Historical

Title: Hamfist Over The Trail
Author: George Nolly
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Edward Cox

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0975436236

It's 1968. Hamilton Hancock is on the fast track to become a fighter pilot. He is slated to fly an F-100, F-105 or F-4 in Vietnam. Then, the "needs of the service" intervenes, and he is assigned to fly one of the smallest, slowest aircraft in the Air Force inventory, the O-2A. Hamilton becomes a Forward Air Controller (FAC) in Vietnam, and picks up the nickname "Hamfist". While Hamfist flies in air combat over the Ho Chi Minh Trail and battles an enemy gunner with a deadly record, on the ground he must also battle his inner fears and personal demons. Inspired by actual events. Contains strong language.

Title: My Corps: Short Stories and Reflections
Author: Gene Rackovitch
Genre: Short Story Collection
Reviewer: C.J. Prince

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1470135477

Mr. Rackovitch gives you his fears and joys in his short stories about the Marine Corps. There is humor and pathos in his recollections. There is also underlying feeling of pride in the men who gave all they had to their country in time of need. He reminisces and draws from memory as he creates both good and evil from that association. From the beginnings in boot camp through the training and the final cessations of hostilities he draws you into the life style and espirt de-Corp of the United States Marines.

Title: Island of the Phoenix
Author: Vic Mills
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: John Monteith

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0985252308

Same war, different enemy... Captain Michael Hollands, United States Army Air Corps, is a combat-hardened pilot, battling Nazi fighter planes for control of the skies over North Africa. His life is difficult and sometimes it's brutal, but he understands his place in the world, and he understands the rules. Then an unexpected change of orders yanks him out of familiar surroundings, and sends him half-way around the world to fight the Japanese in the South Pacific. Shuffled to an obscure air base in the Solomon Islands, he discovers that his assigned unit has transferred to a new operating area, taking their aircraft with them. Without planes or official sanction, Hollands must beg, borrow, and steal to build a fighter squadron that will take the war to the enemy's doorstep. But nothing can prepare him for what happens when he crash-lands on an unnamed island behind Japanese lines. Marooned among a handful of heroic survivors, he is about to discover the true meaning of loyalty, patriotism, courage, and love. The Japanese Imperial Navy has no idea what's in store for it. And neither does Mike Hollands...

Title: Pretty Much True
Author: Kristen Tsetsi
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982782268

"I smell yoru shirt sometimes, but not foten," Mia writes, those slurred keyboard strokes the only connection to her deployed boyfriend, whom she sees everywhere and nowhere in their small military town. A former English professor, Mia passes the time working as a cab driver, mulling over the intricacies of her encounters with others who are affected by the war: her dramatic future mother in-law, who eats bad news for breakfast; a charismatic alcoholic who may have been a medic in Vietnam; a pragmatic but secretive longtime Army wife; and a soldier who found a way to stay home. Pretty Much True... is the war story that's seldom told-the loss and love in every hour of deployment, and a painfully intimate portrait of lives spent waiting in the spaces between.

Title: The Rule of Ranging 1: Eclipse of the Midnight Sun (Volume 1)
Author: Timothy M. Kestrel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Dick Geschke

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0615730086

Even those waging the fiercest battles just hew to hard fast rules that separate the soldier from the savage. And when a man’s home is destroyed beyond restoration, it’s up to him alone to forge a code and carve a new place to live in peace. The Rule of Ranging 1: Eclipse of the Midnight Sun is the epic action-adventure drama by Timothy M. Kestrel that follows the fearless Finn on a journey paved with bloodthirsty aggressors, mysterious women, and the rough terrain of a fledgling America. Both grave and uplifting, it’s an absorbing flight of fancy and derring-do. Set in the eighteen century, Kestrel’s story is a work of historic fiction that relives the most perilous days of the French & Indian War. The story begins in Finland, just as a young boy named Finn witnesses the complete annihilation of his home village, as well as the brutal killing of his family by marauding Russians. He barely manages to escape, chased by a merciless Hessian mercenary, Johan Kopf, nicknamed Totenkopf. Following his dying mother's wish to find a mysterious woman named Columbia, Finn's course takes him across the Atlantic. He befriends a slave, Gus, and buys his freedom. On their travels in this brave new world called America, the two make their way through the majestic Hudson Valley in New York, and soon encounter Marcus Fronto, a curious vagrant and philosophical mentor; Daniel Nimham, a fierce Wappinger chief and warrior; and beautiful Catherina Brett. They join forces with Robert Rogers Rangers, and fight against the French at Fort Edward, New York, during the Hudson River campaign in the 1750s. Action-packed and rigorously researched, the story offers a rare vantage of a crucial time in this country’s coming of age that is at once funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, and thrilling. Mining the depths of love, freedom, greed, and loyalty, it’s a page-turning, heart-pounding read that is at once scholarly and scintillating – steeped in history with a death-defying hero for the ages.