Book Reviews

Title: Get Out of the Way
Author: Daniel Dinges
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Joyce Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 161566274X

As Tom Daniels waits to be seen at the nearest VA hospital in 2006, he flashes back to his two years of service during the Vietnam years.

Although he does not support the War in 1968, a "Newsweek" article convinces him that his chances for staying out of combat are good, so he volunteers to be drafted. Just after his first year anniversary in the Army, Tom is ordered to Vietnam, but his Colonel gets his transfer cancelled to keep Tom working as a programmer on base. Tom's best friend deploys instead.
Five months later, after Tom is married, he has a nightmare in which his buddy is wounded in combat. Tom realizes how guilty he feels about his friend shipping out.

Suddenly the reverie is over and it's 2006 again. Tom sees a lone veteran in a wheelchair next to the far wall in the waiting room of the VA Hospital. The vet looks a lot like his long lost buddy.

Title: Cash on Delivery: CIA Special Operations During the Secret War in Laos
Author: Thomas Leo Briggs
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0984105948

Cash on Delivery: CIA Special Operations During the Secret War in Laos is a detailed accounting of a CIA program directed by a CIA operations officer that sent small teams of irregulars behind enemy lines in Laos to find, fix and destroy North Vietnamese Army units, capture NVA soldiers or encourage them to defect, intercept NVA radio communications, and recruit NVA soldiers to spy and report on their comrades.

It is a unique contribution to the history of the Vietnam War describing valuable experiences using surrogates to conduct intelligence and combat operations that have little or no adverse impact on the United States government's relations with the peoples and governments of other nations. An important lesson in the post 9/11 world of countering terrorism all over the globe where we do not have enough American troops to get the job done without political consequences.

The book also describes the daring and dangerous rescue of Raven 42, a U.S. Air Force forward air controller shot down while supporting Lao irregular surrogate forces fighting NVA main force units in Laos, attempts to infiltrate Cambodia to collect intelligence on the North Vietnamese in early 1970, the effort to uncover information about a missing Air America crewman captured in 1963, the tragic fatal crash of an aircraft carrying four of the author's best Thai operational assistants, and the uncovering of a mole hidden in a Royal Lao government military headquarters.

Here are intimate details that have never before appeared in print, recounting the planning and execution of a variety of special operations, conceived and carried out behind enemy lines by the CIA using only Lao irregular surrogates.

The CIA employed surrogates in southern Laos to force the North Vietnamese Army to keep combat units there to defend their logistical supply line rather than send them to fight U.S. and allied forces in South Vietnam. For the duration of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War the CIA succeeded in that goal.

Title: Shuttle Rising; Rendezvous with a Rumor
Author: Charles Boyle
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Sci Fi
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0965721450

In a stealthy space rendezvous, astronaut Adam MacGregor captures a mysterious derelict rumored to be a tomb. His mission hopes to refute the claim that no cosmonaut ever died in orbit, thus emphasizing that Communists lie, routinely, even about their heroes. At stake are wavering votes for "Open Lands," a UN treaty to inspect for weapons of mass destruction. Russia, returned to Communism, denounces the plan, saying: "Our integrity makes inspection unnecessary."

Moscow detects Adam's mission and warns him to retreat. But he presses on and opens the derelict, discovering Ylena and what the Communists have really been hiding: the tragic failure of an intended spectacular propaganda mission in the early days of space flight. As the Communists attack, Adam fights for his life and for a chance at undying love with his aroused enemy. Gravity will kill this revenant if she returns to Earth. After the battle, both nations, wanting her survival secret, prepare forces to capture the couple who, defying orders to land, desperately seek options for an off-Earth future together.

Title: The Cyrus Caper
Author: Karl Boyd
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Reviewer: David Tschanz

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0557091411

In "The Cyrus Caper" - (the second lighthearted crime novel of the "Yes, we 'con'" trilogy), Roger Booth, his partner in crime, Carl James, plus most members of "The Nearly Perfect Plan" gang are running amok, again. This time aboard a cruise ship.
After successfully escaping from prison and eluding the FBI for two years, at the urging of their wives, Maria and Julie, Roger and Carl decide their notoriety has died down sufficiently for them to take a cruise to get away from the boredom of their self-imposed exile in the small Italian town of Reggio de Calabria.

When their "fun" cruise turns out to be a disaster, Roger and Carl make plans to get even with the Cyrus Cruise Lines by hijacking the same ship and robbing the passengers, casino, jewelry boutique and the Purser's office.

During a visit to Spain to requisition a WWII submarine to use for their escape, Roger and Carl are noticed and identified by agents of Interpol, who, in turn, inform the FBI of where their two most wanted fugitives from justice are residing.

In a surprise move, Roger and Carl are given a chance to complete their plans under the supervision of their old nemesis, FBI agent Jake Polk in hopes of capturing a most wanted Middle East terrorist.

The pair of con men agrees to assist the law, but true to his nature, Roger has other more devious plans. Double and triple crosses abound in the rollicking tale of deception, scheming and subterfuge. As always, with Roger and Carl, nothing is as it seems.

Title: Margaret Mahler: A biography of the psychoanalyst
Author: Alma Bond
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
Reviewer: Buddy Cox

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0786433558

Margaret Mahler was from a young age intrigued by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Hungarian psychoanalysts such as Sandor Ferenzci, with whom she became acquainted while a student in Budapest. Forced to flee Europe and rising anti-Semitism, Margaret and her husband, Paul, came to the United States in 1938. It was after this move that Mahler performed her most significant research and developed concepts such as the ground-breaking theory of separation-individuation, an idea which was given credence by Mahler's own relationship with her father.

This volume details the life and work of Margaret Mahler focusing on her life's ambition--her psychoanalytical work. Her experiences with the Philadelphia Institute and her definitive research through the Masters Children's Clinic are also discussed.

USA Book News Best Books Award Finalist and Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award Finalist