Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose

When it comes to books written about war, I tend to enjoy the high-level ones that give overviews of the big picture and don’t go into too much detail. Usually, the more detail, the more I get lost. So when I read a book about the intricacies of a battle along with names of soldiers, names of towns, names of divisions, etc. I tend to get lost and overwhelmed.

This book seemed to be about 50/50, as it focuses not on the overall big picture of World War II, yet a select group of Airborne infantry – The Easy Company of the 101^st Airborne division.  Back in the thick of the war around 1942, someone had a bizarre idea: Why not have a host of soldiers jump out of an airplane with a parachute right into the thick of battle? This sort of idea is only for the toughest of the tough, and when the soldiers begin their training, they don’t actually see combat until D-Day. There’s a lot of preparation for such a tactic.

Once we’re in battle with Easy Company (in addition to D-Day, the other major skirmishes they jump into are Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge), the author manages to keep the story more focused on the human element of battle as opposed to strategies and objectives.  This is mostly a good thing. It’s good because it makes a much more compelling story. It’s not good because a ‘compelling story’ doesn’t mean it’s a happy story. This is a war.  In fact, I’ve never read a book that describes the horrors of the battlefield quite like this one.  Yes, there’s the horror of bullets flying over your head at all times and seeing your best friends killed in front of your eyes, but there’s also the horror of lack of food, dysentery, weeks of living in filth, and foot ware so inadequate that your forced to endure soaking wet feet in subzero snow.  It’s impossible for men to live through this without changes to the fragile psyche.

Strangely, I never felt connected to anyone in particular in this book. The cast of characters in this drama is huge, and it was incredibly hard for me to keep track of who was who. Some names stayed consistent throughout the book, but in a war, sadly, a lot of men get killed, so it seemed that every pause in the action meant that there were several fresh faces and names for the reader to assimilate.  Again though, this wasn’t a detriment. Suffering is suffering, no matter whose name is attached to it.

Easy Company also plays a pivotal role in the eventual capitulation of Berlin in 1945. The European war is over, and the soldiers go way off the deep end with their alcohol intake and debauchery. Things get very uncomfortable in some circumstances. Too much whisky and guns don’t mix well. As I mentioned, though, such inhumane conditions cause one’s spirit to become tragically altered.  Why should soldiers care about kicking a German family out of their house so they can live in relative comfort?  Wherever this family ends up won’t be nearly as bad what they endured for months in a slimy fox hole.  And it WAS their side that started the bleeding war.  So….

I came away with tremendous respect for any solider that has ever been in combat. True, that respect has always been there for me, but when a tale is told with such gripping realism, it makes you appreciate the sacrifice all the more.  Kudos, also, to Stephen Ambrose for telling the tale so well.

XO

XO – By Jefferey Deaver

Kayleigh Townes is a young, up and coming country-western singer superstar. She oozes sweetness to her fans, and those who write to her get a sweet, formal thank you note from Kayleigh.  One fan, though, misinterprets this communication. He falls in love with the girl and becomes a Grade A stalker. Of course, he’s told to stop by her management, and she even hires a personal security guard, but this guy really hasn’t done anything harmful to her, he’s just…well…creepy.

Then tragic accidents start to happen to Kayleigh’s friends and work associates. Her friend Katherine Dance is called in to help. Those who know Jefferey Deaver know Katherine Dance.  She’s a PI with a specialty in kinesics – the ability to expertly read body language and paraverbal communication. Dance can usually tell in a second when someone is being truthful or giving her the runaround.

So far, this book has been my favorite Katherine Dance novel. In some of the previous works, it seemed like Deaver would use her expertise as a cheap way to move the plot forward.  How do we get the story from ‘Point A’ to ‘Point B’? Well, how about we have Katherine ‘interrogate’ someone, catch them lying, accuse them of lying, and have them break down in tears after they’ve finally revealed the truth?  Fortunately, Deaver uses Dance’s abilities sparingly here. In fact, I also felt that this story didn’t really need to be a Katherine Dance novel. The story could have worked just as well if Deaver had invented a one-time investigator.

