Rebecca Frankel

War Dogs by Rebecca Frankel is a fascinating non-fiction book. The title alone was enough for me to request this book in the early reviewer program but this turned out better than I had imagined. Not only is Rebecca Frankel imparting the history of canines in war, she is a part of the action in the present day training of dogs and makes the men, women, and dogs around her very real to the reader. The candidness of Frankel is refreshing and the book does not drag at all. There are four letter show more words but they are used appropriately given the setting of the military and dogs. There are photos of soldiers and their dogs which is a nice addition to put faces to name as you read the book. This book puts a new face to us on the homefront: that of the dog who is working just as hard as a soldier to protect and serve. Even a cat lover like me was moved by this book with all its anecdotes on the dogs and handlers of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, to the present. The author manages to tie it all together and talk about all of this without sectioning it off chapter by chapter and making it bland and unoriginal. Rebcecca Frankel is a wonderful writer who has created a book that is quite a gem and recognizes people and animals that have gone unrecognized and unappreciated far too long. show less

Rebecca Frankel really exceeded my expectations. The books I've read previously concentrated on what makes a good military/police working dog, how they are different from family pets, how to train them for the job they do, etc, with a few anecdotes thrown in. For my taste "War Dogs" is the perfect blend - heavier on the personal side and less on the technical. She goes back in history to describe the beginning (as far as we know) of the human/dog partnership, through their presence in the show more Roman Empire, even describing Benjamin Franklin's campaign to include trained dogs in the Revolutionary War...who knew?
The personal stories are very engaging. I really felt the emotional bond the handlers have with their partners. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves dogs and/or the courageous men and women whose instinct is to protect the rest of us by running TO the fight instead of away from it. They all have my admiration and appreciation.
I received a free pre-publication copy of this book from LibraryThing. show less

I'm a sucker for dog books ... but at the same time I always dread reading them, because they'll inevitably leave me misty-eyed at the end. "War Dogs" didn't quite do that to me, but it definitely left me intrigued, and more than a little saddened. A mix of first-person stories and historical background, the book explores a topic that hasn't been given a lot of attention in most dog books -- the use of dogs in the military. It's a worthwhile read, though a slightly disjointed one.

For me, the show more most memorable takeaway from the book was the strong disconnect it portrays -- the love of individual dog-handlers, versus the heartlessness of the American military establishment. I suppose that heartlessness will always remain, but hopefully our culture will continue advance to the point where dogs are caught up in that aggressive, bureaucratic crossfire a little less often. show less

This was a very different Holocaust story. There were roundups, ghettos, mass murders, and Nazi atrocities, but no death camps. This is about the people who escaped into an untouched primeval forest and lived in hidden longhouses and burrows. Cold, snow, rain, mud, lice, illness, starvation, and intermittent attacks by armed Nazis: it was something between a terrible folktale dilemma and the camping trip from hell. And people survived. Entire families, some with little children, lived to show more come out of the forest at the end of the war and build new lives.

The Rabinowitz family emerged from the forest, liberated by the Red Army, and soon decided upon making the dangerous nighttime trek across the Alps to Italy to live as refugees and prepare to resettle in Israel. (Their sojourn in Italy was of great interest to me because I know people who traveled that route during the 1970s Soviet Union aliyah, leaving Belarus and spending several years in Italy.) In the end, the Rabinowitzes went to the USA not Israel (to the deep disappointment of the little girls) because they made contact with relatives in America and having lost so much family, the adults were eager to reunite.

The story was well written and kept me interested in the family's adventures throughout. show less