A fascinating look at World War II as reflected in the career of an important yet largely forgotten Allied general.
The story of Gen. Maurice Rose (1899-1945), whose division fought its way from Normandy to the German heartland during World War II.
Rose, who served as an infantry officer during World War I, had distinguished himself in the North African and Italian campaigns. “He led troops under fire, created battle plans, supervised the staff, ran the division command post, and even found time to negotiate a major German component’s surrender,” writes Bolger, who served in the Army for 35 years and earned five Bronze Stars. In August 1944, Rose was appointed to command of the 3rd Armored Division, with the Allied offensive stalled in the Normandy hedgerows. Rose, like Patton—who recommended him for command—believed in seeing what was going on with his own eyes. In Normandy, he immediately moved the division’s headquarters forward to be nearer the action; unlike the majority of generals even then, Rose routinely took his vehicle within range of enemy fire. The author follows his career from his assumption of command in Normandy through most of the major battles on the Western Front, where his division was routinely in the middle of the action. A highly private man who did not discuss personal matters even with his officers—and did not survive to write his postwar memoirs—Rose remains something of a mystery even at the end of the book. Bolger, who has himself commanded an armored division, gives a solid military insider’s view of how armor, infantry, artillery, and air support cooperate on the battlefield, with interesting details on the tactics and strategy of the battles on the Western Front. He also offers pointed observations about Rose’s relations with the major figures of the Allied war effort, including Montgomery, Patton, Eisenhower, Bradley, and other less-familiar figures.
A fascinating look at World War II as reflected in the career of an important yet largely forgotten Allied general.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-18371-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Dutton Caliber
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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