On Desperate Ground - The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle (Hampton Sides, 2018)

Sides is a very good author - made this highly interesting (it's a great story so didn't need much build).

I don't know much about the Korean war so it's helpful as to the early stages of the conflict.

Douglas MacArthur does not come off well in this telling, and I think that's the consensus of folks who are knowledgeable about this.

Sides introduces various of the key soldiers and officers, describes the incredible bravery under horrible winter conditions.  Sympathetic to Chinese soldiers who quite often were so poorly equipped - both for fighting and for surviving the weather.

The Chinese did have lots of bodies and no qualms about expending them - US soldiers fighting off literal hordes, corpses stack up in the cold.

Also some impressive engineering feats - to get an air strip ready to go in an isolated area, to fix a crossing.  Ingenuity. 

The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green, 2021)

Book club selection, per Zach.

"Anthropocene" in title gave it a scientific feel with pretty much no relevance to the little stories.

Per the introduction, I also thought he was going to talk a lot about how humans affect the earth but then don't know much how to manage the change they're causing.  That didn't seem to happen much at all.

Apparently the guy is a pretty successful author so I'll assume it's just me who's missing out.  But these stories generally seemed pretty shallow, and weren't saved by the "reviews" at the end of each.

I liked the one about the "three farmers" in the photograph.

He's interested in communicating about his anxieties etc.  Written in Covid era and this comes through way too much.

Discussion of pain was thought-provoking. Viral meningitis.  

I liked the "World's Largest Ball of Paint" story a lot.  I need to see it. A good way to think of our miniscule contributions.

I liked the idea of measuring time in Halleys (comet circuits).

My book appears to be signed!

Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)

I liked this quite a bit. 

Novel is set on a single day - Clarissa Dalloway is giving a big party, preparations are ongoing, events in the neighborhood are described, flashbacks are given which help flesh out various characters.

Clarissa Dalloway is the main character; she is married to Raymond Dalloway.  But was pretty much in love with Peter Walsh (it was reciprocated), though she turned him away.

Elizabeth (Clarissa's daughter). Miss Killeen (influences Elizabeth).

Septimius Smith - WWI vet, messed up; married to Lucrezia Smith

Clarissa is aware that she's aging, and there is some interesting musing about that.