Book Review: No Ordinary Dog (My Partner from the SEAL Teams to the Bin Laden Raid)

No Ordinary Dog (My Partner from the SEAL Teams to the Bin Laden Raid), by Will Chesney (St. Martin's, 2021, $21, 336pp) Review by Skye Anderson

No wonder No Ordinary Dog is a bestseller! Nevertheless, this reviewer gives you permission to skip chapters 3 and 4: they are simply an extension of the first two chapters about SEAL* training. Additionally, you may skim the last pages also because too much detail is presented, over and over again. 

Author Will Chesney begins the book with his rather elongated (laborious?) story of joining the Navy and the rigors of SEAL training: the details may bog you down plus it is hard to believe he remembered those months in such detail. 

The Dog

Cairo is the Belgian Malinois MWD** (military working dog) who played a part, albeit small, in Operation Neptune Spear but do you know exactly what he did? 

We remember the pictures of him wearing goggles and body armour but did you know he was born in Europe and cost the US Navy 10,000$ as a youngster, before his Navy SEAL training?

The author remarks often on the bond between him and the dog but we don't experience this first-hand, perhaps because the author mentions it so often rather than showing us, instead.

UBL

Osama bin Laden was killed by US SEALs in 2011 in Abbotabad, Pakistan, during a surprise night raid of his residential compound (and surprising to me was the success of the raid). He had been the leader of al Qaeda and came to light after 911.

The Book Club

This reviewer is a member of a veterans' book club that has been meeting for seven  years. She generally reviews our monthly selections, sometimes before we meet and sometimes after our discussions (so she can incorporate some member comments). The group selected this book on her recommendation (she is also a dog trainer) and found out that some book club members had peripherally worked with MWDs but were not "dog-people" while others were dog-people.

We had varied views after reading No Ordinary Dog - from considering it to be poorly written to highly recommended. Some were disappointed in not meeting Cairo for so many pages. The reviewer was particularly disappointed in the use (albeit rarely) of an e-collar (electric - not positive reinforcement)

Every veteran will learn a lot from author Will Chesney, whether it be the continuous training rigors of the Navy's special operations forces (SOF) or the closeness of the SEAL teams or even just the details of the UBL raid and Cairo's part in it.

*SEAL - Sea, Air, and Land

**On page 140, the author seems to mention the story of another MWD in OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom), "Max, Best Friend, Hero, Marine," about a service member who is killed in action and his MWD is given to his family but has trouble readjusting to life back in the States. Watch the trailer here.

Book Review: Camille and the Silver Thorn (OT)(children's book, Christian values)

Camille and the Silver Thorn, by Rhonda Rein (Carriage Light, 2022, 139 pp, $7.99, ages 8-11)

The front cover of the book hooked me! Is it a boy or a girl? Is there a dog or a fox? Love it, whatever.

It is Saturday and 11-year-old Camille is playing outside in her Kansas backyard, checking in with her neighbor every once in a while since her dad is at work and her mom passed away. She notices a little red door, leading to a gnome home, at the base of a large tree and discovers a whole different world within. 

Much like Alice of Alice in Wonderland, Camille goes on an adventure that is too exciting to believe.  Her adventure also includes the opportunity to save a civilization, after she receives training from the elf in the tree (geren-haired Lila Elfonso) and others she meets along the way. 

A Creative Version of Wizard of Oz?

This story moves along at an impressive clip with tests along the way.

The Eyes Have It

Lila the Elf , "about the height of an unsharpened pencil," sees a kindred spirit in Camille as do others in Lila's world. It's in her eyes. It is this that convinces everyone to trust Camille to save their world but it is not easy as she goes from trial to trial and makes progress along the way - but will it be enough? Will Camille be able to do what others have not been able to do - save an entire world?

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Kindle version: 

Book Review: Simple Lies, An Amish Inn Mystery (Christmas, mysterious 'gifts')

Simple Lies: An Amish Inn Mystery, by Jan Fields (Annie's, 2026, $19.99HB, 205pp, a cozy mystery)

The Speed

We like fast-reading books that you can't put down. At the very least, you have to - put it down, but can't wait to get back to it. Many books start out slow - slow enough that readers don't stick with the book and lay it aside. Permanently. Simple Lies starts out slow but then picks up speed.

Weird Christmas in April?

There is noting wrong with Christmas in April. As a matter of fact, it just might be the thing you need. Minus the horror, though. And minus the bones and minus the other weird stuff like shopkeepers in a quaint little town finding packages on their doorstep and, upon opening them, finding stinky moldy hay and bones - but as the gifts inside escalate in horror (rags, a dead mouse, etc.) someone must find out who is doing this and why.

On the Other Hand

On the other hand, we read of an attorney from the big city settling down in a small Amish town as the innkeeper until her ex-fiancee comes to visit and cause havoc. On the other hand, we have the innkeeper's friends who own a quaint little bakery or another store and are her friends, as well as a couple of Amish women who work at the inn and okeeper.her Amish who are actually relatives of our inn-keeper.

And Don't Forget Beans!

Beans is the inn's resident bulldog, a real sleeper. Beans doesn't  have a large role in the story but is a constant and a cover model as well.

Book Review: Inequality by Design (OT) (planned obsolescence?)

Inequality by Design, by Ryan Mattson and Ben Johnson (Upriver Press. $24.95, 264pp PB, 2025)

Inequality by design, Planned obsolescence. But now, along with people's lives and occupations and Socio Economic Status (SES) and educational opportunities and tax brackets.

