The Shattered Lens by Jonathan Alpeyrie and Stash Luczkin (Memoir, October 2017). While still a somewhat young man, Alpeyrie was already an experienced photographer specializing in documenting various wars around the world when, in 2013 he was kidnapped by a rebel faction in Syria. In fact it was his third trip inside that world-torn country when […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Shattered Lens"The Mysterious Private Thompson by Laura Leedy Gansler (Civil War History, 2017). This true story is a carefully researched and capably written book from the author of an earlier book acclaimed by the LA Times as a Best book of 2002. It’s the latest (and the most even-handed) effort to tell the life of Sarah Emma Edmonds, the […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Mysterious Private Thompson"The Great Rescue by Peter Hernon (War History, 2017). This book ably tells of an important but today little-known facet of America’s involvement in the First World War. When the massive struggle broke out, a number of civilian German ships found themselves stranded in ports around the then-neutral United States. This included the nearly-new luxury ocean […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Great Rescue"No Middle Name by Lee Child (Crime/Adventure Story Collection, 2017). Lee Child’s extremely successful and prolific series of books about the tough, ruthless yet honorable (at least on his own particular terms) Jack Reacher are mostly novels. Very successful novels–exciting, uncompromising and damned cool. It’s made him a #1 Bestseller several times over. But Reacher (nobody […]
Read more "REVIEWED: No Middle Name"The Right Side by Spencer Quinn. (Contemporary Novel, 2017). A strong and hauntingly memorable novel about a driven, wounded soul who finds the one companion she can believe in (and relate too) in a previously abused dog. And oh, yes–it’s not sentimental, or anything close to it! LeAnn Hogan went to Afghanistan whole and determined to […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Right Side"Be Free Or Die by Cate Lineberry (Nonfiction/Civil War History, 2017). About a year into America’s Civil War, a enslaved man named Robert Smalls made an epic break for freedom from that hotbed of succession, Charleston, South Carolina. A skilled boatman and born leader, he was by this time the de facto pilot of a steamer […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Be Free Or Die"The Flame Bearer by Bernard Cornwell (Historical/Adventure Novel, 2016). Set in the year 917 AD, this one is the latest in a series of historical adventure novels from one of the field’s best-known and most successful authors. These “Saxon Tales” deal with the time when various Saxon Kingdoms were in the process of recapturing what would eventually […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Flame Bearer"The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury. (Novel, 2005). This 526-page adventure epic followed close on the heels of The Da Vinci Code and proved a bestseller in its own right. I wouldn’t quite call it a rip-off of Brown’s work, but there are conspicuous similarities: a seemingly mismatched pair of modern-day adventurers seek the truth behind a […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Last Templar"The Swamp Fox by John Oller (Historical Biography, 2016). This is a refreshingly honest and well-written account of a genuine American hero. It’s probably a (moderate) exaggeration to claim that Francis Marion “saved the American Revolution.” But the fact that he was a important and outstanding figure in the War of Independence is beyond debate. A smart, […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Swamp Fox"The Commodore by P.T. Deutermann. (Historical/War Novel, 2016). It’s 1942 and the US Navy is still frantically rebuilding its Pacific Fleet, less than a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For now, their Japanese opponents have the upper-hand with more experienced officers and crews, and from sheer numbers of major warships. And yet, America has […]
Read more "REVIEWED: The Commodore"
jimleeauthor 