Intense adventures that make for an exciting, timely read.
This military adventure follows Alpha Team, a group of Navy Seals specializing in the covert capture of al-Qaida and Taliban leaders for interrogation, as they engage in military actions, deal with bureaucracy and relax at home with friends and family.
Alpha leader Patrick “Mac” McNamara—ostensibly the book’s author, although this too might be part of the fictive reality—tells this story, with a voice somewhere between the “just the facts” of Dragnet’s Sgt. Friday and a standup comedian’s deadpan. Like all the members of Alpha, his wit is the type of gallows humor found in men who face death on a daily basis. There are also plenty of elaborate practical jokes. Mac’s father is a Vietnam veteran who was a “tunnel rat,” part of a special unit that crawled through subterranean passageways dug by the Viet Cong. A number of other Alpha members also come from military families, and all seem to act like overgrown boys; hence the title. The various players are drawn well to a point, each with distinguishing tics and traits, but they’re all paragons of perfection. Some readers may grow tired of heavily muscled men with multiple masters’ degrees and coconut-crushing handshakes. However, the abundance of military acronyms, weapons specifications and the extensive glossary of military terms enhance the book’s realism and will no doubt be a treat for military buffs. After running down various bad guys, Alpha meets its chief adversary, Asa Ali, a weapons and explosives dealer who not only manages to elude them but also kills or wounds several members of Alpha and other covert teams. Even Mac is wounded on two occasions and captured and tortured on another. The pursuit begins in the Middle East and ultimately leads to the Philippines, where insertion becomes problematic due to that country’s diplomatic relationship with the United States. Though the characters are somewhat stereotypical, their overarching attitudes, along with the candid narration, open a window into the psychology of real-life warriors who live above and beyond the call of duty.
Intense adventures that make for an exciting, timely read.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615650968
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Daniel J. Dyer
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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