Europe Books

The reason I selected this title for my review is that is was VERY early in the morning before I put down this book. It is one of those rare books that you wish just went on and on because almost each page has a fresh revelation about the subject covered.

I do have a couple of problems with it though. One is that Mr. Dobbs seems to have a limited knowledge of aircraft and ships. For instance, airplanes don't have "steering columns" and ship speeds are not noted in "knots per hour."

Otherwise, this is a wonderful book, and a valuable resource for anyone wanting to know what happened during the Cuban missile crisis.

As I was reading this book, the chilling thought constantly occurred to me: what would W (or Cheney) have done. The answer to that question is what is so compelling about this book. Dobbs has some answers to this question in the afterword, which should not be skipped. Also, it turns out that Krushchev was a pragmatic man who was unwilling to risk nuclear war for the glory of the USSR (Russia). Looks like maybe Putin is no Krushchev either.

This book is an excellent piece of historical writing, well-documented and well-illustrated with pertinent maps and photographs. The author relies upon recently accessable material from Soviet and American archives, as well as interviews with personnel in America and Russia. Until Cuban archives are open, this work will be the last word on the topic. Most popular accounts seem to have been based on the "Excomm Tapes"; but these are replete with inaccuracies amd can be misleading. To be useful, they must be backed up with documentray sources. Without them, they can only be used to show the attitudes of the speakers. Alone they are not reliable for historical fact. Much of the earliest writing on the topic is from the "Canonical School of the Kennedys"; this analysis is well-balanced and gives JFK his fair due.

The title of this review is a quote from JFK that is somewhat similar to what Clausewitz described more eligently as "Operational Friction"; how in any compex military operation things start going awry. In the age of nuclear weapons it is even more dangerous. The chance for an accidental nuclear release were so numerous ("People you wouldn't trust with a loaded 22 rifle were flying around in single-seat aircraft with control over their nuclear weapons" as one speaker says) The "Afterwood" chapter is excellent with insights and is very useful to use as a classroom reading assignment.

Dobbs book succeeds in three important ways: First, it uncovers many previously unknown facts about the Cuban missile crisis. Some of these facts should change the way we view the crisis and the lessons we draw from it. Second, the book shows how chaotic the event were, how little the actors knew, and how the crisis took on a life of its own. This is quite sobering and not a little scary. Third, Dobbs tells the well-researched story as a journalist would, skipping between Washington DC, Havana, and Moscow, and half-a-dozen other places. This makes the book a very exciting and enjoyable page-turner. Two thumbs up!

Michael Dobbs gets you right into the Ex-Comm meetings with a dialog technique that makes you feel like a fly on the wall. He does this with Khruschev and Castro as well. As a naval aviator seving during the time frame of the crisis, some of the side stories made me feel like I was in the cockpit of one those RF-8's, U-2's or BUFF's. His descriptions were right on. I think I'll go back and read it again!

My grandfather served with the Devils Brigade, and since knowing that I wanted to learn more about this extraordinary elite unit of WWII. What I found was perhaps one of the best oral recount's of one of the finest units to ever exist. Having grown up in East Helena (3 miles east of Helena, Montana) and working at one point out at Ft. William Henry Harrison, this book gave me a new found respect for my grandfather and the great men who served in the First Special Service Force. Having finished the book I passed it on to my grandfather and he couldn't let it go. Driving by Memorial Park in Helena and watching the American and Canadian Flags both flying next to the First Special Service Force memorial, day and night, 365 days a year, I can't help but utter a simple, "thank you" everytime I go past it to those that are still living and those that perished for the freedom they helped provide for both countries.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a greater depth of knowledge of this elite unit, or for the military buffs who wish to learn about or learn more of this outstanding unit!

My grandpa happened to pass away about 6 years ago, and he happened to be a part of the Black Devil Brigade. His accounts are in this book, his name is Fred Hubbard, and throughout the book he moves from a 2nd LT to a Captain. The funny thing is, I married a man who just commissioned into the army as a 2nd LT. and will soon be deploying. It is amazing to hear the story of what my grandfather when through captured in a book. The things these men endured for our freedom will always amaze me. I will always wish that I spent more time picking my grandpas brain while he was alive, but I am thankful to have this book to remember these things. This book really captures the essence of what these men went through, and what began what is the special forces today.

Hats off to Joe Springer....! He did the men of 5-2 and the FSSF an honor. My father was a Lieutenant in 5-2 FSSF and one of the main characters of the book, and Joe's Uncle was one of my father's NCO's who was KIA on Anzio. The personal accounts in the book may sound far fetched and exaggerated. However, this is far from the truth. The exploits of the men of the FSSF are a matter of record. Every man who served in the FSSF is a very unique individual. I got to know many of these gentlemen over the years by attending the annual FSSF reunions. And yes, what an honor and a privilege to just meet and speak with them about WWII and life in general. Every man in the FSSF willingly, and knowingly volunteered to join a unit where the odds of being accepted in the unit is less than 20%, and your chances for survival were even less. Thank You Joe for getting my father to open up regarding his experiences during WWII for your book. It also meant so much to him to honor the men in his command who were taken, that were not only soldiers/warriors, but true friends forever.

