5 comments about The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Many academics and scholars border on creative madness, take Kierkegaard and Nietzsche for example. This book is marvellous reading since the dull subject of dictionary making is enlivened by eccentric personalities and mental disturbance. It reveals how a dictionary as prestigious as the Oxford English Dictionary was put together. Any author who can make such a dry subject as exciting as a murder mystery deserves a good deal of credit and acclaim.



2. There is a certain "Did you know..." factor about the "new" genre of creative nonfiction: we read it for both the informative componenet, and the fact that quite a bit of history is, well, interesting. Did you know, for example, that the main contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary was insane?
   
   Dr. W.C. Minor was an American soldier in the Civil War, who later moved to England, where he wound up shooting a man. He was placed in an asylum (not the greatest of places in those days), where he was given a few more perks than the other inmates, simply because he was non-violent (despite the reason for his incarceration) and intelligent. One day, he happened to come across an advertisement: Professor James Murray, along with an elite group of gentlemen, was creating the single-greatest compilation of the English language ever conceived. Minor, with nothing but time on his hands, decided to pitch in. Over ten-thousand words later, Minor was the single-greatest contributor to the single-greatest dictionary ever created.
   
   It is a compelling, surprising story, told in Winchester's usual novel-meets-nonfiction style. While I enjoy a good piece of creative nonfiction, I find myself time and time again returning to Winchester's work not necessarily because of the topic, but because I enjoy his style so much. (It just so happens he chooses interesting topics to write upon.) The "P.S." section of this book, as with the others, doesn't offer too much, though there is an intriguing little section: Winchester's favorite words from the OED. Still, you'll purchase "The Professor and the Madman" for the story itself--and it's a doozy. True, too. Funny, how facts can sometimes be more interesting--and harder to believe--than fiction.



3. Simon Winchester has come up with a nifty little tale of the making of the OED. It's a fun little gem from history, and worth the read. My only complaints are: the book would have been more interesting if he had included some pictures, and the tale itself is pretty small. The publisher makes up for this by using large type, double spaced, with wide paragraph separation. But it's still a footnote in history, and you can't hide that fact.



4. This book was simply marvelous, if you are into the story of the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary, this is a book that captures the makings and includes the story of two gentlemen who's lives inevitably come together in bizzare but wonderful order of circumstances, if you Love words and their origins, you will be astounded by this book!



5. Perhaps no where is that more in evidence, than in this story, the story of a man, Dr. Minor, confined to an insane asylum, becoming one of the leading contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary.
   
   His story, the story of Dr. Murray, editor of the OED, how they got together and how the dictionary was compiled and edited makes for fascinating, marvelous reading. An intriguing, fascinating story well told, well written. Surprises, twists and concerns every few pages.
   
   The book does deserve criticism for its sometimes long and laborous detail about putting the dictionary together, but as a story, the story of the two men, Murray and Minor, it is a worthwhile and fascinating read.
   
   Winchester tells the story well, with an eye for detail, then and now, and with an empathetic if not sympathetic perspective for the humanity and the odd twists and turns involved. Good read. Buy it. Read it.

5 comments about The Sergeant in the Snow.

1. A slightly different perspective makes this novella unique. The thread of a soldier on the eastern front in the cold Russian winter is a common one but this time it is based on the memoirs of an Italian. A good and quick read.



2. Mario Rigoni Stern's slim memoir of his World War Two experiences sheds light on the effective destruction of the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano (CSIR) in Russia, which is perhaps one of the lesser-known events of the Eastern Front and of the entire war itself. As a personal narrative, Stern's view is from the ground and he offers little or no strategic view of how these events came to pass. This however, adds to the book because as a grunt--even in a position roughly equivalent to an American platoon sergeant of today--he wouldn't have had much access to or inclination to see the war in such a manner.
   
