The Last Road Trip by James Elsener

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

James Elsener’s The Last Road Trip is a sad commentary on the inability of some professional athletes to make a life plan for their retirement. Fictional mediocre Kenneth “Stub” Rowe finds himself out of a job after his final season with the Cleveland Indians. He decides to take a road trip across America to see what he missed when flying at 30,000 feet to all the cities where he played Major League Baseball for sixteen years. In part he wants to visit old friends in the industry while visiting attractions he missed in the whirlwind of his career. At thirty-six, Stub also wants to find himself and discover skills for continuing his life without baseball. Instead, he finds that he is great at womanizing and drinking, but not reconnecting with his ex-wife and their two kids, or learning any new marketable skills.

Baseball aficionados will likely enjoy the book, but it’s not particularly suitable for young teens. The language and shallow sexual encounters will be off-putting to some adults as well.

Review by Betsy Beard (February 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Stub Rowe’s mediocre major league baseball career ended with a ground out to the second baseman.  He considered that to be the wimpiest out in baseball.

He had never been a star, but he was considered steady and reliable.  Some team always needed a third baseman with a little pop in his bat…until the years ran out on him. Now it was time to consider what to do with the rest of his life.

Stub had bounced around professional baseball for 16 years. He ran out the string with a couple of unremarkable years with the Cleveland Indians. 

He hadn’t given a lot of thought to retirement. Now it was here staring him in the face.  He wasn’t sure if he had any marketable skills. The years had changed his relationships with people and he began to wonder where he would fit in a life outside baseball.

His ex-wife and children seemed to be getting along fine without him.  He has a few other personal relationships that need some closure as well. 

Stub decides to drive across a country that he had mostly seen from 30,000 feet flying from city to city to play baseball.  He wanted to see sights that he missed and visit old friends along the way.  This would give him time to think about his future. 

He drives from Cleveland to Los Angeles with stops in-between to visit old friends and family or just to be a tourist.  He spends time with his sister and her family including the husband Stub can’t stand.  Then he visits his ex-wife and children who hardly know him.  

His spends time with a former teammate who is a born-again Christian with a picture post card family.  Then he meets up with another ex-teammate who has become a helpless alcoholic. These visits aren’t going exactly the way he thought they would.

Stub eventually reconnects with Katie Riley, a one-legged Iraq War veteran who works for the movie industry.  Things are getting exciting when he gets an emergency phone call from his sister Tina and must head back to the Midwest to deal with family issues and the need to find a real job.     

He had never envisioned himself becoming a baseball lifer and starting all over as a coach and manager in the low minor leagues.  It’s a life of low pay, long bus rides, cheap hotels and babysitting for rookie players. But, it maybe his only option. He starts his new career in baseball the same way he ended his last career – hitting ground balls to the second baseman.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction

Number of Pages: 190

Word Count: 56,000

Advance To Contact: 1980 by Alex Aaronson / James Rosone

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Advance to Contact: 1980 is the flagship novel in the series of the same name.
It’s 1980.  The Shah may be falling in Iran, and President Carter and his staff are working tirelessly to keep this US ally in place in the volatile Middle East.  When the Soviets invade Afghanistan while at the same time Iranian fanatics storm the US Embassy, tensions flare.

The world knows what actually happened in the aftermath, but authors Alex Aaronson and James Rosone take us on a marvelous alternative history journey of what could have happened, and the realism is shocking.  Using in-depth knowledge of the historical military dispositions and political personalities, the two weave together an incredible story that shows just how bad things could have gotten, with CIA agent Fred Poole doing everything he can to avoid World War III.

This reviewer was continuously impressed with the military accuracy of the vast weapons platforms mentioned on both the east and west sides. At the same time, there are plenty of “raw grunt” moments that show that any soldier has more in common with his enemies than he thinks.  Fans of Dale Brown, the late Tom Clancy, or any military alternative history series will surely find this worth the effort.

Review by Rob Ballister (March 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

The Cold War threatens to go hot…

…when American hostages are taken in Iran.

Where will this conflict lead?

The Soviets invade Afghanistan, and the governments of Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev jockey for position on the international stage. CIA operative Fred Poole races against the clock to decode the pieces of a Soviet puzzle that could lead to war.

Will he be too late?

US Marines and Soviet paratroopers advance to contact with the enemy on battlefields across the globe, from the jungles of Central America to the deserts of the Middle East.

Can Poole and his ragtag team untangle the Soviet plans?

Or will skirmishes turn into a global nightmare?

You’ll love this gripping opener of the Soviet Endgame alternate history series because the history you remember takes a turn you never expected.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller

Number of Pages: 329

Word Count: 119924

A Girl's Guide to Military Service: Selecting Your Speciality, Preparing for Success, Thriving in Military Life by Amanda Huffman

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

A Girl’s Guide to Military Service by Amanda Huffman is a must-read for any young woman considering a future in military service. Ms. Huffman walks the reader through the history of each service branch and what they have to offer. She challenges the reader to seek within themselves what they really want for their future and explores that with them. The pros and cons of life in the military are laid out—touching every facet, from basic training and benefits to challenges women still face.

There are testaments from many female service members (past and present) on the issues and stresses they experienced during their careers. The advice they give is worth its weight in gold. The book is a straightforward factual roadmap for joining the military. The author poses deep and insightful questions throughout the book, which dare readers to consider the consequence of each decision they make.

A Girl’s Guide to Military Service is insightful and encouraging. The author provides further resources at every turn and helps navigate the alphabet soup of acronyms of the military. I highly recommend this book to any young woman who feels the military life might be for her.

