The New Book Review

This blog, #TheNewBookReview, is "new" because it eschews #bookbigotry. It lets readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers expand the exposure of their favorite reviews, FREE. Info for submissions is in the "Send Me Your Fav Book Review" circle icon in the right column below. Find resources to help your career using the mini search engine below. #TheNewBookReview is a multi-award-winning blog including a MastersInEnglish.org recommendation.

Showing posts with label Carolyn Howard Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carolyn Howard Johnson. Show all posts

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Author of "Cinema Stanzas" Shares Second List of Favor Books About Movies

#TheNewBookReview is most always happy to try something new when it will benefit our visitors and subscribers and with so many fans of my registered hashtag, #MovieReviews, I feel sure this is one of those times. Thus, not one but two lists of Film Poet Betty Jo Tucker's favorite books about the movies. Find the first on this blog at https://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/2022/11/rotten-tomato-critic-shares-0-favorite.html. 
And, of course, enjoy this one before you go! 


TITLE Favorite Books about Movies: Part Two
AUTHOR: Betty Jo Tucker
AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: www.BettyJoTucker.com  
GENRE Nonfiction
AGE / INTEREST LEVEL Adult
AWARDS: Author received five awards for books about films (see Bio below)



                      FAVORITE BOOKS ABOUT MOVIES: PART TWO

By Betty Jo Tucker, author of Cinema Stanzas, occasional reviewer for Rotten Tomatoes, and thymed reviews and related material on her Facebook stream.

 
As I mentioned before, most movie addicts enjoy reading books about films and filmmaking. That’s why I am pleased to add the 10 books below to my list of favorites.  Part Three coming soon!

A Poet Among Critics. Richard Jack Smith (UK, 2016) What a treat to read an entire book of impressive movie poems from this prolific British film critic and poet! A diverse collection, the book showcases this author’s extensive film knowledge and unbridled passion for the cinema. Unique and candid, Smith’s poems cover many genres and eras. Plus, Smith’s use of lush language makes every poem come alive and emerge as a gem on its own.   

A Screenwriter’s Notebook: Reflections, Analyses and Chalk Talks on the Craft and Business of Writing for the Movies. Bill Mesce Jr. (Serving House Books, 2020). The author shares his personal experiences and intriguing insights as a screenwriter and teacher of this subject. While extremely helpful to wannabe screenwriters and people already working in this field, the book boasts considerable appeal for film critics and for avid movie fans. It’s highly entertaining and packed with details about all kinds of movies.            

 CLAPTRAP: Notes from Hollywood. Stephen Gyllenhaal (Cantara Books LLC ) Movie and television director Gyllenhaal, father of Jake and Maggie, takes readers on a profoundly humanistic journey in his first book of poetry. This impressive offering includes 46 poems that evoke marvelous cinematic images and stir the emotions, two things I always expect good poetry to do.  

Hollywood Haunted. Laurie Jacobson (Angel City Press, 2014) This acclaimed book covers more than 100 years of ghostly goings-on in filmland. Spooky tales about haunted houses, hotels, studios and theaters abound in Jacobson’s entertaining exploration of Hollywood hot spots and famous ghost sightings, including such stars as Bela Lugosi, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Errol Flynn.

 I’ll Be in My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors by John Badham and Craig Moddorno (Michael Wiese Productions, 2006) Veteran director Badham passes on helpful information about how to work with actors, and not just from his own point of view. He also includes advice from numerous directors and actors. This impressive book is now being used in film schools worldwide.   

John Badham On Directing. 2nd Edition: Notes from the Sets of Saturday Night Fever and War Games and More. John Badham (Michael Wiese Productions, 2020). Badham adds more fascinating and valuable information from and about directors and actors in this welcome new edition. Television and streaming projects receive considerable attention here because of their widespread content now. Like Badham’s first On Directing, this book is a must-read for people in the business but also for serious movie addicts like me.

The Force Is with You. Stephen Simon (Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2002) The producer of such acclaimed films as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Comeexplores over 70 movies that deal with such important topics as the nature of love, the meaning of life and death, the concept of time and space, and the visions of our future. Simon believes there are mystical messages in movies that inspire our lives -- and he has a wonderful way of illuminating these films.   

The Liveliest Art. Arthur Knight (The MacMillan Company, 1957) Would you like a panoramic history of movies through the late1950s -- one that emphasizes the growth of film from an 1895 novelty to an important 20th century art form? Then this amazing book is definitely for you.