   Plenty of combat abounds through the short tale. Particularly once Stern and his fellows realize the entire front is collapsing and that they're caught in a "bag," slang for encirclement by the Soviets, the fighting becomes fierce. It is interesting to read the accounts of Italians, Germans, Hungarians and other taking part together in desperate attacks to break out of the Axis Powers' first epic disaster on the Eastern Front.
   
   Throughout the book courses one vein of thought that is ever-present in Stern and his soldiers: survival. "Shall we ever get home?" one soldier asks of Stern every time he sees him. "Which direction is Italy in?" others asks from the middle of the frozen steppes. And as the situation deteriorates during the long retreat westwards, Stern constantly commands and reminds the men to "always stick together." Alas, as these memoirs always illustrate, many do not make it home.
   
   A short but good work covering the Italian experience in World War Two, Stern tells his tale of the Italian Army's fortunes as seen and lived through by one of its peasant and elite Alpini soldiers.



3. very spontaneous and genuine story, of young people catapulted across Europe for no reason, and still performing their duties and trying to be human. you can rely feel the soldiers pain and the bitter russian winter with the words used by the author.



4. The words in the title are those of one of the author's close comrades-in-arms in the Tridentina Division, which had been attached to the Italian 8th Army on the western bank of the Don in 1942. In December of that year, the Romanians on the left flank of the Tridentines buckled under a strong Soviet offensive, and the Italians found themselves suddenly enveloped. Ordered to withdraw on 19 December, the Italians, along with Romanian and Hungarian remnants and remnants of the German 298th Infantry Division, marched west through icy wind, snowstorms and heavy drifts in an attempt to break out of the pocket. Sergeant in the Snow is a vivid first-person account of the story of this macabre odyssey up to the climactic Battle of Nikolajewka on 26 January 1943 and its aftermath.
   
   Rigoni's memoir is at once urgent, tragic, heroic and poetic. He relays the essence of the Italian spirit, so different from that of the stern and disciplined Germans, and recounts in flowing narrative and earthy dialogue exactly what it was like to march, hungry and exhausted, over 300 miles in the Russian winter. Rigoni divides his memoir into two parts: (1) the Strongpoint, wherein he tells the story of his division's struggle to repulse Soviet thrusts on the Don, and (2) the Bag, wherein he tells the story of the breakout from the pocket (the bag). As mentioned above, the climax of the action, and there is plenty of that here, takes place on the memorable 26th of January when the Italians and Germans defeat, at terrible cost, three Soviet divisions at Nikolajewka and finally break out of the encirclement: "My men hesitate, hold back, one or two of them are already wounded, and I shout: 'Come on.' I too hesitate a bit, but we're in it now, whatever happens."
   
   In the midst of battle chaos and the fog of war at Nikolajewka, one of those inexplicable and mysterious episodes occurs when the famished Rigoni enters an isba only to find a group of Russian soldiers there: "They're armed. With the red stars on their caps. My rifle's in my hand. I look at them, turned to stone. They're eating round a table, taking the food with a wooden spoon from a common bowl. And they look at me with their spoons held in mid-air....There are also some women. One takes a plate, fills it with milk and meal and offers it to me with a spoon from the common bowl....No one breathes a word. The only sound is of the spoon in my plate; and of each of my mouthfuls....The Russian soldiers watch me go out, without moving."
   
   Kudos to Northwestern University Press for bringing this remarkable book to light again. Unfortunately, the book is small and the print small, too. The translator's grammar and mechanics are somewhat archaic, and there is the glaring, almost unforgivable, absence of any maps. Dialogue should be rendered in alternating paragraphs as each character speaks, thus reducing the possibility of the reader's being confused. Although there are some footnotes along the way, this excellent memoir would certainly benefit from a thorough re-edit to include many more. In spite of these publishing flaws, The Sergeant in the Snow is a far better memoir than Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier and as good as Bidermann's In Deadly Combat. Highly recommended.



5. I am shocked to find the great many people who are unaware of Mussollinni's ill-fated pursuit of glory in the east. His broken dreams left many Italian families orphaned and widowed. This well written account of the brutality of combat on the Eastern front is a fine addition to any WW2 eastern front library. It is well written and fascinating.

