No Surrender - Christopher Edmonds

Chris is a son who didn't get a chance to discover how much of a hero his father was while he was alive. When Chris's daughter has a school assignment, Chris's interest in his father is rekindled. He leaves a comment, and it leads down a path of discovery and learning.

The middle part of the book was the best part. It was when the author took the interviews and research and put together the story of what actually happened. The beginning focuses more on Chris. What I would consider the meat of the book ends on page 293. On the Amazon page, the book is listed at 352 pages. So what's in the rest of the book? The very end is repetitive of things that were mentioned earlier. I skimmed through that. The afterword gave updates on what happened to some of the men mentioned in the book. 

I had some issues with the book. The Notes section of the book had to be the most frustrating. They should have been footnotes throughout the book. A note would give a few words of the quote and where he got it. No page number or anything. Many times throughout the book, I would read something and wonder how he knew that. When I first started reading the middle section, I had no idea he'd met so many people. That was cleared up at the end.

The other issue may or may not be Kindle specific. The pictures were extremely tiny. They also gave credit, but most of them weren't labeled in any helpful way. Even if I could make out what I was looking at, I didn't know who it was or why I was looking at it.

The story itself is great. Roddie was an inspiration to his men, but I feel like it's important to realize they were all heroes as well. When the Germans were asking almost 1300 men to obey, they all stood firm. Under Roddie's leadership, yes, but it still took strength for them not to cave under those conditions.

I liked the middle part so much that I almost forgot the tedious nature of the beginning, but then I made it to the end, and it all came rushing back. I enjoyed reading the stories of the men involved, but I feel like Chris's part in the tale could've been summed up in a prologue. He could've summarized the results of his journey in an epilogue and how his father was recognized. Then the book would've been focused more on Roddie. In my opinion, it just needed a bit of polishing.

The Witcher Omnibus (Volume 1) - various

I'm a fan of the Witcher. I've read all the books and watched my husband play the video games. (I tried to play one of them, but it was disastrous.) My kids have gotten me into reading comics here and there, so when I found out this existed, I was in.

This volume has 440 pages and 4 stories: House of Glass, Fox Children, Killing Monsters and Curse of Crows. Three of the stories have multiple comics involved with Killing Monsters being a one-shot. At the end was a collection of sketches and an interview.

Overall, I really liked this collection. I was a bit nervous at first, because the cover is straight weird. I'm sorry, but it's not the style I like. Fortunately, the art inside was more along the lines of what I was expecting. The stories were good and lined up with what I knew of Geralt. I don't think I can pick a favorite. They all had a satisfying twist.

There is another omnibus, and I'd like to get a hold of it. There are Kindle versions of these, but for comics, I prefer a physical copy. Yes, they take up more room, but it's easier to read them when I can hold them in my hand. Good Book!

An Owl Too Many (Peter Shandy #8) - Charlotte MacLeod

We went to Adventures Underground again in search of older paperbacks. Little diamonds in the rough that are just waiting for me to find them. This title is newer, but it caught my attention 1) because of the owls and 2) because of the picture of the owl. I know nothing about Peter Shandy and had no idea I was in the middle of a series. It didn't matter much, but there were hints of other stories here and there.

An owl count turns deadly when a newcomer ends up dead. The group discovers he isn't who he pretended to be, and everything seems to center around Winifred Binks, the heiress to her grandfather's fortune. After that, there's kidnappings, shady deals, disguises and hypnotism.

You know what I didn't read about? Owls. There were zero owls in this book. They talk about them, but the "snowy owl" was a package of feathers on a wire? Blah. And the "owl too many" is just Shandy referring to how maybe he's counted one too many over the years. It was disappointing, since I only picked it up for the owl. It was too recent to count as one of the usual books I pick up for my experiments.

If I set aside my owl expectations, I guess the book was ok. It doesn't stand out as being super clever or anything. If anything, I was upset at certain aspects. The whole hypnotism confession is useless due to those pesky Miranda Rights. I also had the most sympathy for Knapweed. For numerous reasons, but mostly because no one seems to care about him most of the time. Toward the end, that was super frustrating. The characters just go on with their business, and Knapweed is forgotten.

I don't think I'll read more of these. I'm not sure how much owl disappointment affected my opinion, but it wasn't long before I figured out owls weren't really a main focus. From then on, I was giving it a fair shot, but it just didn't grab me. Poor Knapweed...

Memoirs of a Stuka Pilot - Helmut Mahlke

I'm always interested in reading personal accounts of pilots. I can't comprehend what drives people to choose to go up in the air and risk their lives. I've seen some of the planes they flew during WWII in museums, and I can't imagine trusting my life in one.

Helmut works his way into a Stuka, and then works his way through the ranks. He is present for the Battle of Britain, Africa, Italy, and the Eastern Front. He doesn't always have the most important roles to play (for example, he doesn't bomb London), but he goes through a lot, including being shot down behind enemy lines twice.

