Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

My Summer Reading List

So, summer is upon us and I have some reading to do. Well, you know me, I always have reading to do... but my summer reading list is usually about reading fiction, not as much this year, but there are some treats in store for me. So here it is, my list of books that I plan to read this summer.

• Against All Enemies - Tom Clancy & Peter Telep
• OMG: A Youth Ministry Handbook - Kenda Creasy Dean
• The Pastor - Eugene Peterson
• Heresy - Alister E. McGrath
• A Simple Blessing - Michael W. Smith
• The Big Switch - Harry Turtledove
• Tears of The Sun - S.M. Stirling
• March of The Legion - Marshall Thomas
• Citizen Washington - William Martin

Book Review: A Game of Character

Craig Robinson is Michelle Obama's brother.  You knew that, right?  I'm sure you did... but if you think that the fact that he has written a book is only because he knew that he would find a publisher to put out anything that he wrote down just because he is the President's brother in law.... well, you might be right about that, too.  You know how it is... there is always someone who wants to cash in on someone else's celebrity, isn't there?  As true as those statements might be, they aren't the case when it comes to Craig Robinson's book "A Game of Character", because Mr. Robinson has some things to say that I think you'll like.

From what I read in this book, it is clear that Craig Robinson was shaped by the way he was raised... as most of us are.  He was raised by hard working parents who instilled the values that we so frequently talk about in America, but don't always see.  This book is going to inspire you.... and it won't matter a bit if you are a Republican, a Democrat, and Independent, or a None-of-the-abover.

If you happen to be a big fan of either Barack or Michelle Obama (and I openly confess to my own admiration of our President and his wife) you are likely to enjoy this book based on that alone, even though this book isn't about them.  If you aren't particularly enamored of the President, you needn't worry, because this book isn't a love letter the the President or his wife. 

If you are a sports fan, you will like this book, and if you aren't a sports fan, there is plenty for you, too, because this book isn't a love letter to the game of basketball, either. 

To tell you the truth, I don't care much for basketball... so reading this book wasn't some sort of vicarious thrill ride for me.  I'm not particulalry interested in Robinson's Ivy League education, or his success in the corporate world, even though rising to a Vice Presidency at Morgan Stanley is no mean feat.  What I am interested in, as a family man, is the core of this book.

This is a book about character.  This is a book about the rewards of hard work and effort.  This is a book about determination.  This is a book about respect.

Craig Robonson writes in a clean, conversational style, and if you don't get anything else out of this book, you will leave believing in the value of strong families, hardwork, study, love, and discipline.

You won't be disappointed.

 

 

 Disclaimer:  This review is presented as part of a TLC book tour.  Although I was provided a free copy of the book, I was not compensated in any other way, nor was my review influenced by that fact. 

The Invisible Line: A Book Review

If you have ever read my blog, you probably already know how much I love American history.  You probably know that I also love the fact that American history is a living, breathing, changing thing that isn’t always what we are taught that it is.

 

Now, in this important new work, The Invisible Line author Daniel J. Sharfstein takes another stab at an important, but heretofore ignored part of the history of our great nation:  Race.  Now, it isn’t as if there aren’t enough people who want to write books about race and racism, but this is different.  In this book, Sharfstein looks at the color line between black and white, and exposes in detail just how blurry that line has always been in our country.

 

For decade upon decade, we have been schooled about the color line, and what that has meant to our history.  From the colonial period to the American Civil War, from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights movement, from Loving v. Virginia to the present, we have always had a pretty good notion where racial lines have been drawn in America… and which side of those lines we belonged on.  The Invisible Line is a book that will make you question those lines in ways that you probably never considered.

 

This book is not about black people “passing” for white.  This book is about racial migration.  Not in the sense of how and why different racial groups move from place to place, but rather how people, in this case three families of black people went from black to white.

 

The Walls were a rising middle class black family in the Washington, DC area that started in bondage in North Carolina who eventually became white.  The Gibsons were members of the planting class of slave-owning “people of color” as early as the middle of the 18^th century.  The Spencers were a poor family who settled in Kentucky and worked hard, lived and died, and straddled the hardening lines of what was and wasn’t black or white.  Despite their social status, these families all had two things in common: their African American slave origins, and the fact that by the twentieth century, they were white.

