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Not ‘Hitler’s Pope’
Chances are, you’ve heard more than once the criticism that the Pope was silent while Hitler was perpetrating the Holocaust. Paul O’Connor reviews a fascinating book that tells the story of what was going on behind the scenes. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor CHURCH OF SPIES: THE POPE’S SECRET WAR AGAINST HITLER. By Mark Riebling.…
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History with a lesson
Paul O’Connor reviews a history that can tell many Americans much they don’t know about the Eastern Front in World War II, including an important lesson about how to wage a war. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE DEVIL’S ALLIANCE: HITLER’S PACT WITH STALIN, 1939-1941. By Roger Moorhouse. Tantor Audio (through Audible.com), $22.04. Read by…
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Money and power
Thank goodness Tom Dillon has wide-ranging tastes in books. He reads and reviews some fascinating ones we might otherwise overlook. Reviewed by Tom Dillon THE RICHEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED. By Greg Steinmetz. Simon and Schuster. 283 pages. $27.95 hardback. Augsburg in Bavaria, my home for much of the 1960s, is a middling-size German city…
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Lincoln, military genius
Paul O’Connor somehow missed this excellent Civil War history when it was published a few years ago, and he’s glad he found it now as an audio book. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor TRIED BY WAR: ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF. By James M. McPherson. Penguin Audio. 8 CDs. Read by George Guidall. $31.50.…
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A plan gone awry
Not a new book, this one has held up well over time. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor A BRIDGE TOO FAR. By Cornelius Ryan. Blackstone Audio. 18 hours, 11 minutes. Read by Clyde Chafer. $22.02 through Audible.com. Also available in paperback from Simon & Schuster. 672 pages. $19.99. In September 1944, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower…
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Extraordinary courage
Paul O’Connor has been reading and thinking about spies this summer, and he’s developed high standards. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor AVENUE OF SPIES: A TRUE STORY OF TERROR, ESPIONAGE, AND ONE AMERICAN FAMILY’S HEROIC RESISTANCE IN NAZI-OCCUPIED PARIS. By Alex Kershaw. Random House Audio. Read by Mark Deakins. Seven hours. $35. Also available in…
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A spy tale, stranger than fiction
Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE BILLION DOLLAR SPY: A TRUE STORY OF COLD WAR ESPIONAGE AND BETRAYAL. By David E. Hoffman. Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Dan Woren. 11 hours and 54 minutes. $20. Also in hardcover from Doubleday. 262 pages. $28.95 Adolf Tolkachev despised his government, and for 35 years the American…
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Heroes and myths
Paul O’Connor, who’s putting his summer break from teaching aspiring journalists to good use, reviews a book about the Doolittle Raiders, who struck back against the Japanese just months after Pearl Harbor. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor TARGET TOKYO: JIMMY DOOLITTLE AND THE RAID THAT AVENGED PEARL HARBOR. By James M. Scott. Read by L.J.…
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Great achievement, great story
Paul O’Connor takes a look at a new book from a master storyteller about the brothers whose genius transformed the world in 1903. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. By David McCullough. Audible.com. Read by the author. 10 hours, 2 minutes. $17. Also available in hardback from Simon & Schuster. 336 pages. $30.…
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A gold-medal book
I don’t know how this book got under the stack on my table, languishing for months while I read and listened to lots of others. I do know that I’m glad I retrieved it recently, after having seen it listed as one of the best books of the 21st century so far. It deserves that…