TAKE ABOUT FIFTY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN WORLD WAR TWO COMBAT VETERANS THAT WILLINGLY VOLUNTEER FOR A WINTER SUICIDE MISSION BEHIND GERMAN LINES. THEY ALL HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXPLOSIVES, THEY ARE SKIERS, PARATROOPERS, AND ARE EXPERT SHOOTERS. THEY BECOME THE BEST TRAINED AND HIGHLY MOTIVATED AND FIERCEST SOLDIERS THAT THERE GENERATION AND NATIONS PRODUCED. SEND THEM TO CENTRAL ITALY, ANZIOBEACH, AND SOUTHERN FRANCE WHERE THEY SLAUGHTER FIFTEEN TO TWENTY THOUSAND GERMANS. MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS PASS BY AND THEN THESE SAME FIFTY COMMANDOS INVITE YOU INTO THERE HOMES AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUNNY, SAD, AND ASTOUNDING THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN COMBAT. THAT IS WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT.

Mr. Springer may have been initially motivated by the desire to honor his uncle (killed serving with the First Special Service Force) but his work honors all who served in that unit. One seldom sees an oral history which tells the story of a unit so well. All the contributions by unit members tell the story without the distractions often found in other compilations. Always engaging, you just don't want to put the book down. Not only does one learn about the unit and individuals who made up that unit but one also learns about the equipment used, how it was acquired, and the soldiers' opinions of its performance. An amazing amount of information presented in a way that also entertains and honors the men who served.

Interesting, detailed story. Typical Kertzer. A must read for students of Italian, Church and/or Jewish history.

We are accustomed to viewing excellent documentaries on the TV and the big screen. It is nice to find a literary documentary just as enjoyable. The mid 19th century was an incredible time for change. Europe was adjusting to the post Napoleonic ideals of political and religious freedom. The United States was fighting against the secular immorality of slavery. Prussia was building a military machine to dominate Europe. Italy was struggling with a unification which would require shedding the medieval yoke of the Catholic Church. In the midst of these changes a 6 year old Jewish boy , Edgardo Mortara, is kidnapped within the Papal States under orders of the Inquisition. The charge is that the boy has been secretly baptized. The baptism cannot be undone and therefore the boy cannot continue to live with his Jewish parents. Governments from around the world protest the kidnapping and Pope Pius IX responds with traditional dogma. This is a wonderful researched narrative which brings together themes which will be of interest to Christians, Jews and any reader curious about the changing role of the Roman Catholic Church in this period of European history.

The excellent DVD, "Secret Files of the Inquisition", (available from Amazon and Netflix) dramatizes part of this story and includes commentary by the author, David Kertzer.

Simply one of the most insightful books I have ever read. Thank you Mr. Kertzer for illuminating this fascinating event in our history.

Douglas Wood has already summarized and evaluated this book, justly praising its historical worth. I'd like to add a note about its shock value; in a moment of history when anti-semitism seems to be a joke in some people's minds, surely this is a book that might make the pain and folly of bigotry "real" in terms of a single family, and therefore accessible to readers who can't empathize with mass tragedy.
It's also quite a thrilling book to read, by the way, a better detective story by far than Dan Brown could manufacture.

A Jewish family's illiterate Catholic housekeeper sprinkles well-water over an infant child and furtively mumbles the baptismal sacrament. When the Inquisitor learns of the deed, he orders the kidnapping of the then six-year-old Jewish boy. This foul deed is almost certainly sanctioned by the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy. The police forcibly remove the child from his family's Bologna home and swiftly transport him to the Church's House of Catechumens in Rome for reeducation. Despite all protests from the boy's family and the Jewish community and in the face of a destabilizing international uproar, the Holy Father refuses to yield. By holy grace, the boy has been miraculously saved and the Church keeps him, inculcates him in the Catholic Christian religion, and assiduously converts the boy.

The boy kidnapped in the name of religion? Edgardo Mortara. The Holy Father in question? Pope Pius IX. The year? 1858. That's right 1858, not 1458, not 1658, but smack dab in the middle of 19th century Europe.

Historian David Kertzer tells the complete tale in his excellent work, `The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.' As Kertzer relates in the epilogue he learned to his surprise that there was no reliable work on this topic. Kertzer sets out to remedy this gap and succeeds by examining the episode in fine detail. Using detailed court and police investigation records, Kertzer explores numerous evidentiary questions such as whether the baptism took place at all, whether the proper conditions for a valid lay baptism existed, who put the girl up to it, and how did the Inquisition find out about it?

The story is told against the background of the movement to unify Italy under secular rule. And here is yet another surprise for the uninitiated reader, including this one: until 1861 the Pope was still the temporal ruler of a wide swath of the Italian peninsula (this rule continued on a lesser scale to 1870). The treatment of young Edgardo was one of the factors that helped build support across Italy and internationally for the Risorgimento or Italian reunification.

