World War One Posters

The first World War is a century in the past, and it's hard for people alive today to grasp what life was like during the war.  Calla Editions's book World War One Posters: An Anniversary Collection give a glimpse into that era.  We are all familiar with the famous Uncle Sam "I want YOU for U.S. Army" recruiting poster.  Calla includes this and ninety-nine others.

Besides recruiting posters, which must have been compelling for young men looking to serve their country, there may be just as many posters for those not signing up.  Posters implore people to buy war bonds, war stamps, join the "school garden army," or knit socks for soldiers.  Only about half the posters are American.  They have included British posters, as well as posters in French and German. 

This is in interesting collection, and certainly will trigger interest in the stories behind the posters.  But I wish Calla would have provided more than the title and artist of the poster.  They do include a very brief visual description of each, but no context, no historical background, just the poster.  I would be interested in the timing and distribution of the poster, how many copies were made and where they were posted, specific events that may have triggered a poster's theme, the results of the posting (for instance, how many pairs of socks did Americans knit and send overseas?).

So view this as what the title says it is: a collection of posters.  It's a window to history that doesn't tell a lot of history, but it's a window worth looking through regardless.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Act of War, by Brad Thor

Scott Harvath, once again, is tasked with saving humanity.  In Brad Thor's 2015 novel Act of War, the enemy is China (to be fair, rogue elements in the Chinese power structure, but in a country like China, how do we distinguish. . . .) and the weapon of choice is a large-scale coordinated EMP attack.  Of course, it takes a while for Harvath and his colleagues to put all this together. 

Act of War features a plot that, like many of Harvath's novels, seems almost too realistic and plausible.  One of the "nose under the tent" elements is Obama's NASA program to reach out to Muslims "to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science" (that, by the way is an actual Obama quote).  The Chinese use this program to recruit Muslim students to enter the U.S., but then the students stick around and take part in the plot to launch the EMP attack.  It's quite a scheme, but Harvath, with the help of his Carlton Group colleagues, the FBI, and other government entities, gets to the bottom of it and averts disaster.

Thor is known for his realistic writing and insider information, so it makes me wonder how concerned I should be about this sort of attack.  If you've read any apocalyptic novels or seen the movies, you know what sort of impact such an attack could have.  Harvath gets it and knows that if they don't foil this plot, it would be disastrous for the U.S. and the world.  But Harvath comes through, saves the world, and serves justice on the plotters in typical Harvath fashion.

This is obviously a work of fiction, but Harvath/Thor holds nothing back in his contempt for Obama and his policies, even if Obama is not named.  Also, given that this was published before Trump even announced his candidacy, it's interesting to read the ways that Thor's successor to the fictional Obama aligns with Trump.  Thor sensed the need for change and prophetically and/or hopefully wrote the future.  I don't know who the actual, real-life Harvaths are, but I have no doubt that he or she and their counterparts are working on the front lines and behind the scenes to secure and protect the United States.  Let's hope so, anyway.

Her Last Day, T.R. Ragan

Jessie Cole didn't plan to become a private investigator, but when her sister disappeared, her passion to find her shaped her career.  T.R. Ragan introduces Jessie in Her Last Day.  She's a private investigator with a penchant for getting into trouble and a knack for tracking down missing persons.  When a local eccentric man hires Jessie to find his missing daughter, she never expected that her search would bring her into contact with the Heartless Killer, an elusive serial killer who has been terrorizing Sacramento for years.

She teams up with Ben Morrison, a local crime reporter who suffers from amnesia due to an accident ten years ago. . . . about the same time Jessie's sister disappeared. . . . Hmmm. . . .  As they pursue their investigations, it becomes clear to both of them that the stories are more involved than they realized.

I enjoyed Ragan's characters, who have high degree of complexity in their backgrounds but aren't over-the-top caricatures.  The one over-the-top character, the Heartless Killer, was inexplicably malevolent, to a disturbing degree.  As she developed him and his twisted ways, I thought, "If he's the villain throughout this trilogy, I might be done after this one."  But, unlike her Faith McMann trilogy's cliffhangers, Ragan wraps this one up nicely.  She leaves some questions about the characters unanswered but brings the case to a conclusion.  Her Last Day is a promising start to the series.

Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?, by Gregory Thornbury

I have two minor regrets regarding Larry Norman.  First, at some point I wrote to him, perhaps to join the Phydeaux fan club or something, and he sent a personal note.  I didn't keep it.  Second, when I was living in Michigan, he played a couple hours away.  This was around 2001 or 2002, I think.  I didn't go.  I sure wish I had.  I didn't get turned on to Larry Norman until later in his career.  It wasn't my fault; I was born a few years too late.  I think I was 13 when I bought Something New Under the Son, in 1982 or so.  This was after the peak of Norman's fame in the 1970s. 

I am grateful for Gregory Thornbury's new book, Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock.  Thornbury had unprecedented access to Norman's correspondence, journals, and many other records, as well as the cooperation of his family, friends, and business associates.  The result of his labors is a thorough, thoughtful look into Norman's life, career, and perspective.

A constant theme of the book, and of Norman's life, was his struggle to straddle the Christian world and the secular world.  He never wavered from his Christian faith and remained theologically sound, yet mainstream Christianity rejected him from the start.  In a way, though, he didn't long for the approval of mainstream Christianity.  He was critical of the materialism and hypocrisy of the American church.  He saw his life's work as outside of the church.

