The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II by Judith M. Heimann

Originally Published in 2007

An odd and interesting bit of history from the Pacific Front in World War II

The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II  is a well-researched telling of the story of two sets of American fliers (one Army and one Navy) who were shot down over Borneo by the Japanese. The survivors end up living with the Dayaks, the famous headhunters of the highlands of Borneo.
Borneo was largely unmapped and unknown to the West. It was, and still is, one of the remotest locations on earth. Most of Borneo's interior is like the old line, "You can't get there from here." Well, you can if you jump out of an airplane.

The author, Judith Heimann
doing research in Borneo

The author, Heimann, does a good job of giving the reader a feel for the Dayak way of life, but the shortage of maps makes the story of the soldiers being moved from village to village for their protection a frustrating experience. At times, the story bogs down in a series of descriptions about a series of malarial infections, boils that need lancing and endless rice-based meals.

Don't let that stop you from reading this book, though. Any student of World War II should pick this one up just to learn one of the more interesting tales from a remote location in a truly world war.

A PBS documentary was also made with the same title based on the book.

I rate this book 4 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Airmen and the Headhunters.

Reviewed on August 11, 2009

Promised Land by Robert B. Parker

A pivotal moment in the history of the series and an artifact of the 1970s

Published by Random House Audio.
Read by Michael Prichard.
Duration: 5 hours, 27 minutes.
Unabridged.

Over the years I've read all of the Spenser novels, but since I do not have a photographic memory I'm going back and listening to them as audiobooks during my commute.

Promised Land is a pivotal moment in the series because this is the moment in which we meet Hawk - Spenser's erstwhile partner in anti-crime in so many books in the series. Hawk is in his full glory here - a bad man who kills, roughs people up, and intimidates, but still lives by his own code that Spenser somehow senses and respects.

It is also a pivotal moment because there is an incredible amount of conversational psychoanalysis throughout the book, a trait that most Spenser books feature (often to their detriment, in my opinion). Spenser's personality is discussed, male/female relationships, what it means to be a man or a woman, responsibility and more. Out of these discussions come the foundation for the ongoing relationship between Spenser and Susan Silverman that continues throughout the series. Sometimes this is interesting but towards the end I wearied of it and it hurt the flow of the book and my enjoyment of it.

Robert B. Parker

Promised Land is a wonderful artifact of the truly revolutionary nature of the 1970s (For years I've contended that the 1970s were more of a decade of change than the 1960s were). We meet revolutionaries who arm themselves to overthrow "phallic power", we see the changing nature of husband/wife relationships. 

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Promised Land by Robert B. Parker.

Reviewed on August 26, 2009.

Rizzo's War by Lou Manfredo

A different kind of hard-boiled cop story

Joe Rizzo is a detective in NYPD's 62nd Precinct. He is partnered with a young whiz kid newly minted detective and together they solve crimes, talk about crime and we learn how a determined detective can trade favors to skip bureaucratic steps.

Rizzo's War is, in a lot of ways, a non-traditional detective story. Usually, there is an overarching plot (the big crime, in a detective story) and lots of smaller crimes pepper the story as interesting filler. In this book, we get a lot of little crimes to introduce the characters and give the reader the feel for the environment. The actual "big" case doesn't occur until about halfway into the book.

But, that's okay. The characters are interesting. The environment is interesting. The cases are interesting. The book feels like it is an introduction to a series and I hope that it is. I'll look for more Rizzo books.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Rizzo's War by Lou Manfredo.

Reviewed on August 26, 2009.

Rain Gods: A Novel by James Lee Burke

A dark, wearisome and depressing novel

Published in 2009.

Crime novels come in all sorts of varieties and flavors. At one extreme are the slapstick Evanovich Stephanie Plum books. At the other end come moody and brooding novels like those that James Lee Burke produces. I have read several of his books and I know that they are not fun-loving romps, but the morose nature of this book takes the cake.


James Lee Burke

With the exception of two brief scenes Rain Gods: A Novel was relentless in its brooding tone. I found it wearisome. Every male character is burdened with evil deeds, obsesses over them and then acts out in self-destructive, often violent ways. All of the female lead characters offer wisdom, strength and guidance. There are literally more than a dozen bad guys and it seems that this desert Texas countryside is full of nothing but broken people, hookers, alcoholics, criminals and a couple of cops. Where are the regular people?

The book was just too much death, despair and regret for me.

A wearisome and disappointing read.

 

2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Rain Gods: A Novel by James Lee Burke.

 

Reviewed August 26, 2009

Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, But Some Actual Journalism (audiobook) by Dave Barry. Read by Dick Hill.

Very, very, very good.

Published by Brilliance Audio in 2003.
Duration: 5 hours, 55 minutes.
Read by Dick Hill

Unabridged.

Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, But Some Actual Journalism is a collection of Dave Barry's columns from the summer of 2000 through September of 2002. They are read expertly by veteran narrator Dick Hill. I usually hear Hill reading crime novels and the like but I was pleased to hear that he has expert comic timing and turns out to be a perfect narrator for Barry's offbeat sense of humor.

Veteran reader Dick Hill

Topics include:

*The 2000 Democrat and Republican political conventions;

*The 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games;

*The Census;

*Camping in a Wal-Mart parking lot;

*and the silly tips in Cosmo magazine on how women can drive men wild.

Dave ends with two long essays about 9/11. One was published on 9/12 and does a great job of summing up the raw feelings and shock of the time. The second essay is much longer - by far the longest of the book. It was published on the one year anniversary of 9/11. It is simply brilliant. It incorporates the Gettysburg Address, an interview with the coroner in charge of the Shanksville plane crash scene and details Barry noted during a visit to both Gettysburg and Shanksville.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Boogers Are My Beat.

Reviewed on September 12, 2010.

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Published in 2010.

For the first half of this book I found Justin Halpern's Sh*t My Dad Says to be a refreshing change of pace. Finally, a man who says what he thinks - no political scheming, no worrying about the consequences - this man just opens his mouth and says the first profanity-laced thing that pops into his head.

For example, from page 44: "I just want silence...Jesus, it doesn't mean I don't like you. It just means right now, I like silence more."

But, as the stories pile up and the sheer number of comments overwhelm the reader I started to feel there was a subtle, hidden subtext here - life with this man was and is difficult. Actually, it was not all that subtle in the chapter where Halpern's dad had to to be told that Halpern was "tweeting" his quotes to the whole world and had been making money off of the quotes and was going to publish a book about it. The level of concern expressed by his brothers when Halpern told them he had to break the news to their father was enough to make this veteran teacher concerned. If there was no real fear here, than Halpern needed to write this portion more clearly.

To be sure, he has his positive sides. In fact, at first the Dad is really refreshing in his candor but after a while it seems abusive. You don't have to tell everyone every thought you ever have about other people's habits, the dogs defecation routine,  food, Mrs. Dash and whatever other fool thing pops into your head.

Justin Halpern

A little candor - refreshing. Too much candor - well, no one wants to know all of their faults all of the time. Self-censorship, when well-placed, can be a blessing to everyone.

 

In a lot of ways, Halpern is no better than his dad - we are treated to 3 different tales of masturbation - one for the family dog,  two for him, including one where he describes how he fantasized about a girl he went on a trip with to Mexico. That must be a special memory for her now, huh? You did what while you thought about me?

 
I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Sh*t My Dad Says.

Reviewed on September 12, 2010.
 
 

Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle by Daniel Wallace, Pablo Hidalgo, Gus Lopez and Ryder Windham

Published in 2010 by DK Publishing

DK Publishing continues a trend of producing lavish coffee table books filled with page after page of montages of full color images. In this case, the topic is the Star Wars phenomenon.

Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle is a very large coffee table book - one inch thick, 10 inches wide and nearly a foot high.

This book could just as easily have been called "George Lucas Year by Year." Star Wars dominates Lucas's career like the Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris skyline. Perhaps, even more so.

Boba Fett and George Lucas

As the title states, the book is a visual timeline of George Lucas, the Star Wars franchise and the people and companies involved in its production and promotion. We see early handwritten notes about "Journal of the Whills" - one of the first drafts of Star Wars Episode IV. Later on, we see further updates, including the introduction of a character named Luke Starkiller who, of course, became Luke Skywalker in later revisions. We learn about Lucas's early life, his early films and his influences and a bit about the research he did to create the series.

Included in the timelines are other bits of news about movies, politics and space exploration. For example, on pages 34 & 35 we read about July through December 1974 which includes the first draft of the script for Episode IV, some very early drawings for the TIE Fighters, X-Wings and the Death Star, Nixon resigning as President, the birth of the actor that played Darth Maul in Episode I, early plastic models of the Y-Wing Fighters, the release of The Godfather: Part II (the director is a colleague and friend of Lucas), the production of the first script for another Lucas movie - The Radioland Murders and Christopher Lee's (Episodes II and III) role in a James Bond movie. Every picture has a detailed caption and the story goes on for page after page after page.

Luke Skywalker

It is a fascinating read. I particularly enjoyed the pictures and descriptions of the Star Wars dolls that I collected and nearly wore out as a child. There is also information on the different videogames, novels, radio dramas, fan magazines, board games, fan clubs, appearances on TV shows, the famed Star Wars Christmas Special, John Williams, the cartoon shows, the Lego sets and even the Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head toy.

Lavish, thorough, massive and entertaining - this promises to be a hit with any fan. A can't miss gift.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.


This book can be found on Amazon.com here:  Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle

Reviewed on September 4, 2010.