Military Dogs of World War II - Susan Bulanda

This book collects stories and describes the important jobs dogs served during the second world war. Some were taken overseas and used as mine detectors. Others were on patrol, alerting the men when an enemy was nearby. Some dogs were taken in as strays and adopted as mascots. Family pets alerted rescue teams to buried humans. Larger dogs were used to pull sleds of munitions or injured men. This is only some of the jobs I read about. Dogs were used by many countries during the war. 

The book tells the story of the famous and the unknown in the genre. It doesn't do it in great depth, which is okay. There are tons of pictures. I couldn't get enough of those. On the flip side of that, this was a war. Some, I'm sure many, of the faithful friends would never make it home. There are stories of those heroes in this book as well.

I think the most heartbreaking part is the lack of regard for the dog's lives by some countries. I will give one of them credit for changing direction when they realized they were losing too many dogs. Even if it was a numbers thing, they changed the policy. On the other end of that was a different country that just made me angry.

Overall, though, the book is super uplifting and for a dog lover, I could've read these stories forever. On a price level, be aware it's only 126 pages, and there's tons of pictures, so make sure to keep that in mind if that's a consideration for you. I got it when it was on sale, so it gets a Good Book! review. I really loved it!

Ash (Asher Benson #1) - Jason Brant

Jason Brant came onto my radar because of his YouTube channel where he watches bad movies with his wife and friends. I didn't know he was an author, but apparently, he has a lot of books out there. Many of them are horror, which isn't my thing, but the summary of this book sounded interesting. It falls into the "diet book" category. It's listed at 215 pages. 

Ash was injured in Iraq, and now he hears the thoughts of the people around him. He uses booze to dull the voices at the end of the day, and his life is a mess. One day, he walks into a bank and stops a robbery. After that, his life takes an interesting turn. Now, he's wrapped up in some strange government group that wants to track down someone with powers stronger than Ash's, and they can't do it without Ash. But they also don't seem to be very good at doing anything when he does find his target.

Ash is kind of a putz. I found it interesting that when he made a link to the target, he didn't have any questions for the man. He didn't really trust the people he was working for, but he decided to antagonize the person who could've answered some of his questions. Later on, I understood the snarkiness and sarcasm, but at least initially, I would've thought Ash would've been at least a little curious.

My favorite character, hands down, was Drew (his girlfriend Melissa sounded like a shrew, and I was upset he still had her at the end - he deserves better!). He didn't put up with any crap from Ash, but he was loyal to the end. It was the kind of friend Ash needed, and he didn't get enough credit. A close second would be Nami. She had a spirit that made me smile a few times.

I liked the plot, even though I found it sad that so many innocent people were dying all over the place. The action scenes are very detailed, which is something I don't see very often, so props for that. I wasn't always 100% sure what exactly was happening, but I got the gist most of the time.

The series has two other books, Madness and Asher's War. I don't know if Drew returns, so I don't think I'll actively look to read these. Ash by himself would probably drive me crazy. Without Drew to balance him out, I'm not sure I would've rated this as high as I am. I did appreciate that it's not longer than it needed to be. The author wasn't trying to hit a page count here, and he just told the story and let the page count fall where it may. Combining that with the plot and my man Drew earns Ash a Good Book! review.

A Kim Jong-Il Production - Paul Fischer

Choi, a South Korean actress, was kidnapped and taken to North Korea. Shin, a filmmaker, was kidnapped later and joined her after going through a much more uncomfortable welcome. He was put into prison where he tried to escape. Eventually, the two were reunited, and they formed a film company.

After eight years, they were able to escape and get away. It took that long to gain the amount of trust and for circumstances to align in such a way they were able to make it to an American Embassy. After that, they were reunited with their family, and they spent some years in the states before making their way back to South Korea.

Unfortunately, their story has undergone a lot of scrutiny. Some people claim they weren't kidnapped at all, and that Shin purposely went to North Korea so he could make films again. Events don't really line up to support that scenario, but people will believe what they want to.

The author has done what he can to portray the facts as they were able to be verified. As with anything like this, there isn't going to be 100% verifiable sources for something like this. Most of the story comes from Choi and Shin, but their stories line up with other events of the time. The author went so far as to use Google maps, visit North Korea and contact any people mentioned by Choi and Shin. If they were unavailable, he tried to get in touch with someone who knew them. I give him credit for that.

I found the book to be interesting. The weird way things worked in North Korea was fascinating and sad at the same time. It was also sad to think of the poor people left behind who were punished when Choi and Shin escaped. Shin's life after leaving North Korea wasn't super amazing, and that's a shame. I'll give it a Good Review!