en-US Sun, 01 Jun 2025 12:58:56 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 220160424 The “consistently high-quality�� (Booklist) Charlie Parker series continues with a white-knuckled new thriller from New York Times bestselling author John Connolly.

Wyatt Riggins, the boyfriend of rising Maine artist Zetta Nadeau, has gone missing, leaving behind a cell phone containing a single-word RUN. Private investigator Charlie Parker is hired to find out why Riggins has fled, and from whom.

Parker discovers that Riggins, an ex-soldier, has been involved in the abduction of four children from Mexico: three girls and a boy, all belonging to the cartel boss Blás Urrea—except Urrea’s family is safe and well in Mexico, which means the abductees cannot be his children. Yet whoever they are, Urrea wants them back, and has dispatched his agents to secure them, even if it means butchering everyone who stands in their way.

One of those agents is Eugene Seeley, a clever, ruthless solver of other men’s problems. The other is an unknown woman.

Every child has a mother. Now Charlie Parker will face one unlike any other, and learn the terrifying truth about the Children of Eve.]]> 464 John Connolly 1668083949 Dan 4 We can, as always, enmesh ourselves in the story without needing to buy into the occult/religious material. As for the 22 novel arc, perhaps Mr. Connolly knows the answers; perhaps he relates the tale as it reveals itself. We will simply have to keep reading as long as he writes Parker.

Recommended.
]]> 3.97 2025
author: John Connolly
name: Dan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/31
date added: 2025/06/01
shelves:
review:
Sometimes an author gets hold of an idea that has a long story arc. We then are gifted with a book of 800 or more pages. Mr. Connolly has been keeping company with Mr. Parker for 22 novels now, and we get hints of this and that, but little substantive material. It is like those photos of Big Foot or Nessie or the UFOs; more a hint than a clear picture. The present novel contains a lot of woo-woo but not Parker's: The story is about other people who offended some other Other. Parker's ghostly daughter appears as asides, isolated Chapters, now and then.
We can, as always, enmesh ourselves in the story without needing to buy into the occult/religious material. As for the 22 novel arc, perhaps Mr. Connolly knows the answers; perhaps he relates the tale as it reveals itself. We will simply have to keep reading as long as he writes Parker.

Recommended.

]]> 219293007
But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protege is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something's not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hitman and why?

This is Duffy's most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning "peace process" may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5 and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.

[b]New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty continues the Edgar Award-winning Sean Duffy series with Hang on St. Christopher.[/b]]]> 296 Adrian McKinty Dan 4
I have known Sean, excuse me, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy, since his first story jumped off the presses. He was with me when I walked the streets of his Belfast, of his Carrickfergus. Someone, Sheridan?, once said something to the effect that Ireland was a place of sad songs and happy wars. Without doubt, the country Sean inhabits reeks of sadness, the sadness of failed humanity. No matter how many jokes, no matter how much music gets played, no matter how much comeuppance is doled, Sean Duffy's world is brutal, sad, and unnecessary.

Strolling the streets of Belfast can now be done with a relatively calm mind. The troubles seem to have been put behind. But marks remain. As with us here in the U.S., one can never be sure the peace will last, that the republic will stand.

Recommended.]]> 4.33 2020
author: Adrian McKinty
name: Dan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/28
date added: 2025/05/28
shelves:
review:
Well, I hate coming to the party late, but I guess I will roll with it here. I did think I was reading a hot off-the-typewriter novel until ŷ������ told me it first appeared in 2020. Ouch!

I have known Sean, excuse me, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy, since his first story jumped off the presses. He was with me when I walked the streets of his Belfast, of his Carrickfergus. Someone, Sheridan?, once said something to the effect that Ireland was a place of sad songs and happy wars. Without doubt, the country Sean inhabits reeks of sadness, the sadness of failed humanity. No matter how many jokes, no matter how much music gets played, no matter how much comeuppance is doled, Sean Duffy's world is brutal, sad, and unnecessary.

Strolling the streets of Belfast can now be done with a relatively calm mind. The troubles seem to have been put behind. But marks remain. As with us here in the U.S., one can never be sure the peace will last, that the republic will stand.

Recommended.
]]> 216971226 In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington's army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat.
The first twenty-one months of the American Revolution--which began at Lexington and ended at Princeton--was the story of a ragged group of militiamen and soldiers fighting to forge a new nation. By the winter of 1777, the exhausted Continental Army could claim only that it had escaped annihilation by the world's most formidable fighting force.

Two years into the war, George III is as determined as ever to bring his rebellious colonies to heel. But the king's task is now far more complicated: fighting a determined enemy on the other side of the Atlantic has become ruinously expensive, and spies tell him that the French and Spanish are threatening to join forces with the Americans.

Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson provides a riveting narrative covering the middle years of the Revolution. Stationed in Paris, Benjamin Franklin woos the French; in Pennsylvania, George Washington pleads with Congress to deliver the money, men, and materiel he needs to continue the fight. In New York, General William Howe, the commander of the greatest army the British have ever sent overseas, plans a new campaign against the Americans--even as he is no longer certain that he can win this searing, bloody war. The months and years that follow bring epic battles at Brandywine, Saratoga, and Charleston, as well as a winter of misery at Valley Forge, and yet more appeals for sacrifice by every American committed to the struggle for freedom.

Timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution, Atkinson's brilliant account of the lethal struggle between the Americans and the British offers not only deeply researched and spectacularly dramatic history, but also a fresh perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on each of its citizens.]]> 880 Rick Atkinson 0593799186 Dan 5 We learn history echoes itself. Congress at one point wanted Gen. Washington to invade Canada; it was as stupid then as it is now. Washington wrestled Congress out of the idea. He had to do that a lot since Congress then was as feckless as it is now. Promises of money, clothes, food and arms were repeatedly made and broken.
The great lesson here: We, the Americans, the United States, have been extraordinarily lucky. Storms interceded on our behalf; enemy commanders blundered; disease struck worse on ships than on land.

There is another lesson, those diseases. Perhaps 6 of every 7 deaths among Continental forces came not from force of arms but from disease. Some practices being touted today reflect the misery of the 1700s. They did not have widespread vaccination then. If we did not, we would be just as dead as they are.

The story here is brilliantly told, encompassing not only North America but France and London and the world. This easily could be called the First World War, with conflict in Europe, South America and the Pacific. The text is peppered with mini-biographies of the players set amid the clear battle descriptions many of which are augmented by terrific maps.

Highly Recommended

]]> 4.60 2025
author: Rick Atkinson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/25
date added: 2025/05/25
shelves:
review:
Diaries. Letters. Newspapers. Bills of lading. Marginal notes. All these things and much more go into researching history the right way. Mr. Atkinson goes everywhere, looks at everything, has been blessed with writing talent and organizational ability.
We learn history echoes itself. Congress at one point wanted Gen. Washington to invade Canada; it was as stupid then as it is now. Washington wrestled Congress out of the idea. He had to do that a lot since Congress then was as feckless as it is now. Promises of money, clothes, food and arms were repeatedly made and broken.
The great lesson here: We, the Americans, the United States, have been extraordinarily lucky. Storms interceded on our behalf; enemy commanders blundered; disease struck worse on ships than on land.

There is another lesson, those diseases. Perhaps 6 of every 7 deaths among Continental forces came not from force of arms but from disease. Some practices being touted today reflect the misery of the 1700s. They did not have widespread vaccination then. If we did not, we would be just as dead as they are.

The story here is brilliantly told, encompassing not only North America but France and London and the world. This easily could be called the First World War, with conflict in Europe, South America and the Pacific. The text is peppered with mini-biographies of the players set amid the clear battle descriptions many of which are augmented by terrific maps.

Highly Recommended


]]> 201750163 Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, face a cryptic case and a terrifying, unpredictable killer in this twisty, satisfying thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.

Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn't find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired, but now, ten years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole.

Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a loser, but Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.

As Elvis Cole and Joe Pike follow Tommy Beller's trail into the twisted, nightmare depths of a monstrous evil, the case flips on its head. Victims become predators, predators become prey, and when everyone is a victim, can Elvis Cole save them all?

In a case that tests Elvis Cole's loyalty to his clients and himself, the truth must come out no matter the cost. Elvis must face The Big Empty and see justice done.]]> 373 Robert Crais 0525535799 Dan 5 Elvis and Joe have come a long way since "The Monkey's Raincoat". Robert Crais has kept them sharp.
Recommended]]> 4.54 2025
author: Robert Crais
name: Dan
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/08
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves:
review:
Mr. Crais gives us plenty of Joe Pike and spices things with cameos for John Chen and a few other sources, plus a few telephone appearances from Louisana. Detective Cole needs all his mental and physical talents to take him through this one. The choices are difficult, the villains dangerous, the plot a bit twisted.
Elvis and Joe have come a long way since "The Monkey's Raincoat". Robert Crais has kept them sharp.
Recommended
]]> 33917107
On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible: the election of Donald Trump as president. Against all predictions, one of the most-disliked presidential candidates in history had swept the electoral college, elevating a man with open contempt for democratic norms and institutions to the height of power.

Timothy Snyder is one of the most celebrated historians of the Holocaust. In his books Bloodlands and Black Earth, he has carefully dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the execution of their catastrophic policies. With Twenty Lessons, Snyder draws from the darkest hours of the twentieth century to provide hope for the twenty-first. As he writes, “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.��

Twenty Lessons is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.]]> 127 Timothy Snyder 0804190119 Dan 5 Twenty short essays here, with an Epilogue. The structure, history and methods of combating and recognizing tyranny are covered.
People and events are cited but without particularization; we are expected to know the who, and the what, and the where from the description of the event. This works well if the reader is the least bit aware of current events. If the reader is not aware, then said reader probably is not reading this book.

Once one has digested this material, either before reading about it here or from a previous feeding, one can then look at the passing scene with disgust, fear and anxiety.

Recommended

]]> 4.25 2017
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Dan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/06
date added: 2025/05/06
shelves:
review:
Tyranny here in the U.S. is in focus with Nazi Germany providing lots of background. Mr. Snyder uses plenty of other sources of tyrannical material from history and around the world map. Disturbing, as always.
Twenty short essays here, with an Epilogue. The structure, history and methods of combating and recognizing tyranny are covered.
People and events are cited but without particularization; we are expected to know the who, and the what, and the where from the description of the event. This works well if the reader is the least bit aware of current events. If the reader is not aware, then said reader probably is not reading this book.

Once one has digested this material, either before reading about it here or from a previous feeding, one can then look at the passing scene with disgust, fear and anxiety.

Recommended


]]> 213870084 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.�� This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.��

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.��

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.�� It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,�� a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.��

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 208 Omar El Akkad 0593804147 Dan 5
It seems to me that the above encapsulates much of the book and a lot of the quoted ŷ������ reviews. The general topic of Mr. El Akkad's book is the genocide in Palestine and our paniced response to it. Panic happens when the situation is energized but we do not know how to respond.

We are given a lot of biographical material interspersed with moral musings. Or vice versa. Some find that distasteful, putting the traveling facts and personal experiences in opposition to the historical activities discussed. Most of us use the personal to inflame our response to the intangible, to the horror.

Liberals take a beating here as do MAGA adherents. As long as we let the genocide continue we all deserve a beating.

Highly Recommended
]]> 4.67 2025
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Dan
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves:
review:
Aaron Bushnell, USAF. "In the final moments of Aaron Bushnell's life, officers rush to the site of his burning. One asks for a fire extinguisher, another points his gun at the flames". --pg 180

It seems to me that the above encapsulates much of the book and a lot of the quoted ŷ������ reviews. The general topic of Mr. El Akkad's book is the genocide in Palestine and our paniced response to it. Panic happens when the situation is energized but we do not know how to respond.

We are given a lot of biographical material interspersed with moral musings. Or vice versa. Some find that distasteful, putting the traveling facts and personal experiences in opposition to the historical activities discussed. Most of us use the personal to inflame our response to the intangible, to the horror.

Liberals take a beating here as do MAGA adherents. As long as we let the genocide continue we all deserve a beating.

Highly Recommended

]]> 53847430 New York Times��bestselling author of��Oath of Office
��
For Secret Service Agent Scott Roarke, every day is a ticking clock. In these three edge-of-your-seat thrillers, Roarke has the lives of the American people in his hands every day, from the leader of the free world on down, and every page brings him, and us, closer to annihilation. Perfect for fans of Brad Thor and David Baldacci, this bundle of political conspiracy thrillers pits a brilliant agent against an ruthless enemy, and will keep you turning pages to each jaw-dropping conclusion.
]]> 1839 Gary Grossman 1626814503 Dan 4
These tales may not travel well. The glory of massive U.S. power plays united with individual heroics sets up the plots for our pleasure. Around the world, many will feel disgusted. That is okay with the author and the publisher and many of their readers: there are more books in the series.]]> 4.61 2014
author: Gary Grossman
name: Dan
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves:
review:
Having been laid low by Covid just as I tried reading books on my smartphone, discovering these books led me to hours of numbly stroking pages while sucking up the wildly implausible but stubbornly believable prose. The ongoing characters, including some bad guys, sprawled across the three volumes. Fatigue set in often, but the pages kept turning. I was under an almost hypnotic spell.

These tales may not travel well. The glory of massive U.S. power plays united with individual heroics sets up the plots for our pleasure. Around the world, many will feel disgusted. That is okay with the author and the publisher and many of their readers: there are more books in the series.
]]> 215749891 Detective Rick Jackson, a decorated LAPD detective and a key inspiration in the development of Harry Bosch, delivers a shocking and immersive look into the one case he could never let go.

In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck?

Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one Black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King.

In straightforward, matter-of-fact prose, Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue. Black Tunnel White Magic is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it.]]> 528 Rick Jackson 0316365785 Dan 3 Three guys go into a train tunnel. Two come out, the third lies there, stabbed. We follow detectives for decades as they pursue killers. The reading requires patience since the extensive dialogue repeats facts and changes facts with each passing year. The end result exposes how justice denied pervades some systems, slayed at the whim of a DA or governor.
The crime took place in California. The solving sprawled across the entire United States. The lessons learned are timeless.
]]> 3.55
author: Rick Jackson
name: Dan
average rating: 3.55
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves:
review:
Above all, reading this establishes sympathy for what police, especially detectives, go through: endless conversations with idiots. In this case, slimy idiots.
Three guys go into a train tunnel. Two come out, the third lies there, stabbed. We follow detectives for decades as they pursue killers. The reading requires patience since the extensive dialogue repeats facts and changes facts with each passing year. The end result exposes how justice denied pervades some systems, slayed at the whim of a DA or governor.
The crime took place in California. The solving sprawled across the entire United States. The lessons learned are timeless.

]]> 12999144 You're Next, unleashes his most accomplished, compelling thriller yet


One morning in Los Angeles, Nate Overbay—a divorced former solider suffering from PTSD and slowly dying from ALS �� goes to an eleventh-floor bank, climbs out of the bathroom window onto the ledge, and gets ready to end it all. But as he's steeling himself, a crew of robbers bursts into the bank and begins to viciously shoot employees and customers. With nothing to lose, Nate confronts the robbers, taking them out one-by-one. The last man standing leaves Nate with a cryptic warning.

Nate soon learns what that message meant. He is kidnapped by Pavlo, a savage Russian mobster and mastermind of the failed heist. Unable to break back into the bank to get the critical item inside, Pavlo gives Nate an ultimatum—break in and get what he needs or watch Pavlo slowly kill the one thing Nate loves most—his ex-wife Janie and his teenaged daughter Cielle—both lost when he came back from Iraq broken and confused. Now he's got one last chance to protect the people he loves, even if it's the last thing he is able to do.]]> 372 Gregg Hurwitz 0312625510 Dan 4 What does make a large difference in how one feels about this novel is the amount of disbelief suspension one needs. Some cool and believable things happen but they are counterbalanced by sillythings. And while I have not shot every semi-automatic pistol, the ones I have shot lock back when empty. They do not go 'click'. Too much TV seeps into books.

What does not happen is Mr. Hurwitz bowing to sappy sentimentalism. People die here, and others get hurt. The 'good guys' do not have blanket immunity from evil. And the Evil here is good and bad, a nasty incarnation who is given a terrible background. There is a cool dog. There are romances. There is a nebbish boy friend. There is a strong if flawed hero who comes through. There is a ghost.

Recommended]]> 3.95 2012
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Dan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
First, a warning. This baby weighs in at 500 pages. Is every word necessary? No. Does it make a difference? Yes, but a small one.
What does make a large difference in how one feels about this novel is the amount of disbelief suspension one needs. Some cool and believable things happen but they are counterbalanced by sillythings. And while I have not shot every semi-automatic pistol, the ones I have shot lock back when empty. They do not go 'click'. Too much TV seeps into books.

What does not happen is Mr. Hurwitz bowing to sappy sentimentalism. People die here, and others get hurt. The 'good guys' do not have blanket immunity from evil. And the Evil here is good and bad, a nasty incarnation who is given a terrible background. There is a cool dog. There are romances. There is a nebbish boy friend. There is a strong if flawed hero who comes through. There is a ghost.

Recommended
]]> 40953686 How can you solve a crime if you’ve killed the prime suspect?

Detective P.T. Marsh was a rising star on the police force of Mason Falls, Georgia—until his wife and young son were killed in an accident. Since that night, caught in a spiral of grief and booze, he’s lost the ability to see the line between smart moves and disastrous decisions. Such as when he decides to ’help out�� an exotic dancer by confronting her abusive boyfriend. When the next morning he gets called to the scene of his newest murder case, he is stunned to arrive at the house of a dead man, the very man he beat up the night before. He could swear the guy was alive when he left, but can he be sure? What he does know is that his fingerprints are all over the crime scene.

But the trouble is only beginning. P.T. and his partner Remy begin to suspect the murder is connected to a local arson and lynching; two days earlier, the dead body of a black teenager was found in a burned-out field, a portion of a blackened rope around his neck—and P.T. realizes he might have killed the #1 suspect of this horrific crime.

Amid rising racial tension and media scrutiny, P.T. uncovers something sinister at the heart of the boy’s murder—a conspiracy leading all the way back to the time of the Civil War. Risking everything to unravel the puzzle even as he fights off his own personal demons, P.T. races headlong toward an incendiary and life-altering showdown.]]> 320 John McMahon 0525535535 Dan 4
At the core of the starter story is a threat to P.T. Marsh, Homicide Detective, who strong arms a abusive boyfriend of a woman PT barely knows. Later that day said boy friend is found dead. Yeah, no big loss, except it might look as if PT did it. That hangs over him as the good stuff starts to unfold. And always hoovering about his head is the death of his wife and child in the recent past. Automobile accident. Sort of. We know we will be hearing about this in later adventures.

Recommended

]]> 3.71 2019
author: John McMahon
name: Dan
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
This is the lead book in John McMahon's southern lawman offering. We have several fine series featuring such police officers and detectives and there is plenty of room for another. Proud to have Mr. McMahon joining the game. He will be busy since the forth book in the series has been promised while he has started a new string with his latest, : "Head Cases". We await.

At the core of the starter story is a threat to P.T. Marsh, Homicide Detective, who strong arms a abusive boyfriend of a woman PT barely knows. Later that day said boy friend is found dead. Yeah, no big loss, except it might look as if PT did it. That hangs over him as the good stuff starts to unfold. And always hoovering about his head is the death of his wife and child in the recent past. Automobile accident. Sort of. We know we will be hearing about this in later adventures.

Recommended


]]> 50745220 The author of The Good Detective delivers a gripping and atmospheric new novel in which a cop takes on a harrowing new case and confronts old personal demons. What if the one good thing you did in your life doomed you to die?

A hard-nosed real estate baron is dead, and detectives P.T. Marsh and Remy Morgan learn there's a long list of suspects. Mason Falls, Georgia, may be a small town, but Ennis Fultz had filled it with professional rivals, angry neighbors, and a wronged ex-wife. And when Marsh realizes that this potential murder might be the least of his troubles, he begins to see what happens when ordinary people become capable of evil. As Marsh and Morgan dig into the case, it becomes clear that Fultz's death was not an isolated case of revenge. It may be part of a dark web of crimes connected to an accident that up-ended Marsh's life a couple years earlier--and that now threatens the life of a young child. Marsh veers dangerously off track as his search for clues becomes personal..and brings him to a place where a man's good deeds turn out to be more dangerous than his worst crimes.]]> 368 John McMahon 052553556X Dan 4 The thing is: guns. Mr. McMahon has a slippery relationship to them. He gives P.T. a service weapon rarely seen on a officer's hip. A .380. And PT 'taps' the trigger. I guess I will have to have a word with those who instructed me in firearms...

Rhe story here unfolds slowly and with intrigue. Clear cut at first, the central murder gets murkier and more diffuse with each trend page. Satisfying. And the on going riddle of PT's wife's death marches forth a bit.

Recommended]]> 3.90 2020
author: John McMahon
name: Dan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
A fine effort. Wedged in between his two "Good" titles come the first "Evil". We can be pretty sure number four will be the second. Meanwhile, Mr. McMahon spins quite the tale here, using many Chapters and an interesting, occasional, change of point of view.
The thing is: guns. Mr. McMahon has a slippery relationship to them. He gives P.T. a service weapon rarely seen on a officer's hip. A .380. And PT 'taps' the trigger. I guess I will have to have a word with those who instructed me in firearms...

Rhe story here unfolds slowly and with intrigue. Clear cut at first, the central murder gets murkier and more diffuse with each trend page. Satisfying. And the on going riddle of PT's wife's death marches forth a bit.

Recommended
]]> 55685973 An electrifying mystery featuring a troubled small-town police detective faced with three interwoven crimes that reveal sinister secrets about his community--and the deaths of his family, by the Edgar Award and Thriller Award shortlisted author whose novels have been described by the New York Times Book Review as "pretty much perfect."

In the years since the mysterious deaths of his wife and child, P.T. Marsh, a police detective in the small Georgia town of Mason Falls, has faced demons--both professional and personal. But when he is called to the scene of a school shooting, the professional and personal become intertwined, and he suspects that whoever is behind the crime may be connected to his own family tragedy.

As Marsh and his partner Remy investigate the shooting, they discover that it is far from straightforward, and their search for answers leads them to a conspiracy at the highest levels of local government--including within the police force. The stakes in the case become increasingly high, culminating in a showdown that has Marsh questioning everything he knows, and wondering if some secrets are better left undiscovered.]]> 384 John McMahon 059332837X Dan 4 ]]> 4.20 2021
author: John McMahon
name: Dan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
Mr. McMahon gets better with each outing. I know this because I read "Head Cases", then bought his first three P.T. and Remy books. And read them.

]]> 211004897 Head Cases follows an enigmatic group of FBI agents as they hunt down a murderer seeking his own justice in this electrifying—and commercial—series debut.

FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He also has a blind spot on the human side of investigations, a blindness that sometimes even includes people in his own life, like his beloved seven-year-old daughter Camila. Gardner and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, the FBI’s hidden edge, brought in for cases that no one else can solve.

