Six Weeks That Changed the War and World

Preston, Diana.  A Higher Form of Killing: Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the
         Nature of Warfare.  NY: Bloomsbury Press, 2015.  ISBN: 978-1-62040-212-2

Diana Preston takes three seemingly unrelated events of 1915 to weave a tale that is a thrilling, informative, and interesting history.  Generally the first use of poison gas, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the bombing of London by Zeppelins are examined as singular events, but  Preston demonstrates how these events were catalysts in overturning long-held views on the conduct of war, a flouting of the Hague Conventions rules of war, and an escalation of scientific warfare that continues to resonate today.

In A Higher Form of Killing, each episode is examined in the context of the war and in relation to the other two episodes.  The main characters are introduced, the science behind the weapons is examined and then a recounting of the event using first person perspectives when and where available.  Finally, the author looks at the lasting effects each event had on the rest of the war and on future wars and conflicts.

Preston manages to balance her look at the three separate events by combining these acts of German aggression into an examination of how the world thinks of weapon systems before, during, and after the First World War.  Read A Higher Form of Killing and make up your mind regarding her thesis.

A Higher Form of Killing

Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-higher-form-of-killing-9781620402122/#sthash.47mGrhTd.dpuf

A Higher Form of Killing

Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-higher-form-of-killing-9781620402122/#sthash.47mGrhTd.dpuf

A Higher Form of Killing

Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-higher-form-of-killing-9781620402122/#sthash.47mGrhTd.dpuf

A Higher Form of Killing

Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-higher-form-of-killing-9781620402122/#sthash.47mGrhTd.dpuf

Not Quite Another Bulge Book

Caddick-Adams, Peter.  Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge 1944-45.  New York: Oxford
        University Press, 2015.  ISBN: 978-0-19-933514-5

With Snow and Steel,  Peter Caddick-Adams adds another volume to the multitude that have been written on the most recognized battles fought by the U.S. Army in World War II.  However, if you are new to the Battle of the Bulge, do not start with Snow and Steel, rather hunt up and read Battle: The Story of the Bulge by John Toland or A Time for Trumpets by Charles B. MacDonald.  Either of these books do a better job of placing events in context across the battlefield. 

Peter Caddick-Adams provides plenty of proof in the  the first fourteen chapters to convince the reader that Hitler started thinking and planning for a West Front offensive as early as September 1944 during the time of Operation Market-Garden and to set the stage for the battle.  He then proceeds in the next twenty-two chapters to narrate the shifting fortunes of the the Allies and the Germans during the course of the battle.  He then finishes the book with two chapters summarizing the end of World War II on the Western Front, followed by a chapter discussing previous Battle of the Bulge books and finishes with a look at the historical reputations of many of the Battle of the Bulge participants.

Snow and Steel gets high marks for the drawing attention to the planning Hitler and his staff did before the offensive.  The book also gets high marks for the use of German sources and narrators.  However, while the setting is superb, the battle description is disjointed with abrupt switches of locations within chapters with little or no transition and  a disturbing habit in listing all battle participants who were famous or became famous (Jimmy Stewart for one, Henry Kissinger, for another) whether they played a relevant role in the battle or not.  This disconnect and the fact that almost half-the book does not deal with the battle is why this book is recommended for those who feel the need to read every book about the Battle of the Bulge or really want to know what the latest theories are related to the battle.  Novices should look elsewhere!

For Whom Doth The Rebels Yell?

Gwynne, S. C.  Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson.  New
       York: Scribner, 2014.  ISBN: 978-1-4516-7328-9

Are you interested in Thomas J Jackson's life and military endeavors?  Then you picked the right book to inform your curiosity, inflame your historical passion and detail a mosaic of "Stonewall" Jackson in a short 600+ pages.  S. C. Gwynne provides a biography that covers the whole life of Jackson but not in chronological order.   

Rebel Yell opens with Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson stealing a march on Union forces as he entrains his army and moves to join Lee outside Richmond in 1862. The author then skips back to the opening of the war and narrates events through the First Battle of Manassas/Bull Run.  Another backward time jump covers Jackson's early life, his Army career including his Mexican War exploits and his tenure as VMI professor.  The narrative then meanders enticingly through Jackson's Valley campaign, his lack-luster leadership before Richmond, his brilliance at Second Manassas and his solid performance at Antietam and Fredericksburg.  The last part (Part Five) covers the Winter of 1863 and Jackson's final performance at Chancellorsville.

S. C Gwynne provides a very solid biography of Jackson without hero-worship that allows the reader access to the military leader and the man behind the reputation.  He combines eye witness accounts, newspaper stories, diaries, official reports and other sources to document the tale of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.  Rebel Yell is well worth reading for both pleasure and insight.

A look at the man, not the music.

Suchet, John.  Beethoven: The Man Revealed.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013.
        ISBN: 978-0-8021-2206-3

Ludwig van Beethoven is a renowned classical musical composer.  That is common knowledge, but not so commonly known is his talent as a gifted musician, mainly the piano, and as man who had to overcome numerous obstacles before he achieved success. 

John Suchet opens with Beethoven's background, exploring his grandfather's and father's careers as musicians in Bonn, Germany before spending four chapters on his early life, training and musical beginnings as a composer and player.  With Chapter 5, Beethoven arrives in Vienna where he worked on taking the city by storm as a player and then a composer.  Beethoven grew in fame for his compositions while growing in notoriety for his peculiarities which were partially due to his working habits and partially due to his growing deafness.  His family interactions did not help him in regard to his health or his notoriety.  In the end, his death came as a climax of a tale of endurance and achievement.

