I decided to keep a list of the books that I've read recently, and my reviews of them. I doubt anyone will much care what I've read, or what I've thought of what I've read, but what the hell! It's my site, and there's no one here to stop me. :)
LOVED this book!! It was just soooo funny. The story is that of a first lady, married to a philandering President of the US, who ends up on trial for assassination of her husband. She ends up being defended by her old college boyfriend, whom she dumped for the President. This author just had FUN with the story, and didn't let anybody (himself included) take themselves too seriously. There were some prominent real politicians, reporters, and other public figures featured, some with names slightly changed (the most memorable was a legal analyst named Greta Van Botox). I will definitely be seeking out more fun books by this author.
After reading this autobiography (which does not cover his stint as Secretary of State), I am convinced that Colin Powell is the greatest president this country will never have. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he managed to work within the military system to attain the armed service's highest rank and, eventually, to become the highest-ranking ever Black politician. He bore witness to history extending from the racism of the 50s, through the turmoil of the 60s and 70s, past the end of the Cold War of the 80s, and into the unfolding threat of global terrorism by Islamic fundamentalists. He offered surprising insight and impressive recall of detail over the course of his career, and brought a civility and honor to politics that is sadly lacking in most politicians. He managed to survive a 45-year public career with his integrity intact and a clear conscience. I think he has the experience and level-headedness to lead this country in a positive new direction, but has decided that the rigors of campaigning and public life would put too much strain on his family. Considering how vicious the last two Presidential elections became, who could blame him?
I was amazed to see how similar our views are on most issues (the only notable exceptions being rights for gays and affirmative action, the latter of which he strikes me as being somewhat ambivalent about), and describes himself as a "fiscal conservative and social moderate." I would classify myself similarly.
The book was fascinating in the details, and I was amazed to see so many familiar names from previous administrations that are bandied around the press now - Negroponte, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and many more. I guess the game never really changes, does it?
This is the story of David Andersen, a young Australian who joins the Army in the 50's, and fights in the Korean War. It is exceptionally well-written, and the characters are complex and interesting. David lives with ghosts from his past, and is forever picking up new ones along the way. Hooker pulls no punches in describing the horrors of war - it is gruesome and fierce and dirty and smelly and horrific. Even with everything David goes through (and I don't want to give too much away), he still says he'd do it all again, that it's worth it. That spirit of commitment to the cause is part of what I admire in soldiers. Their willingness to sacrifice so much ennobles them, and turns those teenagers and twenty-something's into heroes, whether they take the title or not. David is no exception. Most intriguing is the struggle he has to re-integrate himself into civilian life, and his longing for the structure and orderliness of military life, even with its horrors and death and killing. I wish I knew someone else who had read this book, so we could talk about why the ending happened the way it did.
The fictional story of a plastic surgeon whose license is suspended for a year after he attends a gunshot wound, rather than referring the patient to a hospital. Includes a pretty dubious romantic relationship, and the wasting-away of a close friend, of inoperable pancreatic cancer. The story seems to just kind of wander around, and never really gets anywhere. Blah.
A great first-hand anecdotal account of the North African campaign of World War II, as told from the viewpoint of an American journalist. The stories are gripping, funny, sad, interesting. They vary from the mundane to the graphic, and are told with wit, compassion, and insight. This view of life in 1940's war culture is definitely well worth the read.
Awful. Just awful, awful, awful mystery. All of the characters - not just the murder victim - are utterly lifeless. There seems to be no real, coherent plot. There is so little insight into the "heroine" that you never bond with her at all, and in fact, find her somewhat peevish and weak. I'm only even reviewing this book so I don't accidentally read it again in the future.
A pretty quick read, this is the story of a family torn apart (albeit not obviously) by the tragedy of the deaths of their twin daughters in a flood. The father is a state trooper, the mother runs the local animal shelter. The majority of the story takes place two years after the death of the twins, when the couple has taken in a ten-year-old black boy as a foster child in Vermont. The couple is white, as is the rest of their town. The story explores race relations, infidelity (and all its consequences), bereavement, bonding, what it means to be a foster child, and a host of other topics, all nicely interwoven into a very compelling story. The characters are nuanced, consistent, and believable. A definite page-turner.
Thick, thick, thick history. This is not an overview or a primer, and is not for casual observers of history. This is thoroughly detailed, and covers the period from the earliest known origins of Hitler's family, through the bloody "purge" of June 30, 1934. As the concentration camps had not, up to that point, been discovered to be extermination camps, that aspect of Nazi Germany isn't covered, although the beginnings of Jewish persecution are certainly well-known. The book is well-written, if a little dull and tedious at points. It is a serious work of history, and intended for serious consumers of that history. I have to admit, some of the sources seem a bit dubious. Most notably, the author frequently quotes passages from Goebbels' diary. This, allegedly, in a text first published in 1944 by a man who fled Germany in 1934. Seems to me unlikely that he swiped Goebbels' diary on his way out, but no explanation is given as for how he comes by his sources, and there is no bibliography. Still, the book is a fascinating read of the rise of Hitler from an out-of-work Austrian immigrant who lived in a homeless shelter, to the man who commanded an entire nation to its most gruesome and shameful period in history.
Exactly what the title says. Some of these things I had known before (that bio of Andrew Jackson told me ALL about duels), but some were complete surprises. The last chapter alone - on scandalous disinterments of various people in history, is enough to curl your toes. More-or-less a bubble-gum read, but still a worthwhile bath book.
In a word - Yawn! Dull plot, dull characters, blatantly preachy. Like the condemned Sam Cayhall, I kept hoping for an unexpected reprieve that would save me from the horror of this book. It never came. I hope his other books are better, or he has one of the most undeserved reputations in the fiction novel industry.