The episode also hastened Pius IX's evolution, shall we say, to reactionary beliefs. Pius IX not only made papal infallibility part of Church dogma, but he also issued his infamous Syllabus of Errors in 1864, a broad attack on rationalism, science, and religious freedom - really a frontal assault on the Enlightenment and most other signs of progress in the previous three centuries. If Kertzer's book does nothing more than direct his reader's attention to this astonishing document, he has succeeded in the historian's task.

Kertzer examines the trial of the Inquisitor in detail and the formidable difficulties facing the prosecution. For example, what crime did the Inquisitor commit when his acts were legal at the time he committed them? Would the new government prove willing to violate the fundamental principle that the accused must have had notice of the illegality of his acts?

As for Edgardo, he remained with the Church fathers until he reached his majority and by then his conversion had firmly taken hold. He went on to become a famed proselytizer for Catholicism especially among the Jewish peoples. This role may help explain why this story has remained untold: it embarrassed Jews and Catholics alike.

Some readers may find the detail devoted to the investigations and trials to be excessive, but bear in mind that Kertzer is writing the seminal history of Edgardo's kidnapping. A fascinating tale full of surprises, very highly recommended.

Excellent book with many historical pictures and historical comments of the war's effect on the art of many countries.

"Rescuing Da Vinci" by Robert M. Edsel.
Subtitled: Hitler And The Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art, America And Her Allies Recovered It". Laurel Publishing, LLV, Dallas, 2006.

After borrowing this book from the Plymouth Public Library, I was initially disappointed when I opened the book. It seemed that the book was all pictures and NO text! The book has some 300 pages and I would estimate that there are some 25 full pages of text, including the index and bibliography in the back of the book. Having said all this, it is my opinion, after having read the book that all those pictures were required to tell the complete story.

Page after page, photo after photo, I would find a painting or sculpture that I recalled from my art history classes, which was a long time ago. The book would show the 1940s picture on one page, with a person, perhaps in a period German uniform, "collecting" the item. And, then, on the facing page, often in full color, would be a present day view of the object. See, for example, pages 204 and 205, were Jan Vermeer's "The Artist's Studio, 1665-1666" is displayed on page 204 in black and white and in full color on page 205. This mixture of historical fact and present day view is carried out throughout the book.

The book begins with an explicit condemnation of the Nazi conquest. It is shown that the Nazi Germans prepared rather extensive documents identifying the art works of various nations and earmarking those works for transportation to the Third Reich. This is an amazing example of the arrogance of the Teutonic thoroughness of Hitler, Göring and the rest of the Nazi leadership. Speaking of Göring, it would seem that at the height of the war, his country "cabin, called "Carinhall", probably had more and better art than most museums in the western world. Page 45 records that Göring had a collection of approximately 1700 paintings. Sadly, there are too many pages in the book showing or identifying works of art that had been destroyed or had been lost. Page 285 shows, for example, Raphael's "Portrait Of A Young Man, 1516", which is still missing.

Still missing is the so-called "Amber Room" which was once located in the city of Königsberg in what was once Prussia. There are entire books, available on Amazon, dealing with the lost Amber Room. With the emphasis on the sins of the Third Reich, little notice is taken of the fact that the Soviets stole the entire city of Königsberg, which is now called Kaliningrad. In fact, Kaliningrad is a tiny piece of Russia, (the so-called Kaliningrad Oblast) stuck between Poland and Lithuania. In Kaliningrad, Russian is the official language and the postage stamps are Russian. Interesting.

And, of course, on a more mundane, but very telling level, there are the 5000+ bells that were stolen and the Dutch trolley cars being prepared for reparation to the Netherlands.

I have always been a museum addict. If the Metropolitan Museum of Art would let me place a cot somewhere, I would probably take up housekeeping. So, it was extremely rewarding to read this story of how so much of the stolen art from WW2 was found, protected, recovered and finally returned to rightful owners. These "Monuments Men" should all have received medals. The world owes much to them for making so many artistic marvels again available.

The illustrations are quite good. Many are available in other sources but so many, at least for me, were viewed here for the first time. The attempts to protect many objects - e.g., St. Marks in Venice - were also interesting. When I visited there a few years ago I was very appreciative.

Mr. Edsel is to be commended.

This book shows and tells another side of war. It is the story told in picture of Hitler and his Nazi thugs pillaging Europe and stealing priceless art objects, painting, statures, books, even ancient scrolls then hiding them in caves and bunkers in Germany. What I loved about this book were the photos of US Army units rescuing those stolen art treasures then returned them to the towns, churches and cities. The author has done an exemplary job of finding photos and stories which has made this an important work. Photos I've never seen and story I have never heard about. I think this book needs to be in every high school library in the country. Students need to be shown how our American Army worked to recover all this lost art. His book made me proud to have serviced in the US army.

