2 comments about Raphael Semmes and the Alabama (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series).

1. 11 Jan 1863 in the Gulf of Mexico
   "The two ships were within hailing distance when Blake (Lieutenant-Comander Homer C. Blake) demanded his opponent's identity. In what Porter (Admiral David Porter) called 'pure perfidy, such as a Zulu warrior would resort to.' Semmes identified his ship as Her Britannic Majesty's steamer Petrel. Reassured, Blake demanded the right to inspect the ship's registry in accordance with international law. After a boat had been lowered and was underway from the Hatteras. Semmes called out. 'This is the Confederate States steamer Alabama. FIRE'.
   The first broadside from the Alabama was decisive, the Hatteras staggering under its force."
   
   Spencer C. Tucker writes a fun book on the history and exploits of the famous Condeferate raider The Alabama. He includes some nice maps, drawings and photos for the reader.Not many books write about the other side of the War, the Naval part. So this book is welcomed. The Union navy was crucial in the War with it's blockades and for the Confederate's it was crucial to try to defeat the blockaders.
   
   What would you do as the Captain of the Alabama as the Union Navy searches the high seas for you with every ship it can?



2. I enjoyed this book. Took me awhile to read but very enjoyable. Civil War on the high seas!

No comments about Citizen of the Global Village.

1 comments about Neutral War: A Novel of Soul-Chilling Barter, Bioterror, and High-Stakes International Poker.

1. Neutral War is an undetached, unsympathtic, in your face story of the relationship between two men of differing cultures in the years before and during World War II. While I found the pace rather slow and the author seemed entrenched in conveying every fact he discovered it still didn't dispell the honesty, and truth which drips from every word.
   While I would have sincerly liked to have read more of the (fictional??) relationship between the Swedish narrator and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto since this clash of cultures was intelligent and at times humorous, Gold seems bent on pressing us with facts, facts, and more facts.
   
   Is there something wrong with this...not in my book. It was an inspiring and candid look at the protocol of war. It practically proves the adage 'those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.'
   
   Neutral War is 'very' much a book for OUR times and should not be overlooked for thinner, fluffier, more cozy reads.

No comments about With Lincoln in the White House:: Letters. Memoranda, and other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865.

4 comments about Delayed Legacy: A Son's Amazing Search for the Full Story of His Father's Death After D-Day.

1. Typical story of a son whose father died before his birth; his discovery of his parents'letters during the war and his quest to fill in the blanks. Most interesting is the irony of the search from the other side of the ocean!



2. Several themes are intertwined to recount this true story. The setting begins when the Depression Era United States was being thrust into some of its most tested years. The author then focuses the reader's attention onto a young couple (through their letters) as their lives and innocence are caught in the extremes of World War 2 America. Across the globe, a family in a small French village is simultaneously being occupied by German soldiers. Their lives collide in a heroic culmination of triumph and tragedy.
   
   Far from ending the story, a yet unborn son (the author) will years later begin a quest to unlock the happenings of those earlier times. Through a combination of discovered letters and unbelievable meetings and occurrences, a lost history begins to unfold for the descendants of all who were involved with those fateful events.
   
   This story is charged with emotion. The author's journey into his family's past allows us as readers to also travel to a very different era of America's history. The world has good and evil just as it did then. Good does ultimately triumph over evil, but the cost is always high. The book is excellent. It serves as a sober reminder of sacrifice and as an uplifting view of freedom's victory.



3. Unlike the previous reviewer, I did not find the love letter portion of the book the most compelling. For me, it was the story of the wartime events and its amazing discovery approximately 58 years later. So, I guess there is more than one reason to read this book! The description of the author's reaction to the package from France even gave me goose-bumps. That must have been an incredible moment.



4. Confession: the author, Conrad Netting IV, is a personal friend of mine. But even he would want me to set the record straight about his labor of love for the past 11 years - compiling his Delayed Legacy.
   
   Having said that, Conrad has reached into his heart and written a magnificent story about a parental relationship he never witnessed and about a father he never knew. His research about ancillary events surrounding their story brings into sharp focus a time when the country and many young couples were in grave danger for their very existence.
   
   But most enjoyable has been his presentation of love letters between two 1940s era love birds who barely knew each other before they were separated by war and finally death. His poignant retelling of the discovery of the myriad of details surrounding his parents courtship and marriage through newly discovered documents (all unavailable to him during his mother's life) makes the book a captivating page-turner - even when the author is not your good friend.
   
   Buy it, read it and recommend it to others. After all many of us have experienced in our own way our own delayed legacy after our parents' deaths.
   
   Jim Berg
   San Antonio, Texas

2 comments about The Fighter Pilot's Wife.

1. This could have been the story of my mother's life, one dominated by the war in Vietnam. No, she's not an American writer like Gilberta Guth whom I had the pleasure of meeting along with her husband, Howard Pierson, a former adviser to the Vietnamese Air Force. Reading Guth's book gave me a sense of what my mother lived through as the wife of a VNAF Skyraider pilot (my father) and the mother of four children. This is a lovely memoir, an important addition to the literature of war offering perspectives of an often silent but important group called spouses.



2. This book sales along from the opening paragraph. The author lives on an airforce base, and meets and marries a jet pilot. They live on overseas bases and serve in different wars. To some extent she lives the epitomy of the American icon life. Dances and parties in the evening, and each morning her husband, a bona fide warrior, takes off, perhaps never to return. Guth is a talented writer who offers profound insight into the life of the families behind our people serving in wars abroad;

No comments about The Inner Life Of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months At The White House.

1 comments about The Road From Here To Where You Stay.