The thing that struck me the most was his humanity. Any time one of his crews went down or was injured, he listed their name and what happened to them. He had respect for his fellow soldiers and also the enemy. He mentions thoughts for the enemy in passing a couple of times, and then he moves on. He has to. He's also glad he isn't down on the ground where he can see the carnage. After he's injured, he appreciates how both sides are working together at the hospital "just being human."

I found it interesting how he sprinkled in little bits of information he learned later on. When he was serving, he was told what to do, and news of what was going on in other places was censored. Also, soldiers weren't allowed to vote, and that was something I'd never considered, but it made sense.

The book itself is around 450 pages. The afterword is a brief summary of what happened to Mahlke during the rest of the war, but most of it is dedicated to a history of the Stuka group he was stationed with. The Appendixes are lists of pilots and ground crew (roster, KIA, missing, casualty reports and posted elsewhere). I was a bit disappointed to not learn anything of Mahlke's later life. Just that he had retired and died December 26, 1998. Overall, it was a Good Book!

The Big Four (Hercule Poirot #5) - Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is back for another case in this interesting book. It isn't like the normal cases, and I read that it was originally twelve short stories. That made sense.

The Big Four is an international criminal organization. Over a period of months, Poirot and Hastings have encounters with various members. They can't narrow down the identity of Number Four, but eventually all four of the main players are identified. The problem now is catching them.

I can't read many Hercule Poirot without having an idea of what's going to happen. I watched the David Suchet series, so I remembered parts of this one. The story was okay, but it wasn't as interesting as many of the other Christie books I've read.

The book entered the public domain in 2023, so if you're interested in reading it, you should be able to find it available for free. It wasn't the worst thing I've read lately, but it won't stick in my memory as one of the better ones, either.

 

Eight Lives Down - Chris Hunter

I looked into this topic after watching The Hurt Locker. I wanted to know more about the type of person who would voluntarily put themselves into harm's way to go into a foreign country and disarm bombs. All the while it probably feels like everyone is trying to kill you, and if they aren't, you can't tell which ones are and which aren't.

Hunter is a British soldier who disarms bombs, but he also is trying not to lose his family. His wife has had it, but he feels like he has to protect the men he's working with. The adrenaline rush he gets from neutralizing these threats is something he can't seem to separate himself from.

The book is harrowing and scary. It was silly. The man wouldn't have been able to write the book if he hadn't made it, but there were times I wasn't sure he would be able to finish his tour. And I was so invested in whether his family would be there when he got back. He knew he was screwing up, but he just kept messing up. It just made me sad.

This was one of the better autobiographies I've read. It's written in an easy manner, and it's not bogged down by so many technical details I couldn't follow what was happening. I am so glad I read this. It was well worth my time, and if you have any interest in this topic, I highly recommend this book. Good Book!

 

The Enemy Below (condensed) - D. A. Rayner

I watched the 1957 movie and wanted to read the book.

The version I read was a condensed version. I don't know if anyone remembers the Reader's Digest books that had like 5 or 6 books smooshed into them, but that's what this was. It ended up being about 80 pages.

The story revolves around the battle of wits between the captains of a British destroyer and a German sub. Both men are clever and try to predict what the other will do. The German sub is on its way to a rendezvous, so the captain doesn't have a lot of time to engage with the destroyer. He'd rather shake him off.

The captain of the destroyer quickly catches on that the sub is headed toward a meeting, but he doesn't let up. When the sub runs out of options, the two leaders have to use what they have left.

Even though the book was condensed, I enjoyed the tension Rayner was able to weave into his writing. I loved the end. *Spoiler* A scrum in the water was just what this story needed at the end. Out of the two books written about the Hecate, this is obviously the second one, and I hope to someday track down the first one, The Crippled Tanker. Good Story! 

Against All Odds - Alex Kershaw

WWII brought out the best and worst in a lot of humanity. This book focuses on the 3rd Infantry Division, mainly four specific men: Maurice Britt, Audie Murphy, Keith Ware and Michael Daly. Others are mentioned here and there, but the book mainly follows these four through the war and afterwards.

The book is divided up into The Mediterranean (Italy), France, Germany, and Peace. Also, within the chapters, there are many section breaks, so I didn't have to dedicate an hour to make it to a break in the book. It has pictures in the middle (paperback), and notes and a bibliography at the end.

I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot about the 3rd Infantry Division and some of the more notable members that were in WWII. The book is well-researched as evidenced by the amount of material referenced in the bibliography.

These men all had one thing in common: they didn't do it for the glory. They did it to survive and try to save the man next to them. Many times they weren't able to do it, which weighed heavily on them. They didn't come home to bask in the glory and wear their medals to the store. They were true heroes. Good Book!