Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Some Required Reading

So I started reading a new book.  Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen.  I know what you're thinking Newt Gingrich???  Really??? It's not something I would usually pick up, but I've got a good reason:  My father-in-law was as excited as a school girl telling me about it, and about as giddy as I've ever seen him when I said I'd read it.  If you've met my father-in-law, you can see how this has prompted me to pick up the book.  (If you haven't met him, let me say that the first time I actually spoke to him I said: "Good Morning.  It looks nice out today" and he humphed and walked outside.  If he's excited about me reading this book, I'm doing it.)

So far, the book is actually pretty good.  Have you read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara?  It is a really amazing work of historical fiction that really feels more like historical non-fiction.  It's amazing.  If you saw the movie Gettysburg, then you've read the book.  It is THE BEST book to movie crossover that I have ever seen.  The movie was almost exactly word for word with the book, and since the book was amazing, the movie was great too.  (The same is NOT true for Gods and Generals.  That was a butt numbing, mind numbing movie.  Yuck.)

This book is written in pretty much the same style as The Killer Angels.  And, fortunately, the writing is nearly as good.  (Although I have to say on the first page the author split an infinitive and I nearly put the book down in disgust.  Really Newt?  That's disappointing.  And you want to be president?)  I admit I'm not very far yet, so I don't know EXACTLY what's going to happen next, but the premise of the book is what would happen if the Confederate Army won at Gettysburg.  It sounds like a pretty interesting premise and I'm hoping it continues to read as well as it has been.  And I hope the two books following this one are good too, because it looks like I'm signed up to read the whole series.  Oh well.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  (How's that for a random cliche!)

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