4 comments about Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska--Including Extensive Hitherto Unpublished Passages from the Original Journal.

1. Unlike the true frontiersmen (ie; Dick Proenneke, One Man's WIlderness or James Huntington, On The Edge of Nowhere), this man is a typical anti-establishment artist who escaped to the outdoors in search of himself. His work reveals his own state of depression. It would be interesting to know what became of his son.



2. You can pick this book off your library shelf any time, open it to any page, start at any paragraph and begin to feel a mantle of peace settle over your jangled nerves. "Wilderness" is the record of artist Rockwell Kent and his 9-year-old son spending a winter in Alaska on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, near Seward, with only one elderly Swede as a neighbor. This "journal of quiet adventure" nonetheless is exciting in the relationships between father and son and old Olson and between the Kents and the harsh winter weather. Beautifuly and profusely illustrated by Rockwell and Rockwell, Jr.



3. Of the many wilderness adventures that flood our view on the television or in movies, with dramatic, life-risking events, we can become weary of the slick presentations. Rockwell Kent tells of us of another type of adventure, the day to day living on remote Fox Island off Seward, in Alaska. The small pleasures, the difficult trips in an open boat to get supplies, the child's sweetness in his friendship with a magpie, all these and more stories are told in a daily journal. And illustrated as Kent always does, with insight and style. Kent as a writer is equal to Kent as an artist, intellectual and candid in his telling a story and sharing impressions. If this is your first reading of a Kent book, you have a long list of other books ahead for this was his first book done as a "first person" storyteller. His desire for remote and wild landscapes to paint took him, and then takes us, through his work, to many other places over many decades. But none are any more delightful and majestic than this trip to Alaska. To check out the validity of this remote place, I took a trip to Fox Island several years ago, and though I didn't see it in the winter as Rockwell and his son did, it was dramatic, beautiful and matched the feeling I'd gotten when I first read the book years ago. The nice touch of this edition is that the editor, Doug Capra, has a very fine introduction to the book and Capra knows his subject. He has been researching Kent for years, but more than that, he has something to say and says it well. Few Kent editors do. But the book--it makes a wonderful Christmas gift because it has a really fine description of what a meaningful Christmas celebration can be in a remote place, shared with a hermit on the island, the father and little boy. There are some delightful details in this story: the food taken for the trip; the books for father and son; the rigerous baths when the bay freezes and the ice cold waters no longer are available. Kent is no ordinary artist, writer or father. And this is no ordinary adventure. It makes you wish, even yearn, for that place, that time, those people. I knew Rockwell Kent in the final few years of his life and he still carried that energtic view of life, that love of beauty and nature that comes alive in this small work. And three cheers to Doug Capra for bringing this new edition to life for it is of the quality for which Kent was famous in his published books. (A wretched edition of this treasure of a story was published a few years before and this edition puts to rest a Kent lover's dispair about having a bad edition of a Kent work on the shelves, any shelves. I almost never throw books away but this earlier paperback with bad design from cover to cover merits polluting a garbage pail.) So, invest in some good reading, some laughs and some wistful thoughts about what a wilderness adventure could be. And for those who have courage, still can be.



4. I found this book to be very informative about the land and extream weather of Alaska but it ran a little dry quickly. This is a journal of around 9 months of Rockwell kents life while in Alaska. I have read other books that were written from journals and Kents does fair better then most. I can understand that a journal in Alsaka can run out of new and interesting things to write about and this book seemed to try to fill in the gaps with Kents thoughts and many philosophies. All in all I do recomend this book to anyone who really want a real veiw of what Alaska is actually like.

3 comments about The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiographies (Collected Works of W.B. Yeats, Vol 3).

