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History

The Rising Tide, by Jeff Shaara

January 20, 2025 by Site Author

This is a novel about many of the high profile characters of WWII involved in Africa and Italy before the Normandy invasion. Rommel is there, Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, Hitler of course, President Roosevelt and many others. A few enlisted men’s stories are there as well and theirs are the ones where death is all around them, seeing their pals and even guys whom they hated blown to pieces. Yet some survived and not necessarily due to any special ability on their part.

This is the second book by the author I have read and although I don’t usually like reading about war, the battles and strategy, this book is interesting. I found myself looking forward to reading the next chapter to find out what happened. And then wondering, if Hitler hadn’t kept Rommel away from Africa just before the invasion of Sicily, would the Allies have prevailed? Maybe not, was my conclusion. I had always heard that Hitler kept his generals from succeeding by interfering with their plans. If he had left them to their jobs the outcome of WWII may have been different. But of course it was not in his nature to allow others to have their opinion. Rommel left Africa apparently to convince Hitler that he did not have the supplies needed to fight any longer, that while Mussolini promised ammunition it was never received in the amounts needed to win. Rommel’s plan was to withdraw his army quickly so that it might fight another day in Italy or Germany. Once he was with Hitler, he was kept nearby as an advisor. Much of the German army did escape into Italy, making the Allied invasion and attack much more difficult than the generals had hoped.

There are several historical events described in the book, most notably Patton’s slapping of a soldier in a hospital for a nervous condition. Patton had no patience for what he considered cowardly behavior and perhaps had the doctors and the press not protested so much this incident might not have cost Patton so dearly. And had Patton not been one of the best campaign generals on the Allied side, he would’ve been dismissed over it. Shaara gives a good indication of Patton’s’ personality so that you can see where he’s coming from, whether you agree with his actions or not. He was very strict, requiring men in full uniform including tie, even in the brutal heat of the African desert.

I’ll look for another one of these books by Jeff Shaara. Maybe he continued this story as many of the survivors of the Africa and Sicily campaigns moved to England to begin preparations for the Normandy invasion.

Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver

May 15, 2024 by Site Author

2018

Willa Knox has inherited her aunt’s house in Vineyard, New Jersey just when her husband has found a teaching job nearby, so she thinks her luck has changed for the better. She’d built a career in the magazine industry as a journalist but the magazines, like all print media, are going under. With her career ended she moves with her husband, his disabled father, and her daughter into the old house and begins repairs. But the contractor who shows up to give her an estimate has bad news, the house’s foundation can’t be fixed. With this bad news comes more, her son Zeke’s wife has taken her own life shortly after giving birth to a baby boy. Willa brings the baby back to her crumbling house and finds herself caring for a grumpy, elderly father-in-law and a new baby who has lost his mother. Quite a career change.

Over a hundred years ago, another family lived on the same corner, maybe even the same house. Thatcher Greenwood has taken a position as a teacher at the local school in the town of Vineyard. The house is falling down around him and his wife Rose, her younger sister Polly, and the girls’ mother. Thatcher is excited about teaching his science classes about the new theories of Charles Darwin. As it happens his neighbor, Mary Treat is in correspondence with Darwin regarding rare species of plants and animals she finds in the countryside nearby. Mary’s husband has deserted her and Thatcher finds in her a reasoning mind similar to his own, a vivid contrast between her and the females of his household. At this time, the city is ruled by a man named Landis, who built the town promising heaven on earth. He has control of most aspects of the city including the school where Thatcher teaches. The schoolmaster demands that Thatcher debate him in front of the community with Landis officiating. Thatcher does very well, having been coached by young Polly and Mary Treat, but there’s really no winning against a man like Landis, whose authority could be threatened by reasoning minds.

Meanwhile, in the current century Willa is trying to find out if Mary Treat lived in her house, hoping that if she did, she can get funding from a historical society to restore it. Mary has gone on to become a noted naturalist after Thatcher Greenwood leaves the area. Willa’s daughter begins to show a very mature interest in her nephew, and the boy’s father has moved to the big city to try to move on past the death of his beloved wife.

Unsheltered reminds us of the value of what we call home, how sometimes the roof over our heads is not where home is, that it may have more to do with the people we are with than any man made structure.

Munich, by Robert Harris

July 5, 2019 by Site Author Leave a Comment

Published 2017, 303 pages

This is another historical novel by the author of Dictator (previously reviewed). It’s about two former Oxford classmates, one English, one German, who now work for their respective governments in the days before a last ditch effort to avert war, the Munich Agreement. Legat, the Englishman, works in the diplomatic corp as private secretary to Chamberlain. His former friend, Hartman, is a staff member in the German Foreign Office. Though the two young men were close during their Oxford years, they haven’t contacted each other in several years. The story gives many interesting details about Chamberlain’s efforts, and the reasoning behind them, to keep the fragile peace between Germany, England, France and Czechoslovakia. Through indirect channels both Hartman and Legat are brought together again during the meeting in Munich between Chamberlain and Hitler. Despite their countries being at the brink of war, the two realize that they have always remained friends. An interesting history of what might have been.

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