Fields of Fury: The American Civil War by James McPherson

A great introduction to the Civil War by a first-rate historian

Published in 2002

Pulitzer Prize winner James McPherson's foray into children's literature, Fields of Fury: The American Civil War is a beautiful, well-written book that fits the bill perfectly.

McPherson briefly covers all aspects of the conflict, from "Bleeding Kansas" to the difficulties in Reconstruction. As a Civil War buff (I have over 75 books and have read dozens more) I can think of no main topic he did not touch upon. In fact, I added a few stories to my repertoire for my classes.

Most topics are covered with a two page spread - text on the even pages and a full page photo, map or painting spread on the facing page. Also, with every topic there is a "Quick Facts" section.

A famous photo of an escaped
slave named Gordon. This is one
tough images I mention in the
review. The picture is entitled
"The Scourged Back"

McPherson's descriptions of the personalities, the battles and the general strategies of the war are first-rate. He also touches on such topics as how the war was financed, the role of women in the war, the difficulties faced at home by the families of the soldiers.

 The publisher recommends this book for 4th to 8th graders. I would have to say 5th-8th graders. There are some graphic images of the war, including famous, but still arresting, photos of African Americans digging up buried soldiers (with 6 skulls and a leg still wearing a boot and pants on a litter) for re-burial and a photo of an escaped slave showing his heavily scarred back courtesy of repeated whippings from his owner. Also, the text about the Battle of Shiloh mentions an eyewitness account of a man who was leaning against a tree with his bloated intestines piled up in his lap. I'm not against children learning the awful truth of war and slavery but I'd wait one more year before introducing those images to kids.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Fields of Fury: The American Civil War

Reviewed on June 16, 2009.

Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy, Book 1) by Cornelia Funke

ALA Notable Children’s Book Award Winner.

Winner of the Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature Award.

Published in 2003.

I saw the ads for the Inkheart movie and decided to read the book first because, as everyone knows, the book is almost always better than the movie.

Anyway, the Inkheart book in built upon a interesting premise - the people and characters from a fantasy novel come to life. 

I do not give the book 5 stars. The book is a dark piece of fiction - relentlessly so. The mood is nearly always somber and I found the book compelling but often depressing.

The plot is fairly simple and the bad men in the book do a lot more threatening than real evil, but they do evil things - mutilations, burning people out of their homes, kidnappings, blackmail, and so on.

I have no problem with books that depict that evil exists in the world. As C.S. Lewis noted:

"Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can't bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the...atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker." 

With all of that being said, you know the young people in your life. If scary stories cause bad dreams and the like, wait until they get to middle school for this one.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on June 16, 2009.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Inkheart (Inkheart Trilogy)

Last Reveille by David Morrell

A change of pace for Morrell

Originally Published in 1977.

David Morrell is one of my favorite authors. The only problem with being a Morrell fan is that he's not a big name author like King, Koontz or Grisham. You have to explain who he is to author book people and they usually get turned off when you mention one of the most famous characters in fiction: Rambo. Too bad because Morrell writes multiple genres - suspense, historical fiction, horror - and he does them well and he is definitely should be known more as the creator of the cartoonish image most people have of Rambo. Anyway, I'm slowly working my way through his older books and enjoying myself.

David Morrell

Last Reveille is Morrell's first foray into historical fiction. First published in 1977, the 1994 edition has an eight page introduction to the book that sets the book up quite well. He notes that it is similar to the John Wayne movie The Shootist in that there is an aging character that becomes a composite, a symbol of America's past (note that the book was nearly done when the movie came out).

The aging character is Miles Calender, a name designed to evoke his age and the distance he has traveled. The young soldier that is learning his ways is Prentice, a named taken from apprentice. They are involved in Blackjack Pershing's expedition into Mexico to try to capture Pancho Villa.

Is it good historical fiction?

Yeah. It seems solid to me. I am a history teacher but I do not claim to be an expert on Pancho Villa, Pershing or the military hardware of the time, but it sounded good.

Is it a good book?

