I listened to this one on Audible – figured it’s the kind of story I’m usually interested in but also am more hesitant to pick up nowadays because the genre does sometimes blend together so it seemed like the perfect selection for, “damn, how did I end up with so many Audible credits, I have no idea what I want!” The novel begins in 1947 with nineteen-year-old Charlie on her way to Switzerland for a procedure to take care of “her little problem.” The last […]
Women & Espionage in the World Wars
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is an ambitious work of historical fiction that straddles two world wars and their aftermath, and that shines a light on the heroic work of female spies. Quinn uses a solid base of historical fact and real people to create her fictional heroine Eve (aka Evelyn Gardiner, aka Marguerite Le Francois), a spy for England in WWI who made shattering sacrifices and has never healed from her tragic and brutal experiences. Eve is an alcoholic recluse when, in the […]
Army Chief of Staff Reading List #11
The Sleepwalkers is one of the most thorough books I have recently read. It attempts to describe and make sense of the factors that led to WWI. The author attempts to discover the real causes beyond the notion that the war was inevitable. It’s a nearly impossible task that I think Christopher Clark does quite well. His findings do not provide a clear or simple answer but it is comprehensive and much better than the tired tropes we learned about in high school history class. […]
The Greatest Work That Four Men Have Ever Done
Note: This review is long. The book was long and interesting, so the review is long, but may not be interesting. I love history, but I’m not a diligent scholar. My history knowledge is thin and wide spread with occasional deep dives. I have been fascinated by the events that led to World War 1, but didn’t know much about the Paris Peace Conference that dealt with the end of the war. Last year I listened to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History series, “Blueprint for Armageddon.” […]