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Book Review: 'Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France'

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British cover of Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France. Note the shorter subtitle.     © 2019 Griffon Merlin Ltd On June 4, 2019, Grove Atlantic's Atlantic Press Monthly published James Holland's Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France (published by Griffon Merlin Ltd in Britain as  Normandy '44: D-Day and the Battle for France ), a new history of what the late Stephen E. Ambrose called "the climactic battle of World War II." The timing of the book's publication was. as the British expression puts it, "bang on." Two days after the book hit bookstore shelves or was sent to customers who bought it on Amazon and other online stores as pre-orders, most of the West (including the U.S., Canada,  France, Great Britain, and their former enemy, Germany) observed the 75th Anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Holland, who produces, writes, and narrates BBC

Answering Silly Conservative Questions: My Reply to 'Why Don't Liberals Understand Trump?'

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On Quora, I recently replied to this question by conservative Michael Chaplan: Why don't liberals understand Trump? Actually, most wide-eyed, rational, and intelligent Americans from both sides of the aisle understand Donald John Trump. All too well, as it turns out. We understand, for instance, that Trump is a shameless opportunist who changes his party affiliation to suit his financial and personal needs. It’s no secret that he was once registered as a Democratic Party voter and cozied up to New York City’s mostly Democratic establishment. It’s also a matter of record that Trump also made campaign contributions to politicians from both parties, including his current nemesis du jour, Hillary Clinton (during her successful bid for a U.S. Senate seat from New York). His party affiliation track record goes like this: 1987: Registered as a Republican 1999: Registered as a Reform Party member and briefly ran for President against George W. Bush and Al Gore 2001: Regi

Talking About Star Trek: What was the worst Star Trek movie, and how would you have made it better?

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What was the worst Star Trek movie, and how would you have made it better? As a  Star Trek  fan who has every  Star Trek  film (six with The Original Series cast, four with The Next Generation cast, and the three Kelvin Timeline movies), I’d have to say it’s a three-way tie between: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Star Trek: Nemesis Star Trek Into Darkness How would I have made them better? With  Star Trek V,  the fault is not in who directed the film - William Shatner - but rather the story that Harve Bennett, David Loughery, and Shatner chose to tell. Clearly, pitting the  Enterprise-A  against a heretical Vulcan who is on a quest to literally meet God was a horrible idea; maybe having Kirk and his crew go off on a deep-space mission of exploration and discovering that the Organians have mysteriously vanished and a Klingon warlord is preparing the Empire for a second war against the Federation would have been better. Another thing I would have done to make  Star

Stupid Disney-phobic Questions About Star Wars: Is Star Wars: Episode IX just an excuse for Disney to make a bunch of money?

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Is Star Wars: Episode IX just an excuse for Disney to make a bunch of money? All things being equal, all movies (except those small movies made solely by independent “artsy” production companies that hardly anyone sees), are made with the goal of making someone - usually a studio and its stockholders - “a bunch of money.” That’s why  movie studios  exist: they invest (read “risk”) millions of dollars in a movie - in this case,  Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker -  with a certain expectation of making a profit. The Walt Disney Company and its film division, Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios, are of course also making  Star Wars - Episode IX  to fulfill George Lucas’s on-again, off-again aspiration of creating a three-Trilogy Skywalker Saga, plus they have to finish the story that Lucasfilm began with 2015’s  The Force Awakens  and continued in  The Last Jedi.  Everyone involved in the creation of  Star Wars  (or any movie, for that matter),  hopes  that many peop

Talking About Relationships: Will a boyfriend seem over-possessive and controlling if he politely tells his girlfriend to not wear mini skirts when going out?

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Will a boyfriend seem over-possessive and controlling if he politely tells his girlfriend to not wear mini skirts when going out? Before I answer, I’m going to make an assumption about the person who wrote the question. I’m betting that he’s not from a Western, i.e. European/North American socially liberal culture, even though he may be living in Western Europe (the United Kingdom included), the U.S., or Canada. I say this because this is the sort of question that someone from a patriarchal, hierarchical, and socially conservative culture would feel at ease asking. Well, sweet summer child, yes, a boyfriend or even a husband  will  indeed “seem over-possessive and controlling if he politely tells his girlfriend to not wear mini skirts when going out.” You see, in a healthy, loving relationship in a modern, pluralistic, non-theocratic society, the ideal scenario does not involve having one partner “politely telling” the other what not to wear when going out, except in situ

Coming Soon to 'A Certain Point of View'

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British historian James Holland's newest book re-examines the Battle of Normandy. © 2019 Atlantic Monthly Press Hi, Dear Readers. I hope you are well and enjoying this first Friday of June 2019. It's almost the weekend where I am in Florida; if you're one of my European readers it's already early evening or even night, depending on how far east you are located, so chances are that some of you are already on weekend mode. I've been dividing my workdays between A Certain Point of View (which I usually reserve several hours' worth of my schedule to post, edit, and share in the mornings) and revising a new screenplay (a comedy this time), so it's not as easy for me to plan anything in advance regarding the blog. I do have a few things in mind for this month's batch of posts, including: New book reviews of works by James Holland, Dave Barry, and Joe Weber A review of Guy Hamilton's Goldfinger Music album review (TBD) My usual "Talking Abo

Talking About Politics: USS John S. McCain was ordered to tarp over her name so as to not offend Trump. What would you have done if you were the Captain receiving such an order?

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USS John S. McCain was ordered to tarp over her name so as to not offend Trump. What would you have done if you were the Captain receiving such an order? f I were a serving commissioned officer in the United States Navy and received a message from my superiors that read something like this: FROM: COMSURFNAVFORPAC, CINCPACFLT TO: COMMANDING OFFICER, USS JOHN S. MCCAIN (DDG-56) RE: PLACING TARP OVER STERN TO HIDE SHIP’S NAME BE ADVISED THAT POTUS WILL BE IN AREA YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. COMMANDER SEVENTH FLEET HAS RECEIVED A REQUEST FROM WHITE HOUSE REQUIRING YOU TO PLACE A TARP OVER YOUR SHIP’S STERN TO OBSCURE HER NAME. SENIOR OFFICIALS BELIEVE THAT POTUS WILL BE ANGERED IF HE SEES NAME OF CAPT MCCAIN AND HIS FOREBEARS, SO THEY STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU MAKE SURE IT STAYS OUT OF SIGHT WHILE POTUS IS IN VICINITY OF YOKOSUKA/SEVENTH FLEET ANCHORAGE DURING HIS VISIT TO JAPAN. Well, regardless of my political stance, I would have to comply with those orders