Another Pen for Western Culture

Friday, December 30, 2005

Best Book of the Year: Shadow Divers


Shadow Divers: The True Story of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II.

--IF MY REVIEW DOESN'T WHET YOUR APPETITE, CLICK HERE AND READ THIS ONE.--

This book is outstanding. The adventure of a lifetime. A mystery underwater? I was already hooked. Two guys who find a German U-Boat off the New Jersey coast? Then entire crew still inside? That’s a book with promise. And the author delivers. He weaves just the right combination of non-fiction research with a fascinating tale of two men struggling for seven years—against incredible and unexpected odds—to figure out which U-Boat they had found. If you know anything about research, or simply believe in the value of an accurate historical record, you’ll enjoy the subplot as much as the death-defying dives to the sub, forever submerged under 200 feet of cold, North Atlantic waters. When I finished this book, I wrote somewhere it was the best book I had read in years, and possibly the best non-fiction I had ever read. I cannot recommend this one too highly.

When you finish the book and look at this story, the amount of material Kurson had to comprehend and then organize into a narrative, his work is astounding. But you won't think about that until you finish. The book is too good to stop and think about such things--you'll just want to read and read and read. By the way, the book was published in the summer of 2004. But it is the best book I read in 2005 . . . .

posted by S. at 11:09 PM

4 Comments:

  • Well, telling it's not the same, but I just got an e-mail from the AUTHOR!! Whoohoo! (I just really liked this book.)

    Anyway, he saw the post and just said thanks and happy new year. That's cool, you know?

    I just had to let y'all know.

    By Blogger S., at 10:48 PM, January 02, 2006  

  • I can hardly wait to read it!
    You should be a reviewer or an
    agent or something, with your
    insight and enthusiasm.
    KW(M)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:36 PM, January 03, 2006  

  • Well, thankya' kindly (he says while tipping his hat with a pinch). Seriously, give this book two pages and you'll be hooked.

    By Blogger S., at 8:52 PM, January 03, 2006  

  • By the way, I took up reviewing books this year. I wrote two or three dozen, but kept them to one or two paragraphs, and gave them number grades, being accustomed to that system. This is one of only two that got a '100.' Still, my review gets a 79. There are too many key facets that I left out. It makes a shorter review, but the industry standard is just a bit more fleshed out, I think. (You remember that Hertzke review?! I'll post it. Most will think it's far too long--but scholarly books get a longer treatment, generally.

    By Blogger S., at 9:03 PM, January 03, 2006  

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