Thank you for writing this book

I was really surprised by this book. I thought it was going to contain more text but it's really all about the art and the people who rescued it. The result is a very impressive, easily readable 'coffee table' style book that's beautiful and informative. Teachers should grab this up for the classroom and it also would make a great gift for anyone interested in WWII and it's aftermath. I can't say enough about the photos and the story they tell. Bravo!

Stalking Irish Madness:Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia is an incredible book. This year I've read 115 books to date and this is the best one. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. Patrick Tracey is an excellent writer and storyteller. What makes this book incredible instead of just good is that it is well written, it takes you on a journey, it is very interesting, it teaches you about the links between mental illness and the Irish, and it touches your heart and soul.

This book is for everyone. You do not have to be Irish, or have schizophrenia or any other mental illness to benefit from this book.

This book is a very important book because it has the potential to help millions of families. Every family has some secret in their family tree, whether it is schizophrenia, or alcoholism, or drug abuse. Every family has issues that are hidden and not discussed. I say this is an important book because I hope people will use this book as a catalyst to help them start talking to their family members about these issues and get them out in the open. If you have alcoholism or schizophrenia, or depression that runs in your family, evey member should know about it so they can make decisions that could affect their well being and the well being of future generations.

What we do now, the decisions we make today, affect our children and grandchildren.

If Mr. Tracey can tell the whole world about how his family has been affected by schizophrenia we all can confront our relatives and find out the hidden issues that are lurking in our family trees.

After I finished reading this book I was very grateful to Mr. Tracey for having had the courage to share his story. He made me feel better about my own family. We all have issues that we are ashamed of in our family and that we tend to hide for one reason or another. This hiding and shame accomplishes nothing. It doesn't make the issues go away; they just fester under the surface. The truth does set you free.

I am American. I was born and raised here, and I am Irish and Lebanese and I have issues on both sides of my family tree. My Lebanese grandmother didn't bother to tell the family that she had Mediterranean Anemia. It was just lucky that none of us had children with others who also had Mediterranean Anemia because then the children would have had to have constant blood transfusions. Her keeping quiet didn't make it go away it just put her grandchildren and great grandchildren in unnecessary danger.

On my Irish side of the family, my great grandmother was put into a mental institution after her young husband died of a heart attack, leaving her with 4 children to raise on her own, the youngest was a newborn. My grandfather was told his mother had died. He never knew the truth about his mother. She lived a long life. He could have gone to visit her. We only found out the truth a few years ago, and we still don't know what the diagnosis was. So, my Irish relatives decided to tell my grandfather he no longer had a mother rather than tell him the truth.

This is what I am talking about. And this is why this book is so important. Read this book and give copies of it to your relatives. Use it to start the conversation about the difficult issues in your family tree. Our relatives who know the family stories and secrets won't live forever. Use Mr. Tracey as an example and start talking.

They say we all have a book inside of us, but i doubt many could match this for its original subject matter. Mr Tracey lays it bare for us all, as they say, "warts un all". I doubt many of us would like to even delve this deep into our past and then reveal it in print to the world.

I think this book should also be read as an insight into Pat Tracey himself and the complex issues that he has had to deal with in writing this book and into the serious issues which are literally ignored by society in Schizophrenia.

It was an excellent read and i loved travelling with Pat on his journey and the way he brought it to life, i hope he brings us something else(he touched on alcoholism and drugs in his life) as he can certainly tell a story like only the Irish can, candid, with humour and emotion.

With heartfelt courage Patrick Tracey chronicles his family's present and past history with the mental condition, schizophrenia. The disease descends from his mother's side of the family with roots originating back to Ireland's County Roscommon. As a child Tracey hears tales of his institutionalized grandmother leaving the house in morning and returning home at night with her teeth completely pulled out, enacting what voices in her head told her. He goes on to describe in detail how during his college years he witnesses two of his older four sisters descend into madness, each during their early twenties. Thirty years later Tracey sets forth in a camping van back to Ireland to hopefully meet relatives and find some answers. Recently becoming aware that Ireland had the world's highest rate of mental illness up until the 1960's, Tracey discovers plenty of local lore on his travels, including tales of fairies living in ancient caverns that capture people's minds and well water in a valley of Gleanna-A-Galt holding healing powers. He attends The Hearing Voices Network conference and meets people that have learned to control the voices they hear and are able to function drug free with the disease. Tracey separates fact from fiction for the reader and comes up with an interesting accumulation of information about schizophrenia's past and future. This book is part travelogue, part psychological and genealogical history, and part one man's own, and often difficult, self-discovery. It places a humanistic understanding on mental illness, which statistics show one in every four people worldwide suffer from some type, one in one hundred from schizophrenia, the most severe form. It gives some hope, however small, to the future of schizophrenics and their families. Tracey's amazing ability to tell a story with humor, passion and insights into this disease, makes this book one all should take time to read.

