OUR SERVICE, OUR STORIES: INDIANA VETERANS RECALL THEIR WORLD WAR II EXPERIENCES by Ronald P. May

Published in July of 2015 by Fideli Publishing Inc.

The World War II generation is rapidly passing away and with them go their individual stories. 

Ronald May has collected a number of these stories and had them published in the Martinsville, Indiana newspaper as a regular feature. Our Service, Our Stories is a collection of these stories with a lot of full color pictures. Some of the stories have been expanded.

Typically, each story tells a little about each man's life before his military service, focuses on his time in service and then tells about life after the war (some went on to serve in Korea as well but those efforts are not highlighted in this book). For me, the most interesting part of the book is reading about the wide variety of jobs that these men held during the war. When you read the history books or watch the movies you tend to think that everyone carried a gun, flew a plane, maintained the planes or worked in a hospital. 

To be sure, those stories are in this book but there are other jobs that I never even think about like the soldier who maintained the fires for a field kitchen, a pilot who searched for downed military airmen (ironically, he washed out of pilot school but he was deemed good enough to land those rescue planes on back roads or any open spot in the China-Burma-India Theater), men who manned the ships that escorted troops and supplies across the Atlantic, a carpenter who designed a unique communication tower that could be easily assembled and torn down and a man who led the crew of a mobile radar station. For me, it was a reminder that World War II was an amazingly complicated endeavor and a true group effort. Without all of these men the effort would have faltered.

A photograph from the book of a B-26 Marauder
being shot down

I feel that I need to disclose that the author was formerly the pastor at my church. I decided before I read the book that I would not review it unless I could not write a good review of it - that is what I do with all books where I know the author. So, this is not just a good review for someone I know. I would have simply not written a review if I did not think that this is a very good local history of our World War II generation. 

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Our Service, Our Stories.

BATMAN: THE LAZARUS SYNDROME (audiobook) by Dirk Maggs

Published by BBC Worldwide Unlimited in 2010.
Multicast Performance
Duration: 44 minutes

Even though I enjoy the comic book movies and I listen to a few comic book-based audiobooks, I am not a serious comics fan. I dabble. I haven't even been into a real comic book store. I know the big names and their backstories and that's about it.

But, the title of this story ruined the story for me. If you know about the Lazarus Pits then there was no mystery at all. This was just one more problem in a problem-filled audiobook.

First things first, let me be clear that none of the problems in this audiobook come from the actual performance of the book. It is performed like an old-fashioned radio play and the BBC performers did a great job. Sadly, the story itself does not live up to the performances of the actors.

In Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome, Batman is supposed to be dead. He hasn't been seen in a while and Commissioner Gordon receives a tape from Batman that was to be delivered when he died. In the tape he confesses his true identity. 

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is selling off Batman properties at fire sale prices. Want an old Batmobile? Bruce Wayne will sell it to you.

So, Commissioner Gordon knows there is a problem, Alfred knows there is a problem and any listener familiar with most of Batman's enemies figured it out once they put together these three facts: 

1) Batman is gone and declared dead,
2) Bruce Wayne is alive but acting weird,
3) The title of the book has the word "Lazarus" in it.

Sadly, this book's plot had real potential. But, the title gives it away and it is way too short. This book could have stretched out for several hours and the listeners could have followed Commissioner Gordon around as he and Dick Grayson try to figure out what is going on. But, instead we got a 44 minute mini-story that tried to do too much in too short of a time and ended up doing not much at all for this listener.

I rate this audiobook 1 star out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome

SUPERMAN on TRIAL (audiobook) by Dirk Maggs

Too Short. A Lost Opportunity to Create Something Truly Amazing.

Published in 2010 by BBC Audio
Multicast Performance
Duration: 1 hour

Superman is captured and on trial. Lex Luthor is the prosecutor, Lois Lane is Superman's sole defender. A Guardian of the Universe is the judge and if Superman is found guilty, he is to be sentenced to the Phantom Zone.  The charge? Superman is not the defender of humanity - he is actually committing crimes against humanity.

Luthor's arguments go along this line - Superman is an alien and he is interfering with life on Earth. As Lois Lane makes her arguments that Superman is actually helping, Luthor blunts them with his own arguments. For example, Luthor calls Batman to the stand to testify that Batman feels the need to monitor Superman to make sure that he does not abuse his powers to enslave humanity.

The audiobook ventures into some fairly unique territory. Not only are Superman's peers questioned but the assumption is that a real-life Superman literally inspired the creators of Superman's comic books (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) to create his comic book. There is a discussion of comic book censorship controversies in the 1950s and Luthor asserts that comic books are bad for the morality of the America's youth. 

My favorite part of the book is the surreal moment when Adam West appears as himself and testifies as to the influence of TV and movies on young people. Meanwhile, the real Batman the he portrayed on TV is also waiting to testify. 

As you could probably guess, Superman is not found guilty. The credits are read in a unique manner - Luthor is screaming as he reads the names off the closing credits and tells how he is going to sue them all.

The audiobook is performed like an old-fashioned radio play with different actors playing different characters and the real-world people playing themselves. 

My problem with the audiobook is it's abrupt start (how was Superman captured? Who set up this court? Why did the judge agree to be the judge?) and its abrupt ending. In reality, the one hour length is just too short. I really enjoyed the surreal mixing of our reality and Superman's Metropolis. A world where Adam West and Batman can exchange a few words with one another and D.C. Comics writers and artists. I would have loved to have had it explored further. The possibilities are so intriguing and this short format just left me feeling intrigued and disappointed. For example, imagine Adam West and Batman going out together to look for clues to help Superman and Batman bristling every time Adam West calls him "old chum".

Truly, a lost opportunity.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman On Trial (Special Extended Edition) (BBC Audio).

THE SMOKE at DAWN: A NOVEL of the CIVIL WAR (Civil War in the West #3) (audiobook) by Jeff Shaara

Published by Random House Audio in June of 2014
Read by Paul Michael
Duration: 19 hours, 42 minutes
Unabridged

 Jeff Shaara is well-known by fans of military historical fiction. The Smoke at Dawn is his fifth book about the Civil War, the third about the campaign in The Western Theater. This book picks up a few months after Grant's victory at Vicksburg and focuses on Chattanooga.

The crushing defeat at Chickamauga suffered by Union General Rosecrans was a terrible blow after the Union's massive twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg just two months earlier. Confederate General Braxton Bragg swept Rosecrans' army from the Chickamauga battlefield and they fled back to the safety of Chattanooga. Bragg's forces occupy the mountains that surround Chattanooga and have effectively laid siege to the city. Already, the Union forces are suffering and Rosecrans seems confused about what to do next. Luckily, Bragg is worried about dissension among his own junior officers more than the Union forces so an extremely tough situation has not been turned into an impossible one.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant is called to Indianapolis for a meeting and is told that he has been promoted to the command of the entire Union army on the condition the he resolve the situation in Chattanooga. Rosecrans is removed, General George Thomas is placed in charge and Grant is smuggled into the city so that he can break the siege.

I was critical of the second book in this series (A Chain of Thunder) and I was more than a little reluctant to listen to this one. I am glad to report that this was a much better book.

The brooding, repetitive nature of the second book was replaced with a more balanced approach. There was plenty of brooding but most of it was Braxton Bragg verbally accosting everyone in his army that he could reach - privates, captains, generals and even getting a little dicey with Confederate President Jefferson Davis who personally came the outskirts of Chattanooga to help his old friend Bragg sort out his army's personality conflicts, not that it did much good.

Confederate General Braxton Bragg
(1817-1876)

 The book was not entirely about generals and politicians. It also followed Wisconsin-born "Dutchie" Bauer and his friend Captain Willis to give a view from the common man's perspective. 

The reader was Paul Michael and he did an excellent job with the wide array of voices and accents. Pretty much everyone had their own voices and there were multiple Southern accents (they vary by region, of course) and even an excellent Irish accent.

This series continues on with a fourth installment.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War (the Civil War in the West)

LINES of CONTENTION: POLITICAL CARTOONS of the CIVIL WAR by J.G. Lewin and P.J. Huff

Published in 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers

The Civil War was, in many ways, the world's first modern war. The submarine was invented, the machine gun was introduced, aerial reconnaissance was used and metal warships ruled the seas. 

