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Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel Review

Slaughter House Five deserves its reputation of being a piece of great American literature. The book follows a young man, Billy Pilgrim through his life. Billy believes aliens, tralfamadorians to be exact, have abducted him. We assume that it's through these aliens that he learns to time travel, a skill he frequently uses. In the book Pilgrim bounces around time to all the various portions of his life, many times returning to World War II where he was captured, taken prisoner, and held in slaughterhouse five in Dresden, Germany. He seems to be defined by this moment in his life as he frequently returns there. If you know anything about Vonnegut, you know that he too was held in Dresden, Germany when the city was firebombed. This is the major setup for this antiwar novel as Dresden was home to over 100,000 persons while at the same time Dresden didn't have any industry lending itself to the war effort. Obviously you wander, "Then why was this city bombed? What advantage came from killing well over 100,000 thousand civilians?"
One of the major themes of the book is fate. The prayer of serenity appears twice in the book stating that we need to change the things we can and be wise enough to know which things we cannot change. Also the Tralfamadorians speak of fate. They say they know how the universe is going to end, but they do nothing to stop it. Vonnegut seems to say that yes, war is one of those things we cannot avoid, but we need to change the things we can about it, like the atrocious bombing of Dresden.
Overall, the book's message is clear, and Vonnegut delivers his message in a very accessible way. The story of Billy Pilgrim is enjoyable to read, and contains more than dry philosophy that some antiwar novels are filled with.

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Best Buy for Dillinger Review

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Dillinger Review

This is one of three books that Jack Higgins published under his real name Harry Patterson. Although based on John Dillinger the book is a work of fiction. After robbing a bank, John Dillinger flees to Mexico where he is essentially forced to work for the owner of a mining operation. Of course, Dillinger is not one to be forced into working for anyone and plans his escape - but other events overtake him. The story has some good twists and turns and plenty of action.

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A novel of the last, desperate days of John Dillinger, America's most notorious bank robber

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34% Off Discounts: Special Prices for Lost in Shangri-La LP: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II Review

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Lost in Shangri-La LP: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II Review

This book is a true story, but Mitchell Zuckoff does such an amazing job of telling it that reads much like a novel in that it grabs you right from the beginning, and for me, was darn near impossible to put down. Imagine going on a fly-over sight seeing tour of one of the most beautiful mountain jungle areas in the world to see an almost hidden, untouched valley and then crashing into a mountain and being one of the few survivors trying to find a way out. But getting out or back to the base isn't easy in a place with no roads or paths, just dense rain forest vegetation, a huge tree canopy and tangled vines both above and below you. Imagine being injured with open wounds and having to exist in a place that's perpetually wet and steaming with all sorts of bacteria and fungi and little to keep it out. You don't even want to think about all the bugs and critters that call this place home. Add to that the stories you've heard about spear throwing, cannibalistic natives and you wonder how these people didn't give up right then and there.
Having read the description of the book and knowing that it was a rescue and reading pretty much what the outcome was, I was a little concerned that the book might not hold my attention. But, not to worry, as soon as I started reading I was mesmerized by the amount of detail and how gripping the story was. Mitchell Zuckoff notes that no liberties were taken with any of the facts, characters, dialog or chronology which must have made it a double challenge for him to put the diaries, notes, news stories and newsreels and interviews all together in a way made me feel like I was there, personally involved with these people.
Besides being such a good read, it added to my knowledge of the history of WWII. With so many battles going on all over the world, New Guinea isn't a place that you read that much about in history books on the war. This book tied a lot of what was going on in that area together for me. There are lots of characters in this book besides just the survivors and Zuckoff gives us the background stories on several of the rescuers and people at the base camp as well as some of the politics of the time. He does it in such a way that it doesn't interrupt the main action, but rather adds to the insight and makes it that much more interesting.
This would be a good book for any World War II buff, history lovers, action adventure enthusiasts, and really, anyone who just loves a good read. And because one of the main characters in this story is a woman who enlisted in the WAC, I think it would be equally interesting for both men and women. Two thumbs up for this great book that left me blurry eyed this morning after "just one more page" kept me up the better part of the night to finish it.

