This is without a doubt the best and most definitive work on the former SS anti partisans who were recruited for the French Foriegn Legion after WW2. [Some people claim] this book is fiction, it is not. the Devils Brigade was real, and was the most effective combat unit that the French government had deployed in what was then known as "French Indo China". This is a work reportedly derived from the memoirs of one " Hans Wagemuller"( not his real name)and details the "Devils Guard" in action in Cochin China against the Viet Minh, in the years before Dien Bien Phu. The combat action is real and clearly presented. The main characters come alive on the pages of this incredibly exciting and absorbing book. This should be a must read for every NCO who will lead troops in ground combat or small unit actions. Every teacher of military history should read this book about the combat experiences of a field unit that was combat effective in a part of the world that would eventually embroil the United States and its allies. claiming an excess of 58,382 American lives. One of my friends and mentors was Henry Thibedoux( Henry Africa)during my tour(s)of duty at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was a well known and colorful figure. a retired 2REP from the the Legion, he owned two popular bars in the Van Ness area of San Francisco. Henry knew some of these Legionaires, and confirmed the validity of the basics this story. A must Book, along with the sequels if you can find them!
mine are under glass!
Viva La Legion!

Excellent expose of real history! I read (and still have) the first two books (Devil's Guard I and II) but just found out there was a third. I know a former U.S. army veteran whose father served in the German army during WWII. He knew nothing about these books BUT he did know about the events disclosed in this series. His father had friends (former German Army soldiers) who did serve with the French Foreign Legion in Vietnam...and they did know about the Legion of the Damned. One reviewer stated that the author (Elford) was sympathetic to the Nazi's. He should read the forward to the first book. Elford is relating Hans Josef Wagemuller's story. He is not uplifting or downplaying the role of the former Nazi's actions under the French in Vietnam. Wagemuller (not his real name) is the one telling HIS own story. I would dearly love to find the third volume...to add to my twenty year old collection.

Having first read this book while on active service I found the story truly amazing from the units last action against the Red Army to the hand to hand struggles with the Viet Minh in French Indochina.This story tells of how former German SS Partsian hunters used skills learned fighting in Russia during WW2 against Russian guerrillas to fight an equally determained enemy on instead of the Steppes of Russia it was the jungles of VietNam.Many of my friends have read this book and are eqully amazed as I was.The book having been read soo much is now falling apart being held together by tape.This is one of the best books on warfare I have read and Iam trying to get the others written by the same author

Jean Craighead George describes how wolves survive in the wild and what the wolf pack goes through to survive. This is a great book to learn about wolves and their actions and the relations they have with humans and other animals. I thought it was a little slow moving and it didn't keep my interest going very well. It dragged on about the wolves' lives and was very repetitive. There wasn't a lot of descriptive writing to keep the interest flowing. But learning about the wolves was interesting and I enjoyed that.

If you loved Julie of the Wolves and Julie you will love yet another sequel. Julie is not really involuved in this book , It focuses mainly on the wolves themselfs. I loved this book and I hope Jean Craighead George will continue the Julie and the Wolves trilogy!

This was an inspiring book that sometimes made me feel that I was in on the action! Jean C. G. really put to mind the feelings of the wolves in this book. I would surly recommend it to people with an interest in animals. But be sure to first read "Julie of the Wolves" as this book comes before "Julie's Wolf Pack."

I am a huge fan of Anne Carroll George. I love all of her books. "Murder Boogies with Elvis" is a wonderful continuation of her previous books. Her books are one continuing story of Patricia Anne, Mary Alice, Fred, Woofer - I could name them all but anyone who has read any of her books knows all of the characters by name, too. Unfortunately, the story is ending with this book. I am so sad that this is the last book. I want to "watch" Debbie's twin girls and Brother grow; I want to know about the birth of Joanna, Haley's baby; I want to know if Haley will let Patricia Anne keep Muffin when she and Philip return from Warsaw; I want to know about the next murder that Patricia Anne and Mary Alice will investigate. There are so many quirky characters whose lives make her books so interesting. It is very sad that Ms. George's life was cut short. I miss her, but at least we have the few books she wrote to keep us company.

This book is a must read for all fans of Ms. George. Her writing from one book to the next is so consistent - she never skips anything from one book to the next.

