.

A Place of My Own, by Michael Pollan: You might have missed this book when it came out in 1997, but this reissue is one to include in your library. Pollan is inspired to build a room of his own with his own hands. In paperback.

God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant: Grant travels on horseback through Mexico's Sierra Madre, one of the largest drug-producing regions in the world, and encounters a rugged landscape where the mythical old Mexico meets the new. In paperback.

Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman: A no-nonsense rundown on how government policy, big-business marketing and global economics influence what we choose to put on the table. Bittman offers recipes and straightforward, budget-conscious advice that will help shrink your carbon footprint - and your waistline.

Three Cups of Tea (Young Readers Edition), by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin: This remarkable story of how Mortenson built 60 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan is now accessible to young readers. In paperback.

'The Daily Coyote' By Shreve Stockton

'The Daily Coyote' By Shreve Stockton

Reviewed By Susan Salter Reynolds
Miami Herald

A few years ago Shreve Stockton drove across the country on her Vespa to start a new life in New York after two years in San Francisco (oh, to be young and footloose!). On the way, she passed through Wyoming and fell in love with the landscape, especially the Bighorn Mountains. When New York City didn't click, Shreve lit out for the territory, landing in the tiny Wyoming town of Ten Sleep.

Soon, she met a rancher who offered her a rustic cabin on his property, Shreve's dream cabin (also Shreve's dream rancher -- oh, to be young and footloose!). One day the rancher, who also worked as a trapper for the U.S. Department of Agriculture killing coyotes, brought home a coyote cub. Reluctantly, Shreve took in the cub, fed him from a bottle, let him sleep in her bed, named him Charlie and gave him the run of the cabin and her life.

Shreve started a blog, ''The Daily Coyote,'' which became an overnight sensation in the nature-starved Web world. In its prime, the site received more than a million hits a month, some of it judgmental. In the 18 years he'd had his job trapping and killing coyotes, Mike the rancher told Shreve, nothing like the impulse to save this cub had ever come over him. The Daily Coyote is an insight into the boundaries between wild animals and humans.

''I had made it a point not to own him,'' Shreve wrote after Charlie inexplicably bit her one day, ``and to coexist without ever being the boss of him.''

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'The Yankee Years' by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci

'The Yankee Years'
By Joe Torre and Tom Verducci

Review By David Ulin
LA Times


Last week, as the controversy over Joe Torre and Tom Verducci's "The Yankee Years" was ratcheting up, I got an e-mail from my brother, who, like me, is a lifelong New York Yankees fan. "As I understand it," he wrote, "Torre is saying NYY is a tough place to work, very 'What have you done for me lately?' and if your name is not Piniella or Jeter, everyone is out to get you. No news there."

This is the reality for the Yankee faithful and has been since George Steinbrenner took control of the team in 1973. As for Torre's revelations that Alex Rodriguez is high-maintenance (No!) or that General Manager Brian Cashman failed to stand by him after the 2007 season . . . tell me something I don't know.

As it turns out, that's precisely what "The Yankee Years" does, providing an unexpectedly thoughtful, even nuanced, history not only of Torre's 12 years as manager of the Yankees but of Major League Baseball during that time. It's a period ripe for just this sort of overview: the steroid era, the rise of moneyball.

When Torre took over the Yankees in 1996, baseball was less than two years removed from the catastrophic strike that stopped the 1994 season, forcing the cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904.

By 2007, when he left the team after losing the American League division series to the Cleveland Indians, baseball was huge business despite the exposure of some of its biggest stars ( Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds) as alleged cheaters, transformed by a new generation of executives who made decisions based on advanced statistical analyses.

On the surface, none of this appears to have much to do with the Yankees: Although Clemens and others on the 2000 team have been embroiled in the steroids scandal, the team never had an ingrown culture of cheating, while the new age, numbers-crunching style of management demands a patience Steinbrenner lacks.

