The author's writing style is weak, and his use of military terms without definition distracting. The title isn't suitable because only the last three chapters are about Vicksburg. I learned new (to me) information about the six month build up to the actual Vicksburg campaign, including the use...
I like Winston Groom as a non-fiction writer. Not only is he an excellent writer but you never know what historical period he will cover next. Lately, I've been reading in the period of the early 20th Century when aviation was new. I have always admired Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle and ...
I'm adding this to my Goodreads books, just so people don't think I totally love every book I read. This book is probably the worst book I've ever read. It was a gift from a former supervisor back in 1996. I started reading it and had to put it down. Over the next few years, I would pick it up, j...
Thinking that the book, Forrest Gump would be just as amazing as I think the movie is, I decided to read it. The book and the movie have the same general idea, where there’s a man with a low IQ, who is part of many major events during the 20th century, but there are few similarities besides that....
I'm afraid that prior to this book, my knowledge of the War of 1812 was largely limited to three things: 1) The Americans defeated the British. 2) The British burned Washington. 3) The Battle of New Orleans was fought after the war ended and became a smash hit song for Johnny Horton. Winston G...
An extraordinary first novel, hailed as one of the great, authentic novels of the Vietnam War, from the bestselling author of Forrest Gump. 1966: Billy Kahn finds himself Executive Officer of Bravo Company, responsible for leading over 100 young men into combat--and drawn into an impassable moral...
They had waited on the bluff until Villa’s soldiers disappeared behind a bend, and then some. They climbed the rock pile at the entrance to the little box canyon and beheld the grim theater. The bodies of Luis, Rafael, and Casa Grande lay where they were killed, drying and shriveling in the sun l...
EVERY fifteen minutes or so, steamers brought another several hundred of Buell’s men across to the landing, and before morning he would have more than 17,000 fresh troops on the field. Not only that, but well after dark the much sought division of Lew Wallace at last concluded its bizarre odyssey...
1918, stands beside his plane emblazoned with the Hat in the Ring squadron emblem. Rickenbacker ca. 1903, approximately the time he quit school to help support his family. Illustration Credit 1.1 The Rickenbacker home, built by Eddie’s father on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. Illustration Credi...
Leaving aside Lieutenant Gleig’s abominable stroll across the battlefield, the wretched dawn brought a new rain of hell from the Carolina, which by now had moved to the opposite bank of the river, well out of musket range, to continue unleashing her broadsides. Far from a mere harassing fire, it ...
Chapter One LET ME SAY this: Everbody makes mistakes, which is why they put a rubber mat around spitoons. But take my word for it – don’t never let nobody make a movie of your life’s story. Whether they get it right or wrong, it don’t matter. Problem is, people be comin up to you all the time, as...