Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuchoff

AppId is over the quota

I usually find nonfiction history to be so dry as to lose my attention. Lost in Shangri-La though is a non-fiction accounting of a plane crash that occurred in the last days of WWII with all of the elements of a fiction adventure thriller and author Mitchell Zuckoff has the spirited talent to paint the vivid scenes needed to seize your attention and not let go.

On May 13, 1945 twenty-four officers, enlisted men and WACs boarded a flight at the military base in Hollandia New Guinea for a sightseeing excursion over the inland jungle of the island. Before ever seeing what later became known as the Shangri-La Valley their plane crashed and burst into flames leaving only three survivors. With the aid of journals kept by survivors and rescuers, military data and long lost photos, Mitchell Zuckoff has recreated this larger-than-life story for us.

As Mr. Zuckoff points out, the Gremlin Special crash landed in a world that time hadn't forgotten. Time didn't even know it existed. He quotes Albert Einstein as once saying, "I do not know with what weapons WWIII will be fought, but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones" and declaring that, viewed in that light, the people of Shangri-La had the most advanced warriors on earth.

The three survivors crawled out of the wreckage to find themselves in an unknown world. Even though Lt. McCollum was unhurt, Sargent Kenneth Decker and Corporal Margaret Hastings had received severe injuries and serious burns. The survivors knew that any rescue planes that might fly over looking for their plane would not be able to see them if they stayed at the scene of the crash. To reach a jungle clearing several miles away they first spent several days gathering their strength and then the three hiked, crept on their hands and knees and even scooted on their fannies several miles through the tangled jungle to reach what they found out later was a sweet potato patch. On reaching the clearing they fell to the ground exhausted, too tired even to be concerned about the natives who had been depicted as war-like cannibals.

Once the survivors were sighted by rescue planes at the inaccessible clearing, supplies were dropped to them while one rescue plan after another was desperately conceived and then abandoned. A walkie-talkie was included in one of the supply drops allowing the survivors to communicate with the outside world for the first time since the crash. When word of the severity of their injuries was received a group of paratroopers, including two medics, volunteered to parachute to the aide of the survivors. These heroic medics were later credited with saving Corporal Hastings' gangrenous legs.

What follows this daring jump is a true story of heroism, courage, determination, fortitude, limitless bravery, inspiration and danger. This narrative is sometimes comic, often terrifying but always entertaining. It is a thrill-a-minute true life adventure you won't be able to put down.

Author Bio:

Mitchell Zuckoff is a journalism professor at Boston University and author of Robert Altman: The Oral Biography, Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend and Choosing Naia: A Family's Journey. He lives outside Boston with his photographer wife and two daughters.

As the Avid Reader Book Reviews Blogger, Lynnette Phillips's book reviews and blog are widely read and followed by literary enthusiasts. Her newest launch entails book doctor (book critique) services. She is also author of Confessions & Secrets of the Avid Book Reviews Blogger serial which offers invaluable book marketing and promotional tips, available resources, how-to information and more. She will also be cohosting a BlogTalkRadio show soon which she is very excited (and apprehensive) about.

http://avidbookreviews.blogspot.com/

(c) Copyright 2011 by Lynnette Phillips All Rights Reserved
Article may be reprinted freely as long as the author bylines and info box are included. The article itself may not be altered.

Patriot Heart

AppId is over the quota

After the demise of Henry Cobham, George Ashworth Cobham remained in Lancashire to comfort the grieving family, assisting in the funeral of his brother, and supporting the family business. Historians forget that the second son was merely nineteen. At the time of Henry's death, Aunts Alice and Ellen Cobham held most of the controlling interests in the extensive properties still owned by the Cobhams. For several years after the tragedy, George Ashworth Cobham would travel through England sometimes working, visiting, and writing about architecture, living quite the life and enjoying the ladies, one in particular named Mary Nottage. He spoke of her in loving terms, and about the delightful times that they spent together, but finally realized it was not to be.

His work consisted of being educated as a Barrister also managing the properties of the Cobhams and Hargreaves. On many occasions, he returned to Liverpool visiting with Aunt Alice, Aunt Ellen and other family members. Finally in 1828, he returned and proposed to the widow of his brother, Catherine, who was some ten years his senior. They were married October the 27th 1828, in Prestwick Church near Manchester in Lancashire England with duly noted publication of Banns. Aunt Alice upon the marriage of Henry Cobhams widow Catherine Curry Cobham to George Ashworth Cobham would transfer some of her properties to George. Upon her death, she left much of her estate to her great nephews the sons of Henry...Henry and George Ashworth Cobham, which in later years would become a litigious and contentious situation, creating lawsuits in England, and America.

George Ashworth Cobham Sr was confined in a debtor prison when he ran afoul of the law. Upon being declared bankrupt and much of his properties sold to pay his creditors, he was released, only to be confronted by the Ecclesiastical Court who planned to have his marriage to Catherine Curry Cobham dissolved. According to English Canon law, it was illegal to marry your brother's wife. George Sr fled to France to avoid further troubles with the law and soon after his wife Catherine joined him along with sons Henry, George, and Frederick Fearns Cobham who had been born September 7th 1831. They resided in France for nearly two years, and while residing in France, Catherine gave birth on March 20th 1834 to their daughter Georgina.

In the later part of 1834, George Sr and family left France and made their way to America. They spent the winter of that year in New York where George Sr sought areas where he felt he could again become prosperous. While, in Jamestown New York, George Cobham Sr spent several more months looking for a suitable place for he and his family, and at long last decided on Warren Pennsylvania. The spring of 1835 The Cobhams finally made their way to Warren Pennsylvania via Albany, Buffalo, and Jamestown New York. So it was that "The Cobhams" became residents of Warren Pennsylvania, which leads us to Brigadier George Ashworth Cobham Jr. A civil war Hero and his travels through the battlefields.