When DNA links a murder victim to a serial killer long presumed dead, the team springs into action. A second victim establishes a pattern, and the murderer begins leaving a trail of clues and riddles especially for Gardner. And while the PAR team is usually relegated to working cold cases from behind a desk, the investigation puts them on the road and into the public eye, following in the footsteps of a killer.

Along with Gardner, PAR consists of a mathematician, a weapons expert, a computer analyst, and their leader, a career agent. Each of them must use every skill they have to solve the riddle of the killer’s identity. But with the perpetrator somehow learning more and more about the team at PAR, can they protect themselves and their families…before it’s too late?

With an enigmatic case that will keep readers on the edge of their seats and a thoroughly engaging ensemble cast, John McMahon’s Head Cases is a triumph.]]> 341 John McMahon 1250348293 Dan 4
Recommended]]> 3.98 2025
author: John McMahon
name: Dan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
Mr. McMahon departs from his series about the flawed P.T. and his curious partner, Remy with this new series (it will be a series!) about an F.B.I. unit of serious thinkers (Patterns and Recognition). Riding along with PAR requires a strong aptitude for suspending disbelief. Once over that hurdle rewards await. Fast paced with plenty of twists, "Head Cases" entertains.

Recommended
]]> 216269105
The New York Times bestselling author of Genome and The Evolution of Everything revisits Darwin’s revelatory theory of mate choice through the close study of the peculiar rituals of birds, and considers how this mating process complicates our own view of human evolution.

In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple, even mutually beneficial, transaction. Many more treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst, and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the center of Matt Ridley’s investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an arduous and even deadly ritual called a “lek.�� To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. When achieved, consummation with a female takes seconds. So why the months of practice and preparation that is elaborate, extravagant, exhausting and elegant?

The full answer remains a mystery. Evolutionary biologists can explain why males are generally the eager sellers, females the discriminating buyers. But they struggle to explain why, in some species, this extravagance goes beyond the mere gaudy, taking on bizarre shapes, postures, and behavior. And further, why these bird displays seem beautiful to us humans, a species with seemingly no skin in the game.

Using an early morning “lek" as his starting point, Ridley explores the scientific research into the evolution of bright colors, exotic ornaments, and elaborate displays in birds around the world. Charles Darwin thought the purpose of such displays was to "charm" females. Though Darwin’s theory was initially dismissed and buried for decades, recent scientific research has proven him newly right—there is a powerful evolutionary force quite distinct from natural selection: mate choice. In Birds, Sex and Beauty, Ridley reopens the history of Darwin’s vexed theory, laying bare a century of disagreement about an idea so powerful, so weird, and so wonderful, we may have yet to fully understand its implications.]]> 352 Matt Ridley 0063342987 Dan 5
When Charles Darwin dropped his work and ideas upon the world a war broke out between those who recognised the genius and those who thought his work the ravings of a madman, or worse. After some serious back and forth the issues devolved into quibbling. Today we have a broader and deeper theory of heredity, one willing to ask questions about altrusim and beauty. When one speaks of avian beauty the picture that comes to mind: Peacock.
We spend a lot of time with the Peacock as well as Black Grous, Mnakins and several others. The question in general is "Who decides mating and do they decide using beauty?" We see why the female seems to be the decider although that conclusion has been resisted by the mostly male biological community.

Ridley brings a lot of weight down on the female's side.

Recommended.]]> 4.14
author: Matt Ridley
name: Dan
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
Mr. Ridley has given us many fine books across a universe of topics. This time he writes close to his heart, as he has watched and studied birds for most of his life.

When Charles Darwin dropped his work and ideas upon the world a war broke out between those who recognised the genius and those who thought his work the ravings of a madman, or worse. After some serious back and forth the issues devolved into quibbling. Today we have a broader and deeper theory of heredity, one willing to ask questions about altrusim and beauty. When one speaks of avian beauty the picture that comes to mind: Peacock.
We spend a lot of time with the Peacock as well as Black Grous, Mnakins and several others. The question in general is "Who decides mating and do they decide using beauty?" We see why the female seems to be the decider although that conclusion has been resisted by the mostly male biological community.

Ridley brings a lot of weight down on the female's side.

Recommended.
]]> 217394492 In this stunningly twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben, a secret from former Detective Sami Kierce’s college days comes back to haunt him. His memory is clear, but all these years later, the facts don’t add up…which is something he cannot ignore.

Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts—and then he runs.

Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna. It’s unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day.

His investigation will bring him face-to-face with his past—and prove, after all this time, he’s nobody’s fool.]]> 352 Harlan Coben 1538756358 Dan 4 More than the mystery he presents, Mr. Coben's work exudes charm; his characters have charisma. The combination sucks the reader right in, bloody fingernails and all.
Here we have a sweet summer romance, a week in length, which suddenly ends. Then, 22 years later, Sami Kierce sees that vacation love. Hijinks follows, clever as Harlan does.

Recommended.]]> 4.07 2025
author: Harlan Coben
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
Head scratching time has arrived: Harlan is at work.
More than the mystery he presents, Mr. Coben's work exudes charm; his characters have charisma. The combination sucks the reader right in, bloody fingernails and all.
Here we have a sweet summer romance, a week in length, which suddenly ends. Then, 22 years later, Sami Kierce sees that vacation love. Hijinks follows, clever as Harlan does.

Recommended.
]]> 214339565 In the latest pulse-pounding thriller from Edgar and Barry Award finalist Mike Lawson, beloved Washington DC “troubleshooter�� Joe DeMarco finds himself assigned an impossible case: help take down the President of the United States.

Brandon Cartwright was a rich guy worth a couple billion bucks—inherited, of course—meaning he hadn’t worked a day in his life. But he sure knew how to party, and the people he rubbed shoulders with were all sorts of rich and famous: politicians and movie stars and British royalty and Russian oligarchs. So when Brendan Cartwright is executed in his own home, the cops quickly conclude that he was most likely killed by one or more of the rich, powerful people he partied with.

But when John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, emerges from a clandestine meeting with the head of the National Archives, he learns there’s evidence suggesting that the President of the United States was somehow involved with Cartwright’s death. Mahoney needs someone who can investigate from the shadows—enter Joe DeMarco, Mahoney's fixer.

DeMarco is no stranger to hunting down some of the very worst people Washington D.C. has to offer. In fact, he’s made a career of it. But as evidence continues to point towards the President, DeMarco is faced with an impossible situation: investigating a man who is quite literally untouchable.]]> 320 Mike Lawson 0802164455 Dan 5 Here we get to meet the unual crowd, a delight all around.

Reccommended]]> 4.19 2025
author: Mike Lawson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
Mr. Lawson gets better with each outing. And Joe DeMarco gets tougher.
Here we get to meet the unual crowd, a delight all around.

Reccommended
]]> 253292 384 André Schwarz-Bart 1585670162 Dan 5 This was a best sellar and award winner in Frane and the U.S. way back when, which makes me wonder about Aerican intelligence today vs. then. The vocabulary is enough to stagger readers today, and the narrative technique would baffle many. Yet, apparently, readers in the early '60s were tickled.

As for the story itself: no for the squeamish. After trudging through Europe for a thousand years, witnessing myriad horrors, we get to traverse a bit of territory with folk whose journeys end behind barbed wire as they enjoy the embrace of gas chambers.

Highly Recommended

]]> 4.24 1959
author: André Schwarz-Bart
name: Dan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:
What is interesting here? First, the book itself is a history of sorts of Jewish life in Europe until the Holocaust. My copy is a 1960 First edition I found on line for a very reasonable price. Oddly, I think, there are scads of other editions in hardback, paperback, e- and audio versions as well as foreign language efforts, including several in the original French. And yet I was unfamiliar with the title when I found it in "The Good American". "Last of the Just" was an inspiration to said American; had to be good reading.
This was a best sellar and award winner in Frane and the U.S. way back when, which makes me wonder about Aerican intelligence today vs. then. The vocabulary is enough to stagger readers today, and the narrative technique would baffle many. Yet, apparently, readers in the early '60s were tickled.

As for the story itself: no for the squeamish. After trudging through Europe for a thousand years, witnessing myriad horrors, we get to traverse a bit of territory with folk whose journeys end behind barbed wire as they enjoy the embrace of gas chambers.

Highly Recommended


]]> 222570914 Currie Ron Dan 4 Babs Dione was such a person. Babs had a tough life; it made her a tough woman. In fact, she was tougher than the men. She became the de facto leader of the small Maine town she and her family lived in.
How the town made money, how they crossed paths with very bad men, how Babs intended to restore some dignity to the town and the adjacent college, all roll into a surprisingly good romp. Mr. Currie deserves congratulations.
Recommended

PS ŷ������ has the author's name reversed. He is 'Ron Currie']]> 3.80
author: Currie Ron
name: Dan
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:
Many of us know about the French Canadians who fled to New Orleans and became Cajun music, food the object of racial hatred. Few know about the settlers in Maine before statehood who came from Canada, spoke French, and became the object of racial hatred.
Babs Dione was such a person. Babs had a tough life; it made her a tough woman. In fact, she was tougher than the men. She became the de facto leader of the small Maine town she and her family lived in.
How the town made money, how they crossed paths with very bad men, how Babs intended to restore some dignity to the town and the adjacent college, all roll into a surprisingly good romp. Mr. Currie deserves congratulations.
Recommended

PS ŷ������ has the author's name reversed. He is 'Ron Currie'
]]> 213870442 New York Times bestseller C.J. Box.]]> 358 C.J. Box 0593851064 Dan 3 The last entry in this series, "Three Inch Nails", taxed our willingness to suspend disbelief. Elements here, in "Battle Mountain," perhaps have broken many wills to trade bizarre for story.

At the end of the novel the reader finds these quibbles spilling out of the background. But the book was read through because Mr. Box has the knack of keeping us engaged.

]]> 4.47 2025
author: C.J. Box
name: Dan
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
review:
Ah, the prices of success. Here we have C.J. Box, who built a terrific brand with Joe Pickett. But. As with so many other series characters, Joe became lonely. We saw Nate added, then Mr.Jones. We also saw the governor come, go and come again. And Joe's wife and daughter, who were so vital to the early stories. Well, it is difficult to create new novel-length stories featuring Joe Pickett having an adventure by himself. Readers want to spend time with Nate, for sure, and maybe Mary Beth or Sheridan. Where is April?
The last entry in this series, "Three Inch Nails", taxed our willingness to suspend disbelief. Elements here, in "Battle Mountain," perhaps have broken many wills to trade bizarre for story.

At the end of the novel the reader finds these quibbles spilling out of the background. But the book was read through because Mr. Box has the knack of keeping us engaged.


]]> 211004916 No greater friend. No deadlier enemy.

Evan Smoak is a highly trained former government assassin who has survived for years by keeping his circle to a few trusted confidants and a strict code he calls "The Ten Commandments." But when Evan suddenly finds himself at odds with his oldest friend, all the rules he lives by shatter--and the consequences are murderous.

Tommy Stojack might be Evan's best friend in the world. He's a gifted gunsmith who has created much of Evan's own weapons and combat gear. But now, he has apparently crossed one of Evan's hardest lines and their argument explodes into open warfare. Now Evan has no choice but to track and face down his only friend.

In the meantime, Tommy has left town in order to honor his own promise to help a dead friend's son. While Tommy is fighting to save the son with everything he's got, Evan arrives with vengeance in mind.