Review by Sandi Cathcart (March 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

For any young woman considering a job or career in the military.

With information, tips, and perspective gathered from a variety of women who serve, this introductory guide will help you:

- Discern if military service is the right choice for you

- Evaluate enlisting or commissioning as an officer

- Select a service branch and career field

- Prepare for training, mentally and physically

- Integrate personal life, relationships, and motherhood with military service

- Manage stress and increasing mental toughness

- Navigate unique challenges as a woman in the military

- Thrive in your military career!

Applicable for enlisted and officer careers in any US Armed Forces service branch and type of service commitment, including:

- Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, Navy, Space Force

- Active duty, National Guard, Reserves

"... a solid, factual, and practical guide to help young women make a major life decision with confidence ... Strongly recommended."

—Mari K Eder, Major General, US Army (Ret)

"... a perfect guide to help any woman considering life in uniform get straight talk on how it all works ..."

—Jose Velazquez, Sergeant Major, US Army Public Affairs (Ret)

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Children & Young Adult—Young Adult (fiction or non-fiction)

Number of Pages: 176

Word Count: 48,498

Red Markers: The Rest of the Story by Gary N. Willis

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

This is the story of U.S. Air Force pilots and enlisted ground crews performing the Forward Air Control (FAC) mission for the Republic of Vietnam military during the Vietnam War. Artillery and airstrikes in the vicinity of friendly ground troops has always been a perilous operation, especially before our current era of precision guided munitions, GPS, and secure communications. While artillery spotting from aircraft started in World War I, faster aircraft introduced during the Korean War led to development of the FAC concept, which reached a peak during the Vietnam War. The Red Markers operated in isolation and in austere environments, with U.S. Army advisors and Special Forces among the Vietnamese airborne troops. This is the second of two books by the author on the Red Markers and builds on the first book with further information on operations with the Vietnamese airborne troops. Through this story, the reader obtains a unique perspective on the major battles and campaigns of the Vietnam War. Five appendices provide a glossary and rosters of the offices and enlisted who served with the Red Markers, as well as other interesting information. This book makes a great reference for this chapter in U.S. Air Force history that is little known but serves as an outstanding example of service and sacrifice during the Vietnam War.

Review by Terry Lloyd (March 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Red Markers: The Rest of the Story is a sequel to Red Markers, Close Air Support for the Vietnamese Airborne, 1962-1975, published in 2012. The Rest of the Story expands on the history of the Red Marker FAC detachment with more stories about the 175 airmen who served in the unit. It includes accounts from U.S. Army advisors in MACV Team 162 who fought alongside the Vietnamese Airborne for more than a decade. It also chronicles support provided by other forward air controllers and from Medevac, Cobra gunship, and field artillery units. Stories include the opening hours of the Cambodian Incursion in 1970, the daring rescue of a downed Medevac crew, and fierce battles by the Airborne during the Easter Offensive of 1972. A chapter on Dumb Things in the War Zone captures a lighter side of the unit history. The final story covers the shipboard escape of hundreds of South Vietnamese led by a Catholic seminary student.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Nonfiction—History

Number of Pages: 304

Word Count: 100,959

Operation Tailwind: Memoirs of a Secret Battle in a Secret War by Barry Pencek

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

This detailed memoir/history is divided into three distinct parts. The first is a true memoir, briefly covering the author's youth and early years as a Marine aviator in the Vietnam era. The main part of the narrative is an exhaustive accounting of a then-secret 1970 military raid into southern Laos, in which the author played a supporting role. The last part comprises the author's critical analysis of a discredited CNN investigative report that was broadcast some 28 years after the raid.

At a period when opposition to the Vietnam War was reaching its high point, the author doggedly pursued his goal of becoming a Marine aviator. Assigned in country to an attack helicopter squadron, he provided close air support for Operation Tailwind, a four-day CIA-led raid against North Vietnamese forces on a segment of the Ho Chi Minh Trail deep in southern Laos. Since Laos was a neutral country, the use of US ground forces there was highly classified. The action was met with fierce opposition, and ended with a costly withdrawal and limited success. The author provides a day-by-day account of the raid, which was conducted by a small contingent of American Special Forces soldiers and a company of Montagnard troops. By the time the team was extracted, all sixteen Americans had been wounded and three Montagnards had been killed.

Operation Tailwind might have become a minor footnote to the Vietnam War, but 28 years after the incident a controversial TV documentary entitled "Valley of Death" alleged the use of deadly poison gas by United States forces. "Valley of Death" arose from a perfect storm of over-eager journalism, questionable sources, and slipshod oversight. A joint venture of the fledgling Cable News Network and TIME Magazine, and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Peter Arnett, the 18-minute show was quickly discredited but nonetheless cast a shadow over the integrity and heroism of the original raiders and their leadership. The fact that the operation was highly classified added to the difficulty of countering the accusations of the documentary. Nonetheless, the sponsors and promoters of "Valley of Death" were ultimately forced to withdraw their claims and in many cases professionally disgraced.

The author is reluctant to let the conclusions of the many critics of "Valley of Death" stand and spends the third part of his book addressing the many inconsistencies and outright falsehoods in the documentary.
The book provides excellent background on the political and military challenges presented by North Vietnam’s covert invasion of its neighbor to the west and the vital role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as the lifeline for the communist fighting forces in South Vietnam. The story of Operation Tailwind provides a vivid example of the intensity and desperation of combat in the shadows of a little-known sideshow to the greater Vietnam conflict.

