Account

Barlowe grabbed my attention decades ago with his aliens book, but since that he moved on. Expedition is amazing, a masterpiece as it goes against most established cliche's and chauvinisms about how alien life is supposed to be. Barlowe puts a lot of though in his designs and the result truly fascinating. The guy can't write though.
When leafing through the D-IV book, set aside your preconceptions about alien worlds and let it sink in. Surely, real alien life will be even stranger, but the stuff in this book is already transcendental for 99% of earthlings. Barlowe scrutinously studies his own preconceptions, exorcizes them and dreams up weird alternatives.
Good news he's busy with a sequel, and I bet that's gonna be even better. Let's hope he get's someone else to write the explanatory sidebars.

I'm a fan of science fiction, but before reading this book, hadn't been too exposed to sci-fi art. Barlowe is a gifted host in the fantastic world of science fiction art. I read this book over a period of three or four days, and couldn't wait to get back to it. The pictures are amazing, and the story is gripping. Barlowe is an incredible artist and storyteller, and I hope to see more of his work in the future! Highly recommended.

All these people saying that this is a well illustrated but poorly written book shouldn't take it so serioulsy, who cares if the inhabitants are unbelievable. It's a fiction book, none of these reviewers could come up with anything half as imaginitive as Wayne Barlowe... consult a scientist or biologist, yeah right...it's not real.......just have fun with it.

Overall, in my opinion, the book was very good. The characteristic that I liked most was that it was written in first person. It is the actual account in Gause's words of what happened. If the story had been fiction, it would not have been as enjoyable. It would have been unfair to all the brave soldiers who actually fought in the war to make up a story such as this. However, since the story was real, it gave me a lot of respect for everything that Gause had to go through. He was so brave and so determined. Many people never would have even thought of risking the 3,200-mile voyage to Australia. Gause never gave up, though, even when all hope seemed lost and it did not look like the trip could get any worse. Another characteristic that made the book enjoyable was that it was easy to read. The book used short sentences and simple words. Gause was writing everything in his log, so he did not need long elaborate sentences, or have the time to write them. The book also teaches many lessons. Whenever I look at a challenge that I'm facing, I will realize that maybe it really is not so bad after all. Chances are, I will not be running from the Japanese in a leaky boat like Gause was. The book helps me to put my own problems in perspective. Never, ever, give up. It also teaches the value of friendship. Without the support that Gause and Osborne gave to each other, they never would have made it to Australia. They had their disagreements, but they always managed to settle them. It was very important that they were able to communicate with each other. The book also it gave a real feel for how hard the journey was. There was not anything covering up the hardships. Many times Gause wrote about how bad the conditions were and how he had been overly optimistic right from the beginning. Nothing was done to try and "sugar-coat" the story. Gause was just telling it as it was.

The dynamic account of perhaps the most incredible escape of World War II is told in an American patriot's own words. The courage and bravery exhibited by "Rocky" Gause and his companion are underscored by the dramatic directness and understatement of the narrative, taken from the actual diary of this epic escape over thousands of miles of Japanese-controlled Pacific waters. This book stands as a beautiful testament to all the heroes, both living and dead, of World War II.

"The War Journal of Major Damon 'Rocky' Gause" is a well-told, exciting survival and escape story of World War II. Lieutenant (at the time of the events related in this book) Gause was a pilot stationed in the Phillipines when General MacArthur was ordered to retreat. His plane being destroyed, he fought with the American troops to the bitter end of the defeat of Corregidor, and through the kindness of the Filipinos and natives of the South Pacific, escaped via a 3,200 mile route to Australia.

This story may perhaps be the greatest survival and escape tale from World War II. It's full of close calls (a Japanese submarine surfacing next to their craft), thrills (a disguised Nazi officer trying to murder Gause and his companion, Lt. Osbourne, in their sleep), quirks (getting much-needed help from a leper colony) and hardships (their small wooden craft being thrown about in a storm). The book also has some truly touching moments--the kindness and loyalty of the Filipinos who were willing to aid Gause despite the risk, and the picture of Gause with his son, whom he saw for a mere few hours before his deployment and subsequent death in Europe in a training exercise.

The book is written simply (but is not a simple book), and not too politically correct (which I don't think Maj. Gause would care for being, anyway). The story flows well, and the foreward and afterword by Maj. Gause's son are well-done. The book would be improved by the inclusion of more maps showing their route and a timeline, and perhaps the reproduction of some of the original ship's log pages.

The book also has a prologue by Stephen Ambrose (whose imprimatur should promptly silence those questioning the credibility of the story).

Most people are well aware of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, but some forget that three days later, a second bomb destroyed the city of Nagasaki. This book is the story of Major Charles Sweeney, the pilot who commanded the Nagasaki mission.