Everyone's favorite southern sisters, bigger than life and soon to be married for the fourth time, Mary Alice (Sister) and prim and petite, Patricia Anne (Mouse) had really been looking forward to the big benefit to raise money for the restoration of Birmingham's Vulcan monument. They had front row center seats and couldn't wait for the promised finale of thirty Elvis impersonators all on stage, together. But, it seems that wherever the girls go, trouble follows and sure enough, one member of the high kicking Elvis chorus line keels over and crashes, dead, into the orchestra pit. It turns out that poor "Elvis" was murdered, stabbed in the back and to make matters worse, Patricia Anne finds the murder weapon, a switchblade knife, at the bottom of her purse..... Ann George has written a light, fast paced mystery, full of original quirky characters and vivid scenes that come alive on the page. But it's her crisp, witty writing and laugh out loud southern humor that really makes this book, as it does in all her others, stand out and no one captures the essence of life in the south, with all its idiosyncrasies, like Ms George. This is the eighth mystery of a truly wonderful series. If you're new to the many travails of Mary Alice and Patricia Anne, start at the beginning and read them all. If you're already a fan, Murder Boogies With Elvis is just what you're expecting...a fun, entertaining, terrific read.

As always, I looked forward to the next installment of the Southern Sisters mysteries. When I discovered that Mrs. George had recently passed away, I broke down and sobbed. I felt it was not only the loss of a great talent, but the loss of a friend as well. After reading her first book, I had written her a fan letter because I, too, had an Aunt Sister. She not only graciously answered my letter, but sent me her home address so it wouldn't take so long for my letters to reach her through the book company and later sent me her e-mail address. We corresponded after each book and when my dog passed away, she wrote me a letter that I will always treasure. All of her books are wonderful and this one doesn't disappoint. Patricia Ann and Mary Alice are up to it again trying to solve the murder of an Elvis impersonator. If you have never read any of her books, start with the first one and read them all. I plan to read them all again. Thank you, Mrs. George. You will be missed.

Some of the best books I have ever read have been ones not of my own choosing. This is the case with "The Inextinguishable Symphony", a book given to me by a friend for a recent birthday. It became one of my most cherished gifts.

I am a music teacher and roughly the same age as the author, Martin Goldsmith. I must confess that I had never heard of the "Kulturbund" and certainly had not an inkling as to the effect it had on so many lives. This is one of those accounts that is not taught in school, and like "Schindler's List", presents a brand new aspect to life in Nazi Germany. Mr. Goldsmith weaves a marvelous chronicle of his parents' devotion to each other in the years with the Kubu, an organization that found them together and bound them together.

In historical terms, many of us believed for years that everything had to have been clear in Germany in the 1930s....if you were Jewish you had to leave. The author reminds us that many Jews who did leave early on also came back and subsequently met their deaths as the situation got worse. This book is a loving tribute not only to Mr. Goldsmith's parents but to all who tried to find some happiness in music and friendship at a most difficult time. It is a wonderful memorial to those who perished and a testament to those who survived.

National Public Radio listeners have known Martin Goldsmith for years as the friendly, reassuring voice of "Performance Today." Encyclopedically knowledgeable about classical (and rock) music, Goldsmith has a relaxed and comfortable on-air style that helps to make classical music more accessible to broad audiences. That same style is found in "The Inextinguishable Symphony," helping to make another complex subject - the Holocaust - more accessible to audiences both familiar and unfamiliar with it.

But this isn't just "another book about the Holocaust." Nor is it about tragically anonymous victims. It is instead about Goldsmith's parents - Gunther, a flutist, and Rosemarie, a violist - who meet and charmingly fall in love in Nazi Germany in the '30s, as well as about Grandfather Alex and Uncle Helmut and other family members and friends, each of whom Goldsmith makes real and sympathetic through his rich, exquisitely detailed, and heartbreakingly honest narrative. These are people that the reader comes to care about deeply, and we celebrate - and in some cases grieve - their fates. Goldsmith is a helluva storyteller.

But the book is also not just a love story (Gunther literally does risk his life for his young sweetheart) or merely an author's purely personal journey in search of his own roots. Through the vehicle of his remarkable parents' own individual stories, Goldsmith explores the only-dimly known, but fascinating, story of the Judische Kulturbund - the Jewish Culture Association - to which Jewish musicians, actors, and others were artistically exiled in Nazi Germany. Goldsmith reveals much about this controversial and complicated organization which, although the only source of culture for German Jews, knowingly served the Nazis' propaganda purposes. The reader marvels at how much the "Kubu" was able to accomplish under such hateful conditions, but is also forced to ask, "What would I have done in these circumstances? Would I have risked my life just to make music?"