Review by Peter Young (February 2023)

 Author's Synopsis

The Studies and Observations Group was a covert American military unit in Vietnam that specialized in clandestine cross-border operations in Laos and Cambodia. In September 1970, sixteen Green Berets and one-hundred-twenty Montagnard mercenaries departed on Operation Tailwind, the largest and deepest raid in SOG history. Their mission was to disrupt and distract the enemy in support of a larger CIA operation that originated in the White House.

Over the next four days, as their ammunition dwindled and casualties mounted, these soldiers, and the aircrews overhead that went to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive, achieved the improbable if not the impossible.

Twenty-eight years after Tailwind concluded, CNN produced a documentary about Tailwind, called “Valley of Death,” accusing the participants of war crimes, specifically using nerve gas to kill women, children, and American defectors. This broadcast created a media firestorm that reached around the world.

In Operation Tailwind: Memoirs of a Secret Battle in a Secret War, Barry Pencek gives an incredibly detailed account of the four-day running battle and does a thought-provoking deep dive into the failure of journalistic ethics at CNN that created a media debacle. Besides being one hell of a war story, Operation Tailwind provides a great example of the need for the highest integrity in journalism and should be required reading for all J-school students.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 339

Word Count: 87,600

Hogs in the Sand: A Gulf War A-10 Pilot's Combat Journal by Buck Wyndham

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

In Hogs in the Sand, A-10 Warthog attack pilot Buck Wyndham's journal takes the reader into the cockpit on training missions over Great Britain and into combat during Desert Shield/Storm. The technical details, descriptive prose, and aerial accounts are a testament to A-10 pilots' talent and bravery, the awesome destructive power of the Hog, and the critical role they played in this conflict.

While the adrenaline-inducing combat sorties are the highlight, the recurring accounts of foul-weather flying and technical failures are equally riveting. The author and his squadron rely on constant vigilance, artful teamwork, and brazen courage to survive each mission.

While the aerial outings read like an action novel, "Hogs" slows down in parts to detail the day-to-day tedium and monotony of a deployment, delve into a love interest, and provide an unabashedly honest look into the warrior psyche as it processes near-death, killing, and doubt. Some readers may find the ground time a lot less interesting than the combat, but it's part of the author's story. The introspective parts reveal a patently human story of self-reflective humility that provides an interesting contrast to the prevailing "cocky pilot" attitude.

Military history and aviation buffs will likely enjoy this book's highly detailed aerial combat accounts.

Review by Ingo Kaufman (February 2023)

Author's Synopsis

"I am awed by my destructive power. With a small squeeze of the gun trigger under my right index finger, I can rip the turret off a thirty-ton battle tank and throw it 200 feet across the desert, while the rest of the tank burns in an explosion of white-hot, burning phosphorescence. But the cold, morbid reality of it does not exist from where I sit and watch it happen. There's no dramatic chord. No deafening explosion. No screams suddenly stifled. The soundtrack of a pilot's war is mostly silent."

The mighty, iconic A-10 Warthog was first thrust into battle in Operation Desert Storm. The men who flew it through walls of flak and surface-to-air missiles to help defeat the world's fourth-largest army were as untested as their airplanes, so they relied on personal determination and the amazing A-10 to accomplish their missions, despite the odds.

Hogs in the Sand is the epic and deeply-personal year-long journey of one of those pilots as he fights an increasingly terrifying war, all the while attempting to win over a woman and keep control of his internal demons. For anyone who has admired the Warthog, seen it in action, or called upon it to be their salvation, this story will fulfill a desire to virtually strap into the cockpit, while gaining unprecedented understanding of the mind of a modern combat pilot.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 440

Word Count: 142,400

Heart Songs by Dennis Maulsby

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Heart Songs is a tour de force of a poetry collection by Dennis Maulsby. Songs of the heart can be expressed in a wide array of emotions, and this book handles all of them well, ranging from euphoria to abject depression. The author uses a variety of poetic forms to convey emotions and experiences, using sophisticated imagery to engage all the senses. The poems range in length from haiku of 17 syllables to longer poems and poetic essays. Powerful and effective word selection ushers the reader into realms he may not have been familiar with, from the wildly sensuous to the stark brutality of combat. There is even a playful limerick to tickle the funny bone. While it is impossible to choose just one favorite poem among many, I was enchanted by the eight-part offering that explores the different kinds of love.

Review by Betsy Beard (January 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Heart songs come from many sources. We welcome those of love, whether romantic or platonic. Our life experiences evoke other songs, whether bawdy, prideful, humorous, sad, happy, terrifying, or in joyous dance — the heart’s percussion, riffs, and chords changing in response to each experience.

Poetry can capture them all, permitting the intimate sensual and intimate virtual to blend. In this book, think of the poems as the author’s sheet music — records of the heart’s songs.

blonde girl’s earbuds throb 
heavy metal guitar chokes 
peppery symbols

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Poetry—Poetry Book

Number of Pages: 77

Word Count: 5639

The Hawk Enigma by J.L. Hancock

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Author J. L. Hancock has given us a fast-paced thriller in his book, The Hawk Enigma. The Chinese and the North Koreans are racing to steal a new secret formula that is predicted to merge a person's mind with existing and future artificial intelligence systems. The formula and necessary vials of serum are kept locked in an American controlled laboratory in Japan. However, that is not enough to keep our antagonists from resorting to murder and theft to get their hands on the formula and serum. Bring in the Yakuza and U.S. military special operators, and the author has created quite the mix for a good read. Even the Russians join in at the exciting climax. I couldn't help but cheer for the good guys in this one, and I encourage anyone who enjoys thrillers to read it.