But as deadly as the former Orphan X is, there is an even more dangerous threat about to arrive on the scene. The only question left is will any of them get out alive.]]> 464 Gregg Hurwitz 1250871743 Dan 3 ]]> 4.16 2025
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Dan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:
While not as entrancing as the first few Orphan novels, one can not be too harsh in reviewing the tenth installment of a series. True, Mr. Hurwitz has tweaked the formula a few times along the way, all to the good. If one can leave morals on the desktop before opening the book, an entertaining time may be had.

]]> 15990644 'That black figure, with its eyes of fire, struck down through all my adult thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood came back to my mind'

Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo - a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau - a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments - with truly horrific results.]]> 143 H.G. Wells 0141389397 Dan 4 We start with a shipwrecked fellow who is jot the hero type. He lands on the Island in question and eventually escapes---he must, since he is telling us the story. What he escaped from and how will tax the imagination of even us modern readers.]]> 3.60 1896
author: H.G. Wells
name: Dan
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1896
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:
Mr. Wells gave us several adventure stories. This is one of the in-between ones, lively and disturbing but not as gripping as several of his other works.
We start with a shipwrecked fellow who is jot the hero type. He lands on the Island in question and eventually escapes---he must, since he is telling us the story. What he escaped from and how will tax the imagination of even us modern readers.
]]> 59516881
“One of the best accounts examining American humanitarian pursuits over the past fifty years . . . With still greater challenges on the horizon, we will need to find and empower more people like Bob Gersony—both idealistic and pragmatic—who can help make the world a more secure place.”�� The Washington Post

In his long career as an acclaimed journalist covering��the��“hot�� moments of��the��Cold War and its aftermath, bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan often found himself crossing paths with Bob Gersony, a consultant for��the��U.S. State Department whose quiet dedication and consequential work made a deep impression on Kaplan.

Gersony, a high school dropout later awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, conducted on-the-ground research for��the U.S. government in virtually every war and natural-disaster zone in��the��world. In Thailand, Central and South America, Sudan, Chad, Mozambique, Rwanda, Gaza, Bosnia, North Korea, Iraq, and beyond, Gersony never flinched from entering dangerous areas that diplomats could not reach, sometimes risking his own life. Gersony’s behind-the��scenes fact-finding, which included interviews with hundreds of refugees and displaced persons from each war zone and natural-disaster area, often challenged the��assumptions and received wisdom of��the��powers that be, on both��the��left and��the��right. In nearly every case, his advice and recommendations made American��policy at once smarter and more humane—often dramatically so.

In Gersony, Kaplan saw a powerful example of how��American diplomacy should be conducted. In a work that exhibits Kaplan’s signature talent for combining travel and geography with sharp political analysis, The Good American tells Gersony’s powerful life story. Set during��the��State Department’s golden age, this is a story about the loneliness, sweat, and tears and��the��genuine courage that characterized Gersony’s work in far-flung places. It is also a celebration of ground-level a page-turning demonstration, by one of our finest geopolitical thinkers, of how getting an up-close, worm’s-eye view of crises and applying sound reason can elicit world-changing results.]]> 544 Robert D. Kaplan 0525512314 Dan 5
Then I turn around and find he has written a biography of someone I'd never heard of, someone who has traveled as much as Mr. Kaplan. A man who led a dangerous life. And playing against Burdick and Lederer's "The Ugly American" without the confusion of calling the good guy Ugly. Bob Gersony acted as The Good American on five Continents for the best part of five decades.

The story of the development of his methodology and his adventures using it in the worst war zones, among mass murders and genocides, near criminal undertakings and amid political skullduggery can be riveting. Mr. Laplan's explanations of the backgrounds and results of Bob's reports give us insight as well as a nifty history lesson.

Highly Recommended.]]> 4.34 2021
author: Robert D. Kaplan
name: Dan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:
Robert D. Kaplan first jumped into my buyer's hands at a book fair. Since then I have read almost everything he has published in book form. His travels, his insight into politics, his explanations of geography and history have all made good sense and have expanded my understanding of the world.

Then I turn around and find he has written a biography of someone I'd never heard of, someone who has traveled as much as Mr. Kaplan. A man who led a dangerous life. And playing against Burdick and Lederer's "The Ugly American" without the confusion of calling the good guy Ugly. Bob Gersony acted as The Good American on five Continents for the best part of five decades.

The story of the development of his methodology and his adventures using it in the worst war zones, among mass murders and genocides, near criminal undertakings and amid political skullduggery can be riveting. Mr. Laplan's explanations of the backgrounds and results of Bob's reports give us insight as well as a nifty history lesson.

Highly Recommended.
]]> 202102004 A portrait of the fascinating, unusual and fruitful creative partnership between Fanny and Robert Louis StevensonThe romance between Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson was an unlikely Victorian love he was an ambitious but drifting college-educated writer from a prominent family in Scotland; she was a forceful and determined farm girl from Indiana with a high school education. She was married, with children, and 10 years his senior when they met in France in 1876. How could a union between them work?A Wilder Shore is a portrait of these two extraordinary people and a nuanced examination of the improbable union that stimulated, frustrated and ultimately sustained them. The book travels the world with the couple as they seek better health for him, a looser lifestyle and more creative freedom, beginning in an art colony outside Paris and ending in Samoa, where they lived and joined the native islanders�� fight for independence from imperialist powers. Along the way, the ferment of the Stevensons�� deeply loving but stormy marriage produced literary masterpieces by Robert such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.This sweeping love story of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson and their search for freedom and self-discovery opens up new perspectives on both writers, as well as showing how astonishingly modern they were for their times.]]> 480 Camille Peri 0670786195 Dan 4 Well, however I got to know the work, I do have a working knowledge of Robert Louis Stevenson's three great novels, and a few bits of other writings, too. What a gas to read about his life and his extraordinary wife. Actually, he, his wife Fanny, and the lives they led were all extraordinary. Ms. Peri brings it all to us in fine prose, well-researched, well edited.
Recommended]]> 3.87
author: Camille Peri
name: Dan
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:
One trouble with being an early reader is that fifty or sixty years on one might have difficulty remembering exactly what one read. Did I read Treasure Island in a book, which I do own, or did I read the Classic Illustrated comic? Or watch a Walt Disney TV show?
Well, however I got to know the work, I do have a working knowledge of Robert Louis Stevenson's three great novels, and a few bits of other writings, too. What a gas to read about his life and his extraordinary wife. Actually, he, his wife Fanny, and the lives they led were all extraordinary. Ms. Peri brings it all to us in fine prose, well-researched, well edited.
Recommended
]]> 13480263
With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.]]> 668 Stephen King Dan 3 Spoiler: One thing I hazard might make Mr. King's work stand out reflects the guts he has as a novelist. After perhaps half the book, maybe more, he labored to develop a delightful love story, using a local resident girl as lover for the visiting fellow we think is the hero. Then the girl is killed, that is, vampireized, necessitating our hero to drive a stake into her heart. Tough love.

I thought that it was about time I read King. I understand now why he is a tower among writers.]]> 4.22 1975
author: Stephen King
name: Dan
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:
Probably, if I read this in 1975, it would have rung my bell. As it is, the themes and most of the story have found niches in culture such that even a vampire avoider such as myself retains a good grip on the story.
Spoiler: One thing I hazard might make Mr. King's work stand out reflects the guts he has as a novelist. After perhaps half the book, maybe more, he labored to develop a delightful love story, using a local resident girl as lover for the visiting fellow we think is the hero. Then the girl is killed, that is, vampireized, necessitating our hero to drive a stake into her heart. Tough love.

I thought that it was about time I read King. I understand now why he is a tower among writers.
]]> 215959511 In a new thriller from the author of The End of the Road, a former postal inspection agent tracks a violent crew through the Midwest to rescue a kidnapped woman.

Mercury Carter is a deliveryman and he takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address that threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. That’s because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service, skills that make him particularly useful for delivering items in circumstances as dangerous as these.

After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals—but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. With Rachel’s husband Glenn in tow, Carter takes off in pursuit of the kidnapper and his quarry, hunting them across Indiana, up to Chicago, and into small-town Illinois. Along the way, he slowly picks off members of the crew and uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy and a powerful crime syndicate, all in service of his main to hand the package over to Rachel. Carter has never missed a delivery and isn’t about to start now.

Introducing a new lone-wolf protagonist to rival Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Steve Hamilton’s Nick Mason, and Gregg Hurwitz’s Evan Smoak, The Mailman is a pulse-pounding series opener with captivating action and enough thrills to leave readers anxiously awaiting the next installment.]]> 350 Andrew Welsh-Huggins 1613166109 Dan 4
Understand, I am not a Tom Cruise fan, but I have noted he is rather short and likes to run and smile. As it happens The Mailman smiles a lot and does a bit of running. And is rather short. I therefore nominate Mr. Crusie for the role in what would be a crackerjack movie.

AWH does a fine job juggling a large cast of victims, baddies and goodies; we keep engaged; the ending satisfies.
Recommended]]> 3.91
author: Andrew Welsh-Huggins
name: Dan
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:
While not as new a character as one might suppose, The Mailman enjoys this first appearance in a novel. And we enjoy the back story that has been largely missing from his short story capers.

Understand, I am not a Tom Cruise fan, but I have noted he is rather short and likes to run and smile. As it happens The Mailman smiles a lot and does a bit of running. And is rather short. I therefore nominate Mr. Crusie for the role in what would be a crackerjack movie.

AWH does a fine job juggling a large cast of victims, baddies and goodies; we keep engaged; the ending satisfies.
Recommended
]]> 215959515 A tenacious attorney grapples with a dangerous group of thieves in this new thriller from the author of The Old Man.

Charles Warren, Los Angeles attorney, has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme—one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before, and that led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience.

Charlie can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at, and has his briefcase stolen. It’s clear that someone doesn’t want him following the trail of the missing money but, as Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal, and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.]]> 360 Thomas Perry 1613166168 Dan 5 The present effort dazzles. I am beset, however, by a nagging idea that it was written to be an 8 to 10-episode t.v. series. If that comes to pass it will be delightful. The novel leaves a huge door open for Season 2, or rather, for a sequel. If either, I trust there will not be another boondoggle like Season 2 of "The Old Man". I did so like the book and was thrilled about the Series, was eager for a second season, and dumbfounded to find myself riding through Afghani dust.

As for today's task, thinking about "Pro Bono" turns one's mind to the characters. The lawyer and his mom, his client, his secretary, and his two ex-con helpers make six characters we'd be happy to meet again. And we need more time with the secretary's dog, Alan.
Recommended]]> 3.71 2025
author: Thomas Perry
name: Dan
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:
"The Butcher's Boy" introduced me to Thomas Perry, followed by the hilarious "Metzger's Dog". Twenty-five more titles would come before Mr. Perry produced another apostrophe in a title. That was five books ago. In between the starters and today are the nine Jane Whitefield books and "The Old Man". I have read them all and have never been disappointed, although maybe a little by "The Murder Book".
The present effort dazzles. I am beset, however, by a nagging idea that it was written to be an 8 to 10-episode t.v. series. If that comes to pass it will be delightful. The novel leaves a huge door open for Season 2, or rather, for a sequel. If either, I trust there will not be another boondoggle like Season 2 of "The Old Man". I did so like the book and was thrilled about the Series, was eager for a second season, and dumbfounded to find myself riding through Afghani dust.

As for today's task, thinking about "Pro Bono" turns one's mind to the characters. The lawyer and his mom, his client, his secretary, and his two ex-con helpers make six characters we'd be happy to meet again. And we need more time with the secretary's dog, Alan.
Recommended
]]> 184907763
Dr Olivia Winter is a forensic psychologist whose job is to understand the minds of serial killers. There’s only one monster she can’t understand, her father.