A biography of Thomas Nelson, Jr., one of the signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, third non-royal governor of Virginia, and Brigadier General of the Virginian militia forces. Born in 1738, died in 1789, Nelson fathered thirteen children with his wife Lucy, eleven of which survived into adulthood. Nelson was born a man of wealth, influence, and privilege, all of which he used to support the American revolutionary cause. He put himself directly in harm's way, commanding troops all over the Virginia countryside, including at the final siege and capitulation at Yorktown. This book is an excellent, in-depth look not only at Nelson's own life, but at the times and circumstances in which he lived. Though the intermarriages and entangled familial relationships got a little tedious (Nelson was cousin to George Washington, among many, many others), it still made for more interesting reading knowing just what forces were at work. Due to critical shortages of specie, and worthlessness of the credit of the state of Virginia, Nelson time and time again pledged his own funds and property to secure necessary supplies for the Continental forces, and to pay soldiers who often hadn't seen a dime (or a pence) in over two years. As a result, Nelson died £13,000 pounds in debt. He wasn't exactly destitute at his passing - he still hand lands, slaves, and other property - but his personal wealth was much depleted, and his family inherited debt rather than wealth. In these ways, he was noble and selfless, and this book serves to illustrate that brilliantly.
I'm torn about this book. On the one hand, it offers a (seemingly) pretty candid look inside the Public Defender System of the District of Columbia - and into defense attorneys' mindsets in general - in a way that is both interesting and funny. There are several anecdotal cases which illustrate various points Kunen wants to make about our notion of justice, and the inner workings of the court system. For those reasons, I really liked this book. On the other hand, certain revelations in the storytelling confirm the notion of attorneys as being less interested in truth or justice, and more interested in winning. Among Kunen's sins as an attorney were (1) failing to reveal material evidence to the court, (2) telling a client what to say during testimony (this he explains away as "justified overzealousness"), and (3) asserting defenses he knew to be untrue. He stretches definitions in the code of legal ethics beyond their breaking point to explain this behavior, and caused me to hold even less respect for those of his profession. His continuously repeated mantra of "What would you want YOUR attorney to do?" left me cold; I'm a law-abiding citizen, so I wouldn't need my attorney to break the law to defend me. Couple this egregious, unethical behavior with gratuitous swipes at "right-wingers" and "conservatives," his declaration that "everyone lies" in the justice system, and general disdain for getting at actual truth, and I couldn't help but hold him in contempt. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
Forsyth blurs the line between history and historical fiction in this spy novel (good things come in threes!). Set in 1990-1991 and involving the first Gulf War, The Fist of God gives a very scary account of what could have happened with only a few minor changes to Saddam's weapons procurement program. The characters are nuanced and engaging, the plot is interesting and plausible, and excitement abounds. I don't want to say too much about the story itself, since to do so could give away the incredible last-page revelation (don't read ahead on this one!) about the mystery man - Jericho. Even though this is a historical novel, it gave me new things to think about in terms of current events in Iraq. A definite must-read for anyone interested in Middle Eastern affairs.
Another spy story, this one set in the 1970s in the U.S. and eastern Europe. The main character is completely unbelievable, and I was annoyed that the only female spy in the book was such an airhead, but at least the plot moved along reasonably well. The premise is that a scientist in the nation of Crau has devised a formula that must be destroyed. The scientist's lab is inside a heavily fortified prison, and only a tight-rope-walking mentalist (I told you, he's unbelievable) can do the honors. He travels to Crau along with his circus, with other characters dropping like flies along the way. I'll spare you the details of the climax, but this one just couldn't hold me.
Set in Nazi France during World War II, this is the story of a team of female spy-infiltrators working for the British to destroy a communications center. It's an interesting twist on the usual spy novel, with women as the principals. It's got decent writing, even if it isn't the most engaging story, ever. A fair time-killer, but not one I'm likely to come back to.
I was a third of the way through this one before I realized it was the basis for the movie. It's a hardback edition, and was printed before the movie came out. It's a compelling look at the nature of sexual harassment in the early 90's, as well as the beginning of the dot-com bubble and the explosion of the computer industry. It's amusing to read a book from this era, with its talk of "futuristic" CD-roms and cellphones and PDAs. It's all so... taken for granted now. Amazing how far we've come in a decade. At any rate, the book is not great literature (nor is it meant to be), but it was interesting, and a page-turner.
This is the memoir of a convicted felon from Los Angeles, who later became a successful author. It tracks the life of Eddie Bunker from his parents' divorce when he was 4, through boarding, reform, and military schools, the juvenile justice system, and various California jails and prisons. The story is riveting, but the writing could have really done with some more diligent editing. Bunker re-introduces the same characters several times as if it is the first mention. The narrative jerks along as if it were written in spurts at various points of his life, and never really formed into a cohesive, flowing timeline. For example, at one point he ends a chapter on the run in Miami, and at the beginning of the next chapter he is back in jail, with no explanation of how. The reverse is true later; a chapter ends with Bunker in jail, and the next begins with him free. That's pretty jarring, but I blame the editors more so than the author. One disturbing aspect is Bunker's attitude toward his crimes. I quote (emphasis mine):
To anyone morally outraged by my schemes and lack of apparent remorse, let me say that I only had to justify myself to myself, which is all that anyone has to do. No man does evil in his own mind. I thought, and still think, that if God weighed all I have done against all that has been done to me in society's name, it would be hard to call which way the scales would tilt. I only stole money and stopped doing that as soon as I sold a novel. I refused to accept the position to which society relegates the ex-offender. I would rather risk going back to prison than accept a job in a car wash or a career as a fry cook. Nothing is wrong with either, but they're not for me. I'd already heard too many heroic tales and raged to live. I had no family to constrain me with shame, and I owed society nothing, as far as I could determine, and considered most of it's members deserving of whatever happened to them. They were classic hypocrites, proclaiming Christian virtue but at best living by older, meaner ideas and violating even those if it was expedient and they could suck up their courage. They did not live in good faith with the values and virtues that they professed, explicitly or implicitly. I had no misgivings about stealing their money. They might have gotten it legally, but not by creating anything, doing anything constructive, or otherwise contributing to the commonwealth or to human freedom or anything else save, perhaps, their immediate family. The Salvation Army and Franciscans were real Christians. They didn't make their domicile in the greatest palace on the planet, amid riches and art greater than those of any two museums on earth; they were out on the street trying to help. There were others, real Christians, persons of good faith, but they were a minority. One thing that gave me unique freedom was my lack of concern about what they thought of me or what they could do to me. I was more concerned with the truth - and having as much fun and as many adventures as I could find. What I liked I would do until it became boring.
I had no idea Jackson was such a jerk. I suppose you could say he was a man of his time, but there were many men of his time who were not slave traders, who did not engage in illegal duels over perceived injuries, who did not commit adultery with another man's still-undivorced wife, who did not summarily execute men based on suspicion of treason, and just weren't so damned arrogant. I don't know why he's such a famous president, and graces currency, when he seems to have offered so little to the American experience. The book is fairly balanced and well-written, although I was disappointed in the lack of detail offered surrounding the Trail of Tears. I believe it was the most significant period in Jackson's life, and there's virtually nothing about it in this book. Instead, far too much attention is paid to whether or not Jackson and Rachel Donelson had a legitimate marriage. I think that's important, but mostly only to Jackson, Rachel, and her first husband, and is of infinitely less significance than the forced displacement of thousands of Cherokee Indians.
I snagged an earlier copy of this from a Friends of the Library book sale for a buck. It's a collection of short biographies of all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, how they came to be at the signing, and - in many cases - what happened to them after the signing. It's not a bad book, but there's so much bone here there isn't much room for meat. When you're trying to cover fifty-six men, it's impossible to get too in-depth about any one of them. It did spark an interest in me about several of the previously unknown (to me) signers, including Thomas Nelson, Jr. Nelson's financial sacrifice to the cause of American independence was total: he went from aristocrat to pauper, because he secured loans to the state of Virginia with his own fortune, and eventually had to forfeit everything he owned to repay those debts. At any rate, if you want a quick introduction to this part of American history, and to know more about some of the more obscure founding fathers, this isn't a bad place to start.
The latest novel by my favorite author. Sadly, I think he's suffering from SAS - Successful Author Syndrome. His surprises aren't surprising anymore, his characters aren't engaging, and his plot doesn't electrify me the way it used to. This is the story of Michael Hrubek, a schizophrenic man who escapes from a mental facility and eludes his would-be capturers, while making his way to the home of Lis Acheson, a woman who is still haunted by her run-in with Hrubek a year earlier at Indian Head. Acheson's husband goes on the hunt for Hrubek, believing the police commitment to be insufficient. Other pursuers include Trenton Heck and his dog, Emil, and Hrubek's psychiatrist, Richard Kohler. Can't really comment much more on the plot without giving twists away, but suffice to say I was less than thrilled with this story. I'll keep trying Deaver's works, because the earlier books were so good, but he won't get many more chances unless he gets out of this slump.
This title is pretty misleading, since it tells the story not of a single day, but of a period spanning more than 30 years (the book was written in 1984). It is about the nuclear testing program in the Nevada desert, including the massive amounts of nuclear material used, and the amazing cover-up operations of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). It really is incredible the lengths to which government officials went to avoid revealing the dangers and unknowns associated with nuclear testing, and the risks American citizens were subjected to in the name of defense. I don't know where the nuclear testing program stands now, but this part of the conclusion of the book (which was written when we were still in the throes of the Cold War) is interesting: "The United States and the Soviet Union sit facing each other, each twenty-eight minutes away from mutual incineration. The testing that began at the Nevada Proving Grounds back in the 1950s continues for the sole purpose of creating more redundant megatonage that can pulverize every man, woman, and child in the world many times over...This universal [fallout] cloud of deadly isotopes - formed without a single nuclear shot being fired in anger - has created a challenge that the leaders of the world must meet above all other issues, if there is to be a world at all." The book is not without political slant, but I think it does a far better job than most, especially when you consider the times in which it was written.
I finished both this book and the one reviewed below months ago, but am just now getting around to reviewing them. This is a sci-fi story (kind of) about a man who has a heart attack, believes he has died, then awakens in his college dorm room, in his teens. After the initial struggle to understand who and where he is, the protagonist gets to relive his life. He does, dying again of a heart attack at the same exact moment he died the first time. This happens over and over, with him choosing a new path for his life each time. The different outcomes are predictable, but the telling of these different paths is remarkably engaging. I don't want to give too much of the story away in my review; suffice to say this is one I think I will enjoy re-reading a few years down the road.
Speer was Hitler's personal architect, and was eventually selected to be his Minister of Armaments. These are his memoirs. The book is long (it took me several months to get through), but fascinating. It really is very interesting to get an inside look into the Nazi party - the intrigues, the backstabbing, the planning, the Fuhrer's moods. A couple of times, I actually caught myself feeling compassion for the different characters, before I realized, "Hey, wait! These are the friggin' NAZIS we're talking about here!" Further proof of my assertion that no one is entirely good or entirely evil. Parts of the book dragged (he gave lots of technical details, both about the buildings he designed and the weapons developed while he was a Minister), but would be of interest to someone more technically-minded than me. One of the most telling observations is that Speer mentions his family almost not at all; he worked such long hours that it seemed he almost never saw them.
This was easily one of the best books I've ever read. The writing was so compelling, and the characters were so real, you felt as if you were right there on the street with them. I've never seen anyone pay such attention to the senses - particularly how things smell - that Chabon did. The story is of two Jewish boys - one a native New Yorker, one a European Jew fleeing Hitler's Nazi expansion - who launch a new comic book hero. For one, the dream is to get rich. For the other, the dream is to strike a blow (however futile) back at the Nazis, and to earn enough to bring his family over. What follows is a tale so tragic, so hopeful, so real, it carries you along. The characters are flawed - both physically and psychologically. They struggle with issues of morality, dependence, duty, faith, and love. The ending was only a disappointment in that you want to stay in the characters' world. You want to keep living with them, to find out where they go next, what they do, who they meet, where life takes them. It speaks volumes to Chabon's mastery of language that a story about such a visual subject - comic books! - is told without a single visual image, and yet is told so incredibly well. Definitely a must-read!