Review by Bob Doerr (February 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Voodoo, a gifted military technician, struggles with harrowing memories of war and the emptiness that comes with loss. To cope, he's thrown himself into his work for a secretive military research organization, purposefully leaving little time for anything else. Until one night, a familiar voice from Voodoo's past interrupts his recurring nightmares with a cryptic prophecy.

At the same time, across the ocean in Japan, two world-renowned scientists go missing along with the secrets behind a powerful form of artificial intelligence called the "God Algorithm".

To Voodoo's surprise, he soon finds himself on the front lines of an AI arms race with the future of freedom at stake. Will Voodoo find the scientists in time? Or will the "God Algorithm", a piece of code so terrifying it has the potential to shift global power, fall into the wrong hands?

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller

Number of Pages: 472

Word Count: 110,000

When Heroes Flew: The Roof of the World by H. W. "Buzz" Bernard

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

When Heroes Flew: The Roof of the World by H. W. “Buzz” Bernard is a fictional account of the brave pilots in WWII who flew “The Hump” in Burma. The dangerous airlift mission cut through the unforgiving Himalaya Mountain terrain in harsh, unpredictable weather. Pilots who flew in the China/Burma/India theater of operations have often gone unrecognized. Imagine the bravery of these flyers knowing there was so much blood and mangled aircraft strewn across northern Burma that it was referred to as the “Aluminum Trail.”

One aviator was heard to say, “I would rather fly a fighter against the Japs three times a day than a transport over the Hump once.”

Aviator Major Rod Shepherd, a C-46 aviator and Army Air Forces weather officer, pilots his aircraft into the unpredictable skies to fly critical missions over the Hump time after time. He braves not only the extreme—even impossible—flying conditions but commanders who believe weather support is useless and unnecessary. He fears for himself but even more for the less experienced pilots coming into the base.

Early on, Rod encounters a beautiful, frosty flight nurse who seems to dislike him intensely. Each subsequent encounter with “Nurse Nasty” is fraught with verbal barbs and sarcasm. Rod goes out of his way to avoid her until they have a flight mission together. The rest is a harrowing, life-altering adventure.

On the edge of my seat during gripping scenes in the story, I could appreciate and enjoy Major Rod Shepherd’s cynicism and dark humor.

Author Buzz Bernard has done a magnificent job of verbally painting a picture of what it’s like in the cockpit of a C-46 flying over the snaggle-toothed Himalayan mountain range. Fasten your seatbelts, folks. You are in for the ride of your life.

Review by Nancy Panko (February 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

A legendary WWII airlift route cuts through the snaggletoothed Himalaya Mountains, where both the terrain and weather prove uncommonly savage.  And where American airmen leave a trail of blood and mangled aircraft.

Major Rod Shepherd, a C-46 pilot and Army Airforces weather officer, flings his airplane into the tumultuous skies to fly critical missions over the Hump--the Himalayas. He braves not only the extreme--even impossible--flying conditions, but commanders who believe weather support is useless, and a flight nurse who, for reasons unknown to Rod, dislikes him intensely.

Rod risks incredible danger with every flight.  But when a mission of grave importance is imperiled at high altitudes, Rod faces an unthinkable dilemma.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 302

Word Count: 76,000

Testing Michael: A Civil War Novel by Linda Loegel Hemby

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

In 1910, Yale professor Michael Mueller treats his history class to his childhood experience as a messenger in the Civil War. Were this TV, the picture would go wavy as he transports all of us to his house in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1856.

Michael has always pushed the envelope and has very fast legs. Fueled by a Yankee frame of mind, he begs his parents to allow him to join the war effort. They acquiesce and in 1861, at age 13, he becomes a messenger for the North. Linda Loegel Hemby’s Testing Michael is a slightly sugar-coated view of war, making it a historical novel for all ages.

Don’t get me wrong—these young “soldiers” saw their share of war. Ammo in, wounded out. Soldiers cut down in front of them. Michael, like all soldiers, grew up fast and hard, summoning unfathomable courage, but the author never lets us forget that he is a child. One of the touching bittersweet scenes is when Michael is in Virginia, his mother is at home in Connecticut, both singing the same Christmas song at the same time. Later, safely at home, “Mike let the horrors of war slowly slip from his mind, replacing past thoughts with the perfect and enduring love of his family. He was home, the sweetest place in the world.”

For me, the biggest shudder of the book is when, now back in 1910, one of Michael’s students asks, “Could we ever be that divided again?”

Linda Loegel Hemby’s Testing Michael: A Civil War Novel holds a refreshing perspective, appropriate for adults and a younger audience: an easy-to-read and comprehend, historic account of the children of the Civil War.

Review by Sue Rushford (January 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

In the Prologue and Epilogue, the year is 1910 and Professor Michael Mueller is teaching his Yale students about children who served in the Civil War. When they ask, "Did you know any of them?" he answers, "Let me tell you my story." The story then moves to 1856 with young Michael learning the events leading up to the war. In 1861 Michael joins the war as a thirteen-year-old messenger, much to his mother's dismay. He makes friends and travels to places far outside his New Haven home, and has experiences he never thought possible--some exciting and some that give him nightmares. 

Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 196

Word Count: 36,000

Life Dust by Pam Webber

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Life Dust is an enthralling account of a young, engaged couple in 1971. Andy, an Army lieutenant, gets deployed to Vietnam for a year. Nettie is a nursing intern at an ER in Virginia. Seemingly completely different situations, Pam Webber does a superb job at artfully keeping their lives parallel. It is a refreshing Vietnam story.

Conducting reconnaissance, Andy and his men tread lightly in the jungle, to survive the enemy and the jungle itself. “[D]on’t fight the jungle. . . . It provides food, water, and cover against the enemy and the elements. Its noise, as well as its silence, warns you if someone or something is approaching. It even has medicines for some of our most common ailments. However, if you ignore or disrespect it, the jungle will kill you.” Despite also fighting human limitations, fatigue, and military bureaucracy, Andy and his men morph into a cohesive squad. After a daring reconnaissance mission, when they’re catching their breaths back at camp, they’re assigned to a secret operation. The mission’s intricate plan is dangerous but Andy’s men would follow him anywhere. Fait accompli (albeit, with repercussions), Andy goes home.

Meanwhile, Nettie finds a friend in an elderly, cranky patient with a bad heart. “He’s been angry since he woke up and realized he wasn’t dead.” She inspires him and he credits her with buying him more time. Their friendship and her dedication to him flourishes, despite the constant obstacles Nettie’s superior throws at her. Like Andy, Nettie stands up for herself and others in the face of intimidation, is a loyal friend, and feels the heartache of losing a friend.

Webber weaves flowers into both characters’ lives. In his youth, lotus blossoms were the saving grace of Nettie’s dying friend, and he introduces her to the healing powers of gardens. In Vietnam, in addition to offering a spiritual lift, the eloquent lotus blossoms and the ritual of steeping tea in the flower overnight play a logistical role in resistance operations, and in Andy’s secret mission.

We’re transported to Andy’s and Nettie’s simultaneous adventures, worlds apart. I highly recommend you stop and smell the lotus blossoms, and read Life Dust.

Review by Sue Rushford (March 2023)
 

Author's Synopsis

Nettie and Andy have been soul mates since childhood. While planning their wedding, Andy must deploy to South Vietnam for a year. To deal with the loss, Nettie dives into her work as a nursing intern in a busy Northern Virginia emergency room. When she inadvertently walks in on a nursing supervisor and surgeon during a late-night tryst, the couple begins a campaign to discredit her and sabotage her internship. Nettie's only respite is a reclusive old man with an extraordinary secret.

Meanwhile, Andy is leading a jungle reconnaissance squad when he receives orders to escort a high-ranking female freedom fighter, Bien, to a clandestine meeting with an enemy officer who wants to defect. Bien hopes the officer is the younger brother the North Vietnamese conscripted into their army as a child. However, Andy thinks his unit is walking into a trap that could cost them everything.

Struggling to survive in different worlds, Nettie and Andy navigate the best and worst of human nature as they try to find their way back to each other. Along the way they learn what real love, respect, and caring are about-- what duty, honor, and country really mean.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 312

Word Count: 83,504

The Boys of St. Joe's '65 in The Vietnam War by Dennis G. Pregent

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Dennis Pregent’s The Boys of St. Joe’s 65 in the Vietnam War is a very personalized account of twelve people from a small school in a small town in Massachusetts. They all did what they did for different reasons, all bonded together by their school and the Vietnam War.

Eleven men and one woman are featured. The eleven men all served; seven in the Army, three in the Marines, and one in the Navy. One was an officer, the rest enlisted. Most saw combat. All were from blue collar families, and every one of their fathers was a World War II veteran.

One of the eleven was killed in action; two were seriously wounded, with one of those paralyzed from the waist down. Most of the rest carry significant scars seen and unseen, including PTSD and Agent Orange exposure. The lone young woman found herself on the opposite side, protesting the war, much to her veteran father’s chagrin. Though she hated the war, she loved her classmates who fought in it, and their wounds hurt her deeply.

The information was gathered after long sessions with each of the survivors, or in some cases their families. The author does a great job of tying the stories together; one section about one of the young men might mention two of the others featured in other parts of the book, tying them together and adding a poignant depth to the book. These were intertwined lives, not numbers on the evening news, and their stories are told in a well-written and very personal manner. I especially liked how the author made a point to highlight the similarities and differences between those featured, both as people and as members of the military. The book includes a glossary of military terms and many clear photos to help further the understanding of those whose stories are told.

Those who served in the Vietnam War, or who are interested in memoirs from that war, will find this book valuable and well worth the read.

Review by Rob Ballister (February 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Eleven high school friends in idyllic North Adams, Massachusetts, enlisted to serve in Vietnam, and one stayed behind to protest the war. All were from patriotic, working class families, all members of the class of 1965 at Saint Joseph's School. Dennis Pregent was one of them. He and his classmates joined up-most right out of school, some before graduating-and endured the war's most vicious years. Seven served in the Army, three in the Marine Corps, and in the Navy. After fighting in a faraway place, they saw the trajectories of their lives dramatically altered. One died in combat, another became paralyzed, and several still suffer from debilitating conditions five decades later. Inspired by his 50th high school reunion, Pregent located lhis classmates, rekindled friendships, and-together, over hours of interviews-they rememberd the war years.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—History

Number of Pages: 248

Word Count: 90,000+

Disaster on the Spanish Main by Craig S. Chapman

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Disaster on the Spanish Main: The Tragic British-American Expedition to the West Indies during the War of Jenkin’s Ear is written by Craig S. Chapman and is a historical recounting of Britain’s ill-conceived and poorly executed attack on the Spanish Main. The book is well-researched and contains enough footnotes and charts to please the most enthusiastic history reader. The book is comparable in many ways to similar books, both fiction and nonfiction, written by better known authors who write about the British Navy of the Georgian Period.

