Japan 1945: From Operation Downfall to Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Clayton K.S. Chun is another excellent book in Osprey’s “Campaign” Series.   Chun examines the final campaigns of World War II in the Pacific as the Allies rolled back the Japanese.  Chun also looks at of Operation Downfall (the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands).   Chun explains why Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed rather than implementing Operation Downfall.

Chun does an excellent job of summarizing a very complex network of decisions made by President Harry Truman and the Allied military leaders.  In addition to the immense casualties that the Allies could incur in an invasion, the Americans and their British allies were wary of Soviet intentions with regards to the occupation of Japanese territory - there were already strains in American/British relations with the Soviets in Europe.

The book is beautifully illustrated by John White, including detailed diagrams of the atomic bombs and the bombing runs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In addition, Chun includes maps of the original invasion plans of Japan.
In short, this is an excellent analysis of the decisions and operations leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I am always on the lookout for interesting reading when the family visits Half-Price Books.  And given my ever-growing TBR pile, most often shorter works. With that in mind, I picked up: The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin at recently.  I thought it might be a good story to read to my daughter.  Plus, I have always loved dragon stories; and I figured this would be an easy way to introduce myself to the writing of George R.R. Martin.

Last night I needed some bedside reading but didn’t feel up to starting some of the non-fiction that is next in the pile.  So I grabbed this children’s story and read it in one sitting.

It turned out to be a rather simple story, but a creative and entertaining one.  Here is the plot summary from School Library Journal:

Seven-year-old Adara was born during the coldest chill of the coldest year ever, a chill that killed her mother during the girl’s birth. Ever since then, she has been a remote and chilly child, living for winter when the ice lizards come out and forming a bond with a mysterious ice dragon. When war comes and dragon-riding invaders threaten her home and family, the ice dragon helps her to thwart them, leading to its own demise.

The writing is simple like the story, but it has the sort of depth well written stories always seem to have: the sense that there is a great deal more to the world that the author isn’t sharing.  The medieval world that makes up the setting is recognizable but just mysterious enough.  Dragon’s as battle vehicles are not unique obviously, but the ice dragon with a connection to the weather is a unique hook.  The characters are not well developed but Adara’s past, and the resulting conflict with her family, adds enough tension and suspense that the minimalist storyline nevertheless pulls you forward.

All in all, I enjoyed The Ice Dragon.  It has the feel of a legend passed down through the oral tradition - simple but poetic and touched by both beauty and tragedy.  It is a quick sketch from a author who normally deals in the epic format.

It piqued my interst enough that I plan to read Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

Barnes and Noble video with the author below. Read the rest of this entry »

I used to be one of those thorough types who always read a series in order and liked to read widely in an author’s work in order to judge their latest book.  But these days I don’t have the time or energy for that sort of diligence.  There are so many books I want to read in so many different styles and genres I tend to just read whatever book grabs my attention at the moment.  Not very disciplined I know, but there it is.

I bring this up because in times past I would have read the first two books before picking up the latest H. Terrell Griffin Matt Royal mystery Blood Island.  But I didn’t and so I can’t really comment on the series or any backstory I might have missed.  But luckily the book functions as a stand alone story.

Enough discursive introduction then, what about the book?  It was an entertaining mystery/action story with some unique plot lines.

The central character is obviously Matt Royal a semi-retired trial lawyer living in Longboat Key, Florida. Royals high pressure legal career burned him out and cost him his marriage, but he ended up with enough money to live in Longboat and do pro-bono legal and investigative work.  He is also an ex-special forces Vietnam veteran.

Like so many mysteries the story kicks of with a dead body.  This one found in local bird sanctuary.  Royal doesn’t think much of it at first, but when his ex-wife Laura turns to him for help in find her step-daughter, Peggy, things get complicated.  Soon Laura is missing too, the violence escalates and the body count grows.  With far too many unexplained coincidences Royal finds himself in the center of a dangerous plot.

FYI, what follows includes plot spoilers for those of you who don’t want to read those sort of things.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cover via Amazon

In The University Bookman Gerald J. Russello reviews two books I want to read: Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s by Bruce J. Schulman and Julian E. Zelizer, eds. and A Conservative History of the American Left by Daniel J. Flynn.

Russello argues that neither book quite captures the complexities involved.  Flynn first:

Flynn has done a significant amount of research, and the text is readable and lively, even if one would wish for more explicit connecting threads. The same ideas—common ownership of property, say, or free love, and odd juxtapositions of science and social criticism—occur throughout Western history. To merely lump them all on “the Left” is as helpful as a different farrago of ideas—monarchy, say, joined with capitalism, hierarchical social classes, and table manners—is when defining the Right. The problem is not that such dichotomies do not have explanatory power; it is that they do not explain enough. Even according to Flynn’s taxonomy, the connections among these various radicals are unclear. The Puritans may have opposed free enterprise, but no one could say they opposed religion or the family. Similarly, one can find in Washington or New York many Republican stalwarts defending free trade, but whose devotion to traditional values of the kind Flynn wants associated with the Right leave something to be desired.

But Rightward Bound even more so:

By and large, however, the contributors are not really up to the task of explaining the Right. They stick too closely to the academic formula, where conservatism is somehow not an authentic cultural position for people who wish to preserve their traditions, but an ideological construct forced upon a supine electorate that is otherwise liberal except when manipulated by well-financed corporate cadres. The collection ignores the bigger stories of those years: why conservatism could not stop the leftist onslaught of the 1970s and later. Despite ferocious conservative opposition in the years following the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in 1973, which legalized abortion, the decision still remains the law of the land. Where once mildly controversial television programs and movies would have spurred protest, young men and women from the South and Midwest (traditionally the most conservative parts of the nation) now compete on crass reality programs. What was it about the conservative strategies of the 1970s that, from the point of view of the cultural concerns that motivated conservatives to enter politics in the first place, have been largely failures?

Given Russello’s review, I think I will look to read A Conservative History of the American Left but avoid Rightward Bound for now.

Ever have the feeling that you are simply not qualified to offer an opinion on a book you have read?  For a book blogger I have this feeling more often than I would like.  But I feel particularly that way about Maxim Biller’s Love Today: Stories.

I am not that knowledgeable about short stories - not my favorite from - and I knew nothing about Biller to coming across this particular collection (his first in English).  I am also not all that plugged into the themes and or subject BIller focuses on: Germany, being Jewish, sex/relationships, etc.

So I thought it might be interesting to offer some quotes from the wildly differing reviews the book has received so far.

First up, Joshua Cohen he no like:

Though he’ll never be as famous here as he is in Germany, the following should be said: Maxim Biller is a bad writer. One wonders which is more incompetent, his prose or his soul. Blurb that on the billboards. Broadcast at will.

And that is just the first paragraph!  He goes on:

When one is a budget Raymond Carver, it’s probably better to slip from the bed at midnight and leave minimalism behind. Biller has cuckolded Carver’s stripped prose, as well as his subject — the impossibility of men and women getting along — and has mixed two other ingredients into this lightest of cocktails (Biller mixes metaphors, too, when he doesn’t altogether forget them): exaggerated Jewish pride, which comes from living in a Germany so rapidly changed, and the culture of “emo,” which can be defined as a wounded but willed innocence, whether lazy or scared, and is too often a capitulation to counterforce, a refusal to recognize the difficulties of love.

Francine Prose had a different take:

Set mainly in Germany and the Czech Republic, with side trips to Tel Aviv, France, and New York, these wry, elliptical narratives chart the passions and the discontents of men and women who vanish from each other’s lives and reappear without notice, and whom Biller often catches at the moment of confronting the mystery of what keeps them together, or what has driven them apart … Deceptively transparent, Biller’s brief, gossamer fictions may remind you of narrative poems in their ability to simultaneously elude and haunt you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Book cover via Amazon

On of the millions of rather famous writers who I had never quite got around to reading was Ian McEwan.  But when I saw his slim novel/novella On Chesil Beach for sale at a local library for a dollar I couldn’t resist.  And its very slimness enticed me to go ahead and read it this past week.  It turned out to be a little gem of a book; a skillful and multilayered work despite its brevity.

With a book this short there is not much point in long plot explanations.  The story centers on the 1962 honeymoon night of Edward and Florence.  Edward’s desire for the consummation of the marriage is at nearly unhealthy levels.  Florence occupies the opposite end of the spectrum: she views the impending act with horror and disgust and would give nearly anything to avoid it.  As the tension of this builds and the night unfolds, McEwan fills in the background of how the couple came to this point.

