The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Published in 2008 by Ballantine 

The Steel Wave is the second book in Shaara's World War II series and is a superior book to the first in almost every way. There is a lot more action (hundreds of pages) and it is intense. The political wrangling that Eisenhower had to endure and master is a theme in every book, but is strongest in this one. The title of the book comes from a comment that Rommel makes about the Allied invasion coming in like a wave of steel into France.

Rommel continues on as a major character throughout. It is interesting to note that he was correct to fear an Allied invasion of France (which most of the German high command poo-pooed) but picked the wrong place. Hitler picked the right place, although he doubted it would happen. It is also interesting to note that Rommel thought that D-Day was a feint and failed to respond correctly to it until it was too late. Rommel is still the most interesting "officer" character on either side - he knows that Germany will be ruined by the Nazis and that the Germans will lose the war but we get little sense that he was opposed to the Nazis for any reason other than that they will bring ruin to Germany. Still, the way Shaara deals with the last bits of Rommel's life is compelling reading.

Even more compelling is the way Shaara deals with the ground-level stories of the American soldiers during D-Day. This is riveting stuff - well told and compelling.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on November 6, 2010

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara.

No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Originally published in 2009.

No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II is the final book in Shaara’s World War II trilogy. It is very similar to the second book, which makes sense since it is a continuation of the same campaign. The Allies continue their quest to push across France and into Germany. Patton looms as a larger and larger character. The part of the noble German soldier, previously played by Rommel is filled by Karl Rudolf Gerd Von Rundstedt, so much so that the reader may not even miss the Rommel character at all.

The battle sequences are stirringly told. The “Battle of the Bulge” is told quite well from the point of view of three of the very few soldiers of the 106th  that made it through the battle without being killed or captured (this was Kurt Vonnegut’s unit, by the way, but he does not appear in the book).

Eisenhower at Ohrdruf

 Shaara spends a lot of time in the book among the inner circle of Hitler’s loyal command, with people like Albert Speer and Martin Bormann. It is an interesting choice to do so, but I would have preferred that he had not done it. It would have been even more interesting to have looked at the common foot soldier that continued to fight after the war was completely lost and seen what their motivations were (perhaps this interest comes from a college class I had more than 20 years ago where we met a man who was just that – a common foot soldier who abandoned the Eastern Front and marched across Austria and Germany to surrender to American troops).


Shaara’s tale of the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp was shocking, visceral and powerful. Very well done.

I would rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara.

Reviewed on November 6, 2010.

Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders by Darrell Ankarlo

A thorough discussion of the topic, from a stop-the-bleeding perspective

Published in 2010 by Thomas Nelson.

Mark Twain once noted that, "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it. I was reminded of this quote while reading Darrell Ankarlo's Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America's Failure to Control Its Borders. Everyone has an opinion about illegal immigration, but precious few people have even seen the border, let alone know anything about the high cost of illegal immigration, the physical danger it creates, how it is done and the long-term damage it does to the United States.

This is an eye-opening, scary look at the world of illegal immigrants - the dangers of crossing the border, the coyotes who guide them across, the drug gangs, and the U.S. Border Patrol. The first half of the  book is a powerful and consuming introduction to how immigrants cross the border, how the Border Patrol pursues its policy of "catch and release" and the extreme poverty of parts of Mexico that induces so many to try to come to El Norte.

Ankarlo is not anti-Mexican or anti-Hispanic. He is anti-illegal immigrant. He correctly notes that several of the 9/11 hijackers were a different kind of illegal alien - the kind that comes on a work or student visa (or something of that nature) and just does not leave. Ankarlo claims that 40% of all illegal aliens are that type.

Darrell Ankarlo

The first half of the book is just riveting, which overcomes the rat-a-tat writing style. The second half bogs down in too many statistics interspersed with long word-for-word interviews with immigration experts and both of Arizona's senators, John Kyl and John McCain. Neither Kyl nor McCain have much to say and the point of the interviews was to show that the whole topic is being dodged by politicians, I suppose. Everyone knows that already - most are too scared of being called "racist" or "nativist", the rest think it's good for business to have a steady stream of cheap labor.

True life tales, first-hand experiences and an eye onto a world unknown by most of us make the book worth your time to read, no matter your views on immigration. Combine this book with Geraldo Rivera's The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity and you might get a fairly balanced view of the issue (even though Geraldo's book is not nearly as well-researched or thought-out)

Note: this book appears to be a re-working of another Ankarlo book: Another Man's Sombrero: A Conservative Broadcaster's Undercover Journey Across the Mexican Border.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Illegals.

Reviewed on November 5, 2010.

Note: More than 14 years later and I have to note that the politics of Trump/MAGA has really skewed all discussion on this topic. There is no discussion of people coming legally on a work or student visa and then staying illegally are about 40% of the illegal immigrants. If you listened to MAGA you'd think they were all in immigrant caravans. I don't know if I still agree with this author's points as much as I did before (probably not), but at least there is some nuance. We've lost nuance in our politics.
DWD. January 15, 2025.

Chameleon: The March Madness Murders by Matthew J. O'Brien

Strong start for a first novel

Published in 1997.

This surprisingly strong first novel concerns a group of 5 high school friends who are being killed off nearly 20 years after graduation. Four members of this group are extremely successful (Congressman, Olympic medal winner, Big-time college basketball coach, billionaire entrepreneur) and the FBI believes the unsuccessful one is killing his former buddies in a fit of jealous, psychotic cold-blooded, calculating rage.