Author Chapman goes into great detail regarding the underlying conflict between Army General, Major General Thomas Wentworth, who was in charge of the British Land Forces, and Vice Admiral of the Blue, Edward Vernon, who was in charge of the Royal Navy Forces. Each needed the other to achieve their professional and personal objectives, and yet neither one could tolerate the other or work cooperatively to the desired goal, the subrogation of the Spanish Main. The only thing that the two officers appeared to have in common, was their total disdain for the American Colonials, which had been brought into the Royal Army at the direction of King George II. In addition to the primary conflict between Wentworth and Vernon, the author also discussed in some detail the secondary conflict on the Spanish side between Vice Admiral Blas de Lezo and Viceroy Eslava of Cartagena, which had its own negative impact on the defensive side of the war.

Chapman’s book is long, but reads quickly. Thanks to an enthusiastic writing style, the reader will move quickly through the material. The work is heavily footnoted, but is written in such a manner as to allow the reader to push on with the reading and come back to review the footnotes at their leisure. Sourcing and the extensive Bibliography are on par with what a reader would expect from a book of this nature.

Review by Larry Sharrar (February 2023)
 

Author's Synopsis

Disaster on the Spanish Main unveils and illuminates an overlooked yet remarkable episode of European and American military history and a land-sea venture to seize control of the Spanish West Indies that ended in ghastly failure. Thirty-four years before the Battles of Lexington and Concord, a significant force of American soldiers deployed overseas for the first time in history. Colonial volunteers, 4,000 strong, joined 9,000 British soldiers and 15,000 British sailors in a bold amphibious campaign against the key port of Cartagena de Indias. From its first chapter, Disaster on the Spanish Main reveals a virtually unknown adventure, engrosses with the escalating conflict, and leaves the reader with an appreciation for the struggles and sacrifices of the 13,000 soldiers, sailors, and marines who died trying to conquer part of Spain’s New World empire.

Disaster on the Spanish Main breaks new ground on the West Indies expedition in style, scope, and perspective and uncovers the largely untold American side of the story.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—History

Number of Pages: 410

Word Count: 123,000

The Curators by Kenneth Andrus

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

In this 4th book in the Defender Series, by Kenneth Andrus, Nick Parkos is recalled to the CIA’s off the book group called The Curators to go to the Czech Republic to interrupt the flow of arms from that area to northern Mexico. Nick has a unique ability to see how disparate facts make sense, using Venn diagrams to see how those facts overlap and interact.

There are multiple groups involved in the shipment, each with their own agendas, none of whom trust each other. Nick has his own struggles as he tries to learn about his family history, which is tied to the Czech Republic. One of the players he is investigating is a Russian spy, now on an undercover mission for her country. Nick worked with her on a previous assignment. Another player is, he discovers, a cousin, who has his own problems with the groups Nick is investigating. Nick learns more about his father and his heritage as he and his team pretend to be on a heritage tour where he learns more than he expected to about his own family’s history.

While many thrillers use an overabundance of technical jargon, especially relating to weaponry, the early part of this book focuses on distilled spirits and cheeses. The later chapters do include some weaponry terms, but they are used infrequently and do not delay the story telling.

Review by Nancy Kauffman (March 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Parkos and his clandestine operations team, The Curators, are ordered to Prague by the Director of National Intelligence. They must thwart a Czech transnational crime organization and Russian operatives to send arms to Mexico to foment rebellion. But Parkos has another goal prompted by the the discovery of a keepsake box in his grand-parent's attic–learning the truth about his Czech roots. His search leads to an ancient castle and a distant cousin who, by a twist of fate, has a surreptitious link to his mission. Caught in a web of deceit and double-crosses, Parkos grapples with fundamental questions about his life. Where do his loyalties lie? With his family? His colleagues? His country?

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Number of Pages: 374

Word Count: 98,500

In the Mouth of the Dragon by John B. Haseman

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

As the Vietnam War fades into the past, it is reassuring that accurate records are documented by people who lived the stories. John B. Haseman’s memoir recalls his experience as an advisor in the Mekong Delta well after the American troop withdrawal had begun. The author succeeds in his stated purpose to present a different and more accurate narrative about the Regional and Popular Forces with whom he worked from 1971 to 1973. He explains how even though poorly equipped and scorned by the ARVN as well as the Americans, these grassroots soldiers defended their districts, their families, and their communities with tenacity. A detailed explanation of how the VC infiltrated their ranks sheds light on that unfortunate derogation.

Often the only American accompanying his men on patrol, Captain Haseman knew it was important to establish trust. Calling for air support when needed and his willingness to acknowledge ignorance as a foreigner living in a different culture are just two ways he earned that trust. Photographs provide faces to names and images to descriptions. An account of differing belief systems explains how religious traditions develop into political institutions. He seized the opportunity to put Navy Seabees to work replacing a wobbly coconut log bridge with a U.S. donated steel framework. He earned a mother’s trust when she allowed him to escort her son—whose father was a senior VC officer—to Saigon for facial surgery in an American hospital.