Major Sweeney had risen through the ranks of the Army Air Corps, becoming proficient in many different aircraft. As fortune would have it, Sweeney met Colonel Paul Tibbets, who was in charge of a top secret operation. Immediately intrigued, Sweeney spoke with Tibbets and asked if he could be assigned to Tibbets' unit. Tibbets agreed, and eventually Sweeney would become Tibbets' right hand man. Stationed at Wendover, Utah, Tibbets put his men through a rigorous training course. His men became experts in the flight and operations of the B-29, as well as techniques designed by Tibbets.

Finally, the group left Wendover for Tinian island. This would be their new base of operations. Training continued, and on August 6, 1945, three B-29s lifted off the runway bound for Hiroshima. Tibbets piloted the bombing plane, the Enola Gay, while Sweeney flew one of the reconnisance aircraft. (Sweeney was the only person to be invloved in both atomic missions). At 8:15 on August 6, 1945, a single bomb fell from the Enola Gay and vaporized the city of Hiroshima. However, the Japanese did not surrender. Three days later, a second mission, commanded by Sweeney, again headed for Japan.

The target city was Kokura. The weather aircraft flying ahead of Sweeney's plane reported clear weather over Kokura, the primary target, and Nagasaki, the secondary target. However, fires from a nearby city which was bombed the night before began to obscure Kokura. By the time Sweeney and his crew arrived, the city was covered by smoke and clouds that had rolled in. Sweeney had strict orders to only bomb visually; no radar drops. Sweeney made three passes over the target; an almost unheard of tactic. Still, the smoke and clouds did not dissipate. Low on fuel because a mechanical malfunction had resulted in 600 gallons of fuel being trapped in the bomb bay, Sweeney headed for the secondary target of Nagasaki. Sweeney was informed that he would only have enough fuel for one pass over Nagasaki. Upon arrival, Nagasaki was also cloud covered. Sweeney had made up his mind to drop by radar, but the clouds parted sufficiently for the bomb to be sight-dropped, although they were not over the primary aiming point. The drop was successful, but now the crew had to worry about their fuel situation. Thanks to some skillful flying by Sweeney, the crew managed to land their plane safely on Okinawa with only seven gallons of fuel to spare.

I enjoyed this book, but the beginning is kind of slow, and I think Sweeney held Tibbets in almost God-like reverance. However, the description of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is very good. For more information on Paul Tibbets, I recommend the book "Duty" by Bob Greene.

This story held extra meaning for me because Major General Sweeney was born and raised in my home town of Quincy, Massachusetts. I was born in 1961; Hiroshima occurred on my Dad's 15th birthday, Nagasaki three days later.

I am grateful - as I'm sure my father was - to Sweeney and his heroic counterparts for the sacrifices they made to bring the war in the Pacific to a conclusion. Sweeney states his case firmly and directly - without the bomb, Japan was willing to fight to the end; troop mortality estimates for a planned invasion of Japan were astronomical. Sweeney's actions saved the lives of countless of today's fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers (in America and Japan).

This book will make you appreciate the seminal role played by General Paul Tibbets, whom Sweeney salutes in the Acknowledgements as "one of our military's great leaders and the finest pilot I have ever met." Considering the often stifling nature of military bureacracy, watching Tibbets operate inside military jurisdiction while essentially doing an end-run to accomplish his goals is amazing.

Note that this is not a complete atomic history, but more of a tale of the author's rise from wannabe pilot to commander of the Bock's Car in less than five years. [Dan Rather said it best in his review of War's End: "...written with such detail, sweep, and compassion that it might have been a novel and not an autobiography."]

As a result, don't read this looking for revelations about Los Alamos, Oppenheimer, etc. The only connection you get there is that Tibbets actions during this whole lead-up period to Hiroshima are somewhat of a mystery to Sweeney, so you understand there's a whole lot going on in the background that Sweeney is not privy to. To fill in some of the gaps, I recommend "Target Hiroshima" concerning Deak Parsons, America's 'Atomic Admiral' [Parsons makes an appearance in War's End as a key link to all prior land tests; he also armed the bomb on the Enola Gay.] Also, Paul Tibbets has a rememberance entitled "Mission: Hiroshima".

I found that Sweeney book on the development of the B-29 and the dropping of the atomic bomb to being very interesting.

Although I have read much on the atomic bomb, I never realised the particular problems faced by the people who actually dropped it. If you are interested in this subject this book is a must.

Having just read the account by Nyszli on the gas chambers of Auschwitz, I cannot be but astounded and disturbed. The 200 yard long gas chamber, the claim that the sonderkommando resided in a large room above the crematoria, the four huge elevators that carried the corpses, the flames belching from the chimneys, the number of furnaces, and many other details about the gassings that can be checked with the currently accepted version of the tale are indeed incredible. That is, not credible.

This work was first published as a serial in a Budapest newspaper in 1947. In that version, Nyszli even claimed that chlorine was used for the gassing. In this translation, interestingly, any mention of chlorine is omitted.

My take: this is a novel! Not a memoir! A novel--based partly on truth, partly on imagination. A novel is not history, and unlike the latter, the former can often be improved by a little extra work by a judicious translator. And indeed, anyone who has a reasonable amount of common sense, who perhaps can go so far as to deny alien abductions, ghosts, and the predictive powers of astrology, will easily see through this pornographic bit of imaginative literature. That none of the reviewers here did not, is no surprise. The world is full of true believers.

It is only fitting that the preface to this humbug was written by Jewish survivor Bruno Bettleheim, the psychoanalyst, heir to Fraud, who became famous for the fabrications about his past, shoddy research, and especially his claim that he had discovered the cause of autism--"refrigerator" mothers. This theory did tremendous damage to thousands of parents who had to deal with the disease in their children, while being told that they were the cause of it. Pure flimflam.

As one of the previous reviewers unwittingly declared, the book is a "testament to the power of the human mind to deceive itself". But more than that, the book is a testament to the weakness of the human mind to be fascinated by stories of serial killers, severed penises, flesh eating microbes, and Michael Jackson.

And, as many of my fellow reviewers have noted, and I can confirm, it is an easy, quick read.

I have always had an interest in the Holocaust, but until I read this book some fourteen years ago, it had always remained at a distance.

A reputable colleague at work handed me a copy of this book and said 'this is worth a read'.

Having begun, I could not put the book down. The book gripped me from start to finish. The story is horrific but, nevertheless, it is a story that we all owe it to ourselves to be familiar with.

The story and the author's experiences were so profound and penetrating that I have spent the last fourteen years studying and reading as much about the Holocaust as I can.

I have visited the Concentration Camps at Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Birkenau and Plaszov, together with other areas in Poland directly connected with the Jewish Holocaust. I have seen the buildings full of human hair from the Jewish victims, the gas chambers, crematoria and the other hideous instruments of mass murder referred to in this book.

The book by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli will not take you long to finish. The voices of the victims referred to have long since disappeared. Many people today are not even aware of the Holocaust and others deny it's very existence.

Books like these, written by people who were actually there, are essential if our this and forthcoming generations are to be made aware of "man's inhumanity to man" and to prevent such a horror from occurring again.

I have always had an interest in the Holocaust, but until I read this book some fourteen years ago, it had always remained at a distance.

A reputable colleague at work handed me a copy of this book and said 'this is worth a read'.

Having begun, I could not put the book down. The book gripped me from start to finish. The story is horrific but, nevertheless, it is a story that we all owe it to ourselves to be familiar with.

The story and the author's experiences were so profound and penetrating that I have spent the last fourteen years studying and reading as much about the Holocaust as I can. I have visited the Concentration Camps at Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Birkenau and Plaszov, together with other areas in Poland directly connected with the Jewish Holocaust. I have seen the buildings full of human hair from the Jewish victims, the gas chambers, crematoria and the other hideous instruments of mass murder referred to in this book.

The book by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli will not take you long to finish. The voices of the victims referred to have long since disappeared. Many people today are not even aware of the Holocaust and others deny it's very existence. Books like these, written by people who were actually there, are essential if our this and forthcoming generations are to be made aware of "man's inhumanity to man" and to prevent such a horror from occurring again.

Theodore Dodge is one of those historians whose undying patience produces works of incredible depth. In this work Dodge recounts in great detail the successes and frustrations of one of the greatest military minds the world has ever known. Hannibal is the essence of the cool reserved commander, calculating every move and ready for every contingency. The sheer size of Hannibal's undertaking is unbelievable. To the modern mind the logistical aspects alone are enough to dismiss the idea immediately. Yet for Hannibal it was a real and attainable goal. Such a confidence and vision is very rare indeed.

In this book Dodge provides a detailed account of Hannibal's exploits throughout the second punic war. Some background information on both the Romans and Carthaginians is provided to place the war into context. As in all of Dodge's work countless illustrations are provided. What really makes this book unique is that Dodge personally visited the regions in question, interviewing locals and studying the probable landscape of the great battles. The wealth of information gleaned from such an excursion provides the book with added details that enhance the realism of the account.

However, I do disagree with one point repeatedly made by Dodge which requires me giving only four stars. In the book Scipio Africanus is decidedly demeaned. Dodge seems to go out of his way to discount the exploits of this great Roman general and repeatedly states that "good fortune" is the only reason Scipio accomplished what he did. For me this tarnished the work considerably. Hannibal's reputation is safe from harm without Dodge going out of his way to belittle the man who defeated him at Zama. Hannibal needs no such protection because his exploits speak for themselves. Dodge is usually fairly objective with any opinions presented based on fairly logical conclusions. In this instance the bias was a little to thick to swallow. I recommend reading B.H. Liddell Hart's "Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon" for a view contrary to that presented by Dodge.