I didn't so much read as devour Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for The Roots of my Family's Schizophrenia, in which writer Patrick Tracey travels to Ireland to unravel the origins of his Irish-American family's multi-generational struggle with schizophrenia. Two of Tracey's sisters, his uncle, his grandmother, and a grandmother several generations back have been victims of the brain disorder.
Tracey had the discipline to hold back the drama and fireworks that many writers would have been tempted to include in a book about schizophrenia. His love for his sisters is so palpable and sweet that it makes what happens to them stand out starkly and heartbreakingly in a way that histrionics could not.
The structure--part memoir, part history, part Travels with Charley, part detective nonfiction--and Tracey's insight, honesty, and sense of humor make the book a page-turner. He writes easily about the dry stuff, which all too often writers can make stultifying: history, medicine, mythology. Tracey's journey through Ireland past and present is a worthy read unto itself.
Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for The Roots of my Family's Schizophrenia will share space on my bookshelf with others that have changed my way of looking at the human brain and helped me understand a little about what it's like to live with mental illness or mental differences: An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jameson, about bipolar disorder; and Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures, about autism, among them.
The book is a beautiful gift to Tracey's sisters; to families whose pasts, presents, and futures have been and will be marked by schizophrenia; to all of us who have struggled or have loved anyone who has; and to all who are seeking understanding about ourselves and about love.

American journalist Patrick Tracey sets out to trace the origins of his family's multigenerational struggle with schizophrenia. The disease runs on his mother's Irish side, claiming a third great-grandmother, a grandmother, an uncle, and two of his four sisters. Stalking Irish Madness interweaves his personal quest with history, science, and lore, as he hunts for answers in Ireland.

Tracey has a fascinating story to tell and does so with engaging prose. He sheds light on this debilitating familial disease. For those aspects, he earns a five-star rating. The publisher is to be commended for including an index, something that is often not a consideration in a commercially published family history memoir. A drop-line chart, showing the descent from the author's third great-grandmother, Mary Egan, to the author would have been a welcomed visual addition.

But where the book falls short, surprisingly, is in the genealogical research, which is why this book receives only a three-star rating. Other than to cite family lore, Tracey never provides the generational links or names from his grandmother to his third great-grandmother. "From what little my grandfather said, and the small bits my mother added, it all started with the Egans.... I have a name Mary Egan" (p. 70). From this same family lore he has a place, Kiltoom Parish in Co. Roscommon, and for Tracey that's apparently enough for him to begin his eighteen-week search in Ireland. There's no indication that the author did research in American sources to confirm the generations between his grandmother and third great-grandmother to ensure the information handed down was accurate and sufficient to make the trip worthwhile.

On page 236, the author references a passenger list of the ship Anglo-Saxon, showing a John Egan and "Mrs. Egan" arriving in Boston in 1847. Since he does not detail what, if any, additional searches he did in American records, it leaves the genealogical reader wondering how he concluded that this John and "Mrs. Egan" are his ancestors. Other than ages, there's no further identifying information, and curiously, the "country to which they severally belong" is England, not Ireland, as other passengers on that list were recorded.

Tracey spends much of his time searching Egans in Ireland, rather than his third great-grandmother's birth family for genetic links to schizophrenia. His research in Irish parish records evidently dead ends when he can't find any children born and baptized to a Mary and John Egan before they emigrated, so he's unable to determine her maiden name.

The author claims he is "not enamored of genealogy" (p. 126), which is understandable when a person not well versed in genealogical methods and sources quickly feels the agony of defeat from not knowing how to conduct sound research. When he finds a Mary Gallagher Egan in the parish baptism records (he gives no husband's name), and she is the mother of Brigid, baptized in 1835, he states, "Since my Mary would've been twelve or thirteen [based on the age of "Mrs. Egan" in the passenger list], it's more likely Brigid was a sister, or a cousin." He offers no foundation for this speculation, and apparently does not comprehend that Brigid is an Egan. Unless Mary's maiden name is also Egan, these two aren't likely to be sisters. Then the author adds, "There was no Brigid listed on the passenger records of the ship that carried John and Mary to America. Whoever she was, I suspect she may have perished in the journey out of Ireland" (p. 125-26). Again, there's no foundation for the speculation. Genealogists, of course, realize that if a Brigid did board the same ship with John and "Mrs. Egan," she would have been recorded on the passenger manifest, and if she did perish on the journey, more than likely, her death would have been noted on the list, too.

Granted, most readers probably aren't as interested in the details of Tracey's search as genealogists would be. But the lack of genealogical facts makes us wonder whether he's even tracing the right ancestors, in either Ireland or America. For a book that focuses on family history and genetic links, it's astonishing and disappointing that the author, a journalist, apparently did not attempt even the basics of U.S. genealogical research. He falls into the typical novice trap of eagerly hurdling the ocean without methodically documenting each generation and securing enough identifying information to link immigrant ancestors to their place of origin.