1. Yeats is without doubt one of the great English language poets of the twentieth century . His greatest poems and lines are in the hearts and minds of most lovers of poetry. How disappointing then to feel that the person is in many ways so mediocre in both his thought and his personal relationships. The whole business of automatic writing is one part of it. But also the whole search for some kind of mythic system smacks of superstition, and perhaps makes Yeats suitable for an age where the 'New Age' sections of bookstores are far larger than the Religion of Philosophy sections.
   As a person Yeats seems a somewhat remote husband and distant relative even to his closest family members. This autobiography has no great moving intellectual center, no ideas which truly make sense in understanding our world . " Things fall apart the center does not hold, " the great lines which describe our condition are unfortunately not complemented by a true and deep understanding of the human situation.



2. The more I have learnt about Yeats and his life the more approachable and enjoyable I have found his poetry.

   I bought this book for a close friend and fellow lover of Yeats poetry and read it after she did. Yeats writes about his life and philosophy with the same skill and breadth he brings to his poetry. I found the notes added for this edition both useful and interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Yeats, his philosophy, life and poetry.




3. This new, standard edition is the first to provide explanatory notes. The text has been rigorously checked against earlier editions and manuscripts. The index usefully includes both the text and the notes. (I am editor of the book.)

2 comments about An Old Woman's Reflections (Oxford Paperbacks).

1. In spite of other reviewers making light of this wonderful woman's story, I see it in a different light altogether. I think we all have a lot to learn from Peig's life and experiences. We are spoiled on material goods and suffer from spiritual deprivation. Peig may have had the "poor mouth" but she never whined about it. We whine about a red light that doesn't turn green fast enough or the fax machine when it seems to take forever. Does anyone really think we are better for that? I think not. I am now in my third reading of Peig Sayer's autobiography and, over the years, I keep getting more out of her vision. Do I want to live like her? Not entirely. Who wants to lose their children and be separated from those we love? Do I envy her close ties to nature and her personal relationship with God? Yes, I do. It's not that I want to be Peig Sayers, its just that I think she has a lot to say to those of us who have become so far removed from the essentials of God's world. I love her story and I wish I had known her.
   Marion Brown



2. This is the story...of a lovely lady! This book was the bane of every school child in Ireland for decades. It used to be on the curriculum so that, despite the fact that you would have to grit your teeth to read it, it was a bestseller in Ireland. It tells the story of Peig Sayers, a woman who lived in the poor and rural south-west of Ireland in the early 20th century. In this book, everyone was poor, no-one had anything, people were evicted from their hovels, life was hard, people died young, children were barefoot, the livestock slept in the house, it was always raining....well, you get the idea.

   Peig was born on the mainland of Ireland, but married a fisherman who lived on the Blasket islands, a small collection of islands a few miles off the coast of Kerry. Tough as things were on the mainland, things were tougher still here! You were lashed by the Atlantic, the wind could blow you off the cliffs, and you could be drowned while you were fishing, and that was on a good day! The book tells of her struggle to be accepted by the islanders, how she brought up her large family, how she coped with the death of some of her sons fishing, and the folklore, stories, and culture all around her.

   This book, and others like it from other authors on other islands ("The Islander" being another good example) formed a literary style which became known as "the poor mouth". They all share similar characteristics as they described the oppresive hardships suffered stoically by the people. Even now in Ireland, anyone whinging about their bad situation would be dismissed as "putting on the poor mouth" and everyone would know what was meant. There is even a spoof "poor mouth" book by Flann O'Brien, which is well worth reading as an antidote to all the hardship and depression!

   Now that Peig is no longer force fed down poor school children's throats, it has been re-appraised as a valuable historical record of western Irish culture, and no longer as an instrument of torture. Now that you don't HAVE to read it, more people now seem to WANT to read it! The book was originally written in the Irish language since that was the only language Peig spoke, but this translation in English is available.

   If you want a glimpse of an Ireland now long gone (and it really is long gone, despite what anyone might tell you), you can't go wrong with Peig. Just make sure you have a good supply of prozac close to hand.

5 comments about Edward I (The English Monarchs Series).

1. I absolutely loved this book. Edward I, who of course is my favorite ruler of all time, was fairly covered in this scholarly work. I highly reccomend it to anyone interested in the life of a wonderful king.



