Category: Political

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Operation Africa

 

Operation Afrika. The Destroyers WWII Thriller Series Book One. Published, Copyright Sapere Books. Written by Charles Whiting.

This is the tale of a special group of British raiders led by Mark Crooke, a maverick/idealist born in 1911 and educated at Sandhurst with many changes leading to Lt. Col. 1941 after losing an eye and gaining a Victoria Cross Medal for his participation in an unsuccessful raid to remove the Nazi General Rommel. A year later, Court-martialed for insubordination and demoted to 2nd Lt. and returned to Egypt to head-up a group of misfits variously including a London Cockney, a Texas drifter who fought against Pancho Villa and in the Spanish War, former members of various Foreign Legions, a German escapee from Dachau and a Muslim, many with earned Military Medals, but most importantly, all had no future beyond their present assignment because all were recipients of military designated misdemeanors including murder.  They were a collection similar to one publicized and popular American Cinema that brought forward a move, originally believed to be initiated by Winston Churchill – an offer “deletion of Military records if surviving participation successfully in ‘lost cause’ action against the enemy. Their assignment now was to stop the movement of the Nazis straight across Africa to the Suez Canal and into Egypt, an action that would greatly affect Great Britain’s Empire.

Discussion: a well-written, high-octane Thriller replete with characters who constantly generate empathic understanding. This is a tale that devotees will find difficulty in laying down for even a few moments. It also presents most fascinating material with respect to the huge desert arena in which the action occurs.

5* highly recommended for the devotee plus interesting associated material

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L.E.O.: The True Stories of Lt. Wayne Cotes.

l..E.O.: The true stories of Lt. Wayne Cotes ISBN: 9781983947332/EBook ISBN: Not assigned. Published in U.S. by Kindle Direct Publishing. Copyright 2018 by Jerold Cotes. Second Edition. Written by Wayne Coates.

As stated by the author, these true stories are a collection of anecdotes, conversations, remembrance’s and other features recalled from more than 30 years of service as a police officer. The service began as a “Rookie” directly after serving in the Marine Corps and progressed upward gradually through the years to retirement as an Officer in several positions of importance until retirement – his activities not only were policing the inhabitants of an area of the city, more specifically as a member of the community in which he lived as resident of one of the large housing developments of the district in one of the lower scale districts inhabited by drug users/dispensers, prostitutes and similar.

Discussion: The author has set forth a fascinating collection of widely divergent stories containing humor, varying amounts of activity and conversation with and among ‘street people’ as well as with other police officers while involved interactively among themselves and with these ‘street people’. A small number of them probably would be better understood by readers with more ‘insider’ information, but generally it is well-written with noted apologies to his editor for ‘errors’ within himself.

4* Pleasant, enjoyable series of short stories.

 

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Rise of the Tiger

Rise of the Tiger a modern air combat novel published, copyright and written by Mike Solyom.

The story is set largely in the eastern Malaysian peninsula ending with the city of Singapore as the Caliphate’s assembled mighty army descends to capture and control the city and eventually entire world. Still worse is his anticipated employment of a potent nerve attacking chemical to effect this ultimate control beginning with Singapore. The only true source of defense against the oncoming monster is the presence of semi-modern military aircraft, and these provide an almost non-existent threat once Lt. Col. Alexander Kui of the Royal Malaysian AF is shot down and captured. At this point, the reader is introduced to American Fighter Pilots Lee Chennard and Danny Hilton, who are assigned to a covert CIA unit where pilots who have made blunders against important controlling individuals in Washington. Lee’s offense was by reporting a clandestine act detrimental to the U.S. by a senior advisor to the President. Other new assignees were because of similar activities. Anyway, it’s a manner of chastisement until the lesson had been learned and they could return to active duty. The trouble with the unit was that they had no planes to fly. That is until Lee Chennard went to work. This material gradually is revealed and a fascinatingly conceived plot with numerous turns and twists begins to be delivered and appears to be on its way to providing the initiation of another series of thrillers now directed toward revelation of the many complicated and spectacular events associated with modern air combat.

Discussion: The author, as a twenty plus Air Force Pilot followed by other stints of government programming for flyers, perhaps has set forth a tale which is a little slow beginning, and retains considerable redundancy and repetition, but appears again to have provided the basis for another fascinatingly enjoyable series.

4* But highly recommended.