I actually finished this book a couple of weeks ago, but it's taken me this long to get around to writing a review. I guess that's a sign that I neither really loved not really hated it. This was yet another read from that book group (which I've since unsubscribed from for too much political off-topic jabber), and they had elected to read the unabridged, uncut version of the book. I had never read the short(er) one, so I wasn't inclined to object. The story is an apocalyptic narrative. Big, bad flu bug gets loose from a US military installation, and starts wiping people out all over the place (it kills more than 99% of those affected). The survivors end up splitting into two camps (good guys in Colorado, bad guys in (where else?) Vegas), and know they have to fight it out. The good guys win. Everything else is to flesh out that skeleton, and man, does it get fleshy! There is simultaneously too much and too little book here. There is virtually no mention of what's going on in the rest of the world (did the flu get them, too?) and way too much detail about the Americans who survive. There are about 80 million subplots, some of which are interesting, all of which are tediously drawn out. The characters were engaging, but not terribly believable. All in all, I guess it was somewhat of a disappointment, especially considering the amount of time put in to actually finish the damn thing.
I've recently joined a book group, which is why I read both this book and the one I reviewed previously. They have tended to choose books I probably wouldn't normally read (I'm STILL slogging through The Stand), which was the whole point of joining the group. This one was a pleasant surprise. It's the story of an Indian teenage boy who is emigrating to Canada when the ship on which he is traveling goes down, killing everyone and everything aboard, except for him, a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. He is forced to share a lifeboat with this tiger for over seven months, until he finally reaches landfall in Mexico. The story is amazingly well-told, and the language is just beautiful. I found the protagonist extremely compelling, and the story riveting. There was one small part of the book which was just a little over the top even for this type of fantastic story (the man-eating island) and made me shake my head in disappointment, and it was a little slow to get started, but otherwise I thought it was very well-told.
This book annoyed me no end. Besides the fact that the plot seemed to be completely pointless, the ending trite and predictable, the characters absolutely flat and inconsistent, and the language inauthentic, this author could. not. choose. a. voice. Some chapters were told in first person, and some in third. Apparently, one of the characters collaborated with an all-seeing narrator (God?) to tell this stupid story of a divorced woman who's out to (pick your favorite plot-line, maybe you can develop it better): a) get revenge on her ex-husband, b) win the heart of her new man, c) get her hands on some big-deal antique, d) save a plantation house from being demolished, e) start her own antique shop, f) get her mother into alcohol rehab, g) clear her name of a bogus murder charge, h) solve said murder, and i) choose the best outfit to do all these things in, despite being an avowed tomboy. Weezie, the main character (and oh, yes, the book is FULL of stupid names like that), lives in Savannah, Georgia, in the carriage house behind her husband's townhouse, as laid out in their divorced settlement. Her ex-husband, Talmadge, is a complete schmuck who moves his new girlfriend, Caroline, into the townhouse the day his ex-wife moves out. The book spends 404 pages aimlessly following Weezie around on her escapades as she seeks to do all those things listed above, with the help of her lawyer-uncle James, his boyfriend Jonathan, best friend Bebe (I swear to God, that's the character's name), and sometimes-boyfriend Daniel. The author seems incapable of following a reasonable timeline, either across days or even during the course of a conversation. For example, at one point Bebe cuts Weezie a "slab" of cheesecake. They exchange three lines of dialog apiece, then Weezie is suddenly rinsing her plate off. Later, Daniel and Weezie get into Daniel's truck to go have dinner at the home of a socialite friend of Weezie. They climb into the truck, exchange four lines of dialog each, and suddenly he's pulling to the curb in front of the friend's house. The book is just littered with such time-warps. They're jarring and detract from what little story there is here to tell. I guess to sum it up, this book sucked. I suppose if you were an antiques enthusiast, you might get more out of this book than I did, but that wouldn't be saying much.
Aside from having the world's longest title, this book was fairly enjoyable. Great fiction it's not, and much of the time the author (admittedly) presents rumor rather than fact, but I don't think anyone actually expects this book to be history in the strictest sense. The book delivers on its title - many of the stories are shocking. I mean, I always knew that kings and emperors and the like were immoral, but I don't think I ever realized just quite how immoral they really were, nor was I aware of the level of incest, fratricide, infanticide, parenticide, homicide, suicide, sistercide, cousincide, or other -cides there were among the ruling class (or the aspiring ruling class). It's downright dangerous to wear a crown! I must admit, though, that they seem to enjoy themselves while it lasts. UPDATE: Well, what do you know? The author of this book wandered by, and read this review! Here's what he had to say:
I came across your review of the book (see, people do care!) and just want to clarify one thing: There is no rumor in the book...it is all historical fact. I realize this is hard to believe, given how outrageous some of the behavior was, but it's true! I have a new book out that might interest you. It's called A Treasury of Great American Scandals: Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Fathers and Others Who Let Freedom Swing. Same format of the other book, just a little closer to home.
I'll be checking that one out, too!
I made it 80% of the way through this book before I finally gave up. Frankly, I'm surprised I got that far. The thing that finally tipped the scales was the patently ludicrous statement that 1 in 8 middle students in America's middle and high school students carries a weapon to school. I started out just being mildly annoyed - the writing is pompous and fractured, and the telling fails to be very cohesive. Then I was offended - Robinson's worldview seems to suppose that there are two kinds of people in America - minorities and racists. He has no sympathy for the plight of non-blacks, and no tolerance for any agendas but his own. He strikes me as selfish, arrogant, and narrow-minded, although it's clear he is brilliant and well-read. His use of the term "those people" in reference to Whites is egregious enough, but he seems to think that all modern-day Americans bear the guilt for slavery. He neglects to include in this castigation in any way the fact that it was blacks who first enslaved blacks. Slavery was arguably the biggest evil this world has ever seen (Nazi concentration camps and Israeli detention centers are way up there, though), but it has been almost a century and a half since its abolition, and Robinson acts as if I personally took a whip to his back. I'm tired of the notion that the sins of the (great, great, great, great, great-grand) fathers should be visited on the sons. I take issue with Robinson's claim that whenever any black person looks at an American president, "all he will see is a white man." I think there is likely still a huge racial divide in America and the rest of the world, but I cannot believe it is as wide as this author would have you believe. The increase in interracial marriage, the increasing presence of Blacks and other minorities in high-paying and high-power jobs, the increase in the numbers of Blacks and other minorities in government, and other signs point to a diminishing racial division. It's books like this that try to make the division more pronounced, and the problem more odious.