While not Morrell's best, it is a good book, worthy of your time. Kind of like a western with some real nuggets of literature thrown in. There are themes, exploration of the male psyche (father figures, friendship, etc.) and gunfire. What's not to like?

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Last Reveille by David Morrell.

Reviewed on June 19, 2009.

Blackout (audiobook) by Connie Willis

Be prepared - this is only half the story

Published in 2010.
18 hours, 44 minutes
Read by Katherine Kellgren

Connie Willis continues her on again/off again time travel series with Blackout, a book about time travelling historians from mid 21st century Oxford who are visiting World War II England. Katherine Kellgren does a fantastic job of nailing the great variety of English accents and the one American accent as well as the male voices.

Time travel has become routine for these historians - they have teams to help prepare them for their jumps into the past, including clothing, paperwork and implants to help them with accents. They are also able to learn vast amounts of information by way of sleep learning, which can be helpful for memorizing such things as every location of a V-1 attack or what time all of the air raids happened during the Blitz. But, the routine of time travel belies a deeper problem - that of "slippage".  The trips back and forth are becoming less and less accurate. They used to be able to pinpoint the placement of historians down to the minute but now they can be off by hours, days and even weeks. Some have a theory that, despite assurances to the contrary, this is evidence that the historians are actually changing history bit by incremental bit.

St. Paul's Cathedral, rising above the smoke and flames 
of a firebomb attack on December 29, 1940. The 
adjacent neighborhoods burned but St. Paul's was saved. 
This photo became a symbol of London surviving 
these attacks.

Blackout is both science fiction and historical fiction, if one can do that. All of the main characters are historians from the future, but the great majority of the story is set in World War II England. There are 5 main plotlines. One features an historian working with evacuee children from London in the English countryside. Another features an historian who is sent to interview participants in the Dunkirk evacuation. A third historian is researching the Blitz - the German air raids on London during the Battle of Britain. There are two orphan stories about the V-1 Buzz Bomb attacks and Patton's in 1944 and Patton's Ghost Army in the D-Day invasion.

I called the last two "orphan stories" because they have no seeming connection with the rest of the story (except that one of the historians is in both 1940 and 1944). That is because Blackout is actually the first part of a single book that Willis had planned called All Clear. But the book became so long that it was split into two parts by her publisher. Willis makes it clear on her website that it should be considered one continuous book Blackout-All Clear. Well, that's great, but I have looked at the audiobook over and over again and I can find no reference to another book (All Clear) coming out, the fact that this is the first half of a single book or anything to indicate that Blackout is anything but a stand alone novel. Frankly, it never occurred to me that this 18 hour, 56 minute audiobook would only be the first half of a single novel. This is a pet peeve of mine - publishers not telling readers that the book is the first of a trilogy (or in this case, a duology) or is actually the book in the middle of a series of books. How hard it is to add that little bit of printing to a cover?

Connie Willis

I found the descriptions of World War II England to be wonderful - gritty but not maudlin. They are detailed enough that this history teacher found himself immersed in another world, along with the time travelling historians. The description of the evacuation at Dunkirk was as fine a bit of action writing as I have run across, especially for a book that is mostly about the mundane details of everyday life during a war of terror against the civilian population of England (as if air raids and torpedo bombs dropped on parachutes so as to maximize their damage can be mundane!).

I've already ordered All Clear.  When I've listened to all 23 hours of it I'll let you know...

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Blackout.

Reviewed on Feburary 6, 2011.

See my review of All Clear by clicking here.

Void Moon by Michael Connelly

Originally published in 1999.

In Void Moon Connelly takes a break from the Harry Bosch stories and introduces a new character, a professional thief named Cassie Black. Black is sexy, smart and very good at picking locks. Currently, she is on parole in Los Angeles working at a high end car dealership where her specialty is selling cars to up and coming script writers. Black was convicted for being involved in the crime that caused the death of her partner in crime (and in romance) several years earlier in Las Vegas (apparently states can exchange parole cases which is how she ended up in L.A.)

Black's specialty was robbing high rollers in Vegas casinos, usually in their rooms while they slept. She has been contacted to do one last job with a big payoff by an old colleague and, of course, things go wrong. Soon enough, the Vegas underworld is after Black and mayhem and destruction are on her tail.


