Death Be Not Proud (John Gunther, 1949)

The title is from a well-known John Donne poem.

Author's son dies of a brain tumor after a 15-month illness. The son is very bright. The parents are very devoted.  They pursue all sorts of medical angles (they have money and connections and use them).

Very solemn topic and this was universally considered well-written.  But I didn't get into it. Maybe because it's kind of an uncomfortable thing and the kid seemed too-good-to-be-true?  Not sure. 

I think perhaps the novelists are more captivating with this (easy example the death of the Proust narrator's grandmother).  

Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein, 1959)

This was a fun read.

Johnny Rico decides to join the mobile infantry; war breaks out - interstellar stuff - primary enemy is a group of Bugs - spider-like, large, operate through central brains.

Setting is earth a long time after the order known in the 20th century had fallen apart. By necessity and happenstance rather than design - groups of military veterans started running things in an effort to restore order.  And this worked fairly well - under the new system, only veterans were allowed to vote.  So it continued.

There isn't much fighting/action in the book - good passages at beginning and end.

Interesting musings about how to raise children, how to govern society, preparing folks to fight in the military as constructed in those days.  Boot camp, officer candidate school. Author seemed to know a lot about this world and thought highly of it.

Some of the passages about societal breakdown sounded familiar.