Ok, my last Deaver for awhile, partly because I'm out of them, and partly because this one was far less engaging than the others I've read. This story is another Lincoln Rhyme novel, this time with an Asian flair. It's about a human smuggler known as "The Ghost" who evades capture by the Coast Guard and disappears into New York. He's on the hunt for some of the families from the boat he was smuggling them in on. Lincoln Rhyme is trying to find The Ghost and the families first. Maybe it's because I've read so many of his novels, but there were far fewer surprises than in the past. The ending was just totally lackluster. There were two other points earlier in the book at which it could've ended with more flourish - perhaps his editors were pushing for pagecount? Anyway, there were a few high points, and a couple of unexpected twists (most notably, when Amelia Sachs goes down to explore the wreckage of a sunken ship), but overall it was just "ok".
As with any of these books that tries to cover too many types of artistic mediums, it fails to do a really stellar job with any of them. There are a couple of really good ideas for gifts (finally I know of something to do with the flaking tile in the bathroom!) but I take issue with a couple of the conventions in the book. First, the price designations are bogus - you could NOT make some of these gifts for under $10. One reason is that the list of assumed articles you already have on hand is ridiculous - how many of us happen to have a glue gun, wood glue, white craft glue, paper glue, and fabric glue, not to mention glass etching cream, textile medium, candle painting medium, and a coping saw? I'm a serious crafter of almost twenty years, and I don't have all of these things. Another reason the pricing is unreasonable is that they don't count everything in the cost. For example, they list a Holly Berry Candle as being free to make. Um. Are they giving away candles somewhere that I don't know about? Besides price issues, the other problem I have with this book is that it assumes a great deal of knowledge about a great many crafts. An example - one of the crafts is covering a shoebox in wrapping paper. No mention is made about proper mitering of corners, folding to ensure no raw edges, or applying the right amount of glue. What you get is "Cover box and lid with paper."
This is one of the books from The American Presidents line. Its stated mission is to explain Madison's eight-year presidential term, which most notably included the War of 1812. It accomplishes that goal very well, especially highlighting the long-standing relationship between Madison and Thomas Jefferson, his predecessor to the presidency. If you're looking for an overall biography of Madison, you'll be disappointed in this work, but it does offer a fair amount of insight into the causes and execution of the War of 1812, and the eventual recognition of the need for the Federal Bank. I was disappointed in the scarcity of information about Madison's early life, and his life after the presidency, but I suppose you can only put so much information into a 164-page book.
Yeah, yeah, I know - I'm on a rash of thrillers... SUE ME! This one isn't a forensic novel, it's a computer-crime thriller. The writing, frankly, isn't Deaver's best. It's full of lots of gratuitous language meant to make things seem more exciting and dangerous than they really are, for example, and the characters just aren't as nuanced as they usually are. But the trademark Deaver stuff is there - the completely unexpected ending, of course, and the well-researched technical stuff. This is not a whodunit - you know almost from the beginning who the perpetrator is - but a whohelpedhimdoit. The big question in the novel is who is Shawn, the other member of the cybergang involved in the crimes. I can't say much about it except to say that while you get paranoid and start suspecting EVERYBODY (could it be the police commissioner? the head of the FBI? the detective investigating the killer? the wife of the brilliant computer hacker helping the detectives?) the actual identity comes as a total surprise. I still say Deaver is the best thrillerist I've ever read, though parts of this particular book were a little sloppy.
I continue to be thrilled with Deaver's novels. This is another (the second) in the Lincoln Rhyme series. It appears between The Bone Collector and The Empty Chair. In this book, Rhyme and his assistant Amelia Sachs are trying to track down a professional hitman who'll stop at nothing to take out his targets. The forensics are, as usual, the most interesting parts of the book, but the action/suspense sequences are pretty damn good, too. I was up until 5AM this morning finishing this one, because I just... couldn't...put...it...down. There's a scene at the end - how can I say this without giving too much away? - lights are out in a safe house and Sachs is searching for the killer - that had my heart racing and palms sweaty. WONDERFUL!!
I also recently finished Speaking in Tongues, my first outside the Lincoln Rhyme series. This one's about an ex-psychotherapist who kidnaps a 17-year-old girl. It plumbs the depths not only of the therapist's mind and his need to carry out his plot, but also the girl's relationships with her mother and father, and their relationship with each other. The parents have been divorced since Megan, the daughter, was three years old, and there has been a lot of built-up bitterness and resentment. As is the case in all of Deaver's novels, you don't really find out the "why" until the end of the book, then you're left with your jaw hanging open, thinking, "Nuh-UH!!" You just plain don't see it coming. Can't get enough of this author. Write faster, please!!
Deaver is the most gifted writer of forensic thrillers that I have ever read. The characters have depth, the plot twists are complete surprises, and the science is both interesting and (as far as I can tell) spot-on.
This is the story of a kid known as the "Insect Boy" who is sought for the murder of another boy and the kidnapping of two women. He is sought by the quadriplegic forensic scientist, Lincoln Rhyme, and his assistant, Amelia Sachs. I can't really comment on the story without giving it away, since just about every bit of it is the result of unexpected twists.
This is really more of a reference book than the kind of book you'd read cover-to-cover. I did read the introduction, which includes the background information of how Ms. Brackman came to compile this volume, the sources she used, and how the blocks are indexed. The book indexes those blocks and quilt designs published from the 1830's through the 1970's.
The word "pattern" as applied to this book is a bit of a misnomer; there are no patterns, i.e. no instructions on how to piece any of the blocks. There are 4,000 blocks/wholecloth designs/single units in this book, nicely cross-referenced, but the reader is left to his/her own resources to figure out how to piece them. This fact was a bit of a disappointment, but I see how it would be impractical with so many designs. It will still prove a useful tool for those who can divine from a drawing how to put the block together, or those who (like me) are often inspired to create quilts using traditional blocks, but may be less useful for the beginner. A must-have for the quilt historian.
I picked this book at random off the shelf. Once I found out it was a novel written in the 1860's, I was all set to hate it. I thought it would be the usual - male superiority, weak female characters, flat plot, little character development. To be sure, there was some of that; only one of the female characters appears to have interest in anything outside of marriage and gossip, women's weakness is an accepted fact, and most of the characters show little to no change over the course of the book.
The exceptions are notable, and make the book worthwhile. Elizabeth-Jane, the daughter of the mayor of Casterbridge, shows some ambition at wanting to better herself, and actively pursues book-learning at a time when it's consideed "unseemly" for most women. She is, in fact, the most likable character in the book. The plot, which spans 25 years, holds many twists and turns that make you want to smack the main character for his poor judgment and impulsive behavior.
That's what the book ultimately seems to be about - impulsiveness, and the havoc it wreaks. You spend the whole book mentally screaming at Michael, "See!! See what you've done?? If you'd only waited awhile..." Eventually he does this kind of thinking on his own, criticizing his own behavior, but by then it's far too late and innumerable bridges have already been burned (lives mangled, fortunes lost, the usual).
This is the stuff well-written history is made of. Thorough, concise, insightful, compassionate but not blindedly sympathetic to any one side of the issue, Karen Armstrong presents the history of the city of Jerusalem from its earliest mention in Egyptian vases and pottery in the 1800's BC through 1996 AD. The story of the city itself is fascinating - I doubt there are many places in the world that have witnessed as much wholesale slaughter, hatred, and intolerance as the so-called "Holy City". The Crusades were, of course, the worst period in the city's history, and while perhaps unprecedented in its magnitude, it was by no means unprecedented in its nature. There have, in fact, been very, very few rulers of Jerusalem that were magnanimous to members of other religions. This is a sad statement, as all three monotheistic faiths profess to practice tolerance and charity. Karen Armstrong was herself a Roman Catholic nun for seven years. To her extreme credit, she does not let this color her story-telling in favor of Christians or Christianity. In fact, she pulls no punches in calling a spade a spade. If anything, she might be a touch over-sympathetic to the current Palestinian mindset. While doing a fantastic job of acquainting the reader with what has brought the Israelis and Palestinians to their current state of being, her compassion for the underdog (throughout history, not just currently) perhaps causes her to be overly willing to explain away the recent Palestinian atrocities. But even so, she doesn't shy away from relating facts about them, such as the numbers killed and wounded. As you get to the end of the book, it becomes obvious that she favors the notion of Jerusalem as the capital of both the Israeli and Palestinian states, but is not terribly optimistic about this possibility. Having read the book, I can more clearly see why.
It must be my day for biographies. This is the first biography I remember reading about Benjamin Franklin, although so much of the book rang bells that I must have read one at some point in the past. This book follows his entire life, from his boyhood in Boston and abandonment of his apprenticeship there with his brother, to his running away to Philadelphia and struggle to establish himself as a printer in that city, through his growing financial success, his experiments with electricity, his rise through Philadelphia and American politics, the Revolutionary War, and the establishment of the United States. It's a fascinating story, and amazing when you consider that Franklin accomplished all he did on an education that carried him no further than grade school. He was a true genius at philosophy, politics, and natural science, and served an indispensable role in the success of the American Revolution, securing the support of the French government, which turned the tide of the War.
The only criticism I have of this book is that it seems not to offer a truly balanced account of the man. Reading this book would lead you to believe that Franklin's only flaw was that he wasn't a very good family man. In point of fact, he left his wife alone in America for the better part of 18 years. Although she had a stroke a few years before her death, Franklin still refused to leave London for America to be with her. Ostensibly, he was trying to reconcile America with Britain, but it's clear that others could have done the work he was doing at the time. I think this is proof of a failing in his character; more than one of just "bad family man". Nonetheless, this book has sparked an interest, and you'll probably see a few other Franklin autobiographies cross my reviews sooner or later.
I just absolutely adore Mary Karr's prose. I haven't ever read her poetry, mostly because I don't care for poetry, but I like her prose enough that I may take a look. _Cherry_ is the second of the author's autobiographies. The first, _The Liar's Club_, covered her life through about the end of elementary school. _Cherry_ picks up where the first book left off, and progresses through high school. The period is the end of the 60's and the beginning of the 70's, so there's a lot of elicit drug use and experimentation with hallucinogens, but not as much experimentation with sex as would characterize a similar book "set" in the same area (southeastern Texas) in the 90's, I think. It's a coming-of-womanhood story, without as much self-consciousness as in other similar books I've read. It's told with the self-deprecating tone that has become Karr's hallmark, and that belies the experience and hindsight of a woman in her 40's looking back at her teens. A very interesting, telling read.
Joshua Norton lived in San Francisco during the time of the Gold Rush, and through the Civil War and Reconstruction. A one-time wealthy merchant, he lost his mind when he lost his fortune, and proceeded to declare himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. He issued a number of decrees through San Francisco newspapers, included one that abolished Congress (if only) and another that deemed it a "high misdemeanor" to refer to the town of San Francisco as "Frisco". He was an eccentric old coot, but an apparently well-mannered, somewhat intelligent one. Drury's writing style makes the story somewhat interesting, if it is a bit dry in a few places. A nice, light-hearted read.