It is definitely a Deaver novel, though.  After bad things start happening to Kayleigh’s cohorts, obviously everyone points the finger at the stalker (named Edwin), but we must always remember that with Deaver, nothing is what it seems, and his stories always end up being twisted shockers with numerable plot twists.  Usually these twists work quite well.  There have been some Deaver novels that I didn’t think were that good – until I got to the last 100 pages and saw what was REALLY going on.

Strangely, this book almost had the opposite effect.  I really enjoyed the first ¾ of the book, but when the plot twists arrived, I found some of them to be rather silly and forced. A lot of that could be due to the fact that Deaver’s plot twists don’t work that well for his well-versed fans.  We KNOW something sneaky is just around the corner, so we constantly have our guard up. So when the boogie man finally appears, we just jump up slightly as opposed to leaping through the roof.

Deaver is also well known for his meticulous research into his subject matter, and I’m thinking this book might be his crowning achievement.  Since the key player here is a music star, Deaver shares with us many of the ins and outs of the business – with a key focus on how much the business has changed as of late (streaming music, no physical sales of product, illegal file sharing, etc.) All of this is great, but Deaver doesn’t stop there – he even includes lyrics to all of the ‘songs’ on Kayleigh’s latest ‘album’ at the end of the book!  And then…..get this…..from what I hear, there is actually a literal recording of this album out there.  A bit overboard if you ask me, but you can’t help but be impressed with Deaver’s drive.

This one was a strong addition to his collection, and, while reading, I found myself having a strong urge to keep going and not but the book down for the day.

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America - by Walter R. Borneman

From time to time, when historians are asked to rank the U.S. Presidents from best to worst, James Polk generally gets a very favorable, high ranking. Surprised? I’m betting most have never even heard of him. After reading this wonderful biography, I’m a bit puzzled that the nation’s 11^th Commander in Chief has basically faded into obscurity.

In fact, biographies of the lesser known presidents who served their country more than one century ago can be very hard to come by. I was surprised to find such a well-crafted memoir on Polk. This really was a great account of his life.

James Polk, to my knowledge, is the only U.S. President to campaign with the promise that he wouldn’t serve more than one term. He faithfully kept that promise. Sadly, less than two months after he left the office, he was dead. History tells us that the strain of such a job took its toll. It’s quite sad, especially when the author leads us to believe that had Polk decided to run for another term, he probably would have easily won.

What people most remember about Polk is that he commanded the country during The Mexican War. Expansionism was also running high shortly before he took office. Yes, he was the one that officially annexed the Texas territory (no longer a part of Mexico at the time), yet the wheels were already set in motion by his predecessor, John Tyler.  There is California, however, as well as much of the New Mexico territory. We’re led to believe that these areas weren’t taken from Mexico per se, but were inhabited by citizens that wanted to join the U.S., so there definitely was an incentive to annex these territories. 

War is inevitable, and a good bulk of this book deals with the comings and goings of the generals, the politics, and the battles. In fact, it’s the Mexican War that gives this book it’s subtitle. Apparently, Polk’s “transforming” the presidency is when he basically fudges on the part of the constitution that says that only Congress can declare war. Instead, Polk uses executive power to push the country in the direction that he wants it to go. Yes, this has happened in the future, but it doesn’t seem like an event that ‘transforms’ anything. In fact, it’s only briefly alluded to in this bio.

With only one four year term, there isn’t that much else that occurs during his presidency that warrants much excitement.  We do see politics at its worst. Well, not really. Politics has always been politics. We constantly read about men in power that are finagling things to get some sort of desired outcome that will, somehow, elevate them into a position in power. I’ve said this many times reviewing books on U.S. Presidents from the 18^th and 19^th centuries – nothing has really changed. Things are just more “instant” now than they ever have been thanks to 24-hour news access and social media.

This was a good solid book. I felt that all parts of James Polk’s life were covered, yet the author never got bogged down with minutia. I’ll definitely read his other works at some point.