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Catching Currents

Catching Currents: A Frontier Historic Colorado Story ISBN: 9798607893484 Mountain Track Publishing copyright and written by Kari August.

The reader is given to understand that this is a fictional account of a true story by this popular author demonstrating the significance of differences between the cultural restrictions with respect to women’s’ activity in the western part of the developing United States and those rigidly imposed in the east. The story begins in1897 following the lives of Sally and her brother Will when they are transposed from Boston and its long existent strict codes for ‘proper’ conduct among women especially within certain classes of society. The changes are set in motion through contact with Caroline, raised on a Colorado ranch with her brothers Teddie and part American Indian Bear whose home is a large ranch supplying specifically bred horses to requests from widely scattered sources. But more than a tale of these mores of the time it is about the numerous changes within the period and a literal smorgasbord of inter-association of nationalities and levels of station in life ranging from English ‘cockney’ to those of extreme wealth such a Stanley Steamer, inventor of the automobile similarly titled and those of high position such as President Teddy Roosevelt. And of course, a series of interesting love stories.

Discussion; The tale takes place largely in Estes Park, Colorado and includes facts and features of history, lengthy discussions of politics, attitudes in general, women’s rights, elevation of important features of nature and establishment of laws for their protection, as well as development of numerous inventions of the period often presented in amusing format. This is a most charming read with characters that beseech empathy. This is a story that at times extends further than required, but still is recommended reading and perhaps most specifically, because it provides an interesting picture of a period of history from several individual aspects.

 

5* Fact based Historical novel, Recommended.

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Weird True Stories From World War 1&2

Weird True Stories From World War 1&2 copyright by Sea Vision Publishing, LLC written by Kimberly Miller, History Compacted.

The author has combined with the interestingly presented and seemingly lesser known History Compacted Series to provide significant facts with respect to WW I and II, their development and the interrelating features causing the two. Further described is the truly world-wide envelopment that developed with reasons for this expansion. It also describes in detail the German Reich’s development of the concentration camps and removes any of the questions relatively recently raised about the Holocaust and the atrocities committed. There may be some question about the author’s selection of what are “’Weird’ true stories”, as well as a certain amount of unneeded redundancy in presentation of the Question and Answer chapters following those preceding, but generally considered, this book is well-written and should be a boon to any reader who should like to know answers to the many questions and reasons for the tremendous impact these wars have had on subsequent generations of so many countries. Highly recommended.

5* essential socio-economic world impact knowledge.

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Our Journey

 

     OUR JOURNEY The life and Times of You and Me as seen Through THE EYES of ME TO YOU ISBN: 9781647396081 assumed published, copyright and written by G. Eric Miles.

This lengthy title serves to present a description of an unusual collection of poems introduced, supported by and interspersed with sections of prose. It is written by a man who began writing poems because it was an enjoyable experience and only now has been turned into something others also can read. It opens with a listing of the contents that include individual sections thereof that speak with regard to his thought patterns at various periods in his life. Included are; “A Proper Introduction.” A Second Section: And Away (Back) we go! Section Three; Four: Know Thyself; Five: The Freedom Trail; Six: Appearances; Seven: Wee The People and Eight: Crazy Talk. Basically, the theme is that the world has changed little, if at all. Those within it have been distracted by the immense influx of technology but have accomplished little in the way of actually providing the much-discussed equality and ridding the world of the long-existent inequities.

Discussion: The author is a man born in the late 1950’s in Washington, D.C. into a family that respected education and the ‘proper use of words’ as he personally experienced the chaotic subsequent years. His inter-positioning of easily read poetry with his equally well-written prose and introspective ability makes his message a most interesting unit to read. Further, his discussion on the emergence of technology and what it has done for the population is indisputable. Thus, it provides a most prominent and pertinent question for each and every reader – what personally are you willing to do about the advantages and disadvantages offered? The author, a man who quite obviously loved composition and literature throughout his schooling and life and was a model of introspective axtivity simply suggests: “May you find clarity, insight, and self-awareness from your venture down the road you travel with my life experience and poetry. Happy trails.”

5* for reasons described

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Dutch Preacher Boy

        Dutch Preacher Boy ISBN: 9781098382420 TunaFiscch Publishing by John Kommerinus Trinstra.

Sub titled “Coming of Age in Grand Rapids, Taking Wing Beyond* From Ethnocentric Religion to a Wide World of Wonder. A MEMOIR.