This is a troubling, but ultimately triumphant, book about real people trying to live their lives, their love, and their music in unthinkable times. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in music, in the Holocaust, in cultural history, or simply in a good love story well told. Bravo, Gunther and Rosemarie and Martin Goldsmith!

This is a remarkable account of Martin Goldsmith's parents who survived the early years of the Nazi regine through music. I have, however, labeled this review as "used" because, as Goldsmith so wisely noted, the organization set up by the Nazis was a tool in their hands to placate the west into thinking that the Jews were NOT being mishandled. When the real schemes of Hitler and his henchmen became better known, the Jews were out of the picture. Fortunately for some, they (like Goldsmith's parents) were able to escape to America...but not all. Many in the jewish community could not see, or pehaps did not wish to see the horrors which were about to become realities. This account gives yet another view into the those days of the late 30s as Hitler was gaining more power at the expense of human life. What is disturbing is that so many in Germany were misled by the lies of this little man with the funny mustache. This could make a person wonder what lies are being told today, lies which are taking people down the wrong road. The book is a must read for anyone wishing to become more familiar with this awful time in human history. Goldsmith is to be commended for the effort. Lets hope that many of today's teens will be encouraged to read this account, an important work in the face of today's revisionists, those who would say the holocaust did not happen.

I was beefing up my outdated security bookshelf, and thought I'd snag the latest in the Hacking Exposed series. I figured that since it was only covering one OS it would be able to have more depth, one of the chief failings of Hacking Exposed.

Well, I was not disapointed. This book covered aspects of Linux and network security that I had not ever thought of. It makes very appropriate use of source code to illustrate problems, and shows you the attacks in both manual and automated forms so you can actually see what's going on, rather than just saying "run the blah program" as so many other books do.

This book has information that will be useful for the newbie, but excells in including detail appropriate for all audiences. In that respect, this book almost reads like a textbook on how to hack and secure. If you're a new Linux user, you'll find good starter information, and want to come back to this periodically as you learn more. If you think you know Linux security, then this is the book against which you should test yourself. I doubt most folks have tried half the things listed in chapter 10.

I wasn't a fan of Hacking Exposed, largely because its Unix section was a mere 50 pages of superficial, outdated, and obvious fluff. Hacking Linux Exposed makes up for that lack by digging into Unix in much more depth.Though it is modeled after the attack/countermeasure style of the original HE, this book includes a whole chapter of security measures at the beginning that you can implement instantly to get your machine locked down before getting into the nitty-gritty detail about other things in the hacker's arsenal.I was particularly enthralled with chapter 10, which talks about what the hacker will do after they have gained root access, from simple things like adding accounts to complicated issues like kernel modules, complete with source code. Chapter 7 includes some really wonderful examples of how the hacker can abuse networking protocols themselves, something I haven't seen covered in such depth before.The book is logically organized. The first part covers the way the hackers find and probe your machine. The second talks about getting in from the outside, be it network or physical. The third part talks about gaining additional priveleges, and the last part of the book is dedicated to mail, ftp, web, and firewalls. The appendicies are actually useful. They seem to have dropped the small 1-page case studies from the original book and replaced them with longer hacker-eye-views of real attacks which are an interesting read, and really tie the book together.This book is Linux specific in it's countermeasures, but I'd recommend this to any unix user. They do a good job of discussing differences between Linux variants as well, they don't just assume everyone has a RedHat box on their desk. Very refreshing.This book is great for both the theory and practical uses. I could spend weeks implementing all the suggestions they have, but they seem to have thought of this because their risk ratings let you know where you should concentrate as you secure your systems.Like Hacking Exposed, this book also has a website, (...) but it seems more up-to-date -- for example when the ptrace bug in older kernels came out, they posted a kernel module you could compile to protect your system until you could upgrade -- and includes all the source code contained in the book.I bought two of these, one for home and one for the office, and I suggest you do the same.

I'm a big fan of the Hacking Exposed style of writing. All offensive theory is backed up by command line examples, followed by defensive countermeasures. Hacking Exposed: Linux, 2nd Ed (HE:L2E) follows this tradition, updating the content of the first edition and adding 200 pages of new content. Although I reviewed the first edition in Sep 01, reading the second edition reminded me of the challenges posed by securely configuring and deploying Linux systems.