Despite numerous incidents of factual repetition, military buffs will appreciate reading about tactical operations and all things military including the author’s respect for FAC support and the incredible bravery of the pilots. Academics will appreciate the narrative research thesis style of writing, thoroughly documented with footnotes, an index of terms and additional appendices. Laymen will relate to the relationships the author formed with his Vietnamese soldiers and superiors, knowing that any one of them could be VC and take his life if they chose. John Haseman has laid out a valuable relationship-building roadmap using trust, respect, and humility as the markers to understanding and cooperation. 

Review by Janette Stone

 

Author's Synopsis

On his second tour in Vietnam, U.S. Army Captain John Haseman served 18 months as a combat advisor in the Mekong Delta's Kien Hoa Province. His detailed memoir gives one of the few accounts of a district-level advisor's experiences at the "point of the spear." Often the only American going into combat with his South Vietnamese counterparts, Haseman highlights the importance of trust and confidence between advisors and their units and the courage of the men he fought with during the 1972 North Vietnamese summer offensive. Among the last advisors to leave the field, Haseman describes the challenges of supporting his counterparts with fewer and fewer resources, and the emotional conclusion of an advisory mission near the end of the Vietnam War.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 277

Word Count: 97,700

Escape From Ukraine by Ward R. Anderson

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Ward Anderson’s Escape from Ukraine: One Man’s Journey to Freedom spans seventy years of a tenacious Ukrainian’s fight for survival. The story begins in 1944, with his family fleeing German and Russian occupation, and ends in 2014 with Putin’s invasion of Crimea.

Ten-year-old Dmytro and his family flee their Ukrainian village, heading west. “They stole our grinding stone to prevent us from making flour. . . . How can a farmer in Ukraine die of hunger?” The perilous odyssey of walking a thousand miles to the protection of American troops in Austria is filled with tragedies and horrific hardships. They nearly starve and freeze to death. Jan, a stranger, atoning for his previous barbaric behavior as a Nazi soldier is savior, teacher, friend, and father to Dmytro whose name he changes to Luboš (to appear Czechoslovakian). Luboš grows up in Prague, falls in love, and for decades survives even more hardships and loses—alternating between despair and hope.

What a relief when Luboš finally settles with his family in Eastern Ukraine, relishing well-deserved contentment. His idyllic twilight years are disrupted, however, with yet another occupation: Russia invades Crimea and 80-year-old Luboš, once again, must escape from Ukraine. “[B]lood-red flags of the star, hammer, and sickle. . . had been absent for twenty-three years. . . . Shreds of the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag smoldered.” He proclaims, “This time, I am Jan,” as he initiates his well-thought-out plan to deliver his family to waiting arms in Prague.

Escape from Ukraine is a work of fiction but is surely the history of countless Eastern European families, including this reader’s grandmother’s escape. Meticulously researched, Anderson lays out the history as we watch the 2022 incursion of Ukraine on the news.

While enthralling, Escape from Ukraine is not a quick read. It is, at times, difficult to follow the vernacular dialogue. Part One will break your heart over and over, but Luboš will win your heart as he perseveres.

Review by Sue Rushford (March2023)
 

Author's Synopsis

To protest the 2014 Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, I wrote Escape From Ukraine. My novel follows Luboš as he copes with the excesses of Joseph Stalin, the Nazis, Communism, and the overreach of Vladimir Putin. Completed in 2020, the book was a metaphor for the threat to Baltic countries and Ukraine from a relentless Federation of Russia. I was fortunate that my drafts were reviewed by Ukrainian friends, one was a Ukrainian Naval Officer.

Predictably, Putin’s imperial ambitions led to the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and I updated and republished Escape From Ukraine.

In a fertile but vulnerable borderland coveted by powerful empires, a young Ukrainian and his peasant family wanted nothing more than to tend their allotment. But geography placed them in the path of fanatical Communists, conquering Nazis, and the advancing Red Army. They had no choice but to flee west in 1944, led by a German Wehrmacht deserter, to the safety of American forces.

Trapped behind the Iron Curtain, Luboš is a participant in the significant events of his era: the death of Stalin, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Prague Spring's rise and fall, the Velvet Revolution, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

During perilous times in the shadow of the USSR and then Russia, Luboš finds love and tragedy and strength to guide his family. The 2014 invasion of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea by Russian forces is a personal threat. Seventy years after fleeing Ukraine as a boy, he must escape again to safety with his daughter and grandson.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 277

Word Count: 82,000

A Tail Among Tales by Bill Sheehan

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Although billed as historical fiction when submitted to MWSA, Bill Sheehan’s A Tail Among Tales is better characterized as an anthology of short stories for young adults. The book includes seven short stories ranging from only two pages for the story “Fake” to about 50 pages for “The Tire Baby.” Most of the stories mesh with events or personalities from the past. The author ends most stories with a brief explanation of how his fictional short story relates to a person or event from the past. I won’t spoil the surprise of who some of these people are—but you’ll recognize at least one of the names.

Review by John Cathcart (February 2023)

Author's Synopsis

The stories in this book will keep you wondering until the very last paragraph. If you think you have the plot figured out early in the story, take caution; you may be pleasantly surprised in the end. The author's notes at the end of the stories relate the stories to the real events from which they were created. Keep in mind the words of Phaedrus: "Things are not always what they seem."

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 158

Word Count: 35,000

Together We Served by Bill Sheehan

MWSA Review

Bill Sheehan’s Together We Served is a gut-wrenching collection of stories from Navy corpsmen who served with Marines on the ground in Vietnam.