2. At times I was very pleased with Prestwich's biography of Edward I. The detail is very precise and complete, leaving you with a very close inspection of Edward I. But this could be one of the reasons I didn't particularly care for this biography. Prestwich went into way to much detail of absolutely every aspect that touched Edward I the slightest in any way. If two kings were going to have a duel or a battle this would be described since Edward wrote a letter of conciliation to the two kings. Furthermore, whole chapters would be devoted to people that worked for Edward I, which meant the chapter was just a continuous list of names.
   
   His descriptive abilities are very dry, leaving the reader uninterested. This biography is a very scholarly, detailed work for someone looking for an exhaustive look at this important English king. This is an amazing task he accomplished, but also casts a negative shadow because it seems that he didn't really know what to write about so he simply wrote about everything. I never thought I would not care for a biography because of too much information but, alas, Prestwich has done it. Unfortunately, biographies need to have more of a structure behind them, more of a game plan.
   
   I would recommend this book to those looking for an exhaustive portrayal of Edward I. Even for those looking for information on Edward I I would recommend, but would advise to not try and read the whole thing, as this may kill your desire to read anything from this book, but instead pick and chose the chapters that interest you. So, to sum it up, a great detailed biography with too much detail. A book meant to reference, not read.
   
   3.5 stars.



3. Along with J.R. Maddicott's biography on Simon de Montfort, I would put this biography as one of the best biographies written for historical figures of this time period. Good thing is, they both compliment each other well.

   Michael Prestwich's work proves to be superbly researched, highly informative and above all for me, very readable. It does help to have some previous reading on the subject since Edward I had a long career from his teen age years and it kept going until he died. The thick book covers all aspects of Edward's long and colorful life in richness of details and facts.

   In this book, you will not see Edward Longshank of that movie, Braveheart, which probably did its outmost to ruined the reputation of this great ruler. In this book, the reader will understand why many regards Edward I as one of England's greatest rulers, easily in the top five, maybe the top three!!

   I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this subject and had read on this material before. Good background reading would be helpful in getting the most out of this book. Written by a great scholar for other scholars or "scholar want to be".




4. This books is so rich in historical fact and details, drawn from medieval records of that period. For someone wanting more than the superficial, this book supplies it, showing Edward in a scholarly fashion rather than the usual pro or con look. It's very details in what it cost to run Longshanks' kingship, right down the wars against Wales and Scotland.

   Very balanced in presentation and offers us a deep insight into the man who remade England, conquered the Welsh and Irish, fought France and faced the rise of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

   Highly recommended.




5. Edward I (Yale English Monarchs) by Michael Prestwich is an extremely well researched, cross-referenced and influential book on the subject of early Plantagenet history. Drawn on the original records of the age (late 13th, early 14th century) is portrays different achievements of the productive reign - Edward a Lawgiver, Edward a Warrior in Scotland and France, Edward a Family Men, Edward a Diplomat, and ... of course Edward loosing his temper. Especially well presented are the accounts of the Household and Exchequer, and a review of Parliamentary activities of Edward. Books somewhat dry tone is justified by extensive reference collection. A great first scholarly introduction to one of the most important reigns in British history.

3 comments about George V's Children.

1. a cold father who frighten his kids ,a cold mother who never bonded with her six kids.is it not a surprize these kids had drinking problems ,drug addiction.george iv had a soech problem because treatment by his father,david fool around with married women who give his love his mother never could.



2. It's a good book, and the author describe the personalities of King George V's children quite well; particular the eldest two. There are only two problems I had with this book:
   
   (1) The copy that I had read, (which was new) apparently when they printed the book, on some of the pages the words are faded.
   
   (2)Some of the quotes that the author used were not consistant/right with the timeline of the book.



3. Great Profile on each of George V's children everyone knows about his first two sons both who became kings Edward and George but it was nice learning about his other children. Each dysfunctional and interesting.

5 comments about Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography.

1. I am not much of a reader of biographies as many of them read like text books. Meade has managed to do a superlative job in creating a biography that I found myself unable to put down.
   
   I have read the critics stating the book is more fiction than history. Without personally researching every document Meade used to develop her book (a task I am sure the critics did not perform), I felt able to easily understand where Meade made conjectures about Eleanor's thoughts and motivations for the actions that she took, most of which were well documented by Eleanor's contemporaries - particularly in the accounting department. It is apparent to me that Meade's conjectures were based on these solid facts along with a good dose of understanding what it much have been like for a women of means and will to be constantly under the thumb of men.
   
   Critics also state that Meade painted a woman without faults. Obviously they did not read the book. The description Meade gives of Eleanor's second attempt to regain Toulouse with her land hungry second husband shortly after a friendly truce with her ex-husband was gained, amounted to Meade basically stating in so many words, "What was she thinking?"
   
   Rather than faultless, Meade gives a detailed description of a complex woman; a woman of intelligence, but also a woman easily succumbed to flattery; a woman of independent will consistently struggling against a society clipping her wings.



2. "Meade's history [of Eleanor] is full of color, but based on facts," a reviewer wrote in 1999. As indeed it should be. Those qualities are not antithetical: history is often colorful and always based on facts. Reading reviews of Marion Meade's "Eleanor of Aquitaine: a Biography" (1977) is to discover that this writer is defending Meade's book against comments such as: "[It's] a very good read, but one suspects it is a poor history." And, under the heading "Entertaining fiction, not history" a reviewer describes Meade's book as, "indeed entertaining, and paints a vivid portrait... one that many readers have complained is missing from other biographies of this most fascinating queen." But then the reviewer changes direction, adding: "A substantial proportion of that portrait is conjecture."
   
   Some conjecture is essential to a quality biography from a faraway time. (Where would a jury be without connecting facts?) Meade's book is readable, superbly researched--as one expects from an accomplished journalist--and colorful. It is what a lengthy biography of an amazing woman should be, especially when the adventure of that long, exceptional life was so extraordinary.
   
   Marion Meade's diversity of interests is intriguing. She has written biographies of Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, Dorothy Parker, and tales of the roaring twenties under the title "Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin." On the other hand, here is this well-researched, compelling biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, a rebellious life, to be sure, but a life pushing forth from the stony soil of the straightened, misogynistic twelfth century. Eleanor's life and times clearly made an impact on the author. Two years later (no doubt using some of the same hard-won research) she gave us the tale of Eleanor's near-contempory in "Stealing Heaven: The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard." Eleanor may have heard Abelard preach in Paris. Like Heloise, in Meade's capable hands Eleanor of Aquitaine comes across as the mistress of her life--even, be it said, of her life's many frustrations.
   
   Robert Fripp, author of
   "Power of a Woman. Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine"



3. This book provides a detailed, insightful and thorough examination of a woman whose life would have been radical by modern standards. However, Eleanor lived nine centuries ago, in an age when patriarchial attitudes, values and mores were completely dominant. In such a world, Eleanor not only survived, she thrieved. The wife of two powerful Kings, Eleanor was a match for any man. She floutted convention, wearing armour and riding a charger on crusade, Eleanor remained sexually attractive enough to have the King of England, a man fourteen years her junior, marry her without regard for her lack of the normal virginal requirements of a queen consort.



4. This was a wonderful book. I would read as much as I had time to each day and then spend time thinking about Eleanor until I could get back to her story. I have read other accounts, one historical, of Eleanor of Aquitaine, but this one brings her to life more than anything else I have read about her. She truly was a remarkable person by any standards and Meade made me feel as though I was right there watching it all unfold. I would highly recommend this book, particularly, if you have not read anything else on Eleanor and I guarantee you will want to find out more.