This outsider status guided his career.  He was a vocal critic especially of the Christian music industry.  He wrote, "Almost none of the Christian music succeeds as art . . . it is merely propaganda masquerading as art . . . Not only is it misconceived as a musical project . . . but it fails to deliver its message . . . [their records] are sold only by Christian bookstores or direct mail.  Non Christians do not frequent religious bookstores."  To the extent that Christian music aims to reach the lost, it fails.  In an interview he said, "The sad irony of almost all Christian music is that it preaches salvation to people who already have it . . . while the people who need the message don't usually hear it."

It's a tough line, and I think every Christian artist since Norman has dealt with the same questions.  Most don't sound as contentious about it, and Norman sounds accusatory and snobbish when he dismisses many Christian musicians as substandard artists or misguided in their ministry.  Nevertheless, Norman's influence grew and has continued even after his death.

Thornbury doesn't hold back in discussing some of the unsavory parts of Norman's life, including an affair while he was on tour.  The most troubling part of his life is the wreck he made of his business relationships.  Due to lack of wisdom, poor counsel, and good old-fashioned stubbornness, Norman had a very difficult time maintaining good relationships with record labels, tour promoters, and other musicians.  Thornbury covers these stories in great detail.

As troubled as Norman's personal and professional life was at times, his legacy as an artist and as a Christian witness is what endures.  He was one of the greats, and the music industry and the universal church owe him a great debt.  We won't know until we get to heaven the full extent of his impact on the Kingdom of God, but I won't be surprised to see him in heaven's worship band.

(Side note: his CDs are very expensive and sometimes hard to find.  I wish his estate would figure out how to get the rights to his albums and release a nice box set of all his music, including original album art and his voluminous liner notes.  I'd snap that up in a heartbeat.)



Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Escape Artist, by Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer's newest offering, The Escape Artist, will seem very familiar to Meltzer's fans.  Meltzer is known for political conspiracies, "could it be true" historical background, breathless action, and convoluted plot twists.  The Escape Artist has it all.

The best thing about The Escape Artist is Nola, an artist with a troubled past and an almost supernatural gift of observation.  She uses her skills as the Army's artist in residence.  When she dies in a plane crash, the Army coroner happens to be the father of one of Nola's Girl Scout friends.  He recognizes that this corpse is not Nola, and the chase to figure out the truth digs him in deeper than he could have expected.

Nola's character is so troubled and so gifted, she deserves her own series.  In The Escape Artist, she shows not only her artistic skills, but also her survival and combat skills.  Throughout the book, Meltzer flashes back to Nola's childhood.  She was sold to a malicious man as a child; his monstrous, abusive behavior toward Nola shaped her into a killer.  Her art was her only escape.

As is his style, Meltzer's story is totally implausible.  He twists the reader around, taking a long time to reveal who the bad guys and good guys are, and who was that corpse from the plane crash?  He throws in a lot of historical information about a secret group of spies, enough to make you wonder, "How much of this is really true?"  Probably some of it. . . .  The good thing about Meltzer is that even though you might roll your eyes at the plot twists and unbelievable story elements, his books are still fun to read.  Pop up the popcorn and dive in.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Hidden Order, by Brad Thor

The five candidates on the secret list to replace the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, who died suddenly, have disappeared.  Who is the Fed going to call?  Scott Harvath, of course.  Brad Thor's Navy Seal, ex-Secret Service agent Harvath is back in Hidden Order: A Thriller.  (Why the subtitle?  It's pretty obvious that a Harvath book is going to be a thriller.)

Harvath has been working in the private sector, and this contract with the Fed is the chance to get the company back in the black.  In the course of the investigation, Harvath teams up with a Boston detective (young, pretty, and available, of course) to track down a killer as the fed candidates turn up dead, murdered in complex, symbolic ways.

Besides the investigation itself, Thor spends a lot of time on the history of the Fed, including references to actual historical events and books of history and economics.  This part of the story came off as a bit propagandistic.  It was pretty clear that Thor was promoting a point of view here, but it doesn't distract too much from the narrative.

Thor fans will enjoy this story, even if the unnecessarily symbol-obsessed killer and the unrealistically complex conspiracy seem over the top.  It's always fun to see what kinds of messes Harvath will get into and out of.

If I Live, by Terri Blackstock

The first thing to say about Terri Blackstock's If I Live is that if you haven't read books one and two of her "If I Run" series, read those first.  Jumping into If I Live without having read If I Run and If I'm Found is like starting a movie in the middle.  Eventually you'll figure out what's going on, but at first you'll be totally lost.

If you have read the first two books, you will be pleased to see the pieces coming together.  Casey Cox is on the run, suspect number one for her friend's murder.  What she knows, and hasn't been able to figure out how to reveal, is that her friend was killed by the same dirty cops who murdered her father a decade ago.

Changing her identity and moving around is only practical if she's not recognized.  Even though she's in another state altogether and taking great pains to keep her identity hidden, with her face all over the news, someone inevitably turns her in.  She is in a race against time to expose the corruption in the police department while avoiding the deadly fate of the corrupt cops' other victims.

Blackstock's pacing is breakneck; you won't be able to turn the pages fast enough.  Much of the plot and action are formulaic, especially if you're an avid reader of this type of fiction or viewer of police-themed TV dramas.  But that doesn't change the fact that Blackstock writes the genre well.  I enjoyed the way she brought in the faith element, with Casey ultimately becoming a Christian.  It's also nice to read an action-packed, gritty story that does not succumb to the use of profanity and sexual material.

This series is great for fans of gripping, fast-paced fiction, especially if you don't mind staying up most of the night (because you won't want to put it down). 


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!