 

In this book, Sharfstein tell us three tales… fraught with danger, subterfuge, adventure, success, failure, and triumph.  These stories are as American as they come, and I won’t throw spoilers at you, but I think that if you have any interest in American history, you will enjoy this book.

 

 

Disclaimer:  This review is presented as part of a TLC book tour.  Although I was provided a free copy of the book, I was not compensated in any other way, nor was my review influenced by that fact.

 

Book Review and Interview: What Think Ye of Christmas?

I am excited to present to you, today, a recent interview that I conducted with one of my long-time blog pals, Jana Winters Parkin.  Jana, in addition to being a wife, mother, teacher, and gifted writer, is also a water color painter and desiginer of reknown.  Jana has recenlty collaborated with author Ester Rasband and illustrated a wonderful book about Christmas, called "What Think Ye of Christmas?"

 

Jana was good enough to send me a copy of the book, which I now treasure (thank you so much, my friend), and I would like to tell you about it, but I am not sure that I have the words.  Since we are great pals, Jana consented to grant me an interview, which I am pleased to share with you, so I will get right to it.

Jana, I am excited about our interview, but even more excited about this book.  I have been proud to call you friend for several years now, just because you are such a good person, but I am prouder still because of this accomplishment, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to share you with the people who read my blog!

I'm honored GF. In fact, you were one of my very first blog friends I hadn't met in real life. In fact (chuckling) I remember when you first commented on my blog, and one of my friends called me, concerned. "Did you know someone named Gunfighter is reading your blog?" I think she was concerned about my safety. :) I was happy be be able to reassure her that you are a man of faith, a father, a law-enforcer, and all-around great guy!

Well, I am glad that you weren't scared off.  I'm only dangerous to some people.  ;)  I would like to get started by asking you to give us a little biographical information about yourself . 

Although I was born and raised in the mountains of Utah, I spent most of my adult life in Los Angeles, and still consider it home. I am the mother of three amazing children, including a college freshman, a high school sophomore, and a sixth grader...about the same age as Soccer Girl, right? My husband is a filmmaker. We left the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for a more family-friendly environment (and a steadier paycheck) in Utah about six years ago. My husband teaches film production at BYU. You can see my professional bio on my website.

Indeed, Soccer Girl is a sixth grader, and we are enjoying this time immensely, as I am sure that you and your husband are.  Now, I understand that although you have been a professional artist for a long time, this is the first book that you have illustrated.

Yes, I've designed other books, and have had countless illustrations published, but this is the very first book that I illustrated from cover to cover.

How did all of this come about?

It all started about four years ago, when my dad and I had an exhibit of our watercolors in a gallery in Park City. The author came to the opening, fell in love with my work, purchased a giclée of one of my paintings, and later approached me about collaborating on a book project. You can read the whole story on my blog, starting here. The story is rife with impossibility and frustration...and bonafide miracles.

How long did the creative process take?

Would you believe eight weeks? I (along with an intern) did all the breaking down of the manuscript, research, sketches and layouts part time over the first six weeks. Then (and this is one of the miracles) I did all twenty original paintings in just two weeks!

Two weeks?  That is amazing!  Were there paintings that you did that the author or publisher wanted to do differently? 

Great question -- and the answer is No. She was amazing to work with, loved every idea I presented, noticed every detail and symbol I incorporated. The only suggestion she made was this: She felt that the 2-page spread with the shepherds and star didn't say enough about the line, "God gives us symbols by commandment" -- which refers of course to the Last Supper, which we emulate each week when we take the sacrament or communion; as well as baptism, which Paul tells us is a symbol of death and resurrection; and other symbols we have been given. I answered this request by incorporating a line drawing of a silver challis, representing that "bitter cup" Christ spoke of, and also the wine goblet used in the last supper, a subtle but significant symbol for any and all sacraments. It is right next to that paragraph of text.

That is awesome.  As soon as I read this, I had to go back and re-read the book (again).  To be sure, some of your  illustrations put me in mind of the quintessential small town American Christmas.  Are these the Christmases of your memory?