Overall I found this book to be excellent. Dodge's work reads surprisingly well for being a hundred years old. He provides a very insightful view of Hannibal and what he accomplished and struggled with in this book and it would be a good addition to any library.

I read the back of the dust-jacket and was hooked: "It was an excellent idea to reintroduce Americans to this 104-year-old book, which has never been bettered."

This is the sort of thing I have been looking for but just didn't know it. I have always been curious to learn the day-to-day details of life in the Roman legions. Colonel Dodge satisfied my wish-- providing just the sort of matter of fact, down-to-earth information I hungered for. How did the Legionaires stand in battle? What did their sandals look like? How much were they paid? What were their formations and signals? All accompanied by the author's own illustrations.

The author, a decorated veteran of the American Civil War, was the first scholar to actually go and visit all of the battlefields of Hannibal. And of course, any book about Hannibal must equally be about his Roman adversaries.

Although the text is over one hundred years old, it is still easy to read. I enjoyed the author's style-- very easy going, with occasional quaint lapses of grammar: For instance, when speaking of the Romans, he writes "Their tactics was simple."

At first I thought it was a typo, then I realized he was making a point-- the Legions has only ONE tactic: to always attack. Coming as it does at the end of a well-researched and charmingly presented chapter, I found it to be a delightful and unorthodox conclusion to a convincing argument. I'll leave it to you to discover other such gems on your own!

It's like having one of those old nineteenth century school professors come to life and then discover he is really funny and not at all boring and actually a pretty nice guy. Go ahead and buy this book-- for under twenty dollars it is a real bargain.

Dodge's book was written over a hundred years ago. The author has traveled around the battlefields of the second Punic War and tried to work out from the existing historical sources what really happened. Dodge was an army officer who served in the American Civil War. As such he knows the difficulty of moving large bodies of men, of supplying them with food, the difficulties of feeding horses and keeping them in good condition.

The book establishes the greatness of Hannibal. Very little is left to tell us much of what Carthaginian civilization was like. Coins and sculpture suggest that the Greeks heavily influenced it. We know that Carthage was an oligarchy and that it was a city that traded extensively.

It seems that it was probably a city that depended on slavery to produce its agricultural produce. This led to Rome having a pronounced advantage in the conflicts between the two cities. Rome had a sizeable peasant class who were integrated into its civil life. The Roman peasant class formed the basis of its armies. Rome as well had built up a coalition of allied cities some of which shared the benefits of citizenship. This meant that in any conflict Rome was able to put in the field 750,000 soldiers. In addition it had considerable economic power. Thus in the first Punic war Rome was able to build a number of fleets to challenge the Carthaginians at sea. The Carthaginians did not have a large class of landed peasants who could be mobilized and they depended on mercenary armies. The history of Carthage prior to their first war with Rome was not a history of military brilliance. Carthage had considerable problems in maintaining their control over about a third of Sicily fighting a large number of wars with the Greek city of Syracuse.

Rome in addition to being able to raise large numbers of men had developed a superior military unit. The predominant military unit prior to the rise of Rome was an infantry formation called he phalanx. This was a Greek invention. Heavily armored men would stand shoulder to shoulder and advance in a mass. The phalanx was effective in crushing the more lightly armed Persian troops during the time of Alexander. The Romans developed he legion. Its troops were armed with a short stabbing sword rather than a spear. Each soldier stood further apart than the phalanx. The formation was more flexible and the more spread out nature of the Roman formation allowed them to outflank the more compact Greek formations.

The twin advantages of a large population meant that Rome would over the next 400 years win wars even when poor generals led it. It had a military organization that was would work even with generals of limited talents and if something went wrong the Roman state could put army after army into the field. The decline of the Roman empire occurred when the military organization of the state changed and peasant levies gave rise to mercenary armies.

It would seem that Hannibal's father Hamilicar was an extremely competent military commander. He fought a guerrilla campaign against the Romans during the first war. After the peace he put down a mercenary revolt in Africa with numerically inferior forces. He then went on to conquer Spain. The reason for conquering Spain was to provide an economic base for the conquest of Rome. His son Hannibal fought in Spain to consolidate his fathers conquests.

Hannibal's war with Rome is remarkable in many respects but the one which Dodge explains is that it was a private war. The Carthaginian State did not really have the resources to finance a war with Rome. The enterprise was based on revenue from Spanish mines as were most of the infantry. Spain was in effect the personal property of Hannibal. He made a decision to attack Rome and Carthage agreed this decision to as it did not mean that they had to contribute much to the war effort.

Hannibal realized that to defeat Rome he would have to break up the Roman confederation. His strategy was to invade Italy and by winning military victories to prize away Romes allies.

In the end the scheme failed. Rome lost army after army but she was always able to raise more. In the end the Romans held Hannibal at bay while conquering Spain and cutting off the chance of fresh troops. Hannibal had to retreat to Africa were he was at last beaten at the battle of Zama. Rome triumphed and went on to rule most of what is now Europe for 800 years.

Dodge rates Hannibal as one of antiquities greatest figures. Although in the end his career was a failure the challenges he had to face were immense. Alexander the Great inherited an army and faced enemies of much less caliber and steel than Hannibal did. Caesar was born into the Roman empire and was given command of armies which Hannibal could only dream of. Hannibal's achievement's were immense. He fashioned with his father a private state sufficiently rich to enable him to raise a private army. That army he trained and honed into one of the finest of its age. He won spectacular victories over what was to be the strongest power in Europe for hundreds of years. His campaigns were far sighted and he had enormous talents in keeping together for over ten years a mercenary army made up of many different peoples. In Italy he was one of the first to create an intelligence network to monitor the movement of Roman armies and to anticipate cities which might be willing to change allegiance to his side. Despite these many talents there is a limit to what an individual can do when faced by a nation.

Dodges book is readable and in its own way fascinating. His own war experience gives him a much richer understanding of the campaigns and the maneuvers between the battles. The histories which still survive are those written by Polybius, Livy and Plutarch. Dodge is of the view that Polybius had a grasp of military matters which Livy and Plutarch lacked. He has to reconstruct the movements of the various armies to get a real picture of what was happening.

All in all a fascinating book which conveys the nuts and bolts reality of warfare in the ancient world.

Noted historian Walter Lord, author of "A Night to Remember", a renowned account of the Titanic tragedy, has put together a brief, but compelling account of one the most horrific days in U.S. History, December 7th, 1941; the "Day of Infamy" in which the Japanese attacked our naval base in Pearl Harbor and drew the United States into World War II. The politics behind the attack and the revisionist histories that want to lay culpability at the feet of Franklin Roosevelt are irrelevant in this book. Walter Lord's compelling account deals briefly with the groundwork the Japanese laid to execute this attack. Then it rolls right into a gripping minute-by-minute account of the pre-attack activities, the attack itself, and the response in the aftermath.

History, when presented in the worst form, can seem static and boring. When history is presented in its best form, it comes alive, captivating the reader and transporting them to the events and making them know the people they are reading about. Though a brief account, Walter Lord's "Day of Infamy" succeeds admirably in making that day come alive. It transports the readers to Hawaii on that terrible December morning and involves them in the events of that day. That, alone, makes this a book worth reading.

Walter Lord's vivid, compelling description of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor stands alone among World War Two non-fiction. The student of Pearl Harbor will gain a sense of what being there during the attack was like; the casual reader will be gripped by the true-to-life drama that Lord describes. The third chapter, "I can't keep throwing things at them", is possibly the most exciting combat narrative ever written. Although Prange presents the scholarly approach to the study of Pearl Harbor, "Day of Infamy" is possibly the best way to understand the fog of battle that surrounded that first day of America at War. This book, which reads easily and quickly, is a page-turner, plain and simple. One can never forget "Day of Infamy", and one never should.

"Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dec. 8, 1941.

Pearl Harbor. Very few place names in the U.S. evoke still-vivid memories of shocking violence, death, destruction, and a sense that America and her place in the world would never be the same afterwards. In our lifetimes, perhaps only Dallas, Manhattan and Washington, D.C. will rival Pearl Harbor as an existing location where memories of cataclysmic events will overshadow the present. For just as the Pentagon has been repaired and the World Trade Center will be rebuilt after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Pearl Harbor is still a bustling -- if somewhat quieter -- naval base in the Pacific. Yet, say the name and you'll conjure up newsreel footage of the USS Arizona exploding and Japanese bombers attacking Battleship Row on what had previously been a quiet Sunday morning.

Walter Lord, author of such acclaimed narratives as A Night to Remember, A Time to Stand, and Incredible Victory, tells very human stories of heroism and sacrifice as he recounts the events of December 7, 1941 from both American and Japanese perspectives. His clear and descriptive narrative, his masterful use of interviews with survivors and material from the vast amount of historical records, and his decision to focus the book's focus on the events of the evening of Dec. 6 and the "day of infamy" itself make this a fine literary starting point for readers who want to learn the Pearl Harbor story without having to wade through books that deal with all the preliminaries (such as At Dawn We Slept) or try to revise history (John Toland's Infamy) to pin the blame on President Roosevelt.

All in all, for a book that was first published in the late 1950s, Day of Infamy is still considered one of the best popular histories about a World War II event, and I strongly recommend it.

P.J. O'Rourke is a humorist and one of the most eloquent mainstream advocates of Libertarianism around. O'Rourke believes the Jefforsonian axiom that government is best that governs least. In pursuit of that truth, he travels around the world looking for examples that prove his point. All of that, however, is secondary to the fact that he's a damn funny writer who enjoys tweaking liberals, which he does with the very title of this book. Regardless of your polictical opinion on the Gulf War, you will find O'Rourke's take amusing and informative. And as for the alcohol free beer? Well, some things are better left unsaid.

This was the first book by PJ O'Rourke that I read. I knew within two paragraphs that I'd found an author whose work I was going to read assiduously. It's hard to imagine a more finely targeted collection of kicks to the liberal backside. And God knows they need it. It's hardly surprising that a reviewer from the LSE (London School of Economics) didn't like this book. It probably made uncomfortable reading (warning: you'd REALLY hate Eat The Rich). The chapter on the elections in Nicaragua that kicked Danny Ortega and his gang of thugs out was pure genius. I read this with especial enjoyment as I recall the long faces at all the wishy-washy socialists' parties (e.g. Neil and Glenys Kinnock's) when they realised that Violetta Chamorro had knocked bien- pensant society's cuddly poster boy off his throne. I had a much better evening, raising a glass to the Sandy's downfall.

PJ knows that the best way to get up the liberal nostril is to laugh at them. He's quite possibly the funniest man writing today (he even knocks another fave, Bill Bryson, into second place). I wish I could give this (and all his other books) 10 stars.

For those of you who say that liberals are too starchy for O'Roarke's satire, well, let me say this. I personally have no use for Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, Moore, or just hypocrites in general. But O'Roarke is another beast altogether. The rest of these guys want to indoctrinate you, they want your soul, your money, your vote. O'Roarke, on the other hand, just wants you to drop your pants in the checkout isle at WalMart and if you get away with it he will take you to Rick's Cabaret and get drunk with you whether you are black or white or republican or liberal. O'Roarke is a republican, but unlike the others mentioned above, if you are not a republican he doesn't think you are evil, he just thinks you are amusing in a kind of comical martian kind of way. He's about political satire rather than political invective, which means that even if you are a liberal you might find him a lot funnier than Michael Moore. He's like the Hunter S. Thompson of the right, and probably just as likely as Thompson to take flight from DEA agents.

I've been reading O'Roarke since his days at National Lampoon, which while O'Roarke was the editor was the funniest magazine ever created. What makes O'Roarke such a gifted writer is his eye for the signs of the times. He can find the smallest details in everyday society, like the new menu at McDonalds, things that most of us ignore, and use them to represent, say, the affects of NAFTA on the underground trafficking of bootleg tequila. It's kind of uncanny.

The other notable thing about O'Roarke is his work-drunk prose. Unlike his conservative competetors (and liberal competetors in the political comment vein) O'Roarke is truly a lover of the English language and I would rank him alongside Thomas McGuane as among the most talented essayists we have.

O'Roarke will offend the politically correct, but be assured he paints the right-wing kooky fringe with the same broad brush he applies to liberals.He does think the Clinton's are strange, but no stranger than that element of the right wing which is obsessed with smearing them. For instance, liberals would surely love his peice on the Heritage USA theme park (stories like this are why you won't find him on the bookshelves next to Hannity). Anyway, I've read a lot of O'Roarke's stuff and GWAC ranks right at the top next to Holidays in Hell.

This book describes a group tour of "Europe and the Holy Land" Samuel Clemens experienced and reported about 100 years ago. He describes, in a way that only Mark Twain can, the people he meets and the places they go from the point of view from the American West. One memorable example of his American perspective is a comparison of Italian mountains, lakes and rivers with his beloved Rockies, Tahoe, and Mississippi. He also paints humorous portraits of the tour guides and his fellow travelers. The first time I read this book I was on an organized bus tour in Europe and quickly realized how many of Twain's human observations on how tourists are treated still apply, which makes the humor very accessible.

In Innocents Abroad, Twain joins a passenger excursion to Europe and the mideast. Along the way, he and his fellow excursionists visit the Azores, Gibraltar, Paris, Venice, Istanbul, Damascus, Cairo and a host of places in between. Twain's acerbic wit is on full display as he offers up what are occasionally laugh-out-loud critiques of the places and people he encounters. Even his fellow passengers receive a ribbing, for which they often deserve, as they "chip" their way through the mideast removing souvenir pieces of religiously historic architecture. Innocents Abroad is not for the easily offended. This is a pre-PC view of the world which, properly judged for it's age, is highly entertaining.

The second book of this volume is Roughing It. Here, Twain takes us on a sojourn to the American west in the company of his older brother. Roughing It is possibly the best contemporaneous account of life in America's 19th century western expanse and beyond. From stagecoach travel to silver mining, exploration and discovery to regional ecomonics, lifestyle, and lawlessness, Twain provides the reader a humorous look at the many facets of Manifest Destiny.

As always, Library of America is a splendid publisher with an quality product priced attractively. I recommend this volume wholeheartedly.

NOTE: This review is for the Library of America volume containing both Innocents Abroad and Roughing It by Mark Twain.

This book, along with Twain's 'Roughing It,' is often considered to be some of the best travel narrative ever put to paper. Certainly it deserves its acclaim. Twain, the irreverent All-American writer, took a trip halfway around the world in a steamer and visited many of the great sites of Europe and the Middle East. This is his account of his experiences, and the experiences of the group of 'Pilgrims' which accompanied him on this 'pleasure excursion.'

One of the best things about Twain is his refusal to romanticize, even in the cases of the greatest places in the world. He does not hesitate to verbally abuse Paris, Florence, Damascus, even Jerusalem. He tells it how it is, refusing to admire the work of the great painters (Raphael, Michael Angelo, and co.) and asserting that everyone who ever wrote of the beauty of the Sea of Galilee was a downright liar. He has some good things to say, too (he seems to have approved of Athens), but mostly he spends his time dispelling the romantic images of the great places of the world. The result is hilarious, and certainly makes one realize that, despite the perfect images that Paris, Pisa, and Rome sometimes have in our minds, they are a far cry from paradise.

Twain's wit, as always, is very sharp, and this book is an excellent example of it. His antics (and descriptions of them) are very funny, and his way of putting things a joy to read. Along the way, he pokes fun of the American "Pilgrims," who deface the sacred relics they visit and call every guide they have 'Ferguson.' This is certainly a classic in American Literature. Anyone interested in travel writing will profit greatly from this book, as will anyone who enjoys Twain's humor or just a good laugh.

Wen Ho Lee's book covers some things missing in
Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman's "A Convenient Spy"
book. Lee's book covers the fact that when Lee
was working on his computer programs they were
not considered classified/secret but PARD, protect
as restricted data(p.118-119,262-263). Stober and
Hoffman always referrs to the programs as classified
or secret and fails to state that said the programs
were reclassified as "Restricted Data" and "Secret"
ONLY AFTER Lee was fired from his job. Lee defends
his motives to backup his data files in this book
(p.118-124). Lee also gives the reader an idea
of the politics inside the National Labs that
Stober and Hoffman totally misses. It appears
from Lee's account that he may have earned the
ill will of some scientist at the Lab for previously
criticizing the lab's "crown jewels." ( p.112-114,
228-229,271-273) Lee sometime for the sake of respecting
peoples personal lives refuses to provide any details,

e.g. Stober and Hoffman's book does details U.S
Prosecutor Gorence's personal affair/contact that
forces him to step down but Lee/Zia avoided providing
an explanation (p.279). Lee's book provides
transcripts of his interrogations and gives a
better overall view of the political movement
surrounding his case than the Stober and Hoffman book.
( p. 139-144,153-157). Stober and Hoffman's book is
more myopic and lacks the political background
setting that shows how race, politics, national security,
and law enforcement merged into a racial
profiling witch hunt. Wen Ho Lee's account is
based on what he considers important and sometims
that isnot always chronological, e.g. his account of
the plea bargining process only comes as the
very end of the book when it becomes important
to understand how the case ends (p.311-312)

Part I
the investigation, Tiger Trap, carol covert, FBI interrogation/accusations.

Part II
Wen Ho Lee's life and career, getting legal help, the FBI searches Lee's home, getting bad press - the media leaks,
anti-china/chinese espionage politics, the FBI dragnet -family members subpoenaed. going on CBS '60 minutes.' Getting arrested

Part III
denial of Bail. difficult/special imprisonment situation, the court case, CIPA (p.263-264,286-287), Alberta, Racial profiling
testimony by Robert Vrooman and Charles Washington. Trial guilty plead bargining.

... to remind them that when politics drives criminal investigations, the first thing sacrificed is the truth. This book has a plot worthy of a John Grisham novel, with a host of powerful villains, starting with politicians on both sides of the aisle. Republicans from Christopher Cox to the appallingly ill-informed Bob Smith (who couldn't even distinguish between Wen Ho Lee and Bill Lann Lee) chose Lee as a scapegoat in order to bring down the Democratic presidency; the Democratic administration complied with the persecution so it wouldn't look soft on Chinese espionage. Other villains included Robert Messemer, the FBI agent whose repeated lying in court should have had him thrown in jail for perjury, Notra Trulock, whose mysterious hand in the investigation was never clearly defined (and who was later revealed to be a rightwing shill), and Bill Richardson, whose political aspirations are, quite rightfully, dead as dirt thanks to his performance in this matter. One must also add the combined forces of the FBI, DOE, and DOJ, all of them so intent on proving that Lee was their man that they were blind to the truth: that Lee was never a spy, and that his worst infraction was the downloading of files that he was actively working on. The reason for those downloads are explained and strike one as completely logical to anyone who has lost precious computer files during a crash, something that had happened to Lee during a previous computer fiasco at Los Alamos. (One should also add that while the FBI was spending millions of dollars pursuing Lee, September 11 was being planned right under their noses.)