1. How many times do you find a book that excites you, that intrigues and yet leaves you wanting more--Well, I found it!
   
   This book, The Road From Here to Where You Stay by Thomas Kemp, is the best action book I've read in many, many years. Perhaps it was because the author lived along with me; i.e., he'd be around the same age; only the author left the US for Vietnam , while I began to work back in the early '60's. This book demanded ongoing attention, once I started to read...and it is definitely one I will reread many times! Not a usual activity for me.
   
   Do you remember when the announcement was made about the assassination of John Kennedy? I remember I was in my office where I was working at a local university. Thomas Camp, who was already in the marines at the age of 17 had already been to Vietnam when our President was shot. Thomas, a native of Ohio, becomes very real to the reader, as he tells the story of his career...as a trained killer for the US Government. Thomas tells the story as if he were sharing it with you personally; and he talks to each of us, as he moves from story to story, reliving each memory so that we, too, become a character in his story.
   
   Thomas Camp, based upon a set of tests administered when he entered the Marines, was designated for special service. He was to use his special talents of almost a photographic memory and an exceptional memory for details, but also to later become a "marker" for the US Government.
   
   Thomas entered the service at the age of 17; and his fellow Marines determines that, as a young virgin, he needs to be introduced to, the ultimately named prostitute, Jewelko. But, young Thomas surprises the older woman with his gentleness and his words, and Jewelko and Thomas fall in love. But this is not a happily ever after story. Jewelko is a communist spy and Thomas is ordered to kill her--to kill the first woman to whom he has given and received love. Thomas and Jewelko both defy orders to kill the other; Thomas arranges Jewelko's escape out of Vietnam and places another woman in her bed prior to demolition of the large palatial home.
   
   Once in awhile, Jewelko reappears in Thomas's memories, through the letters she wrote to him; but major events, including the assassination of John Kennedy and President Diem of Vietnam, bring about a major role for Thomas--one which he has hidden, as mandated by presidential orders, for more than 30 years.
   
   Remember that Lyndon Johnson became president upon the death of John Kennedy. Remember also that many claimed that his murderer was killed immediately there in Texas. But many wondered and questioned and could not believe it. Now you will find out why you questioned. Now, as you meet Thomas, you will see a plausible alternative, that the US Government had those, who really murdered Kennedy, actually trained by Thomas to be able to accomplish this feat. You will visit Texas and review the facts and understand how the assassination was committed. Then you will live through many, many years while Thomas tracks down the six men, on behalf of, and as ordered by...president(s).
   
   Thomas shared much of the pain and anguish of those who felt abandoned there in Vietnam. He shares how his hand moved to kill, because dying would be better than the torture being endured by those he killed. And, he shares how he tracked down those marked to be killed, those he hunted in response to direct orders.
   
   Why? Why does he decide to share this story? For many years, Thomas has lived in Ohio. He marries and becomes a father and the past fades--until a young girl enters his life. She is a young girl who was raped and indoctrinated to a wild life and she weaves a spell around Thomas until he is addicted, addicted to who he later comes to refer to as "his angel of death." Jean Marie's life and love brings back memories of his past life, in such vivid detail, that Thomas begins to relive his role as a personal vigilante, deciding that he must now hunt down and kill the men who raped and sodomized his lover.
   
   This book combines sex, love, death, murder, and war in a combination that normally would be offensive and unbearable, except that the reader continues to visualize Thomas, as that 17-year-old officer--the good guy following orders and trying to save mankind. And, in the end, Thomas Camp can be nothing else than a knight in shining armor, still trying to save the world.
   
   Needless to say, I recommend this book to all who have an interest in "life-time" history...all those who enjoy "on the edge" action...and those who enjoy seeing the "good guy" win. But has he? Only you can judge.
   
   At the same time, I must alert you that you may find that some historical facts are not correctly presented. Indeed, the book moves continuously from one time to another and may be hard to follow at times. It is very long and includes poetry that may break the reader's attention. There are several themes running at the same time, mostly via flashbacks. To me, these issues were not disruptive; however, to other readers, they may be.

2 comments about French Harding: Civil War Memoirs.

1. French Harding's memoirs provide a fascinating and well-written documentary of a company commander's life in the Confederate army. It is one of the few books I have read that describe the guerilla warfare that occured in West Virginia and other border states.

   Mr. Hardings account of his enlistment and election to commander of his unit are of interest. The method by which he deals with conflicts with his superiors are unique. Not many books of the Civil War provide the reader with insight into the life of the small unit commander.

   His description of his continued returns to his home occupied by Union troops is particularly intriguing. The great number of Confederate troops routinely taking leave to return home to towns and villages quartered with northern troops is astounding. It appears that the Union army had no more success in separating southern guerillas from their supporters than the U.S. did 100 years later in Vietnam.

   The fact that Mr. Harding was an attorney and a man of letters who was writing after the turn of the century makes the book more readable. While the passsage of time may have dimmed some memories of the events recited, the presentation in more modern prose more than makes up for this. The acccounts of his return home to face the county sheriff, who he had wounded during one of his vists home, provides insight into how men and women on opposite sides of this conflict managed to reconcile their lives after the war.

   This book will be enjoyed by all Civil War afficionados.




2. This book should only be read if you are:

   a) A member of a mental institution b) As bored as I am c) Actually are French Harding or d) Want to give it to a nasty enemy

   I have never read a more unsatisfying book in my entire life, which actually consists of the last 2 minutes for I am a figment of some strange twisted person's imagination.

No comments about Woman Rice Planter (Southern Classics Series).