The best way to learn while reading HE:L2E is to try the sample commands. I also recommend visiting the links mentioned and installing many of the tools described by the authors. I found programs like raccess, nsat (ch. 3), sslsniff (ch. 7), nstx, and httptunnel (ch. 15) particularly interesting from an attacker's point of view. From a system administration standpoint, coverage of passlogd (ch. 2), lilo and grub (ch. 5), and X (ch. 6) were very helpful.

The authors share many novel ways to abuse Linux systems, but counter those exploits with little-known features or third-party tools. I never knew I could use bash's HISTCONTROL feature to selectively remove entries from shell history files. HE:L2E goes the extra mile to help secure your system, such as including sample C code in ch. 13 to allow one to compile TCP Wrappers support into one's own programs. Other clear, concise defensive measures were introduced in excellent chapters on keeping the kernel and packages current (appendix B) and pro-active security measures (ch. 2). The last appendix gives a short yet powerful description of the damage an intruder can perform, showing how he hid unauthorized programs and how those programs were discovered.

If you use Linux, you'll find HE:L2E indispensable. I even applied many of the tools and techniques to my FreeBSD system, showing that that good security advice can be a cross-platform endeavor.

This book is phenomenal! The information never ends! It details the opera house in Paris where this who story was supposed to take place. There is alot of information on the early movie forms of the story, including those who acted in them, as well as Gaston Leroux's book form. The bulk of the book is about Andrew Lloyd Webber though. There are so many pictures and stories about each of the characters, and the important peopel behind the scenes of the stage! This is a wonderful book whom anyone, Phantom fan or not is sure to enjoy!

As a hardcore Phantom fan, I am always looking for more information on the play. I came across this amazing book in the public library in my town and was amazed at the detail. There was so much that I didn't already know, and I knew a lot. I wanted to keep on renewing the book and never give it back but a good friend of mine, who is also very adamant about Phantom, went searching for this book that I wouldn't shut up about and bought me a copy. I love it. It includes info on the opera house, Gaston Leroux(the author of the novel on which Andrew Lloyd Webber's play is based), the story behind the novel, Lon Chaney's film, other versions of the film and other plays, Andrew Lloyd Webber's version, and the Libretto. This is the most complete and well written book on the play I've come across. George Perry reveals the intricacies of the production from make-up to costumes to set to everything. I consider this a valuable part of my Phantom collection and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes this play or theater in general. It rocks!

This book ROCKS!!! It is the closest you can get to the behind-the-scenes of Phantom. I got mine on an Amazon Auction(by the way, check out those auctions sometimes, they can be useful). It has the complete libretto at the back and amazingly sharp, clear pictures( they are so sharp you can even see the actors veins in their hands!).
This book has the history of the Paris Opera, then it goes on to tell how Gaston Leroux came up with Phantom, then the film versions of Phantom, then, of course, the Lloyd Webber version.
This book is perfect for the true Phantom Phan!

It's a rare thing indeed to discover a movie adaptation is actually better than the book that inspired it, but here it is: Paul Brickhill's THE GREAT ESCAPE is a great plot with no characters to speak of.

Brickhill gives a firsthand account of the escape of 76 men from Sagan, a German prisoner-of-war camp, during World War II. Through tireless efforts and disheartening setbacks, the men managed to dig a lengthy tunnel 30 feet down into the earth, and 300 feet towards possible freedom. The plan, which originally called for three such tunnels, was the single largest escape in WWII history, and the efforts, patience, and bravery of the men secures their escape as one of the most noble efforts of man.

What a pity, then, that THE GREAT ESCAPE is a fairly badly written first-hand narrative, related with all the style of a person making a grocery list. Brickhill has provided the bones of an amazing story, but he neglected to provide any meat along with them.

The story couldn't help but lend itself to a fascinating read. The actions of these men could never be anything less than remarkable. But all Brickhill does is tell the story. He doesn't add any true characterization to the hundreds of people who pop in and out, resulting in a lack of empathy for these men. The reader is left wanting to know more, but is frustratingly denied the opportunity. Even the leader, Roger Bushell, is a cipher, easily interchangeable with any other character.

It is easy to see why this story makes such fertile ground for a movie. The plot is astonishing, and the complete absence of any true personality leaves the filmmakers free to make up any character they want. Roger Bushell didn't escape from Sagan, Richard Attenborough did. So did Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.

