The Good Soldiers

by David Finkel

This book is about the surge in Iraq from 2007-2008 and is an insider's look at the life and challenges faced by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich. It looks at the personal experiences of the men on the ground, unbiased by political rhetoric.

Reading through the news, one can see soldier casualties as of perhaps one soldier KIA and may regard this as a low number. This book puts a face of that one soldier who died in the war is not just a statistic but a real person. It is someone's father, mother, brother, sister, best friend.

One of the most interesting part of this book is on a very disturbing video called Collateral Murder from Wikileaks. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the army was unethical and the soldiers were trigger-happy. After reading The Good Soldiers, I see another perspective. That the soldiers are so disillusioned by the war and are trying to help people and a certain section of these group of this people are trying to kill them for it. The soldiers themselves fear for their lives every single day, their nerves strained to such a degree that although they do not wish to kill anyone, the mentality is that of to pull the trigger before the trigger is pulled on you.

Last but also the most important, are the civilians.They are the victims in this as they always are in wars. To support the Americans means to betray your country and you may be killed by the insurgent militia. But to not help the Americans would mean when the Americans leave, they would be under the power of the insurgent militia which would likely be ruthless seeing even now they have no regard for them. The common Iraqi is caught between two evils and all they can do is just to keep quiet and hope for the best which is nowhere in sight.

This book is really an eye-opener of what the Iraqi war means and how it is really more of a war of winning hearts and minds but the payment are people laying their lives down for that cause. At the end of the day one has to ask is it really worth the lives given for this win and a more important question of what it really means to win?

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

This is a musical adaptation of the wonderful book by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. The story of Christmas Carol is of Ebeneezer Scrooge, an old crooked rich man who is too selfish and cold-hearted to embrace the spirit of Christmas. During the night he is visited by his old partner Jacob Marley who have suffered in death because of how he lived his life as Ebeneezer is living now. To help Ebeneezer before it is too late, Marley says three ghosts will visit Ebeneezer and show him the errors of his ways. Through the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Ebeneezer goes on an amazing journey through his entire life and understand what Christmas really means.

But now to the play. It was horrible. First the music arrangements are bad, there are moments where the actors are just waiting for the music to come in for them to carry on the song and this just made it really drag on needlessly. The acting too was poor. It felt like they were just reading their lines. The singing was very bad as well, there was no energy and charisma from any of the main actors. At one point I actually wanted to sing along because I felt I could have sung louder than that and made it more lively. The only redeeming factor was the acting by the many children. The children actors were actually better than the grown ups. They sang, dance and acted quite well. Other than that everything was downhill from the get go. There was no climax in any of the singing and it was very difficult to get into the wonderful story that is A Christmas Carol.

It was just very painful to watch. I spent most of the play shaking my head and thought that this does not do the story justice at all. I considered walking out after giving the play 15 minutes. At the intermission I really wanted to leave but stayed on anyways in hope of giving it a chance to improve. But it did very little to redeem itself. All in all, this musical really sucked the Christmas spirit right out of me. I shall need to read Dicken's book to redeem it.

Maya

by Jostein Gaarder

This is the first book I have read in ages! The story is quite convoluted, as always with Jostein Gaarder, stories within stories. Story synopsis from Amazon because I'm lazy. Don't read the synopsis (in italics) if you are to read this book.

A chance meeting on the Fijian island of Taveuni is the trigger for a fascinating and mysterious novel that intertwines the stories of John Spooke, an English author who is grieving for his dead wife; Frank Andersen, a Norwegian evolutionary biologist estranged from his wife Vera; and an enigmatic Spanish couple, Ana and Jose, who are absorbed in their love for each other. Why does Ana bear such a close resemblance to the model for Goya's famous Maja paintings? What is the significance of the Joker as he steps out of his pack of cards? As the action moves from Fiji to Spain, from the present to the past, unfolding further stories within the stories, the novel reveals an astonishing richness and complexity. As bold and imaginative in its sweep as Sophie's World, it shows again that Jostein Gaarder's unique and special gift is to make us wonder at the awe-inspiring mystery of the universe. 

Here are my thoughts. I actually did not like this book very much, the story was labored at times. It was like I wanted to see the ending and that is all. The journey was not really that enticing. Perhaps that is a personal perspective. It had its moments and one realization by the character John Spooke made me quite affected. But the writing was a bit hard to digest at times. It was also written mostly in first person, so it was very difficult to read. Almost the whole book was internal monologue. But the content in itself is pretty inspiring, Jostein Gaarder always has a theme of writing about philosophy and in this case, it was on evolution theory and the meaning of life. It is quite intricate at times the concepts introduced, but again at times, this felt a lot like a lecture in evolution rather than a story. It really was bordering on being a evolution textbook bounded together as a piece of fiction.

As a whole, it is an alright read, though I still prefer Sophie's World and the Solitaire Mystery. But Jostein Gaarder's writing is unique and I aspire only to be half as good in evoking thought and emotion as his writing does.

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

                                                                                                                     photograph by gacek

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,   

And sorry I could not travel both   

And be one traveler, long I stood   

And looked down one as far as I could   

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,   

And having perhaps the better claim,   

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;   

Though as for that the passing there   

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay   

In leaves no step had trodden black.   

Oh, I kept the first for another day!   

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,   

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh   

Somewhere ages and ages hence:   

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—   

I took the one less traveled by,   

And that has made all the difference.

Reefer Madness

by Paul Franklin (BlakYak Theatre Production at the Phoenix Theatre)

The play description from the BlakYak website.

Reefer Madness the musical – Inspired by the original 1936 film of the same name, this raucous musical comedy takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the hysteria caused when clean-cut kids fall prey to marijuana, leading them on a hysterical downward spiral filled with evil jazz music, sex and violence. You won’t be able to resist the spoofy fun of Reefer Madness. The addictive and clever musical numbers range from big Broadway-style showstoppers to swing tunes like “Down at the Ol’ Five and Dime” and the Vegas-style “Listen to Jesus, Jimmy,” featuring J.C. Himself leading a chorus of showgirl angels. This dynamic show will go straight to your head!

One of the most wonderful musicals I have seen this year! I at first just thought it would be a brainless sort of play like the one I watched last week, The Sorting Room. But this play was in a class of its own. Firstly all the actors were wonderful and sang absolutely beautifully. They were also faithful to the time period, and the characters spoke with American accents of the period, that of the mid 20th century. The props though very little, were more than compensated for with the great costumes and the charisma and talent of the actors and actresses. The only fault I have is with ending, which I felt with a bit rushed and wrapper up haphazardly. But then again the story is what it is, and the quality of performance makes up for this. Overall, the journey was just so much fun and entertaining that at the end you did not really care where it ended.