This is the story of a genuine hero, one of uncountable many that America produces and, thankfully, continues to produce. Someone said: Freedom isn't free and this is amply demonstrated in this book. The story of one person's dedication to duty is vibrantly told.
There is a bridge, a heavy, strong, and a very capable bridge. Ironically, built by the US Army several years before. It is the only big strong bridge across a river separating North Vietnam from the south.
A formidable armored column from the north is approaching, intending to use this bridge as their avenue to overtake the south. It is somewhat late in the war, and America is pulling out ("Vietnamizing" the war), but there is a lot of pain and agony still to go through. The destruction of this bridge slowed the advance of the northern armies by three years.
The book is written on the detail level and therein lies its fascination. We see that Capt Ripley climbs over barbed wire fences, swings across the under girding of the bridge, and fights this battle from street to foxhole around the little town of Dong Ha (just a few miles from the DMZ). The writing is wonderful and gripping, putting you face-to-face with the action as it unfolds hour by hour.
This book does lack a few essentials. The full context, with appropriate maps, in time and space is missing. Additionally, the reader is sometimes lost (as I was) in the minute details of the action at the bridge. A very local map or two would have helped.
The heroism of Capt Ripley is focused on his action in moving around under the bridge, while under direct small arms and cannon fire. It is difficult for a reader to appreciate this without almost an engineering drawing of the undersides of the bridge. We read of channels, stringers, girders, piers, all three stories above the river. Capt Ripley was swinging, crawling, and hauling explosives. I (and maybe this is the engineer in me coming out) would have loved to see drawings showing the design of the bridge, with little arrows and annotations ('crawled from here to here', 'pulled xx pounds of explosvie across this girder', 'I was here when the rifle bullets came in', 'the tank shell hit here').
Finally, we note the very emotional and wonderful human touches, the radioman, the commander of the South Vietnames unit, the commander's bodyguard, are described very well; their humanity is very apparent, as is their own dedication to their country. While we learn a little about them, more would have been a great addition. Similarly with Capt Ripley's American compatriot, Major Jim Smock (USA, Armor), who was with him at the bridge.
The book is 186 pages long; it could have been twice that and welcome.

In his desperate attempt to blow up the bridge at Dong Ha and keep some 30,000 men and 200 tanks at bay, Ripley endured three hours of direct fire to rig more than 500 pounds of explosives. Handwalking the beams beneath the bridge, crimping detonators with his teeth, and racing the burning fuses back to shore, he saved his comrades from certain death. This earned Ripley the Navy Cross. He is a 1962 graduate of the United States Naval Academy - - yet another fine American produced at Annapolis.

I read Bridge at Andau while in Budapest this spring. It was amazing to be in the places where this terrible history took place while reading Michener's account of the events. Two points were apparent to me; 1. I was surprised to realize that this history is overshadowed by other events in eastern Europe, 2. The book was written at the height of McCarthyism and must be taken with a small grain of salt. The stories told about the revolution of 1956 are no less legitimate or compelling than at the time the book was penned, but the purpose of the book was different. Michener wrote a novel that was to serve as a warning to anyone who might have romantic ideals about the evil communists that were percieved to be ready to destroy America. This is a great story about about courageous people. Unfortunately it may be misinterperted as soft sell propoganda about why capitalism is better than communism.

When I first read about teenage children disabling tanks and killing the occupants with rocks, clubs and bottles filled with gasoline, I thought the Marines could learn a lot from these children. Their communication, teamwork and overwhelming dedication amazed me.
I read about a 12-year-old boy who strapped a half-dozen grenades to his body, pulled a wire to pull all the pins and stepped in front of the tracks of a tank. After the tank ran him over and killed him, the grenades went off, derailing the tracks and disabling the tank, so that other children could throw gasoline bottles inside the turret to kill the drivers. I realized then this was not military mastery, but desperation spawned from people who had nothing left to live for.
"It should not have happened," said the minister who told the story of the 12-year-old boy. "Somebody should have stopped such a child. But he knew what he was fighting against."
"The Bridge at Andau," by James Albert Michener, is based on interviews with survivors of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist Soviet occupation. Written in 1957, the book was checked out of the Depot library five times during the late 50s and early 60s. From then on, it has silently gathered dust on the shelf. Within three years after the uprising, interest in the estimated 40,000 to 80,000 Hungarians slaughtered by the Soviets had vanished.
This book tells the story of the Soviet expansionist theory which was not taught in the Woodland High School. Instructors provided amazingly lukewarm descriptions of Soviet Communist Theory as a philosophy of taking care of the common people.
The "Bridge at Andau", in simple language and vivid imagery, describes the actions of brave and desperate people fighting to escape the domination of the "Red Bear." In the five days following the expulsion of the initial soviet troops, Hungarians prayed for American intervention which did not come. In the third and final phase of the fight for independence, the Soviets returned to Hungary in a fury of modern tanks and a mechanized army with hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had orders to shoot everyone and everything.
"When the victorious Soviets finally entered the castle itself, the final bastion, only thirty young Hungarians remained to walk out proudly under the white flag of surrender," according to the book. "For three days they (teenage children) had withstood the terrible concentration of Soviet power, and they had conducted themselves as veritable heroes. The gallant Soviet commander waited until they were well clear of the walls; then with one burst of machine-gun fire, he executed the lot."
This book not only tells the horrors of Soviet-occupied Hungary, but provides insight to all countries that struggled under Soviet reign. On its pages are the horrors of torturous militia which "encouraged" confessions from the most devout would-be communists. These crimes against humanity, similar in many instances to those suffered at the hands of Nazi's but less publicized. Due to lack of media interest, this uprising, although bloody and foul, never caught the concern of the world. The people in this tiny country never gained a champion for their cause. And, so lived in terror until the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1990.

I read this book as a reading assignment during high school 2 years ago, forgot the title, but still remember the history. I finally got the title in a search here and have bought it to read again because I missed some of the fine details in the hour class I had to read it in. It portrays the struggle and eventual defeat of the Hungarian Revolution well from the view of Hungarians, though it does not give us insight into the USSRs view, which I wouldn't expect in a novel about the Hungarians fight for freedom. An excellent read.

Well, It was a very extremely interesting
book. But, the only thing that disappointed
me about this book is that There Wasn't enough
Teenage Romance in the Book Between Justine &
Carl To tell you the truth when they were
having a pizza party i thought for starter's
that was pretty lame. They should've had a real party
for Maddie's going away party, with booz & cool music
not that i'm an alcoholic i'm just more in favour of
real partie's u know. Also I think Maddie Shoul've started

going out with Carl as soon as she broke up with Nathan i
think she did break up with him, but never took the chance
to ask Carl if he would go out with her at that time, Carl would've truly cared for her cause that's the kinda guy he is
a Sweet, Caring person that deserved more in life. Carl's mum dying in the novel just ruined the whole story, i think anyway, he should've been able to find her, she should've called more and wrote letter's to at least let her kids know that she loved them, missed them, to see how things were and that she was coming back as soon as she sorted things out for herself and accepted the fact that she had kids to take care of now she can't just abandon them like that it's just terrible. Well
that's just my opinion anyway, i'm in year10, i love reading books especially by 'James Moloney' he's got the gift to just be a writer and goes on with life the way he wants to. I'm only 16 but i've a pretty fair idea what i'm gonna do when i'm a fully

matured adult, so if anyone think's that 'James Moloney' or anyone doesn't have the gift to be what they wanna be then they're just jealous that they have no idea what they're gonna be when their fully grown mature adults, or maybe they're just jealous that they can't be more like the rest of us an plan ahead like we do sometimes. anyway this was a pretty good book so i recommend that anybody that loves or likes books to just borrow it from the library or better yet buy, who knows you might learn something from it about your life and the way your living it!

We are Year 9 students from Essington School, Darwin. We read the book, A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove for English. 99.9% of our class thought it was excellent as it showed us the struggle of a teenage boy who didn't have any family, but he still clung on to life and became independent and responsible within his local community. Our class recommends this book for any year 9 english class, so bribe your teacher.

I read this book in one of my English classes and loved it. The relationships between the characters were just so... real. I recommend this book to any book lover between the ages of 12 and 80.

A really interesting book with some great information. The main problem is the writers begin to think that their 'opinion' of the show really matters. The factual stuff is great but when their opinion of some of the seasons begins to cloud the judgement of some of these facts it becomes a problem- example being their description of why some seasons rated beter than others. Despite this it is better than a lot of DW related stuff. Long live the 5th Doctor!

This is a wonderful book which is complete with just about everything you could ask about Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. The reason it got 4 stars instead of 5? No photos. To be truly complete it needed photos of the Doctor himself and also of his companions.

Nevertheless, this is a fantastic book which is well worth buying if you can get your hands on one. Add it to your collection.

