Archive for July, 2010

July 19th, 2010

Road of 10,000 Pains: The Destruction of the 2nd NVA Division by the U.S. Marines, 1967 by Otto J. Lehrack

by Jeff Grim

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.

read more »

CategoryReviews | Comment1 Comment »

July 15th, 2010

In the Mail: Angel of Death Row

by Kevin Holtsberry

Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer by Andrea D. Lyon

Kirkus Reviews

Courtroom tales from a DePaul University law professor passionately committed to defending those accused of capital crimes. Since her first job as a public defender in the mid-’70s, Lyon has tried more than 130 murder cases, all of which demonstrate “the ways in which individuals and institutions can go horribly astray, but . . . also reveal what remains human and noble in the midst of such waste.” Of the 19 cases that went to the penalty phase, in which the judge or jury decides whether to execute the defendant, Lyon has won all 19. She’s been fired by a woman on trial for her second murder, who many years earlier had smothered her infant daughter-”I sent Jenny to heaven to protect her”-and was now “volunteering” for the death penalty, insisting that all appeals be dropped. Lyon’s characteristic refusal to go along, her insistence that the “defense attorney’s job is not to help deliver the poison,” begins to answer the question she’s faced throughout her career: “How can you defend those people?” In a criminal-justice system that overwhelmingly favors the prosecution and confers enormous advantages according to wealth, race and social status, a rigorous defense, particularly in capital cases, is essential if we hope to entertain any pretense about justice. However, it takes an unusually dedicated, special kind of person to handle these psychologically and emotionally draining cases. Freely detailing her personal life, Lyon explains how she came to this career, tells some amusing/appalling tales about the prejudice she faced early on as a female attorney, stresses the importance of thorough investigation and speaks briefly about her midlife work as an appellate attorney and law-schoolprofessor. Without minimizing the horror of her clients’ crimes, the author humanizes each person and reveals the subtext beneath the legalities of any trial that often determines the outcome. Clear-eyed about her role-”In a battle between a witness and a defense lawyer, just assume the jury likes the witness more”-she delivers a strong argument against the wisdom of the death penalty, the sole punishment that forecloses the possibility of redemption. Riveting stories from a persuasive attorney.

CategoryIn The Mail | Comment1 Comment »

Tags:
July 14th, 2010

In the Mail: Scent of the Missing

by Kevin Holtsberry

Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson

Library Journal

Humans have long used dogs, with their remarkable scenting abilities, to find lost, injured, or dead people. However, recent tragedies and disasters—9/11, Hurricane Katrina—have brought search-and-rescue recovery to the forefront. Charleson introduces us to this world as she trains her dog Puzzle to work with Dallas’s elite Metro Area Rescue K9 unit. Interspersed with stories of such routine activities as housebreaking and walking on a leash are the hold-your-breath moments when the author describes actual rescue/recovery missions such as the shuttle Columbia explosion. VERDICT This memorable tribute to the dedication of these dog-handler teams is an essential read for dog lovers.

CategoryIn The Mail | CommentNo Comments »

Tags:
July 13th, 2010

Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War by Ted Morgan

by Jeff Grim
I recently finished reading Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War by Ted Morgan.  Morgan comprehensively examines the Battle of Dien Bien Phu from the fighting in the trenches to the diplomatic discussions (both public and private) at the Geneva Conference to bring the Indochina War to an end. 
 
As many people know, the Indochina War led to direct American involvement in South Vietnam in the Vietnam War.  Many people may not know how involved the United States was in the Indochina War – toward the end of the war the U.S. was paying for more than 80% of French war expenses.  In addition, during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the CIA contracted with the French government to allow CIA pilots to fly resupply missions for the besieged French.  The U.S. also had some advisers stationed in Saigon and Hanoi.  Morgan adroitly points out that President Eisenhower was willing to assist the French in defeating the Vietminh up to a point –  he was not willing to send in U.S. military aircraft or ground troops unless they were part of an international force. 
 
read more »

CategoryReviews | CommentNo Comments »

July 13th, 2010

Corydon & The Island of Monsters by Tobias Druitt

by Kevin Holtsberry

Corydon and the Island of Monsters (Corydon Trilogy) is another young adult book I picked up in the discount section of Half-Price Books. It too deals with mythology and offers a non-traditional take (are you noticing a pattern?).

Here is the synopsis courtesy of the publisher:

A young shepherd, Corydon, is driven out of his village because of his unusual appearance and then captured and put on display as a monster. Alongside him in the traveling freak show are Medusa, the Minotaur, the Sphinx, and other classical beasts. When Corydon helps these monsters to escape their cages, they scatter to seek peace and solitude away from prying eyes. But then an army of “heroes” arrives hoping to win glory by killing the monsters, and Corydon must unite these unloved and unlikely allies to fight for their survival and for their island home.

It caught my attention for the above reasons, but also because Tobias Druitt is the pen name of a mother and son team – the mother Oxford Don and her still in school son.  It turned out to be an interesting twist on the Greek Myths – the monsters are the good guys. It pits the Olympian gods against the Chthonic gods.

The story is a little uneven in parts – mostly because it seems unsure of what type of story it is – a serious or semi-comic reworking of Greek mythology in a YA fantasy. But what saves it is the character of Corydon and his interaction with the monsters.

Corydon is the type of character you root for: sincere, loyal, generous, and brave despite his rough life and seeming inability to fit into normal society. There is a certain amount of cheesiness in the “all the misfits unite to defend themselves” story but for the most part it works.

While it isn’t deep literature the characters are interesting. The monsters become more than just symbols but characters with personalities and feelings. And the twist on the normal portrayal of the heros and Olympians proved interesting.

All in all an uneven but imaginative and entertaining first book in this trilogy. It will be interesting to see how the series develops.

CategoryReviews | CommentNo Comments »

Tags:
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »