Book Review: Red Platoon (COP Keating, Medal of Honor, Afghanistan, 2009)(OT)

Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor, by Clinton Romesha (Penguin Randomhouse, 2016, 400pp PB, $17) 

A Hard Book to Read

If this book doesn't change your life, it will at least be the book you think about for years to come. I know I will, not only because I was deployed to Afghanistan the year before COP Keating, but also because author Clinton Romesha is such a magnetic writer. The entire book but especially the beginning in which the stage is set, the soldiers introduced, and the command outpost described, is simply riveting.

Any Afghanistan or Iraq veteran will relive their deployment even though the years may be different, the weather may be different, the precise location may be different, and the geography - mountains or desert. Some things, however, remain the same: Hesco barriers, tent chow halls, MREs, guard duty, cleaning weapons, paper script.

A Hard Book to Put Down

Red Platoon is a warm book, a long book, but one you can't wait to get back to even as you know the ending. But take my advice and do not skip to the final pages until you have read the entire book preceding it or the writing and flow and suspense will be spoiled.

The reader will finally experience vicariously the meaning of 'band of brothers' even though other books explain it well also. When people live 24/7 through trying times, they become family, they take care of one another even though interpersonal scrabbles also exist. And they make best friends - for life.

The reader will also comprehend the roles of the soldier, the NCO, and the officer, and perhaps consider that young boys start their military training early in life by playing team sports like football where each team member has an important role and each must listen to and follow the leader.

What's it All About?

October 2009, the mountains of northern Afghanistan, a small outpost, not well located (makes you think of Dien Bien Phu* all over again). A day-long battle resulting in several deaths and a Medal of Honor (two, actually). 

The book starts by introducing each of several soldiers and their weapons and specialties - their backgrounds and who is best friends with who. I would suggest you tear out the map of COP 
Keating so you can refer to it often, and perhaps look up rank and weapons (SAW, claymore, M4, etc.) so the battle description is more memorable. I also wrote down the names of the soldiers who died that day. . . . 

Then you will google COP Keating and Medal of Honor and Romesha and discover that Jake Tapper wrote Outpost and a movie was made**. 

Red Platoon, however, will stay in your mind - written by the Medal of Honor awardee in a riveting book in which he remains humble. . . .

*Dien Bien Phu is a set-piece battle that ended France's domination of Viet Nam in 1953.

**Netflix also has a series called "Medal of Honor," in which session two is about Romesha and session six is Carter's story (the second MoH awardee from COP Keating)

Book Review: Cocktails with George and Martha (OT)(the play, the movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)

Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Philip Gefter (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024, $32, 347pp) Review by Skye Anderson

Who are George and Martha? Who is Edward Albee?

Not the Washingtons (the first president and his wife) but the very famous stars of the movie based on Edward Albee's play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 

'Cocktails' refers to the play and movie which takes place over only one evening and features cocktails and knock-down, drag-out arguments - and secrets exploding into the open. 

The Fight is On!

George, an established history professor, and Martha, his wife and the college president's daughter, meet the new, young biology professor and his wife and have them over for drinks after a faculty party. George and Martha have an explosive argumentative marriage - but, is that love? And can such a marriage survive an evening (til dawn) like this? With humiliation and verbal barbs?

Author Philip Gefter has written a humungous (347 pages) story that encompasses all - the play, the movie, the differences between a play and a movie (twice), plus how the players were selected and how the they interact in real life. It is an eye-opener that you simply can't put down, full of four-letter words, innuendos, and hurting those you love.

We follow Liz Taylor and Dick Burton (both British by birth) in the play and in their real married life in public and in private.  

Virginia Wolff also changes American film as it pulls society out of the Code Era and its niceties into realism.                          

Why Read This Book?

We can imagine a college course in which the movie is shown and discussed, followed by a reading and discussion of the book. This course would appeal to movie buffs, high society in NYC, grandparents and college students who contemplate the role of reality in marriage. 

Book Review: Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice (and a service dog!)

Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, by David Tatel (Little, Brown and Company, 2024, 352pp, $32) Review by Skye Anderson

"If talking too much about my dog is a crime, . . . I plead guilty."

It's All About the Dog vs It's Not About the Dog!

A German Shepherd Dog (GSD) service dog graces the cover, along with a retired appellate judge - a cover you can't forget! 

We first heard about Vision (and Vixen, the dog) about six months ago, finally obtained a copy of the book last week and nearly read it cover to cover overnight. Of course, this reviewer is a dog trainer and wanted to read about Vixen's life with Judge Tatel, but the author acknowledges up front and sets us straight: although a dog appears in the book, this is not the dog's book primarily. Nevertheless, he mentions Vixen a few times before her chapter - at the end.

Disappointment?

Nevertheless, we had read a sample (and loved it!) so we started in and soon found an engrossing story of a man we would like to meet, along with his four children.

David Tatel is a brilliant attorney* who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, most times, to snag an exciting job opportunity. But starting at about age 15, he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a progressive type of blindness which is genetic. Tatel was embarrassed and didn't admit to being blind for many years. He learned to hide it by accommodating his condition and depending more on memory and hearing, but finally consented to using a cane.

Tatel worked to be known as a judge who happened to be blind - not to be known as a blind judge. And finally, decades later, he agreed to a service dog, Vixen, who changed his life and gave him (and his wife) more independence, even though learning to work with a service dog was the hardest thing he had ever done.

His book goes into detail, chapters of details, on the job of a federal appeals judge** (who happened to be, twice, considered for a Supreme Court Justice opening) and the decisions he made, as well as the evolution of the current Supreme Court which he does not totally agree with or approve of.

