Trên Mảnh Đất Người Đời - Tái bản 31/03/2015 tải xuống LIT miễn phí

Fu Ying 326baby — First, the author's credentials. Carroll served as a radar intercept officer, RIO, the guy in tha backseat of an F-14, for fifteen years and now teaches at the Naval Academy. So when he says that being shot off a catapult is "life pasing through him. . .all the 'accelerated roller coasters' and 'car crash and orgasm mixed into one' analaogies did not do the feeling injustice," he knows what he's talking about. Punk is an F-14 fighter pilot whose unit is assigned to routine patrol off the coast of Iran. An Iranian jet sneaks through radar observation and makes a pass at the carrier, escaping when the Squadron commander makes a mistake and presses the gun toggle switch instead arming the missile. The result is an admiral totally paranoid that an enemy could come so close, so he orders round-the-clock combat air patrol (CAP) coverage by flyers with more than five hundred hours. This required more than three missions per day. This extremely demanding operation begins to wear out the machines and the men with numerous night landings, "a most terrifying task." Fuzzy, one of the other pilots, loses a wheel on an aborted landing, forcing a barricade landing. "With that bit of news, Fuzzy promptly placed the contents of his bowels into the seat of his flight suit." When, on final approach, he loses his full complement of hydraulics, he contemplates ejection into the drink, the thought of "going for a swim might not be all that bad in that it would clean the mess out of his flight suit." He is reminded to drop all his weapons in case they would come off during the smash into the barricade, adding several millions of dollars to the ordnance cost of what they were now calling the "Great Iranian War," and Fuzzy muses, "If the Iraninans only knew how well they were doing now by doing nothing. By now, his wingman, Punk, is way short of fuel and the Viking launched to gas him up develops a problem with the fueling cable forcing Punk, to head for the Air Force base in Kuwait. Unfortunately, the Air Force won't open the base (it's after two in the morning) because the request didn't come through the proper channels. So Smoke, the Punk's "rep" on the carrier, defies orders (Punk had been ordered to return to CAP position even though he had virtually no fuel left), and calls Kuwait International Airport, also closed, but he gets the facilities manager who says, sure, "give me two minutes ." "Smoke coudn't believe dealing with a Kuwaiti at a foreign international airport was easier than working with a U.S. Air Force officer, but then again, maybe that wasn't such a big surprise." No more spoilers. You get the idea. This book is exciting, funny, and very realistic in the sense of confusion that reigns as the carrier staff try to juggle multiple problems to keep the planes flying as personal agendas compete with a variety of scenarios. Certainly makes you wonder....

Teresa West twestdesigns — ** spoiler alert ** Stephen King's afterword for this book begins, "The stories in this book are harsh. You may have found them hard to read in places. If so, be assured that I found them equally hard to write in places." In my personal opinion, this might've been a better foreword. I am generally not squeamish but I honestly could've used a trigger warning or two with this book. I found myself having to set it aside and take deep, calming breaths in three of the four stories. Sometimes multiple times in a story. It is very dark, even for Stephen King, and contains some of the most vile characters I've ever encountered anywhere. Nevertheless, I really liked this collection. According to Uncle Stevie's website, it is "a collection of four novellas linked by the theme of retribution." The novellas are as follows: 1922 - "The story opens with the confession of Wilfred James to the murder of his wife, Arlette, following their move to Hemingford, Nebraska onto land willed to Arlette by her father." This was my least favorite of the four pieces in this book. I had a hard time getting into it because ... well ... I mean, it's told from the POV of a 1920s Nebraskan farmer. There's a fair bit of language and attitudes that made me bristle a little, even though it's all in the context of fiction. But I also see that as sort of a good thing in this case because if the characters had all been progressive and modern, it just would've been stupid. Once the wife was actually dead, the story definitely picked up. The couple's son fascinated me and the ending is exactly the right kind of ambiguous, letting the reader decide if Wilf was delusional from being driven mad with guilt or if his story was true. And if you don't want to choose one, that's fine, too! You can keep on wondering forever, if that's what tickles your fancy. So even though it was my least favorite story in the book, I still liked it. Big Driver - "Mystery writer, Tess, has been supplementing her writing income for years by doing speaking engagements with no problems. But following a last-minute invitation to a book club 60 miles away, she takes a shortcut home with dire consequences." This was the 'worst' story in the book. It's graphic and intense and completely unrelenting and it really should come with a warning label. I had to stop to gather myself no fewer than four times. But I was still compelled to pick it up and keep going every single one of those times, and I think that's really saying something. Fair Extension - "Harry Streeter, who is suffering from cancer, decides to make a deal with the devil but, as always, there is a price to pay." This story was my favorite. There was nothing in it that upset or disturbed me enough to make me need to stop while I was reading it but I think perhaps its the one that will stick in my head the longest. The moral questions it raised for me really pushed my philosophical buttons. I suspect I'll be thinking about it for years during my sleepless hours, the way I think about stories like LeGuin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and Asimov's The Winnowing. I think Harry Streeter is a horrible person but in his situation I don't know if I'd think/feel/do anything different. And so, despite being the least triggery and the least graphic story of the bunch, it's the one that I found the most profoundly unsettling. A Good Marriage - "Darcy Anderson learns more about her husband of over twenty years than she would have liked to know when she stumbles literally upon a box under a worktable in their garage." Stephen King said he was inspired to write this story by the BTK killer, and his wife of thirty-something years' claim that she didn't know about his ... hobbies. Bob Anderson is the sort of monster that scares me, far more than ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties. He's completely psychotic but he thinks he's perfectly sane (his incredibly calm and good-nature confession/retelling of his sins to his wife reminded me quite a lot of the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart) and not only that but he interacts in society in such a way that everyone else thinks he's charming and sane, as well. These people exist, and it's terrifying. Anyway, to me, the triumph of this story wasn't the creation of the sort of badguy who'll creep in my dreams for months. The real triumph was Darcy. It's pretty rare for me to identify with female characters at all, let alone this strongly, but Stephen King managed to make me feel so in tune with her that I actually cried along with her when she had to kill Bob. Really great work there, Uncle Stevie.

Luzeth Cordova luzethco — An important book.

Fabio Fassina _abio_assina — Read this novel in High School. Excellent read, and I highly recommend it. It shows the struggles of Man - the good and bad of what being Human is - and it shows what the idea of something can do for the spirit of the down-trodden and their hopelessness.

Toby Oft tobyoft — A Short History of Myth, by Karen Armstrong - about 3 stars; tough sledding, and really, until the last chapter, is only about a two star book - obviously, for me, it had a strong "finish"