USTDC

Photo of USTDC courtesy of Les Duffin

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Lady And The Tiger

A few days ago John Quinn alerted me to a book entitled "The Lady And The Tiger" by Patricia Linder. If that last name sounds familiar to readers of this blog, it's because Patricia is the wife of Rear Admiral James Linder, the last Commander of USTDC.  As I wrote a few months ago, RADM Linder passed away about a year ago.

The book received the 2006 Silver Medal for Memoirs and a five star rating from the Military Writers Society of America. Their reviewer had this to say about the book:

"Linder does a masterpiece of reporting from her own heart and soul. She sounds like someone who not only was there physically, but was fully aware of all the political and social issues that surrounded what was happening. She has an intelligent grasp of what happened and why. She writes with great passion and skill to weave the facts and emotions together to give the story lots of energy and movement. This book, at times, reads almost like an action novel. You will get hooked from page one and will have a hard time putting down the book.

She faces riots, mobs and angry people all with great courage. She has to deal with tapped phones, and armed guards that she cannot fully trust and even rooms in her own residence that are bugged with listening devices. The events and culture that she found in Taiwan are not what this wife of a Rear Admiral was expecting. This was a tour of duty that was going to really test her soul!"

I completely agree with the reviewer.  I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it.  Many of the places and day-to-day circumstances that she wrote about will be familiar to many here.  I often found myself nodding my head and laughing as I read her accounts.

You can read more reviews and purchase a copy of the book at Amazon.com.  You can also visit Patricia's own website at PatriciaLinder.com.

No comments: