Ricochet is trying to come up with a Book List, Teen Edition. Ursula Hennessey explains one problem she had:
For starters, I wonder if I’m the only dolt on here who had the following problem: I was asked to read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before I knew anything about slavery, Animal Farm without grasping the most basic forms of government, TheScarlet Letter without really “getting” adultery, and Romeo and Juliet with only a modicum of understanding of my own English, much less that from 400 years earlier.
Then she poses the question:
What are 5-10 books we should expect middle and high school students to 1) understand, 2) learn some useful history from, and 3) learn a life lesson from?
This impressive first novel is part coming of age story and part spy story, with a primer on 20th century European history thrown in. History at the most personal, small-picture level. It’s also about redemption, second chances, and what home means.
Private investigator David Spandau, an ex-stuntman familiar with the ins and outs of Hollywood—a smart, tough, and wickedly funny observer of la vie L.A.—finds his patience almost sapped when he’s hired to protect actor Bobby Dye from a blackmailing scheme gone wrong. Dye—young, brash, and on the verge of becoming a major star—has been set up by gangster Richie Stella, a nightclub owner and drug dealer with dreams of becoming a Hollywood producer. And he has a movie perfect for Dye. Problem is, it’s the worst script anyone’s ever read. But Richie is not easy to say no to, and when he retaliates, the game becomes deadly for more than a few of its players.
Charged with the elements of all great L.A. noir&crackling dialogue, fast-paced plot, and seedy, jaded characters—Loser’s Town is a deftly written thriller and a gruesomely hilarious depiction of what goes on beneath those white letters on the mountainside.
I don’t know about any of you, but I find myself reading military history books on various time periods. I have many interests in military history. One of my favorite topics is the Vietnam War. I just read the second of four books that I recently received on Vietnam. This most recent book, entitled Road of 10,000 Pains: The Destruction of the 2nd NVA Division by the U.S. Marines, 1967by Otto J. Lehrack, is an oral history of a series of battles that occurred in the Que Son Valley.
The Que Son Valley is located southwest of Da Nang. The Valley was important to the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) because it linked the western and eastern portions of South Vietnam and it was fertile area for rice production. It fell under the jurisdiction of the I Corps Tactical Zone of South Vietnam. From April to September of 1967, in an attempt to deny the Valley to the enemy, the Fifth Marine Regiment battled the 2nd NVA Division in a series of battles that cost the Marines more than 900 killed and thousands wounded. The Marines in return killed and wounded thousands of NVA soldiers and generally knocked the NVA division out of the war for a few months.
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Private investigator David Spandau, an ex-stuntman familiar with the ins and outs of Hollywood—a smart, tough, and wickedly funny observer of la vie L.A.—finds his patience almost sapped when he’s hired to protect actor Bobby Dye from a blackmailing scheme gone wrong. Dye—young, brash, and on the verge of becoming a major star—has been set up by gangster Richie Stella, a nightclub owner and drug dealer with dreams of becoming a Hollywood producer. And he has a movie perfect for Dye. Problem is, it’s the worst script anyone’s ever read. But Richie is not easy to say no to, and when he retaliates, the game becomes deadly for more than a few of its players.
