Currently reading

Eleven
Paul Hanley
A Month in the Country
Michael Holroyd, J.L. Carr
A Tale of the Dispossessed: A Novel
Laura Restrepo, Dolores M. Koch
Mesabi Pioneers
Jeffrey Smith, Russell Hill
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Jon Rothschild, Amin Maalouf
Island of a Thousand Mirrors
Nayomi Munaweera

The Knife

The Knife - Ross Ritchell I got this from the First to Read program.

The Knife painted me into a world of a black ops unit in Afghanistan. It made the rhythm of that life real, with the sudden signals to move, the lack of information, the mind-numbing waits and the lack of sleep. I have no knowledge to decide whether it's true to life or not, but it's powerful and enveloping.

It's also dark. You can feel the imperfection of it all the way through, like a horrible calamity is always just on the next page. Something will go horribly wrong. Mistakes will be made. Mistakes were already made. Perhaps these men aren't who they want to be. Maybe these decisions they face are inhuman. Maybe the only way to live this way is not to think about it. But the main character, Shaw, does think about it -- there are long wait periods and it seems unavoidable.

It's a really effective and powerful read. It's also gritty, dark, uncomfortable, and vulgar.