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Buy Cheap With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Review

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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Review

As I found outshortly after I first read With The Old Breed...Gene Sledge and I were in the same replacement draft which joined the 1st Marine Division on Pavuvu, British Russell Islands, but were in different units in the division. We both made the Peleliu and Okinawa landings, and his account of both battles--the savagery and bloodletting is exactly as it was. Coinicidentally, I was a stretcher bearer supporting Company K, 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, Gene's outfit but I didn't know that until long after the war. Gene became a close friend after his book was published and we exchanged experiences. With The Old Breed deserves every commendation it has received over the years, from Marine veterans and others We lost Gene to cancer several years ago, but his memory and memoir will live on and be an inspiration to Marines of this and future generations, as will the exploits of the 1st Marine Division in all of its combat operations. Benis M. Frank, Chief Historian of the Marine Corps, Retired.

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40% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA Review

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The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA Review

Perhaps the best way to review this book is to state up front what it is not: it is not a scathing critique of CIA or the U.S. Intelligence Community. Those who buy it expecting to be inflamed by a stream of criticisms of CIA officers and trade craft will be disappointed.
So what is the book? It is a careful compilation of the events, actions, decisions and personalities that ultimately culminated in the tragedy at Camp Chapman (Khost). Warrick has built a somewhat breathless, but engaging narrative that describes in some detail how a string of seemingly unrelated events build with inevitability of a Greek Tragedy to a horrendous conclusion. Warrick followed what can be called the Bob Woodward style of reporting. That is he reports what is happening without passing judgment on any of the decisions, personalities or actions involved. Indeed one of the more attractive elements of his narrative is that he treats the late Jennifer Matthews with dignity and respect along with a good deal of sympathy. He does the same with CIA `targeters' like Elizabeth Hanson. He also treats Matthews' murderer Humam al Balawi with equal respect and dignity. This will undoubtedly inflame the legion of real and self-declared counter-terrorism `experts' who plague the Inner Beltway of D.C. as well as the many armchair foes of Islamic extremism. Yet the first step in developing any rational counter terrorist strategy is understanding who terrorists are. Warrick should be commended for his balanced and fair approach to what is still a highly emotional subject.
Although Warrick scrupulously avoids second guessing and judgments of any sort, his account does provide a good deal of evidence that CIA has not dealt with its counter-terrorism mission particularly well. For example his informants appear to conflate the Taliban movements with al Qaeda, treating both Taliban and al Qaeda targets as terrorists (a basic misunderstanding of Pashtun Culture). Also there is no evidence that Warrick presents that CIA analysts made any effort to understand the structure or motovation of either grouping.
Now all that being, said being fair and balanced is not the same as being factually accurate. Warrick, like Woodward, was entirely dependent on his informants, many of whom undoubtedly provided him with self serving accounts that may or may not square with the facts. So this book is good start a sorting out the events that ultimately ended in explosion at Khost, but it will take years for the full truth to be uncovered.

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Best Buy for The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life Review

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The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life Review

I finished my father's copy of Mr. Goolrick's book with in a few hours of picking it up. It is, quite simply, engrossing. Mr. Goolrick's story is sometimes incredibly difficult to read due to it's emotional intensity and rawness. He does not censor, dilute, or gloss over any of the emotions or events of his life.
For me, one of the more interesting aspects of this book is that most of it is set in my hometown. I recognized a few of the people on these pages (including Mrs. Lachman's crazy son who is still crazy and terrified me as a child. Still does, to be honest. A couple of months ago, he almost blew up his house.).
"The End of the World as We Know It" is a brutally honest, brave book. If you have ties to Lexington, have fun playing spot the town eccentrics. Lord knows, we have our fair share.