Unsinkable: A Memoir. Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway (William Morrow, 2013) Good mornin’, good mornin’!  I stayed awake the whole night through -- reading this fascinating book until I finished it. Thanks to these two authors for giving me such enjoyable insomnia. But describing Unsinkable is not easy. Is it a thriller? A modern Book of Job? A humorous showbiz romp? A behind-the-scenes Hollywood exposé? A heartfelt love story?  I think the answer has to be “Yes” to all of the above.            

 What’s It All About? An Autobiography. Michael Caine (Turtle Bay Books, 1992) This is one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read. Caine writes with a humorous style as he reveals how he overcame his impoverished London childhood that included growing up with an eye disorder, rickets and a name like Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. But, for movie buffs, the most important part of this terrific book involves the wonderful detailed  stories about Caine’s many films.           








INFORMATION ABOUT THE REVIEWER

NAME OF REVIEWER: Betty Jo Tucker

ORIGINAL PLACE THE REVIEW WAS PUBLISHED (ReelTalk Movie Reviews)

BIO: Betty Jo Tucker served as editor/lead film critic for ReelTalk Movie Reviews for 20 years. She also writes film commentary for AuthorsDen and the Colorado Senior Beacon. She is the award-winning author of Confessions of a Movie Addict, Susan Sarandon: A True Maverick, Cinema Stanzas: Rhyming About Movies, and Cinema Stanzas Two: Poet Laureate of the Movies. Using the pen names of Harry and Elizabeth Lawrence, Betty Jo and her husband Larry co-wrote It Had To Be Us, a romantic memoir adapted for the screen under the title of CAKE: A Love Story, which earned First Place in the Short Film category at the NSAEN Online International Film Festival. She is a co-founder of the San Diego Film Critics Society, a member of the Online Film Critics Society and an approved Rotten Tomatoes critic.

TWITEER MONIKER: Betty Jo Tucker @MovieAddictRevu

EMAIL ADDRESS: reeltalk@comcast.net










More About #TheNewBookReview Blog 

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Carole Mertz Enjoys Reviews Poet Wilda Morris' Moby Dick Inspired Poems

Pequod Poems: 
Subtitle: Gamming with Moby Dick
by Wilda Morris
Genre: Poetry Collection
ISBN  9781949229608


Reviewed by Carole Mertz

It’s Fun to Go Gamming with Morris’s Pequod Poems

Wilda Morris’s latest collection, Pequod Poems, is delightful for its vibrant story telling through poetry. Its publication commemorated the 200th anniversary of Herman Melville’s birth. It consists of poems written in an outstanding variety of forms, some rarely used, and even some invented by the author. Each poem relates in some way to Melville and his famous whale and each one attests to Morris’s artistry and vivid imagination.

Organized into five sections. The poems in Part I introduce us to major characters in Moby-Dick treated here in unique fashion. Morris presents Ishmael by way of a Mesostic poem. In this form, all the printed characters of the epigraph weave vertically through the poem and form the sentence: “What a fine frosty night; how Orion glitters…” “Oceans” uses the Pleiades form, seven lines of six syllables each, in which the first letter of each line is from the poem’s title. “The Captain,” is rendered as a spiraling (and double) Abecedarian.

The full enjoyment of Morris’s poems derives not only from her abundant variety of poetical forms. Her clever wielding of content brings us so clearly into the whalers’ experiences. “A Pequod Sailor Speaks,” imagines the watery vistas the captain and crew might have seen.

 

Sudden winds bellow, curdle foam.

Sword-sharp, they rip the sails, shriek

and break the mast. Lightning stabs…

 

We read of Ahab considering the wind, learn  of Pip, the tormented cabin boy, and encounter poems written from the viewpoint of Ahab’s wife. Using the sestina, Morris describes Stubb pondering the shadows he sees

 

…when the Angel of Death knocks and I hear

the window of my life closing…//

…I try to be bold, look into the face of death.


Ahab vows the finish of the great white whale in “Prophecy.” In “White” we find “…like tempestuous / wind and breakers, the spun / water that the white whale / whipped into a fury…” The Captain’s monomaniacal quest to avenge himself of his dismemberer is ever present in the lines. 

In Part II, Morris uses the bouts-sonnet form, an erasure poem, the “a gram of &s” form, and other playful narrative styles, one of which takes end words from Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 80. Throughout, the poet deftly maintains her theme.