After reading this book, I did a quick search for "Emperor Norton" and found a surprisingly high number of hits. There's even an Emperor Norton webring. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.
I asked a friend who makes a living doing web design for a "basic, introductory" book to HTML and this was her recommendation. That's exactly what it is, and as such, it does a great job. It speaks to novice web designers in language they can understand, but presumes a certain (very basic) amount of general computer skill. I already knew most of what was in this book (as I suspected I would) but it did help fill in a few gaps in my "on-the-job" experience, and there is a section in the back full of tags that will be great to refer to for use after I've mastered things like Javascript and VBScript. At any rate, if it's an "easy" HTML book you're looking for, this one is great.
As cotton candy goes, this was rather tasty. But that's all it is - a feel-good book. It was fun, but not particularly informative. The writers have been friends for 25+ years, and apparently that, and the fact that they are relatively well-known authors, makes them authorities on friendship. I rather disagree. There's very little serious data here, and the book winds up being more like a bunch of personal short-stories. The most annoying thing about the book is how it takes a single anecdote ("I noticed my neighbor fixing the roof with his friend, and the two guys never talked to each other the whole time.") and attempts to draw sweeping, across-the-board conclusions ("Gee, guys must never talk in their friendships - what a pity!") It's also very contradictory in spots. For example, toward the end of the book, they make the point that friendships forged in old age are free of the kind of envy and pettiness that haunts teen friends, but then goes right on to talk about how cliquish the dining arrangements are at the retirement home residence of one of the women they interviewed. I'm sorry, but transcriptions of ten friendships and 25 years of having (ok, and being) a friend does not credible research material make.
I think my biggest problem with this is that I'm just not enough of (or any, really) a flaming liberal to appreciate this book. It starts out ok; in fact, I was even getting into the straight-talk about pregnancy, childbirth, and the overwhelming change having a baby makes in your life. Toward the middle of the book it strays into stuff that just makes me cringe - things like welfare, food stamps, and the like. Don't get me wrong - I think public assistance can have its place, but I definitely don't agree with the message of this book - one of entitlement. I think it gets pretty far afield of parenting advice, as well, which is what I was looking for in this book. Instead, it seems more of a license to sponge. And the conservative bashing is just _way_ too obtuse. It's obnoxious to the point of infantility (if that's even a word!).
My sweet husband bought this book for me, because he heard Mary Karr on NPR, discussing her follow-up book, Cherry. Both are memoirs - The Liar's Club covers her life from about age six to age eight, and Cherry (according to the interview) covers her teen years. She writes about growing up in southeastern Texas in a town called Leechfield, a stone's throw away from Louisiana, whose major claim to fame is that Life magazine once rated it one of the country's 100 ugliest towns. She's very true to the vernacular of the area, too, and to its customs. She doesn't pussyfoot around using terms such as "I'll be on him like ugly on ape," which made me downright homesick. Parts of this book, as is often the case with the truth, are disturbing. She writes about her rape at age 7 by a bigger kid - 14 if I recall correctly - and about her being forced to perform oral sex at age 8 by a grown man whose face and identity she can't recall. She tells these things in her plainspoken, unflinching way, but the pain of recalling them somehow comes across. She talks about her mother's mental instability - what folks in those parts called "Nervousness" - and the fights both parents had when they got drunk, which was often. She talks about their divorce, about being moved away from her father, all the way to Colorado. She talks about the night her older sister left childhood and was forced to enter the grownup world - when her mother held a pistol on her step-father (and the girls, draped across him to try to protect him) and threatened to shoot. She talks about the children she grew up with in Texas, and the reckless, dangerous "play" they took part in (including riding their bikes behind the fumigation truck, breathing in the fumes - the last one standing won). She talks about her grandmother's coming to die with them, and about her hatred of the woman. She doesn't give in to the temptation to write that she remembers her lovingly - Mary makes no secret that she sees her grandmother as a cruel, mean-spirited, critical old woman. The book ends leaving you ACHING for more. You want to know what happened to this 8-year-old, how she ended up being a poet and author. You want more details about the vague references she makes to her teenage drug addictions and promiscuity. "How did she get from there to here?" you ask yourself. I loved her story, and I loved the way she wrote it, and isn't that what great books are about?
Phoebe Fine is a Jewish-but-not-very-Jewish girl growing up in New Jersey in the home of her musician parents (mom is a violist, dad plays the oboe) with her over-achieving perfect sister, Emily. It's easy to classify this as a coming-of-age book, but it's more than that. It's a coming-of-womanhood book, and it ain't pretty. The book is separated into chapters, with the subject and title of each being a guy (or absence thereof) that affected Phoebe's life. Some of the chapters, like the relationship they detail, are long and well-developed. Some are painfully short. One is just a letter Phoebe receives from her mother while she (Phoebe) is in college, full of motherly advice about how to land a good guy and punctuated in whole with exclamation points. The writing style really lends itself to the telling of the story. Phoebe has problems - big ones - not the least of which are an eating disorder and self-image problem. When her thinking gets crazy, the writing does, too. You don't exactly feel sympathy for her, because she's basically a manipulative bitch, but you feel pity for her. She epitomizes the kind of girl who's never attracted to guys that might be good for her (witness Spitty Clark, Mr. Chapter 4 and Neil Schmertz, Mr. Chapter 14) - at least not for very long - and tends to fawn over guys who treat her like dirt (as in Bruce Bledstone, Married Mr. Chapter 8, and Pablo Miles, the tortured artist of Chapter 11). It's like they validate her image of herself - unlovable, ugly, an object. An interesting read. If you're a woman, you're likely to catch glimpses of yourself in this book.
The book's premise is that there are things you can do that make your home a more inviting, nurturing space for you and your family. I expected to read advice like paint the walls yellow, add ceiling fans instead of air conditioning, use overstuffed furniture instead of wicker, etc. but it's nothing like that. Oh, sure, she makes mention of changing the physical things about your home that bug you, but the book is more about the kind of life you lead in it. There's a whole chapter on cleaning, for example. She makes the (highly suspect, in my slovenly opinion) claim that cleaning can be a spiritual undertaking and can add benefit to its nurturing capacity above and beyond the ability to walk through it without tripping. There are chapters on celebrating (find any excuse to have a party - they make memories and add to your home's appeal), sitting (or meditating, or doing yoga, or reading, or whatever relaxes you), and cataloging your "soul needs" - those things about a home your soul needs to feel at peace. I tried that last one - my soul needs a maid. My soul needs someone else to clean the house so I'll stop being disgusted by it and can get on to doing those things I want to do - quilt and shop. If I sound cynical it's only because I am - I'm much too practical for this kind of existentialism. I should say, though, that reading the book makes you really wish the author were your friend. If she's half as upbeat as she appears, she's the kind of person you want to be around, even if, like me, you think she's a bit of a loon.
Ugh. A flea couldn't drown in this thing, it's so shallow. I started it because I actually love the HBO series by the same name, and finished it on principle (I can remember only one time I didn't finish a book I started because it was just too horrible - the author was the guy who sells us our wood) but it wasn't easy. There's almost no correlation between the book and the series, except that a few of the characters have the same names. It's not really a coherent story, in that there's no apparent timeline or central focus; it just sort of wanders around Manhattan, occasionally connecting the few dozen characters mentioned throughout. This is the second Bushnell book I've read, and they've both been similarly pointless. The chapters have titles like "Party Girl's Tale of Sex and Woe: He Was Rich, Doting, and ... Ugly" and "Portrait of a Bulgy Underwear Model: The Bone Pops Out of His Giant Billboard". In short, don't bother.
I originally purchased this book because I heard Dia speak at a LLLI conference I attended in October 2000 and was attracted to her funny, witty manner. That manner is not reflected in this book - it is a serious look at breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, and marketing practices of formula companies throughout the ages. It is informative (the chapter on the history of bottlefeeding, including the evolution of "the bottle", is fascinating) and eye-opening. The last chapter gets a bit too socialist for my taste (calls for more legislation to support breastfeeding at work, including mandated paid time off from jobs) and fails to consider the trade-offs such changes would call for - namely, higher taxes and a serious burden on those who would never benefit -- i.e. those who choose never to have children. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see what other countries are doing to promote breastfeeding, and how far behind the US is on the subject.
Not your average, run-of-the-mill thriller. First of all, there are no good guys. Nobody's innocent. The "heroes" are a couple of contract killers, brothers, who switch from one group of bad guys to the other group of bad guys. But I have to hand it to Branon - he has a knack for getting your attention. The death scenes (they are numerous) are gruesome, detailed, even thoughtful. Scary, how thoughtful they are. And he also has a flair for the absurd. One woman, killed in an explosion, has the flesh ripped from her femur, which then plunges itself through the skull of her boss and plummets into her pelvis. Probably the best thing about this book is that it's not predictable. There are several scene set-ups that you see in other books (like the gambler who just has to win) but without the same old outcomes. That, at least, was refreshing. The plot, of course, is totally ridiculous, but that's part of this book's appeal. Numerous and sundry sex scenes, extremely detailed, so this one's probably not for our younger readers. All in all, it was a great book - gripping. And even if (like me) you don't "get" all of the gambling and gun references, you should get enough to enjoy the story.
A collection of science fiction stories with atypical heroes, written and illustrated by fairly well-known authors and illustrators of their day (70's). Some of the stories (notably, Camden Kid) were downright corny, but a few of them were really fun and interesting. I've never really read much sci-fi, but our book collection is heavy in it, so I may be reading more.
Originally written in the 70's, so the references are a bit dated, but it's still a good read. Totally far-fetched storyline, but isn't that the way with most suspense/thrillers? By the time I got halfway through, the pace had really picked up and I couldn't put it down. I spent an hour and a half in the tub, reading, hoping Adam wouldn't wake up so I could finish the book. The story is about a suburban community on suspicion of involvement in a Soviet conspiracy (hey, I *said* it was dated!) and the CIA's attempt to expose them.
A collection of four stories, about four different women, all (of course) blondes. These women all live in New York, and are all thin, and are all obsessed with being thin and living in New York. One's a model, one a journalist, the third a princess, and the last is presumably the author herself. Very, very strange stories. Throughout the whole thing, I just kept hoping that not all New Yorkers were so neurotic and insecure and shallow, or I'd have to pity them for the rest of my life. This one's not going to show up on anybody's "American classics" list, but it was still occasionally interesting.
I actually finished this book sometime last month. It's a murder/cop story, with a totally predictable ending. It was exactly what I was looking for at the time - an easy read. Not great literature, but at least easy on the thinking muscles.
Another I finished last month. A collection of stories (I suspect largely rehashed newspaper articles) about Trillin's family - his wife and two daughters. Mike bought me this book after we heard Trillin doing a reading on NPR. As is typical, the best bits were covered in the reading, but it was still interesting, even downright funny. You'd probably get more out of it than I did if you happened to have lived in NY and could "get" all the references to New York landmarks.
A "last month" book. Hilariously funny. This is a story about a remake of the Sleeping Beauty story, with demons at the puppet strings, so to speak. There are lots of little innuendos and double entendres, but (for a change) they're actually well-done. Not really a thinking book, but a lot of fun.
Finished last month. I picked this book up at the last Friends of the Library sell for 50 cents, because I had heard it referred to but had never read it. It's a surprisingly even-handed (maybe too much so) account of American attitudes toward Blacks and slavery during colonial and post-Revolutionary days, with some specific emphasis on Thomas Jefferson. It makes some interesting, thought-provoking points about prejudice and power. It was put out before the truth was known about Jefferson's having had an affair with one of his slaves (the suspicions were around, just not the DNA-style proof), and it's intriguing to see how Jefferson's public persona would lead a very well-educated man (Jordan) to a totally wrong conclusion about his (Jefferson's) private actions. Makes you wonder what people do when the doors are closed.