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Best Buy for What It Is Like to Go to War Review

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What It Is Like to Go to War Review

I went off to war in 1942, and spent my time bombing Germany and watching my fellow flyers die at an alarming rate. Thus, I can attest that the author's splendid piece of writing conveys a realistic picture of war and its effect on the human spirit. General Sherman is reported to have said, "War is Hell". It certainly is, as the author found in the jungles of Vietnam, and I found at 25,000 feet above Germany. War is fire and explosions and machine guns pounding and dying men screaming for help. The author lost many members of his platoon. I lost five of my crew killed, and two (including me) wounded. Thus, war's combat is the same, wherever and whenever we find it.
Likewise, the effects of combat on humans seem to be the same, no matter which war we consider. In Vietnam, the author describes his post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) that caused trouble even after he had come home. His description had a familiar ring. I fought it for eight years after World War Two ended. Now, I read in newspapers that PSTD is a major problem for troops back from the Iraq and Afghan wars.
But some things have changed. When I went off to war, it seemed like the whole nation was supporting me, and we came home from the war to adulation and happy times. In contrast, when the author came home, a young woman spit at him, and people expressed their contempt. Today, it is remarkable if we hear anything on the news about our troops in the Middle East.
This very readable narrative is fascinating and disturbing, but it is well-worth your time.

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Lowest Price The Flight of the Century : Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation (Pivotal Moments in American History) Review

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The Flight of the Century : Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation (Pivotal Moments in American History) Review

`Flight of the Century' does an excellent job of examining the effect, the how and why and importance of both Charles Lindbergh and what his flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis meant. The flaws of the man and of the American press are not missed. Lindbergh's lack of empathy, aloofness and irritation with journalists and public intrusion on his privacy are acknowledged in many instances.
This truly tells the tale of the beginnings of American aviation and of world wide celebrity. The flight itself is documented, especially Lindberg's connection with the Spirit of St. Louis is shown in how, even though his flight was solo, he constantly referred to it as We- his plane was his partner. Lindbergh's diplomatic triumph in Paris upon landing and in Mexico during one of his tours where he erased the stigma of anti-US resentment, resulting in the solving of a 10 year old oil controversy are well documented. He is given credit for many cities building air strips and popularizing flying. During his tour of the US more than 40% of the population saw him and most changed their minds in favor of aviation. His help in building the civilian aviation industry of America is examined.
His boyish good looks and the fact he was a solo hero, showing courage and even better, the fact he was a 'country' boy all contributed to the world wide infatuation with him and then with his wife Anne. The kidnapping of his son and the son's death and the effect on Anne and their relationship is covered
The book's introduction does a credible job in summing up his celebrity and the reason so many powerful men took him under their wing. An epilogue sums up his life from his escape from the US after his son's death and his fall from grace in the support of Germany and its' racist policies. His sternness with his children and his musings in his posthumous book `Autobiography of Values' on life, race and conservation are included.
This is a volume that does a wonderful job in analyzing the man from his boyhood to the height of his fame, his era and the beginning of the aeronautical age. It would be of interest as well to anyone who wishes to learn more of this period of American history or who enjoys a penetrating biography.

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Buy Cheap My Mother's Lover (Kindle Single) Review

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My Mother's Lover (Kindle Single) Review

For as long as her son could remember, his mother wore a gold locket around her neck. "When I was a boy, I liked to pull it up from inside her blouse on its chain, tugging it up from between her breasts so I could squeeze the curved button that ran along one edge," David Dobbs recalls. Open it up and the locket contained a picture of her grandmother and grandfather.
After his mother's death, her children discovered another picture behind the first, a snapshot of a smiling, handsome World War II soldier. The photo turned out to be of a man her mother had referred to from time to time as Angus. It was the name she uttered on her deathbed when she said she wanted to be cremated and have her ashes spread on the Pacific, so that she could again be with her Angus.
Evelyn Jane Hawkins Preston Dobbs is described by her son David as a "survivor of the unfound." A successful physician in Houston, the mother of six, Evelyn raised a family, was a dutiful wife and mother and was possessed of a "fearsomely strong" character.
Sixty years before she had also carried on a secret wartime love affair. Piece by piece, war record after war record and photo by photo, Dobbs reconstructs the World War II love affair between his mother and the flight surgeon whose real name was Norman Zahrt and who was shot down over the Pacific by the Japanese during the final days of the war. At the time of his death, he was married to someone else and the father of two children.
It's a soaring story of passion and forbearance as well as love and loss. It's also the story of two families and how they came to terms with the secret wartime romance they never knew about in which "everyone ended up married to somebody they wished was somebody else."
Dobbs is a writer and he digs into the story and tracks down the facts with a reporter's flair for getting at the truth of the matter. His account of his mother's lost love is as deeply felt as it is dispassionate.

