Michael > Recent Status Updates

I love it, but I’m unable to finish it due to a sudden change in location and health issues. I will finish it if I can get another copy.

It won't let you go!
This goes well beyond anything a few movies could throw at you. The author dug deep because it goes way past a sad story about the untimely death of a young ex-WWII Marine. He wasn't simply killed by too much drinking. It was much more. There were social, racial, and economic factors also linked to his demise.

Author Tom Holt is a Native American Marine veteran of Vietnam, which further enhanced the depth here in Ira Hayes. The background around Hayes also educates people on the old, and modern, Native American situation.

“Many elected officials see public office as a business enterprise,” hits the reader right between the eyes on the very top of p, 95. That encapsulates a lot of it, but the juicy details get hotter right away. Author Peter Schweizer doesn’t just play his investigations with the big name politicians, he addresses local government, and lobbying, too.

Fast-moving and exciting. This is top level journalism, and it’s something we don’t see everyday, anymore. Author Peter Schweizer seems to be showing some serious guts here. We need more like him.

It has a continuous flow, and I checked out the large print version, and that’s a great help to my reading speed. There is a lot of death brought on by these opioids such as OxyContin, a term repeated many times. It is loaded with intriguing side bars, which all add up in the big picture here.

It was beginning to read a bit like “We Were Soldiers Once, and Young,” with the death toll rising from the explosive use of corporate drugs. Then I read into some serious war-like content agreeing with the war similarity on p. 225.

Hard to put down. I have/had a copy at home, but did not get a chance to start reading until a week ago in the local library here in Metter. Today, I picked it up again, and had to face reality and check it out. Great continuity, and very interesting.

The U.S. Army won the main Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, but there was some more fighting afterward, and the results weren’t as good. And, both were at a heavy price for both sides.

Getting lost in a battle zone is not a good thing, but it happens, anyway. And some survive. A soldier from South Carolina got lost for a few days and nights keyed on every sound and movement around him. He also battled all those creepy crawly things that bite in the night when you can’t see them.

Author Dan Jones intrigues the hell out of me, and I’d really like to do, or hear, a Q&A with him. His research, writing, and empathy with the reader are on my mind. Today I had the pleasant surprise of stumbling upon a relative in Chapter 25: Lord Edward Charlton of Powys led a group that captured fugitive John Oldcastle.

It just reads continuously, and interestingly so well that I hate to put it down for any reason. Some of the names are thought-provoking, too. Names like Tiptoft, Broadmore, Beauchamp, and a few others make me want to keep my copy close by for reference in future fiction writing. It’s a really enjoyable book.

In this format it reads very easily and a lot like modern U.S. politics with its personality, event, and political weight coverage. I’m learning a lot fast, and encountering new aspects of office holding, as well as historical basics in England.

This strategy to write in present tense could push the book Henry V to enormous success. I’ve always enjoyed history, anyway, but this content is a lot more likeable.
Henry V’s later teen years were filled with very intense preparation for his eventual kingship, which quickens as his father’s health see-saws prior to his death.

Henry V picks up fast as it moves into the secession of one king to another, and we can clearly see the young Henry edging ever closer to the thrown himself. There’s some serious drama when he stops an arrow with his face in the Battle of Shrewsbury.

The continuity is nice, smooth, and one of the first things you notice.

Magnificent. Author Dan Jones takes the reader into an empathetic path by breaking the supposed rules and writes in present tense whenever possible. I have problems setting my review copy down.

Very intense. One can easily understand that no one not trained cannot stomach such grizzly combat, and even those with the training are likely to have nightmares for years to come.

Very different publication style from most books.

Very different from most others in format.

Quite active in content, and descriptions from the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. Too many casualties, but credit is due to the soldiers and their efforts in this very hard-fought battle.

The battle begins. Action, and page turning picks up dramatically.
I wasn't in Vietnam, but going back to that time isn't easy. I still vividly remember a young man's face shortly before he shipped out for the war on the other side of the then nearby Pacific. He later drowned in the Mekong Delta. There were others I knew much less, but this one was a friend of the family. Years later I found his name on the wall.

Both sides of the battle are presented here, and that’s something not always seen in this genre.

It reads differently from most other books, written in first-person. Co-Author Joe Galloway explains how he wound up with a gun in his hand. Abnormal for a journalist, and still controversial in many journalism schools still. I was asked in grad school in London if I would. I had to think about my answer first. I would certainly rather not, but I haven’t been in combat.

I like the battlefield graphics found at the front of the book. Right away, you get a sense of the scale for most of the central story.

It gets better toward the end. It seemed to be on autopilot briefly with the ongoing games between the brothers Lafitte, and those trying to be in authority in the new state of Louisiana. The Lafitte enterprises extended to helping found civilization onto Galveston in 1818, replacing a temporary camp that had been there for a short while. A brief non-government French settlement on the Texas side of the Sabine.

This definitely illustrates that older brother Pierre was very often the brains, or the chief facilitator in the numerous dealings of the Lafittes -- and there were plenty of them.
However, Jean was the boss of early Galveston while both were spies for Spain, fighting against Latin American insurgents. That didn't last but a few years until Spanish authorities tired of Lafitte-style gamesmanship. Intrigue was thick.

Some of the chapters are too long, and more maps would help. It can be hard to imagine, unless you’ve been down in the bayou country. Terrific research, however.

Lots of detail, but focused on the subject of the brothers, and their adventures. Details of the Battle of New Orleans are probably best read elsewhere, but the locals made good use of the waterways, and the British lacked adequate bayou knowledge.