I don't want to seem as if I am making light of the situation. THE GREAT ESCAPE was a shining example of what humanity can achieve under the most strenuous circumstances. But Brickhill doesn't provide us with any reason to care. The story unfolds with all the excitement and tension of someone telling of their day at work. Simplicity in storytelling can be a fine thing, but not where the story demands so much more.

Paul Brickhill, based on his actual experiences in a prison camp and using characters based on real life POW's, takes the reader behind the wire at a World War II prison camp. These men were trapped, unable to fight for their country in battle, so they found a way to do the next best thing. Led by Roger Bushell, they formed the X organization, a group of the most intelligent and resourceful prisoners from the British and American air forces. Using only their wits and the few materials available, they devised and executed a plan to tunnel under the fences and escape into Nazi Germany. Unfortunately this led to fifty of the escapees being shot by the Gestapo, but Brickhill does credit to their memory with this book. Using a light writing style, humorous anecdotes, and fascinating descriptions, Brickhill has created an entirely readable adventure with charismatic protagonists who gain the readers respect and sympathy from page one.

220 Allied POWs would have been swarming all over the Third Reich before the Germans realized they were missing. Unfortunately, only 76 managed to escape through a tunnel under Stalag Luft III that had taken a year to dig. Of those 76, only 3 managed to make their way back to Britain. Twelve found themselves back in Stalag Luft II in a matter of days. Eight wound up in concentration camps. The remaining 50 were shot by the Gestapo, on orders from Hitler himself. Among the 50 was South African-born RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, a.k.a. "Big X", the originator of the escape plan. The Great Escape is an incredible read. While the book is narrated from third person omniscience, its author was anything but detatched from the story. Paul Brickhill mentions his own role in the escape only very briefly in the foreword to the work. A key element of the escape plan, as Brickhill recounts in great detail, was the forging of official papers required for freedom of movement across the Reich. Brickhill led the gang of "stooges" that warned the forgers when camp guards approached. He found himself barred from participating in the actual escape when Big X learned of his acute claustrophobia. That fear may well have saved his life. After the war, Brickhill interviewed several of his other fellow survivors to assemble the grand narrative. The result is a riveting tale that ranks among the greatest war stories ever written, fact or fiction. You've seen the movie. Now read the book!

Gogol was Russia's poetic observer of the true soul and character of the Russian peoples. A deep pessimist and a black humourist, but above all a realist tormented by love for his country, an all to acute understanding of his people, and hatred of the state. I vote 5 for this book because to read it is know and understand our Mother Russia and the people who still live the life that Gogol the poet described. Misunderstood perhaps due to its age it is treated as a "classic" and an "academic" work of literature. I urge you to read Gogol and understand our Russian soul. His last work was to be the nemesis of Dead Souls, but never written, because our Gogol was a realist who was tortured by the fact.

Pevear and Volokhonsky have done it again. Another fine translation of a Russian classic. The art of the Russian novel begins with "Dead Souls," although Gogol himself likened this great work to a poema. Upon its first release, "Dead Souls" immediately won a place in the Russian heart. Chichikov and the various characters that he came in contact with in this strange journey became Russian archetypes. Unfortunately, Gogol could never bring Chichikov's adventures to a close, but this novel does not suffer for it.

What makes the P&V translation stand out are the numerous reference notes, so that one can understand the many allusions that Gogol makes. P&V have masterfully rendered Gogol's protean metaphors and delightful similes, so that one can sense the poetic nature in which this novel has been written.

The "demonic" plot is most intriguing but what really carries this story are the many wonderful characters that Gogol has artfully rendered, each trying to figure out why Chichikov is so interested in buying their "dead souls," deceased serfs that are still on the census and therefore subject to taxes.

Dead Souls is Gogol's first and only full length novel, ironically written in Rome rather than the Russian countryside it was set in. Tragically he destroyed most of the second volume shortly before his death leaving only bits and pieces of chapters leaving only volume I whole.

A story of a swindler and a social satire on life in early 19th century Russia, Dead Souls is also a comment on class and hypocricsy. Small town Russian officials and landowners strive to keep up appearances, valuing them more importantly than susbtance. Even Chichikov knows this, in fact as the main character (anti-hero) he thrives on this.