It was also a war that featured all aspects of the media of the day. Propaganda songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" were written, speeches were given all over the country, those same speeches were re-read in newspapers. Those newspapers were openly partisan on every issue of the day. And, one of the best ways to express these partisan opinions was political cartoons.

Lines of Contention book is filled with political cartoons describing the issues that brought on the war, cartoons inspired by the people and fighting in the war and a light discussion of the end of the war. Almost all of the cartoons are excellent and they provide a jumping off point for discussion of the events as they are portrayed in chronological order. 

Below is a cartoon from the book (p. 140):

The cartoon shows the dangers of the "Copperheads" - Northerners who actively opposed the war. Some just spoke against it, some politically worked against it and a very few acted as home grown terrorists.

I am a Civil War buff and I have seen many of these cartoons in other books, but that did not stop me from from enjoying this focused look at them.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Lines of Contention.

THE ENEMY (Jack Reacher #8) by Lee Child

Originally published in 2004.

Some authors are fastidious about their books being written in the order that events happen to the character. So, the events in book 5 will follow the events in books 3 and 4 and precede the events in books 6 and 7.

Lee Child does not feel the need to do that in his Reacher series. While The Enemy is number 8 in the order of publication, it is the first chronologically which makes it a great place to start the series.

Reacher is in the Military Police and has just been re-assigned from the invasion of Panama to remove General Manuel Noriega in December of 1989 to Fort Bird in North Carolina. It is New Year's Eve and just at the stroke of midnight Reacher gets a call. A General is dead in a seedy hotel off base. It turns out he died from heart attack while he was just starting an intimate moment with a mystery partner. Reacher is not too worried about things until he notes that the General's briefcase is missing.

So, Reacher starts digging and the mystery keeps getting bigger. When he finds out that the General's wife was killed by a burglar on the same evening, Reacher knows something is definitely wrong and he is somehow in the middle of it...

This was an enjoyable, engrossing novel. I was literally surprised about who had taken the General's briefcase until it was revealed at the end even though all of the facts were clearly laid out before me. My only consolation is that Reacher was just as surprised as I was.

Good read. I am going to start seriously reading this series.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Enemy (Jack Reacher)

BORDERLINE (The Arcadia Project #1) by Mishell Baker

An intriguing mix of the old to make something new

Published in March of 2016

The best cooks can take a couple of tired old recipes and do something special to mix them together and make something that feels like it is brand new.   

Mishell Baker has taken bits of several popular movies and thrown them together with a a couple of well-known book genres and created something entirely unique in Borderline. Take a handful of Jack Nicholson's 1974 classic movie Chinatown, fold it into Will Smith's Men in Black, add to it a pinch of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and a giant handful of Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and you have an approximation of what this book is like. It is a crazy jumbled mess that comes pretty close to being brilliant.

Millie Roper is a former film student who shattered her body when she jumped off a building in an attempted suicide. She suffers from mental illness, has two prosthetic legs and is a very difficult person to get along with. She has grown weary of the mental health facility that she has been living in so she is intrigued when a stranger approaches her and recruits her to join the Arcadia Project. The Project is not explained well and, despite the fact that her therapist at the facility warns her away, Millie is intrigued and agrees to join the Arcadia Project.

Photo by Oreos

What is supposed to be a routine beginning at the Arcadia Project turns ugly as Millie discovers that a missing Hollywood movie star is also a visitor from another dimension. His home is full of mythical creatures like faeries and elves and travel back and forth is possible through a handful of portals. One of those portals is in the Los Angeles area and has long been a vital part of the Hollywood movie scene. But, a simple missing person case becomes something much more complicated and pushes her beyond her physical and emotional limits as Millie scrambles to stop an open war between our world and a world of unlimited powerful magic...

For me, the only thing that stopped this book from being a truly great book is the difficulty of its main character, Millie. Her mental illness often makes her a narcissistic, petty and childish. But, a premise of the book is that mentally ill people sometimes are able to see and understand things that others fail to notice because they don't approach things with the proper vantage point. So, Millie and her quirks are essential to make the book work but, ultimately, the book gets bogged down in them.

That being said, the book is something new and different, even it is made up of a whole lot of familiar items. If you are looking for a change of pace and you are a fan of sci-fi and fantasy this book should work nicely. 

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Borderline (The Arcadia Project)