Category: Books
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Books and Stories: A Quick Overview of Ian W. Toll’s ‘The Pacific War’ Trilogy
In his afterword to Twilight of the Gods: The War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945, naval historian Ian W. Toll tells readers that his original concept when he started working on a new history of the Pacific War (1941-1945) was for a one-volume history of the 44-month-long conflict that began with the Japanese “blitz” against…
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Musings & Thoughts for September 17, 2020: Of ‘Market-Garden,’ Waiting for Packages, and Other Bits of My Mind
Hello, there, Dear Reader (Constant and otherwise). It’s early afternoon on Thursday, September 17, 2020, and it’s a hot late summer day in my corner of Florida, Because the owner of the house where I live is off from work and is away running errands, I’m enjoying some rare weekday online time and writing this…
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Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, September 16, 2020: More Stormy Weather
Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s just past 5 AM Eastern in my corner of Florida, and it’s still dark outside. Right now, the temperature outside is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) under partly cloudy skies. As usual for a late summer day in the subtropics, the forecast for today says it’s going to be…
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Book Review: ‘Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945’
On September 1, New York-based (and wholly-owned by its employees) publisher W.W. Norton & Company published Twilight of the Gods: The War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945, the concluding volume of Ian W, Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy, thus completing the story begun in Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific (2011) and The Conquering…
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Book Review: ‘The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 (Volume II of the Pacific War Trilogy)
On September 21, 2015, W.W. Norton & Company – an independent, employee-owned publishing company based in New York City – published Ian W. Toll’s The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944. This is the second book in Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy, which begins with Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942…
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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…
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More Tales from a Constant Reader: Progress on ‘Twilight of the Gods’ & a Bit of Melancholy
Hi, there, Dear Reader. As I write this, it’s still early afternoon on Thursday, September 10, 2020. In my neck of the suburbs – so to speak – it is a typically hot late summer day; the temperature outside is 90˚F under mostly cloudy skies. According to my smartphone’s AccuWeather app, the “feels-like” temperature is…
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Tales from a Constant Reader, or: Books, Memories, and Changed Circumstances
Well, it’s late morning here on this Wednesday, September 9, 2020, and in my corner of Florida, it looks like it’s going to be another hot and stormy late summer day. Right now, it’s 83˚F (28˚C) under partly sunny skies, although the feels-like temperature is 94˚F (34˚C). It’s a quiet – if perhaps a bit…
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Musings & Thoughts, Labor Day 2020
Labor Day 2020 It’s late afternoon here in my corner of Florida; right now the weather outside is typical of the wet season – hot, muggy, and, after a passing thunderstorm, partly sunny. The temperature is 89˚F (32˚C), but with humidity at 64% and an easterly breeze blowing at 6 MPH, the feels-like temperature is…
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Musings & Thoughts for Friday, September 4, 2020
Well, Dear Reader, it’s Friday, September 4, 2020 – the first weekend of the ninth month of perhaps one of the worst years I’ve ever lived through, on par with 2015. It’s also the start of the Labor Day weekend, which is not exactly one of my favorite holidays, but whatever. Right now, it’s still…
A Certain Point of View, Too 