The Far Horizon

Being the second book in the MacQuarie Series. It bears mentioning that the books are written by a women because in finding his second wife our hero manages to be dumb to the fact that the woman he eventually stumbles over has placed herself under foot since he was 25 and she 13. When he comes back to England a widower he finds Elizabeth working in his Mother's Home and then later squires her around London without managing to take a tumble. In fact it isn't until she threatens to off to China as a missionary that he finally comes to his senses. All this by way of saying that even the greatest of men can miss matters of importance right in front of their noses.

As Military Governor of New Holland Lachlan MacQuarry had dictatorial powers and an army to back it up; communication with England took at least 16 months. The free-men who settled Botany Bay were given free land grants and the free labor of those transported at regular intervals backed up by the lash. The convicts arrived on a one-way ticket with a minimum sentence of seven years after which they had no means of return. Men who gained their freedom could attempt to find work but with boatloads of up to 500 free-labor arriving regularly their labor was not worth much. Girls so transported had little recourse but to enter the prostitution trade as a means of staying alive and with a military garrison at hand madams had no lack of clients. In attempting to break this tyranny the new governor invoked the wrath and opposition of the 'exclusives' who until his arrival had had things pretty much their way.

After several miss-carriages and the death of her first-born Elizabeth gives birth to a son with the aid of a transported doctor. George Jarvis who follows Lachlan to Australia, so-named by the governor himself, continues ably in his unofficial capacity as aide-de-camp. As Lachlan points out he is more useful to him in that capacity than if he joined the army. A strikingly handsome Indian Moslem walking the halls of Government house served to raise more than a few eyebrows and attract the attention of serving girls but lightning finally strikes in a love-at-first-sight scenario.

Above are the bald facts that inform this historical novel but the execution is done in such a way that the reader is given an insider's view of the events and the characters who inhabit government house with all their foibles and with a sense of humour that engages from start to finish. I sat down and read 3/4 of the book in one sitting. Lachlan is pragmatic, just, and caring, brooks no interference, and refuses to entertain fools. He gets things done. With George at one side and his military attache at the other, and a troop of guards at his back he rides out, assesses the situation, seeks advice, and sees things righted. That he uses transported ex-prisoners and even eats with them scandalizes the puffed up elite. He sounds almost a Christ-like figure and to many he probably was.

By Eastern Windows

A 15-year-old Scottish tenant farmer form the Isle of Mull leaves his mentally deficient older brother and widowed mother to join the British Army to support his family. From that humble beginning he would go on to serve with distinction in the West Indies, India, ending up as the governor of New South Wales and father of Australia. Along the way he meets his first wife Jane who dies in South-East Asia; acquires an Indian major-domo Bapoo; his wife's maid Marianne; and a slave boy whom he steals at gunpoint in a slave market where he is being whipped. The boy was adored on sight by Lachlan's wife and given the name George and his wife's maiden name Jarvis. Stationed back in England he brings the boy with him and sends him off to private school. Confronted with his choices for the future an ethnic if not practicing Indian Moslem pulls a copy of the Christian Bible foisted upon him at school and quotes the book of Ruth:

"Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."

in answer to a suggestion he return to India to avoid discrimination.

In the hands of a skilled writer such as this dry historical facts come to life and the characters jump off the page, or tablet as in my case. Book one of this trilogy by Gretta Curran Browne was offered free--I read it in one day; book two--The Far Horizon I bought and began reading last night; book three--Jarvisfield is yet to be published.

Dark Seraphine

Being the first in a trilogy by KaSonndra Leigh.

Seventeen-year-old Callum is a hunky, sexy looking jock with a distant father and a distracted mother. What's the point of academic success or sports prowess if the people you love most can't be bothered to notice or be supportive. Although he can seemingly have any girl he wants and has the long-term companionship of his best friend Kyle, there's an emptiness in his life. So far he sounds very much like your typical teen until you learn that he can see 'Walkers', creatures that only he can see. Turns out these creatures from a parallel universe are divided into two warring camps.

Told from Callum's point of view the storyline is as feckless as person who relates it, at times getting bogged down in teenage angst and lengthy petting scenes. The action only truly picks up in the last few chapters. Better than your average young adult novel the para-normal aspects are handled in a manner that makes them almost believable. You decide whether you want to read volumes 2 & 3.

High,Wide and Lonesome

Had I internet access right now I'd check to see if this was made into a movie. Because I went on the road reading this book took nearly 3 weeks.

Told from the point of view of a nine-year-old who is taken out of school and carted across half a continent to homestead half a section in the Colorado High Country so that his parents could prove a claim and gain title to the land. Drama is provided by range wars betweencattlemen, sheep herders, and homesteaders and the latter's barbed wire fences. The dangers and threats provided by lack of rain, prairie fires, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, blinding blizzards, illness, and broken bones. The challenges of drought, starvation, biting cold, marauding cattle, debt, privation, solitude....

The book is filled with the characters attracted to this pioneering spirit way of life. Told with a naiveté and sense of humour and discovery only a child could bring to such a situation. Privation and danger are approached not so much as challenges but with a sense of adventure and newness. The land is his teacher and his books the prairie dog town and the ant hills. And every boy deserves a dog as his companion.

The story ends when the family proves up their claim and moves to a town where the boy returns to school and father returns to his trade as the printer of a country newspaper. In those times a newspaperman manually set his own type and printed his own papers.

The Cowboy and the Cossack

Clair Huffaker's book was published in 1973 so it's been around for a while. After just a few chapters I'm ready to say that I believe it deserves a wider audience. I've met long-horn cattle, herding 500 requires a sense of humour, managing that many on ship-board....? Taking them to Russia.... When the harbourmaster in Vladavostok decides to stall their boat's docking privileges the cowboys decide to swim their herd ashore. Persuading cowboys and their rides to jump into that cold sea water is one thing, getting the herd to is quite another. Once ashore drying out and feeding the cattle grain laced with wodka quite another tale. Now factor in a squad of fanatical Cossacks sent to guard the cattle and their not so enthusiastic minders. Throw in a morning spent having a funeral for a horse. Add names unpronounceable on both sides, the cultural and language barriers and you probably get the picture. And this all happens in just the opening chapters, the plot thickens as the story goes on.

One final note. Since I've read an electronic edition I didn't have the opportunity to find and read the dust cover notes until I'd finished. In spite of the way he spells his name the writer is male, moreover, he was a script writer for the likes of John Wayne. Knowing that little detail serves to stir up a lot of Siberian Dust.

The Farthest Shore

Book three of the Earthsea Series. Since book two at least 20 years have passed and Ged is Arch Mage of Roke. No explanation is supplied as to what transpired in the intervening period. A young princeling named Arran comes to Roke to meet with the Arch Mage Ged reporting disturbing developments. In an unprecedented move a non-magical person is invited to meet with Roke's inner circle in secret conclave in the inner sanctum. Even more remarkably the school's head master leaves Roke in his boat Lookfar accompanied only by this youthful non-magical prince against his peer's advice seeking he knows not what, he knows not where. Only knowing that witches are forgetting their spells and magicians are losing their powers. The ancient tongue which holds the real names of things is being lost by those who once spoke it and a malaise is strickening the islands of Earthsea. In an island archipelago journeys by sea are a given but the odyssey these two go on takes them beyond the edge of the known world.

Tehanu

Book Four of Earthsea.

As volume 4 begins Ged is no longer part of the picture. We meet the priestess of Atuan now an old woman who foreswore the practice of magic to be a plain farmer's housewife and raise a family. She saves a gypsy child beaten and left to burn in a fire and the two live a solitary life on the now widowed housewife's farm. Called to minister to the Mage of Gont, Ged's former mentor, she eases his way to the great beyond. When a dragon glides in she discovers an unconscious Ged riding at his neck.

Having spent himself saving the world of Earthsea in Book 3 Ged is faced with continuing to live without the abilities that formerly defined him. The story continues losing none of its appeal as the young prince who 7accompanied Ged into the underworld is crowned King of Earthsea and sets out to restore order in his Kingdom.

The Tombs of Atuan

As this book begins there is no mention of our friend Ged, the wizard. The storyline tends to drag somewhat especially since everyone here is new to us. All the characters in this storyline are female save for the Male Eunuch Slaves that serve them. In the last third of the book Ged finally makes a clandestine appearance and with his departure with the child high priestess in tow the Temple of the Tombs implodes and sinks into oblivion.

Dust

Arthur Slade grew up in rural Saskatchewan and lives and writes in Saskatoon. His novel Dust is one part historical memoir of the Dust Bowl years of the depression and one part fantasy. An albino drives into town and a twelve-year-old's younger brother disappears without a trace on a walk into town with 10¢ in his pocket to buy candy. In short order it's as if the child had never existed as no mention is made of him and the brother is avoided as an uncomfortable reminder. In a household where the Bible and Pilgrims Progress are the only acceptable reading his uncle, his mother's roguish brother slips him Jules Verne Novels and Comic Books hidden under his mattress. No one but his Uncle will listen to a twelve-year-old or give his suspicions of a butterfly raising albino any credence.

The aspects of growing up in the dust bowl years are aptly written, buying the fantasy as a metaphor for sexual abuse is quite another. It does serve to keep the novel "G-rated".

A Wizard of Earthsea

The first in Ursula K. Le Guin's 5-book Earthsea Series made into a TV mini-series of the same name the books are more character driven with less emphasis on adventure, fantasy and magic. Set in an imaginary island archipelago somewhere in the Irish Sea a great deal of sailing goes on in both books and movies. The principle characters are the orphaned goatherd Ged, son of a blacksmith and Vetch, an over-weight wizard in training from a remote island village. Ged is outdone by his own curiosity, pride, and an excitable nature. His friend Vetch is more level-headed and calm though no less lacking in ability. Written long before Harry Potter appeared on the scene these books are no less  

deserving of our attention.

Any Other Night

Any Other Night
By
Anne Pfefffer

This young adult novel is set among 16-year-olds in Malibu a satellite community of Los Angeles noted for residents associated with the movie industry. The contrast in lifestyle with that I experienced growing up could not be more stark. These kids live in mansions with bedrooms bigger than most third-world homes that have ensuite bathrooms. They get sports cars for their sixteenth birthdays. But they also get nannies and housekeepers who raise them in the absence of their pre-occupied parents.

I grew up in a small cape cod style 2-storey with outhouse in rural Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. We had hand-pumped running water but no telephone until I was 10. We didn't have a gym but we did get to shovel up to 5-ft of snow from our quarter-mile-long driveway in winter and split firewood in summer. If you wanted mail delivery you had to make sure the rural mail driver, a cousin, could get to your box. Travel for me was by bicycle on dirt roads and I regularly made the 1.2 mile trip, a mile of it uphill to visit my grandfather's home. One winter I got storm-stayed there by a blizzard and didn't make it home until my Father came to get me with the horse and sleigh. I bought my first car with my own money when I was thirty, a Datsun B-210.

The lifestyle these poor little rich kids take for granted involves parents who feel an equal sense of entitlement. Their offspring are showered with every possible indulgence but their parent’s time and affection. Raising their own kids is not allowed to interfere with their own pursuit of happiness. Given parents who are rarely home and often divorced and separated their offspring feel a sense of detachment and resentment. This lack of communication leaves both with hurt feelings and a sense of helplessness and ingratitude. Where did I go wrong, what didn’t I give them? Add private schools, peer pressure, teenage angst, growing up, and sex to the mix and you have the recipe for this book.

Told from the point of view of Ryan a rather self-aware 16-year-old with adoring younger identical twin sisters we see this world though his eyes. The central tragedy of his young life is the death of his best friend whose parents couldn’t be bothered to return from Cannes on the occasion of their son’s earlier nearly fatal drug overdose. When he has ‘that’ talk with his father the concern is not about the fact that he’s sexually active but that he’s playing safe. When the inevitable confrontation comes it is the child that raises the parents though to his credit the father makes time to listen. Once more the author doesn’t seem to know how to bring her book to a conclusion leaving us with a typical happily after impression of things to come.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

I've now completed reading the entire trilogy. Book one tells the story of Katniss and Peeta's experience in their initial Hunger Games. Book two has them returning for the 75th annual event. Book three chronicles the revolt of the 13 districts after discovery of the clandestine underground bunkered District 13 and their nuclear weapons. Katniss having been rescued from the arena in book three is exploited as the face and symbol of the rebellion as the Mockingjay. The author reserves a few more surprises for the reader but the ending regrettably seems to just peter out.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

by

Suzanne Collins

Made into a movie starring Liam Hemsworth better known for his sometime association with Miley Cyrus. The other ‘man’ is Josh Hutcherson who has a much larger acting experience and the girl at the centre of it all is played by Jennifer Lawrence. Picked up a copy of the DVD but decided to read the book first so back to it. By the way the individual books are a better buy in E-Book Format than the trilogy as a whole.

To stick with movie terminology for a moment this is  a high-concept novel written for young adults. Bucking the trend toward paranormal romance involving werewolves, vampires, and other magical creatures the people here are real but the reality they inhabit is a distopian society of an imaginary future. Genre bending it plays like a Reality TV Show the action playing out in the present with constant flashbacks to the past. Whether this be intended as a parody in the manner of Orwell’s 1984 is unclear.

The gender neutral names given the teens leaves their sex in doubt for several chapters however it soon becomes apparent that basic survival is nore important than romance here. Despite the hype surrounding Liam Hemsworth his part in the movie is played down even more than the character Gale in the book. As Jennifer Lawrence says in an interview in the supplements disk movie scripts tend to ruin the book. The reality TV Show analogy is apt, the action being to a large degree scripted, in this case totally so.

The book and the movie are so intertwined I’ll do a single blog entry regarding both. Whereas a book tells  you how it happened, a movie shows you; therefore a scene that may take several pages to set up in text passes in seconds on screen. On the other hand before CGI things the imagination can do are damn near impossible sometimes on screen. Holllywood loves young romance so it could not resist playing up the relationship between Peeta and Katniss.

Whether or not Suzanne Collins is aware of it the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson published in the June 26, 1948 edition of The New Yorker bears a striking resemblence to this plot line, or should I put it the other way round. The other parallel is The Most Dangerous Game based on a short story by Richard Connell that dates back to 1924 proving that there isn’t very much new under the sun.

Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King

Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King
By
Penny Junor

There is a certain irony to the fact that in reading this book I make myself an accessory to those who would invade the privacy of a man who, barring calamity, I am unlikely to ever see crowned King as his father, first in line, is only one year my elder. I cannot forget the date of his parent's wedding as they did it on my birthday. When that marriage began to fail I distinctly remember the advice attributed to the ghost of Prince Charles progenitor Henry VIII, "Off with her 'ead". His Royal Highness' uneasy relationship with the press was dramatically illustrated in the recent movie, The Queen, which dramatizes the circumstances of his mother's death. Both Charles and Diana were complicit in the publicity war that preceded her death.

The Royal Family have a love-hate relationship with the press. William's grandfather once famously turned a garden hose on a photographer. The Royals seek publicity as a means of communicating with their subjects and welcome coverage of their many civic duties. The Queen's Christmas Message is broadcast to millions. At the same time the tabloid press' obsession with celebrity makes any photo captured by the paparazzi especially if it is compromising worth tens of thousands. As any sports figure will tell you it's unsafe to adjust an athletic support or scratch an itch anywhere that a cell-phone or camera can capture it and the event can be on you-Tube today before the act has attained the desired relief.

Modern technology places our heroes right in our living rooms and the advertising that accompanies sporting events makes possible 8 figure salaries. TV and internet coverage makes these celebrities feel like part of the family and fuel our curiosity about their private lives. Where does a movie star or rock musician's desire for publicity end and the invasion of privacy begin. What limits should be placed on Fleet Street's desire to know. Where does our ownership of the Royal Family as the embodiment of our Nation end and their right to a private life begin. Modern technology has blurred that line and made them accessible as never before.

As is highlighted in this book the present Queen has lived a closeted life and was raised in an age in which a hands off mentality existed. Little is known of her personal preferences and private desires. Her grandson lives a more public life and finds privacy much more difficult to attain. Part of the allure of sovereignty has always been the mystery that has traditionally surrounded it. The degree to which familiarity can breed contempt endangers that allure. In an age when a determined terrorist who is not afraid to die in attaining his goals is almost impossible to stop a sovereign's Personal Protection Officers face a daunting task. It is an age when even the Pope feels obliged to ride in a bullet-proof 'popemobile'.

All this said I am as guilty as any in soaking up the juicy tidbits. I recently read the 60-page spread in MacLean's detailing the life of Canadian Royalty--Justin Trudeau. I was amused to read that the future head of the Church of England had to ask Mummy, what denomination am I? One can understand the reticence both William and Harry have in accepting new friends always wondering if there are ulterior motives. As is related in this tome many of their indiscretions are stories fabricated by associates in need of extra pocket money. Even their own press secretaries are not above using spin to make 'The Firm' look good. The discussion of the relevance of the monarchy in these modern times is the provenance of another discourse.

Interestingly enough I note that this book had come down in price since I bought it at a supposedly bargain price but has since been bumped up to $11.99. Whether you'd want to read it depends on your interest in the Monarchy. It adds little to what has not already been available to a follower of the Royals in the public record. At times in detailing the minutia of his life the book drags dreadfully, becomes tedious.

He has been so absent from the scene I'd forgotten Spencer's Eulogy in which he promised that his family would be active in the princes lives, that absence proves his oration was simply an attempt to embarrass the Royal Family before hundreds of millions.

