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1681 reviews
Spitfire!: The Full Story of a Unique Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron by Dilip Sarkar
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
SPITFIRE!: The Full Story of a Unique Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron is one of the best, well-researched, and comprehensive histories of a World War II fighter unit it has been my pleasure to read. The author had formed deep and longstanding relationships with many of the surviving pilots and ground crew who had been a part of 19 Squadron from 1938 - when the squadron became the first in the Royal Air Force (RAF) to be issued with the then new Supermarine Spitfire and went on to do a very thorough, effective job of integrating the fighter into active service -- to June 20, 1941, when 19 Squadron's commander, Brian Lane, was posted away to headquarters for a rest from combat.
Lane had first assumed temporary command of 19 Squadron in May 1940, following the loss of its previous commander, Geoffrey Stephenson, in combat above the French coast near Calais, where Stephenson was soon captured by the Germans. He earned the respect and admiration of his squadron mates for his fairness, modest manner, and proven leadership in action. Lane's first stint at command was a short one. He was succeeded by Philip Pinkham, a longstanding officer, who came to the squadron lacking combat experience. Sadly, Pinkham would be killed in action on September 5, 1940, caught in a crossfire created by German bombers he was attacking. Thereupon Lane was officially put back in command of the squadron and led from the front as often as possible.
The book does an excellent job, through the insertion of comments from the pilots, ground crews, wives, and RAF ground controllers who played key roles in 19 Squadron's history from late 1938, the 'Phoney War' phase from September 1939 to May 1940, combat over Dunkirk (where the British Expeditionary Force was being evacuated to Britain during those hectic days of late May to early June 1940 when a German victory seemed all but certain), and on through the Battle of Britain period, of conveying what life under the stresses and pressures of war was like on an individual level. This gives SPITFIRE! an immediacy that makes the events of 84 years ago less remote. There are also a generous amount of photos of the men, planes, and airbases that were so much a part of 19 Squadron during the early years of the war.
For any aviation enthusiast, this book is an absolute keeper. I gained a deep admiration, respect, and appreciation for those exceptional people who made 19 Squadron such an outstanding unit during the early years of the Second World War.
Lane had first assumed temporary command of 19 Squadron in May 1940, following the loss of its previous commander, Geoffrey Stephenson, in combat above the French coast near Calais, where Stephenson was soon captured by the Germans. He earned the respect and admiration of his squadron mates for his fairness, modest manner, and proven leadership in action. Lane's first stint at command was a short one. He was succeeded by Philip Pinkham, a longstanding officer, who came to the squadron lacking combat experience. Sadly, Pinkham would be killed in action on September 5, 1940, caught in a crossfire created by German bombers he was attacking. Thereupon Lane was officially put back in command of the squadron and led from the front as often as possible.
The book does an excellent job, through the insertion of comments from the pilots, ground crews, wives, and RAF ground controllers who played key roles in 19 Squadron's history from late 1938, the 'Phoney War' phase from September 1939 to May 1940, combat over Dunkirk (where the British Expeditionary Force was being evacuated to Britain during those hectic days of late May to early June 1940 when a German victory seemed all but certain), and on through the Battle of Britain period, of conveying what life under the stresses and pressures of war was like on an individual level. This gives SPITFIRE! an immediacy that makes the events of 84 years ago less remote. There are also a generous amount of photos of the men, planes, and airbases that were so much a part of 19 Squadron during the early years of the war.
For any aviation enthusiast, this book is an absolute keeper. I gained a deep admiration, respect, and appreciation for those exceptional people who made 19 Squadron such an outstanding unit during the early years of the Second World War.
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.0
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears is a story of the immigrant experience in Washington DC as seen through the eyes of Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian compelled to leave his country for political asylum in the U.S. He is the owner of a nigh-well moribund grocery store in a poor, largely African American neighborhood in the Logan Circle area of the city. For 17 years, he has managed to make a living for himself, first in Silver Spring MD (where he lived in an apartment with his uncle for a couple of years before settling on living in an apartment in Washington, not far from his business.)
