The History Book Club discussion

August

12. by Gar Wilson (no photo)
Finish date: August 1, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: Decent action story that seemed to end rather quickly. The final engagements happened very quickly ending the book.

13. by Gar Wilson (no photo)
Finish date: August 18, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C+
Review: This was a good, action packed book. It provided something new in this book, a romantic involvement for one of the Phoenix Force team, including a short sex scene. The sex scene was not overly detailed and not graphic for the younger audiences. But, this did show more development on the personal side for Gary Manning. Previously, we only saw David McCarter waking up in bed with a woman and leaving her, but there wasn't much to hint that this was a long-term relationship.
While, this relationship was short and ended tragically, it will have lasting effects on Gary Manning, maybe.

September

14. by Glenn Beck & Justin Trask Haskins (no photo)
Finish date: September 6, 2024
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This is a very scary book about the future of America and the dangers if we continue on this path towards a Socialist Government. The evidence is clear and overwhelming that the Democrats have been co-opted by Globalist Socialists who want to control the lives of everyone in the World. If you really want to know where we're headed, you need to read this. If you want to remain ignorant, then read a book written by a Democrat.

15. by Gar Wilson (no photo)
Finish date: September 13, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: The Nazi's are back and they are working with terrorists from the Baader-Meinhof gang! This book did provide an interesting mystery as well as an interesting piece of history involving an infamous Nazi hunter patterned after Simon Wiesenthal.

16. by Brad Thor
Finish date: September 16, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: A great short story in the Harvath franchise.

Great progress, David.

October

17. by Audie Murphy
Finish date: October 3, 2024
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: This is a great first-hand account of WWII combat by Audie Murphy. His story is amazing. Murphy was in so many actions where he took incredible risks to protect and save his men.
This book is written like a novel with interesting characters, giving the reader something on each of Murphy's soldiers that we can identify with and differentiate them from each other. This makes you sorry as they are killed and/or wounded. You are truly sad to see their fates. It's even sadder when you realize that these are representations of thousands of Americans who never came home.

18. by David A. Smith
Finish date: October 21, 2024
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: A
Review: This was a great biography and a great compliment to Audie Murphy's own book. The author provides more than just details on Murphy's life, he also gets into the emotional trauma that Murphy suffered due to his service in the War. This was a time when there weren't resources for returning vets to get help to process the events they went through and the sights they witnessed.
This book also covers Murphy's film career, business ventures, and personal relationships. It appeared that just when he was starting to get to a better place in his life, his life ended in a plane crash.

19. by John Lange
Finish date: October 28, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton and I've read all of his books, with the exception of these early novels under pseudonyms and his non-fiction books.
This novel was an interesting story that is still very topical about the dangers of chemicals created for War and the safeguarding of them. The story is dated in it's technology, but is still provides an interesting mystery. Not the best novel by Crichton, but you can see hints of how he developed later into an excellent storyteller.

Very interesting books, David.

20. by John Lange
Finish date: October 31, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: The mystery was very interesting always keeping you off balance while slowing filling in the clues. The ending wrap-up was very quick and some elements were predictable. The settings were interesting and as always gives a history fan like encouragement to look up these stories and locations and read more about the history.
I'm now more interested in reading the rest of these mysteries.

November

21. by John Lange
Finish date: November 24, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This was a decent book, but the story was very complex and complicated. So, you had to keep a lot of details straight in order to understand the plot of the villains involving arms shipments.
Other than that, the story moves fast and is interesting in itself even if you don't understand the villain's scheme that is going on.
This wasn't the best book of Crichton's Hard boiled mysteries, but was entertaining.

Great progress this year, David.
We will continue our books for 2025 on this thread. Thank you and Happy New Year.

December

22. by R.L. Crossland
Finish date: December 16, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review:

January

1. by Michael Seth Starr (no photo)
Finish date: January 23, 2025
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: I enjoy almost everything Shatner does, TV, Movies, Music and Books. I've read the two "Memories" autobiographies that Shatner wrote in the 90s, so much of this book covered ground that I've already read about. We get a little extra information from news reports and interviews with others to add to what Shatner already revealed in his books.
It wasn't until after the Star Trek VI, that this book entered new territory for me and it was very interesting. This was the first time I've heard about the lawsuits that Shatner was involved with and his marriages as Shatner did not discuss them in his early autobiographies.
This book was very interesting and a great read for those who want to learn about Shatner and don't want to read the five or six autobiographies that Shatner has written. This book covers a lot of ground through 2018. There aren't any new revelations that will shock the reader, but does highlight some great TV and film projects that the reader may not have seen that are worth seeking out.
All in all, a great book. It is sad that Shatner would not consent to an interview with the author, as this would have added much. But, since Shatner himself puts out a book every few years, we get his side of the story updated often.

February

2. by Arch Fredric Blakey (no photo)
Finish date: February 24, 2025
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This book is interesting but feels too long for the amount of interesting information available. The author covers Winder's family history and Civil War career through his administration of Richmond in 1863, then goes back to cover his West Point years and pre-Civil War service. This bogs down the narrative of Winder and I began to lose interest around this point of the book.
This book would be most interesting to those really intersted in how the Confederacy handled the influx and management of Prisoners in the Confederacy. The book's main purpose is achieved, as it does present a great defense of Winder. The author dismantles the claims that Winder actively tried to kill prisoners of war or was excessively harsh to prisoners.
In reality, this book shows that Winder was an honorable and decent man who went above and beyond to care for the prisoners as best as he was able given the resources he had. He never was given the authority required to his job, even if he had the material to care for his charges. As the Confederacy neared it's end, food, clothing, and medicines became impossible to come by leading to some of the highest death rates in the worst prisons.

March

3. by Michael Crichton writing as Jeffery Hudson (no photo)
Finish date: March 5, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C
Review: This was an interesting story, if a bit dated in technology but not in the issue it talks about. This is a book about Abortion and a mystery of the death of the woman who had it. The issue of Abortion is still a hotly contested issue and Crichton touches it carefully.
I found the mystery to be engaging through to the reveal. As for the discussion on Abortion, that was also interesting. I had to remind myself that this book was written in 1968, which was before the 1973 landmark case Roe V. Wade. Some of the discussions here become moot as that case changed a lot.
All in all a very good book and interesting to read this compared to Crichton's later massive success as a writer.

4. by William Shatner
Finish date: March 26, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This was an interesting story about a future colony on Mars. I really enjoyed the mystery and intrigues that our hero has to uncover in order to resolve the dispute on Mars while finding out who is also trying to kill him and save his home.
Some of the major events were resolved too quickly via a time-lapse and then a quick recap of how the event ended. I would have liked to see the resolution despite this lengthening the book. That said, I enjoyed the characters, the story and the mystery. I look forward to reading the second, and final, book in this series.
I've been enjoying going back and reading William Shatner's early novels as they do give a glimpse into Shatner's non-Star Trek Sci-Fi interests.

April

5. by James W. Raab (no photo)
Finish date: April 13, 2025
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I went into this book knowing very little of W.W. Loring other than the fact that he was from Florida, and was looking forward to reading about someone who hopefully lived an interesting life.
The author did a fine job here writing a book that was enjoyable to read and interesting. Loring had a long military career and lived an interesting life. This book was well-written and not dry.
Loring was a very good combat officer who served in many of the major campaigns and battles in the western theater through the end of the Civil War. He never wavered in his commitment despite knowing the end of the Confederacy was near.
This is a well done tribute to Loring preserving his exploits and what is available about him for future generations.

May

6. by William Shatner
Finish date: May 1, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review: This was a great follow-up to the first book with a grander story that involved more action on places other than Mars. It also ends with a huge space battle which was a great finale. The one sad part of this story is Shatner sidelines Dina Martel for a new love interest in this book. After all of the good raport built up between Martel and Hawkes in the first book, we lose the potential to build on that in this book. While I liked the character of Elizabeth Truman, I would have liked more of Martel in this book. Including Martel back into the story at some point would have increased the tension for Hawke's love triangle which is a staple of many stories.
All in all a very entertaining follow-up and the beginning of opening the story up to more interesting options that we sadly will never see.

7. by T. Harrell Allen (no photo)
Finish date: May 31, 2025
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: B
Review: I've read the biography of Stephen Dodson Ramseur and Bryan Grimes served in the same Brigade and Division as Ramseur. A lot of this will be familiar to those who read the great biography by Gary W. Gallagher.
Grimes' particular claim to fame is that he was the last officer promoted to Major General in the Army of Northern Virginia. This book covers Grimes life and story very well through many of his letters that have survived. There are some blindspots as Grimes would routinely destroy letters he received so they weren't captured by the enemy.
The most interesting part of the story and nothing I knew of, was that Grimes was murdered in 1880. It was a surprise as Grimes never got involved in politics and rarely spoke of politics in his letters.

June

8. by Robert A. Heinlein
Finish date: June 6, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B
Review:

9. by Kyle Mills
Finish date: June 11, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C+
Review: