Jeff Shaara wins again with The Smoke at Dawn for all Civil War enthusiasts.

Jeff Shaara and the American Civil War. We have come to expect a great adventure and The Smoke at Dawn delivers. In addition to the expected vividly painted battlefield action, Shaara has given us an in depth character study of the major characters in this drama. Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Bragg, Cleburne, Longstreet, Forrest and others come alive as we read their thoughts and learn of their very human foibles.

The battlefield drama takes place in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee. There is major fighting on Lookout Mountain, Orchard Nob, Missionary Ridge, and in Chattanooga itself. Collectively known as the Battle of Chattanooga, these various venues provide the Union and Confederate generals the opportunity to lead and mislead their troops in some of the war's decisive fighting.

As the book opens, the Union troops of Rosecrans has just experienced a humiliating defeat at Chicakamauga in norrthern Georgia. The Union retreats to Chattanooga and settles in. A furious Abraham Lincoln replaces Rosecrans with Ulysses S. Grant who immediately begins reinforcing the depleted troops and supplies.

Across the river, Braxton Bragg has settled in to 'wait out' the union, thinking to starve them out. Because Bragg did not persue Rosecrans when he was retreating, many Confederate leaders have lost faith in Bragg's ability to lead and call for his ouster. His friend, Jefferson Davis, refuses to do this. So the 'wait them out and we will have a victory' mentality prevails.

In both camps the mistrust, jealousies, and second guessing runs rampant. Each man, regardless of his level of leadership, is portrayed with all his egocentric thoughts, doubts, and feelings of self-importance. The officers on each side seemed as much at war with each other as with the enemy across the way.

Grant still needs reinforcements and someone he can trust. He sends for Sherman to come in from the west. When Sherman finally arrives with 30,000 men, Grant expects only victories from him.

For days the two armies engage each other in and around Chattanooga. Finally Sherman begins his assult, expecting to run over the Confederate flank he is facing. The Confederate leader, Cleburne, has other ideas and in some of the bloodiest fighting his troops repulse Sherman's advances time and time again. Ultimately the surperior numbers of Sherman's Union troops overwhelm Cleburne's much smaller Confederate troops.

Throughout these bloody days of battle, Braxton Bragg is indecisve, waiting, and making decisions based upon petty jealouslies. In the Union forces, jealousies often overtake the sound decision making.

Before reading the book, I had a general knowledge of the Battle of Chattanooga and knew that the Union was finally victorious, but I had no idea that both sides were plagued with such personality conflicts. These conflicts and the reasons behind them were fascinating.

As always, Shaara has done his research, in great depth, and has managed to take that research and give us a marvelous look at a pivotal battle in the American Civil War.

Civil War buff are going to love this, and we know it leads us to what must surely be Shaara's next book or books...Sherman, Atlanta, and the destruction of Georgia.

Available June 3, 2014. Just in time for Father's Day.

And If I Perish...a remarkable story.

And If I Perish by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee is the evocative story of trial and tribulation, courage and caring that takes us behind the scenes and behind the lines of WWII battlefields and hospitals. It is the story of the frontline U.S. Army nurses, their joys and triumphs, failures and heartaches.

More than 59,000 nurses volunteered to serve in the army nurses corp. Two hundred seventeen lost their lives. Thousands more were injured. This book is a tribute to each and every one of them. Through hundreds of hours of in-depth research and interviews, the authors introduce us to some women we should all get to know. We meet many of these women in a personal way. We learn why they volunteered, the discrimination they faced, and the unwavering care they gave. Most often without recognition of their efforts.

The young ladies who volunteered had no idea what they were in for. Many arrived at their first duty station with party clothes and giddiness. This was especially true of the very early arrivals in the Pacific Theater. They were not issued real nurses uniforms until much later, just insignia to wear on their collars.

The book begins with the story of a young Georgia farm girl who graduated from Grady Hospital Medical School in Atlanta, then joined the army nurses corp. Her mother was incensed. How could her daughter do that? Only fallen women, social outcasts, would volunteer for that service. How, the mother wondered, could she ever meet her friends in society knowing that they knew her daughter was an army nurse?  This attitude was the prevailing attitude of much of society at the time.

