Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage by Douglas Waller (Free Press, 2011)

This entry was contributed by my mother, Linda McGaughy (MA from Marywood, 1978). Thanks for the review mom!

What do Ian Fleming, Robert Sherwood, and J. Edgar Hoover have in common? – World War II and William Donovan and the OSS, the spy organization that preceded the CIA. Wild Bill Donovan, a compendium of adventures and famous historical characters, is ripe for a movie on the scale of Lawrence of Arabia or a James Bond flick. Weapons proposed for OSS use range from ridiculous to frightening. Intricate and fascinating details typify the author’s research. (Waller’s impressive in-depth research is explained and credited at the close of the book – “must” reading in itself.) Such research reveals that people from many walks of life wanted to serve their country during this challenging time, and the OSS was one way to do so. I can attest to this from personal knowledge of a long-time friend of the family, a former concert pianist who, despite her aging arthritic fingers, could still make that piano in our house come alive when she visited in the 1950s. A decade later her startling revelation to her young relative who was considering the CIA as a career was that she used her musical ability as her cover while serving with the OSS. She warned that espionage is extremely dangerous, that there were times when she had to flee immediately from a location with no time to go back for her belongings. Wild Bill Donovan is a biography brings the daring of the past to life again.

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

Here is a second entry from our dean of students. This series sounds interesting to me, and it is not the typical Stephen King fare. Thank you once again Amy!

Rolland Deschain is the lead character in this 7 book series of John-Wayne-meets-Knights-of-the-Roundtable-while-visiting-LOST. Roland’s character is the essense of what American culture defines as masculine. Throughout the series, Roland is seeking something, not knowing exactly what, but something he desparatly believes in that will change the world. Through that quest, he demonstrates strength, wisdom, hard earned lessons, and persistence through impossible odds. He builds relationships with others and cares for them in that John Wayne sort of manner, mentors the young, and empowers those around him. His will and character are constantly tested and you get to watch as he continues to become more and more human and evolved. The series is long and allows wonderful depth of the characters and miles of action and adventure.

If you are a Stephen King fan, what I found exciting is that he brings in characters from over 15 of his other books! What I found fun was his consistency with his movies in that he has a cameo appearance in the series! The Dark Tower has a huge following and even has a website and a video game that I haven’t tried but you might enjoy. http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/ . I’ve also heard rumors that there will be a movie, a 2 year television series, and a final movie telling the story.

If you aren’t familiar with King, don’t jump to conclusions, this series is not horror in my opinion. It does have magic, monsters, elements of futuristic sci fi; with the old west and middle ages; and a lot of action.

The following paragraph is copied from http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/:

At the age of 19 Stephen (King) decided he would like to write an epic similar to The Lord of the Rings. The “spaghetti Westerns” of that time and a poem written by Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," became the inspiration for his magnum opus. The series written and published separately over a period of 22 years consists of seven books and the short story, “The Little Sisters of Eluria,” published in his short story collection, Everything’s Eventual.