Michael Connelly

It would be a spoiler to tell you why Black needs the money and even more so to tell you her true intentions for the money. Suffice to say, Black's intentions are not all that honorable (in fact, they are horrible) and I found myself in the rare position of reading a Connelly book and not really rooting for the "good guy". Well, that's because there are bad guys and worse guys in this book. Some may say, well that's the way life is. That may be so, but I find myself not really getting into the story. I can't identify with anyone.

All of the characteristics of a good Connelly story are there - action, intrigue, good character development, interesting bad guys. But, I found myself waying the various cost/benefit analyses wondering which bad guy should win and hoping for a moment in which they could all take themselves out without hurting any innocent bystanders.

You can find this book at Amazon.com here: Void Moon by Michael Connelly.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on February 5, 2011.

Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte

A great introduction to a terrifically important writer

Published in 2011 by Thomas Nelson.

For most people, including this reviewer, C.S. Lewis was the gateway to G.K. Chesterton. Lewis, of course, is famous for being THE Christian apologist for his generation - a man who did not believe but then, after his conversion, was able to voice the thoughts and beliefs for millions with such landmark books as Mere Christianity. When I found out that it was the writings of G.K. Chesterton that helped to convert Lewis I had to start to looking into Chesterton (fortunately I have a Kindle - they have more than 2 dozen Chesterton books and essays for free, so I was able to get my feet wet in the ocean of writing that Chesterton produced without any worries).

That being said, I am a relative newbie to Chesterton so this biography was a welcome addition to my on again off again studies of the man.

Rather than give a blow by blow book report of this biography, I'll outline its general strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

-Good coverage of Chesterton's early life, including his early education. Like so many geniuses, he was indifferent to his studies and gave little indication that he would be celebrated throughout the English-speaking world for his written works.

-The book is fantastic at covering his intellectual life. All of his most important works are covered - the biggest ones with individual chapters. His relationships with other authors are discussed throughout the book. We learn about his prolific books, his play, his novels, his literary criticisms and his essays. Sadly, almost nothing is mentioned about his columns and work with newspapers and magazines.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

-Belmonte makes extensive use of quotes. He often lets Chesterton speak for himself and that is a good thing because Chesterton is extremely well-spoken.

-Chesterton's larger than life personality, good humor and charm are discussed throughout the book. Belmonte does a good job of using quotations from other sources, such as fellow authors or newspaper interviews to tell us about him.

Weaknesses:

-Belmonte tells us almost nothing about Chesterton's personal life after Chesterton's becomes a successful author. The focus shifts to his writing and its impact and only rarely shifts back. I can only think of four times: when he became gravely ill, when his brother died in World War I, his trip to the United States and his death. I would have appreciated more about Chesterton the man in this biography.

To sum up, Belmonte's biography of Chesterton gave this beginning Chesterton scholar a better foundation to build upon. Solidly done.

Due to some crazy federal regulation, I am required to inform all readers that I received this biography free of charge from Thomas Nelson's BookSneeze program. However, the thoughts and opinions expressed above are my actual thoughts and opinions because I tell it to you straight.

I rate this biography 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte.

Reviewed on February 4, 2011.

Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh

Entertaining, but not his best work.

Originally published in 1996.

Fitzhugh specializes in filling his books with absurd characters in absurd situations. This is my third Fitzhugh book and I have to rank it in second. It is funny, but at times his characterization of New Yorkers as oblivious and callous to the violence that can be inherent in that city is even a bit much for me.

The premise of Pest Control is that a down and out exterminator who has come up with an entirely new way to control pests is confused for a professional hit man - a top level hitman. Soon, other top level hit men are swarming after the exterminator in an effort to eliminate the newest "star" in the hit man world.

The overall premise is funny but the book somehow fails to hit the high level of promise that this reader anticipated. That said, this would be a heck of a good movie if you get the right actors involved.

If you've never read a Fitzhugh novel, I'd recommend Cross Dressing to start with instead.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Pest Control.

Reviewed on April 4, 2005.