Arti­cle orig­i­nally pub­lished as Book Review: ‘The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship’ by Patrick Bishop on Blogcritics.org About: The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship by Patrick Bishop is a non-fiction book about the attempts of the allies to sink the German battleship Tirpitz during World War II. This is a great book for World War II buffs, naval historians or those interested in naval technical developments. 416 pages Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc., An Eagle Publishing Company ISBN: 1621570037 My rat­ing for The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship— 4 Buy this book from Amazon.com* More Books by Patrick Bishop More Rec­om­mended World War II books on Man of la BookStore Thoughts: The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship by Patrick Bishop (website) is an interesting book about the allies’ obsession with sinking the Tirpitz even though she was mostly inactive during the war. It seemed to me the Tirpitz’s greatest contribution during the war was to divert huge amounts of allied resources. Mr. Bishop’s book is also a fascinating look at the naval history of the North Sea during World War II. This is a dense and detailed book on a subject I knew very little about and found the dynamics and war politics within the British Navy…

Author and futurist Jules Verne was born on this day, 8 February, 1828 (d: 24 March, 1905) in Nantes, France. Verne is considered the father of general Science Fiction and recently been credited with “fathering” the steampunk genre. Verne wrote some of the most famous books in the worked, such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, and Around The World In 80 Days. Image from http://www.stars-celebrites.com/ Books by Jules Verne Verne is the second most translated author in the world (the first is Agatha Christie). Jules Verne wrote more than 70 books (54 of them compromising the Voyages Extraordinaires) In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo travels the world in a giant electric submarine, the Nautilus. Several modern submarines are powered by electricity, granted they’re not as huge as the Nautilus (with formal dining room, library, etc.) but they are not that different from the one Verne described. In 1886, the first electric powered submarine was name The Nautilus. One of the weapons described in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a gun which shoots balls in which “electricity is forced to a very high tension” and delivers a strong electrical jolt. A…

Welcome to another edition of Tightwad Tuesday. If you follow this blog you know I read many books on World War II – so here are some selections I found for the Kindle and the nook on this topic. For the Kindle: The Miracle of Stalag 8A (Stalag VIII-A) – Beauty Beyond the Horror: Olivier Messiaen and the Quartet for the End of Time by John William McMullen The Miracle of Stalag 8A is a retelling of the fascinating story of Olivier Messiaen’s composition of his Quartet for the End of Time. Set in France & Germany from 1939 to 1941, Messiaen served in the French army, was captured at Verdun, and sent to Stalag 8A in Gorlitz, Germany, where he composed the great work, The Quartet for the End of Time. The enigmatic Messiaen, an avant-garde composer and also a devout Catholic, along with Etienne Pasquier, an agnostic cellist, Henri Akoka, a Jewish Trotskyite Clarinetist, and Jean le Boulaire, an atheistic violinist, become the famous quartet of Stalag 8A. These four very different men collaborated to create musical history in the most unlikely of places. Messiaen’s Quartet, composed in a Stalag, transforms man’s inhumanity to man with hope. Yet…

Michael O’Hanlon, author of The Wounded Giant (my thoughts), is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, homeland security and American foreign policy. He is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Books by Michael O’Hanlon Q. Why do you refer to America as “The Wounded Giant” and do you think its fair to do so? A. It is of course designed to be a colorful term but I think it’s accurate. The United States remains far and away the world’s superpower in military (and many other) terms. But it is badly hurting and its future dominance – as well as its ability to play a stabilizing role internationally — is in question. This is less from the rise of China (or anyone else) per se, than from the wounds (largely self-inflicted) from which it is currently suffering, starting with trillion dollar annual deficits and an eroding economic foundation. Q. What is the most important thing you would like readers to take away from your book? A. That the…

About: Eating Smoke: One Man’s Descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong’s Triad Heartland by Chris Thrall is a memoir of the author’s time being a drug addict in Hong Kong. The book takes a good look at into the red light district of Hong Kong, the colorful Wan Chai district. My rating for Eating Smoke – 4 Great price on this book in paper or elec­tronic for­mat through the Man of la Book Affil­i­ate Account Thoughts: Eating Smoke: One Man’s Descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong’s Triad Heartland by Chris Thrall (website | Facebook) chronicles the author, an ex-Royal Marine, downfall into the world of drugs in Hong Kong. There are several viewpoints one could read this book as: a funny memoir, a cautionary tale, a how-not-to-succeed-in business book, a how-not-to-choose-your-friends type of story, a smart-guy-doing-stupid-things anecdote, or as a foreigner in a foreign land story. Of course, all of the above would also apply. Besides the drug addict mindset which I cannot understand or comprehend, I found Mr. thrall’s stories about Chinese culture fascinating. The stories of the jobs he got simply on the base of his pale face are funny and somewhat disturbing. The condition wasn’t only a white face…

What I love about this book is that the translators took their time to write an excellent introduction and, best of all, wonderful footnotes

Tomorrow is the birthday of famed Polish author Joseph Conrad (December 3, 1857 – August 3, 1924). Reading Conrad’s work one could see his development of an author from adventure stories to sophisticated works.

The book is divided into five parts; Home Port, The Atlantic, The Arabian Sea, The Eastern Seas, and The Pacific. Each of these has descriptive sections.

The narrative is good, easily understood and confident. The tale of honor and betrayal is accompanied by interesting characters which makes it entertaining