This is a fascinating tale most especially if you have an interest in any phase of religion. It is told by a man born and raised in the Netherlands in the Dutch Calvinist faith – Calvinist College 1962-1966 and Calvin Seminary 1966-69 and after immigrating to America, 2 weeks at Moody Bible Institute – and wanted to be a Fundamentalist (Religion defined as Religion as written is the last word). However, as explained in the gradually developing story, his extensive travels throughout a goodly part of the world changed quite drastically his perspective. His description of these travels and the changes wrought make for a story similar to few, if any other ‘coming-of-age’ tales in that the process extends far beyond what usually is considered that period in one’s life, into sessions as a missionary where threats were encountered in the Mexican Border area; working with Inmates in Cook County Psychiatric Hospital where he picked up a most thought-provoking answer to a simple question and read a sign posted on a near-by wall the reader will love. It simply read “I’m absolutely crazy about change. I just can’t handle it well.” And many more incidents of interest including close encounters with royalty and celebrities, a number of ‘secrets’ of well-known radio/TV preachers of various faiths, “sexual awakening, athletic fields of battle, heroes, tragedies, escapes, with lots of humor and playful banter”.

Discussion: The book ends with a brief notation about the former pastor, educator, and entrepreneur author and an Index of his wide range of people encountered and exact page(s) where it took place with the referenced person. Some of the discussion with respect to the individual and/or his/her perspectives may appear biased to varying degrees, but certainly lie within the author’s prerogative.

5* Interestingly, thoughtfully assembled memoir

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Jupiter, Illinois

Jupiter, Illinois a novel assumed published, copyright and written by William Graham.

The story begins with an explanation about the birth of Jupiter, Illinois.  In 1867 two staunch friend graduates in the classics from Yale University arrived in the prairieland of central Illinois about two hundred miles south of Chicago and decided to build their own college with surrounding town. As sons of wealthy shipping magnates from New York City, they could well afford to purchase and establish the college and with complete faith that their institution named Byron College after their favorite poet, Lord Byron, would excel in teaching all aspects of scholarship and business to its assumed burgeoning supply of students, they proceeded with the next step. The town was established and named Jupiter after the Roman god of sky and thunder. From this introductory description the story moves immediately to a number of years later when the college appears not to have developed to the founders intended level and is pretty much forgotten. However, several plots develop within the town and its residents and are followed through a number of years. The town also has been hit hard by the closing of a factory that manufactured automobiles, the main source of income for the residents. The story from hear on, follows the activities of the largely middle class residents with advent of a tremendously wealthy entrepreneur who makes a deal with the mayor to reopen the abandoned automobile factory. He intended to produce a new version of an electric automobile and had decided to build a new and extravagantly designed home as well. Rules of the new factory employment were not particularly compatible with the employees’ best interests and together with the plant owner’s outrageously expensive house design, trouble ensued. The story proceeds as it plays out the activities of a number of the residents.

Discussion: This is an interesting book in that it provides an unvarnished picture of the lives of important players in a relatively small Midwestern town formerly dependent upon a now closed factory as the main source of income for most residents and a college that also had not lived up to the founders’ expectations. New blood is provided by entree of an extremely wealthy entrepreneur who offers to reopen the empty factory owned by the city, and also to join the community by building a new home of very costly design for him and his younger new wife. His rules of employee function, quite unfavorable to the employees, begin to generate dissatisfaction and are exacerbated by the costly construction of his new home. The activities of a number of the involved citizens are followed as each of their stories unfold.

The author appears to be a well-developed writer with excellent educational background and a large number of credits in published works including poetry, adult and young adult fiction, travel and biography. His style seems to be to present the unadorned facts of activities, whether business or more personal relationships. It is a style that brings to mind the theme of an old TV series based upon the main character, Sgt. Friday, stating to an interviewee, “Just the facts, Mam, Only the facts.” It is a technique allowing the reader to decide whether or not characters are ‘worthy’ of empathy. (A psychological note – perhaps a thought pattern that could develop in residents of a town who had lived through this town’s past and present problems?)

 

5* Enjoyable story from several perspectives

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Good and Dead

Good and Dead is a book copyright and written by E. L. Pini. It has been published by Producer & International eBook Publishing and sub-titled (An Avner Ehrlich Thriller Book 2) The translation from Hebrew is by Tal Keren.