Life for Sepha, it becomes clear as the reader becomes immersed in the novel, has been no crystal stair. Two fellow Africans - Joseph, a Congolese, who once harbored lofty ambitions of pursuing a degree at the University of Michigan, but has since resigned himself to being a waiter at a top flight Washington hotel; and Ken, a Kenyan, who, working as an engineer for a firm, seems to be the embodiment of the immigrant who has "made good" and realized the American Dream - are Sepha's closest friends. Both of them share Sepha's soured nostalgia and longing for Africa.
All the while, there are changes afoot in Sepha's neighborhood. A manifestation of these changes is represented by the arrival of a white woman (Judith) and her biracial preteen daughter (Naomi) in the neighborhood, who buys a dilapidated manor house and restores it to its former glory. A friendship develops among Sepha, Judith, and Naomi. It seems that Sepha's life is brightening up. Yet as gentrification makes a toehold in the neighborhood, age-old resentments bubble to the surface, and Sepha's friendship with Judith and Naomi becomes a candle whose light burns bright but is soon snuffed out. I was hopeful of a "happily ever after" from this novel. But I felt sad and sobered because the novel presented more of a true picture of what the immigrant experience often is - an experience fraught with struggle, disappointment, and hope.
The following admission from Sepha made a deep impression on me:
"...How long did it take for me to understand that I was never going to return to Ethiopia again? It seems as if there should have been a particular moment when the knowledge settled in. For at least the first two years that I was here, I was so busy passing my mother, brother, father, and friends in the aisles of grocery stores, in parks and restaurants, that at times it hardly felt as if I had really left. I searched for familiarity wherever I went. I found it in the buildings and in the layout of the streets. I saw glimpses of home whenever I came across three or four roads that intersected at odd angles, in the squat glass office buildings caught in the sun's glare. ... I used to let my imagination get the best of me."
As someone who knows the Washington DC area rather well, this novel resonated very much with me. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the immigrant experience in the U.S. on a personal level.
Life for Sepha, it becomes clear as the reader becomes immersed in the novel, has been no crystal stair. Two fellow Africans - Joseph, a Congolese, who once harbored lofty ambitions of pursuing a degree at the University of Michigan, but has since resigned himself to being a waiter at a top flight Washington hotel; and Ken, a Kenyan, who, working as an engineer for a firm, seems to be the embodiment of the immigrant who has "made good" and realized the American Dream - are Sepha's closest friends. Both of them share Sepha's soured nostalgia and longing for Africa.
All the while, there are changes afoot in Sepha's neighborhood. A manifestation of these changes is represented by the arrival of a white woman (Judith) and her biracial preteen daughter (Naomi) in the neighborhood, who buys a dilapidated manor house and restores it to its former glory. A friendship develops among Sepha, Judith, and Naomi. It seems that Sepha's life is brightening up. Yet as gentrification makes a toehold in the neighborhood, age-old resentments bubble to the surface, and Sepha's friendship with Judith and Naomi becomes a candle whose light burns bright but is soon snuffed out. I was hopeful of a "happily ever after" from this novel. But I felt sad and sobered because the novel presented more of a true picture of what the immigrant experience often is - an experience fraught with struggle, disappointment, and hope.
The following admission from Sepha made a deep impression on me:
"...How long did it take for me to understand that I was never going to return to Ethiopia again? It seems as if there should have been a particular moment when the knowledge settled in. For at least the first two years that I was here, I was so busy passing my mother, brother, father, and friends in the aisles of grocery stores, in parks and restaurants, that at times it hardly felt as if I had really left. I searched for familiarity wherever I went. I found it in the buildings and in the layout of the streets. I saw glimpses of home whenever I came across three or four roads that intersected at odd angles, in the squat glass office buildings caught in the sun's glare. ... I used to let my imagination get the best of me."
As someone who knows the Washington DC area rather well, this novel resonated very much with me. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the immigrant experience in the U.S. on a personal level.
Stories to Tell: A Memoir by Richard Marx
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
In Stories to Tell: A Memoir, Richard Marx shares with the reader the story of his life and his 40-year career as a successful background singer, songwriter, producer, and bandleader. Prior to reading this book, I knew of Richard Marx from the late 1980s when his second album, Repeat Offender became a massive hit with songs like "Right Here Waiting", and my personal favorite, "Endless Summer Nights." I simply had no idea of the depth of his talent. I only knew of his songs when they were played on the radio.