Jacqueline F Hurlbut, Author, Patriot Heart: A story about Brigadier General George Ashworth Cobham Jr,who was killed at The Battle of Peachtree Creek, Atlanta Georgia. Over 100 personal letters,and documents written from the battlefields that would provide insight, glimpses of his personal life, his view of the war and the battles that he and his men fought. It is true they were from his perspective, a vision which came from a man of faith, an officer, gentleman, patriot, husband, father, son, and brother, who would in due course be called a Hero. See more information at http://libertyandvirtue.com/ ?

Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, by David Starkey, a True Story of Royalty, Intrigue, Romance

AppId is over the quota

Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, by David Starkey... Whether history class was your most or least favorite in school, you should find this book a fascinating read. David Starkey is not simply a renowned English historian, an expert on Tudor England, he's also a fine writer indeed. In this book, what could be dry-as-dust facts are instead lively stories of real people living real lives in the midst of turbulent times.

Regarding turbulent times, almost anyone who got through school knows about Henry VIII and his six wives, his elder daughter, Mary (also known as Bloody Mary), and his younger daughter, who became the first Queen Elizabeth. But my guess is that few of us, unless we're real history buffs, know much about the extraordinary times in which they lived.

Most books that I have read about Queen Elizabeth I deal with her years as a monarch. Starkey, however, takes us from her birth in 1533 to her accession to the throne in 1558. During those years she led a life that could well be the stuff of fiction. But it was real. In his introduction to Elizabeth, Starkey says that during that period "... she had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and every extreme of condition." As I read the book, I marveled that she survived those years and went on to be the most successful queen England has known.

Her mother was executed by her father, which must have been a terrible blow to the child, but she never spoke of it. She was both princess and intended successor to the throne, then disinherited, then reinstated. She was accused of treason and imprisoned in the Tower by her own sister, facing possible execution. She survived plots and counterplots, threats to her well-being by family as well as foe, during these years of religious persecution. Yet in the midst of all this turmoil, she kept her head-literally and figuratively-and lived to age 70.

And all this happened before she was 25 years old. Starkey has this to say, "But, above all, I never forget that the years of Elizabeth's apprenticeship are a wonderful adventure story. We know they had a happy ending and that she survived and became queen. Elizabeth herself, her friends and enemies, had no such foresight." An exceptional life, with its highs and lows, and little in between.

In reading this book, besides my admiration for her sheer grit and ability to adjust to both wonderful and dreadful circumstances, I learned a great deal more about her as a person than ever before. Most of my earlier reading about her life was about her as Queen Elizabeth. As a child, she was precocious, brilliant even, and throughout all these dangerous and difficult times, she showed a natural instinct for dealing with the type of political chicanery with which she was surrounded. Even her education, conducted of course by private tutors, is astonishing in its depth and breadth; among other subjects, she studied Latin and Greek and was fluent in French.

Starkey writes with humanity and a wry and engaging tone, even when discussing religious persecution or political skullduggery. In one place, he refers to "extravagant characters and madcap schemes."

This is a book to be read, then read again, and for me more times than that. Starkey brings those days to life. And the young queen-to-be is a person you will enjoy getting to know. I recommend it.

Written By Randall Peffer Seahawk Burning

(A) A good Civil War naval story as the ships from the north try to track confederate ships, both trying to destroy the other and all ships they find while searching. The locales stretch from the coast, the inland waters of the United States, South America, Africa, Europe, and points in between. You have to remember in those days there was no way to search for a ship except by word of mouth or accidentally finding that ship while transcending the globe. Also in those days the sailors, as well as their captain, were very rough and crude men that were very likely to kill captured crews from ships, burn the ships after looting all the goods aboard, and turn the few of the captured crew members over to the first possible place on land or sea.

Raphael Semmes was captain of the confederate ship, The USS Alabama. The Alabama was a strong and powerful ship. Semmes would take no quarter from any opposing ship and would kill and/or destroy almost any other ship along with its crew, just to get a "worse" reputation. Seahawk Burning takes you mostly by sea to many areas of the earth to fight others, get provisions, have repairs made, unload the ship crew members who's time was up and find new crew members, while making those stops. Most of all the ships ' officers and crews in those days were not very healthy, some from not eating correctly, drinking far too much alcohol, associating with wild women that gave them more than they bargained for, and of course the normal sailors brawls.

The many areas traversed by the USS Alabama took them through many a bad storm that damaged ships and their crews quite bad. Weather; another item they knew little about and had no idea of what lies ahead. Meanwhile back in Washington, DC, President Lincoln, the various government leaders including the Secretary of the Navy, the Yankee leaders, and all of their cohorts, schemed as to how to capture and destroy this Confederate ship that was wreaking havoc on their ships. Semmes has So far eluded them but the word of mouth was starting to narrow his travel path. The ship that was closest is his trail now was the USS Kearsarge Captained by an ex-shipmate of Semmes, John Winslow, who wanted his former friend and opponent very much. Winslow was not in good health, having only one eye and it pained him much of the time. Semmes had his gal, Maude, constantly has his mind. The Yankee government to obtain information about Semmes was also tracking her. Maude had two babies with her, one white and one black. She loved them both, as did Semmes. She had to keep on the run throughout the eastern United States and through Canada to avoid capture.

The action is great as are the characters, some of which were actually involved in the war and in the leading of our nation. You will learn the history and some facts about some of these men and women as the author brings them in and out of the story. If you like sea of adventure stories intertwined with history, you will love this book, as I did.

Reader review by Cy Hilterman of a book supplied by The Amazon Vine Program