Yes. My grandmother (You can see a painting of her pictured on the page opposite the earth!) was a living, breathing Mrs. Santa Claus and always created the most magical, old-fashioned Christmases for us as children.  The cookie spread is inspired by our Christmases with her. She also made up a bedtime story for us called Cozette, which was about a little girl pressing her nose against the glass of a store window at Christmas. I talked about that wonderful bedtime story in this post, and that story also provided some of the imagery for the illustration on the first two spreads. The opening illustration is a village in England I visited while I was a student there and had always wanted to paint.

Jana, I have always known you be a woman of great faith and it shows even more in your answers, do you find that your faith plays a large part in your painting?

Absolutely.  Watercolor as a medium is dependent on water and light, which are both spiritual elements. But that water and light, much like our own lives, implies a certain amount of risk, a lack of control. It can't be overworked or it loses its freshness and that luminous quality we love. There is faith required just to begin. Then to proceed. And often to keep working on it when you feel like you've blown it. There are even repentance elements...lifting and softening...that can help "save" a botched painting. 

In addition to the inherent spiritual quality of painting with watercolor, this project was in itself a giant exercise in faith, which you can read about on my blog. The deadline was impossible. There was no time to rework or redo any paintings. Life kept getting in the way. The biggest challenge of all for me was painting the Savior. I was daunted by that task; felt incapable and unworthy. Yet by the end of the project I had spent eight weeks immersed in the text, and two weeks focused only on Christ and his birth...through music, words, and the paintings I was creating...and as I began I realized He'd been with me all along, that I knew Him better than I had before, and the painting just happened very naturally.

Can I just tell you how wonderful it is that you use your gifts in such a way? 

Okay...  I know that you lived and worked in L.A. for many years, but have recently relocated to Utah; has that had any effect on your painting?

I've noticed that my palette has changed slightly since moving here. The color of the landscape is different and my palette has adjusted to reflect that. On my website there is a separate page for both Utah and California landscapes and you can actually see that shift when you see them all together like that.

The biggest change that occurred with the move here, though, was TIME. When we lived in Los Angeles I was running a full-service design studio out of our house AND teaching graphic design at Glendale College. My painting was limited to Wednesday nights...unless I could incorporate painting into my design projects, which I often did.  Here? I teach watercolor painting at Utah Valley University, and the rest of my time is devoted to mothering, painting, and writing, in that order.

Tell us about your commissioned work.  You have done some work for pretty famous names.  Can you tell us about them?

Sure.  I used to design the invitations and collateral materials  for a lot of celebrity galas when we lived in Los Angeles, which made me sort of a Designer-to-the-Rich-and-Famous. But it's not quite as glamourous as it sounds. The one that usually raises the most eyebrows was designing the invitations to the Golden Globe Awards party for InStyle magazine. I've also been to Melanie Griffiths and Antonio Banderas' house, when I was working for Melanie's Sabera Foundation. I did a lot of projects for Paul Newman's charity, the Scott Newman Center, including one where they blew up my watercolors in these giant floor-to-ceiling banners at the gala. That was exciting. I did a piece for Michelle Pfeiffer that was a pop-up of a country carnival, and she liked my mock-up so much, she asked if she could keep it! (That also made my day. I didn't mind making another one for the printer after that.)

Now, I am pretty sure that you know that the Gunfighters are a serious Disney family, so I would really like to hear about doing work for Disney.  What did you do and what was it like working with Disney’s people?

I designed the fundraising campaign for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Lilian Disney passed away just before I was brought on, so I never got to meet her, but I heard she was wonderful. I worked with the marketing staff at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who were regular clients of mine. But if you ever make it to Disney Hall, my name is in one of the bricks on the patio!

I am just about out of questions, Jana, is there anything else that you would like to share with us?

Thank you so much for conducting the interview. It was great fun! And thank you to your readers, assuming they actually made it through all this!  :)

I especially appreciate your time and airspace, knowing you are planning to retire your blog soon. Thank you for supporting me and my book.

Jana, I want to thank you once more for taking some of your busy Christmas time to talk with us.  This is a wonderful and richly illustrated book, and I wish you every success in your future efforts, and all of the blessings of Christmas for you and your family.