But as culpable as the politicians and FBI villains are in this piece, they were, in truth, simply doing what they always do: bending the truth to get their way. The real villain, in my opinion, was the media, which was complicit in this witch burning. Journalists have a responsibility to seek and print the truth. In this case, they were shockingly negligent. In particular, the New York Times's Risen and Gerth come across as so egregiously shoddy and dishonest that they seem barely qualified to write for the high school newspaper. If the NY Times did not immediately fire them after this sorry episode, then shame on the gray lady of newspapers.

As in any Grisham novel, there are also heroes. The hero in this book is not Wen Ho Lee, who comes across as a naive and clueless victim. Rather, the heroes were his attorneys, who worked largely pro bono, against the powers of the U.S. government, to defend a man everyone had already labeled a traitor. Just as heroic was Judge Parker, whose clear vision and intelligence allowed him to see straight to the truth of the case. Thanks to these heroes, my faith in the U.S. court system was -- somewhat -- restored.

The moral of the story? If the FBI comes knocking at your door and wants to ask you a "few questions", shut the door, pick up the phone and CALL A LAWYER.

The story told in this book is as scary as a horror fiction, except it really happened ! Dr Lee's advice at the end of the book was absolutely correct - if the FBI comes knocking, call the lawyer before you talk.

Ok, I'm not rating "The Black Sheep." Instead, I wish to introduce to you "Pappy" researchers the book: "Bye Bye Black Sheep" which was written by the Japanese World War II pilot Masajiro "Mike" Kawato -- who shot down "Pappy" Boyington. This 176-page book was published in 1978 (with at least 7 printings) independently by Mr. Kawato thru "Printing Dynamics Inc." of Phoenix, AZ; its Library of Congress code # is: 78-112803. Mr. Kawato shot down 18 U.S. airplanes. He himself was shot down in early 1945 at sea, and was captured by the Austrailians after floating ashore. The book shows a photograph of Mike & Pappy happily posing together at a WWII veterans reunion dinner. (But Mr. Kawato said that Pappy didn't find much humor to Kawato's book title, a devilish play on Pappy's squadron's name: "Baa Baa Black Sheep.") Mr. Kawato describes his training in becoming a fighter pilot, details his various air battles, how he was shot down, how he was later employed by the Japanese Self-Defense Air Force, JAL, and how in 1976 be flew solo from Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Seattle. I met Mr. Kawato in 1995 in Seattle, where he said that he went to a vanity publisher -- which explains why there are different type sizes throughout the book. As Mr. Kawato spoke fair English, he wrote this book; but he should have asked an English speaker to have edited the book before publishing it -- just a little stilted English at times (but a lot better than my Japanese). A rare book written by a WWII Japanese air "ace", especially from the guy who shot down the U.S. Marines Corps' greatest air ace.

Bruce Gamble's account on the History of the famed VMF-214 provides a detailed look into the lives of Marine fighter pilots during the Pacific War in WWII. From the formation of the squadron thru to it's most recent history, you really get a sense of what it must have been like. This book is a perfect companion to Boyington's, Baa Baa Black Sheep or Frank Walton' s, Once They Were Eagles. Gamble's extensive research includes numerous interviews with surviving members of 214. Having read Boyington's and Walton's books, I expected that Gamble would address the 'story telling' that Boyington was know for, and he does. The Black Sheep were not the bunch of untried misfits that they have been made out to be and Gamble goes the distance in clearing that up. My only problem with his work is that, at times, he seems to take pleasure in proving out Boyington to be a liar. I think most of us would accept that Boyington was telling his story, as he saw it. Certainly he added details to 'enhance' his exploits in the war, but so what? Gamble is right to point out differences when he sees them but the final judgement should be with the reader. Greg Boyington has been credited with 28 air victories during the war. Gamble, and others, have shown that three of his Flying Tiger kills did not likely take place, fair enough. Gamble goes further to say that Boyington's final two victorys should also not count since they were not witnessed, or supported by Japanese records. If that requirement was applied to other aces of the war then there scores would suffer as well. It is enough to say that Boyington most likely had 25 kills, but has claimed and been credited for 28. Let the man rest in peace. Once you get past that, Bruce Gamble's book is a must read for WWII aviation fans.

While working on my senior seminar paper for my History degree, I used two of Bruce Gamble's books, this one and Black Sheep One. I found both books great resources and loaded with interesting facts and attention to detail. These books helped me earn an "A" in the class and on the paper itself. Great books for the time period and anyone interested in the Blacksheep.