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Lee: A Life of Virtue (The Generals series) by John Perry

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A solid biography, but not without its problems First, a bit about this reviewer and Civil War books. This is my 80th Civil War book. Robert E. Lee figures prominently in almost every one of them. I consider him to be the finest general that served on either side in that war and that is high praise indeed because many generals rose to the top and did distinguished themselves in that war. If Lee is the finest general in that war, he is the greatest American officer of the 19th century and one can make the argument that he may have been the best ever (assuming one overlooks the fact that he fought against the federal government, which I am). No one did so much with so little against an opponent that was better fed, had better and more numerous weapons and outnumbered him in every battle. He fought with principle and with respect for his enemies (who he refused to call his enemies - he called the Union forces "those people.") All of that being said, even I cannot appro

The Jinglebob Man by Robert Kammen

So, your first question has to be "What's a jinglebob?" A jinglebob is part of the little spinny thing on the back of a set of spurs - the sharp part. It makes the "ting, ting, ting" sound you always hear in westerns as the cowboys are walking along and setting up for a big shoot-out. The main character is The Jinglebob Man because he is imprisoned tortured by a sadistic superior officer with a set of sharpened spurs during the Civil War because he is accused of treason. Our protagonist, Tyler Carradine, escapes from his prison and is now forever on the run, afraid of meeting someone from his past and in pain due to a lost love that he feels will not accept him due to his physical deformities and the accusations against him. Carradine stumbles into a corrupt mining town years after the war and is finally forced to turn and fight rather than continue to run. Oh, and he finally has a chance to find love again (but not with his long-lost love). The pl

Riding for the Brand (audiobook) by Louis L'Amour

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Good, but predictable Audio version originally published in 1986 by Random House Audio Multicast performance with sound effects Duration: 55 minutes. I like Louis L'Amour. His descriptions and conversations are top notch. However, his plots are predictable so I really am grading this on a curve. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings I am also rating the audio version of  Riding for the Brand  which is interesting because it is told by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash. It was quite enjoyable to hear the four of these men work together - they were all quite good, especially Kristofferson and Nelson. This audio edition has features that most don't, including special effects and a music soundtrack that was sometimes reminescent of Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns and sometimes reminescent of Silverado . The inclusion of the special effects did speed the plot along (you don't have to describe th

Garfield - The Movie DVD

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Oh, I am torn on this movie in so many ways... Was Garfield - The Movie a good movie? No, not really. If I never saw it again that'd be fine with me. Was it a good family movie, meaning was my 4 year-old entertained by it and was it devoid of anything overly scary or offensive? Absolutely. My daughter would love to see it again and that would be fine with me. Was the animation of Garfield good? Yes, top notch and it looked like he was really interacting with his environment, including Odie and the other cats.  Was it true to the comic strip? Only in spirit. Real fans will be irritated by the elimination and consolidation of characters. A digital Garfield talking to a real-life Odie The DVD has little to offer in the way of extras. In fact, there are no extras to speak of - no deleted scenes (although, I think it would have been difficult to delete any scenes in this skimpy 82 minute movie), no behind the scenes extras showing us how they created Garfi

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

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Tries too hard to set a mood, loses focus on the history. As a history teacher, I love well-written historical fiction. It places the reader right in the story. A judicious author can blend the history and the fiction together in a harmless fashion and tell the story in an accurate and entertaining way. A Separate Country  does not live up to those standards. It it presumptuous of an author of historical fiction to take the first person with a very famous historical figure. Commonly, if a first person perspective is used it is with a fictional character - an aide to a general that witnesses events but does not effect them, for example. In this case, Hicks has taken one of the "name" generals from the Civil War and turned him on his head. He has sacrificed the "historical" in the name of the "fiction." Hicks places John Bell Hood into a series of historic events, some of which are quite true (such as the lottery drawings - many Confederate ex-gene

Apocalypse Troll  by David Weber

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A solid sci-fi story saddled with a fantasy genre name Just seeing the title of this book you would assume that David Weber's first solo novel is all about ogres, witches and elves. The cover shows differently, of course. The Apocalypse Troll  is an action-packed bit of sci-fi that includes time travel, a threat to planet earth and a lovely lady. David Weber Here are the plot basics: an alien race from the future lands on earth in an effort to destroy it and humans from the future arrive in an effort to stop them. But, their defense was less than successful so current day humans are left to fight on with the advice of a surviving human from the future.  l And this story works. Mind you, this is not "great" literature - but it is a romp through space and time with plenty of military action, a truly evil villain and lots of snappy dialogue. Be warned, there is not a lot of character development and the reader really doesn't know the entire backsto