Category: Book Reviews
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Book Review: ‘The Making of The Empire Strikes Back’
On October 12, 2010, Del Rey, the science fiction/fantasy imprint of Random House, published J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the second volume in a three-book cycle about the creation of the original Star Wars trilogy. Rinzler, an editor at Lucasfilm and co-author (with George Lucas) of 2005’s The Art of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,…
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Book Review: ‘ The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film’
Blogger’s Note: This review is a slightly revised version of one that I wrote for the Blogger-based A Certain Point of View in 2018. On April 24, 2007, Del Rey Books – an imprint of the Penguin Random House publishing empire – published a nearly 400-page hardcover edition of The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive…
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On Books: Examining ‘Shattered Sword’ and ‘The Battle of Midway’
Ever since I read a young reader’s edition of a book about the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) when I was a fourth grade student at Tropical Elementary School in the early 1970s, I have been fascinated by this pivotal chapter in world history. It is a story that is full of drama and…
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Book Review: ‘Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944’ (UK Edition)
“But, sir, I think we might be going a bridge too far.” – Attributed to Lt. Gen. Frederick “Boy” Browning, commanding officer of I British Airborne Corps and overall commander for Operation Market-Garden On May 17, 2018 – September 11 in the U.S. – Viking (a subsidiary of Penguin Random House) published the British edition…
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Book Review: ‘Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’
On October 1, 2019, with the premiere of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker a little over two months away, Disney-Lucasfilm Press released Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, an illustrated book for young readers that sums up the first eight Episodes in the main Skywalker Saga film series. Written by Delilah S. Dawson…
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Book Review: ‘The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III, 1999-2005’
Movies are an illusion. Cinema is the art of the moving image; the moving image isn’t more truthful than are cave paintings, or hieroglyphics, or the Sistine Chapel. What the artist finds is the truth behind the “truth.” Art portrays the aspirations of the society in which it is made.- George Lucas, The Star Wars…
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Book Review: ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Topps Trading Card Series – Volume Two’
On April 16, 2016, Abrams ComicsArt, an imprint of Abrams Books, published Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Topps Trading Cards – Volume Two. Edited by Gary Gerani, this follow-up to Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Cards tells the story of how Gerani and his team of artists and designers created three “basic” cards series, as…
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Book Review: ‘Sand & Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France’
A Plethora of D-Day Books I have an obsession with D-Day. Don’t ask me why. I couldn’t begin to give you a rational answer. As a first-generation American citizen born to two immigrants from Colombia, I don’t have any personal connection to the Second World War. Yes, Colombia joined the Allies (then called the United…
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Book Review: ‘Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Volume I of the Pacific War Trilogy)
On November 14, 2011, W.W. Norton & Company published Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, the first volume of Ian W. Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy. In twelve chapters and an epilogue which take up 493 pages of narrative, Toll covers the first six months of the Pacific War that pitted the Japanese…
A Certain Point of View, Too 