The poet speaks in more philosophical tones in Part III. Here she sometimes addresses Melville directly. In Part IV, unexpectantly she brings out a bit of backtalk, assuming a new pitch. In “Meditation by the Water,” a speaker asks just what the psalmist means when he declares “the Almighty will keep you / under his wings.” And in “No Harm in Ahab,” a poem significant for our current times, Morris delves into the theme of evil and the question of righteousness.

Five poems in Part V bring the volume to a close. Here we come upon the “Golden Shovel,” the “lipogram,” and a form Morris herself devised.

With its rich content and variety, the skillful manipulation of words into logical form, and Morris’s imaginative imagery, Pequod Poems forms an engaging collection. One can read it for story, for reconnection with Melville’s novel, for pure delight in the richness of Morris’s descriptions, and for her skillful rhyming techniques. 

About the Author:

Wilda Morris serves a wide community of poets both through her own published poems, and through the many workshops and courses she has taught in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. In addition, she holds leadership positions in major artistic organizations throughout Illinois. These include the Illinois State Poetry Society and Poets & Patrons of Illinois, both for which she has served as president. 

About the Reviewer:


Carole Mertz, poet and essayist, has reviewed for Arc, Eclectica, Main St. Rag, The Bangalore Review, The Compulsive Reader, The League of Canadian Poets, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. She is the author of Color and Line, with Kelsay Books, 2021. Carole lives with her husband in Parma, OH. Her chapbook, Toward a Peeping Sunrise is available at Prolific Press.

View Carole’s writer profile at http://www.pw.org/directory/writers/carole_mertz

Carole Mertz Enjoys Reviews Poet Wilda Morris' Moby Dick Inspired Poems


MORE ABOUT THE #SharingwithWriters BLOGGER

 Howard-Johnson is the multi award-wining author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is 
also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered by Modern History Press in its third edition. Carolyn's latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page (http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile). Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (http://bit.ly/Last-MinuteEditsII) is one of her booklets just released by Modern History Press in its second edition--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and, another booklet, The Great First Impression Book Proposal (http://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) helps writers who want to be traditionally published. The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews here at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com)

Saturday, September 5, 2020

Midwest Book Review Chief Reviews Second Edition of Editing Tips Book

Title: Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers
Series: HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: Modern History Press
Genre: Nonfiction: Business/Writers/Editing/Self-Help
ISBN: 9781615995257, $24.95, HC, 56pp
Available on Amazon



Reviewed by Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief of Midwest Review


Synopsis: In "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy", book publicist, journalist, marketer, editor, and retailer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson picks the trip-you-up words that her clients struggle with and puts them in a quick reference guide light enough and small e
nough to be used as an quickie gift that the recipient can tuck into a glove compartment or purse to keep their homonym skills fresh and explains why following grammar rules assiduously isn't always the best choice for writers.

Critique: An absolute 'must' for aspiring authors seeking publication for their work, and having substantial value for even the more experienced writer, "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy" is the ideal DIY instructional guide and 'how to' reference directly addressing the most common failing that authors (especially self-published authors) have -- an insufficient editing of their work.

Thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation, "Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Reference Guide for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Writing/Publishing collections. It should be noted that it is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781450507653, $6.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).




MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jim Cox is editor-in-chief of Midwest Book Review archives all of the previous issues of his "Jim Cox Report" the Midwest Book Review website at www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/jimcox.htm. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send him an email asking to be signed up for it at http://www.midwestbookreview.com. And watch for more reprints of some his author-and-publishing related reviews here on this blog.

 

 

 




Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Love to See You at the Beach and at My Writers Workshop

This is the perfect place for the many authors who frequent this blog to learn more in one place and take a vacation, too!  There are presentations, panels, agent interviews, and I'm doing this workshop.  Kathleen Kaiser is the director. If you should decide to go, be sure to introduce yourself to me. Wouldn't that be fun!


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The 805 Writers Conference
TOOLS — SKILLS — RESOURCES
Delivering the information you need to succeed in publishing
Are you an indie author with a self-published book
or are thinking of doing so soon?