Tatel's writing style is so engrossing that you, too, may read it in nearly one sitting!

A fascinating tale of a fascinating man but if you are looking for a dog book, I just hope this last part of Tatel's book is turned into a children's book! Nevertheless, Tatel's personality and sense of humor shine through in his memoir. And on page 193, he gives advice to appeals attorneys on how to do a good job!

*educated at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago

**appointed by President Clinton to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Court

Book Revew: Dogwinks (True Godwink Stories of Dogs and the Blessings they Bring)

Dogwinks: True Godwink Stories of Dogs and the Blessings they Bring, by Squire Rushnell and Louise Duart (Howard Books, 2020, $19.99, 285pp HB) Review by Skye Anderson.

"Some of the greatest gifts. . . come in furry packages."(p. 38-9)

Dogwinks is a small pocket-sized book you can put in a pocket of your cargo pants - with 20 short stories, beginning with the famous "Rudy" which has been made into a movie* and can be found on Netflix.

Reckless is the little Pit Bull lost in Hurricane Sandy, Keller is deaf and blind like Helen Keller, and then we have a Norman Rockwell story of a golden retriever, the life-saving Bullet, his human baby. and 911. "The dog they saved, saved their son." (p. 89)

Each story is told, in part, from the dog's point of view, and ends with reflections on the meaning of the story's lesson. Could dogs really be sent down from above for a purpose?

The best thing about reading a collection of short stories is that you can read them in any order. They may also be of varying lengths and, unfortunately, of spotty quality. This one is not.

Hearts Abound

Joy and unconditional love permeate the families and their dogs as their stories are depicted with life and loss.

One dog, Faith, even has her own book, and appeared on Oprah, Montel and other TV shows and in articles. Read about her in Wikipedia, too.

To find out more about Godwinks and Dogwinks, read this book - over and over again!

---------------

*"Rescued by Ruby"

Book Review: Behind Enemy Lines: Under Fire in the Middle East (a Scholastic book)

Behind Enemy Lines: Under Fire in the Middle East, by Bill Doyle (Scholastic, 2011, $3.99, 136pp PB) Review by Skye Anderson  

Navy, Army, Air Force and civilians - men and women - human IEDs, and medics in Iraq, and running out of rice, familiar places in Afghanistan, and teachers and bribes in Pakistan (the first chapters I read were the Afghanistan stories and one even mentioned where I had been stationed!) 

You can read Behind Enemy Lines in any order - it takes place from the 90s into the 2000s and each story you read is more exciting than the last so you will read the remainder faster and faster.

You will read a short version of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell which later became the book Lone Survivor.

The last story I had the courage to read was about three dogs on a US military base in Afghanistan but I'll let you find out what happened, if you can read through your tears. Again.

The style is written for a young boy (or girl) with the words that might go through the mind of a soldier in danger - afterwards. To make the situation more dangerous and exciting and heroic, that is. But reality is as exciting as it needs to be. 

Book Review: Christian The Lion (book, movie, event)(OT)

Christian the Lion, by Anthony Bourke and John Rendall (Random House, $14.99HB, 2009, 128pp, ages 8-12) Review by Skye Anderson

I picked up Christian the Lion and devoured it, knowing it was only representative of all the books and documentaries out there about this famous lion - and even a video of the reunion two years after Christian was set free in Africa. Who has not heard of Christian or of Elsa, the star of Born Free (also a movie in 1966), Living Free and Forever Free?

But do you know the rest of the story?

In 1969, two Australians went shopping in Harrod's, a London department store, and met a lion cub. Wanting to give  him a better life, they purchased Christian and kept him for a few months, before moving to the British countryside and eventually, with the help of George Adamson (who had lived with Elsa a few years previously), transported the lion to Kenya, Africa, and helped acclimate him to the life of a wild lion.

This particular book, written for children, by the two Australians is an eye-opener and nearly a tear-jerker, relating the close bond between this animal and his two humans. They played together and eventually the men decided it would not be fair to keep a lion in any sort of captivity, so they made the hard decision.

With an adorable cover photo and ending with facts about lions, three other lions in particular (Aslan, Elsa and The Cowardly Lion) and information about the other four of the Big Five African Animals (leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape Buffalo), this book covers it all. Even though the pages of color photos of mostly Christian don't seem to relate the major events of the three friends this or any book about Christian is bound to be food for thought.

Book Review: Bloomers on Pikes Peak, The Story of Julia Archibald Holmes (Young Adult book)(OT)

Bloomers on Pikes Peak, The Story of Julia Archibald Holmes, by Clarissa Willis (Solander Press, $11.99, 2024, 42 pp, ages 6-10) Review by Skye Anderson

Did you know that women crossing the Plains in the 1800s wore long dresses with hoop skirts? Except for Julia Archibald Holmes, who wore shorter skirts with bloomers that permitted ease of movement. She also offered to stand guard at night, like the men did.

The Holmes moved from Canada to Massachusetts to Kansas and eventually Julia ended up in New Mexico. Her family was ahead of its times, being abolitionists, so it is no surprise that Julia was the first woman to scale Pikes Peak!

The illustrations in Bloomers are full-page and the easy to read boldfaced text sometimes appears in washed-out parts of the illustrations, thus making it easy to read over dark colors.

However, this reviewer thought that, although a good book, the title was not representative. Either more details of the climb up Pikes Peak or a title that reflects the entirety of Julia's life would be better. 

Wherever she went, Julia kept a diary, even on her ascent of Pikes Peak. This, and so many other things made Julia, like her family, ahead of the times - she was a suffragette, helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad, traveled west, and more!