Article first published as Book Review: SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin on Blogcritics. About: “SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Sniper” by Howard E. Wasdin (website) and Stephen Templin (website | Twitter) is a memoir of Mr. Wasdin time as a Navy SEAL. This book just happens to come out after SEAL Team Six took out Bin-Laden. The book was not rushed to print because of the operation. I thought this was an important point to make. 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press ISBN: 031269945X My rating for SEAL Team Six – 4 Buy & Save on“SEAL Team Six” through the ManOfLa­Book affil­i­ate account on: Ama­zon |Book Depos­i­tory US | Book Depos­i­tory UK Thoughts: “SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Sniper” by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin is a well written memoir which walks the reader through Wasdin’s childhood, Navy SEAL training, several missions and Mr. Wasdin settling down with his beloved wife and children. This is an exciting book, an easy and fast read. While the authors cover a lot of ground, the book kept my attention throughout. Especially poignant, for me, were the…

A passionate and persuasive case that perjury, lying and interfering with investigations are not some minor technicalities in which an overzealous prosecutor can “stick it” to you – but serious crimes which undermine our whole justice system.

The book follows the battle of Okinawa through the eyes of the grunts on the ground and the commanders of both the American and Japanese forces.
The last part of the book follows the days leading to dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima mostly through the eyes of President Truman and pilot Paul Tibbets.

The book begins after the Normandy invasion. The allied generals are confident that the war will be over in a few weeks, but Hitler is not so sure. Despite the advice of his generals, Hitler launches a desperate counteroffensive in the Ardennes Forest surprising the Americans.

The story is told through the eyes of Eisenhower, Patton, private Eddie Benson as well as Germans Gerd von Rundstedt and Albert Speer.

I got this eBook for free. My rating for Last Pict – 5 About: “Last Pict” by Rick Boven (website) is a short story in graphic novel form. Mr. Boven is a very talented artist, actor and filmmaker who worked as a TV director and for high profile dot com companies. 21 pages Pub­lisher: Nan Bu Nan Publishing ASIN: B004UM95PU Get “Last Pict” through the ManOfLa­Book affil­i­ate account on: Ama­zon Thoughts: “Last Pict” by Rick Boven is short but delivers a powerful message. While the story is short, it is also sad and reflects deeply on a father/son relationship. I actually felt sad after finishing to read, there are no good and bad people in the story. The father and the principle are both well meaning adults but at the end, to me, it was clear their good intentions are not enough. The father, a hardworking man, is not proud of his talented boy and does not take the bullying incident seriously. One needs to read between the lines to get the message which is built very subtly into the panels. As a father myself, I realize what great burden I carry. I can still remember something from age five-six…

This week we celebrated what would have been Roger Hargreaves 76th birthday. Mr. Hargreaves was the creator of the “Mr. Men”(official site | collector’s site) series of books which many of us grew on. In his honor I dedicate this post of Fun Facts Friday. 1) Charles Roger Hargreaves (9 May 1935 – 11 September 1988) was born at a private hospital in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, England. 2) Roger Hargreaves always wanted to be a cartoonist and wrote his firs Mr. Men book, “Mr. Tickle, while working as a creative director for an advertising agency. 3) He had a difficult time finding a publisher, however once published the books were an instant success selling over one million copies in three years. 4) He published his first Mr. Men book in 1971, by 1976 he quit his day job. The Little Miss book series appeared in 1981. 5) Mr. Hargreaves wrote many other stories for children, including a series of 25 books called “Timbuctoo”. image from karaman.org 6) By 1983 Lillte Miss was a TV show (Mr. Men had his own TV show prior) voiced by Upstairs, Downstairs actors John Alderton, and Pauline Collins. 7) Mr. and Mrs. Hargreaves had four…

A few weeks ago I read “A Fierce Radiance” (book review) and was very impressed with the storytelling and research that went into the book. The author, Lauren Belfer (web­site), was kind enough to answer a few questions I had after finished reading her book. Q. It seems you did a lot of research, anything specific you can share about how you went about it? A.I adored doing the research for “A Fierce Radiance.”  Of course, research is always easier for me than sitting down to write!  I started my research by reading every issue of Life Magazine for the war years, 1939 (when the war began in Europe) through 1945.  I learned some amazing things, such as the extent to which people assumed that America would be bombed and invaded during World War II.  I also read the New York Times on microfilm for the war years.  For my purposes, microfilm was much better than reading the digital archive of the Times, because on microfilm you see the advertisements.  You learn what people are wearing, and what cars they’re driving.  As I wrote the novel, I wanted to forget everything I knew about the actual course of World War II and…

Dr. Henry Kissinger writes at length about the country he has known for decades. Recounting Chinese history and culture, Kissinger examines how China sees itself and the outside world.

Mr. Kempe argues that one of the most significant outcomes of 1961 was the perceived weakness Khrushchev found in Kennedy. That weakness prompted him to place missiles in Cuba thinking the young President would cave as he did in Berlin.

John Pollack loves words and one could tell from the book. He is a former World Pun Champion and speech writer for President Bill Clinton. In the book Mr. Pollack explains the significance of the mighty pun. The author shows the reader how the pun revolutionized the language weaving stories, history, science, culture and literature.