My Mother's Lover (Kindle Single) Overview

On her deathbed, David Dobbs's mother Evelyn Jane revealed a secret she'd kept for 60 years about the man she had truly loved, and lost. His name was Norman "Angus" Zahrt, a married World War II flight surgeon with whom she'd engaged in a secret love affair, just before he deployed to the Pacific and disappeared. Intrigued by his mother's hidden longing, Dobbs embarked on a reporter's quest to uncover Zahrt's fate, and that of his family. The story he returned with is an extraordinary tale of love, war, and how we confront the lost chances in our lives.David Dobbs (www.daviddobbs.net) writes features and essays for publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Wired, the Guardian. Several of his stories have been chosen for leading science anthologies; most recently, his much-discussed feature for the Atlantic, "The Orchid Children," for Ecco/HarperPerennial's Best American Science Writing 2010. He is now writing his fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which explores the genetics of temperament-and the idea that the genes underlying some of our most troublesome traits and behaviors also generate some of our greatest strengths and accomplishments.

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Special Prices for Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s over Germany Review

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Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s over Germany Review

In 1972, at the age of ten, I was first exposed to historic World War 2 aircraft in flight. In that moment, a lifelong fascination with the history represented by these planes was born. There were many planes present that day, bombers, fighters, transports and trainers; but for me, none of them captured my attention or my imagination like the majestic B-17 Flying Fortress. Since then, I have read books, watched movies and documentaries, spoken with veterans of the World War 2 air forces, walked through and even flown in a B-17. It's been almost like a desperate search to find some kind of comprehension or understanding of the magnitude of the commitment, dedication and sacrifice made by the men who fought in this unique theater of operations. Even though I know I can never truly relate to the experiences of these heroes, I keep trying.
Half A Wing, Three Engines And A Prayer by Brian D. O'Neill, is an amazing book. Through apparently exhaustive research and cross-referencing of records, and veteran recollections, Mr. O'Neill has given us an experience of actually flying daylight bombing raids over Europe that is unparalleled in depth and in its' multi-dimensional nature, conveying the spatial relationships of activity within the bomber combat formations. While following one particular crew through a 25 mission (late '43-early '44) tour, with the 303rd Bomb Group, "Hell's Angels", he visits other crews, corroborating combat events from differing points of view in the bomber formation. While one man, in one plane, in one position in the formation might've been looking up and to his left, when he saw a particular bomber explode in the midst of a formation; the same explosion was seen by a tail-gunner in another plane, looking down and right. Yet another airman, a co-pilot, watched the same plane disappear in a blinding explosion right off his right wing. With this type of spatial cross-referencing and "story-triangulation", the complex flight formations suddenly become three-dimensional. Fully-fleshed out and given personality in the non-flying moments of the book, the pilots, crews and even the individual aircraft, are then glimpsed, from all sides, as they go about their grim task.
I have spent the majority of my life, reading books on this one subject. I have, long since, had an organizational understanding of how "elements" are comprised of planes, "squadrons" are comprised of elements, "groups" are comprised of squadrons, "wings" are comprised of groups, and so on. For the first time, a book has given me some physical understanding of the movement of these huge numbers of combat aircraft through the European skies; as well as numerous harrowing, hair-raising, tragic and sometimes even humorous tales of the men manning those planes. From take-off, and assembly, over the IP (Initial Point) and target and through the agonizing, clock-dragging return home, this is one of the very best books ever written on this subject. Buy it.

Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s over Germany Overview

Incorporating a wealth of new material, here is the riveting story of the bombing raids that broke the back of Nazi Germany, praised as "a well-researched, highly readable account of a B-17 combat crew's experience ... excellent." (Roger A. Freeman, author of The Mighty Eighth)

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Falling Home Review

Cassie is returning home to Walton, Georgia after a 15-year self-imposed exile from her family, after her sister Harriet ran off and eloped with Cassie's beau. Harriet and Joe now have five children that Cassie has never met. Now a successful advertising executive, with a fiance of her own, she returns home in time to say goodbye to her dying father, who in a last ditch effort to patch things up between the two sisters, has willed his home and all its possessions to Cassie in hopes that she'll return for good.
Cassie is reticent to see her sister, and still has ambivalent feelings for Joe. But what she doesn't count on is her feelings for old pal, Sam, who once was the class geek, and is now the respected town doctor. Sam has always had a crush on Cassie, but never revealed his true feelings (and when he does, he packs an emotional wallop). She is hoping to sell the house quickly and return to her fiance and her life in Manhattan; Sam has other ideas, as he tries to create a preservationist group to keep developers from turning her home into commercial property.
This story is so well written, and packed with so much humor and emotion, that it easily garners 5 stars. White manages to make you feel for the characters, and really relate to them (though Andrew was a bit one dimensional). And just when you think you know what is going to happen, a twist comes in to throw you off (though the supposed mystery really is not a mystery - you see that coming a mile away). I finished the book in a single day - I just couldn't put it down. It is very rare that a novel can elicit tears from a reader. "Falling Home" does that and more. It'll make you laugh, and it'll make you cry, but most of all, it will make you want to reconcile with your siblings. The Walton saga continues with "After the Rain."

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42% Off Discounts: Lowest Price Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began Review

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Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began Review

The second part of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus picks up where the first part left off. His father Vladek and mother Anja are captured and sent to Auschwitz. However, things aren't well at home. Mala, Vladek's second wife, exasparated at Vladek's tight-fisted controlling ways, leaves him. Artie and his wife Francoise rush over to help him out and during this time, Artie continues the interviews with his father and thence into Maus II.
The path of Artie understanding his father is smoother but at a cost. Following the success of Maus I, Spiegelman depicts a pile of dead Jewish bodies lying under the Artie's writing desk symbolizing how much the history his father has bled from that first volume has seeped into him. He is beginning to understand, but at the cost of emotionally and vicariously going through his father's experiences, for which he has sessions with Pavel, a Czech Jew psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor.
Artie gets more perspective during these sessions with Pavel. He tells Pavel that as a child, he constantly argued with his father, who said that anything he did was nothing compared to surviving Auschwitz. Pavel refers to the psychological concept of transference: "Maybe your father needed to show that he was always right--that he could always SURVIVE-because he felt GUILTY about surviving. ... and he took his guilt on YOU, where it was safe... on the REAL survivor." The argument stands to reason. Vladek survived the death of so much family and friends, as well as the millions he never knew.
We learn more of how Vladek survived Auschwitz. He teaches English to the Polish kapo, who expecting the Germans to lose the war, wants to get in good graces with the Americans. Vladek is thus given better food, a better fitting uniform, and the tip to stand at the far left of the line of prisoners during the labour call. Improved health increased chances of survival and a better mental state.
Vladek has enough chutzpah in his tight-fisted but survivalist ways to exchange used groceries for new ones(!) While in the car waiting for him, Artie and Francoise discuss Vladek. Francoise says: "I'd rather kill myself than live through ... everything Vladek went through. It's a miracle he survived." Artie responds with "In some ways he didn't survive," which is key to the book's theme. Yet drastic saving is one way Vladek survived the war and camps. On the way back from the grocery store, we discover Vladek's racism towards blacks, an example of the victim becoming a victimizer.
Maus is a must-read for a personal instead of abstract, statistical look at the Holocaust. It also brings up post-war genocide. Pavel's contention that people haven't changed rings poignantly. Despite the vow of "never again," genocide has repeatedly happened "yet again": e.g. the Cultural Revolution, the killing fields in Cambodia, the massacre in Rwanda, and the ethnic bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia. Perhaps for racial harmony to become a human instinct, all people need to feel the same way, but the relativistic world of the twentieth and twenty-first century to makes that dream virtually impossible. Pavel's statement that a newer and bigger Holocaust is needed to change people grimly prophesizes World War III, meaning that unless we change, we will all die.

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37% Off Discounts: Purchase Cheap Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History Review

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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History Review

This is a powerful work. The tale of a young man's painful relationship with his father is elegantly interwoven with the father's recollection of life as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Poland. Spiegelman's skill and honesty make this a raw, gut-wrenching read, though the tale is somehow ultimately uplifting.
I first read this book as a teenager, and would highly recommend it to people of any age. Over the years, I have re-read it frequently and shared it with friends of all ages. All have taken much from Spiegelman's tale.
A few notes must be made in response to the 10/26/97 comment posted below by a reviewer from Ontario, Canada. It is quite clear that this reviewer did not, in fact, read the book. (S)he mistakenly attacks Spiegelman for portraying the Poles as rats, and wonders if he would be offended if a book were written portraying Jews as rats. Anyone who took the time to read Maus (or merely to examine it's cover!) would know that it is, in fact, the Jewish people who are portrayed as mice/rats, whereas the Poles are portrayed not as vermin, but rather as pigs.
In fact, far from a "vicious" attack against Poles, there are many acts of kindness by Polish people portrayed in the book. Certainly there is unkindness as well, but how can the reviewer forget that this is a factual account of Vladek Spiegelman's life, told from his perspective. If unkind acts by Polish people are a part of that life, then they should be in the book.
Finally, the reviewer in question inelegantly raises a point of some merit, though it is one that is only tangentially related to Spiegelman's work. The Polish people did, in fact, suffer horribly at the hands of both Nazis and Soviets alike. Their death toll in the concentration camps numbered in the millions, and should never be forgotten or omitted when discussing the Holocaust. This book, however, is about Vladek Spiegelman, and so surely it cannot be assailed for its focus on events from his perspective.
Spiegelman's fidelity to his father's! story is to be admired, not attacked. And certainly not by a reviewer who could not be bothered to read the book.

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History Overview

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Night (Oprah's Book Club) Review

I recall when I first read 'Night', it was just after Elie Wiesel had given a lecture at my university. It was in the mid-1980s, and the lecture hall was standing-room-only. Wiesel's presentation moved us to tears, and moved us to anger, and moved me to want to follow up on his words by reading what he had written.
This is written a style that seems to be typical of many modern Israeli novelists; it is so close to the truth of the actual events that transpired in Wiesel's life that it might as well be treated as autobiographical. Thus, it seems to some to be more a work like a novel than a memoir, but Weisel describes it himself as more of a deposition. It isn't autobiography in the traditional sense, but that is what helps give the book its power. Weisel remembers the events here, This is actually part of a trilogy - Night, Dawn, and The Accident - although each element stands alone with integrity. (Dawn and The Accident are works of fiction, but also draw on Weisel's own recollections and feelings.)
How does one deal with survival after such atrocities as that at Birkenau and Auschwitz? How can one have faith in the world? How can one accept that a people so closely identified with a powerful God can ever accept that God again? Where is God in the midst of such things?
Wiesel himself as spent his life in search of such answers, but doesn't provide them here. Why then would one want to read such accounts as these? Wiesel was silent for many years, until he was brought into speech and writing as a witness to the events. Wiesel proclaims that there is in the world now a new commandment - 'Thou shalt not stand idly by' - when such things are happening, one must act. One must remember the past in all its personal aspects to both honour those who suffered and to forestall such things happening again (which, given the the depressing repetitive nature of history, is a difficult task).
This is the longest short book I've ever read. It is one that has stayed with me from the first page, and I've never been able to shake the images brought forward, the misery and suffering, the existence of evil and brutality, the sadness and desolation. We live in a culture that likes to gloss over pain and suffering, mask it with drugs and other things, and always end the story with a happy ending.
There is no happy ending here - even Wiesel's own survival is a questionable good here. How does one live after this? How does the world go on?
One thing is certain, we must never forget, and this book is part of that active remembering that we are called to do.

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