Friends, you can go to HERE to visit Jana’s website and view more of her wonderful artistry.  I think that you should go there right now.

GF

Gunfighter's Favorite Science Fiction

You know, if there is one thing that you can count on from bloggers, it is this:  We love lists.  We do.   We like to make lists of what we have, lists of what we want, lists of places that you want to go or to do... even lists of how many people they have slept with (true story).  Well, I am going to do a list today (not about sex partners, thank you very much), but this list is my own.

Recently, I got tagged in a facebook list that was a set of 100 books that the BBC (allegedly) reckons that most people will have read only 6 of.  As it turns out, it was simply a list from The Guardian newspaper about the "100 Books You Cannot Live Without".  No matter... as it turns out, I have read 25 out of the 100, and I suspect that Mrs. Gunfighter has probably read somewhere close to all of them.  The reason that I have only read 25 of them isn't because I don't read, rather it is because they are (mostly) books that I just wouldn't read because I have no interest in them or the genre.

Anyway, since I enjoy lists, I thought that I would make one of my own, and here you are.

This is a list of my favorite Science Fiction novels.  These aren't the ONLY Science Fiction novels that I love, but these are my favorites.

If you have read any of these, please be kind enough to let me know, and let me know what you thought of them.  The same applies if you didn't like one of these... I would be pleased to know why.

So, read on:

 

Gunfighter's Favorite Science Fiction

1984 – George Orwell

Alternities - Michael Kube-McDowell

Ancient Shores – Jack McDevitt

Armageddon Inheritance – David Weber

Birthright:  The Book of Man – Mike Resnick

Branch Point – Mona Clee

Contact - Carl Sagan

 Dune – Frank Herbert

Emberverse (series of 7 volumes) S.M. Stirling

Encounter with Tiber – Buzz Aldrin & John Barnes

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

Endgame Enigma - James P. Hogan

Firestar – Michael Flynn

FitzPatrick’s War – Theodore Judson

Footfall - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Forever War – Joe Haldeman

Giant’s Star – James P. Hogan

Heirs of Empire – David Weber

Helm – Steven Gould

Hominid – Robert J. Sawyer

Human – Robert J. Sawyer

Hybrid – Robert J. Sawyer

Inherit the Stars – James P. Hogan

Jumper (The original, not that crap made into the movie) – Steven Gould

Methuselah’s Children –Robert A. Heinlein

Mission of Honor – David Weber

Mutineers Moon – David Weber

On Basilisk Station – David Weber

Path of the Fury – David Weber

Reflex – Steven Gould

Replay – Ken Grimwood

Roadmarks – Roger Zelazny

Starship Troopers –Robert A. Heinlein

Storm from the Shadows – David Weber

The Draka Series (#1through 5) – S.M. Stirling

The Engines of God – Jack McDevitt

The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov

The Gentle Giants of Ganymede – James P. Hogan

The Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove

The Moon is A Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein

The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven

The Prince (Falkenberg’s Legion anthology) - Jerry Pournelle

The Quiet Pools - Michael Kube-McDowell

The Shiva Option – Steve White

The United States of Atlantis - Harry Turtledove

The Weapon – Micahel Z. Williamson

Time Enough for Love –Robert A. Heinlein

Time Travelers Never Die – Jack McDevitt

Torch of Freedom – David Weber

Voyage From Yesteryear – James P. Hogan

Author Interview: nova

Today, A Modern Warrior’s Life has the distinct honor to welcome nova, the author of the American Apocalypse series, who granted me an interview (quite some time ago), after I read and reviewed his first book.
 
I would like to start the interview by offering an apology, nova, I should have posted your review and this interview a long time ago, but my life has been exceptionally busy lately, both personally and professionally.  Busy life aside, I have to say that I am excited to have you here, because I think that my readers will enjoy hearing from you.
 
If you don’t mind, could we start with a little biographical information?  Tell us about yourself? 

 

Hi Bill. I'm married with a family. I am a veteran.  I can say that I am a veteran but I would like to qualify that by adding that my toughest battles were over whether or not I should get drunk or really drunk.
 

Been there, and done that, brother!  Could you tell us about your motivation to write this book? As I understand it, you started writing piece by piece at a blog.  Is that correct? 

The novel started as comments on the blog Calculated Risk.  It started taking on a life of its own so I moved it to another blog where I could post lengthier comments. These grew an eventually became the book.

nova was my user name on Calculated Risk. I continued to use it because it kept continuity with  the original posts.

Your book, besides being a good story,  is about some very serious subject matter… how does it make you feel to see some of these things actually coming to pass in light of our current economic woes?

I never believed in the scenario of one big crash taking us back to the stone age.  This country is to rich and powerful.  Instead I see a gradual slide to in the standard living, law enforcement, job opportunities resulting in a two tiered economy of the rich and everyone else.

 

I think we are progressing quite nicely in this direction.
 
Given how things are for us at the moment, how do you see things panning out in the near-term?

 
The best I can see at this point is welcome to the Third World.
 
Tell me about character development.  Are any of the characters closely related to you in personality, temperament, or weapons skills?

Hah!  I can wish I was that deadly.  No, I think I have used characters from history such as Wyatt Earp and Clint Eastwood to define them.

 
 During our correspondence last year, you told me that you were in the edit stage with the second installation in the series, which has since come to print… how are you feeling about the series so far?

 

My time flies Bill. At this point I am writing AA IV.  I have AA II on Amazon along with a novella about one of the main characters titled "Gardener Summer" that is available on Kindle and other ebook formats only.

AA I was bought by Ulysses Press, edited by a professional, and is scheduled for release March 1, 2011.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Apocalypse-Novel-Aftermath-Nova/dp/1569759030/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289058039&sr=8-5

 
If I can just throw something in here for a second, I have to tell you that I am quite jazzed about the fact that I can purchase your books not only via Amazon.com, but at Barnes & Noble as well.  How cool is that?  Any chance that your books will be out via Kindle?

AA I will be a mass market paperback release in all formats. AA II and Gardener Summer are available on Amazon in paper and Kindle. Smashwords.com has them in the other ebook formats.  B&N and anyone else is a special order at this point.
 
Very cool… so let me ask you this, which has nothing to do with your book:  What do you think are the viable options for improving transportation in the DC metro area?

ARGH! You mean the land of traffic hell?  Maybe if the counties hadn't sold their souls to real estate developers there might be a chance. Now with a declining tax base and a federal government that is spending us into bankruptcy to save the banks I would say we are screwed.

  
Thanks for taking the time to give my readers a bit of a peek at you!  As I said in my review of your book, I honestly recommend it.  The pacing is good, the writing is clean, there is plenty of action, and the story pulls no punches.

Before I close, I would like to give you a little more free publicity.  If there is anything that you would like to tell us for the good of the order, we are listening.
 
Yes. Get moving on writing on that book of yours!

Just give me time, friend... just give me time!

 Thanks again for being with us today, nova, I wish you the best of luck!
 
GF

Book Review: American Apocalypse

One of the best things about blogging is the feedback that I get from the people who read what I write.  I would like to say that the feedback is always positive, but it isn’t.  You can’t offer up your thoughts opinions, and feeling without someone disagreeing with you, or taking offense at something you might have said.  Still, feedback, both good and bad is a healthy thing for any writer.

 

A while back, some of my blog posts came to the attention of a certain individual who was moved to comment on a few of the things that I wrote.  After commenting at my blog for a while, this man got in touch with me via email and told me that he had written a book and wanted to know if I would read it and offer a review.  Of course I was happy to oblige.

 

The book is named American Apocalypse and it is a very-near-future tale.  This isn’t your regular tales-of-the-future science fiction novel, and it isn’t some post-nuclear holocaust, zombie-filled action novel… what it is is a cautionary tale of what might happen or will happen to our country if/when our economy collapses.  I’m not talking about how things have gotten in the recent recession, I’m talking about collapse… with unemployment at better than 14%.

 

This is the premise of the story.  It is set in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC… on streets and in neighborhoods that I drive through with regularity.  In this possible future, the new (awful) economy has had such an effect on local governments, the cities, counties, and towns have had to reduce, and in some cases, eliminate many services that we, as modern Americans take for granted.

