Not Your Average Holiday Gift Selections: Book and DVD version

By S. Mark Rhodes

The holidays are just around the corner so check out this small selection of book and media choices to appeal to the aviator/aviation enthusiast in your life.  It is a diverse selection to appeal to a broad group from the very conventional to the highly unconventional. 

For the Action Lover

James Huston’s novel Falcon Seven (St. Martin’s) is a highly addictive thriller mixing in elements of aviation, military and legal espionage.  Falcon Seven concerns the plight of two navy pilots shot down after a bombing raid on what they thought was a secret meeting of top al Qaeda members in the wilderness of Pakistan.  The pilots are found and briskly escorted via private jet to The Hague where they are imprisoned and set for trial for war crimes in front of the International Criminal Court.  Why?  The actual target of their bombing was a makeshift hospital run by Europeans to dispense medical aid to Afghan refugees. 

Jack Caskey, a hero in several of Huston’s thrillers, is charged to defend these railroaded pilots. Caskey, a former Navy SEAL, is prepared to use his cronies on the NSC to free the wrongly accused pilots.   The book brings up the point that Congress passed a law in 2002 to allow for the President to authorize the release of American prisoners held by the ICC even to the point of using force.  Needless to say, Caskey the man of action is nearly thwarted by politics, red tape and a lack of Presidential leadership. 

Huston, a seasoned thriller writer (besides being a former Naval Flight Officer and graduate of TOPGUN) has penned a smooth, sleek work that has incorporated elements of several thriller genres and will appeal to a broad cross section of readers.  The timeliness of the narrative give it some weight and edge and the hero is more interesting than the typical two fisted type found in some of the more generic of these types of books. This book would make a perfect beach book, but it works equally well to pass a snowy weekend afternoon.

For the Art Lover

A beautiful and not to be overly dramatic, epic coffee table book is Into the Sunset Splendor: The Aviation Art of William S. Phillips (Greenwich Workshop Press).  Phillips, an Air Force veteran, has had a very storied career including having a rare one-man show at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and being chosen by the National Parks service to be the “artist in residence” in the Grand Canyon. 

This work is a kind of “greatest hits” of some of Philips’ aviation oriented work.  Philips’ has a sense of photographic realism and framing which gives his artwork energy.  This is married to a sense of the divine in the everyday and in this case a sense of the divine in the power and experience of flight (a striking painting of an F-14 Tomcat is titled Into the Throne Room of God).  These connections bring to mind other American masters such as Norman Rockwell who injected some of this style and spirit into his own work.  Make no mistake however, Philips’ work is completely his own and seeing this volume makes it easy to see why he is widely considered the greatest artist working with military and aviation themes and subject matter.

For the Unconventional Aviation Enthusiast

A personal favorite of mine are a couple of collections of aviation-oriented works that have been out for a while but are well worth mentioning as potential Christmas gifts.  One particularly impressive volume is Scorchy Smith and the art of Noel Sickles. This volume is published by IDW Publishing as part of the Library of American Comics Series (an attempt by IDW to produce a serious collection of the work of great American comic creators).

Sickles was a self-taught mid-West artist who came to get a chance to work on the “Scorchy” Smith comic after one of its artist’s fell ill with health problems.  The character of Scorchy Smith was kind of globetrotting adventuring pilot for hire that was thought to be somewhat based on Charles Lindbergh.  Sickles’ work here is much admired, particularly his energetic yet elegant inking.  The Scorchy Smith strips are here in pristine shape but also of interest is some of the commercial illustration work of Sickles, which featured great advertisements for American Airlines and great aircraft illustrations from a number of magazines.

One of the most beloved and literate works of children’s literature is The Little Prince (HMH Books) penned by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.  Saint-Exupery is remembered today chiefly for this work but he was also an aviator of note flying both commercially before World War II and later for the French Air Force.  His experiences as an aviator were chronicled in two well-received volumes: Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. 

The Little Prince is by far his best work and a landmark of world literature (disguised as a children’s book) and even a landmark as far as the memorable illustrations go (many of them done by the author himself).  The book has a strong aviation element with a pilot narrator who finds The Little Prince after an emergency landing in the desert (echoing a true life incident of Saint-Exupery whose crash in the Sahara is documented in Wind, Sand and Stars).

The newest edition is in a graphic novel format (published by HMH books), which will no doubt appeal to younger readers.  It is a tricky business to re-do a classic, but the story telling and surreal, memorable artwork by Jann Sfar makes this telling seem fresh and dynamic.  Interestingly enough, the pilot/narrator makes more of an impression here than in Saint-Exupery’s original work.

Stocking Stuffers

Home Entertainment

America’s Hangar (Smithsonian Networks) is a walk through the majesty of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (AKA “America’s Hangar”). This volume goes over a lot of familiar ground, but manages to be stirring and even moving at the same time.  If you want something a little odder check out The Red Baron (Monterey Video); a strange German, French and UK highly-fictionalized production that romanticizes the infamous World War I German ace and was apparently financed by a series of wealthy individuals.  Not very good, but it is hard to find any contemporary aviation films so this one might be worth a shot if for no other reason than this.