Just in time for the holidays, IC book reviewer Geoff Riklin offers you thirteen books that you can finish before the New Year.

A few months ago I submitted a list recommending a dozen crushing tomes that were guaranteed to keep your lips moving all summer.  Now that the fall weather is upon, we unfortunately find the old corpuscles moving a bit more slowly, so devoted readers may wish to explore books that don’t stretch from here to infinity.  Herewith are some suggestions.  Last time I started with the longest and went to the shortest, but here I have reversed that practice.  All these books are easily available at any decent library, or you can buy them cheaply at Amazon.  If nothing else, Amazon’s ability to provide us with inexpensive used books should guarantee Jeff Bezos his own little cloud in heaven.

(A note:  finding books in databases can be frustrating, and I have done my best to provide precise information.  ISBN numbers uniquely identify every book, and are therefore the best reference tools.)

1.  The Persian Expedition
by Xenophon

Written by a Greek officer active between about 400 and 350 BC, this is one of the oldest existing books in the world.  It tells the story of the Greek attack on the Persian Empire, with the writer front and center.  The invasion turned into a total disaster and those Greeks who made it back alive were incredibly lucky to do so.  The account is full of fascinating stories and absurd details, my favorite being the time a sneeze was interpreted as a positive sign from the gods.  It’s fair to say that this book has been one of the most influential in the history of the Western world, because just about everybody who’s anybody has read it, especially soldiers.  This account can serve as Exhibit A as to why I don’t understand why everybody finds ancient civilizations to be so attractive:  at best the Greeks were odd, at worst they were total clowns. 

309 pages in the Penguin Classics edition
ISBN 0140440070    
Available at Amazon.com.

2.  War Since 1945
by Field Marshal Lord Michael Carver

Carver served in one capacity or another in every British war from the Second World War to the Falklands, and eventually became the Chief of Staff of the armed forces.  He wrote many books, and this one is a survey of the topic.  As a writer Carver has many virtues:  his own extensive personal experience, a sound knowledge of his subject, a spirit of evenhanded inquiry, and a succinct pen.  This book is certainly no in-depth study, but it will point the reader in many good directions.  If you want to explore a particular war in greater depth, you can plunder his bibliography.  This book is the best starting point I know for exploring armed conflict in the wake of WWII.

344 pages
ISBN 0399125949
Available on Amazon.com.

3.  Panzer Battles
by F. W. von Mellenthin

This is the best book I’ve ever read on the Second World War.  Mellenthin was a Prussian staff officer of the old school, one of the last.  He seems to have had little affection for Hitler, but he obviously liked war.  Serving at the front from Poland in ‘39, to France in ‘40, to North Africa, to Russia, and finally in the West against the Anglo-American forces, Mellenthin had a freakishly complete set of experiences.  He provides a very readable and enlightening account of almost everything.  One point that emerges clearly is how little war has changed since 1939.  From logistics to intelligence to recon to planning to combining all arms in battle, this book not only lays it all out, it does so in the most interesting manner.  

383 pages
ISBN 0345321588
Available on Amazon.com.

4.  Death Dealer
by Rudolph Hoss

This is definitely not a book for people of delicate sensibilities.  Hoss was the first commandant of Auschwitz.  Captured shortly after the war, Hoss wrote this memoir/confession while on trial in Poland.  A combat veteran of the First World War, Hoss got involved in radical politics and wound up murdering a man who was allegedly a traitor to the cause, and was imprisoned for several years.  Because he was a jailbird for all the right reasons, the SS took a shining to him and regarded him as an expert on prisons.  Industrious and eager to please, Hoss rose rapidly.  On the whole, this struck me as being an amazingly honest and candid account.  Hoss provides detailed descriptions of many senior SS men, most of whom he found lacking.  He did, however, have a high opinion of Adolph Eichmann!!!  I visited Auschwitz/Birkenau a year ago, with Hoss and his account (among others) in the front of my mind.  What a wonderful world.  Hoss died at the end of a rope, so at least there’s that.

390 pages
ISBN 0306806983
Available on Amazon.com.

5.  An Imperfect God:  George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America
by Henry Wiencek

I’m embarrassed to say that this is the first book I’ve read on GW, and I feel lucky to have come across it.  Wiencek is not content simply to explore musty archives.  He spent a lot of time exploring Mount Vernon, and delved into how Washington and his contemporaries lived from day to day, and how those practical experiences shaped their outlook.  The result is a fascinating book.  Washington as politician, explorer, soldier, and heavily indebted gentleman farmer, it all com