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'Reclaiming Paris' By Fabiola Santiago

'Reclaiming Paris' By Fabiola Santiago

Reviewed by Johnny Diaz
Found at the Boston Globe

Marisol is a poet and a museum historian. She's also a lover of perfumes and men. All these interests intertwine and shape her life as she leaves her native Cuba and follows her heart to Miami, Iowa, Spain, and France.

Marisol, the first-person narrator of Miami Herald writer Fabiola Santiago's debut novel, "Reclaiming Paris," searches for many things. She looks for a man who will fill the emotional spaces in her heart. She seeks to understand her complicated family's past. Most of all Marisol, whose name in Spanish means "the sea and the sun," wants to find herself.

At first sight, Santiago's novel might look like another light romantic tale, but a closer examination reveals a rich spiritual journey of self-discovery. Marisol tries to understand her dual identity as a Cuban and an American.

Bolstering the novel are the subtle references to historical immigration issues that Santiago laces into the narrative. She also pulls the reader along by initially telling only part of the story about Marisol's father's death, a fatal encounter with Castro's soldiers that led her grandmother to flee Cuba with her on a Freedom Fight in 1969 rather than face further repercussions from the regime.

With each milestone in her life, Marisol ushers in a new perfume and a new man. Naturally, the book opens with an ode to both. "Men are like perfumes," Marisol says. "In an instant, with nothing but a whiff of judgment, I either love them or discard them."

In the opening pages, Marisol's perfume is Pleasures, and she associates it with an affluent, married Miami cardiologist with whom she has fallen madly in love. As she ruminates about their dead-end relationship, the book briefly rewinds into Marisol's childhood and then flashes forward to her string of lovers and accompanying fragrances.

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'The Big Rich' By Bryan Burrough

'The Big Rich' By Bryan Burrough

Reviewed by Janet Maslin
New York Times

The title of “The Big Rich,” Bryan Burrough’s new book about Texas oil money, serves as shorthand. “Big” turns out to mean extravagantly vulgar; it means having the kind of taste that prompted Frank Lloyd Wright, referring to what was said to be Houston’s most fabulous hotel in 1949, to remark that he had always wondered what the inside of a jukebox looked like. “Rich” signals that vast fortunes don’t always last, and that a man who once owned millions of acres of oilfields and thousands of head of cattle could go so broke that even his water cooler and lawnmowers would wind up confiscated. Voyeurism and schadenfreude are the forces that drive this book.

Mr. Burrough, the business-savvy Vanity Fair correspondent, grew up in Texas, perhaps watching “Dallas.” But he didn’t have firsthand knowledge of the Texas that this book tries to summon. And the oil barons about whom he writes, ostentatious as they were, had little interest in leaving behind records of their financial dealings or domestic extravagances. So “The Big Rich” gets much of its information secondhand. It makes far too ready use of phrases like “What happened next has never been explained.”

Describing this account as “an engineered history,” Mr. Burrough proceeds to engineer it into a stock, familiar format. He chooses four tycoons out of the many who struck it rich during the boom years from 1930 to ’35. “If Texas had a Mount Rushmore, their faces would be on it,” he writes of Clint Murchison Sr., Roy Cullen, Sid Richardson and H. L. Hunt, caricaturing these figures as “a good ol’ boy,” “a scold,” “a genius” and “a bigamist.”

Since their stories do not automatically interlock, Mr. Burrough relies on metronomic crosscutting to shape his narrative. This structure is arbitrary and feels that way. And the book’s most memorable oilman, Glenn McCarthy, is a whole other breed of showoff, a man who wound up as a character in “Giant” and really did leave a tabloid trail. Two McCarthys, Glenn and Senator Joseph, are compass points in the Texas of “The Big Rich,” but they don’t fit into Mr. Burrough’s central constellation. “The Big Rich” is also engineered into the standard arc of a success story. So it begins with 100 long, dusty pages about the discovery of oil in different parts of the region. (This book, illustrated with too few photographs to do its characters justice, desperately needed a map of oil fields.) At this early stage of the game Mr. Burrough’s main job is to find different ways to describe what it was like when a gusher came in.

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