The Councilman by Glenn StarkeyMy rating: 0 of 5 stars
MWSA Review
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Review: Descent The Forty Days After the Crucifixion of Jesus by DD Liters
Descent The Forty Days After the Crucifixion of Jesus by DD Liters by D.S. LliterasMy rating: 0 of 5 stars
MWSA Review
This simple story takes place during the first forty days after the crucifixion of Jesus. Jeshua and Flaccus are both on the run from Roman authorities when they take refuge with a community of Christian disciples. The two refugees, who understand that in Judea any new truth is dangerous, find the views of the disciples confusing. The believers speak of one story, but their listeners hear two different meanings. One sees a struggle for power while the other recognizes a commentary on the inherent nature of people. Christians cannot even seem to agree on the fundamental nature of Jesus. Was he a prophet, a rabbi, the Son of Man, or the Son of God?
Are their beliefs a political or a religious threat to the authorities?
Anyone who has read other works by D. S. Lliteras will recognize his riveting literary style. Descent is a thin volume. Its chapters may be long or as short as a half page, but each offers a single scene, titled by a simple phrase from the text. The sentences are short and direct: “A hungry dog growled.” “A man climbed the stairs.” “An owl hooted.” The vocabulary is simple.
But the ideas! Ah, the ideas spiral up and away, leading readers to perceive several different languages, taking them far beyond the events on the printed page.
In short, Lliteras has written a parable. He tells a fictitious story that serves as a protective shell for a moral lesson or a religious conviction. His words inspire rather than declare. They transform his listeners rather than dictating to them. He suggests an interpretation rather than demanding one. On the day of Pentecost, when tongues of fire descend upon the disciples enabling them to receive a Gift of the Spirit, the two refugees will hear two very different messages—and so will the readers of Descent.
Review by Carolyn Schriber (May 2019)
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Review: Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of US Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City
Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of US Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City by Scott A. HuesingMy rating: 0 of 5 stars
MWSA Review
Ramadi is the capital of Al Anbar province in Iraq. In 2006 it was the location for some of the bitterest fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom as insurgents and Coalition Forces fought for control of the strategically important city. Into the middle of this cauldron of devastating urban warfare was thrust Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines led by then-Captain Scott A. Huesing.
Though well trained and leavened with a cadre of Iraq war veterans, the Echo Company Marines were still shocked by the ferocity of violence that greeted them during the height of the insurgency, something that never let up during the unit’s deployment.
Echo in Ramadi joins other books on the subject as an excellent account of the Battle of Ramadi. What sets it apart, and gives it a particularly gripping veracity, is that it’s a story of the unit told from the point of view of its commander. Huesing spares no detail, nor himself, in the telling of Echo Company’s effort to wrest neighborhoods from insurgent control. The result is a war with no quarter asked or given—one where, as he graphically details, rules of engagement are callously manipulated by the insurgents and turned into weapons against Coalition Forces.
Huesing’s narrative covers the gamut of Echo Company’s experience, from the bonding that began with training to the fellowship that grew stronger when the Marines went into battle. Huesing reveals the complexity of company command, from basic leadership to the stress of chaos of urban combat. The many interlocking layers of command responsibility are vividly recounted, no more so than when Huesing makes a satellite phone call from his command post to comfort the mother of a Marine under his command who had been wounded.
Huesing pulls no punches in revealing the physical and emotional cost of their deployment. The tally of the butcher’s bill paid by Echo Company did not end when they left Iraq, but continued after they returned to the States and later, after discharge. Along with the physical wounds were the psychological scars of post-traumatic stress that contributed to the suicides of some men from the company and to Huesing’s own brush with death in a single-vehicle automobile crash.
Echo in Ramadi is one of most powerful accounts of the Iraq war. Its page-turning narrative reveals the stark, gut-wrenching triumph and tragedy that is the human cost of war.
Review by Dwight Jon Zimmerman (May 2019)
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Monday, May 20, 2019
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Review: At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse
At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse by Walt Larimore My rating: 0 o...
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The Hidden Sphinx: A Tale of World War II Egypt by Zita Steele My rating: 0 of 5 stars Vie...
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At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse by Walt Larimore My rating: 0 o...
