One star I seriously regret that I’ve read this autobiography of the fabulous Carly Simon. She is one of my favorite female singers. Her album “Moonlight Serenade” is the choice CD in my collection. That CD includes some of my all-time favorite Tin Pan Alley tunes— “Moonlight Serenade,” “Moonglow,” and “Where or When”. On her […]
Category Archives: Book Reviews
BOOK REVIEW: The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China by David J. Silbey
This treatise on the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in Shantung Province in northern China and in Peking is exceptionally well researched and told. Silbey has written this book with keen understanding and the perceptive knack to engulf the audience deeply into his chronicle. Of what I know of the Boxer Rebellion, I would suggest that […]
BOOK REVIEW: A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911-1912 by Charles Stephenson
I’m conflicted reviewing this book. Stephenson reports the chronologic events of this war in exceptional detail. Unfortunately, it’s dull, and tedious—lacks an empathetic milieu. It’s hard reading for the ordinary citizen. Perhaps it is best as a reference book for the military historian. This war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire early […]
BOOK REVIEW: Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers, and Swells by Graydon Carter, editor
The title of this book promises more than it delivers. It’s a completion of seventy-two articles that were published in the magazine Vanity Fair in the 1910s, ‘20s, and ‘30s. On the whole, the articles are thoughtful, perceptive, and sometimes clever. I expected a frivolous, funny, and carefree expose of the Roaring-Twenties: jazz, bootleggers, flappers, […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport
This powerful account of the Romanovs’ internment and regicide at “The House of Special Purpose” at Ekaterinburg, July 1918, is compelling, evocative, and horrifying. I suspect that Rappaport’s book on this ghoulish event is the most meticulously researched and accurate account of the Bolshevik’s liquidation of Czar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, and their five children. […]
BOOK REVIEW: Killing Patton by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
Killing Patton is a compelling tale of World War II’s greatest general: George S. Patton (1885 to 1945). The manuscript reads easily—almost as an adventure novel. We are propelled into the story as a participant as our intense empathy builds. Importantly, one does not have to have a keen knowledge of the War to follow Patton’s […]
Book Review: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris
Mark Harris weaves an intriguing story of five top-notch motion-picture directors that abandoned their careers in Hollywood and joined the military to help win World War II by producing documentary, propaganda, and information films. He has integrated numerous moving parts into a coherent tale with keen interest. It’s a heavy book that deserves a careful […]
Book Review: Forgotten Ally by Rana Mitter
Rana Mitter has his premise exactly correct. The 1937-1945 war in China is largely unknown and not long remembered. In 1943, Allied leaders decided that the campaign in China was second tier in their long-term plan to defeat the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, Japan, and other minor players. Yet the Sino-Japanese war was critical to our […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Guns of Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944 to 1945 Volume III by Rick Atkinson
The Guns of Last Light, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2013, 877 pp. Contents, 29 maps, photographs, Notes, 167 pp.; Selected Sources, 28 pp,; Acknowledgements, 6 pp.; Index, 26 pp. Volume Three of Atkinson’s liberation trilogy details the exploits of the United States Army in North Africa, Italy, and Western Europe during World War […]
Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics by Charles Krauthammer Book Review
Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics Book Review S. Martin Shelton Charles Krauthammer, Crown Forum, New York, 2013, 388 pp. Table of Contents. Acknowledgements, and an Index. Krauthammer includes ninety plus columns, quips, and screeds on topics that matter to him and ought to matter to us. His comments were previously […]