Saturday, May 5, 2012

Jenny's Book 5.12: Matterhorn

Kelly,

I've decided to tackle one of the Vietnam books this month, the novel Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. This book got some great reviews last year when it came out. It's about Marines in Vietnam, and my Dad was a Marine, so it was hard to resist.

I started looking at the book this morning, and there's some very helpful things right at the beginning of the book. Along with maps and a flowchart of the Chain of Command, there's a page that says, "A glossary explaining slang, military jargon, and technical terms has been provided at the back of the book." This is genius! First of all, and I assume this is true of most civilian readers, I find the organization of the military to be mysterious and confusing. I went straight to the back and just read through the glossary first. I'm sure I'll occasionally have to flip back to it while reading, but it's especially smart to tell readers that its there right in the beginning of the book. How annoying it is to find such a thing at the end of the book only after you've muddled through.

If all goes well with this book, my plan will be to follow this up with my non-fiction selection about Vietnam in June, The Best and the Brightest. 

How goes the unpacking?!
Jenny

1 comment:

  1. Love the military jargon glossary -- and especially that they let you know up front that it was there. I would be sooo pissed to find that after reading a book!

    I have had JP give me a "Who's who in the Army" tutorial about 14 times and I still struggle with it.

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