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FOR THE LOVE OF A GIRL

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  FOR THE LOVE OF A GIRL By William Hiles Trafford Publishing 230 pgs   This review is personal. During the Vietnam War, 2.7 million American men and women served in that faraway country. 58,000 of them died there. William Hiles was there and so was I. After graduating from high school in 1964, I worked in a shoe factory until 1965 when I enlisted for three years in the Army. Hiles graduated in 1965 and shortly thereafter enlisted in the Marines. After two years of duty in U.S. bases, I was sent to Vietnam the Spring of 1967 and would be there until the summer of 1968. As it turns out, Hiles was also In-Country at the same time, though we never met. He was a Radio Operator stationed in Da Nang and I was a Personnel Specialist attached to the Adjutant General Office at Army Headquarters in Long Binh. Both us felt the heat, the monsoons and the mud. Both us did guard duty, burned shit and were attacked during the massive enemy Tet Offensive of 68. Whereas Hiles s...
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KING KONG - The Annotated Novelization

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  KING KONG The Annotated Novelization by Delos W. Lovelace By Micah Swanson Harris A Minor Profit Press 346 pgs In the September of 1932, production of the film King Kong began at RKO Studios in Hollywood. Conceived by studio executive and producer, Merian C. Cooper and directed by Ernest B. Shoedsack, it would become one of the most successful films of all time. Prior to that first day’s shooting, the story had been bandied around between Cooper and British thriller writer, Edgar Wallace. Tragically, Wallace died of pneumonia after only having penned a rough outline of a script whose elements would be ultimately discarded as production continued. After Wallace, Cooper drafted James Creelman, a skilled action writer along with a few other scribes. Appreciating what Creelman had written, Cooper still felt the script needed more romance. To that end he recruited Shoedsack’s wife, Ruth Rose. Rose had been an actress back in New Jersey before signing on with several wild...
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THE GREATEST KNIGHT

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  THE GREATEST KNIGHT By Thomas Asbridge ECCO 383 pgs   During the 11 th and 12 th centuries, heart of the Middle Ages, history witnessed the rise and fall of some of the most notorious British monarchs. Empires were won and lost within single generations; fathers and sons fought each other and the Holy Roman Empire battled the Moslem Kingdom to hold the Holy Lands of Jerusalem. Amidst this tumultuous era, one truly remarkable man appeared who would become one of the most powerful behind the scenes figures in that world’s politics. His name was William Marshal and he would go on to become the most famous knight of all time.   He was born in 1147 in Normandy and would die in 1219 at the age of 72. In his lifetime he would serve King Henry the First, Young Henry, Richard the Lionheart, his brother King John, and John’s heir, young Henry III.   All of this during the rise of the warrior class of knights and the age of Chivalry. And as if his battle ...
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