SWORD SONG:The Battle For London—Bernard Cornwell—Utred, oath man to King Alfred, continues his life story-that of Alfred's plan to unify what is now England. This episode, the necessity of and battle for London, has fictional danish characters, Sigfried and Eric who have a similar desire to unify/plunder England and currently have London under their control. Cornwell, as always, has a large cast of characters...the church and the problems it poses, turncoat oathmen, Alfred's daughter, Atheleflaed and her husband, the slimy Athelred, together with warriors, battle scenes and gore. To quote the Wall Street Journal on the series of the SAXON TALES, “Mr. Cornwell is at his enthralling b est, conveying...one of the defining periods of English history—the desperate, heroic struggle of Alfred, the only English king ever to have 'the Great' appended to his name, against the seemingly invincible vikings.

TRUMAN—David McCullough—Often regarded as the premier biography of Harry S. Truman. Three pages of glowing tributes to the book precede the text and on the cover, from Jonathan Yardley from the Washington Post “Meticulously detailed, elegantly written, tightly constructed, rich in revealing anecdotes and penetrating insights. It is, as its subject demands, biography on the grand scale.” Some argue that McCullough is too fond of Truman, that he does not paint the rough sides, the failures, or finds excuses for them. To an extent, that may well be. However, as a readable biography, giving an overall sense of the man..how he grew and changed and what stayed the same inner core, a truly wonderful written portrait. Yep, this is a 15 yr old book and I'm just getting to it; but it is well worth reading...or at this time re-reading.