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Taking fresh aim at Gettysburg
A century and a half later, one might think that everything useful has been written about Gettysburg, that massive, bloody and crucial Civil War battle. But Paul O’Connor finds that a new book published in time for the battle’s sesquicentennial offers many fresh insights. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor. GETTYSBURG: THE LAST INVASION. By Allen…
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Into the viper’s nest
Rarely is a history lesson as entertaining as in the Maggie Hope World War II novels. Here’s a review of the latest one, No. 3 in the series. Review by Linda C. Brinson HIS MAJESTY’S HOPE. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Bantam Trade Paperback Original. 354 pages. $15. Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope novels just keep…
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Understanding 1776
Paul O’Connor, contributing editor, is wandering the United States this summer, listening to audio books that enrich his travels, and reviewing those books for Briar Patch. Here’s a look back at 1776, just in time for Independence Day enlightenment. By Paul T. O’Connor REVOLUTIONARY SUMMER: The Birth of American Independence. By Joseph J. Ellis. Read…
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Root, root, root for the home team
What better time than summer to read a book about baseball? Paul O’Connor took a break from his wanderings this summer to visit an Iowa town and team featured in a new book he’s been reading about minor-league baseball. CLASS A: BASEBALL IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE. By Lucas Mann. Pantheon Books. Hardcover. 315 pages.…
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For a great escape, try Dan Brown’s latest
Here’s a great vacation book, whether you listen to it, as I did, while driving, or read the print version. I enjoyed Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, especially, but I’ve somehow missed a couple of his other efforts. Judging from some reviews I’ve read of The Lost Symbol, missing that one might have…
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And you thought you knew American history
Paul O’Connor, professor, gentleman, journalist, scholar and sometime editorial writer, is on his annual drive-about. For a companion when he’s driving long distances, he has some new audio books. Here’s a look at one he found worth the listen. By Paul T. O’Connor HERE IS WHERE: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History. By Andrew Carroll. Random…
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This father knows best, or at least tells it best
By Linda C. Brinson I’ve followed Clyde Edgerton’s writing career from the beginning, when he blasted onto the North Carolina literary scene in a storm of controversy. His first novel, Raney, poked fun at Southern Baptists, and his employer at the time, Campbell University, an affiliate of the N.C. Baptist State Convention, was not amused.…
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The prim, the proper, the depraved
Most of us know, through Charles Dickens or other sources, something of the seamy side of Victorian England and how difficult life was for the poor people of the day. Anne Perry’s two outstanding series of historical novels set in that period also shed light into some of the darker corners of life among the…