The Royal Family no longer rule as such and are now considered to be above politics but they have discovered that through Royal Patronage they can have a positive influence upon the charities of their choice. Endeavours they support can be bolstered simply by their lending their names as Royal Patron and fund raising boosted if they make a carefully planned appearance as little as once a year. A Friend has met Prince Phillip several times because of his mentoring of Outward Bound. Princes Harry and William and now William's wife Kate have taken Patronage several steps further by sponsoring forums in which the charities they support meet in round table to share ideas and even participate in joint ventures. Their next step was to form a Foundation whose purpose is to provide seed money to fund the start-up of charities in areas of concern to the princes: disadvantaged youth, veterans, and conservation.

Twould have been a kindness if the series of pictures at the end of the book had been adapted to full page views for the electronic version, as it is they become very small on a tablet. The index forms fully 20% of the book.

Flame of Resistance

Flame of Resistance
by
Tracy Groot

The book begins in the cockpit of a fighter plane as the pilot is being shot down over German occupied Vichy France in 1944. The pilot is rescued and recruited by the French Resistance. The story continues with members of the French Underground and the brothel where intelligence gathering is carried on. The background highlights the privations suffered under the German occupation and the things those who live under it have to do to survive.

If this sounds like dry material blame this writer. The author makes it all sound compelling and leads the reader along as the tension builds in the lead up to an expected Allied Invasion and the operatives stress levels increase with fear of detection and torture.

This book has movie script written all over it. Can’t say who would play the very tall handsome blue-eyed, very blonde American Airman of Dutch Ancestry but the part has movie star written all over it.

Muscular Verse

The Root of Lightning
by
Michael Spring

This is muscular verse written by a man who works with his hands and trains others in the martial arts. It is so much easier to see other’s inconsistencies and incongruities. A builder turns concept into the concrete, a fighter attacks from stealth and surprise, a poet bares his soul making himself vulnerable. The lines in this book reveal all three qualities at once. Michael makes you sense the satisfaction a boxer feels when he trains and lands those blows on the heavy bag, the oneness with his own body and strength. The love and pride a father feels in seeing his son grow. The power of nature when a storm strikes. The empathy of a caring soul who sees pain and would ease it. This is verse to be experienced, not dissected. It benefits from being read aloud. Enjoy it as I have.

I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High

by Tony Danza, yes, that Tony Danza

If the lad suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder maybe that explains that rambling title.

The school is a multi-level colossus that even boasts its own police station. Everyone entering the building passes through metal detectors. The teachers are required to sign in each day with an amazon who acts as the gorgan at the gate. I realize that I last entered a Nova Scotia High School in the 60ies but it’s sad to think that it’s come to this. Really haven’t thought about the possibility that such measures prevail at Halifax’s new High School. I know for a fact that such conditions do not apply to the high school I visited in St. John’s NFLD or to schools in Austin Texas and certainly not to schools in Oakville.

The book is enimently readable though the final afterwords do become somewhat pedantic and preachy.

AWOL on the Appalachian Trail

As one who spent his working life walking 10 miles a day 5 days a week I find it hard to credit the number of blisters, bunions, and other foot problems this hiker talks about having. Now I realize we’re talking about a 42-year-old computer programmer but even so I can’t believe the amount of trouble he describes having with blisters, bunions, and infection. A picture I saw the other day reminds me of the hazards of having narrow hips and legs that chaff between the thighs literally creating friction that wears holes in the pant legs. Not a personal problem. After 70,000 miles of walking a mail route I can count only a few blisters, on my toes, not my heels. Mind you I know well enough to never start walking 10-miles a day with brand new boots. No matter what shoe stores may claim there is no such thing as a shoe that doesn’t require breaking in. One would have thought someone about to embark on a 2000-mile-hike would have started with a set of well-broken in boots he felt comfortable wearing. I can’t believe that someone started out on such a trek without having sorted out his footwear before he started. Walking a treadmill in runners hardly equates with hiking in the woods.

I have had mild cases of shin splints when I got on a route with a great number of steps up to each house. Certain neighbourhoods are notorious for this. It doesn’t take long in bad weather before one stops attempting to climb icy steps. In one neighbourhood ignoramuses compound the problem by tying their dogs up on gated doorsteps. Approaching a strange dog in a confined space is always a hazard. If someone in a car asks for their mail with a dog inside one must always ask them to reach out the window toward you, never the opposite. Believe I got side-tracked there. When there are ice storms Canada Post has had so many fall related injuries that Workman’s Comp threatens to refuse coverage due to the employee recklessly endangering himself.