Authors Ryan Mattson and Ben Johnson have written a book that is spellbinding, a non-fiction book that reads like fiction, a book you simply cannot put down. Inequality by Design follows three highschool seniors from graduation to their lives ten years later and then twenty years later and . . . .Whatever happened to the promise at graduation that hard work will let you climb the ladder to success? Our highschool grads eventually learn that their success also depends on new laws passed by the government, which the average person has no inkling of nor time to pay attention to. All they know is that life is tough through no fault of their own. They are losing ground.

Although graphs are large enough to be read easily, the print accompanying them is readable only by squinting. The cover design shows something breaking, an up arrow and a down arrow, a mountain (?) and a body of water: I would suggest a design that is more obvious to the naive reader. Most importantly, I would put the subtitle on the cover (How a Rigged Economy Fractures America and What We Can Do About It).

The authors somehow make complex ideas understandable in conversational tones. I would take a class from these two in any subject. I would read any book they wrote.

Book Review: We the People (OT) (A Premonition)

We the People, A Premonition, by Russell Razzaque and T. MacGregor (Omni House Press, 2025, $9.99, 244pp PB)

Have you wondered what the future will bring, politically? Children do: they have illogical fears. I know I did- about nuclear war. Well, the future is now, or at least on its way and visible. This dystopian novel creates one such future.

The cover is magnetic - amid a destroyed New York City is featured Lady Liberty with injuries - this contradicts the title, We the People. The reader must read to find out why the contradiction. Or, reading the back cover, the reader is given a glimpse of the plot, setting and characters (and AI). It most likely will be a thriller but perhaps an unsettling thriller (and it's good to have both women and men protagonists).

We the People is a fast read and one that appeals to Hiispanic readers. The authors do a good job of inserting Spanish sentences whose meanings can be deduced in the following text.

The Table of Contents is interesting: chapter titles are One, Two, Three (with the final chapter being called "Now it's over to you!") and appear in Part One, Two or THREE [sic] as if the authors or publisher couldn't come up with better titles - but I like them!

*Lines are spaced rather far apart vertically and, unfortunately, too many errors are still present (the Mariel boat life took place in 1980 not 1982, e.g.) which include occasional uneven spacing between words. Where are the proofreaders when you need them?

Given all this, People is well written, well thought out and a different yet fascinating read for discussion.

Book Review: The Catalysts (OT) (the accelerating forces forging the new world financial order)

The Catalysts (The Accelerating Forces Forging the New World Financial Order), by Amanda Wick (Racket  Publishing, $34.95 PB, 2025, 417pp PB) 

The title, The Catalysts, and the front cover illustration led me to believe this book was about the environment. Great! But I was wrong: the subtitle contains the word, financial. Therefore, I put this book at the bottom of my list to read and review. When its turn came up I found out just how wrong I had been - early on. (P.S. Will the average reader know what a catalyst is, or just the chemistry majors?)

Author Amanda Wick opens her book with a zinger - the January 6 incident in Washington, DC. And she writes a non-fiction book that reads like fiction - fast and fascinating.

Subtitles in each chapter are extremely helpful as is the good-sized print which enables one to read in bed at night under less than ideal lighting circumstances.

An amazingly clear debut text with uncluttered drawings of graphs, key points at the ends of chapters (and it might be good to put them in the beginning of said chapters as well), headings and subheadings and subsubheadings emphasize important points for the reader. 

My final comment would be to write a companion book, shorter, and for the populace rather than for  public policymakers, regulators and concerned citizens.

Book Review: Through the Gates of Hell (OT), American Injustice at Guantanamo Bay

Through the Gates of Hell (OT), American Injustice at Guantanamo Bay, by Joshua Colangelo-Bryan (Humanitas Media, 2025, $27.00HB, 232pp HB)

As I've said before, a good book has a good story to tell and is well-written (also called magic since it is hard to define, but "I know it when I see it" [also said in the past of pornography]).

The reader knows a good book early on - by thumbing through it or by starting to read the first few paragraphs or words.

Many good books have been written by journalists or by former authors though not this book. Through the Gates of Hell is authored by a first-time author - an attorney to boot! Joshua Colangelo-Bryan must attempt to explain a lot of legal lingo in words the average person can understand - without being too boring. I believe he has done a quite good job.

Front cover designs are becoming more and more important in selling what is inside and becoming more fashionable to the book buyer (though not necessarily for the library patron. Hell's front cover, though perhaps I should refer to the book as Gates rather than Hell, depicts a wall topped by barbed wire, a universal photo.

Books have changed the world, from sparking an interest in a youngster so he or she goes into a specific occupation or causes someone to visit a certain foreign country. I am not sure Hell will do this but the author is a highly ethical person, even though an attorney, and that shows in the 'plot.'

And lastly, a good book is good all the way through. Hell is this, also. It is a piece of nonfiction that reads like fiction and brings in the rest of the world.

Through the Gates of Hell is a good book. It is about one of the detainees/prisoners at Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) and his American attorney and the hours they spent talking their case (Jaber's release, after 911), and their legal fight for Jaber's freedom due to perhaps mistaken identity.

A sobering, spellbinding, yet inspirational book. Can we really be the bad guys?

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I have read a few authors that I really like, not only as an author but as a person. Josh is one such person due to his high ethics. At the least, I would like to meet him.

I might suggest that some sensitive readers skip much of the beginning material which depicts treatment of prisoners at Gitmo (Guantanamo). And it was hard for me to believe that much of that treatment was going on - not the Army I knew in the war against terrorism (but I did get an inkling of it when I was in Afghanistan).

Gates does get bogged down in much of the book and that makes it hard to read because we know how it ends, we merely have to read the entire book to find out under what circumstances and when it gets resolved. And some might wonder why the book is about one Bahraini man when there were six at Gitmo at the time.