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The Pearl: A Failed Slave Escape on the Potomac Review

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(More customer reviews)Amazing story about America's early years! Hard to believe this is the same country. Book was a great deal.

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Breaking the Rules: A Novel (Troubleshooters) Review

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(More customer reviews)Well first of all let me mention, if you haven't read at least the past 4 or so novels of the Troubleshooters series, this is not the place to start. You will be lost and constantly thinking "Glehk - who are these messed up people and why on Earth should I even care?" And "Why in the world does that big girl put up with that total butthead anyway? Run Jenni! Run!!!"
The first 75% or so of the novel is completely bogged down in various forms of Gillman family dysfunction and the ways it has totally messed up the Gillman siblings - Dan, Eden and Ben. There are readers who enjoy angsty books and chapter upon chapter spent analyzing the ways parents can damage their children, with fists and with words. They are probably going to rate this book much higher than I have. I really can't say I'm one of them and on more than one occasion I almost put this book down for good.
I'll be honest, when I read my Navy Seals I really don't want to spend hours reading about them sitting around with tears in their eyes and talking about their feelings and how they've been victimized by society. Why is Dan such a jerk? Why is Eden such a slut? (excuse me, exotic dancer) Why has young Ben painted his finger nails black and is now walking around like a Marilyn Manson impersonator? No. Not for me, at least not from this author, because frankly - Brockmann really doesn't do this type of plot all that well. The characters are too one dimensional and stereotypical. These books she puts out anymore - it's like they don't even have characters. They have ISSUES which pose as characters.
I want ACTION. I want hi-jacked planes, romps through a jungle to escape the bad guys. I want thwarted terrorist plots and a couple of explosions. In other words, I want Suzanne Brockmann the way she USED to write.
In the final chapters the author seems to remember that she's supposed to be writing Romantic Suspense, and the suspense part of the story finally kicked in with kidnappings, rescues, shoot-outs with the bad guys and those Navy Seals finally doing what they do best, making our hearts pound. It really was almost enough to salvage the book, but take my word for it when I say this is no Over the Edge (Troubleshooters, Book 3) with Terri and Stan.

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Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy: The Spanish Experience of Sea Power Review

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(More customer reviews)While the author has made the point that there were many fine officers in the Spanish Navy, and that there were many excellent ships, the facts indicate that this combination was never capitalised upon, and the result was invariably disasterous. The best of leaders can only do so much with what they are given, and in the case of Spain, this meant far too few seamen, far too much influence by the Army, far too little training for crews, and some of the worst treatment imaginable. There is no point in building enormous warships if they cannot be effectively manned! Further, it is well-documented that ships of the line of the Spanish navy, although enormous in size, were laughably undergunned compared to their contemporaries. This is not made clear in this book. That said, it would also be of enormous benefit to view some of the plans and profiles of these ships, so as to compare them with their British and French contemporaries. Dozens of books have been written about HMS Victory and other Royal Navy ship types, but almost nothing about the ships of the other navies of the time, and even less in English! It is a great pity the author chose to use so many primitive contemporary Spanish paintings for illustration rather than something either commissioned for the book (expensive, no doubt!), or obtained with a bit more research into what is available.

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Back by popular demand, this dramatic appraisal of the Spanish Navy and its defeat by the British at Trafalgar in 1805 disproves many long-held beliefs about the competence of the Spanish fleet. The author examines the factors that shaped the development of the Spanish Navy in the eighteenth century and maintains that the well-built ships and skilled forces were nowhere near as ineffective as they are usually represented. The book includes specifics of Spanish warship design and construction and is illustrated with beautiful contemporary plans, engravings, and photographs of ship models, some in full color. 208 pages. 120 illustrations. Hardcover. 8 x 10 1/2 inches.

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The Warrior Elite : The Forging of Seal Class 228 Review

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(More customer reviews)There are lots of books on SEALs out there, some good, most bad, very few great. This is one of the great ones. Why? Because it takes a theme that has been done to death, the training of the Navy SEALs, and writes what is probably the definitive book on the subject while doing what none of the other books has done. For the first time, a book follows the trainees through BUDs, through Hell Week, and keeps going all of the way to the assignment to an active team. It emphasizes the fact that the vaunted Hell Week, long portrayed as the horrible endurance contest that it is, is in fact just one of the gut checks along the way to becoming a SEAL. It's not a magical peak where everything after is easy, it's a point that weeds out many but is more preparation for the rigors ahead than a line to cross. To put it bluntly, there is no need to write another book on the training of the Navy SEALs, this is the final word. If you have dreams of becoming a SEAL, read this book. There is much wisdom in these pages. Ever think that "your reputation begins at BUDs"? You'll learn that here.
Finally, a book that reaches the levels set by books such as "Brave Men, Dark Waters" and "Class-29 : The Making of U.S. Navy SEALs". Well written, insightful, and just simply excellent. Buy this book!
Matt

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Sea Wolf: The Daring Exploits of Navy Legend John D. Bulkely Review

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(More customer reviews)This was a very riveting book. I couldn't put it down. It is a very exciting tale of a true Navy Legend and a national hero. Though there are some chronological gaps, they are minor and the author tells his story well.

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An action-packed, in-depth, authentic account of one of the Navy's most astonishing and effective fighting sailors, written by well-known military historian, William Breuer.

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Ill Companion to Nelson's Navy Review

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(More customer reviews)"The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy" is a wonderful repository of information about ships, life at sea, and naval warfare during the era of Jack Aubrey, Richard Bolitho, and Horation Hornblower (frequent mention of these and other fictional Royal Navy officers is made in the book, placing them in the real life context). The range of material covered is very broad, and it is attractively and concisely presented, often in a graphical or tabular form. The book is illustrated with hundreds of drawings, paintings and diagrams, many of them from contemporary sources. If you want information about ship types, naval weapons, life on board, battles, ship handling, sails and rigging, watches and bells, rates of pay, distribution of prize money, and seemingly almost anything else you can think of, this is a very handy place to find it. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about the background to the novels of Patrick O'Brian, Alexander Kent, Dudley Pope, and C.S. Forester.

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Glory in the Name: A Novel of the Confederate Navy Review

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(More customer reviews)"Ironclads at sea, armies moving by rail, communicating by telegraph. Rifled cannons, rifled rifles, exploding ordinance." They were all Americans, like it or not, all children of that particular genius that was America. How apt then that in less than a year of war, Americans fighting Americans, they should forever alter forever the very nature of warfare."
That paragraph, found late in this marvelous book, truly frames the story that plays out between it's covers.
It comes from a perspective that many of us find at least different and sometimes uncomfortable. It is a story of the Confederate Navy and is told with sympathy and understanding as well as painstaking historical attention to fact.
Samual Bowater, a former officer in the United States Navy has resigned his commission to return to his home, the Confederacy and seeks to help in the only way he knows how, by seeking to serve as a naval officer. He watches from a distance and paints the scene as Fort Sumter is fired on and the Civil War begins.
Robey Paine, a man of Mississippi with three sons to send to fight for the Confederacy believes that all of them have been lost in battle. A certian madness is the result, which will find him commissioning the conversion of a ship to an ironclad and leads him to the discovery that one of his som's has survived.
This is a moving story of a small part of the Civil War which shows it's horror and it's passion in way that is compelling.
Although I live in Maine, as does the author - about 25 miles from me - I was unaware of his writing until this book was recommended to my wife by an insightful bookstore clerk as a Christmas present for me. It is, I believe, the best book I have read in quite some time and it has already started me ordering other books written by James Nelson and looking forward to his next effort. I would give it ten stars if I could.

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