Marx has worked with artists like Lionel Ritchie (who played a key role in getting him established in the music business after Marx moved from his hometown Chicago to Los Angeles in 1981), Kenny Rogers, Madonna, Luther Vandross, Barbra Streisand, NSYNC, and Keith Urban. He's also been a co-writer of songs with Paul Anka and Burt Bacharach.
The stories Marx tells are colorful, poignant, and insightful. In particular, the concert tour he had in Taiwan in 1990 nearly ended up being Marx's last when he unknowingly fall afoul of a local mob boss who had underwritten the tour and was angry with Marx for calling off a performance because of heavy rains that had damaged the stage where he and his band were scheduled to perform. To find our how Marx extricated himself from this sticky situation (barely!), read the book.
Marx has worked with artists like Lionel Ritchie (who played a key role in getting him established in the music business after Marx moved from his hometown Chicago to Los Angeles in 1981), Kenny Rogers, Madonna, Luther Vandross, Barbra Streisand, NSYNC, and Keith Urban. He's also been a co-writer of songs with Paul Anka and Burt Bacharach.
The stories Marx tells are colorful, poignant, and insightful. In particular, the concert tour he had in Taiwan in 1990 nearly ended up being Marx's last when he unknowingly fall afoul of a local mob boss who had underwritten the tour and was angry with Marx for calling off a performance because of heavy rains that had damaged the stage where he and his band were scheduled to perform. To find our how Marx extricated himself from this sticky situation (barely!), read the book.
Think Twice by Harlan Coben
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Before coming to this novel, I had some awareness of Harlan Coben and his renown as a best-selling writer of mystery novels/thrillers. But I had no interest in reading his novels because, generally, I'm not interested in reading contemporary mysteries/thrillers. And yet - from hearing a radio interview he gave the BBC a few weeks ago, my curiosity was piqued. So, I checked out a copy of his latest novel - THINK TWICE - from the local library and read it.
This novel is a slow ride with many twists and turns. Along with chapters often ending in cliffhangers, which kept me engaged with the story, keen to find out 'whodunit.' What I found most fascinating and compelling about the novel was including a serial murderer who, through the deft use of DNA, implicates innocent people for said murderer's crimes. It was also cool to get to know Myron Bolitar, an ex-NBA player, sports agent, and lawyer extraordinaire - along with Win, his 'shadow', fellow lawyer, and best friend. A man of many talents.
This novel is a slow ride with many twists and turns. Along with chapters often ending in cliffhangers, which kept me engaged with the story, keen to find out 'whodunit.' What I found most fascinating and compelling about the novel was including a serial murderer who, through the deft use of DNA, implicates innocent people for said murderer's crimes. It was also cool to get to know Myron Bolitar, an ex-NBA player, sports agent, and lawyer extraordinaire - along with Win, his 'shadow', fellow lawyer, and best friend. A man of many talents.
Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism by Roger Wilkins
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism is a distillation by Roger Wilkins (an African American lawyer, civil rights activist, journalist, and professor) of his efforts to come to an understanding "of the founding [of the U.S.] and at the characters and achievements of four of the Virginians --- George Mason, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison --- who were both massive contributors to the founding of the new nation and owners of slaves." This points to one of the great contradictions inherent in our democracy and culture. That is, the marked ambivalence and overt/covert racism among the Founding Fathers, future powerbrokers and policy makers, and the majority white society towards their African American brothers and sisters that have been perpetuated in subtle and not so subtle ways (e.g. slavery and the Jim Crow segregation laws and practices) for generations.
Wilkins provides readers with a concise and useful history of events that led to the American Revolution, the rationale that was created and promoted by the Founders for independence from Britain, the early postwar attempts (via the Articles of Confederation) to create a United States of America that led to a weakened central government vis-a-vis the state governments which gave rise to general instability in the country through most of the 1780s, and the meeting of a convention in Philadelphia between May and September of 1787, to address the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation which led to the creation and eventual ratification of the U.S. Constitution by all the states, followed by the establishment of a Bill of Rights (something that George Mason was insistent be included with the Constitution).
In making this study of these 4 men, the lives they led and their contributions to the development of the U.S. democratic system, Wilkins, upon reflection of the misery heaped on millions of African Americans because of the imposition of slavery on them, admits to feeling "a rising rage that men so distinguished and so powerful could have been so timid about using that power in the cause of freedom for [African Americans] and justice for America. I want to take those four lives --- as emblems of millions of others like them --- and push them in the faces of those four founders and say, 'Look at the pain you might have avoided and the potential you might have liberated had you had the capacity to care for human beings like these as deeply as you cared for yourselves and people like you.' But that's the rub, of course. They couldn't because they were morally crippled by their culture and politically shackled by the grating chain that snaked through the new republic and diminished every life it touched."
And yet, through all the toil, pain, challenges, and crises the country has faced, it has endured - and in the process, made significant progress in terms of extending constitutional and human rights to African Americans and other Americans who had been overlooked or marginalized by the nation's power structure and majority society. This is what gives Wilkins hope for the nation's future and reaffirms his faith and pride in being an American. He ends the book by stressing that our democracy requires a well-informed, educated, and active citizenry to help defend, protect, maintain, and strengthen it against internal threats that could easily undermine and destroy our system of government.
Jefferson's Pillow is a book that anyone wanting to better understand how the U.S. came to be what it is today and the need to protect and improve our democracy should read - not just once but many times. It carries a valuable message that speaks to every generation that cherishes freedom and justice for all.
Wilkins provides readers with a concise and useful history of events that led to the American Revolution, the rationale that was created and promoted by the Founders for independence from Britain, the early postwar attempts (via the Articles of Confederation) to create a United States of America that led to a weakened central government vis-a-vis the state governments which gave rise to general instability in the country through most of the 1780s, and the meeting of a convention in Philadelphia between May and September of 1787, to address the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation which led to the creation and eventual ratification of the U.S. Constitution by all the states, followed by the establishment of a Bill of Rights (something that George Mason was insistent be included with the Constitution).
In making this study of these 4 men, the lives they led and their contributions to the development of the U.S. democratic system, Wilkins, upon reflection of the misery heaped on millions of African Americans because of the imposition of slavery on them, admits to feeling "a rising rage that men so distinguished and so powerful could have been so timid about using that power in the cause of freedom for [African Americans] and justice for America. I want to take those four lives --- as emblems of millions of others like them --- and push them in the faces of those four founders and say, 'Look at the pain you might have avoided and the potential you might have liberated had you had the capacity to care for human beings like these as deeply as you cared for yourselves and people like you.' But that's the rub, of course. They couldn't because they were morally crippled by their culture and politically shackled by the grating chain that snaked through the new republic and diminished every life it touched."
And yet, through all the toil, pain, challenges, and crises the country has faced, it has endured - and in the process, made significant progress in terms of extending constitutional and human rights to African Americans and other Americans who had been overlooked or marginalized by the nation's power structure and majority society. This is what gives Wilkins hope for the nation's future and reaffirms his faith and pride in being an American. He ends the book by stressing that our democracy requires a well-informed, educated, and active citizenry to help defend, protect, maintain, and strengthen it against internal threats that could easily undermine and destroy our system of government.
Jefferson's Pillow is a book that anyone wanting to better understand how the U.S. came to be what it is today and the need to protect and improve our democracy should read - not just once but many times. It carries a valuable message that speaks to every generation that cherishes freedom and justice for all.
Star-crossed by Beverly Linet
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
STAR-CROSSED: The Story of Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones I finished reading hours ago. Before coming to this book, I had some awareness of who Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones were, as well as to some extent, of the movie star status both had achieved during the 1940s. Robert Walker, in particular, I remembered from seeing in the movies Bataan (1943) and Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944), which also starred Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson.
Notwithstanding that, it wasn't until I began reading this book that I learned of the relationship that developed between Walker and Jones when they were in drama school together in New York in 1938, their marriage a year later (both were very much in love and very supportive of one another), followed by their initial attempts to break into Hollywood (which proved disappointing; hence their return to New York, where Walker embarked upon a flourishing career in radio, while Jones helped raise their 2 sons and continued in her endeavor to be an actress while doing modelling jobs), and their return to Hollywood, where both Walker and Jones were contracted out to Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). It was while at MGM that Jones caught the interest of David O. Selznick, a powerful movie producer, screenwriter, and film studio executive best known for his work on Gone with the Wind and Rebecca, who not only took Jones under his wing, determined to make her a star through her first major movie The Song of Bernadette(1943), which earned for Jones a Best Actress Oscar - but was also determined to love and possess her. Consequently, it was Selznick who drove a wedge between Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, which left Walker utterly devastated and driven to drink heavily. Jones divorced him and hitched her star to Selznick, a controlling, manipulative, and innovative force in the movie industry who would overreach himself and die from a heart attack in 1965, age 63.
I found myself becoming deeply invested in seeing how Robert Walker dealt both with losing Jennifer Jones and his movie career. His story affected me a lot and the circumstances surrounding his death in August 1951, age 32, led me to believe - based on the conflicting stories Beverly Linet so skillfully elucidated that emerged shortly after Walker's death - that he was murdered. It was a senseless tragedy because Walker was coming into his own as an actor following the resounding success of the film noir movie Strangers on a Train in which he gave a superb performance as the charming psychopath Bruno Antony.
The book also spells out Jones life and career arc, which saw her marry David O. Selznick in 1949, endure several ups and downs in her personal life as well as in Hollywood, and following Selznick's death, go on to her third and final marriage in 1971 to Norton Simon, a multi-millionaire and philanthropist.
All in all, STAR-CROSSED tells a very compelling story that will stay with the reader long after he/she has read it.
Notwithstanding that, it wasn't until I began reading this book that I learned of the relationship that developed between Walker and Jones when they were in drama school together in New York in 1938, their marriage a year later (both were very much in love and very supportive of one another), followed by their initial attempts to break into Hollywood (which proved disappointing; hence their return to New York, where Walker embarked upon a flourishing career in radio, while Jones helped raise their 2 sons and continued in her endeavor to be an actress while doing modelling jobs), and their return to Hollywood, where both Walker and Jones were contracted out to Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). It was while at MGM that Jones caught the interest of David O. Selznick, a powerful movie producer, screenwriter, and film studio executive best known for his work on Gone with the Wind and Rebecca, who not only took Jones under his wing, determined to make her a star through her first major movie The Song of Bernadette(1943), which earned for Jones a Best Actress Oscar - but was also determined to love and possess her. Consequently, it was Selznick who drove a wedge between Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, which left Walker utterly devastated and driven to drink heavily. Jones divorced him and hitched her star to Selznick, a controlling, manipulative, and innovative force in the movie industry who would overreach himself and die from a heart attack in 1965, age 63.
I found myself becoming deeply invested in seeing how Robert Walker dealt both with losing Jennifer Jones and his movie career. His story affected me a lot and the circumstances surrounding his death in August 1951, age 32, led me to believe - based on the conflicting stories Beverly Linet so skillfully elucidated that emerged shortly after Walker's death - that he was murdered. It was a senseless tragedy because Walker was coming into his own as an actor following the resounding success of the film noir movie Strangers on a Train in which he gave a superb performance as the charming psychopath Bruno Antony.
The book also spells out Jones life and career arc, which saw her marry David O. Selznick in 1949, endure several ups and downs in her personal life as well as in Hollywood, and following Selznick's death, go on to her third and final marriage in 1971 to Norton Simon, a multi-millionaire and philanthropist.
All in all, STAR-CROSSED tells a very compelling story that will stay with the reader long after he/she has read it.
