Book Reviews

Title: For Love of Country
Author: William Hammond
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Stephen Phillips

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 159114373X

The novel opens with the capture of the Cutler merchant brig Eagle by Barbary pirates. Young Caleb Cutler and his shipmates are taken as prisoners to Algiers. Richard Cutler is sent to North Africa to pay the ransom demanded by the Dey of Algiers to free his brother and the others. After the dey rejects the ransom, Richard must defend his family's fortune from Algerian pirates who try to take it by force. Victorious in a fierce battle at sea, Richard travels to Paris to report to John Paul Jones, his former naval commander, who will serve as America's emissary to the Barbary States. In Paris, amid the tumult of the French Revolution, Richard engages in a desperate attempt to save his former lover, the beautiful Anne-Marie Helvetian, and her two young daughters from the guillotine.

Title: Shall Never See So Much
Author: Gerald Gillis
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fictioin
Reviewer: Gail Chatfield

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1609101316

Shall Never See So Much is the story of a brother and sister in the epochal year 1968. The story is told from the point of view of Chicago-natives Tom and Kate Flanagan. Calm, thoughtful Tom Flanagan is a young U.S. Marine lieutenant serving as a platoon leader in Vietnam at the time of the momentous Tet Offensive. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, high-spirited, activist Kate Flanagan accepts a job on the staff of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy as RFK begins his ill-fated quest for the presidency. The previously close relationship between the brother and sister is severely strained over their respective positions on the war, and their discord only serves to heighten the anxieties felt by the entire Flanagan family. Tom’s own survival is threatened by the heavy fighting he experiences, especially during the Battle of Hue. Shall Never See So Much is a story of heroism and triumph.

Title: David & the Mighty Eight
Author: Marjorie Hodgson Parker
Genre: Fiction, Children, Young Adult
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1931721939

A young British boy, David Freeman, is caught in the cruelty of WWII from the time he is 10 until he is 15 years old. Evacuated from his war-torn London home during the Blitz, devastated by the news that his father, a Royal Air Force pilot, is missing in action, and determined to become a man, David seeks what it takes to have courage. Based on a true story, this historical fiction recounts David's adventures and the forging of his friendship with an American pilot, Tex, and his crew. The friendly airmen with the Eighth Air Force give David hope when Hitler's Nazis seem unstoppable. This coming-of-age account teaches that despite the horrors of war, good can be found in the worst of times, and it is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.

Title: Victory Road
Author: Mark Bowlin
Genre: Fiction, Historical Event
Reviewer: Lee Boyland

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1933651903

Victory Road is the second book in the award-winning Texas Gun Club series. It's the fall of 1943: The Allied Advance up the Italian Peninsula has ground to a halt, and the prospect of taking Rome before Christmas seems more distant than ever. In their first action since Salerno, First Lieutenant Sam Taft and the soldiers of Able Company are sent to wrest a lonely stretch of road from the German defenders--the Italians call it Highway 6, but the boys of the Texas Gun Club know it as Victory Road. As Sam slugs it out in the valley, somewhere beyond the highway high up in the mountains, his cousin, Captain Perkin Berger struggles against harsh elements and murderous German intelligence agents in his quest to be the first American into San Pietro.

Title: Faith Deployed…Again: More Daily Encouragement for Military Wives
Author: Jocelyn Green
ISBN: 0-8024-5251-5
Genre: Non-Fiction Sub-Category: Spiritual/Religious
Reviewed by: Ron Camarda

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0802452515

Synopsis of the book, submitted by the author.