What Are You Reading?

[Lotus]

I'm reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda, an important 20th century Hindu master. It's a classic. Great read if you are into this sort of thing.

[GMScud]

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. Just started it, but it's supposed to be fantastic. I love books about WWII.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. Just started it, but it's supposed to be fantastic. I love books about WWII.

I think Peter King recommended that one as well.

[mooby]

Just finished reading Lions of Kandahar, it's a book written by Major Rusty Bradley, who was a Commander of US Special Forces in Kandahar during Operation Medusa. Absolutely thrilling tale of how about 30 Special Forces soldiers and 50 Afghan Army soldiers stopped almost 1000 Taliban fighters to secure a major hill (Sperwan Ghar) in southern Afghanistan. I'll let the Amazon overview put it in better detail:

Originally Posted by Amazon.com

One of the most critical battles of the Afghan War is now revealed as never before. Lions of Kandahar is an inside account from the unique perspective of an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forces commander, an unparalled warrior with multiple deployments to the theater who has only recently returned from combat there.

Southern Afghanistan was slipping away. That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his third tour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies were infiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packed warren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers, lush orchards, and towering marijuana stands, all laced with treacherous irrigation ditches. A mass exodus of civilians heralded the carnage to come.

Dispatched as a diversionary force in support of the main coalition attack, Bradley’s Special Forces A-team and two others, along with their longtime Afghan Army allies, watched from across the valley as the NATO force was quickly engulfed in a vicious counterattack. Key to relieving it and calling in effective air strikes was possession of a modest patch of high ground called Sperwan Ghar. Bradley’s small detachment assaulted the hill and, in the midst of a savage and unforgettable firefight, soon learned they were facing nearly a thousand seasoned fighters—from whom they seized an impossible victory.

Now Bradley recounts the whole remarkable story as it actually happened. The blistering trek across Afghanistan’s infamous Red Desert. The eerie traces of the elusive Taliban. The close relations with the Afghan people and army, a primary mission focus. Sperwan Ghar itself: unremitting waves of fire from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades; a targeted truck turned into an inferno; the death trap of a cut-off compound. Most important: the men, Americans and Afghans alike—the “shaky” medic with nerves of steel and a surgeon’s hands in battle; the tireless sergeant who seems to be everywhere at once; the soft-spoken intelligence officer with laser-sharp insight; the diminutive Afghan commander with a Goliath-sized heart; the cool maverick who risks all to rescue a grievously wounded comrade—each unique, all indelible in their everyday exercise of extraordinary heroism.

I think this book has been adequately covered by the press since it came out, but I definitely recommend it anyways.