FDR'S LAST YEAR: April 1944-April 1945, by Jim Bishop
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
FDR'S LAST YEAR: April 1944 - April 1945 offers the reader both a poignant and incisive view of the final months in the life of one of America's great Presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. What amazed me in reading this book is how it was that 2 of the U.S. Navy's physicians charged with caring for the President never disclosed to him that he was a dying man. Nor did they inform his family of the exact nature of his steadily declining health. FDR submitted himself to health checks pretty much every month over the last year of his life. But frankly, FDR was someone with an indomitable spirit and ebullient personality who was determined to shepherd the U.S. to victory in World War II and help establish the foundations for a lasting peace via the United Nations. He never queried either Admiral Ross T. McIntire or Lt. Commander Howard Bruenn (both of FDR's physicians) as to the various ailments (e.g. high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and an increasing hardening of the arteries) that were gradually sapping him of his usual zest and vigor. FDR simply got on with the job, was renominated (though with a different running mate, Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri, because the Democratic Party bosses did not want to retain the previous Vice President - Henry Wallace - because of his liberal leanings and their sense that FDR would not likely live out a 4th term as President), ran a somewhat perfunctory re-election campaign against Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, and once re-elected, met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin at Yalta in February 1945, which proved to be the last Big Three conference FDR would attend.
The following remarks in the book I felt pretty much summed up the feelings about the Yalta Conference shortly after FDR had returned to the U.S. to report to Congress about it: “Roosevelt admirers called Yalta a triumph; his enemies referred to it as a defeat. It was both. He won a little, gave a lot. Personally, he was far removed from the vigorous champion of 1933. Fatigue and fear made him mellow and malleable. He made an error in seeing himself as the supreme arbiter between Stalin and Churchill; he was the rich target of two impoverished men. At moments when sparks were struck, he lapsed into stories which had but the barest relevance to the issue; at others he bargained shrewdly until he saw Stalin stand and rip the back of a chair – then he backed down a little at a time. In a childish way, he delighted in proving to Stalin that there could be no collusion between FDR and Churchill because he opposed and lectured the British Prime Minister at every opportunity. He was a man who despised treachery and deceit, and yet he permitted the Soviets to claim that the Big Three had no power to form a Polish government without consulting the Poles, while, on the other hand, he disposed of property belonging to a member of the Big Five --- China. Even the final communiqué was designed to lull the watching world into believing that there was noble unity among Russia, Great Britain and the United States.”
Though coming in at 939 pages, FDR's LAST YEAR never flagged and made for very compelling reading, revealing much about FDR's personal life and how the impact of his death affected his family, close aides, Harry S. Truman, and political contemporaries - as well as the nation at large.
The following remarks in the book I felt pretty much summed up the feelings about the Yalta Conference shortly after FDR had returned to the U.S. to report to Congress about it: “Roosevelt admirers called Yalta a triumph; his enemies referred to it as a defeat. It was both. He won a little, gave a lot. Personally, he was far removed from the vigorous champion of 1933. Fatigue and fear made him mellow and malleable. He made an error in seeing himself as the supreme arbiter between Stalin and Churchill; he was the rich target of two impoverished men. At moments when sparks were struck, he lapsed into stories which had but the barest relevance to the issue; at others he bargained shrewdly until he saw Stalin stand and rip the back of a chair – then he backed down a little at a time. In a childish way, he delighted in proving to Stalin that there could be no collusion between FDR and Churchill because he opposed and lectured the British Prime Minister at every opportunity. He was a man who despised treachery and deceit, and yet he permitted the Soviets to claim that the Big Three had no power to form a Polish government without consulting the Poles, while, on the other hand, he disposed of property belonging to a member of the Big Five --- China. Even the final communiqué was designed to lull the watching world into believing that there was noble unity among Russia, Great Britain and the United States.”
Though coming in at 939 pages, FDR's LAST YEAR never flagged and made for very compelling reading, revealing much about FDR's personal life and how the impact of his death affected his family, close aides, Harry S. Truman, and political contemporaries - as well as the nation at large.
The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.75
The Helsinki Affair is a contemporary spy thriller that touches upon 2 generations of a family that has been involved in "the trade" (what the British refer to euphemistically as spying) for half a century.
The novel begins during a lazy summer day at the U.S. Embassy in Rome where Amanda Cole, a 40 year old CIA agent (working under diplomatic cover) is visited by an agitated Russian defector who warns her that Senator Bob Vogel of NY will be assassinated. At first, Amanda is incredulous. But as she weighs more carefully what the would be defector has said, she is inclined to give credence to his assertions. Within hours, it is confirmed that Senator Vogel dies under mysterious circumstances in Egypt, where he had been attending a conference.