Want to learn how to maximize books sales?
Pictured above from left to right:
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, bestselling author on book marketing; Zhena Muzyka, author
 and former publisher; and, Penny Sansevieri, bestselling author and book marketer.
Learn more about the sessions and register now!
Amazon, your primary sales outlet, has lots of twists and turns but these speakers will tell you how. Two even have a bestselling book title on Amazon RIGHT NOW, 

Penny Sansevieri is both a bestselling author and top book marketer. Her new book is an updated version of HOW TO SELL BOOKS BY THE TRUCKLOAD ON AMAZON—Learn how to turn Amazon into your 24/7 sales machine! (This book is #1 in Direct Marketing on Amazon) Penny will be leading two sessions at the conference- MASTERING AMAZON: Optimizations, Ads, and the Perfect Book Launch, a two-hour session where Penny will walk you through what you must do. This will be the keynote on Sunday.
 
Another part of making sales is Penny’s second session, Building Your Street Teams – The Secrets to Selling More Books, on Saturday afternoon. She will walk you through how to attract followers and turn them into people who promote your books.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a bestselling author (her latest is #4 on Amazon Direct Marketing). Her session YOUR BOOK’S FUTURE: Great Starts and Great Reboots will take you through how to launch and most importantly, how to re-launch your book with sales begin to lag. This will be a three-hour hands-on workshop limited to 20 people on Saturday afternoon and is a separate ticket from the conference.

Zhena Muzyka is an award-winning, purpose-driven social entrepreneur, teacher, author, executive coach, public speaker, and former publisher of Enliven Books, a new Mind-Body-Spirit imprint from Atria/Simon and Schuster. Zhena’s critically acclaimed book, Life by the Cup, chronicles her experience growing a multimillion-dollar fair trade tea company, Zhena’s Gypsy Tea, as a single mom with $6 to her name in hopes to inspire others to achieve their most audacious dreams. Life by the Cup is in development for a TV series by Mark Wahlberg’s production company, creators of HBO shows Boardwalk Empire, Entourage, Ballers, and In Treatment.

She will be the keynoter on Saturday, showing you have How to funnel sales through your author platform to maximize sales.

These three sessions and workshop are presented to give you options for what you can do to increase your sales and establish yourself as an author.

Publishing is a business, and you need to have an understanding of the world you are working into. Even with a deal with a traditional publisher, they will expect you to have a platform and use it to market your book. The days of New York arranging everything died this century. 

It’s not magic, and it’s only a mystery if you don’t have the people with resources to show you how. 

The 805 Writers Conference brings you the tools, skills, and resources to succeed! 
"The 805 Writers' Conference was an incredible value and I would definitely recommend it to new or established authors. Unfortunately the day went by too quickly!  I had an amazing experience and accomplished everything I wanted to, and then some."
Register NOW
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MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG


 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Thursday, September 19, 2019

YP Publishing President Yvonne Wu Recommends Frugal Book Promoter for Seasoned Authors

Title: The Frugal Book Promoter, 3rdEdition
Subtitle: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: Modern History Press(Limited Time: Special gift and discount.)
Genre: Nonfiction – Writers/Careers/How-To
Book of the Month at Women Connect Online
Available on Amazonas ebook, paperback, hardcover
ISBN Paper: 978-1615994687
ISBN Hardcover: 978-1615994694
ASIN: B07X2CCTGL

Reviewed by Yvonne Wu originally for WomenConnectOnline

Wow this book is a treasure chest of knowledge and ideas. This powerful resource is a collector’s item! The book provides you with up to date solid advice and direction as you navigate through the different ways to promote your book and prepare for your book launch.
New authors will love the book, the conversational style, the humorous quotes and the fact that it begins with explaining book promotion in simple steps. Every objection that a new author would have is mentioned and Carolyn Howard-Johnson provides solutions. Throughout the book she goes through what would be in a authors marketing plan. She provides the reader with explanation to the essential components of a marketing plan. She talks about branding, public relations, media kits, attracting media attention and more.
I myself have been providing book promotion services for 10 years and I learnt a lot about public relations after reading this book. I like that Carolyn Howard-Johnson warns the author of marketing scams and lets the author know that free book promotion is not necessarily free you get what you pay for.
The target market for this book is both self-published authors and published authors. As well she targets the new author who may not have any marketing- or journalism-related experience. She provides information on how to market yourself to a Publisher or Agent. Many chapters have funny phrases that answers new and seasoned authors marketing objections. The index provides easy reference and the book is full of free resources and excellent examples.  This book will save you time and money!

