1919: The Untold Struggle of Adventism’s Struggle with Fundamentalism by Michael W. Campbell. Pacific Press Publishing Association. 124 pages. 1922: The Rise of Adventist Fundamentalism by Michael W. Campbell. Pacific Press Publishing Association. 144 pages. It was my honor the last few years of my tenure at Southwestern Adventist University to share the campus with … More Review: “1919” and “1922” by Michael W. Campbell
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. Crown Books. 591 pages. I picked up this book while I was on vacation, mostly because I recognized the author’s name. He’s the same author who wrote In the Garden of Beasts, the excellent book about the … More Review: “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson
Six Years with the Texas Rangers: 1875 to 1881 by James B. Gillett. University of Nebraska Press. 260 pages. I have neglected this blog and this website for quite a while. Seems like real life has gotten the better of me. But I have recently finished a few good books that I want to share … More Review: “Six Years with the Texas Rangers” by James B. Gillett
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Picador Books. 355 pages. Some books you read because they are a lot of fun to read. Some books you read because you come away with a memorable message. And some books you read because, well, because you just have to. I am a big Cormac McCarthy fan. My two … More Review: “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy
What If?: The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. Edited by Robert Cowley. Berkley Books. 416 pages. I’m a big fan of speculative history. On the other hand, my daughter, the purist, rolls her eyes whenever I talk about What if the South had Won the Civil War or What if there … More Review: “What If?” Edited by Robert Cowley
Black Cross (A World War II Thriller) by Greg Iles. Berkley Books. 656 pages. I have a tendency to pick up books and put them on my Kindle reader with the intention of reading them–someday. This is one of those books. I’m not sure when I bought it, but I came across it just a … More Review: “Black Cross” by Greg Iles
To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara. Ballantine Books. 636 pages. Several years ago, as a writing exercise, I proposed a story universe where World War I never happened and an Imperial Europe was united to dominate the globe with only the United States to stand against them. … More Review: “To the Last Man” by Jeff Shaara
The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989. Frederick Taylor. Harper Perennial. 486 pages. This is one of those books that I finished and then hesitated, wondering exactly how I was going to review it. One one side, it did do what it said it was going to do: that is, talk about the history of … More Review: “The Berlin Wall” by Frederick Taylor
In between working on my own writing project and teaching university classes, sometimes I get a hankering for some good old fashioned military escapism. Sometimes it’s military sci-fi; other times it is historical. I talked Shelly into visiting the local library this past weekend and I came across Bernard Cornwell’s book, Sharpe’s Fury. I had … More Review: “Sharpe’s Fury” by Bernard Cornwell
First of all, I’m pretty smart, but I don’t assume that I’m smarter than my readers. I don’t want to give that impression. Well, actually, I DO want to give that impression. That’s the point of writing books. You know something that the reader doesn’t know. They come to you for your knowledge and you … More How To Know More Than Your Readers
The Great Adventure 