2018: A Few Books I Found Myself Recommending to Friends

1. "The Price You Pay" by Aiden Truhen. An amusing novel about a sociopath's revenge against a bunch of very bad people.
2. "The Insurgents" by Fred Kaplan. How counter-insurgency theory gained respectability in the Pentagon.
3. "Reveille in Washington: 1860 - 1865" by Margaret Leech. Historian David McCullough has recommended this for years. A must-read for any Civil War buff.
4. "Listening to Your Life" by Frederick Buechner. I am re-reading this and will continue to do so.
5. "A War Like No Other" by Victor Davis Hanson. The war between Athens and Sparta continues to have messages for today's leaders.
6. "Donald J. Trump" by Conrad Black. An intriguing look at an unusual president.
7. "Team of Teams" by General Stanley McChrystal. The former commander of the American forces in Iraq examines information, coordination, and control issues that can apply to any large organization.
8. "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser. A candid memoir of the British campaign against the Japanese in Burma.
9. "A Meal in Winter" by Hubert Mingarelli. Some German soldiers in Poland capture a Jew and face a question.
10. "The Gatekeepers" by Chris Whipple. The story of the White House Chiefs of Staff. Timely and very informative.
11. "Simple Rules" by Donald Sull and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt. A framework for developing simple rules in life. [A parked car can beat a burglar alarm.]
12. "The Silo Effect" by Gillian Tett. Organizational silos can be damned scary and this book explores solutions.
13. "Meltdown" by Chris Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik. If you are into crisis prevention and management, this is the book for you.
14. "Submission" by MIchel Houellebecq. A controversial novel about the rise of a Muslim government in France. Read it with today's Europe in mind.
15. "On Grand Strategy" by John Lewis Gaddis. A survey of some of the great successes and failures in history. Are you a hedgehog or a fox?