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Yvonne Wu, president of The YP Publishing, provides services tailored to professional speakers and authors, helping them with marketing themselves in person and online. Yvonne has assisted authors with a wide variety of projects across North America, helping them with publishing and promoting their books. Yvonne has been a Buffalo Books Examiner and has been interviewed on sites that discuss various aspects of the publishing industry. Yvonne has been a Benjamin Franklin Book Award Judge, has been a Global eBook Award Judge and Stevie Award Judge. The 6th Annual Shorty Awards nominated The YP Publishing as #10 in the small business category of the Shorty Awards 2014. Yvonne is a writer and an award-winning author. Her book has been an Amazon top seller in the Podcast category. Linkedin has highlighted The YP Publishing as one of the top 10% most viewed profiles. Learn more about her at http://theyppublishing.com

YP Publishing President Yvonne Wu Recommends Frugal Book Promoter for Seasoned Authors


Monday, July 15, 2019

D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Book Review

D-Day Girls
Subtitle: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, 
      and Helped Win World War II
Author: Sarah Rose
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Crown; 1st Edition (April 23, 2019)
ISBN-10: 045149508X
ISBN-13: 978-0451495082 
Purchase on Amazon

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton originally for BookPleasures.com

D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Book Review
With D-Day Girls,  Sarah Rose has provided us with a valuable service not only in terms of setting the historical record straight for the women of the  S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive), but for the history of the treatment of women in general even when they gave their countries the very finest in the way of self-sacrifice, courage, and heroism. 
The stories of three women saboteurs, in particular, demonstrate just what skilled and brave women contributed during the occupation of France by the Nazis from 1939 to 1945.  We are told about scrappy Andrée Borrel, a demolitions expert  eluding the Gestapo while blowing up the infrastructure the occupying German army relied on. The "Queen" of the S.O.E. was Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent Parisian who lost everything due to her wartime service. And there was my favorite heroine of the bunch, Odette Sansom, who saw S.O.E. service as a means to lead a more meaningful life away from an unhappy marriage.  While she finds love with a fellow agent named Peter Churchill, she ended up being a two year prisoner, horribly tortured by the Germans.   These women, along with their compatriots both male and female, helped lay the groundwork for D-Day by innumerable acts of sabotage, orchestrated prison breaks,  and the gathering of intelligence for the allied war effort.
But D-Day Girls  has a much deeper and wider canvas that three biographies.   The stories of the three spies are painted against a detailed backdrop that includes the policy making of the Allies leadership, how the chiefs of the S.O.E. came to involve women in their behind-the-lines operations, and how the changes in the war effort shaped what the various operatives were and were unable to accomplish.   We learn about their training, the reactions of male superiors to the use of women at all,   the bungles as well as the successes,  the very human dramas the women became involved in,  the competition between the various intelligence agencies, how the spy networks were unraveled by the successful Nazi infiltration, and the very vivid settings from which the women operated. We learn about the costly mistakes some operatives performed, the lack of following the procedures they were taught,     and the process of getting the materials and new agents parachuted in from RAF planes.
Rose is able to avoid a dry retelling of all these events with almost a novelist's descriptive eye.  For example, she doesn't merely tell us about an explosion resulting from a well-place bomb--she gives us a sensory breakdown of what happened moment by moment, second by second in color, smell, and sound.   She doesn't merely tell us about the black parachute drops,  but how they took place out in the quiet French countryside.

It's difficult to lay this book down as we revisit often forgotten corners of World War II history with often fresh perspectives. Many revelations are only possible now that many formerly classified documents have been brought to light and many misogynist  points-of-view have been replaced by what actually happened.

In many ways, the tales of what happened to these women after the war ended are the saddest passages in the book.   Because they were not part of any official military service, they were denied   the full recognition and appreciation they deserved.  Even though they had been indispensable during the war, after VE day they were relegated to the second-class status of women everywhere. There's more than one lesson in all that.

So readers who love spy stories, those interested in World War II,  devotees of women's studies, and those focused on D-Day celebrations  this year shouldn't be the only audience D-Day Girls should enjoy.  It's a wonderfully vivid and descriptive multi-layered account that should engage any reader who likes well-written non-fiction.

Note: I'm aware that this year a related book, Madame Foucade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Larges Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson was also published. It's on my summer reading list as well. Spy buffs, stay tuned--


ABOUT THE REVIEWER
  
Dr. Wesley Britton is the author of The Beta Earth Chronicles and a regular reviewer for 
 BookPleasures.com. Learn more about his: 





  
MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER, THIS BLOG AND ITS BENEFIT FOR WRITERS

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everything from Amazon Vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!