Senator Vogel's death sets off a train of events in the novel in which Amanda tries to uncover and put an end to an insidious and cruelly ingenious plan of the Russian government under President Nikolai Gruzdev to sow confusion in the world's financial markets to Russia's advantage. While doing so, she uncovers something about her father's work while in the CIA in Finland during the 1980s that may prove deeply embarrassing. Plot twists abound which make for compelling reading. I especially liked it that this spy novel was centered on the work of women agents, their ingenuity and grit in dealing with difficult situations.
To date, I've read all of Anna Pitoniak's novels and The Helsinki Affair is one of her best.
The novel begins during a lazy summer day at the U.S. Embassy in Rome where Amanda Cole, a 40 year old CIA agent (working under diplomatic cover) is visited by an agitated Russian defector who warns her that Senator Bob Vogel of NY will be assassinated. At first, Amanda is incredulous. But as she weighs more carefully what the would be defector has said, she is inclined to give credence to his assertions. Within hours, it is confirmed that Senator Vogel dies under mysterious circumstances in Egypt, where he had been attending a conference.
Senator Vogel's death sets off a train of events in the novel in which Amanda tries to uncover and put an end to an insidious and cruelly ingenious plan of the Russian government under President Nikolai Gruzdev to sow confusion in the world's financial markets to Russia's advantage. While doing so, she uncovers something about her father's work while in the CIA in Finland during the 1980s that may prove deeply embarrassing. Plot twists abound which make for compelling reading. I especially liked it that this spy novel was centered on the work of women agents, their ingenuity and grit in dealing with difficult situations.
To date, I've read all of Anna Pitoniak's novels and The Helsinki Affair is one of her best.
Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life by Paul Hendrickson
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life represents Paul Hendickson's lifelong effort to try to understand the man who was his father: Joe Paul Hendrickson (1918-2003). It is also a book that sets out to show how the impact of Joe Paul Hendrickson's stint as a night fighter pilot with the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) during World War II in the Pacific affected Hendrickson himself, as well as his family.
I found the story of Joe Paul Hendrickson's life a remarkable one. He grew up a farmer's son in a small Kentucky town during the Depression in a large family that struggled to eke out a living. Hard work was the hallmark of his life. From the time he was a boy and had looked overhead one day to see a Ford Trimotor aircraft fly past, he had aspired to be a pilot. So, shortly after graduating from high school in 1937, Joe Paul Hendrickson embarked on a Greyhound for Chanute Field, at Rantoul, Illinois. He had managed to gain admittance into the U.S. Army Air Corps as a mechanic trainee. It was an exacting program, but he showed he had both drive and mettle. Steady promotions followed.
Shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, Joe Paul Hendrickson was made an officer and allowed to undertake flight training. He proved to be a very skilled pilot, trained initially to fly multi-engine bombers before volunteering to be trained as a night fighter pilot, flying the P-61 "Black Widow" twin-engined fighter from Iwo Jima on nocturnal missions against the Japanese during the spring and summer of 1945.
As the son of a U.S. Army combat veteran of World War II, I found much about this book relatable in some respects to my own experiences with a father I deeply respected, admired, and loved.
The passages in the book that dealt with Joe Paul Hendrickson's final days I found especially touching and poignant. The following admission by the author speaks volumes about the lifelong relationship he had with his father: "This terribly stern and often uncommunicative and occasionally violent man - which is to say the figure I had known through my childhood until I could escape home at fourteen for the seminary - is now showing me, by example more than word, how to die. He had been all those things through my childhood, true, but he had also been the other things, teaching by example more than word, about self-discipline, about completing a task, about self-respect, about the nature of sacrifice for a larger purpose, about honoring one's obligations."
For anyone wanting to understand how the lives of the World War II generation -- a generation that is now soon to leave us -- impacted upon their families, I invite you to read Fighting the Night. You'll be glad that you did.
