5 comments about The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of Her Father's Murder.

1. Rachel Howard tells a compelling story in "The Lost Night," a memoir that reads like an extended episode of crime documentary shows like "48 Hours Mystery." A pre-teen when her father was stabbed to death in what seemed like a botched break-in, the loss haunts Howard until she can find a way to make sense of it. Suspicion surrounds Howard's step-mother, whose brother is questioned by police, but it is eventually cold cased. As an adult, Howard investigates further, a decision which brings her back in contact with both her father's family and her dreaded step-mother (who has since married again and moved away.)
   
   The book effectively sets the scene in California's Central Valley, and Howard successfully plumbs the psychological effects of growing up without a murdered parent. She is candid about many of her struggles with men as a result of the loss, although she is slightly dreamy about her wedding and happy relationship with her husband. (This aspect of the memoir seemed overly one-sided and idealistic.) Her father's murder is never solved, but Howard does find a way to come to peace with it, including an acknowledgment of her own biases against her former step-mother, who makes a memorable reappearance in some of the book's best latter moments.
   
   What we end up learning about in "The Lost Night" is the effect of crime on those left behind, and the mysteries that remain when crimes aren't solved. Although the writing is no where near the quality of classics of the true crime genre, this is a worthy effort and worth a read.



2. Met the author at a book signing and was impresssed by her impeccable poise and story-telling ability. Then I went home and read the book. Wow. I had the same experience as the other readers. This is an excellent and poignant memoir.
   One feels the you-are-there quality of a little girl awakening in the middle of the night to see her father covered with blood on the floor. The people in her book are like characters in a Dickens novel, yet they are (were) all very real. Howard captures the cultural milieu of Merced California in the mid '80's. Her father loved Rod Stewart with a passion and the lyrics of his songs weave through the true story of a child trying to make sense of what is going on around her.
   The child matures into an adult and becomes a writer! What an awesome contribution to the memoir genre. I do hope that the killer is eventually caught.



3. This is a wonderful combination of memoir and true crime. I felt as though I realy got to know the author. Her willingness to examine the fragility of memory and adjust her conclusions accordingly made her more appealing. The change in her attitudes toward the people in her life caused me to re-examine my own feelings toward people in my life. This book is a definite addition for anyone's library.



4. Lost and Found - a past reclaimed
   
   I finished Rachel Howard's "the lost night" at 3 this morning. From the minute I cracked its spine, the pages turned themselves, inviting me to ignore every routine chore of mine: dirty dishes, daily exercise, even meals (though I did manage to go to work and feed the cat).
   
   Masterfully written, the book tells a riveting story of the murder of Rachel's father when she was only 10 years old. How she handled the loss of this beloved man, her protector and playpal, is a glimpse into how children cope with tragedy of this magnitude. The experience retrospectively defined Rachel, her relationship with her family and also with her stepmother Sherry, her father's third wife when he was murdered. Rachel, the product of divorce, was spending a few summer weeks at her father's home during this time. She was witness to his last waking minutes and remembered details that would replay themselves with increasing vividness as time went by.
   
   But memory is elusive...and selective. The author comes to realize that her memories were circumscribed by the limited frame-of-reference of a young life.
   
   What I found so compelling here is the child's perspective. I have read (and probably own!) just about every true-crime/courtroom/forensic book that exists, yet I never read such an account from a 10-year-old point-of-view. Rachel illustrates the sometimes graphic, sometimes muted terror-of-the-night children of murdered parents are heir to, their wispy and unexpressed--indeed unconscious--suspicion of significant-others, and their necessary dependencies on adults who, often not comprehending the nuances involved, believe that by trotting the kid to therapy, they absolve themselves of the pain of revisiting the circumstances themselves. In Rachel's case, her father's family remained largely silent with her about that night. They may have felt that openly speaking about the murder with someone so young would somehow legitimize it for her. In fact, their passivity had the opposite, and quite damaging, effect on a young mind hungry for assurance and validation.
   
   Palpable throughout Rachel's memoir is its raw honesty. The writing is often brutally introspective, devoid of the self-pity and lachrymose language which the author might easily --and justifiably-have indulged. She is seeking information and answers, and by the last page, I realize she has found those things, and some peace along the way.
   
   Therese Hercher



5. William Grimes has always been one of my favorite NY Times reviewers. Although he tends to be negative, when he waxes effusive, I take notice. When I saw this....
   ------
   "As a memoirist, she succeeds BRILLIANTLY. "The Lost Night" is ENTHRALLING, a skillfully narrated story that begins as a tale of detection but quickly becomes something more."
   --William Grimes, NEW YORK TIMES
   
   I figured I'd take a chance. Well, it's been sitting on my nightstand for 6-months now and damn if it's not enthralling. Although I was hoping for a bit of a who-done-it, I couldn't put it down. The descriptions of the messed-up Central Valley(to put it delicately)were terrific. With some sex, drugs, and even some 80s Rod Stewart in the mix, for good measure, it was a joy to read.

5 comments about The Long Road of War: A Marine's Story of Pacific Combat.

1. James Johnston gave a vivid, poignant and heroic account of his life with the Marines fighting in the Pacific during World War II. It was fascinating to read how it life was for the Marines in the Pacific as like he said, the media tended to focus on the European theater and thought of the Pacific theater as "easy."

   Using letters that he wrote home, Johnston managed to add a personal touch to his account. It was interesting to get a glimpse on how he felt emotionally, the friendship that was formed between the soldiers and how a lot of times, soldiers are fighting as hard as they did, for their friends because they did not want to let their them down. When Johnston was the section leader, he was able to show the burden of responsibilities as you were not just in charge of your life but of others too.
   Lastly, how he was disappointed with the Marines. He found flaws with the system but at the same time, it was very much part of him.




2. "The Long Road of War" is a wonderfully-written, highly-emotional story of Marine Corps combat from the "flat-trajectory" soldier's perspective. Johnston shares his own personal horrific views of World War II Pacfic combat. With stirring text, he shows the sudden transformation from Nebraska teenager to Green recruit to hardened veteran. This book is an excellent addition to any historian's bookshelf, once they can find the time to put it down.



3. This was a book that I could absolutely not put down. Mr. Johnston's description of his transition from a Midwest teenager into a battle hardened, front line Marine is told with a grim honesty that is seldom found in books about war. This book does away with any glorification or self-promotion and gives you the tragic, ugly truth about the war in the South Pacific.



4. In my haste I incorrectly wrote Saipan....I meant to write Peleliu



5. In my haste I incorrectly wrote Saipan....I meant to write Peleliu

5 comments about Escape In Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story.

1. This is a MUST read. It touched me personally because I have a very close friend that does drive for KBR in Iraq.
   
   I have also bought this book for my brother who is now retired Army and my cousins husband who was a Marine back in the 70's.
   
   I even went online to research the men that was still missing when the book was published.
   
   AWESOME AWESOME BOOK...



2. Provides an understanding of how one may survive a kidnap event when kidnapped by an extremist organization and/or common kidnap group or gang.



3. This is an inspiring survival story. Although I was happy Thomas escaped, I was sorry the adventure was over. Thomas is a civilian truck driver transporting supplies in Iraq when his convoy is attacked and he is captured. The coincidences (if you believe in coincidences) that occur during his captivity are really miracles (if you believe in miracles), and Thomas' interpretation of them helped him survive his ordeal. He portrays his captors as human beings and finds himself respected in return. It's an incredible story by a man of amazing spiritual strengths.



4. This was a fantastic story from a dairy farmer who went to Iraq as a contractor to make things better at home. The story is a heartwarming one--about his family, his wife, his love of God and his faith that carried him through the frightening attack from terrorists on the convoy that he was leading, through his capture and 24-day captivity in the hands of Iraqis. It was simply written so that just about anyone could grasp what he was going through; the visual imagery was just like some of the books I read in childhood; I felt I was there with him. I enjoyed his naming his captors, it made me chuckle--that although he could lose his life at any time, he was quietly taking note of things around him and amusing himself; something his captors could never take from him. They say freedom is an "inside job". Thomas Hamill has that freedom. This is a remarkable story of courage and faith. It also gave me an interesting perspective on the Iraqi people since he didn't stay in one place and met many of them. Some interesting conversations went on about Saddam and Bush and American culture versus Iraqi culture. I thought it was intriguing and well worth the time. As a matter of fact; I couldn't put it down.



5. This is a good book by a humble man. It is more than a story about a man captured by terrorists in Iraq. It is a story about how Thomas Hamill's unshaking faith in God probably saved his life. Most people in the same situation probably would have lost their composure and showed fear. But Hamill's ability to leave his fate in God's hands allowed him to maintain his presence of mind which enabled him to build a little trust with his captors and in the end, allowed his escape. It is an inspiring story.

1 comments about Genghis Khan: History's Greatest Empire Builder (Military Profiles).

1. Peter Lococo, Jr, writes in the preface to "Genghis Khan: History's Greatest Empire Builder" that "This is not a full biography of the world conqueror, but instead focuses on his early struggles to survive, his unification of the Mongolian tribes, and finally his campaigns of conquest." This was my first experience learning about Genghis Khan. From my perspective, Lococo succeeded quite brilliantly.
   
   Lococo begins with a quick lesson in Mongolian sociology. In addition to the expected explanations of geographic hardships & clan and subclan relationships, Lococo briefly touches on the Mongol tribes' practice of a form of shamanism. This first mention of the influence of shamanism is is very brief, however, this tribal value will have major implications on the life of Temujin, the man who would become Genghis Khan. Lococo quickly supports this point by describing an omen from Temujin's birth. "Temujin was born in 1165 with a clot of blood in his small fist. This according to Mongol legend, presaged his glorious future."
   
   Lococo asserts that "[Genghis Khan] ruthlessly crushed challenges to his authority, and no Mongol custom or tradition would be allowed to stand in his way". He supports this with the story of the young Temujin, whose father had died years before. "One time Temujin shot a lark, which was forcibly taken by his two half-brothers. A few days later, Temujin and his brother Qasar caught a fish in the stream, which was also promptly taken by their half-brothers... Temujin and Qasar ambushed one of their half-brothers and killed him with arrows."
   
   The personal prestige played heavily in the Mongol culture. After being enslaved by another tribe, Temujin escaped which greatly enhanced his reputation. With this hard fought increase in prestige he went to claim his bride. Shortly thereafter, another tribal raid stole his wife. Temujin immediately went to her father to form an army to claim her back. With the successful attack behind him, he was now on the path to become the greatest emperor of Asia.
   
   The book does an outstanding job of describing Temujin's rise to power, culminating with him being proclaimed "Genghis Khan" by the Kuriltay, the assembly of elders and other tribal leaders.
   
   Lococo asserts that Genghis Khan's was largely responsible for a revolution in military organization. Genghis Khan used a decimal base (i.e. units of 10) for the size of the army, which was not a revolution. Genghis Khan's revolutionary ideas were applied in his selection of commanders and into how he apportioned soldiers in his army.
   
   This was my first experience learning about Genghis Khan. The book is very well-written, and is laid out in a logical and concise manner. I felt the maps included in the book could have been better. In some instances, the campaigns mentioned in the book referred to prominent cities, which were not identified on the maps. This is the only minor detraction to this great book.
   
   I am a huge fan of "Potomac's Military Profiles". The series is written to give readers an understanding of the major points for the featured military leader. The books also include bibliographical references allowing readers to discover more on their own. Lococo took this a step further and actually opines on which books are the best references available.

5 comments about Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order.

1. This is a good book about Sherman and the civil war. If you like Sherman is book is for you. Worth your money.



2. 
   "Wars are not all evil; they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed; thunderstorms which purify the political atmosphere, test the manhood of a people, and prove whether they are worthy to take rank with others engaged in the same task by different methods." - Gen. William T. Sherman
   
   As a casual student of Civil War history, i.e. returning to it periodically after bouts with trashier fare, I've heretofore lost sight of General Sherman in General Grant's shadow at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Even the commendable Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 failed to correct this failing. SHERMAN finally forced the man into my awareness.
   
   This book by John Marszalek is an extensively researched, comprehensive, and solid summary of the General's life from boyhood to death. I would love to have seen what the late, great Shelby Foote could've done with the material, but that's neither here nor there.
   
   SHERMAN includes all of the elements of the man's private and public life that you'd expect in a biography. What stood out for me were the elements that I never suspected: his sojourn in California from 1848 to 1857 both as a military officer and a private banker, his position as the first superintendent of the military academy that would later evolve into Louisiana State University, his eventual post-war falling-out with Grant, and his controversial views on race. Indeed, Sherman's personal view of slavery was akin to that of a Southern slave owner; he thought it consistent with the natural order of things. Furthermore, he opposed the abolitionists of the pre-war period believing their efforts conducive to the growing national disorder that eventually resulted in the Civil War. Sherman once said:
   
   "The negro should be a free man, but not put on any equality with the Whites ... the effect of equality is illustrated in the character of the mixed race in Mexico and South America. Indeed it appears to me that the right of suffrage in our Country should be rather abridged than enlarged."
   
   The chapters on Sherman's Civil War career make clear that he was significantly more successful as a war strategist than as a battlefield tactician as evidenced by his failures as a corps commander at Chickasaw Bayou (1862), as army commander when his Army of the Tennessee was repulsed at the north end of Missionary Ridge at the Battle of Chattanooga (1863), and as an army group commander at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (1864). His claim to fame is, of course, his brilliant march through Georgia and the Carolinas during which his forces occupied Atlanta and Savannah, GA, and Columbia, SC, unopposed after skillfully maneuvering enemy forces out of all three cities beforehand.
   
   SHERMAN includes three photo sections, but no battlefield maps which otherwise might have been usefully illuminating.
   
   What drove Sherman was his deep antipathy for disorder, whether it be military, social, familial, or political. He would've made the consummate military dictator if given the opportunity. He was a great commander and man for his time and place. In today's politically correct and "enlightened" times, he would be shunned.
   
   "I look upon war with horror, but if it has to come I am here." - Gen. William T. Sherman



3. The difficulty for those of us interested in studying the American Civil War is that the available bibliography is overwhelmingly large. One could begin reading as a child and reach adulthood and continue reading until death or senility interrupted the exercise without completing all of the published titles! Life is too short to read poorly written books!
   
   With that observation in mind, it is a welcome experience to occasionally come across a worthwhile one volume biography of a major historical figure and "Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order" fills the bill perfectly. The author, John F. Marszalek, is a history professor at Mississippi State University.
   
   While it may strike some as odd that a historian employed on a campus located in the Deep South chose to write about General William T. Sherman, it is worth remembering that "Uncle Billy," himself, was a man of contradictions. Sherman tried and failed at many occupations during the antebellum period. One of the few successful and easily the most satisfying positions that he held was as the superintendent of a military academy located in Louisiana. But for the crisis of secession and war, Sherman would have been pleased to remain at the academy as a Southern gentleman and an accepted member of local society. The war came, however, and Sherman resigned his position and donned the blue Federal uniform. As a Union general, Sherman became the scrouge of the same South that he had so admired and enjoyed.
   
   Sherman was adopted into the family of a prominent Ohio politician following the death of his father. This was the first of many disruptions in his life. His adoptive parents compelled him to change his actual first name from "Tecumseh" (after the celebrated Indian leader and warrior) to William. Marszalek sees many of Sherman's subsequent choices and decisions as part of a determined effort to create and maintain continuity, stability and order. As much as he loved the South, Sherman viewed secession and disunity as a form of anarchy that needed to be crushed. Similarly, the Indian tribes threatening the settlement of the frontier needed to be suppressed. Late in his life, Sherman resisted his wife's repeated entreaties to have him convert to Catholicism.
   
   Marszalek also treats Sherman's friendship and eventual estrangement from Ulysses S. Grant. Sherman was devoted to the military and grew disillusioned when Grant chose to pursue a political career during the Reconstruction Era. Although both Grant and Sherman lived long enough to write memoirs, Grant's memoirs are better known on account of his superb ability as a writer. Unlike Grant, Sherman's own book generated more controversy than praise upon its publication (Grant defended Sherman's book, however, as providing accurate accounts and descriptions of events) and is not read as often today.
   
   I have had the good fortune to have visited Grant's residence in Galena, Illinois and the former Galt House (the hotel still exists, but it has relocated to a much larger building several blocks away) in Louisville, Kentucky, where Grant and Sherman studied their maps and plotted the strategy that resulted in the eventual Union victory. Marszalek's book helped bring some of these same details to life for me as a reader. Recommended.



4. In this book, the author takes us on an in-depth tour of the life and times of William Tecumseh Sherman. In doing so, he lets us see Sherman as a boy living in poverty; as a nine-year-old foster child; and as a student, young soldier, husband, father, failed businessman, Civil War General, and aging military hero. In the end, we find that Sherman was very much like the rest of us: a man with hopes, dreams and fears of his own, and certainly not the crazed and often despised General who, according to legend, burned Atlanta to the ground and wantonly ravaged, pillaged, and plundered the South.
   
   True, Sherman did order that all inhabitants of Atlanta be evacuated [705 adults (few men), 860 children, and 79 slaves], but that was to prevent snipers from killing his soldiers. And he did order that all facilities which could be used to support the war effort be destroyed (e.g., the railroad station; factories producing uniforms, munitions, railroad tracks; etc.). But that only amounted to about one third of the structures in Atlanta. And he did march the bulk of his 60,000 man army to Savannah living off the land. But he did so to help bring the Civil War to a speedy conclusion with minimum loss of life by severing the logistic supply lines across the South. And his orders were not to burn or destroy any private property, no matter what the inhabitants "said", as long as they were not fired upon.
   
   And finally, and most revealing: When Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston was given the authority to surrender all remaining Confederate armies to General Sherman, Sherman met with him and developed what he thought were acceptable surrender terms. He forwarded them to Washington to obtain the necessary authorization only to find that his terms were considered much too soft on the South by then Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Stanton went so far as to send a letter to the New York Times accusing Sherman of TREASON and then attempted to have General Grant relieve him of his command. Grant met with Sherman but avoided doing so.
   
   According to the evidence, then, William Tecumseh Sherman wasn't the crazed villain many in the South consider him to be. And maybe, just maybe, he was the best friend the South ever had, or at least he tried to be. In any event, after reading this biography, one can only wonder how many people now living in the South, who vilify Sherman's memory, owe their very existence to the fact that he decided to make war on property rather than on their forefathers.



5. Sherman made war on women and children. He had his troops burned houses to the ground, turned a blind eye to the looting his men did, burned crops to the ground, destroyed any livestock he couldn't use and left the civilian population to starve to death everywhere he went in the South.
   Sherman had town halls burned so there were no accruate records as to how large the population of the town he burned was. Sherman also removed large numbers of civilians (women and children)who worked at the New Manchester and Roswell, Georgia Mills, North; where many of them died of exposure or starvation. On the trip North many of these New Manchester, Roswell, Georgia Mill women workers were raped.
   I am not a sympathizer for the Southern Cause during the American Civil War. However, I do believe that Sherman is a war criminal and shouldn't be idolized which this book does.

No comments about The Boys from Baghdad: From the Foreign Legion to the Killing Fields of Iraq.

1 comments about Cook Baker Candlestick Maker.

1. I was only 2 when my dad entered Spec Ops and intense travel to places he couldn't talk about. I saw my mom bravely crying as he walked out, afraid to look back. I never understood why! This is the 1st time I've read the book. I now understand because his book is like walking down the beach with him and having him tell his story. Yeah, he's my dad and I am proud. I feel better now that dad made me understand. Thanks Dad....Great Book!!

5 comments about Scrappy: Memoir of a U.S. Fighter Pilot in Korea and Vietnam.

1. It was great book that was only marred by numerous technical errors. The three that I remember are the misspelling of Iwakuni and Tachikawa, Japan and the placing of McConnell AFB in Topeka, Kansas and not in Wichita, Kansas. Considering that an Air Force man wrote the story about another Air Force man, these errors should have been caught.



2. Scrappy and my dad, Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, were cohorts and compadres in a world that only fighter pilots can understand. I read this book with great enjoyment, appreciation, laughter and admiration. Through no end of great tales, self-deprecating honesty and acute analysis of the political bureaucracy in play during the Vietnam war, I learned far more about fighter pilots than I already knew I didn't know! "Scrappy" is a great read and should be on everyone's list - not only for Air force veterans but for active duty pilots of today.



3. I had the honor of reading Scrappy over the past three days while traveling by air on a business trip. I found his book difficult to put down. The book just keeps moving without ever getting bogged down. Every time I turned the page I found something new and refreshing.
   
   I feel like I have known Scrappy my whole life now after reading his story. In fact when I got home last night I kept telling my wife Scrappy this and Scrappy that.
   
   The story is at times very touching. I felt like Scrappy was able to take words from my soul and put them on paper. He showed me insight to my own experiences as a son, or a father, or a husband. On the other hand it was full of action and excitement too. Scrappy is filled with his professional and private ups and downs. And most of all it was filled with stories about flying.
   
   All in all this is a great book. I found it refreshing and easy to read. This was no school book that I had to pull myself through. No, Scrappy pulled me through. Page after page he carried my attention to the end. This was a real page turner of a story. This is Scrappy.



4. I have known Scrappy for several years and I have heard many River Rats talk about him. But until he wrote this book I never knew the details of his life, and what an interesting and exciting life it has been. If you have interest in flying and history, this is the book for you. Scrappy takes you through all of his adventures.



5. I had the pleasure of meeting Scrappy a couple of years ago at an astronaut and aviator autograph show in Florida. He was more interesting and likeable than the more famous spacemen sitting around him. His new autobiography is excellent. I couldn't put the book down until I had finished reading it...in one sitting. I enjoyed it so much I purchased another copy as a gift!

5 comments about Blood Brothers: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57.

1. Have some kleenex handy. A very well written book. My husband loved it, too.



2. Mr. Weisskopf writes a truely remarkable account of what it is like to go from the battle field through the medical, recovery process. As a surgical technician & Vietnam vet I found his story to be inspiring and very moving. The medical aspects were right on the money!!
   Thank you, Mr. Weisskopf, for a wonderfully touching story. I hope you have been able to put to rest the "Why & What If" questions. As far as I'm concerned the motivation doesn't matter. You're a HERO!!!



3. As an amputee for the past 4 years or so, I know a few things about the story told by this book. But I was unprepared to be as moved as I was. Michael not only tells the story of how, but he digs deeper into the demons that made him and Pete so much more real.
   
   I don't have war experience, I just had a simple accident. The demons these men fight to get to a place where they can accept the things that happened make this a very powerful story. I highly recommend it to anyone. And I've recommended it to several close friends in hopes they might better understand what it's like to loose part of yourself.



4. Michael Weisskopf is a well known journalist for TIME magazine. During a trip to Iraq as an embedded journalist with an Army unit, the HMMWV he was riding in had a grenade thrown into it. Weisskopf apparently went to pick the grenade up before it detonated, but was too late, losing his right hand in the explosion.
   
   Weisskopf uses this tragedy to document his and a several soldiers with amputations in their roads to recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Ward 57, the amputee ward. Weisskopf does a good job of capturing the many aspects of recovery that he and the soldiers go through.
   
   This short book captures very well the processes of recovering from combat wounds, dealing with the traumas both to yourself and those around you, including fellow soldiers who did not survive their accidents.
   
   I highly recommend this book.



