Looking for Nonfiction Audiobooks Recommendations for your Winter 2017 Travels?

No doubt some people will be traveling to visit family and relatives as Christmas gets closer and/or people take a vacation or are done with the semester in school.

Here’s some nonfiction audio books recommendations to help with your travel whether you are waiting in the airport, on the bus or driving cross country.

Secret Warriors: The Spies, Scientists and Code Breakers of World War I

Taylor Downing. Secret Warriors: The Spies, Scientists and Code Breakers of World War I.  Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio Inc, April 15, 2015. 13 hours, 8 minutes and 10 seconds.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This work is about how the Great War/World War One was a different military conflict than the wars that came before it since it was a war in which the world entered a new age with modern warfare.  I think the author presented his case quite persuasively with his focus being primarily on the British then German and French developments in the Western front.  I enjoyed this work in audio book format and found that the work overall was informative and interesting.  It was also read in such a way that helped the listeners endure over thirteen hours of materials without any problem.

I do not want to take anything away from what is good about the book (and it is very good) but I do think the title of the book is somewhat misleading: When one read of “secret warriors” one usually think of commandos, special operators and elite fighting units but this isn’t the focus of the book.  Nor did I felt the subtitle was fully accurate since the book was not primarily about spies and codebreakers although the book discusses them.  With such a subtitle I was rather disappointed to find the short length of the discussion about spies and code breakers.  Instead the book talked a lot more about pilots, industrialists and inventors.  What the book focuses on is excellent and well-researched in its content but another title might be more appropriate to capture the aspect of what the book is about perhaps with something on the line of modernity and total warfare.

Like many people I know less about World War One than other military conflicts.  So there is a lot one will learn through this work.  For instance I learned quite a bit about the evolution of military aviation during this time and how the French was one of the leaders in military aviation in the beginning of the war.  As the war progressed England also started to develop and improve on their military aviation in a military industrial competition against the Germans.  Here the book discusses the use of planes beyond dogfights but also the development of photo reconnaissance and work in helping artillery against the enemy.  During World War One pilots were often seen romantically in a war that lacked knights in shining armor and romantic cavalry charge of previous conflicts.  Aces were the modern knights so to speak but all this comes with a heavy price: The average life expectancy of British Royal Air Corps pilots in 1917 for instance was two weeks.  The chapter on chemical weapons must not be missed along with the discussion of the gas masks, machine guns and grenades, weapons and tools of warfare which has their origin or modernization during World War One.

The book also discussed other aspects of the war that one might not think of immediately with the topic of a modern war.  The book’s discussion about medical care for the troops was quite insightful and challenged my assumption that military medicine during World War One was just as primitive as that of the 1800s.  In fact medical care for the injured has come a long way and statistically more lives were saved through medical intervention and care than in other conflict before it.  In addition one out of every ten battlefield deaths among British soldiers were due to disease which was a dramatic decrease compared to past British conflict such as the Boer War.  The book’s discussion of innovators and planned improvement in medical care puts a human touch that balances some of the more brutal chapters in the book.  I especially found the discussion about plastic surgery and the treatment of “shell shock” to have been fascinating and intriguing.  This work also discussed the topic of propaganda, censorship, recruitment, film and the growing importance and realization of the need to mobilize the home front.

Overall very informative work that I believe others will enjoy also.

 

Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response

Aaron J. Klein. Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response.  Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio Inc, February 1, 2006. 7 hours, 40 minutes and 7 seconds.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

I am reviewing the audiobook of this rather intriguing story.  In 1972 while the Olympics Game was going on in West Germany a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September kidnapped and eventually killed all the Israeli athletes they were held hostage.  The world learned about what happened in horror.  This book is about that tragic event and also Israel’s response to the incident.  The book will hold the listeners’ and readers’ attention.

The author did a really good job describing what happened in Munich.  The sloppiness of security officials before the terrorist attack was inexcusable: Despite Israelis telling German police and Olympic officials about the need for simple security measures such as moving Israeli Olympic athletes away from the first floor to another level and having uniformed police presence controlling people’s access going in and out of the Olympic village these suggestions were ignored and unwelcomed.  One feels quite helpless learning of how incompetent German and Bavarian authorities were during the actual terrorist incident: There were bureaucratic red tape, lack of professionalism, coordination and plan among German law enforcement.  To add insult to injury despite the sensitivity of what was going on the Olympic Games continued on as if nothing has happened while innocent Jewish blood was being spilled yet once again in German soil.  What made me really mad is learning how later German officials would release the surviving terrorists involved with the Munich massacre.

With this background it allows the readers and listeners in understanding Israel’s predicament and their decision on seeking a military and covert response.  The details in the book of other terrorist acts by Black September both before and after Munich makes readers and listeners realize just how fluid 1972 was for those who were Jewish or Israeli living in Europe at that time.

Which makes Israel’s covert action even more incredible.  Here there are cloak and dagger stories.  Yet at the same time the author is honest about the shortcoming of Israeli intelligence and covert operations.  The author discussed the targeting of Palestinians whom later turned out to have not been Black September operatives and even in one case a mistaken identity of a totally innocent man.

Of all the stories and missions in the book the most incredible has got to be “Operation Spring of Youth.”  This is the 1973 missions in which Israeli commandos infiltrated into Beruit Lebanon to eliminate PLO leaders.  One of the famous stories to come out from that raid is how the leader of the raid Ehud Barak dressed as a woman and of course Barak went on to become one of the Prime Minister of Israel.  Operation Spring of Youth would undoubtedly fuel the myth among Israel’s enemy of Israeli capability of targeting her enemies abroad.

Overall a good work that is worth listening and/or reading to.  I think the author should also be given credit for his research and also for being more balance than sensational or one-sided.

 

Check out more of my review of various audiobooks over the years on our blog by clicking HERE.