This much noted quote captures both McEwan’s skill and a critical element of the story:

And what stood in their way? Their personalities and pasts, their ignorance and fear, timidity, squeamishness, lack of entitlement or experience or easy manners, then the tail end of a religious prohibition, their Englishness and class, and history itself. Nothing much at all.

Although McEwan handles what might be called the psychology and sociology of sex very well, the book isn’t just about the hidden dangers of two virgins approaching sex for the first time on their wedding night in early 1960’s England.  It is about the unique period post-war where old mores and traditions were still in place even as the future holds radical changes.  It is about how one’s upbringing, personality, culture, and history impacts their perception, expectations, and relationships in a myriad of ways.  It is about how seemingly small decisions can reverberate through our lives in unexpected ways.  It is a novel of manners, a comedy of errors, and a horror story all at once.  It is about all of this and more.

McEwan offers pleasure for both those who like to explore psychological realism and for those who like to enjoy carefully crafted sentences.  And given its brevity its rewards easily outweigh the time required to read it.

Some interesting quotes from other reviews below: Read the rest of this entry »

The more I read about the Iraq War, the more I am interested in it. For whatever reason (maybe the extreme differences of opinion of how the war is going between the media and the American troops on the ground), the war and its participants fascinate me. As a result of this fascination, I like to read accounts from all combat perspectives – Marines in Fallujah, Airborne in Baghdad, and so forth. Thus, when I saw The Fighting 69th by Sean Michael Flynn, I was intrigued.

The book chronicles the exploits of the famed infantry regiment from New York City – its fighting pedigree goes back to the Civil War as part of the famous Irish Brigade – from the September 11th attacks through their deployment in Iraq. Flynn writes from personal experience because he was an officer with the unit during the time period covered in the book.

Flynn does an excellent job of taking you through the process of refining the unit from one that could barely discipline itself into one that could effectively defend itself in Iraq. In Flynn’s own words, the Fighting 69th was one of the worst National Guard infantry units in the country before the September 11th attacks– it was poorly equipped, led, and staffed. Although he hammers home a little too much about how poor the unit is in performance and equipment, you get the point that the unit had almost reached a point of no return before the terrorist attacks.

Despite the lack of adequate equipment and training, Flynn explains that the unit does surprisingly well in Iraq. The unit loses fourteen men to IEDs, but they continue to stay focused and complete their mission. In fact, as a result of their performance, the road from Baghdad Airport to the Green Zone – once dubbed the most dangerous road in the world – becomes safe to drive on without excessive speeding.

Flynn captures the raw emotions that the men feel when they suffer their first casualties and how Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Slack, the 69th commander, keeps them from going over the deep end. Because of Slack’s leadership, the unit becomes an effective fighting force. In addition, the men grow to respect their leader and bond as a unit.

Based upon the experience of the Fighting 69th (and I would not be surprised of other National Guard combat units that are called to active service), it is very clear that our country needs to put more effort and money into training the National Guard for combat operations if we are to continue to call upon them to reinforce the active units.

I have to admit my interest in the novel Captives by Todd Hasak-Lowy had a lot to do with a desire to see how what has become known as Bush Derangement Syndrome might get played out in a fictional work.

Let’s avoid for now, the discussion of whether BDS is an actual phenomenon or simply a creation of the fevered minds of right-wingers.  Put aside the author’s perspective, the emotions and opinions are certainly out there and an active part of culture and politics.  The question was: could someone take this issue/concept and make something intelligent of it.

To set the story up, and give you a sense what prompted these thoughts, here is the publishers description:

A sniper is taking down suits and politicians—in Daniel Bloom’s head.

Bloom is the kind of guy who ends most social gatherings with an alternately raging and despairing conversation about The State of the World. And recently things have taken a turn for the worse. His marriage is on the rocks, his teenage son is becoming increasingly unknowable, and his sense of hopeless impotence has reached a stage of spiritual crisis that’s no longer a matter of vapid dinner-party conversation.

So he decamps to his home office to work on his fifteenth screenplay, this time about a federal agent and a nameless assassin. The assassin is a sniper who targets the power elite: corporate chiefs who defraud their employees of billions of dollars in pensions, and political flacks who’ve rigged the system in their own favor. Only the federal agent isn’t sure he wants to capture the sniper.

Soon Bloom realizes that his screenplay hits too close to home: He really does want these people dead, so much so that this revenge fantasy takes over his life, sending him in search of salvation in an outrageous mentor, a possibly dangerous foreign country, and, finally, his very own backyard.

Seemed like appropriate reading material in these election obsessed days.

So how would I answer the above question having read the book?  Hmm, that is a tough one to call.  Bloom’s ideas, opinions, and feelings about the state of the world are, from my perspective, overly pessimistic and yet incredibly naive while tinged with a level of unhealthy obsession and narrow mindedness - just like BDS in the real world. And the screenplay at some point becomes almost moot except as an initial plot device.

Nevertheless, Hasak-Lowy uses this concept - a movie about killing off powerful bad guys that treats this violence as a potentially good thing - as an effective hook to pull the reader in.  The first third of the book is interesting no matter your political philosophy.  But this promising story line and Hasak-Lowy’s at times skillful writing never quite overcome the mess that is the middle of the book.

More below. Read the rest of this entry »

Few sports fans would argue that we needed yet another book about the “Ten Year War” - the intense rivalry between the University of Michigan and Ohio State football teams and their iconic coaches Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler.  The subject has been covered voluminously in books, magazines, newspapers, and videos (I have reviewed a few myself).

So I have to credit Michael Rosenberg for coming up with a new angle to approach this classic subject.  His book, War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest, uses the backdrop of the protest movement in the era of Vietnam and Watergate to situate this sports rivalry within the culture and history of the time.

This allows him to portray the players and coaches as human beings with opinions and emotions beyond the football field while reminding the reader that the university, and the surrounding community, obviously had to deal with a lot more than just the success of the football team.

But while this background is interesting - the different levels of political agitation on the Ohio State versus Michigan campus for example - what really makes the book shine is Rosenberg’s portrait of Woody Hayes.

By placing Hayes in this historical context and by connecting his work as a coach with his unique personality and background - his inspirations, dreams and deep seated beliefs - Rosenberg captures Hayes as a multidimensional person rather than simply as an icon or caricature.

Read the rest of this entry »

Alex Kershaw has done it again – he has written another fine non-fiction book that reads like a novel. His latest book, Escape from the Deep, tells the story of one of the most famous submarine patrols of World War II – the attack of the U.S.S. Tang in the Formosa Strait in September and October of 1944.

The book basically describes the final patrol of the U.S.S. Tang and how its crew dealt with a submariner’s worst fear – being alive in a submarine that has sunk to the bottom of the sea. The submarine was on its fifth patrol in the mine-infested waters of the Formosa Strait and its captain, Commander Richard O’Kane, was one of the most aggressive submarine commanders in the U.S. Navy. This aggressiveness pays off with the sinking of thirteen ships – one of the most destructive patrols during the war. However, the submarine’s last torpedo boomerangs back to the submarine and sinks it. Close to half of the crew survived the initial blast that sunk the submarine, but only nine survive the whole ordeal (five escaped from the sunken submarine and four others escaped before it sunk). The men then endured torture and captivity as POWs.

Kershaw has a unique knack for telling a true story in a novel- like fashion (similar to his previous books entitled The Bedford Boys, The Few, and Longest Winter). He brings the reader into the unique world of submarine warfare and the lives of the Tang’s crew. Kershaw’s account of the crew’s plight in the sunken submarine is especially gripping – you sense the fear and eventual resignation of most of the men as they realize that most of them will die 150 feet below the surface, but he also captures the intense desire of others to live.

Kershaw does not end the book with the release of the men as POWs, but he explains what the survivors did after the war. Some were able to fight their survivor’s guilt and others unfortunately were not. Kershaw also details the various medals and awards the crew were awarded (some posthumously) after the war, including the submarine’s second Presidential Unit Citation – becoming one of only three U.S. Navy vessels ever to receive that honor twice.

In addition to an excellent story, the book includes a map of the Tang’s last patrol, 16 pages of black and white photographs, and a side view diagram of the submarine (a helpful resource for when Kershaw discusses where the crew was when the submarine sunk). The book is a page-turner at 216 pages.

This book is an excellent tribute to the courage and service of the submariners of the U.S.S. Tang who gave everything, in most cases their lives, to their country.