My Book Report for This Month

Frittered away yesterday. That doesn't mean I spent the day eating fritters (conch or corn), it means I wasted the day playing Monopoly, solitaire, and reading.

I was finishing up a book, an historical novel, about the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, 1941. I am enamored of that period... from the early 30's to the end of World War II. So any book on the subject is of interest to me. This book, written by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen, came to my attention while watching a Book TV (I think) show on CSPAN. I realize that only 3 or 4 people at a time watch CSPAN but more definitely should.

However, this book was both interesting and a disappointment. The actual title (at our library anyway) was "Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th". I found that odd, as I am pretty sure the attack was on the 7th. Of course, that would have been the 8th in Japan but nowhere did the authors say that was their intent. Not on the cover, not in the jacket blurb, not in the introduction. And then, inside the book, they get the date entirely wrong again... but then correct that several pages later without comment. This confused me further but I am easily confused so I chose to overlook this.

The book is a good read and is somewhat informative but you need to know some facts about the history of Japan and events leading up to the attack before reading it because the authors toss in a couple of "what if's" that would throw you off.

Still, I recommend it to WWII buffs.