 

The story that follows is told from the viewpoint of a man named Gardener, an unemployed homeless man who is another victim of the economic catastrophe, who not only learns how to protect himself, but becomes sort of a local peacekeeper.  The stories of people who were once working and middle class Americans, who had a certain level of expectation of goods and services being available from their societies, are stark, and rather scary.  Seriously… what are most of us going to do when the last truck arrives at Wal-Mart, or at the Giant/Wegmans/Safeway/Piggly Wiggly/Shop-Rite?  This is Gardener’s brave new world.

 

One of the things that I liked best about this book is that there is very little sugar-coating on the story.  The author writes with the authenticity and the attention to detail of someone who was raised in the area about which he is writing.  The author also doesn’t hold out any hope for a government solution to the problems that the people in his story face.

 

If you get a chance to read this book, you won’t be disappointed, I promise you.

 

 

Note:  Lookout for my interview with the author, which I will post tomorrow.

Updates, News, & Other Random Thoughts

You know, I have been a bad blogger of late.

I have let (all six ) of my readers/friends down. I just haven't been putting as much into my blog as I have in years past. I want to tell you, my friends, that it's not you, it's me. The good news is that I am not breaking up with you… and you sure as hell had better not be breaking up with me… I mean, who really needs a well-armed stalker?

Um… anyway, as I was saying: It isn't you, it's me. I have just been seriously busy and distracted for the past several (ok eight or ten) months. I think I told you that I got a promotion… oh, thank you, thank you! I won't bore you with false humility; I earned that friggin' promotion thank-you-very-much! Ahem, well getting promoted meant I that I have been as busy as ever, and with after school scheduling issues, let's just say that I don't have as much time on my hands as I used to. All of this is said to explain a few things, tell you what is coming here at A Modern Warrior's Life , and to follow-up on a few posts and discussions.

 

 

Bear with me while I clear the air.

 

• Heartfelt congratulations and blessings to two people that I am pleased to call great friends, Brother Mick McIntyre who was recently ordained by the Lutheran Church in Canada, has recently been installed as the Pastor of his own parish in Alberta. Likewise, my lovely friend Suzanne has been ordained by the Episcopal Church (USA), and will be reporting for duty as an associate Priest at a parish in New York City. These two people have hearts that are dedicated to the service of God and His church, and I am proud to call them my friends.

 

• Regarding my mother. I reported to you folks in February, that I had to go back to my hometown because my mother was at death's door with cancer. I think that I told you, despite what the Doctors said, that she left the hospital the day after my visit, and went home. I don't think that I have brought you up to speed on the rest of the tale. My mother, within two months of leaving the hospital, has been declared cancer-free. You heard me… I said cancer-free. While I realize that remission can last as short as several weeks, but at this point, every minute that she gets to remain above ground, should be counted as an incredible victory over the odds. There are people that scoff at the notion of miracles. I am not among their number.

 

• In the past year, I have read several books and reviewed them. Some books, I reviewed just because I wanted to share my thoughts with you, and some because I had been solicited by the publishers. One of the books that I read was called American Apocalypse, by an author who goes by the enigmatic name, Nova. Anyway, Nova had been reading and commenting at my blog even before I knew of his book, and when we discussed it, he had a copy sent to me. I read the book, and enjoyed it immensely. I told this fine gentleman that I would like to review his book and publish that review along with an interview here at my blog. Well, to my great shame, even though I interviewed this man, I haven't gotten around to posting it, for which I owe Nova a profound apology. I plan to make amends very soon.

   

• I also plan to bring you another interview with author Brigadier General AJ Tata. General Tata was a fine army officer, who is using the proceeds from his action adventure novels to support the Wounded Warrior Project. Be on the lookout, because that should be fun.

   

• I wanted to use this space for another reason tonight… or this morning… (It is nearly 3 AM as I write this, on a bit of a Vicodin buzz, as I really did something bad to my back today, and I don't think that it is in my interest to lie down). Anyway, I wrote about my next door neighbor a week or so ago and asked for some advice on how to mention her obvious pregnancy. Well, I received all sorts of comments and wisdom from many of you, and I did what I thought was best: I kept my yap shut. I didn't say a word, but wouldn't you know it, I saw her boyfriend in the gas station a week or so later, and he gave me the scoop. I was still determined to say nothing about it to my neighbor, because her behavior clearly said: "Don't say anything" Well, on Wednesday morning, as I was loading the last few vacation items into the car, we had a nice wee chat about the coming baby (a chat that she initiated). She couldn't be happier about the arrival of the baby, which should be in November. I am happy that she is happy.