A NEW IDENTITY

Notorious and brutal, he held a reign of terror until he was caught. His nine-year-old daughter was supposed to be his last victim, but she survived.

A SERIAL KILLER WHO WILL STOP AT NOTHING

Now, a serial killer is stalking the streets of London. As the body count rises, the police need Olivia’s help to profile him before he can strike again. But to do so, she will need to confront her own demons…]]> 454 Michael Wood 0008618852 Dan 2 The latest is the present effort, a rare 2-star-rated novel, read out of a fascination for the foolishness therein. Steamy sex? Well, yes, sort of, but not really since only the opening moves are described.
The hero is an emotional mess, flipping between hysteria and faulty rational thinking. The mysterious villain is poorly hidden, and recognized at first appearance. The basic plot ploy has promise but flops due to the overwrought handling.
Ugh.]]> 4.27 2024
author: Michael Wood
name: Dan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:
As I investigate the offerings in the ebook world I am finding material from authors I never knew existed, yet they have long and apparently successful careers. So far none are going to find their way onto my bookshelves.
The latest is the present effort, a rare 2-star-rated novel, read out of a fascination for the foolishness therein. Steamy sex? Well, yes, sort of, but not really since only the opening moves are described.
The hero is an emotional mess, flipping between hysteria and faulty rational thinking. The mysterious villain is poorly hidden, and recognized at first appearance. The basic plot ploy has promise but flops due to the overwrought handling.
Ugh.
]]> 56534999 Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.

This special tenth-anniversary deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses.

London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers. The “slow horses,�� as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?]]> 334 Mick Herron 1641292970 Dan 3 After one of my first ebook forays I gave Slow Horses three stars. I suspect I will find future volumes more to my taste. If nothing else I did enjoy the proper English writing without typos. ]]> 4.04 2010
author: Mick Herron
name: Dan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:
In spite of the dozens of bookshop letters I receive it still falls to personal recommendations for me to be in the know. This past week a brother pushed Mick Herron. All those books, all those years and I did not know the books or the TV show.
After one of my first ebook forays I gave Slow Horses three stars. I suspect I will find future volumes more to my taste. If nothing else I did enjoy the proper English writing without typos.
]]> 212294406 Waste Land,��Robert D. Kaplan, geopolitical expert and author of over twenty books on world affairs, explains incisively how we got here and where we are going.

As in much of his work, Kaplan looks to history, literature, politics and philosophy to interpret our world, drawing parallels between today’s challenges and those of Germany’s interwar Weimar Republic. Weimar faced myriad crises inextricably bound up with international systems, and its emergency became a global one. Today, too, every disaster in one country could spiral across the world, given the singular dilemmas of our century—pandemics, recession, urbanisation, mass migration, destabilisation under large-scale democracy and great power conflicts, and digital media’s intimate bonds. Could stability and historic liberalism, rather than mass democracy per se, save world populations from anarchic breakdown?

Waste Land��is a bracing glimpse into a future defined by twenty-first–century technology, but remarkably resonant with the past. The situation may be spiralling out of our control—unless our leaders act first.]]> 224 Robert D. Kaplan 0593730321 Dan 5 "Waste Land" represents a boiled-down body of work and thought, practically a precis of Professor Kaplan's work, from the personal journeys through the investigative and embedded endeavors.

"Waste Land" should be avoided by the faint of heart, the silly and the stupid. Those who want a better understanding of the world, feast here.

Highly Recommended]]> 3.67 2025
author: Robert D. Kaplan
name: Dan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:
Spengler, and Canetti, and Solzhenitsyn: Enough? Not hardly. Mr Kaplan's culture runs broad and deep. As he ruminates about the state of the world he runs through a lifetime of learning and experience. And since it is his lifetime, we are not given a train of thought, we have a tsunami, deep, wide and fast.
"Waste Land" represents a boiled-down body of work and thought, practically a precis of Professor Kaplan's work, from the personal journeys through the investigative and embedded endeavors.

"Waste Land" should be avoided by the faint of heart, the silly and the stupid. Those who want a better understanding of the world, feast here.

Highly Recommended
]]> 141456

The Bone Woman is Koff’s unflinching, riveting account of her seven UN missions to Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Rwanda, as she shares what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, and what she learned about the world. Yet even as she recounts the hellish nature of her work and the heartbreak of the survivors, she imbues her story with purpose, humanity, and a sense of justice. A tale of science in service of human rights, The Bone Woman is, even more profoundly, a story of hope and enduring moral principles.]]> 304 Clea Koff 0812968859 Dan 4 Yeah, one of our favorite political pastimes in the 20th Century---you know, The American Century---was genocide. Particularly adept at this have been African groups and the stand-out folks in and around the former Czechoslovakia.
Ms. Koff is a forensic anthropologist who worked in the mass graves created in several parts of the world. Her end-of-book summation is delightful reading, especially for the naive.

Highly Recommended]]> 4.00 2001
author: Clea Koff
name: Dan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:
After stumbling upon her first novel, I went to Ms. Koff's memoir about her days digging up semi-fresh bodies and cleaning their bones.
Yeah, one of our favorite political pastimes in the 20th Century---you know, The American Century---was genocide. Particularly adept at this have been African groups and the stand-out folks in and around the former Czechoslovakia.
Ms. Koff is a forensic anthropologist who worked in the mass graves created in several parts of the world. Her end-of-book summation is delightful reading, especially for the naive.

Highly Recommended
]]> 212718416 Every body has secrets...

Jayne and Steelie founded Agency 32/1 with one purpose in using their specialist forensic skills to help police solve crimes.

When a bundle of frozen body parts fall out of a van on a Los Angeles freeway, FBI agent Scott Houston knows just where to go for an off-the-record post-mortem. But to everyone’s horror, Jayne and Steelie quickly determine the parts aren’t from one body. The body parts are from multiple bodies.

A serial killer is on the loose. Worse, Scott’s call has put Jayne and Steelie’s lives in jeopardy, as their unique skills can uncover evidence to unmask the killer. Can they find the killer, before the killer finds them?]]> 384 Clea Koff 0008726027 Dan 3 3.46
author: Clea Koff
name: Dan
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:
One gets the feeling this was written as much to spread awareness of the missing person disgrace we face in the U.S. as to be an entertaining novel. Ms. Koff succeeds in both.
]]> 25942936 Exile on Bridge Street details teenage Irish immigrant Liam Garrity's struggle to adulthood in pre-Prohibition Brooklyn. Back home, Ireland's fight for its own independence erupts with the 1916 Easter Rising. The fate of Garrity's father, an Irish rebel, is unknown, which leaves his mother and two sisters vulnerable on the family farm as British troops swarm, seeking reprisals. Garrity must organize their departure to New York immediately. In Brooklyn, Garrity is adopted by Dinny Meehan, leader of a longshoremen gang based in an "Irishtown" saloon under the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. Meehan vows to help Garrity and his family. But just as Ireland struggles for independence, Garrity faces great obstacles in his own coming of age on��the��violent Brooklyn waterfront. World War I, the Spanish Influenza, the��temperance��movement, the rise of Italian��organized��crime, police, unions and shipping and dock companies all target the Brooklyn Irish gang and threaten Garrity's chances at bringing his family to New York. When "Wild Bill" Lovett, one of the gang's��dockbosses vies to take over, both Meehan and Garrity face a fight for survival in New York City's brawling streets mirroring Ireland's own fledgling independence movement. ��

Compelling writing by a master of historical fiction, as evidenced in the authors critically-acclaimed prequel Light of the Diddicoy.
]]> 356 Eamon Loingsigh 1941110428 Dan 5
Recommended]]> 4.20 2016
author: Eamon Loingsigh
name: Dan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:
Following "Light of the Diddicoy" and preceding the final volume of the trilogy, "Exile" is well realized, bursting with characters, and describes the first decades of The American Century as lived on the Brooklyn docks. Mister Loingsigh even sneaks in an ill-fated love story.

Recommended
]]> 214152254 Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl in this suspenseful and witty domestic thriller set in the world of home renovation TV—featuring a woman who becomes public enemy #1 after a horrifying discovery prompts her to flee her celebrity husband with their twin babies.

Dawn Decker is an American everywoman and the salt to her husband Wyatt’s sweet, media-friendly charm on their Tennessee-based home renovation reality TV show, The Perfect Home. While Dawn bristles at the trappings of their D-list celebrity status, Wyatt hungers for greater fame. The couple also faces infertility issues stemming from Wyatt’s low sperm count. He secretly orders experimental fertility drugs, and they conceive, but his personality takes a dark turn—he becomes moody, withdrawn, and even cruel.

When Dawn discovers his horrifying plot to manufacture a tragedy in order to skyrocket their celebrity status, she takes their infant twins and goes on the run. Wyatt appears on national television to turn the public against her, painting Dawn as an unstable kidnapper suffering from postpartum psychosis. His charm is so compelling that even Dawn’s closest friends doubt her. She will have to dig deep into the past—both hers and Wyatt’s—to find allies, protect her children, and beat this beloved all-American celebrity at his own game.

Told in dual perspectives from both husband and wife, this smart, captivating, and twisty thriller is a fun, addictive read from the very first page.]]> 320 Daniel Kenitz 1668063875 Dan 4 Mr. Kenitz writes with a pitch-perfect ear, capturing the excruciating patois of hucksters, police and desperate folk. While it is true that I rarely can stand reading about people who serially make bad (stupid) decisions, in this case the writing lulls me into turning the pages. The sense of 'and then, and then?' is strong here, and rewarded.
Recommended.]]> 3.52 2025
author: Daniel Kenitz
name: Dan
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:
January has become the month for me to make the rounds of dentists and physicians. And every one seems to have a home remodeling show on their inescapable flat-screen TV. Cue in this book, a cautionary tale about one of those TV couples who have become nationally known.
Mr. Kenitz writes with a pitch-perfect ear, capturing the excruciating patois of hucksters, police and desperate folk. While it is true that I rarely can stand reading about people who serially make bad (stupid) decisions, in this case the writing lulls me into turning the pages. The sense of 'and then, and then?' is strong here, and rewarded.
Recommended.
]]> 207300872
Combining realistic thrills with sophisticated spycraft and witty dialogue, The Collaborators delivers a gut-punch answer to the biggest geopolitical question of our time: how, exactly, did post-Soviet Russia turn down the wrong path?

Crisscrossing the globe on the way to this shocking revelation are disaffected millennial CIA officer Ari Falk, thrown into a moral and professional crisis by the death of his best asset; and brash, troubled LA heiress Maya Chou, spiraling after the disappearance of her Russian American billionaire father. The duo’s adventures take us to both classic and surprising locales—from Berlin, to Latvia, Belarus, and a 1980s Jewish refugee camp near Rome.

Dynamic, fast-paced, and filled with captivating details that provide a window into a secretive world, The Collaborators is a first-rate thriller that pays homage to both meanings of “intelligence.”]]> 272 Michael Idov 1668055570 Dan 4 Recommended.]]> 3.73 2024
author: Michael Idov
name: Dan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
review:
This effort crawls into 4 Star territory largely due to its slightly unforeseen ending which elevated the reading experience a bit. Mostly competently written and altogether well line-edited, the pages do turn rapidly enough that following the plot twists requires paying attention. The use of dual protagonists is well-handled; both are worth an encore.
Recommended.
]]> 199532065
Despite what Scarface might lead one to believe, violence was not the dominant characteristic of the cocaine business. It was corruption: the dirty cops, agents, lawyers, judges, and politicians who made the drug world go round. And no one managed that carousel of dangerous players better than Willy Falcon.

A Cuban exile whose family escaped Fidel Castro’s Cuba when he was eleven years old, Falcon, as a teenager, became active in the anti-Castro movement. He began smuggling cocaine into the U.S. as a way to raise money to buy arms for the Contras in Central America. This counter-revolutionary activity led directly to Willy’s genesis as a narco. He and his partners built an extraordinary international organization from the ground up. Los Muchachos, the syndicate founded by Falcon, thrived as a major cocaine distribution network in the U.S. from the late 1970’s into the early 1990’s. At their height, Los Muchachos made more than a hundred million dollars a year. At the same time, Willy, his brother Tavy Falcon, and partner Sal Magluta became famous as championship powerboat racers.

Cocaine, used by everyone from A-list celebrities to lawyers and people in law enforcement, came to define an era, and for a time, Willy Falcon and those like him—major suppliers, of whom there were only a few—became stars in their own right. They were the deliverers of good times, at least until the downside of persistent cocaine use became apparent: delusions of grandeur, psychological addiction, financial ruin. Thus, the War on Drugs was born, and federal authorities came after Falcon and his crew with a vengeance. Willy found himself on the run, his marriage and family life in shambles, the halcyon days of boat races and lavish trips to Vegas and parties at the Mutiny night club seemingly a distant memory.

T. J. English has been granted unprecedented access to the inner workings of Los Muchachos, sitting down with Willy Falcon and his associates for many lengthy interviews, and revealing never-before-understood details about drug trafficking. A classic of true-crime writing from a master of the genre, The Last Kilo traces the rise and fall of a true cocaine empire—and the lives left in its wake.]]> 512 T.J. English 0063265532 Dan 5
As for the story and its telling, both are powerful. I have no doubt some of the few who read this will while that r. English does not condemn Willy Falcon and Associates. He does jot; he lets the reader make those judgments. Neither does he deride the judges, prison officials, Justice Department flunkeys, and other government agencies for intrinsic and implicit cruelty and self-righteousness. Nor does he point out the bureaucratic foolishness entailed in not being able to catch a large bunch of smugglers even with billions of dollars of tax money spent on"The War".

Altogether an outrageous story, well told, with hilarious moments, detailed portraits of the players, and emphasis on the humanity of the miscreants. We are already well versed in the brutality and viciousness inherent in the entertainment value of narco-terrorism.

Recommended.]]> 4.21
author: T.J. English
name: Dan
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:
Another in a plethora of books defining the pathetic mess we are as a country and society. While not news, the picture of Americans buying billions of dollars worth of cocaine, thus enabling arms shipments, subversion of governments, and destruction of innumerable families, among many other sadnesses as well as strengthening the idiocy of our governmental sanctimony. "War On Drugs" indeed: the action of so-called Conservatives engineering the basest denial of individual freedom we have had since Prohibition.

As for the story and its telling, both are powerful. I have no doubt some of the few who read this will while that r. English does not condemn Willy Falcon and Associates. He does jot; he lets the reader make those judgments. Neither does he deride the judges, prison officials, Justice Department flunkeys, and other government agencies for intrinsic and implicit cruelty and self-righteousness. Nor does he point out the bureaucratic foolishness entailed in not being able to catch a large bunch of smugglers even with billions of dollars of tax money spent on"The War".

Altogether an outrageous story, well told, with hilarious moments, detailed portraits of the players, and emphasis on the humanity of the miscreants. We are already well versed in the brutality and viciousness inherent in the entertainment value of narco-terrorism.

Recommended.
]]> 2685297 Sympathy for the Devil is a terrifying, intoxicating journey through the violence, madness, and insane beauty of battle. It traces the story of a hardened Green Beret named Hanson, a college student who goes to war with a book of Yeats's poetry in his pocket and discovers the savagery within himself.

In this extraordinary novel, we follow Hanson through two tours of duty and a bitter attempt to live as a civilian in between. At one with the lush and dangerous world around him in Vietnam, Hanson is doomed to survive the landscape of devastation he encounters. Sympathy for the Devil contains some of the most vivid, finely etched prose ever written about the actual process of war—from firing a weapon for the first time in battle to the moment a young man knows that he has entered a living hell and found a home....]]> 350 Kent Anderson 0385239432 Dan 5
Comparing an ARC with the published work is usually interesting. In this case, the Acknowledgements page that led off the novel had an extra line in the Advanced copy. Both have "And to all the good men of the 5th Special Forces Group, Vietnam. (Added: "Sometimes I think we could have won that war by ourselves if everyone else had stayed out of our way".) Chilling.

Highly Recommended.]]> 4.31 1987
author: Kent Anderson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:
I am not sure, but I think I read this on a recommendation from Ken Buren in 2004. It has stuck with me to the point that I began to think I was misremembering it. When I saw a signed ARC for sale, I snapped it up and read it as it came across the transom. Still a 5-star read.

Comparing an ARC with the published work is usually interesting. In this case, the Acknowledgements page that led off the novel had an extra line in the Advanced copy. Both have "And to all the good men of the 5th Special Forces Group, Vietnam. (Added: "Sometimes I think we could have won that war by ourselves if everyone else had stayed out of our way".) Chilling.

Highly Recommended.
]]> 25608518 224 Thomas W Jacobsen 0807157015 Dan 4 Holding place and saving a record for a book not yet on ŷ������' list.

New Orleans 1970-2020 A Portrait of the City; Dalt Wonk, with Photographs by Josephine Sacabo
Mr. Wonk gives us reprints of articles he authored during the period cited. His writing is simple with no pretension toward literature. The text includes a few random commas and articles.

The photographs are stark reminders of the City not necessarily related to the text that follows the photographic section.

While intensely interesting the articles are concise and varied in subject matter.

Altogether a valuable addition to the NOLA book section.

Recommended.

]]> 4.00 2014
author: Thomas W Jacobsen
name: Dan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:
NOT A REVIEW OF THIS BOOK
Holding place and saving a record for a book not yet on ŷ������' list.

New Orleans 1970-2020 A Portrait of the City; Dalt Wonk, with Photographs by Josephine Sacabo
Mr. Wonk gives us reprints of articles he authored during the period cited. His writing is simple with no pretension toward literature. The text includes a few random commas and articles.

The photographs are stark reminders of the City not necessarily related to the text that follows the photographic section.

While intensely interesting the articles are concise and varied in subject matter.

Altogether a valuable addition to the NOLA book section.

Recommended.


]]> 217470831 LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry's daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard's badge, gun, and ID are stolen-a theft she can't report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch's daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city's library of lost souls.

***

CRIME DOESN'T COME BETTER THAN 'The pre-eminent detective novelist of his generation' IAN RANKIN 'The best mystery writer in the world' GQ 'A superb natural storyteller' LEE CHILD 'A master' STEPHEN KING 'America's greatest living crime writer' DAILY EXPRESS 'One of the great storytellers of crime fiction' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH]]> 1 Michael Connelly Dan 4
This was a three-day read in the company of old friends. Harry showed up and acted like Harry, but Ballard led the way. Connellly wraps his procedural in several layers of plots and rather strangely resurrects The Black Dahlia case. Like Jack the Ripper fantasies, I would just as soon leave The Dahlia in peace. Renee and company do make a good go of it, however.

All in all,
Recommended.]]> 4.12 2024
author: Michael Connelly
name: Dan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves:
review:
Saying this is not Mr. Connelly's best simply means that it is very good while failing to be extraordinary. Fine. Like perfect being the enemy of effective, very good is good enough.

This was a three-day read in the company of old friends. Harry showed up and acted like Harry, but Ballard led the way. Connellly wraps his procedural in several layers of plots and rather strangely resurrects The Black Dahlia case. Like Jack the Ripper fantasies, I would just as soon leave The Dahlia in peace. Renee and company do make a good go of it, however.

All in all,
Recommended.
]]> 1989885 368 Kem Nunn 068482647X Dan 4 In Kem Nunn's case, things are a little different. He does not have a series character, as such. As John Wayne is said to have played one character, John Wayne, so we might think Mr. Numm writes the same folks under different names. Perhaps. But he keeps his milieu and finds ways to structure crime stories into the surfing world.
At times this reader finds the back of his mind thinking "Lord Jim" or "Heart of Darkness" or simply Joseph Conrad. My back channel may be off track but it gives kudos to the surfing writer.
Recommended]]> 3.92 1997
author: Kem Nunn
name: Dan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves:
review:
Rex Stout wrote a slew of Nero Wolfe books. All he needed was a mystery gimmick; he had the series gimmicks down cold. So one might say about many series authors.
In Kem Nunn's case, things are a little different. He does not have a series character, as such. As John Wayne is said to have played one character, John Wayne, so we might think Mr. Numm writes the same folks under different names. Perhaps. But he keeps his milieu and finds ways to structure crime stories into the surfing world.
At times this reader finds the back of his mind thinking "Lord Jim" or "Heart of Darkness" or simply Joseph Conrad. My back channel may be off track but it gives kudos to the surfing writer.
Recommended
]]> 12050073 Broken Irish is a splendidly readable and richly textured novel. Edward J. Delaney is an enormously gifted writer.�� —ROBERT OLEN BUTLER

"In Edward J. Delaney's South Boston little is lost, nothing forgotten. Old sins, old wounds haunt his characters, young and old, and reverberate throughout his wonderfully complicated plot. Broken Irish is an enthralling, satisfying novel." —MARGOT LIVESEY

"An entire community is on the brink. Hope is the only hope. And faith cannot scrub the grime off its hands. With Broken Irish, Edward J. Delaney delivers a gripping epic." —ADAM BRAVER

As the millennium approaches, “Southie�� is still a place where little distinguishes mob bosses from pillars of industry, the bullied from the bullies, and the pious from the pitiful. In this tough Boston neighborhood, six lives are about to converge... Jimmy, an alcoholic writer, whose life is unalterably changed after witnessing an accident; Jeanmarie, a teenage runaway, whose quest for independence leads down a dark path; Christopher, a young Catholic school dropout with a gnawing secret; Colleen, a war widow whose grief has blinded her to the needs of her son; Father John, a priest on the eve of forced retirement; and Rafferty, a wealthy businessman who hires a ghostwriter to tell his story.