When the hugely popular Tom Baker announced that he was leaving the role and show "Doctor Who", the producers of that show knew that they had a big problem. Both Baker's long tenure and strong personality had resulted in most fans thinking of him as the only Doctor, rather than the 4th. The producers, taking a rather risky move, decided to cast an actor that was the exact opposite of Baker's interpretation. Years later, many are still debating whether or not this was a good idea.

The "Handbook" series provide a detailed behind the scenes view of the Doctor Who show, including many insights into the development of the characters, and the difficulties faced. My favorite section is the scene by scene disectiion of an episode by the show's creative team.

A must for the serious Who fan.

I like many others was impressed by this movie. Some 12 months or so ago I came across the book for a bargain price and snapped it up.The book focuses on the making of the movie but also contains superb photography of a very pretty part of the US. A book for fans and lovers of nature.

THis is not the best book ever, need I say more.

Quarterdeck and Bridge takes the reader through a number of excellent essays that follow the navy from Valcour Island to the Mekong Delta. Though not designed to fully explain the history, Bradford selects essays that deal with specific tactical issues that directly relate to the larger scheme of naval development. One of the most interesting essays involved "War Plan Orange," the plan on how to deal with Japanese aggression. The author asserted that the Navy's planners left the Phillippines to be conquered by the Japanese forces. Overall it is an excellent book, and essential to anyone interested in the study of American seapower.

"San Francisco Moon" is for anyone who has been touched by the special qualities of one of the world's great cities. This book captures the timeless mood of the full moon as it illuminates the twilight splendor the city by the bay. The warmth of a summer evening, the cool dampness of a creeping bank of fog, the glow of a cloud speckled moon accenting the rain-dampened streets to the imagined accompanyment of the trolly car's clanging bell-you'll find the echo of your favorite memories of San Francisco in this book.

This is almost a novella; it can easily be read in an afternoon. I read this after seeing the movie, and it's one of those rare occassions where I like the movie better than the book. The book is still compelling, though. A Navy attack pilot is reluctantly thrust into the Korean War, and seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This man wants nothing more than to come home to his wife and kids, all of whom he loves deeply. In case you've never seen it, I highly recommend the 1954 movie with William Holden, Frederic March, Grace Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Earl Holliman. Only minor parts of the story were changed for the movie, otherwise it's very faithful.

I have heard the Korean War described as America's "forgotten war," so I was eager to read James Michener's "The Bridges at Toko-Ri." A short novel about United States fighter pilots taking part in the Korean conflict, this book is an entertaining, and often very thoughtful, story of this era.

The plot of the book is driven by a daring plan to destroy the strategic bridges of the title. The main characters in the story are George Tarrant, a no-nonsense admiral with a painful personal burden; Mike Forney, a tough and passionate Irish-American enlisted man; and Harry Brubaker, a husband and father who resents being recalled to military service as a pilot.

Michener creates an effective blend of action and personal drama. His narrative is full of interesting, vividly rendered details about life on an aircraft carrier.

Yes, some of the book's characters and situations seem a bit stereotypical; the female characters, in particular, struck me as one-dimensional. But overall this book is an impressive achievement. Michener creates a compelling portrait of men at war. This book deserves a continuing audience; I thank Michener for helping to keep the legacy of Korean War veterans alive with this novel.

This book was great, its the first time in a long time that I've actually finished a book that i started reading. That may have a little to do with the fact that it is only about 125 pages, but it is also true because there weren't any boring parts in the book, unlike most others. The story is of a airforce pilot in the Korean War that is very bitter about being called back into action. In the end it shows the sad part of war, a man dieing for his country. This book was very action packed and a quick read, I would suggest it for anyone that is in desperate need of a quick book for a book report!

Math Bridge 5th Grade is in its second printing. DO NOT WASTE your money on this $10.00 book. You go to the first page of problems (page 5) and look at problem #14.

"Choose the decimal for 91/2 (Nine and a half)." ANSWER: 9.12 WRONG! Answer should be 9.5. This is an example of the book. Poor review and editing. Should have been caught in the first printing and corrected in the second.

I am a middle school math teacher who found these books to be very helpful. I am always on the lookout for workbooks that provide extra help on basic skills. These books fit the bill. Some answers are incorrect, but the majority can be checked with a calculator. These books provide good reteaching concepts as well as a good variety of sample problems. If you are looking to help your child in math, I would suggest these books.

I LOVE this series. It has been useful as reteach pages as well as make-up work assignments for absent students. The top of the page teaches the skill and there are plenty of practice problems without overwhelming the student.