Book Reviews

Title: The Tug of War: 48 Classic Stories About War & Peace
Author: Susan Ives, Editor
Genre: Fiction, Collection
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 144958036X

The 48 stories collected here cover the full scope of war -- from the first three stories which analyze how children are introduced to war to the last three, which dwell on death. In between, there is everything else: the battlefield and the home front, bravery and cowardice, despair and elation, victory and defeat. There are stories that will make you laugh out loud and stories that will haunt your dreams and make you weep. Some will have you nodding your head in recognition, others may have you shaking you head in perplexity or distaste. Here's the rub: your stories and my stories are apt to be different stories. Each of us brings to the reading our own experiences and our own beliefs about the way the world works. Buried within every war story is the germ of a peace story. And buried within each peace story is the germ of a war story. Stories included are:

Sherwood Anderson: War Leonid Andreyev: A Story Which Will Never Be Finished Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews: The Russian T.S. Arthur: A Noble Act Mikhail Petrovich Artzybashev: The Revolutionist L. Frank Baum: Gen. Jinjur's Army of Revolt Rex Ellingwood Beach, The City of Beggars Ambrose Bierce: Chickamagua George A. Birmingham: Civilized War Joseph Conrad: The Warrior's Soul, The Tale Stephen Crane: The Second Generation, The Upturned Face, A Mystery of Heroism, The Sergeant's Private Madhouse Richard Harding Davis: The Deserter Lord Dunsany: A Deed of Mercy, The Oases of Death, England Oliver Goldsmith: The Disabled Soldier O. Henry: Two Renegades William Dean Howells: Editha Stephen Leacock: An Interview with General Bernhardi, War Mania of Mr. Jinks & Mr. Blinks Jack London: The Unparalleled Invasion Amy Lowell: Lead Soldiers, The Bombardment, The Allies Arthur Machen: The Bowmen Katherine Mansfield: An Indiscreet Journey A.E.W. Mason: The Deserter Guy de Maupassant: Boule de Suif, The Horrible, Father Milon, Two Friends Alfred Noyes: Rada: A Drama Of War In One Act Forbes Phillips & R. Thurston Hopkins: The White Comrade Luigi Pirandello: War Saki: The Toys Of Peace, Reginald's Peace Poems, The Cupboard Of The Yesterdays Jonathan Swift: The Country of the Houyhnhnms Mark Twain: Luck, The European War, The War Prayer Henry Van Dyke: The Hero and Tin Soldiers, A Dialogue On Peace Between A Householder And A Burglar, The Broken Soldier and the Maid of France

Title: Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary
Author: T.H.E. Hill
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: John R. R. Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1434839737

Synopsis of the book, submitted by the author.

Title: Mercenary's Tale: Fighting Fidel Castro
Author:William Heuisler
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Joyce Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1439211906

A short-timer Marine is recruited from Quantico Marine Base by the CIA into anti-Castro, "Operation Mongoose" to train Cuban refugees on raids into Cuba. The condensed, but true story explores political intrigue and often sinister characters in turbulent, bloody South Florida during the early sixties. Hints of betrayal complicate rescue missions and an unlikely love affair adds further tension. Readers are led through a bizarre world where ambush is only the dawn of misfortune, and where the horrors of combat, shipwreck, starvation and worse become commonplace. The saga of bravery, betrayal, personal heartache and bittersweet retribution is completed as friends give the ultimate sacrifice and the U.S. Government indicts its own mercenaries.

Title: The Shenadoah Spy
Author: Francis Hamit
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1595959025

This is a fiction based upon the real life of Belle Boyd , who became famous as The Rebel Spy and The Cleopatra of the Secession. This is the first novel in a series about the Confederate Secret Service and the women who worked for it. The time is July 1861. Belle, a 17 year old debutante, is alarmed and distressed when her home town , Martinsburg, Virginia, is invaded by volunteer Union Army troops. The man she'd hoped to marry has been killed in battle. When drunken Union soldiers invade her home, dire consequences ensue.

Title: Child Finder Revelation
Author: Mike Angley
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1590957547

Child Finder: Revelation is the highly-anticipated conclusion to the Child Finder Trilogy. The Library Journal called the series first novel, Child Finder, a compelling debut novel, and, a real find, and placed it on its prestigious Summer Reads List for 2009. Both the debut novel and the trilogy s second story, Child Finder: Resurrection, earned national level book awards. In Child Finder: Revelation, United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Patrick O Donnell faces his most challenging and life-threatening mission. North Korean terrorists stage a brazen attack on the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, stealing his twin daughters in the assault. The eight-year-old girls are powerful psychics with amazing extrasensory gifts, and it is clear that the North Koreans abducted them because of these abilities. Only one man can rescue them. Patrick O Donnell is the government s top agent with his own psychic abilities...skills crucial to finding the Ambassador s daughters deep inside North Korea. From the outset of the operation, O Donnell senses there is much more about these girls that goes unspoken. Head nods. Winks. Secrets shared between his boss, the President of the United States, and the Vatican. These are all signs of a mystery to which he is not privy. One thing is made clear in abundance: he must rescue the girls and bring them back to America with an urgency he has never experienced before. He seeks guidance and counsel in his Catholic faith, and during his recitation of the Holy Rosary, the Virgin Mary speaks to him. Her words carry as much seriousness about the rescue as his conversations with his mentor and the President. The one thing the Mother of God seems unwilling to tell him; however, is whether or not he will come back from his mission alive. Will Agent O Donnell be successful in rescuing the Ambassador's daughters? If so, will he return with them to see his family again? Will he be able to unravel the intrigue between the Oval Office and the Vatican? Other than their obvious psychic abilities, what makes the twins so special that their rescue consumes Washington, DC and Rome? Perhaps O Donnell will receive a revelation that will explain it all...and if he does, it may be something he wishes he never knew.