There's no denying that the most compelling aspect of the book is the stories of his afflicted two sisters. Just watching them become stricken with schizophrenia on these pages is heart wrenching enough; one can only imagine the anguish the author and his family must have felt to witness it in person. It's not at all surprising that Tracey felt a need to search for the roots of the family's madness. It's unfortunate that he didn't consult a skilled genealogist who would have established his correct lineage and might have been able to help him achieve greater success.
--Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, Certified Genealogist

Torpedo Junction is a very educational and interesting book about German submarines destroying numerous ships and their cargos and many deaths. It is historically accurate and enlightening. Once you start this book, it is difficult to put down.

I recommended it to anyone interested in history, WWII and what happened on the East Coast of the U.S., particularly from New Jersey to North Carolina.

The U-boat war off America's coast "Operation Drumbeat" was merely one of Germany's U-boat operations. This book is an interesting read. I, like others, wasn't aware of the magnitude of U-boat operations off America's coast. It's a great account. It's limited to that operation. There's hardly anything beyond Operation Drumbeat...but that was the book's intent. It's a good account.

Ultimately how good I like a book is if I'm committed to finish it. Torpedo Junction by Homer Hickman is a book I had to finish, but I was so interested in what it revealed I hardly wanted it to end. Many factors were at work here. First, Mr. Hickman's writing is so clear and linear that it belies the painstaking research such an easy to read factual narrative requires. Thank you Mr. Hickman for doing the work so I could both be reviled and astonished!

This little known yet very tragic part of World War II played out right at our doorstep. Because of Japan's audacity to hit us with one massive surprise salvo the even more insideous U-Boat war on the U.S. coastline played out largely unknown to the general public. For months that seemed to drag on and on the Germans sank boat after boat after boat. Maybe for our protection or maybe because we couldn't quite get a handle on how to stop the German U-Boat threat the mounting damage was kept quiet. It was a tremendous tragedy which caused great loss of life as well as massive destruction of resources. With Torpedo Junction we can finally see how close to home death truly came. Also, we get to know the true courage of those who protected our home shores so we could both support the war effort as well as keep that all important semblance of a "normal life" at home. To know the facts surrounding the North Atlantic U-Boat war helps to rectify those long years of not talking about it.

I recommend this book as both educational and entertaining. As with Rocket Boys I was pulled inside a time and place as if I was there. Storytelling really doesn't get better than this.

As the U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Dione's lead soundman during period of Hickman's book I can attest that he did a wonderful job telling our story about some real hazardous duty. Homer's collaboration with our Radioman 1st, Swede Larson really paints the futility and danger of our sub chasing before and after convoys. I'm so glad Homer wrote about us. Now maybe we won't be forgotten.

Reads like a Clancy thriller. I recommend this book along with Michael Gannon's "Operation Drumbeat" so one can understand the havoc wreaked by German U boats along the Eastern seaboard against totally unprepared and in many cases complacent ships in the early days of World War II.

I was unfamiliar with the Kindertransport that moved 10,000 Jewish children to safety from the Holocaust. This biography brings that event to life through the memories of Lisa Jura. At 14, her parents sent her to London and the book covers that wrenching journey and the next six years of her life. Growing up during the blitz in a refugee home with 31 children makes a fascinating book.
Lisa's devotion to music weaves the story together as she strives towards her parents' dream. Becoming a concert pianist seems unachievable under the circumstances, but this touching biography details Lisa's progress towards that goal. This account has appeal for both adult and teen readers.
I also recommend In The Shadow Of The Cathedral: Growing Up In Holland During WW II by Titia Bozuwa

author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family

from the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
August 30, 2002

Vienna, 1938. In the city of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Strauss, 14-year-old musical prodigy Lisa Jura looks forward to a promising career as a concert pianist. Hitler has other plans. With the breaking of glass on Kristallnacht, Jura's dreams are shattered.

Internationally celebrated concert pianist Mona Golabek, with journalist and poet Lee Cohen, has crafted a loving, lyrical tribute to her mother, Lisa Jura, in "The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival."

Jura was one of 10,000 Jewish children saved from the Nazis by the British and sent on the Kindertransport to safety from Eastern Europe. Already being compared to "The Diary of Anne Frank," this simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting tale weaves together the stories that Golabek's mother told her about prewar Austria; the gut-wrenching separation from her family; life at the orphanage on Willesden Lane; and the power of music to help her survive.

As Jura's mother, Malka, puts her on the train, she says the prophetic words that will sustain and inspire her daughter and future generations: "Hold on to your music. Let it be your best friend."

In a world turned ugly, the beauty of music becomes Jura's strength, and, against tremendous odds, with the help and encouragement of the 30 other displaced children at the orphanage, she wins a scholarship to London's Royal Academy.

"Each kid saw something in my mother's music that reminded them of what they had left behind in Czechoslovakia, in Austria, in Germany," says Golabek, a Grammy-nominated artist, "and that's what I tried to do in the story, not only to pay homage to my mother, but to all these kids and to their bravery."

The book opens with Jura's tantalizing daydream of performing in a great concert hall and closes with the fulfillment of that dream, as she makes her debut before an exhilarated crowd. And in between, the pages burst with melody: Jura pounding the cadenza of the Grieg "Piano Concerto" to drown out the sounds of bombs during London's blitz, Jura visualizing Chopin fleeing a flaming Warsaw as she struggles with the somber coda of the "Ballade," Jura remembering her mother's Sabbath candles as she plays the solemn opening of Beethoven's "Pathetique."

"My mom and her mother never cared if a piece is in C major. What really counts is the passion behind it, the image. If it's `Clair de Lune,' imagine the moon over a desert island. That imagination allowed her to survive the horrors of what she experienced, because a C-major chord will not inspire you through the horrors. It's the moonlight, the idea that maybe the composer wrote it for someone he loved. These things inflamed her imagination, and that's how she inflamed mine."

And now Golabek's book will inflame the imagination of a whole new generation. The Milken Family Foundation, together with Facing History and Ourselves, an educational organization that teaches tolerance to 1 million students annually, are working with Golabek to bring the story to schools across the country by developing a companion curriculum guide.

Plans are under way to launch the book in Austria, and make it available to teachers as part of the now mandatory four-year Holocaust education program for students.

The saga of Golabek's 18-year struggle to get the story published is almost as harrowing as her mother's story itself. "It went through many, many writings; many, many ups and downs, starts and disappointments," Golabek says.

Now the accolades and offers are pouring in. On Sept. 24, she will be an honored guest speaker at the California Governor's Conference for Women at the Long Beach Convention Center and will appear at Beth Am on Nov. 17 with her sister, pianist Renee Golabek-Kaye, and Jura's four grandchildren, all musicians: Michele, 16; Sarah, 14; Jonathan, 8; and Rachel, 7. Brandeis University will honor her at the Skirball Cultural Center next March 31.

Last week Golabek was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition and was the subject of a feature story by Andy Meisler of the New York Times. In the planning stages is a concert next year co-sponsored by the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the Austrian government. And, of course, Golabek is considering movie offers.

On her syndicated radio show, "The Romantic Hours," which highlights stirring writings against a musical backdrop (Saturdays at 10 p.m., 105.1 FM), Golabek often quotes the poet Jean Paul Richter: "Life fades and withers behind us, but of our immortal and sacred soul all that remains is music."

"That was a quote my mother taught me, and the whole reason why I wrote this book and why I created `The Romantic Hours' was that my mother felt through words and through music our souls would be immortalized."

This is one of my all-time favorite books. If you are a musician, you will fall in love with it. The story is inspiring and moving and will make you appreciate music to the greatest extent possible.

Full of history. Easy to follow. Great read for young and old alike.

This is a story which every parent should read to their children. Talk about the history of WW2 and discuss the extremes of humanity. A book which once read you will never forget.

Set in the early days of the war, this is the story of a young man's efforts to join the fight and parttake in what we now know as The Battle of Britain. Geoffrey 'Boy" Wellum managed to join very young as many did just like him, go through training and then be sent to the front where he aquitted himself well. Having myself joined up at the same age but a few generations later, it is not difficult to imagine the challenges laying ahead, nor being one of the youngest, and always the youngest... But unlike our times, in a battle of life and death, where the protection lay in the early anticipation of the other's moves, ability to outfly and the size of the petrol tank of your opponent, proximity to your own base, even sheer luck in fact, was the wand that decideded the cause of events. I recommend this book but even more so recommend you to go to one of the events given in the U.K. each year to meet with the airman in person. That is the best ending to the book. Any book for that matter - given the tumultuous circumstances of when it took place and the subsequent years. I could only wish he would write yet another - of those years fought in Hawker Typhoons - as a test pilot and I am sure...more!

Simply put. I could not put this book down. i felt i was in the cockpit at times with geoffrey.I finished the book wanting more.

I have read many flying books including many dealing with WWII. First Light is outstanding and one of the best.

The author brings life to an incredible odyssey from a young college student to RAF ace. In a matter of a few months he went from an aviation cadet to reporting to a front line fighter squadron. Wellum brings life to arriving at the Spitfire equipped squadron without ever having seen one up close much less having any flying experience in them.

His arrival occurred at the same time as the desperate struggle to evacuate trapped British and French forces from the beaches at Dunkirk. Within a couple of days of his arrival 25% of his new squadron members lay dead at the bottom of the Channel or on the beach.

What some may find redundant is really the exhausting, terrifying daily routine of continuing aerial combat over England and then the Continent. Wellum's descriptions of aerial combat are fascinating. Some battles are against vastly superior forces of ME 109's while in others weather becomes a deadly enemy.

The author's humble writing style makes all the more impact. For those who fly or are history buffs this is a must read.