Gogol's story is comic on its surface but reading it you get a glimpse of life just twenty years before Alexander II freeded the serfs from their landowners. Dead Souls is both comedy and satire.

One note the Peaver-Volokhonsky translation while newer is a bit "choppy" and the translators make the most awkward word selections from Russian to English. It makes reading this version a bit off-putting at times (The Guerney translation was the favorite of many Russian expat's). Dead Souls is worth the read.

This autobiographical condemnation of the south's Peculiar Institution puts a face on the suffering of the enslaved. American history is full of accounts of slavery which tend to broad overviews of the institution, whereas this book is written by an escaped slave who does not flinch at sharing every detail of her miserable life. Unlike other narratives which distorted the slave's voice through the perspective of the interviewers/authors who were notorious for exaggerating the uneducated slaves' broken english, this book is largely Ms. Jacobs' own words. She was taught to read and write as a child by a kind mistress, so she was able to put her thoughts on paper with clarity that surprised many. Ms. Jacobs had an editor, but this book seems to be her unfiltered view of the world.

It is one thing to hear about how slaveholders took liberties with female slaves, it is quite another to read in stark detail about women being commanded to lay down in fields, young girls being seduced and impregnated and their offspring sold to rid the slaveholder of the evidence of his licentiousness. The author talks about jealous white women, enraged by their husbands' behavior, taking it out on the hapless slaves. The white women were seen as ladies, delicate creatures prone to fainting spells and hissy fits whereas the Black women were beasts of burden, objects of lust and contempt simultaneously. Some slave women resisted these lustful swine and were beaten badly because of it. It was quite a conundrum. To be sure, white women suffered under this disgusting system too, though not to the same degree as the female slaves who had no one to protect them and their virtue. Even the notion of a slave having virtue is mocked. The author rejected the slaveholder's advances and dared to hope that she would be allowed to marry a free black man who loved and respected her. Not only was she not allowed to marry him, she was forbidden to see him or speak to him again.

The author shows us the depth of a mother's love as she suffers mightily to see that her children are not also brought under the yoke of slavery. Though she was able to elude her odious master, she does take up with some other white man in hopes that he would be able to buy her freedom. Her "owner" refuses to sell her and tells her that she and her children are the property of his minor daughter. Her lover seems kind enough as he claims his children and offers to give them his name, and he did eventually buy them, though he failed to emancipate them to spare them from a life of forced servitude. Ms. Jacobs noted that slavery taught her not to trust the promises of white men. Having lived in town most of her life, Ms. Jacobs is sent to the plantation of her master's cruel son to broken in after she continues to refuses his sexual advances. She is resigned to this fate until she learns that her children -- who were never treated like slaves -- were to be brought to the plantation also. It is then that she takes flight.

After enduring 7-years of confinement in cramped quarters under the roof of her grandmother's house, the author escapes to the North which is not quite the haven she imagined. Still, it is better than the south, and she makes friends who buy her freedom leaving her both relieved and bitter that she is still seen as property to be bought and sold like livestock. In New York Ms. Jacobs is reunited with her children and a beloved brother who'd escaped a few years ago while accompanying his master -- her former lover -- to the free states.

There is no fairytale ending to this story because the author endures plenty of abuse and uncertainty even after she makes it to the North. She is hunted down by the relentless slaveowners who were aided by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and "The bloodhounds of the North." This is a wrenching account of this shameful period of American history, and should be required reading for all.

First published in 1861, this book is much more than a narrative about slavery; it addresses many issues of gender as well. To escape the philandering intentions of her master, and to try to win freedom for her children, Harriet Jacobs spent seven years hidden away in a garret over her grandmother's house, three feet high at its tallest point with almost no air or light, with only glimpses of her children to sustain her courage. Until the 1980's, this book was presumed by most scholars to be a work of fiction created by a white abolitionist, but Jean Yellin's groundbreaking research brought the real Harriet Jacobs to life. The book has been published several times since the 1960's, often in inexpensive paperback versions that are much cheaper than this edition (2000). However, I'd recommend either this edition (which includes the short slave narrative published by Harriet's brother John, A True Tale of Slavery) or an earlier edition edited by Yellin if you want the full historical background on the book itself.

Intended to convince northerners -- particularly women -- of the rankness of Slavery, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl presents a powerful autobiography and convincing writing that reads like a gripping novel but is organized and argued like an essay.