I found the story of Joe Paul Hendrickson's life a remarkable one. He grew up a farmer's son in a small Kentucky town during the Depression in a large family that struggled to eke out a living. Hard work was the hallmark of his life. From the time he was a boy and had looked overhead one day to see a Ford Trimotor aircraft fly past, he had aspired to be a pilot. So, shortly after graduating from high school in 1937, Joe Paul Hendrickson embarked on a Greyhound for Chanute Field, at Rantoul, Illinois. He had managed to gain admittance into the U.S. Army Air Corps as a mechanic trainee. It was an exacting program, but he showed he had both drive and mettle. Steady promotions followed.
Shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, Joe Paul Hendrickson was made an officer and allowed to undertake flight training. He proved to be a very skilled pilot, trained initially to fly multi-engine bombers before volunteering to be trained as a night fighter pilot, flying the P-61 "Black Widow" twin-engined fighter from Iwo Jima on nocturnal missions against the Japanese during the spring and summer of 1945.
As the son of a U.S. Army combat veteran of World War II, I found much about this book relatable in some respects to my own experiences with a father I deeply respected, admired, and loved.
The passages in the book that dealt with Joe Paul Hendrickson's final days I found especially touching and poignant. The following admission by the author speaks volumes about the lifelong relationship he had with his father: "This terribly stern and often uncommunicative and occasionally violent man - which is to say the figure I had known through my childhood until I could escape home at fourteen for the seminary - is now showing me, by example more than word, how to die. He had been all those things through my childhood, true, but he had also been the other things, teaching by example more than word, about self-discipline, about completing a task, about self-respect, about the nature of sacrifice for a larger purpose, about honoring one's obligations."
For anyone wanting to understand how the lives of the World War II generation -- a generation that is now soon to leave us -- impacted upon their families, I invite you to read Fighting the Night. You'll be glad that you did.
Warships in the War of the Pacific 1879–83: South America's Ironclad Naval Campaign by Angus Konstam
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Warships in the War of the Pacific 1879-83 sheds light on a little known conflict in Latin America that nevertheless was influential in the way the major world powers of the day developed and employed their respective naval forces for the remainder of the 19th century.
The War of the Pacific was waged among 3 nations, which began as a territorial clash between Chile and Bolivia. Chile went to war with Bolivia and Peru (which entered the war against Chile owing to its secret defensive alliance with Bolivia) over natural resources. While Bolivia lacked a navy, both Chile and Peru boasted of a number of modern warships of British design and manufacture. A series of naval battles were fought in 1879 and 1880 off the coasts of the 3 nations. Chile embarked upon a campaign of blockading key Peruvian port cities, through which Peru exported nitrates, a key element in the making of explosives that accounted for much of that nation's wealth.
The book provides valuable insights into the types of technology - ironclad and steam-powered warships - employed by the navies of Peru and Chile, along with the impacts the various naval engagements had in the shaping of modern South America. For example, Bolivia's loss of its Pacific coast to Chile made it a landlocked nation.
Furthermore, there are illustrations, detailed information pertaining to the training and tactics of the clashing navies, and photos of the Chilean and Peruvian warships. All in all, this helps to give the reader a grasp as to how the naval aspects of the War of the Pacific impacted upon the conflict itself.
The War of the Pacific was waged among 3 nations, which began as a territorial clash between Chile and Bolivia. Chile went to war with Bolivia and Peru (which entered the war against Chile owing to its secret defensive alliance with Bolivia) over natural resources. While Bolivia lacked a navy, both Chile and Peru boasted of a number of modern warships of British design and manufacture. A series of naval battles were fought in 1879 and 1880 off the coasts of the 3 nations. Chile embarked upon a campaign of blockading key Peruvian port cities, through which Peru exported nitrates, a key element in the making of explosives that accounted for much of that nation's wealth.
The book provides valuable insights into the types of technology - ironclad and steam-powered warships - employed by the navies of Peru and Chile, along with the impacts the various naval engagements had in the shaping of modern South America. For example, Bolivia's loss of its Pacific coast to Chile made it a landlocked nation.
Furthermore, there are illustrations, detailed information pertaining to the training and tactics of the clashing navies, and photos of the Chilean and Peruvian warships. All in all, this helps to give the reader a grasp as to how the naval aspects of the War of the Pacific impacted upon the conflict itself.