I served in the RCAF durin ww2. I later flew fighters in th USAF, served as captain on USAirways for 28 years.I have written 5 books on aviation.Jeoffrey Wellum's book is a master piece.His breath -taking descriptions of aeral battles puts you right in the cockpit of his BEAUTIFUL Spitfire.
" The narrow legs of it 'undercarrage give it a delicate apperance.It has the air of a thoroughbread---It's ellipitical wings and sleder body give it an air above all other fighters,the sound of it'sRR Merline engine produces a sound ,like nothing else in the air.I firmly believe that the Spitfire was the most beautiful fighter of ww2, and I as jeoffery said ,I would also give my arm to fly it.
I don't know which was his most dangerous flying conditions were,weather flack, or bullets. He did a yomans job in all these instances.
I have read dozens of books by RAF fighter pilots, This book is at the top of my list.Great job " BOY"

Excellent first person account of the Battle of Britain but not the best I've read. If you're looking for something with a little more of the overall picture, try Fly For Your Life by Robert Stanford Tuck. Tuck's book is definitely the best memoir on the Battle of Britain I've come across and one of the best WW II books I've ever read.

This is one of the few books I've had trouble putting down. It's the story of an amazing man that I truly admire. I would recommend this book to everyone. Also his CD's and those of the three tenors are beautiful music to say the least.

Dr. Ronan Tynan has to be one of the most friendly, inspirational, and heart-warming people on the face of the planet. I'm convinced of it. For a man who has had to persevere as much as he has, his outlook on life, his accomplishments, and his stories are awe-inspiring.

I first learned of Tynan when I heard him sing "God Bless America" on TV. I was enthralled. I had never heard a voice so pure, so powerful, so emotional. His voice touched me, it caused goose-bumps. I immediately began to research, trying to find out about the man who had just amazed me so.

After reading "Halfway Home", I am even more impressed with the man. In every aspect of life, he has triumphed over odds and circumstances that would have buckled the average person. To be accomplished in so many ways, to have lived such a rich, full life, is a dream for which we all should strive. The blueprint for such a goal is in Ronan Tynan's approach to life, which is guided by kindness, decency, hard work, love, passion, and faith.

At times the book is a bit boring, as is nearly all biographical material, but the inspiration overcomes, just like Tynan. Add him to my short list of personal heroes.

This is an inspiring book. I cannot overstate that. Ronan could have folded his cards and done nothing in the face of adversity. He could have just stayed inside and watched tv or something of that nature. Instead he did not even let it bother him at all. In fact he hurdled right over the adversities.

Firstly this review is not intended in any way to be objective. I love the man who is Ronan Tynan, I love his voice and all that he has contributed to the world. Halfway Home is the story of a man who is passionate, driven, inspired and someone who refuses to beaten down in any way. He is a Maverick, who in this side-splittingly funny book, outlines just some of the things that he has done in his life. What makes this book special is that his accomplishments that are detailed in this are done so with such humility that it seems as if he is with you in your living room having a friendly chat. I met him a few weeks ago and he is just as funny and outgoing in person as this book suggests. One of life's true heroes.

Dennis Charles

In the book "Halfway Home-My Life til Now" Ronan talks about family and those whom he has met so far in his life. He also talks about the women he has slept with so far. Which I find appalling, and just plain bad taste. He should apoligize to the women he talks about in the book. I wouldn't let anyone under the age of 21 to read this book. Keep it away from children.

Nash does one of the best historical accounts of a massive and complicated battle that I have yet read,The extra time spent on the personalities involved and their relationships adds tremendously to the value of this book. Winning the battles but losing precious equipment and ground was a big part of the German retreat, Sadly the loss of life here is also extreme and the personal stories that delve into that loss are painful and foretell of worse to come.Filled with rare fantastic photos and first person accounts this is the definitive book on Korsun/Cherkassy. I hope that while survivors of battles like these are still living Nash will continue to create works like this that add so much to history and our understanding of WWII.

Col. Nash has written what I consider to be an epic on the war on the Ost (east) front of WWII. His plain language style and the relating of participants accounts are compelling and draw the reader in. He makes a theater of war not fully known in the west understandable. The story as depicted could be the basis for a screen play in what would be an epic film matching "Das Boot", "Saving Private Ryan", "Band of Brothers" and "Stalingrad" if Hollywood only had the courage to show it the way he presents it (sans politics). The strugle for survival is basic and one that everyone can understand and Col. Nash is an artist in painting that picture. This is the kind of book I love, one that gets into the day to day life of the soldier while giving the bigger picture. If anyone reads just a few books about the eastern front in WWII make this number one on your list!

Expert writing on a relatively little-known albeit vital battle on the Eastern Front in 1944. Military History does not get any better than Mr. Nash's account of the battle of the Cherkassy pocket!

"Hell's Gate" is a meticulously researched volume of a little known brutal winter battle on the Eastern Front during World War II. The writing is clear and unambiguous; the text is supplemented with many photographs, including previously unpublished photos made available to the author by participants of this battle.
There are some irritating production shortcomings, such as the occasional line dropping off at the bottom of a page and the seemingly inevitable misspellings throughout.
In all, I readily recommend this book.

Excellent book, with loads of anecdotes and personal accounts, at least for the German side. The book would have been even better if the author could have managed to obtain more Soviet first hand accounts as well, but even without them he does a good job of describing and assessing the Soviet side of the battle as well.