The story mostly concerns the last two surviving friends (coach and billionaire) and the extraordinary steps the FBI takes to protect them while the coach's team is progressing through the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament field. If you like basketball, then the well-described basketball action is a nice addition to the mystery.

Most of the action is set in and around the fictional University of Northern Indiana, which is located in West Lafayette, Indiana. For those familiar with Indiana, you know that that is the home for Purdue University. I have no idea why he didn't make the coach character Purdue's coach, especially when he refers to former Purdue standout Glenn Robinson in one of the scenes.

The story works pretty well, although at times the conversations get a bit repetitive and the romance blossoms from nothing into a tight bond way too quickly. But, as a mystery goes, it was above average. I was fooled until I was supposed to know the truth, although I think the author tells us too soon - he could've kept the truth hidden a bit longer and made the story that much better.
 
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Chameleon: The March Madness Murders by Matthew J. O'Brien.
 
Reviewed on February 10, 2005.

Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman

Fascinating.

Published in 2000 by University of California Press.

The title of Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? pretty much tells it all - it is an academic exploration into the people who deny the Holocaust ever happened and their motivations for making this claim.

Of course, you may be wondering why someone would make a claim like this, despite the film footage of newly-liberated camps, eyewitness testimony from both victims and perpetrators, the population records that show that, indeed, some 6 million Jews did not survive World War II and damning circumstantial evidence from Hitler and members of his inner circle that alludes to a "Final Solution" to the "Jewish problem".

Well, the deniers are a motley lot. Some are educated and well-spoken and others are not. Some feel that Germany has become a martyred nation to the cause of eradicating racism. Others are pro-fascist in politics and want to get rid of the taint that Nazi-ism gives to fascism, so they try to exonerate the Nazis.


Auschwitz's infamous "Work sets you free" sign

Others are just plain anti-Semites and sincerely believe the Jews somehow "cooked up" the population figures or even somehow managed to conspire to kill off 6 million of their own people in order to create sympathy for the creation of a Jewish country, namely, modern-day Israel.

It was a fascinating book, a little deep at the beginning and the end with the different theories on how to approach history, but the middle was quite informative. 
 
I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Denying History.
 
Reviewed on February 11, 2005.

Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals (audiobook) by Stephen E. Ambrose

An Interesting Study of Male Friendship


Published in 2001 by Recorded Books.
4 compact discs
4.5 hours
read by Nelson Runger

Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals is an exploration into male friendship by renowned historian and author Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002).

He looks into different kinds of friendship including friendship between brothers, friendship among schoolmates (especially college), friends from among his students, friendship among men who have been in combat together, friendship as young men, friendship as old men and the friendship that can develop between a father and son once his son is an adult.

Stephen E. Ambrose
(1936-2002)

Specific friendships studied include:

-The three Ambrose brothers;

-Dwight and Milton Eisenhower;

-The Custer Brothers, who all died at Little Big Horn;

-Crazy Horse and He-Dog;

-Eisenhower and Patton - two very different men who respected and valued their differences;

-Nixon as the friendless man (talented, driven but no skill at being himself and making friends);

-Ambrose's best friend;

-Lewis and Clark (perhaps the most poignant tale of the bunch);

-The men of Easy Company from his book Band of Brothers (perhaps the most touching of the book was a comment that is highlighted in HBO's serialized version of Band of Brothers - a veteran of Easy Company is asked by his grandson, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" "No. I served in a company of heroes.")

-Men who fought against each other but meet and become friends decades after the war;

-Ambrose and his father.

Fans of Ambrose will note that there is absolutely no new ground covered in this book - all of the people in this book are mentioned in other books, with the possible exception of his family stories. However, this is an interesting and useful analysis by a veteran historian who has finally completed enough studying to observe some basic characteristics of human nature.

I wonder why Ambrose did not mention his own sons when discussing the friendships between sons and fathers.

Ambrose comments on the beauty of friendship between old men - no rivalry, nothing but support and love. He notes that he can't wait until he is old and can enjoy such friendships. Sadly, Ambrose died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 66.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Comrades: Brothers, Fathers, Heroes, Sons, Pals by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Reviewed October 23, 2010.

Slaughterhouse Five (audiobook) by Kurt Vonnegut

I recommend hearing it as an audiobook

Originally published in 1969 in book form.
Published by Dh Audio in 1985.
Read by Jose Ferrer.
Duration: 5 cassette tapes
Unabridged.

I could add to the volumes of literary criticism that fills the reviews of Slaughterhouse Five, but what's the point of that?

Rather, I will recommend that you hear the book as an audiobook - the book's a stream of consciousness, disjointed approach works very well on tape. The reader shifts from one scene to another as easily as Billy Pilgrim does. The version I heard was not the one available here. Mine was narrated by Jose Ferrer and he did a wonderful job. Too bad Ferrer has passed on.

So it goes.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Slaughterhouse Five. 

Kurt Vonnegut

Reviewed on February 3, 2005

Note: This book has been challenged multiple times over the last 50 years for sexual content, foul language and teaching principles contrary to the Bible. Amazingly, it has stayed on "banned books" lists for more than 50 years. At one point, it was referred to a prosecutor to see if the school was distributing pornography to students. The prosecutor said that it was "not in violation of criminal laws." See this site for more information.

Note: This book was put on book ban lists in Tennessee in multiple counties in 2025. The article has a searchable database because the list has more than 1,100 unique titles

To its credit, the Vonnegut Museum in Indianapolis has a history of sending free copies of Slaughterhouse-Five to students at schools where the book has been banned.