Every Marine feels a bond with every other Marine, and most have little fondness for the Navy, but there is one member of every Marine platoon that is loved and protected like no other—the one they call Doc. Navy corpsmen have served with Marines in combat for many years. Seldom older than the Marines they serve, they are nevertheless looked up to, because every Marine knows that if they get hit, Doc will come for them or die trying.

The stories in this book are real-life accounts of exactly that: Navy corpsmen doing everything they can to serve, protect, and save their Marines. That idea is repeated over and over again in this book: my Marines, our Marines, etc. They are touching always, terror-filled sometimes, and often without a happy ending. But they are real, and from the heart. The author, a Vietnam combat corpsman himself, collected these stories from those he served with, having reconnected with them through social media. He also tells his own story, and then shares one final story from a modern-day corpsman severely wounded while carrying on the corpsman tradition in Iraq. This particular corpsman removed his own wounded finger because it was preventing him from adequately treating his wounded Marine. There is no better illustration of the bond between Marines and corpsmen.

Vietnam veterans, prior hospital corpsmen, and army combat medics will appreciate this book very much. Well done to the author and those that contributed.

Review by Rob Ballister (January 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Fellow combat Navy Corpsmen talk about their experiences when they served with their Marines, in the jungles of Vietnam in 1968-1969. Sometimes difficult to talk about, but always heart wrenching, these stories are true and a reminder of the consequences of a war that has initiated PTS, various cancers and emotional trauma that they still battle.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Other—Anthology

Number of Pages: 170

Word Count: 37,000

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

Peachy Possums by Nancy Panko

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Award-winning author Nancy Panko has aced it again with her latest children's book, Peachy Possums.

Peachy Possums is a delightful tale of six-year-old Olivia's encounter with a passel of possums in the family orchard and the compromise they make when faced with a series of problems. Olivia manages to resolve their differences in a most admirable way.

The illustrations are marvelous. Even a child who cannot read will enjoy the colorful and clever drawings. I especially like Polly's facial expressions and her brothers' and sisters' antics from the sideline.

Panko uses Olivia's story to accentuate important teaching lessons throughout the story in simple language that children will understand. In addition, there are fun facts about possums and a mouthwatering recipe for Peach Cobbler at the end of the book.

I recommend Peachy Possums to any parent with young children—encouraging them to develop a sense of responsibility toward others and alternative methods to settle conflicts.

Review by Sandi Cathcart (February 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

There's nothing better than a sweet, juicy peach cobbler at the end of a summer day. Thoughts of her mother's cobbler fill Olivia's head as she strolls into the family orchard to fill her basket with perfect peaches. Instead of peaches on the trees, she finds a mess of half-eaten, bruised peaches scattered on the ground.

A rowdy group of possums are eating, playing soccer, and bowling with perfectly good fruit. Olivia knows that somehow she and the possums must reach a compromise to save the orchard and have enough peaches for everyone to enjoy.

Format(s) for review: Paper Only

Review Genre: Children & Young Adult—Picture Book

Number of Pages: 46

Word Count: 1,600

The Able Queen, Memoirs of an Indiana Hump Pilot Lost in the Himalayas by Rainy Horvath and Robert Binzer "

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review

Author, Rainy Horvath, presents tales of her father's account as a pilot flying "The Hump" during WW II in her book, The Able Queen. Stories told to her by her father, Robert Binzer, begin in his boyhood, with a first-person narration, where he expresses his constant desire to be a pilot. His account leads to his entering the Army Air Force just before WW II, but his goal gets sidetracked by an assignment to repair teletype machines instead. Eventually, with the war's outbreak, he gets his opportunity to fly and receive his coveted pilot's designation. Binzer then is assigned to fly in the dangerous China/Burma theater where, by war's end, 1,400 airmen died, with 400 more missing, flying over the Himalayas. Initially, he pilots the light single-engine Stinson L-5 Sentinel ferrying people and cargo throughout western China while avoiding enemy aircraft always at the edges of battle. Next, he upgrades to flying the twin-engine Douglas C-47 Skytrain, bringing war supplies to China over the Hump, "the most dangerous air routes in the world." The deadly hazards of flying the Himalayas come to focus for Binzer in one final account when unpredictable weather creates a situation where he and his crew parachute from their cargo plane and then face surviving in the frozen mountains. This book is Robert Binzer's tale as his daughter Rainey Horvath faithfully records it.

Review by Tom Beard (January 2023)
 

Author's Synopsis

Flying “The Hump,” the route over the Himalayas between India and China, was some of the most dangerous flying in the world during World War II. Thirty-thousand-foot peaks, unpredictable winds, and Japanese fighters were just some of the perils that awaited flyers. Yet, they persevered in spite of all dangers.

Robert Dean Binzer was one of these young men, and this is his story of adventure in the service of his country. A young boy from Indiana who dreamed of flying he enlisted as soon as he was old enough to pursue his dream. In his rare first-person account, he tells the story of his experiences in China and the cockpit where he, too, faced the daily perils of the Himalayas and answered the deadly call of the Aluminum Trail.

Young and well-trained, but not for what awaited him in the skies over the Hump, follow him in his own words from training, across the ocean to India, rescuing downed pilots, dropping much-needed supplies behind enemy lines, and finally stepping out the door of his failing C-47, the “Able Queen,” to become one of those in need of rescue.

This is a story that needs to be told. It could be the story of hundreds of young Americans who sought the adventure of flying and found it while serving their country in the far-off China-Burma-India Theater of World War II, but it is the true story of 1st Lt. Robert Binzer, Hump Pilot.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography

Number of Pages: 142

Word Count: 27,237