In Broken Irish, Delaney trains his journalist’s ear, his filmmaker’s eye, and his writer’s heart on each of their stories—creating a driven and deeply human narrative that pierces the heart of the American experience. He also gives us a captivating portrait of late-1990s South Boston at the crossroads—a time when “Whitey Bulger has evaporated into the ether but his boys still kick around on the street corners... waiting for Whitey’s Second Coming.”]]> 379 Edward J. Delaney 1933527501 Dan 4 Well-written and well-edited.
Hint: A young girl from Southie goes for her driver's test. During a three-point turn, she lightly taps the car behind her. "That is a fail," says her ride-along." She replies it is not, it is the way we do it in Southie.
Recommended.]]> 3.66 2011
author: Edward J. Delaney
name: Dan
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves:
review:
We find the unkind, the weak, the morally repugnant all interesting. "Broken Irish" abounds with interesting characters and sad profiles.
Well-written and well-edited.
Hint: A young girl from Southie goes for her driver's test. During a three-point turn, she lightly taps the car behind her. "That is a fail," says her ride-along." She replies it is not, it is the way we do it in Southie.
Recommended.
]]> 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 Dan 3 4.03 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: Dan
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2016/08/08
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves:
review:
One cannot expect great writing in a book about monsters, although it has happened. Not here. The authors are quite adept at handling a number of plot lines and switching from one cliffhanging scene to another involving a different set of characters. The material is fine on a bumpy airplane ride and one can skip whole paragraphs without loss. For a good suspenseful ride, probably reading every word with concentration would produce a satisfying experience. Certainly, we have a nice mix of science, stock 'incompetent characters-in-charge', and under-appreciated people who wind up delivering the goods.
]]> 204432624 The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew ChildReacher wakes up, alone, in the dark, handcuffed to a bed in a makeshift hospital room. His few possessions are gone. He has no memory of getting there. The last thing he can recall is the car he had hitched a ride in getting run off the road. The driver was killed. The people who staged the attack assume Reacher was the driver's accomplice and patch up his wounds as they plan to make him talk. A plan that will backfire spectacularly . . .]]> 324 Lee Child 0593725808 Dan 3 A bunch of "Naw, I can't buy that", and "No way, that makes no sense" built up and bogged down the story. This was a big mistake since too much detail, even for Reacher, seemed to be tossed in to fill space so things were bogged already. Then a few things came under review, the action started to sputter, and at long last the story ended.
Perhaps, after almost thirty outings, it will be best to leave Jack to TV.]]> 3.65 2024
author: Lee Child
name: Dan
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:
Many of the apparent failures of the novel dissipated as the pages turned. But too many flips were needed.
A bunch of "Naw, I can't buy that", and "No way, that makes no sense" built up and bogged down the story. This was a big mistake since too much detail, even for Reacher, seemed to be tossed in to fill space so things were bogged already. Then a few things came under review, the action started to sputter, and at long last the story ended.
Perhaps, after almost thirty outings, it will be best to leave Jack to TV.
]]> 28220640
James Church’s Inspector O novels have been hailed as “crackling good�� (The Washington Post). Now Church—a former Western intelligence officer who pulls back the curtain on the hidden world of North Korea in a way that no one else can—comes roaring back with an unputdownable new novel.

A Spanish factory near Barcelona is secretly producing—under the guise of a dumpling maker—a key machine for the production of nuclear weapons. Western intelligence has gotten wind of this and believes that the machine is meant for North Korea. It is deemed imperative either to disable the machine before it leaves the factory or intercept it. Inspector O is recruited by an old friend to take part in an operation to disrupt the plans for shipping the machine.

The buyer of the machine has constructed an elaborate double-blind story, making it appear as if the purchaser is a Japanese criminal organization acting on behalf of the North Koreans. Information has been carefully planted and events set up to lead Western intelligence operatives to that conclusion. The feints include a flurry of murders in the northeast Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, where O’s nephew is the chief of State Security.

Church's latest Inspector O novel full of suspense, is not one that you will be able to stop reading.]]> 273 James Church 0312614314 Dan 4
For starters, I find Inspector O to be best read in small chunks. This is a fine book to read when you are going to be busy, with only bits of reading time for a week or two.
After gluing one's eyes to the page, one finds echoes of bygone mystery characters. For instance, Nero Wolfe. Nero had his orchids, the Inspector has his wood. Both have a foil: Archie, and Bing, the Inspector's nephew.
Every page sports a dictum that is absurd, but the face is always straight. Perhaps that is why few seem to find these books funny. Even the sex is hard to follow, even sometimes difficult to discover.

Church employs various writing ploys, such as, a la LeCarre, making a head-scratching statement that he explains a sentence or two later. Or maybe a Chapter later?

This is like one of those Death By Chocolate desserts, heavy, thick, sweet but light-hearted. Take in small bites, savor.

Recommended. ]]> 3.33 2016
author: James Church
name: Dan
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves:
review:
From the reviews I have read, I gather that either many readers don't get it, or else I am dreaming.

For starters, I find Inspector O to be best read in small chunks. This is a fine book to read when you are going to be busy, with only bits of reading time for a week or two.
After gluing one's eyes to the page, one finds echoes of bygone mystery characters. For instance, Nero Wolfe. Nero had his orchids, the Inspector has his wood. Both have a foil: Archie, and Bing, the Inspector's nephew.
Every page sports a dictum that is absurd, but the face is always straight. Perhaps that is why few seem to find these books funny. Even the sex is hard to follow, even sometimes difficult to discover.

Church employs various writing ploys, such as, a la LeCarre, making a head-scratching statement that he explains a sentence or two later. Or maybe a Chapter later?

This is like one of those Death By Chocolate desserts, heavy, thick, sweet but light-hearted. Take in small bites, savor.

Recommended.
]]> 202645063 As a wave of murders grips Southern California, an unlikely pair must untangle the mysterious patterns of an elusive killer. A propulsive new series by New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Isabella Maldonado.

Carmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules. But when her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator.

With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor and she’s cashing in. They team up to catch the assailant, who, mystifyingly, has no discernable motive and fits no classic criminal profile. All they have to go on is a distinctive tattoo and a singular obsession that gives this chillingly efficient tactician his nickname: Spider.

Over the next seventy-two hours, Sanchez and Heron find themselves in the midst of a lethal chess match with the killer as they race to stop the carnage. As the victims mount, so do the risks. Because this spider’s web of intrigue is more sinister—and goes far deeper—than anyone could possibly anticipate.]]> 434 Jeffery Deaver 1662518706 Dan 4 4.26 2024
author: Jeffery Deaver
name: Dan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:
In May of 2020, I read a Deaver book. After bypassing his work for 4 years I was right with him on the first page. The addition of Ms. Maldonado no doubt made a difference, but I did not detect it. Bottom line; I hope to read the next installment.
]]> 213243951
The sheriff believes he has new evidence that will prove the brothers involvement in several past murders, but Carl and Roy Opgard are used to covering their tracks, and they're not afraid to get their hands dirty. The high body count of Os is about to get higher.

Blood Ties is a grandiose and explosive suspense novel about loyalty, family ties, consuming love, and the fight against powerful forces. It will transport you to a community in crisis and tell the story of two brothers on the verge of losing all that they’ve fought for.]]> 384 Jo Nesbø 0593803612 Dan 5 I just took a moment to read my review of the first book in this so far duplex effort. That review could be inserted here, except I think the writing is better in the second iteration. That said, we root for the love affair even though none of the characters draws us in. Nesbo's twists are wonderful. The plotting is expertly done; one must agree with Lee Child's blurb: "...a 100% buy-today-read-tonight delight".
Recommended
]]> 3.82 2024
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Dan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
After wading through feelings of de ja vu I realized I had been here before. "Blood Ties" is a sequel to "The Kingdom".
I just took a moment to read my review of the first book in this so far duplex effort. That review could be inserted here, except I think the writing is better in the second iteration. That said, we root for the love affair even though none of the characters draws us in. Nesbo's twists are wonderful. The plotting is expertly done; one must agree with Lee Child's blurb: "...a 100% buy-today-read-tonight delight".
Recommended

]]> 12843094 0965723046
978-0965723046
Four seekers have come to Hill House, a scary old abandoned mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar who had been looking for an honestly haunted house all his life; Theodora, a lovely and lighthearted girl there mostly on a lark; Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House; and Eleanor, a strange and lonely woman well acquainted with poltergeists and other psychic phenomena. At first their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and slamming doors. But Hill House is gathering up powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.
The Haunting Of Hill House is full of horror and mystification and a wit that mixes laughter with chills. Its publication in 1959 confirmed Shirley Jackson as a master at portraying the secret vagaries of the mind, and as a brilliant stylist capable of interjecting the conventions of horror with a psychological complexity not encountered since Henry James. "It is the character of Eleanor and Shirley Jackson's depiction of it that elevates The Haunting Of Hill House into the ranks of the great supernatural novels," Stephen King writes in the introduction to this exclusive Stephen King Horror Library edition. "Indeed, it seems to me that it and James's The Turn Of The Screw are the only two great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years."]]> 246 Shirley Jackson Dan 5 Earlier, I was inspired to read Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" when I came across the first paragraph printed somewhere without attribution. I remembered where it was from instantly. At times we forget our roots. Another Jackson title of huge influence is her "Lottery and Other Stories". That idea has been used by several others; it is another of her books I read long ago. But "The Haunting of Hill House" escaped me until it called out to me in the bookstore last week and I answered. That is one of the gifts of age. I never read this book; I rarely read horror other than world news, but now I have had the pleasure of reading a seminal story as if it were fresh off the press.
Recommended]]> 3.90 1959
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Dan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves:
review:
First published in 1959, this is still in print, still being read, still creeping people out. What more must one say?
Earlier, I was inspired to read Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" when I came across the first paragraph printed somewhere without attribution. I remembered where it was from instantly. At times we forget our roots. Another Jackson title of huge influence is her "Lottery and Other Stories". That idea has been used by several others; it is another of her books I read long ago. But "The Haunting of Hill House" escaped me until it called out to me in the bookstore last week and I answered. That is one of the gifts of age. I never read this book; I rarely read horror other than world news, but now I have had the pleasure of reading a seminal story as if it were fresh off the press.
Recommended
]]> 1045396 Kem Nunn 0671735284 Dan 3 Mr. Nunn's salesman brings with him a history, that of F.P. Brackett, wherein F.P. writes of Pomona and its environs. Each chapter is headed by F.P.B.
As for the novel itself, it could be made much shorter---perhaps a short story---if the descriptions of the protagonist's mental discussions were removed. As it stands there is a noir thriller/comedy encased in literary wool-gathering. In short, one could do much worse but also much better. The writing is fine, the tensions real, the villains evil.
]]> 3.32 1992
author: Kem Nunn
name: Dan
average rating: 3.32
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
The last time I met a literary vacuum cleaner salesman was in maybe 1962 when I found Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana". That is one of Greene's 'entertainments'. It stands tall today.
Mr. Nunn's salesman brings with him a history, that of F.P. Brackett, wherein F.P. writes of Pomona and its environs. Each chapter is headed by F.P.B.
As for the novel itself, it could be made much shorter---perhaps a short story---if the descriptions of the protagonist's mental discussions were removed. As it stands there is a noir thriller/comedy encased in literary wool-gathering. In short, one could do much worse but also much better. The writing is fine, the tensions real, the villains evil.

]]> 17448340
A veteran of the Resistance dies, and among his possessions are documents that connect him to a notorious train robbery. A former British spymaster’s estate is burglarized, the latest in a spree of expert thefts. An academic’s home is broken into just as she is finishing a revelatory book on France’s nuclear weapons program. An antiques dealer is found brutally murdered, and his former lover, the number one suspect, is on the run.

It’s just another summer in St. Denis for Bruno, who must balance the constant barrage of demands on his time and expertise—including the complex affections of two powerful women, town politics (the mayor is having romantic problems of his own), his irrepressible puppy, Balzac, and nights entertaining friends and visitors with ever-sumptuous repasts—with a new focus on the mounting crime wave, whose seemingly unrelated events Bruno begins to suspect are linked. His search for clues to crimes old and new leads to stunning revelations about both his country’s history and his own, and puts several more lives—including Bruno’s—in deadly danger. In a thrilling denouement that proves the past is never really past, Bruno fights to secure the future of his beloved community and those he cares about most.

As charming and compelling as its hero, The Resistance Man offers fresh joys for loyal readers and newcomers alike.]]> 341 Martin Walker 178087071X Dan 4 And so it goes as he describes life in his French town where Bruno is Chief of Police. While watching Bruno work his way through girlfriends, bureaucracy, meals and myriads of friends we also get to sort through alibis, clues, red herrings and the like. In the end, we have a fine denouement.
Recommended.]]> 4.03 2013
author: Martin Walker
name: Dan
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:
The best cozies feel like this novel. For instance, I am a picky eater; if presented with most of the meals described here, my reaction would be, "No thanks, I am not hungry." But while reading Mr. Walker's descriptions, I feel ravenously hungry.
And so it goes as he describes life in his French town where Bruno is Chief of Police. While watching Bruno work his way through girlfriends, bureaucracy, meals and myriads of friends we also get to sort through alibis, clues, red herrings and the like. In the end, we have a fine denouement.
Recommended.
]]> 209083750
These twenty intriguing, thrilling, and rapid-fire fictions are sure to please new and longtime fans of Child and to illuminate a side of the author’s work unknown to Reacher devotees. Featuring a colorful new introduction from the author, the collection stands as the first book written entirely by Child in three years.

