This week, we feature an engaging thriller that demonstrates how easily technology can be used for evil and a military history highlighting the courage of the U.S. Filipino infantry during World War II.
Military History
‘Dauntless: The 1st & 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, United States Army’
By Marie Silva Vallejo
Learning that her father was part of a secret military operation, author Marie Silva Vallejo wanted to know more. Her research took more than a decade. The result is a compelling and comprehensive look at the contribution of Filipinos in the First and Second Filipino Regiments of the U.S. Army and the First Reconnaissance Battalion created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is a stirring and heartfelt tribute to all those who valiantly fought to free the Philippines during World War II.
Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2023, 762 pages
Maritime History
‘Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World’
By Andrew Lambert
This book argues that nations dependent on seapower must favor free trade and must have decentralized representative governments. It examines five city-states or nations that became world powers through seapower: Athens, Carthage, Venice, the Netherlands, and Britain. All five gained power through trade―and more importantly, through an exchange of ideas. Centralized continental states find seapower states dangerous because they foster innovation and new technologies that destabilize centralized governments.
Yale University Press, 2018, 424 pages
Fiction
‘After Death’
By Dean Koontz
After becoming a flesh-and-blood computer during a top-secret lab accident, Michael Mace is on the run from the feds, in particular the murderous agent, Durand Calaphas. With him are Nina and her son John, who are fleeing the vicious thug who long ago fathered John. Michael’s power to hack any digital device through his thoughts alone allows them to survive. This thriller is a red-flag warning about the emerging attempts to create human beings capable of becoming masters over the rest of us.
Thomas & Mercer, 2023, 382 page
Sports
‘Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book’
Edited by Tom Verducci
Sports writing is arguably the best writing. Triumph, heartache, teamwork, individualism, and the rarely achieved ideal of glory. America’s favorite pastime is all of this, moments of beauty and the impossible, etched in those who were there and wrote them down. The sacred duty of these writers has given us a form of American myth and folklore. Sports Illustrated’s “The Baseball Book” takes readers through the years, guides them along the moments, and introduces them anew to heroes old and modern.
Sports Illustrated, 2006, 294 pages
Classic Western
‘Shane’
By Jack Schaefer
It’s 1889, Wyoming Territory, and a stranger, Shane, stops at the Starrett homestead for a drink of water. Soon, he goes to work helping Joe Starrett, his wife Marian, and 13-year-old Bob, the story’s narrator. With a greedy rancher intent on driving the Starretts and other families from the land so as to graze more cattle, Shane steps up beside Joe, defends the family, and must eventually strap on his gun and become the man he had wanted to leave behind. A classic Western for teens and adults.
Clarion Books, 2014, 176 pages
For Kids
‘Johnny Appleseed: A Tall Tale Retold’
By Steven Kellogg
This colorfully illustrated tale of John Chapman, a boy growing up in colonial America who later became known as Johnny Appleseed, explains how this famous legend developed and grew. This engaging tale of a gentle and virtuous man who made it his mission to journey the country and plant apple seeds along the way will delight readers young and old.
HarperCollins, 1988, 48 pages
