Ian Toll and War at Sea

The full title of this amazing historical book is Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 and it is the first of a three book trilogy on World War II in the Pacific Theater. It took me quite a while to get through this massive book but fortunately I had it checked out from the Canisius College Library where I still have staff borrowing for six months. Not that I needed that much time 

I've read a lot of books on the history of World War II and specifically the naval battles and policies. This was a different and very fascinating readable book because of the way the author presented the story of what happened. It really was like him telling a story because he used so many personal memoirs including first person accounts from admirals and deck sailors and everyone in between. The book doesn't cover any new ground on a war from seventy years ago but the incredible joy of reading this book was in the telling of the tale. He is very good in putting together all the different aspects of his research, the personal stories and biographical sketches, the strategic analysis, the tactics, the technical specifications of airplanes, ships and weapon systems and the human dimension that all blends into a very accessible and interesting story. This book actually reads like a novel.

So it took me so long to read this book because I could set it down and not read it for a week. I could take my time and totally absorb the story. Unfortunately Canisius doesn't have the other two books of the trilogy in the library so when I start to read the next book in the series I will need to get through it at a much quicker pace. The public library does have the books both in print and e-book but it's a two week loan period. The NYPL doesn't have any copies.

Well, I'm still looking forward to reading the next two books. It's just going to take me some time.