Incidents follows the "true story" (its authenticity is doubted in some places) of Linda [Jacobs uses a pseudonym] who is born into the shackles of slavery and yearns for freedom. She lives with a depraved slave master who dehumanizes her, and a mistress who mistreats her. As the novel progresses, Linda becomes increasingly starved of freedom and resolves to escape, but Linda finds that even escaping presents its problems.

But Incidents is more than just a gripping narration of one woman's crusade for freedom, and is rather an organized attack on Slavery, intended to convince even the most apathetic of northerners. And in this too, Incidents succeeds. The writing is clear, and Jacobs' use of rhetorical strategy to preserve integrity is astonishing.

Well written, convincing, entertaining, Incidents is an amazing book.

We all have books like this in our personal arsenal of "will read and reread again" books. ("Catch 22," "Cat's Cradle," books like that.)

I've torn into "Son of the Morning Star" six times now. This book is responsible for my spending a total of some 13 days at the Montana battlefield just trying to find out what George Armstrong Custer was up to on his final horrible day on earth. Connell weaves a spell over you, dear reader, and you just hate to finish this book. (You have books like that in your arsenal, too, right?)

The book was a Christmas gift from #1 son. Prior to reading "Son," I just thought of Custer as that Civil War stereotype we study about in high school -- brave, vain and, ultimately, dumb. Of course the book reveals a much more accurate and layered portrayal of this long-haired Hotspur. Connell has researched his subject to a fare-thee-well and yet the writing never gets pedantic. This book is a time machine and you're going to be whisked back to a hot June day, 1876. Be prepared. And you'll get both sides of the complicated US Army/American Indian debate, too. (Can't beat that with a stick!)

What was GAC trying accomplish that morning and afternoon? Why, in the face of a large amount of Indian braves, did he split his command into three battalions? Why did he send an important "come quick" note to an officer he sent off away from the pack train? Why did Custer ignore Reno's plight in the valley and continue a foolhardy attempt to smash the "enemy" at his flank? Did Custer get his first bullet (left side) at Medicine Tail Coulee? Would that explain the slapdash rush away from the Little Big Horn river and up the hill to the now-famous "Last Stand Hill?" This book makes you think.

This book is contagious!

Connell brings a novelist and poet's gifts to the writing of history. Would that all historians wrote prose like this. In a unique, non-linear style, nearly every aspect and detail, macroscopic and mundane, of the Little Bighorn campaign is laid before us, as well as antecedent and peripheral matters relating to it. One of the many marvels of the book is the way Connell writes unflinchingly about a brutal and tragic period, yet with a dry sense of humor that compels one to read passage after passage all over again, and aloud to anyone who will listen. Connell would be a great dinner guest, and friend to meet for a beer. I have read Son of the Morning Star three times, not counting innumerable browsings which threaten to draw me into the entire work yet another time. I've nearly memorized entire passages without intending to. Some may feel uncomfortable at a similarity Connell draws between the Nazi genocide and the European-American destuction of the Native American cultures and way of life. But hey, no one likes an attack on his national mythology, justified as it may be. Connell neither deifies nor demonizes Custer (or any other man or woman in the story), but treats him as a fascinating, flawed human being. His account is compassionate, but unrelenting in its exposure of human frailty and folly, wherever it may be found in the complex mosaic of history. Buy this book, enjoy, re-read, and hope that Connell takes up the historian's pen again

Evan Connell's Son of the Morning Star is a masterful book that defies catagorization. It isn't quite history but it isn't fiction either. Connell has taken a mountain of historical detail, including quotations from letters, transcripts, newspapers and interviews, and arranged them in a kind of narrative montage that gives us the story of Custer at the Little Bighorn in a more complete way than we have ever experienced it before. His book begins a couple of days after the battle - when Custer's absence is still unexplained - with the discovery of the remains of Custer's troop. The realization of what they are seeing comes slowly to the soldiers that find the bodies, just as the big picture of what happened comes slowly to the reader - detail by detail.

The book is full of wonderful digressions, told in the same way as the main story. These provide background information on all the major participants (Indian as well as cavalry officers) and many minor characters as well, and the story of their lives following the massacre and the inevitable search for a scapegoat.

This is a unique and beautiful book. Connell seems to have lived with the research for this book for a long time because he has internalized it beautifully and knows just what quotes and anecdotes to juxtapose in order to create the picture he wants. I can't remember ever reading anything quite like this and certainly seldom have a book match it for emotional impact. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.