The young lady went on to become an outstanding nurse, a leader, and a POW. She spent two full years as a Japanese prisoner-or-war. He brother and sister joined the military and for the two years she was a POW knew nothing of her whereabouts or if she was even still alive. All three survived and were finally reunited in 1947.

One story tells of the situation when a nurse stationed in Italy visited a civilian hospital and learned that the Germans has destroyed all the civilian medical supplies before they evacuated northward. One three year old girl had to have her foot amputated by the local doctors...without anesthesia. When she learned of this, the army nurse was astounded and offered to do what she could to prevent such a tragedy again. The army often had little, the civilians had less.

Another nurse tells of the mini-hurricane that blew across their evacuation hospital during the middle of an abdominal surgery. The soldier was wrapped in sterile sheets, put in an ambulance and sent to another nearby evac hospital with his abdomen still open. Imagine the scene at the receiving hospital when they removed the sheets. The mini-hurricane completely destroyed the first hospital and camp.

Anurse from the 95th Evacuation Hospital remembers arriving at their new post near Capua, Italy and thinking she had seen the landscape before. Oh, yes. In her high school Latin book. They were setting up their new evac hospital alongside the Appian Way. The nurses set up their two living tents adjacent to the Way. Soon they needed to hang their "unmentionables" out to dry. There they were, women's undies, hanging by the ancient road as U.S. army troops were trucked by on their way north. The cacophony of blaring horns, wolf whistles, and calls of "Hubba-hubba" became so constant that the commanding officers had the tents moved to the rear of the camp.

The book is filled with stories, memories, thought provoking accounts. Some will make you laugh, other will make you cry, and still other will bring on anguished outrage at man's inhumanity to man.

From the early days in the Pacific Theater, through the European campaigns, and into Dachau immediately after it was liberated, American Army nurses were on hand. We need to know of their courage and sacrifice and honor them. This book goes a long way in getting us started. Thank you, Evelyn and Rosemary for this tribute.

I bought my book through Abebooks. It is available online and through your major book outlets.

The Romanov Sisters, The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport.

A well-researched, interesting read.. The author studied Russian at Leeds University and is a specialist in Russian and nineteenth-century women's history.  Her expertise is evident as she uses many family memoirs and first hand materials to tell the stories of these four Grand Duchesses of Russia.

 The four main characters, Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, and Maria come to life for the reader. The excesses and the deprivations are vividly portrayed.. This book gave me a new look at their mother, Alexandra, England's Queen Victoria's granddaughter. I felt that she was the Mother who was always nearby, but still absent from their lives. Conversely, Nicholas came across as the Father who was often away, but still present in their lives. 

 I highly recommend this book if one is interested in this era and locale.

The book's publication date is June 3, 2014. It can be pre-ordered from several sources.

http://www.amazon.com/Romanov-Sisters-Daughters-Nicholas-Alexandra-ebook/dp/B00H6EOMDO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395589783&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Romanov+Sisters

The Mark of the Dragonfly: A most intriguing middle grades/young adult fantasy.

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson, published by Random House, is not in a genre that I often read...fantasy. My mind doesn't usually grasp the action and the meaning of fantasy stories. This one is different. It is a MG/YA fantasy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I couldn't leave it for very long because I just had to know what happened next. In my opinion, that eagerness to keep reading only happens with a good plotline and characters. Dragonfly has both.

Our protagonist, Piper, is a scrapper. She lives in a town of scrappers. They must hunt and pick, that is, scrap, for their existence. Far away to the South there is a territory governed by a leader who marks those he protects with a tattoo of a dragonfly. Piper has never see the mark of the Dragonfly until the day she comes upon the wreckage of a caravan that seemed to be scrapping during a meteor shower, something that is forbidden. When Piper runs to check on the overturn wreckage, she finds Anna. Small, wounded, and suffering from amnesia,  Anna is unconscious. Piper takes her home and soon sees the mark of the dragonfly for Anna is tattooed with it. Piper knows that the young girl is from the Dragonfly Territories and protected by their king. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Piper has found Anna?

