Chapter Adventure Reading Challenges discussion

September - This month's motif (theme) is "Based in Truth".

Read a book based on real life events.

Share with us! What book did you read and what did you think of it.

September - This month's motif (theme) is "Based in Truth". Read a book based on real life events.

Challenge Complete: To Wake the Giant: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Jeff Shaara

Shaara is a past master at bringing history to life. His novels dealing with the Civil War made it an especial interest of mine. World War II was already on my radar, but this novel really brought it, and especially the attack on Pearl Harbor, into focus. While many of the characters were real people, even those who were not were crafted from the first person accounts of several enlisted sailors present at the attack.

These characters, real and imagined, especially those stationed at Pearl Harbor, make the novel. We come to know the men as they go about their daily lives, unaware of what is to come.

I don’t think I’ve read a novel about the attack that was so vivid. It made what many of the men experienced more real. It also laid to rest many of the conspiracies that surround the attack. That the US was so unprepared, and so sure of Japan’s military inabilities, seem to have been the main reasons that the attack was so successful.

The book I chose was a true-crime story, Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father by April Balascio. This was a tough read, but well written. We got to see all sides of the monster the author had to call “Dad”. My review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...