The story begins in a manner well described to set the tenor for the entire story, or stories. It unfolds in an old rusted building situated in a seedy park outside of Moscow where a no-holds-barred wrestling match is in progress. The end of each match is declared when the ‘referee’ declares the loser “Good and Dead”. A young well-muscled Yuri Rasputin enters the ring shortly after the last loser has been removed and meets the huge reigning champion whom he cleverly eliminates by using a well-hidden blade. The reader does not again meet Yuri until about halfway into the book where he again appears as a major character in the deadly political chess game being waged and a dedicated enemy of our main protagonist, Avner Ehrlich. Avner, although in his thirties and with the physical results of many combative encounters in the field, once again has been sent on a mission. This time to Tehran to eliminate an Iranian nuclear scientist. This elimination is considered crucial to survival for Israel and possibly part of the rest of this section of the world. Complications develop and he is ordered to abandon the mission but in his usual manner ignores the order. Finally working his way into position for a direct sure shot at Hamdani when the man’s young son comes running into the line of fire. He does not take the shot, returning home through a dangerously tortuous series of maneuvers. Ehrlich takes responsibility for the debacle and is dismissed from duty and placed on leave for disobeying orders.

Because his intuitive abilities make him almost indispensable, he is called back quite quickly because Hamdani reportedly now is involved with Colonel Yuri Rasputin of the Russian Military in naval activity where a stealth submarine has been armed with a mega nitrogen bomb that although purportedly headed for Syria, actually is believed as being designated for Israel. Obviously it is imperative to destroy the bomb or Israel will cease to exist.

Discussion: This Book 2 of what is developing as a quite fascinating series appears to delve deeply into the games played by the many minds involved in this international political maneuvering, as well as providing details of the steps an organization such as Mossad must take to counter and survive. The one feature that may be open to question by the more pragmatic reader is his physical ability to react in the manner he does with the number of severe injuries he has suffered, e.g.; three slipped discs, plus possibly the frequency with which a man in Ehrlich’s position  must be saved from death by activity of others. However, the author has introduced a psychological element into Ehrlich’s physical/mental emotional composition that is compelling and quite unique to discover in persons involved in this line of work. So generally speaking, the true devotee of well-written thrillers will find this book as intriguing and enjoyable as any, and probably better than most, presentations in this genre.

5*Well-paced, beautifully written thriller highly recommended.

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A Beconing Hellfire

A RECONING HELLFIRE, A Novel of the Civil War, Kindle Edition by JDR Hawkens.

The author has set forth a coming of age tale of a young farm boy in the horribly difficult time of the Civil War between the states. His father has joined the Army of the Confederate States of America and left him to manage the large but somewhat hardscrabble farm in western Alabama with the help of his sisters and mother. Unfortunately, he is killed and the family is informed just before Christmas shortly before the boy’s 18th birthday that was to occur the following year. With a typical display of the bitterness exhibited between residents of the northern and southern states, plus an anxiousness to “get into the action existent in almost all naïve young men, he is determined also to join in the bitter fighting to “gain revenge on the Yankees:” The story unfolds following the young man’s subsequent enlistment and experiences as he becomes one of the many young men involved in the gradual expansion of the deadly hand-to-hand combat of a member of the Southern cavalry fighting under the flamboyant and highly successful J.E.B. Stuart. Unfortunately, he is a rather simple young man and quite naïve whose plight is made worse by his actions immediately before leaving for the army. Fortunately however, he is aided considerably by his lifelong close friend who joins with him and by his unusual horse that has been his close companion for many years actually in a similar fashion as a companion dog in many ways.

Discussion: The author is a well-known and eminently well-qualified individual writing in this area of American literature. Actually seemingly the only woman with this reputation and once again she has provided readers with a well-researched, well-written, mostly poignant story of one series of actions that could have taken place during the conflict. It is a story of the common soldier with only an occasional glance into the lives of the cavaliers and the storied lives lived by the wealthy plantation owners and that from which came the Southern Officers of their military structure. Instead it depicts the farmer, blacksmith, store clerk and others who made up the largest proportion of the soldiers involved in the horrendous conflict. It is not a story for the delicate reader and, as are any descriptions of battle scenes as they truly exist, subject to a goodly amount of repetition or repetitive-like description. However, the informed reader will learn much he/she may not previously have known about the substitute foods and other innovative moves the southerners ‘manufactured’. So in summary, although a poignant tale and largely quite depressing, it is a worthwhile addition to the collection of stories of this great American conflict.

5* thoughtful addition to the American Civil War literature.