The one issue I do have and one that continues is the build up of callus on my heels and along the edges of my soles. My soul probably has calluses as well but that’s another matter. Where some people have sweaty feet mine are dry and the build up of dry callus leads to cracking and even bleeding. When I’m on the road I miss the opportunity to soak my feet and scruff off excess skin.

There is a chapter or so devoted to the issue of defecating along the trail. No mention is made of avoiding poison ivy. Hikers carry a plastic trowel and a roll of tissue for the purpose. At least male hikers have the advantage of voiding liquid in an upright position. The writer describes the proces in the rudest of terms. All water consumed must be pumped through a filter or treated with purification tablets.

The Bruce Trail is 500 miles and at some time or other I have hiked most of it. End-to-enders have recorded hiking the entire stretch but most do not set out to do it in one season or as a through hike. The idea of completing a 2000-mile hike from start to finish is rather daunting. When one is backpacking everything one needs every ounce counts. An entire industry surrounds the provision of high tech light weight sleeping bags, tents, cooking utensils, stoves, water bottles and clothing. Food is freeze-dried and reconstituted by adding boiling water. If this sounds expensive you have the right idea. Backpacks even come with built-in solar panels. One of the writer’s fellow travelers had a cat that sat atop his pack and fed on the mice that infested the shelters along the trail. Combine crowded shelters and people eating in a confined area and vermin are bound to follow. Litter is quite another issue.

It may seem counter-intuitive but walking downhill causes more stress to the lower extremities than climbing up, the steeper the incline the more this is so. I am waiting for a chapter on the costs attached to hiking this trail. His pack, tent, tarp, clothing, rain gear, boots, dried food, cooking gear, restaurant food, lodging, car rentals, pay phone bills. I would expect a modern hiker to have a GPS enabled smartphone these days.

In his afterword the author talks about the practicalities of the trip. Aside from lost wages the trip cost him approximately $5000 plus about $1000 worth of gear he purchased in preparation for the trip. His most telling regret is not taking more pictures and allowing for more serendipity. In the end the journey’s the thing, not getting there. ..http://theatguide.com/NewGear.html

Beyond Band of Brothers

Were Richard Winters around to take my advice I’d try to tell him to get himself a better ghost writer--Sebastian Junger, for example. This one makes a lot of grammatical mistakes the editor seems to have been little better at catching and writes like a newspaper reporter. In the second place this present memoir adds little to what has already been published in Ambrose’ Band of Brothers and David Kenyon’s even better Parachute Infantry upon which the former seems largely based. Ironic that Kenyon’s book was unpublishable until Tom Hanks and Company made the mini-series. The present tome was written 60 years too late in reaction to the previously noted publications.

Somehow I managed to miss the fact that the same production team did a similar project on the war in the Pacific. Must check that out.

One thing an 80-something vet does feel free to write about is the number of friendly-fire deaths that occurred even during WW#2. Modern weapons and targeting technology makes hand to hand combat less frequent. Snipers can shoot miles, artillery hundreds, cruise missiles frightening distances, bombs can be dropped from 5 miles up, lasers can target from space. When you consider that NASA mis-programmed to miss Mars by 500,000 miles with a 10-billion dollar rocket the fact that unplanned targets get hit is not surprising.

If Winters wrote this memoir to ‘set the record straight’ then the one thing he does do is show how the writing of a good movie script serves to conflate characters, alter the order of events, and make selective use of the facts. A book tells you what happened, a movie shows you what happened. In the end, of course, as Winters points out the facts of the matter are those seen by the writer from his vantage point and each individual will have a different version of any one engagement.

Ysabel

Ysabel by Guy Gabriel Kay is a reality meets fantasy kind of tale. Reality is 15-year-old Ned from Westmount in Provence with his father  who is on a photo-shoot with three assistants. Intersecting is a two-thousand five hundred year old feud between two men over a woman. When the kid gets in over his head his Aunt and Uncle from England show up and he invokes a child’s prerogative and decides, “I want my Mommy”. Mommy was in Darfur with Doctors Without Borders and he’s glad for a valid excuse to remove her from harm’s way. Throw in a girl Ned’s age. On the fantasy side meet Celtic invaders and Romans, Druidic rituals, and an ancient massacre of 200,000 Celts. Throw in French Cafés, ancient ruins, wild boars, enchanted wolves, and shape-shifting owls. If you can buy into all that then you have at base a story of a young man’s coming of age.