Book Reviews

A Higher Call. By Adam Makos.

This is the best book I’ve read in awhile. It captured me from the beginning and stuck with me to the end. A true story primarily from  a German Air Force ace point of view. What I did not realize was that the Nazi Party was not liked by all soldiers. The Nazi Party was just that, a political party headed by a mad-man and many German soldiers did not agree with them.

There was a respect between the pilots that was interesting too. For many pilots they would not shoot at their enemy if he ejected from his plane and was parachuting down, as they hoped they would get the same respect someday if they needed it. This story starts with an American pilot who insists the author needed to talk to the German pilot first in order to get the real story.

The essence of the story is around December 20, 1943 when one of our B-17 bombers was so destroyed it could barely fly and a German pilot helped the pilot fly out of Germany, not knowing for 40 years if he ever made it across the sea to England.

It is well written and really gave me insight to another slice of the war I had not thought much about before…the war in the air with perspective from both sides of the war.

Once in awhile I need a break from professional reading and historical novels. My good friend Bob Knowlton turned me on to the Clive Cussler books and he keeps me adequately supplied.

I find all his books high on adventure (sort of like the Indiana Jones movies that get crazy with high suspense and then bring you back down…than back up again…), intriguing (you never know what will happen), good guy always wins…no matter what (like a James Bond movie when the villains have 5 machine guns and Bond has a pistol and he shoots each machine gunner while 1000’s of bullets zip past him), and some good sarcastic humor sprinkle throughout.

So far I’ve read:

• Valhalla Rising
• Arctic Drift.  (Dirk Pitt)
• Shock Wave
• Inca Gold
• The Golden Buddha
• Atlantis Found
• Piranha (Oregon Files)
• Havana Storm
• The Bootlegger (This one was pretty cool because part of the story wove around Detroit and Ecorse Michigan where my mom grew up)
• Trojan Odyssey (Dirk Pitt)
• The Eye of Heaven (Fargo)
• Lost City (NUMA files and Kurt Austin)
• White Death (NUMA files and Kurt Austin)
• Polar Shift (NUMA files and Kurt Austin)
• Black Wind (Dirk Pitt)
• Flood Tide (Dirk Pitt)
• The Plague Ship (Oregon Files)
• Zero Hour (NUMA files and Kurt Austin)

Guest book review by Barry Davis

The third book in his strength series (Buckingham co-authored First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths), this book is designed to work with the short film “Trombone Player Wanted” (the first two parts of the film are provided free online with the purchase of the book) to promote strength-based organizations by stepping the reader through 6 chapters (he recommends doing one a week) to identify and grow your strengths in your work and
life. Buckingham begins by having the reader take the Strengths Engagement Survey (SET), to gauge the present involvement of their strengths in their job (completed online with a password included on the book jacket). On-going research from Gallup, etc. has shown that only 17% of employees regularly engage their strengths at work!

I stumbled on this Gerry Boyle book published first in 1997 titled Potshot, when I was looking for his latest book. I really thought I had read all of his books because I love his style of writing, his characters (Jack’s friend Claire is my favorite),
and his sense of humor while telling a great investigative story.

All his books are set in Maine and I recognize many of the places that he writes about. Potshot is another great book about how the main character, Jack McMorrow, stumbles upon a drug problem that twists and turns from rural Maine to Lewiston Maine to Massachusetts and back. If you haven’t read a Gerry Boyle book you need to start. Pick any one of his Jack McMorrow series books, they are all great fun.

He also has started a Brandon Blake series with different characters.

My only problem with Gerry’s books are that I tend to sit down and read them in a couple days and then have to wait a year or two for the next one to come out. I guess that’s a good problem to have.

The Smoke At Dawn. A Novel of the Civil War. by Jeff Shaara

Once again, Jeff Shaara does not disappoint. This story is about the battle after Chickamauga when the Confederates pushed the Fed’s back to Chattanooga and how the next big battle there was a tipping point for the war.

I love the way Shaara tells us about history, captures the personality of each character, and brings us TO the battle field with all its boredom and its ugliness. I am constantly amazed that it is often mistakes that determine who wins in battles. Understandably, the rear view mirror is much easier than looking at the future, but clearly mistakes were made on both sides.

Bragg for the south let his ego get in the way and he spent way too much energy on dealing with his officers that didn’t like him. Even U.S. Grants favorite General Sherman didn’t know what hill he was on before attacking Braggs army which cost them many lives.

I always feel like I know the characters and feel like I am there every time I read a Shaara book. I love them.

The only question now is to decide on what’s the next Shaara book.