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Book reviews are searchable by alphabetized title in fiction or nonfiction as well as by author/title and linked from the Drop Down Menu immeadately above. Books are also linked to Amazon.com. This is a new feature of the web site and will soon expand to include more reading recommendations. In the meantime there are some titles recommended in on the News and Q&A page (linked in the Navigation Menu to your left).





The Gray Stopgap

DL Tolleson

Fiction: Paperback, 360 pages

Publisher: The Lighthouse Press, Inc.

ISBN: 0971191565

Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches

Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces

 

DESCRIPTION: Plagued by hellish wartime memories and betrayal at the hands of his fiancée, government agent Karns Gray volunteers for an experiment with "bio-chemical synthetic intelligence." But the experiment goes awry by killing its creators and attempting to commandeer the body of agent Karns Gray while altering his DNA.


An atypical espionage thriller, The Gray Stopgap is a psychological and emotional tapestry seamlessly woven between flashbacks and reality. Double agents, assassins, underwater adventure and sub-orbital dogfights are but a few facets of this adrenaline-driven, pell-mell rush. Adventure aside, this is as much a story about relationships and integrity, as it is international intrigue.


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Vindicating Lincoln

Thomas L. Krannawitter

Nonfiction (Political and social views): Hardcover, 376 pages

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

ISBN-10: 0742559726 / ISBN-13: 978-0742559721

Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds

DESCRIPTION: In this reasoned argument against the prevailing orthodoxies of the right, left, and center, Krannawitter takes on all of Lincoln's detractors and reasserts his contemporary relevance. A heady mix of narrative history and political insights, Vindicating Lincoln reveals a man whose political and moral example sets him apart as the greatest President of the United States of America.


TOLLESON'S REVIEW: Two pages into the 6½ page Acknowledgments I realized I was reading clarity of thought. This book is one of the finest examples of critical thinking that I have ever read. I have long heard that Lincoln's sole purpose for freeing the slaves was that it was expedient for the Union. To that end, Lincoln’s own words are usually cited. And indeed, everyone with whom I have spoken (and who have at least a passing familiarity with history) speaks of Lincoln in terms of a moral man essentially exercising moral relevance. Either that or Lincoln is spoken of in terms more akin to a tyrant. Krannawitter effectively demonstrates that both of these presumptions could not be any further from the truth.


The error made by contemporary critics and "historians" in general is a failure to recognize and analyze Lincoln’s statesmanship and the political realities of the atmosphere in which he governed.


Krannawitter clearly illuminates that the ambiguity with which Lincoln is portrayed is the result of the President's carefully crafted dialogue whenever presented with audiences hostile to his agenda. As Krannawitter points out, in many cases had Lincoln actually said what he wanted to do, the man wouldn't have been able to get elected as dog catcher.


As a writer I am well versed in saying what my audience may like to hear while not expressing my contradictory views: This is a case of going on record as saying a particular thing and then later saying, "well yes, I said that, but what I didn't say is this..." According Krannawitter, Lincoln was a master at doing this very thing--a man who attempted to shape the thoughts of his audience while not invoking their ire. Every example this book illustrates shows that Lincoln never violated his own principles while trying to mitigate the damage of citizens practicing a moral relevance of equality in a nation whose charter is upon the foundation that all men are created equal.


This book does not address Lincoln in the battlefield, which, as I understand it, resulted in less than stellar results for the Union. But insofar as Lincoln in most other aspects, this book is a remarkable exercise in analyses and logic.


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©Copyright 2002 - 2009 • The Lighthouse Press, Inc. • Camera One • DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved.