Currently Reading
Turning the pages of a few books. Here’s what I am reading right now:
The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts by Peter Coleman
An intriguing book about the nature of intractable conflicts (ex. Israeli-Palestinians), including the mathematical patterns and complexity behind the attractors and how to break the deadly cycle. A courtesy review copy from the publisher, I am about 1/3 finished and will review soon, perhaps this week.
A Terrorist’s Call to Global Jihad: Deciphering Abu Musab al-Suri’s Islamic Jihad Manifesto by Jim Lacey
Earlier this year, I read Architect of Global Jihad, the bio of Syrian Islamist theorist and terrorist, Abu Musab al-Suri. Here Jim Lacey interprets a digest taken from al-Suri’s monumental 1600 page magnum opus, Islamic Call for Global Jihad. The dry, autodidactic, tone of al-Suri comes through in Lacey’s text.
Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Columbia/Hurst) by Stephen Tankel
A courtesy review copy from the author, I finished this book about the Pakistani infamous Ahl-e-Hadith terrorist group and ISI proxy, Lashkar-e-Taiba recently. I would have reviewed here already except that my review is being published in an overseas magazine and it has not yet been released. An informative book by Carnegie scholar Stephen Tankel that traces the evolution of the group that gained worldwide attention by their horrific attack on Mumbai.
Another Bloody Century: Future Warfare by Colin S. Gray
I am 3/4 finished with this work by eminent strategist Colin Gray who is making a case for the eternal continuity of war, if not the tactical iterations of warfare. Valuable for Gray’s Clausewitzian take on all the avant garde schools of strategy, warfare and futurism that abound. I set it aside for a while because I was burning out on a steady diet of war and strategy books, PDFs, articles and internet threads 🙂
November 7th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Hi Zen,
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Know what you mean about "burning out on a steady diet…" I took Cameron Schafer’s admonition and added a little fiction and narrative history to the mix. On the heals of Tom Holland’s Millenium, I’ve started his Persian Fire (Rubicon in in the stack). My main focus for the next few days is a book on submarine design—then The Landmark Herodotus (if time permits).
November 7th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Geez, guys. Like my anti-library wasn’t big enough already…
November 8th, 2011 at 3:07 am
A little fiction does the soul good. I have a hard time tearing myself away from non-fiction though – I almost feel like I am shirking a responsibility if I read a novel.
November 8th, 2011 at 3:33 am
Hi Zen, Check out People of the Book by Stacton. Enough of the Thirty Years War to whet the appetite, but enough "fiction stuff," too. Hill was right on this title.
November 8th, 2011 at 3:36 am
Thanks Scott! That also reminds me – I need to post that article on Hill