Piper, living in poverty by our standards and desperate for money decides that this young girl with the tattoo will bring a reward if returned to the Dragonfly Territories safely. The only sure way to get there is on the 401, an old, historic train. Since Piper has no money for two tickets, she and Anna slip aboard the train.
This is where the fantasy takes off. Piper's life, Anna's life, and those aboard the train they come to know, turns dangerous on the trip South. A green-eye boy, or is he a monster? Who or What is he? Other creatures of fantasy, and evil creatures of men make for a journey Piper and Anna will not forget.

Finally, is Piper really who she thought she was? Is she a 'monster', a fantastical creature, a freak, or an ordinary girl who has no special powers?

Publication day is March 25, 2014.  Ages 10 and up, reading level 5th grade and up. Pick up a copy and meet Piper, Anna, and a host of other characters on a journey you won't forget.

After March 25: Available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other bookstores or online.

Look who's getting old: Harriet the Spy: The children’s book heroine who observes friends, classmates, and neighbors – and holds nothing back in her notebook commentary – first came on the scene in 1964, when Harper & Row published Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy. Fifty this year!! Unfortunately, the author Louise Fitzhugh died in her 40's in 1974, but Harriet lives on.

A golden book cover...

Book covers draw me in. This certainly has me running to grab it.

Read an interview with author Marci Jefferson on Heather Webb's blog at 

http://www.heatherwebbauthor.com/2014/02/11/guest-author-marci-jefferson-girl-on-the-golden-coin/

Climb to Conquet by Peter Shelton...A wonderful read.

While researching U.S. Army units in World War II for a novel I am revising, I came upon a note that said the 10th Mountain Division arrived in Italy on a certain day. Bingo, I thought, if I can find enough information, this should be the unit for my protagonist, a young man from the mountains of Colorado. I had outlined him to serve in Italy during the war. This division seemed made for him....if I could find material on it.

I found more material than I could hope to read, but by far, the best history I have found is Climb To Conquer by Peter Shelton. It is well written, well researched, and a delight to read. Published in 2003, the author blurb tells us that Peter Shelton has been a contributing editor and columnist at Ski magazine as well as a correspondent for Outside magazine since 1984. He was described as living in Montrose, Colorado.

His author photo shows him wearing ski goggles, so I took that as a way of telling us he had knowledge of skiing. Knowing the location and history of Montrose, I assumed he would know the Colorado mountain terrain and the site of the 10th Division training camp. I was not disappointed in either assumption. He described the setting in both hot summers and frigid winters so vividly that one could picture them. His knowledge of skiing, and the knowledge of those he relied on is clearly evident.

The 10th Mountain Division won the tag of being an elite group. To an extent this was true. World class skiers, Olympic Champions, college boys from ski teams, and men who had to have three written recommendations from their Ski Patrol leaders, made this a unique gathering.

The group came together at the newly and quickly built Camp Hale, between Leadville and Vail, Colorado. There they trained, not for months, but for over a year. Training and testing newly made ski and mountaineering equipment from firms around the world. At the same time, learning to attack, defend, and move quickly and quietly while carrying 90 lbs on their backs as they cross country and downhill skied. Their 'dress whites' were ski suits, helmets, goggles and even poles and skis themselves, all in white.

Finally, the war called upon them. There was a stalemate in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Special troops with special skills were needed to scale and capture the mountains ridges. Could this elite group really get the job done? Really remove the entrenched Germans from Italy? You bet they could. In great descriptive detail, we move silently along with these men on the various mountains and ridges as they pursue the enemy.

The group was the last U.S. division to enter the war in Europe, but it its few months there it helped free the Italians of the enemy and pushed the Germans beyond Lake Garda in northern Italy in 1945. In doing so, this group suffered the highest number of casualties per combat day. Theirs was not an easy task, but they completed it with glory.

Climb to Conquer tells their story from inception to the end of World War II. It is a little known story of a valiant group of men. Elite? Yes, because of who they were and the vision they saw and brought to life.

Today, the division still exists, serving in all of our recent wars. Watch for them, they are still sacrificing and making the news. Or check them out online. Several sites available. You might start with their home organization. http://www.tenthmountain.org/

Books available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, new and used. Its a great way to learn about this group. Any WWII reader would enjoy this book.