Briar Patch Books

Tag: military-history

  • A new look at a forgotten war

    Before he was a journalist or a public school teacher or administrator, and before he was my husband, Lloyd Brinson was a young U.S. Marine officer who served in Vietnam. He finds much that’s worthwhile in a new book by a writer who was a young soldier in a different war. Reviewed by Lloyd Brinson…

  • Overcoming great odds

    World War II continues to be an endlessly fascinating subject for those who love history. Paul O’Connor takes a look at a new book about the last major Nazi offensive. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor ARDENNES 1944, THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE, By Anthony Beevor. Penguin Audio. Read by Sean Barrett. 14 hours, 35 minutes.…

  • 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.…

  • A harrowing story of Vietnam

    Forty years after the fall of Saigon, Paul O’Connor finds that a new book about a heroic mission in the Vietnam War makes for engrossing, if disturbing, reading. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor LEGEND: A HARROWING STORY FROM THE VIETNAM WAR OF ONE GREEN BERET’S HEROIC MISSION TO RESCUE A SPECIAL FORCES TEAM CAUGHT BEHIND…

  • Generals and their battles

    When Paul O’Connor went traveling during his recent break from professorial duties in Chapel Hill, he took some serious reading matter along for company. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor WASHINGTON’S REVOLUTION. By Robert Middlekauff. Knopf Doubleday. 384 pages, hardcover. $30. THE LAST BATTLE. By Cornelius Ryan. Simon & Schuster. 576 pages. $18.99, paperback. Available also…

  • FDR, commander in chief

    Paul O’Connor, when he’s not commenting on the shenanigans in our state government or teaching aspiring journalists, is a devoted student of American history. Here he takes a look at a new book about Franklin D. Roosevelt and World War II. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor ROOSEVELT’S CENTURIONS: FDR AND THE COMMANDERS HE LED TO…

  • The Sounds of Battle at Sea

    When I drive alone, I like to listen to audio books.  I listen almost exclusively to fiction, just as almost everything I read is fiction. It’s not that I dislike nonfiction; it’s more that try as I might, I find it hard to make myself read nonfiction. I blame this failing on my long years…