5. This is a comprehensive story of one of the most interesting women in history. Marion Meade gives us everything we would ever want to know about Eleanor of Acquitaine. Of course, what makes the book more interesting is the huge cast of supporting players in Eleanor's life. The story begins with her father and his castle of courtly romance. We then see Eleanor married to Louis Capet, King of France. He takes Eleanor on crusade to the Holy Land where their marriage falls apart. This sets the stage for her marriage to Henry Plantagenet - one of the greatest kings of England.

   We get the full story of Henry's struggle with Thomas a Beckett. We see the gradual dissolution of his marriage to Eleanor, and we see the famous children they sire - especially Richard Coeur de Lion.

   This is a long book but it is a well-written and fascinating read for anyone with even the most casual interest in history.

No comments about Kings & Queens: The Story of Britain's Monarchs From Earliest Times to Today.

4 comments about To D-Day and Back: Adventures with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and Life as a World War II POW: A memoir.

1. This book is an outstanding resource for information about the war in general, but it also provides a different perspective from most accounts. It's very well written and easy to read. It is also the only first-hand account of the war from member of the 507th Parachute Infantry Division I know of.
   
   The book itself starts off pretty much like any other paratrooper memoir. But it's interesting that most of the action takes place in the mid-western United States. I also enjoyed the information about the Texas 36th Infantry Division as it holds a special place in the Italian campaign. The author was a member of the 36th prior to transferring to the 507th.
   
   However, what makes this book special is the author didn't see a tremendous amount of combat in Normandy, France. He was captured by the Germans and promptly sent to a POW camp. The majority of this book details how Bearden survived there, the ingenious ways they staved off hunger when they could, and how poorly treated the Americans were as prisoners of war.
   
   Interestingly enough, he also writes about what happened when his camp was overrun by the Russians. The war wasn't over yet and he had a real issue figuring out where he was and what the best way to get back to the American side of things.
   
   This starts a remarkable trip through central Europe ending in Moscow of all places. If this wasn't more confusing, to make things worse he's eventually captured and placed in a Russian POW camp and well, the rest is quite an interesting and brutal story.



2. This is a good first-person account of one American's adventures and escapades as he goes from being a member of the Texas National Guard in 1940 at the tender age of 17 to becoming several years later a (mortar) squad leader in the famous 82nd Airborne Division as a member of H Company, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
   
   As a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, the author parachutes into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Unfortunately, at D-Day plus 2, he is captured, along with several others, including a Colonel, after being surrounded and running out of ammunition. (It is the Colonel who orders the men to surrender.)
   
   The author then spends the next several months being shuttled to various German prisoner of war camps, finally ending up in one for American NCOs near the Oder River that is liberated by the Russians in their march toward Berlin. Although the author's experiences as a POW were traumatic, after liberation by the Russians he and his fellow prisoners were left to fend, and forage, for themselves, as the Russians were too intent on exacting revenge on the Germans to assist the freed prisoners.
   
   Incredibly, the author, while simply trying to get back to his own troops, becomes a prisoner of war of the Soviets and then has to escape from a Soviet POW camp, fortunately making it back to his own troops and, eventually, home.
   
   The book, despite its grim tales and subtext, is an enjoyable read as it is written in a first-hand, almost conversational style that makes you feel you are right there in the action. It is an excellent addition to the personal histories of World War II, especially from the perspective not just of the horror and chaos that was D-Day but from the unusual vantage point of someone who was a prisoner of war.



3. I only enjoy reading soldiers accounts of D-Day in their "real words"-not technical history books (showing maps,etc.). This is a terrific account of a paratroopers D-Day jump and aftermate in a German Stalag. He talks about his buddies and the hardships they went thru to survive-a great storyteller. Bob was one real "tough texan" who gave his all...



4. Thank you Bob Bearden for sharing your adventures during WWII. First person accounts of D-Day and WWII are very important for succeeding generations. I am afraid that there are many stories that will never be told because veterans put off recording them until it is too late. I have enjoyed reading your adventures and I feel much closer to understanding what occurred prior to and during WWII. I think that you did a terrific job and I hope it will inspire other veterans to get their stories published. Thanks again.