5. What Michael Weisskopf has done with this story is truly amazing. It was a very emotional book for me, but it is a book that every American should read.I plan on passing this book around. It is a book that you cannot put down.You just want to cheer these guys on, cry with them, and you feel their frustrations. I would love to meet Michael and the men that he writes about to thank them personally for their sacrifices.
   I am a Troop Greeter from Maine where most of the flights that are going over and comming home stop for re-fueling.We are soon to have welcomed 500,000 troops. I often wonder how many that I have met that will not be returning home or have been injured. I say a prayer for them after every flight and pray that they will be comming back through our halls.
   I can't thank Michael Weisskopf enough for writing this book. It is truly an excellent book.
   cakelady2@adelphia.net

5 comments about His Name Was Donn: My Brother's Letters from Vietnam.

1. The letters reveal Donn who was a lively, exciting, fun-loving person with great love for his mother(the names he gives her in every letter never ceases to bring a smile)his sisters and all his other family members. His sense of humor is contagious as it springs from each of his letters. All the characters with their special quirks become familiar to the reader as he paints them so well in his letters. This is a great book that could be made into a movie and any actor who plays the role of Donn will be paying a rich tribute to this wonderful young man who teaches that life is full of promise and hope to be enjoyed every single day. The author did a great job of taking a painful memory and leaving a lasting impact on the readers who will close the book with a great big smile for having known this wonderful person. Great job Evie!!!!!!



2. Too often books about war deal more with the officers and civilian leaders, the ones who direct the military actions without looking at those most involved. The young men and women on the front lines who must live with life and death and whose minds are concentrated both on the action at hand and their loved ones back home. It is most likely the latter that keeps them going in the face of enemy fire, the memories of happier days in their home towns or cities.
   
   His Name Was Donn: My Brother's Letters from Vietnam is a particularly moving book, a collection of letters written by Donn Sweet during his service in Vietnam up to his tragic death. An honored soldier, his letters are a combination of describing what is taking place over there and his memories of home. These letters were put together by his younger sister, Evelyn Sweet-Hurd whose grief over his death kept her from re-reading them for decades. Now this book has helped bring her closure and is a moving tribute to a brave young man with a sense of humor who truly loved his country. It gives us an insight into the heart and soul of a true American hero and patriot.
   
   The reader also learns a great deal about the Sweet family and Evelyn's own thoughts and feelings then and now. It is the sort of book every reader can relate to whether Donn is writing about comrades dying or his memories of home. Home is very important and Donn takes the time to write thankyous for gifts and letters even when under enemy fire. There is a strong connection between Donn's two worlds and his relationship with his younger sister Evelyn who idolized him. The book is a testimony to the importance of family in the growth and maturity for young people.
   
   Ms. Sweet-Hurd writes in a style that is both vivid and concise. Once finished this is a book you will want to re-read as you will feel connected with the family. This would make an excellent film and we want to see more works by this author.



3. "His Name Was Donn" is powerful and poignant, a book that will stay in your head and your heart long after you have raced to finish it--even though you know the tragic conclusion from the first page. What an amazing accomplishment of Donn's sister to open the box and share his letters with all of us! Evelyn Sweet-Hurd's technique of alternating letters and commentary keeps us involved and challenges us to think about the individuals who are sent to war on our behalf.



4. 
   A young soldier dies heroically in battle. His maimed body is returned to his grieving family. Medals and citations are awarded posthumously.
   
   At once the circumstances of his death eclipse all other aspects of his life. He becomes forever a fallen soldier. The military citations extol the "ultimate sacrifice." Nowhere in the formal wording is there mention of "the life that might have been."
   
   But the two are one and the same.
   
   This is the message of Evelyn Sweet-Hurd's remembrance of her brother, Lieutenant Donn Sweet, a native of Roanoke VA, who was killed in Vietnam in 1968 at age 26.
   
   In, "His Name Was Donn," Sweet-Hurd attempts to rescue the memory of her brother. From a box of letters shuffled from attic to attic over forty years, she has fashioned a soldier's journal that speaks to our day as poignantly as if written from Iraq yesterday.
   
   From the first line of Letter #1 ("It's a warm Saturday afternoon") to the final signoff two days before his death ("Well, it's beginning to rain"), Donn Sweet reports on his Vietnam experience very much as an observer, more war correspondent than soldier at times, fascinated with events, people, places and how the weather was. Absent, always, is any acknowledgment of personal danger.
   
   To his mother, he writes: "Yesterday we left Dong Ha in a driving rainstorm and
   took a boat up the river to the coast and a Marine camp called Qua Viet. The day before, Qua Viet had been shelled and a dentist and three others were killed."
   
   We are reminded of the young Martin Sheen journeying up the river in Apocalypse
   Now, without, in Donn Sweet's telling, the sense of foreboding.
   
   Forty years later, his sister wonders if her beloved big brother had indeed
   taken a first step into the "Heart of Darkness." It bothers her when he writes,
   "I took pictures of one of the dead VC. He was 28 and was from Gio Linh -- or so
   his papers said."
   
   The reader has difficulty sharing the author's concern. Donn Sweet seems always to have a sure hold on reality. His lifeline is a mischievous sense of humor and a relentless focus on his civilian life to come.
   
   Three days after describing a fire fight in which "We lost nine men...", he pens
   an appreciation of a package newly-received from an aunt, "[There was] a black
   oblong soft smelly object. At first I thought it was a squashed eclair; the
   Marine captain living with me thought it was a piece of liver. You know what it
   was? A BANANA! What would make someone think a banana would make it to Vietnam?
   ... I will write a thank-you note."
   
   After noting that the officer who relieved him in his last command has been killed, he instructs his mother: "I want you to please do the following and write me on what you do and the results. Please have the valves on my Porsche set for the proper setting and have my oil changed correctly. I want the filter screen cleaned. The manual explains how it should be done. I don't want them to simply drain the oil out the plug and put some new oil in. Check it out and have it done right... and let me know what the story is."
   
   He mentions running into a mortar ambush, "...we had one KIA (killed in action)
   and one WIA (wounded in action"...", then inquires about law schools: "Ask Ernie
   [a lawyer friend] what he thinks about McGeorge College of Law and U. of Arizona,
   OK?"
   
   John Lennon famously said, "Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans." Donn Sweet was killed in Vietnam by a mortar shell. His Silver Star citation states that he had confronted and killed a North Vietnamese sniper in order to reach a hilltop from which he could direct artillery fire. There is nothing in the citation of his having other plans.
   
   In her commentary, juxtaposed among the letters, Sweet-Hurd does not disguise
   her anti-war sentiments. But they come across as neither insistent nor intrusive. They are a crying out for comprehension, and they are a needed perspective, a simple wondering at what Donn himself might have made of the Vietnam outcome and of his own "ultimate sacrifice."
   
   In the book's "Post-Mortem", the author makes her point with quiet subtlety.
   Without comment, she lists the official telegrams and citations received from
   the Army. They commemorate a hero, the military laying claim to her brother's memory. To the reader, who has come to know Donn Sweet through his own words, his kid sister's appeal proves successful on at least one score: the citations seem to be placed where they properly belong -- in the appendix.



5. My review starts with a warning to readers. Once you pick up the book, you will find it hard to put down. Long after you do read it, you will find yourself still connected to the young lieutenant and his world.
   
   The book is a combination of letters from Donn, who is stationed in Vietnam,to his mother and the reflections of his sister as she reads the letters again thirty years later. Like war itself, the book contains jarring juxtapositions. The abstract and the specific, the important and the trivial, the terrifying and the hilarious are side by side. Donn worried about the beloved car he had warily left in the care of his family, joked about his mother's weight, and relayed the brutality and dangers of war in a careful and powerful way.
   
   Another dimension of the book is his sister's growing awareness of her brother and how he adapted to war. Her teenage vision of him was incomplete, and the matured vision she reveals as she reads his letters again is moving and truthful.
   
   I know many will read the book and say they learned a lot about the realities of war, and you will, but the book is about more than war. The book is about love and the strong bonds of family.