Suchet, a presenter on Britain's Classics FM station, provides the general public a readable life of Ludwig van Beethoven.  As the sub-heading hints, Suchet concentrates on Beethoven the man rather than Beethoven the composer. Suchet writes a life of Beethoven that weaves in his compositions with the woof of his everyday life.  The reader learns the circumstances under which a composition was created and performed, allowing a glimpse at Beethoven's creative process.  However, Suchet is not above speculating in certain areas such as a meeting with Mozart that may have included a private performance when there is no firm evidence.  Suchet does provide a list of sources for further exploration and his ideal discography of Beethoven's music which he cheerfully admits is biased by his taste in performance.  In the end, Beethoven: The Man Revealed is worth reading by the general public who want to understand the man behind the music.

A "New" Hope?

Zoglin, Richard.  Hope: Entertainer of the Century.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.
        ISBN: 978-1-4391-4027-7

Bob Hope died in July 2003 at the age of 100.  In Bob Hope: Entertainer of the Century, Richard Zoglin provides the first complete descriptive biography of Leslie Towns Hope (better known as Bob Hope).  In the introduction and 14 chapters, he lays out the evidence that Bob Hope should be considered a seminal figure in American entertainment in the Twentieth century.

Bob Hope began his career in vaudeville in the 1920's and he prospered even as vaudeville was dying.  In the 1930's, he became a star on Broadway, migrated to radio with NBC and then in 1938 became a movie star.  During World War II, he started a career as entertainer for US troops abroad which continued for close to fifty years.  Then, in 1950's Hope started a yearly series of NBC TV specials.  In all these fields Bob Hope excelled, Zoglin postulates due to his hard work, focus on comedy, willingness to change and innovate.  He also focused on the bottom line and was always thinking ahead.

Richard Zoglin focuses on Bob Hope as entertainer, comedian, and businessman, providing a narrative full of plays, movies, and television specials while providing little of the material in the sketches, and movies that made Bob Hope famous.  In large part Zoglin wrote Hope to bring Bob Hope back into the limelight he deserves.  Unfortunately, the narrative makes the case for Hope as a pioneer in multiple fields while almost ignoring Hope the man, the father, and the husband.  Hope in historical context is also missing from the book.  Despite these drawbacks, Zoglin has written a very readable life of Bob Hope that is recommended to anyone wanting to know more of his story.

Wherein We Learn About Fred and Other Tales.

Pratchett, Terry.  A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Nonfiction.  New York: Doubleday, 2014.
        ISBN: 978-0-385-538305

Be forewarned, this is not a collection of Discworld stories, although, that series is frequently mentioned between these covers.   Rather this tome is a collection of nonfiction essays, speeches,  and assorted odds and ends that Terry Pratchett wrote between 1963 and 2011.

In A Slip of the Keyboard, Terry Pratchett has deliberately provided a look into his mind and habits via this entertaining and revealing book. In four sections (A Scribbling Intruder/A Twit and a Dreamer/Days of Rage/And Finally...) Pratchett and company have amassed an eclectic collection of short pieces.  Here you can read short pieces such as "Thought Progress", "Why Gandalf Never Married", or "How to Be a Professional Boxer".  Then, there is "Straight From the Heart, via the Groin",  written in 2004, wherein we learn about "Fred" the ubiquitous worker at a nuclear plant who causes mayhem unwittingly.  You can read some of his early newspaper stories ("The King and I, or How the Bottom Has Dropped Out of the Wise Man Business" for example) or about his collection of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ("Brewer's Boy").  But on of my favorite pieces is "Roots of Fantasy"  which deals with how a lowly garden gnome statue caused the shutdown of a nuclear power plant (also includes the engineers' idea that an abandoned nuclear power plant would make a nifty "cursed tomb").  In the last quarter of the book (Days of Rage), Terry Pratchett has placed articles on his reaction to having Alzheimer's, the National Health System, right to die, orangutans, and schooling.

Throughout the book, the reader gets to peak behind the authorial mask of the creator of Discworld, go book touring with him  and generally hang out with an interesting person.  Recommended for all readers (whether you are a fan already or not).

The Cheese Man Autobiography

Cleese, John.  So, Anyway...  New York: Crown Archetype, 2014.  ISBN: 978-0-385-34824-9

Are you a Monty Python fan?  No, then why are you reading this?  Oh, you want to find out more about the twisted mind that came up with Fawlty Towers, A Fish Called Wanda, and Fierce Creatures?  Well, this tome will help, but beware, it is a long and winding road.

In So, Anyway..., John Cleese breezily writes out a partial tale of his life, speaking directly to the reader in sixteen chapters.  He covers his early life and schooling in some depth and makes it interesting by letting the reader know what shaped him as a comedian and as a man.  Then comes his University life in Cambridge where he met future Monty Python collaborators, got his first taste of performing, got his degree (barely) and then tossed it aside to enter the world  as a writer and performer for the BBC.  The last eight chapters cover Cleese's work, performance, and travel adventures.  Those adventures included being in a musical without being able to sing, touring with the Cambridge Circus in  New Zealand and then America without losing his BBC position, and getting married (for the first time).   Then, Cleese informs the reader on the BBC shows for which he wrote and/or performed in, and the movie scripts he and Graham Chapman worked on writing for Peter Sellers and others. Finally, Cleese describes the coming together of talent which created The Monty Python Show in 1969.  Unfortunately, that is where So, Anyway... ends, right where many folk's interest congregate.  Cleese does provide a postscript chapter that discusses the success of The Monty Python Reunion Show in 2014 revealing how some of the Monty Python sketches were created.  But that is just a teaser for what could be revealed.  Hopefully, John Cleese is busy writing the rest of his story and provide a willing audience his insight on the creation of Fawlty Towers, A Fish Called Wanda and other movies and television shows.