   

• I have an idea for a book or series of books rattling around in my head. I may actually write a proposal and shop this one around.

   

So that is what is happening, folks.  You'll be hearing from me soon... but for now, Mickey Mouse is beckoning, and we are on our way to the Magic Kingdom. 

Book Review: The Lost Constitution

You know, I’m not much for mysteries, unless they involve spies and a fair amount of gun play.  This book is something I would never have noticed had I not had an encounter with a very rude young couple in the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Springfield, Virginia a couple of months ago.

 

True story… there were these two really dopey people who wanted to use the B&N Wi-Fi for their computers, but didn’t want to sit near other people, so they took an end-cap table and two chairs and set them up in the aisle!  The aisle! So, my attitude, being somewhat confrontational at times, decided I needed to browse the aforementioned aisle… right where they were set up.  Turns out it was the mystery aisle.  The first book that I found was this one:  The Lost Constitution.  I saw the premise and I knew I had to read it (I downloaded it on my Kindle that same afternoon).  It goes something like this:

 

Rare book dealer Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline Carrington, are on the trail of an original first draft of the United States Constitution… which is a rare enough find… only this one is even more rare, because it had been marked-up and annotated by the men of the New England delegation to the Constitutional convention!

 

This first draft, which was stolen shortly after it was written, had a far-reaching effect over families and fortunes, starting in the eighteenth century, and potentially having a huge impact on the future of the United States in the 21^st century… that is, if it can be found.

 

Through the centuries, people have been hunting for this historical document, believing that it will be the bringer of good fortune, or because it may prove that the Founding Fathers had different intentions regarding slavery or even the right to bear arms.  The document has been important enough to kill over from the days of Shay’s Rebellion to the present day.

 

The story is exciting and well-written, and the author does a great job of pacing the story, which bounces back and forth from the past to the present throughout the book.  What is more, the author knows more than just a little about suspense, as we don’t find out the answers to many questions until the very last pages of the book.

 

If you liked the DaVinci Code and other books like that, you would really like this story.

 

It is worth noting that the author, William Martin, has written several novels starring Peter Fallon, so if you like this novel. You might want to check out the other books that he has written.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed Book Review Week here at A Modern Warrior’s Life.  Perhaps I’ll do it again soon.

 

Cheers,

 

GF

Book Review: The Loyalists

Today is Canada Day, so in honor of my Canadian readers on their national holiday, I have decided to review a book that I read a few years ago:  The Loyalists, by that excellent Canadian author, Christopher Moore.

 

If you think you know everything about the American Revolution, think again!

 

Did you know that by the end of our Revolutionary War there were as many as 50,000 crown loyalists that couldn’t or wouldn’t support the American Revolution who were headed north to Canada?  Did you know that some of those loyalists weren't moving to Canada because they wanted to? 

 

In “The Loyalists” Christopher Moore's work does something extremely important for the student of early American history. He de-mythologizes the beginnings of the American Revolution, and sheds new light on the people that most Americans are taught to view as villains: those who remained loyal to King George III.

Moore not only describes the revolution from the perspective of those that remained loyal to their King and country (remember, many, or even most people in America considered themselves to be English, despite the fact that they were colonials), he also details some of the less-than-democratic ways that our “liberty” loving forebears treated them.

The history of our revolution and it's aftermath is absolutely amazing (and sometimes tragic), and there is so much truthful information about it in circulation that is missed, or intentionally glossed over.  I challenge my American readers to learn as much about the true stories of our revolution as possible.  Moore’s book should be part of that study.

Please note that Moore's book isn't some sort of anti-American treatise, it is just an insightful perspctive on American history that the truly informed and intelligent should not hide from.

I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in a more even-handed study of the period than the highly propagandized version that is constantly dished out here in the United States.   

Happy Canada Day, friends!