Contents:
Bodyguard; The Greatest Trick of All; Ten Keys; Safe Enough; Natural in Every Way ;The .50 Solution; Publica Transportation; Me and Mr. Rafferty; Section 7 (a) (Operational); Addicted to Sweetness; The Bone-Headed League; I Heard a Romantic Story; My First Drug Trial; Wet with Rain; The Truth About What Happened; Pierre, Lucien & Me; New Blank Document; Shorty and the Briefcase; Dying for a Cigarette; The Snake-Eater by the Numbers.]]> 237 Lee Child 1613165668 Dan 3
The reason is that the punch of the stories would have been greater and the sameness of the style would not have palled as much. Mr. Child has a style that threaded through the stories here such that by a half dozen (or fewer) it would be quickly clear where the story was going. The prose between the beginning and the final page then became unneeded. Plowing through it was a chore, but for my part that is another part of reading a book. That way you do catch most of the typos, and there were a few.
If one were to read, say, a story a week for 20 weeks, each would be much fresher and the book would easily rate 4 Stars, if not 5.]]> 3.20 2024
author: Lee Child
name: Dan
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves:
review:
Recently I reviewed "Project 2024", although not here, since ŷ������ apparently does not recognize it. In doing so, I described how I read: Books, from cover to cover, one at a time, that is, no piles next to the bed of partially read books waiting to be picked up again. I made an exception for '2024' for various reasons. I probably would have been better off doing so for "Safe Enough', too.

The reason is that the punch of the stories would have been greater and the sameness of the style would not have palled as much. Mr. Child has a style that threaded through the stories here such that by a half dozen (or fewer) it would be quickly clear where the story was going. The prose between the beginning and the final page then became unneeded. Plowing through it was a chore, but for my part that is another part of reading a book. That way you do catch most of the typos, and there were a few.
If one were to read, say, a story a week for 20 weeks, each would be much fresher and the book would easily rate 4 Stars, if not 5.
]]> 200449393
Charles Darwin was driven to distraction by plant spirals, growing so exasperated that he once begged a friend to explain the mystery “if you wish to save me from a miserable death.�� The legendary naturalist was hardly alone in feeling tormented by these patterns. Plant spirals captured the gaze of Leonardo da Vinci and became Alan Turing’s final obsession. This book tells the stories of the physicists, mathematicians, and biologists who found themselves magnetically drawn to Fibonacci spirals in plants, seeking an answer to why these beautiful and seductive patterns occur in botanical forms as diverse as pine cones, cabbages, and sunflowers.

Do Plants Know Math? takes you down through the centuries to explore how great minds have been captivated and mystified by Fibonacci patterns in nature. It presents a powerful new geometrical solution, little known outside of scientific circles, that sheds light on why regular and irregular spiral patterns occur. Along the way, the book discusses related plant geometries such as fractals and the fascinating way that leaves are folded inside of buds. Your neurons will crackle as you begin to see the connections. The book will inspire you to look at botanical patterns—and the natural world itself—with new eyes.

Featuring hundreds of gorgeous color images, Do Plants Know Math? includes a dozen creative hands-on activities and even spiral-plant recipes, encouraging readers to explore and celebrate these beguiling patterns for themselves.]]> 352 Stéphane Douady 0691158657 Dan 5 The book is a monumental extravaganza of beauty, science and the book makers art.

The internet brought us 'interactive' devices galore. We have an interactive book here since the authors have provided us with puzzles, questions and projects, thus taking 'interactive' beyond the process between book and reader which always entails some interactivity. The central idea is spirals, which are pointed out to be helices but for ease of use, the term spiral is used. The central math is the Fibonacci sequence that has confounded people for years as they read into it occult and spiritual meanings. Here, the landslide of photos and drawings illustrates wonder and beauty.

The authors represent different disciplines: physics, botany, mathematics, and writing. Together they have given us a delightful book that inspires, teaches history and stimulates curiosity.

One lesson beyond plants and math we find here: why destroying our present technological society will be scientifically disastrous. Time and time again we see in these pages where a discovery is made only to be lost. Time, war, religious persecution, general ignorance, superstition and mere mortality contribute, but mainly the difficulty of disseminating information and researching what has already been discovered causes insight to be lost. The World Wide Web with computer storage and retrieval of information lets us find what has been discovered. We can then use it and build on it. If that capability is lost a dark age will descend. DaVinci described atherosclerosis and the function of the aortic valve. His work was lost for centuries as the authors point out that was a tragedy. Let us hope the forces of darkness and ignorance will not sweep our world; let us work to preserve our knowledge and freedoms lest the only reservoir of mathematical lore will be in the plants.

Highly Recommended

]]> 4.13
author: Stéphane Douady
name: Dan
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/10/01
shelves:
review:
The subtitle undersells the material since we first look at Ancient Egyptians and other folk who had intellectual intents. And the question asked by the title is a bit awkward. Plants do not know mathematics; they express their reality in ways that can be mathematically analyzed. But I quibble.
The book is a monumental extravaganza of beauty, science and the book makers art.

The internet brought us 'interactive' devices galore. We have an interactive book here since the authors have provided us with puzzles, questions and projects, thus taking 'interactive' beyond the process between book and reader which always entails some interactivity. The central idea is spirals, which are pointed out to be helices but for ease of use, the term spiral is used. The central math is the Fibonacci sequence that has confounded people for years as they read into it occult and spiritual meanings. Here, the landslide of photos and drawings illustrates wonder and beauty.

The authors represent different disciplines: physics, botany, mathematics, and writing. Together they have given us a delightful book that inspires, teaches history and stimulates curiosity.

One lesson beyond plants and math we find here: why destroying our present technological society will be scientifically disastrous. Time and time again we see in these pages where a discovery is made only to be lost. Time, war, religious persecution, general ignorance, superstition and mere mortality contribute, but mainly the difficulty of disseminating information and researching what has already been discovered causes insight to be lost. The World Wide Web with computer storage and retrieval of information lets us find what has been discovered. We can then use it and build on it. If that capability is lost a dark age will descend. DaVinci described atherosclerosis and the function of the aortic valve. His work was lost for centuries as the authors point out that was a tragedy. Let us hope the forces of darkness and ignorance will not sweep our world; let us work to preserve our knowledge and freedoms lest the only reservoir of mathematical lore will be in the plants.

Highly Recommended


]]> 58324795 84 Jerry Tisserand Photography 1950154432 Dan 5 We get to see the world as it used to be, when men wore suits and ties to party with their women friends, who wore dresses. And cars were mostly huge and Marti Gras could raise eyebrows.
Recommended.

Merged review:

When Michael Tisserand finally got around to a definitive sorting out of his deceased father's possessions, he discovered a cache of photographs. After some calling around he discovered that in his youth his father had owned a camera and used it in Europe, in their home town, and in New Orleans. The elder Tisserand used his camera for a few years, shelved the results and never mentioned his hobby. But he had a keen and unique eye; his photographs tell stories and we can see them here.
We get to see the world as it used to be, when men wore suits and ties to party with their women friends, who wore dresses. And cars were mostly huge and Marti Gras could raise eyebrows.
Recommended.]]> 5.00
author: Jerry Tisserand Photography
name: Dan
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/24
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:
When Michael Tisserand finally got around to a definitive sorting out of his deceased father's possessions, he discovered a cache of photographs. After some calling around he discovered that in his youth his father had owned a camera and used it in Europe, in their home town, and in New Orleans. The elder Tisserand used his camera for a few years, shelved the results and never mentioned his hobby. But he had a keen and unique eye; his photographs tell stories and we can see them here.
We get to see the world as it used to be, when men wore suits and ties to party with their women friends, who wore dresses. And cars were mostly huge and Marti Gras could raise eyebrows.
Recommended.

Merged review:

When Michael Tisserand finally got around to a definitive sorting out of his deceased father's possessions, he discovered a cache of photographs. After some calling around he discovered that in his youth his father had owned a camera and used it in Europe, in their home town, and in New Orleans. The elder Tisserand used his camera for a few years, shelved the results and never mentioned his hobby. But he had a keen and unique eye; his photographs tell stories and we can see them here.
We get to see the world as it used to be, when men wore suits and ties to party with their women friends, who wore dresses. And cars were mostly huge and Marti Gras could raise eyebrows.
Recommended.
]]> 53275590 Some crimes can never be forgiven--or atoned for

When Athens journalist Nikoletta Elia disappears while on assignment on the island of Naxos, her editor calls on Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis to investigate. Sent to report on the conflict between preservationists and advocates for expanded tourism, Nikoletta is approached by a fan who takes credit for several suspicious deaths she'd reported on in the past. The assassin claims to have abandoned that life, and convinces the reporter to write about him and his murderous exploits for hire.

Kaldis sends his deputy, Yianni, to look into her disappearance when an unidentified body is found at the base of a cliff. Who is the mysterious corpse, and where is Nikoletta? Leads turn into more dead bodies in this twisting tale of greed, corruption, and murder that puts Kaldis, his family, and members of his team in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to keep dark secrets buried--forever.]]> 320 Jeffrey Siger 1464214255 Dan 3 ]]> 3.00 2020
author: Jeffrey Siger
name: Dan
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:
Akin to many old-time mystery novels, Mr. Siger's present effort certainly could rate more than Three Stars in the proper hands. For me, I have become a bit jaded; Agatha, Josephine, Rex and Earl served their purposes back before 'Moonraker' fell into my hands, and they all offered many hours of puzzlement since. Now such a story is a nice diversion but not an occasion for an all-nighter. My mea culpa, entirely.

]]> 1292483 When Fahey, once a great surfer, now a reclusive ex-con, meets Magdalena, she is running from a pack of wild dogs along the ragged wasteland where California and Mexico meet the Pacific Ocean -- a spot once known to the men who rode its giant waves as the Tijuana Straits. Magdalena has barely survived an attack that forced her to flee Tijuana, and Fahey takes her in. That he is willing to do so runs contrary to his every instinct, for Fahey is done with the world, seeking little more than solitude from this all-but-forgotten corner of the Golden State. Nor is Fahey a stranger to the lawless ways of the border. He worries that in sheltering this woman he may not only be inviting further entanglements but may be placing them both at risk. In this, he is not wrong.
An environmental activist, Magdalena has become engaged in the struggle for the health and rights of the thousands of peasants streaming from Mexico's enervated heartland to work in the maquilladoras -- the foreign-owned factories that line her country's border, polluting its air and fouling its rivers. It is a risky contest. Danger can come from many directions, from government officials paid to preserve the status quo to thugs hired to intimidate reformers.
As Magdalena and Fahey become closer, Magdalena tries to discover who is out to get her, attempting to reconstruct the events that delivered her, battered and confused, into Fahey's strange yet oddly seductive world. She examines every lead, never guessing the truth. For into this no-man's-land between two countries comes a trio of killers led by Armando Santoya, a man beset by personal tragedy, an aberration born of the very conditions Magdalena has dedicated her life to fight against, yet who in the throes of his own drug-fueled confusions has marked her for death. And so will Fahey be put to the test, in a final duel on the beaches of his Tijuana Straits.]]> 320 Kem Nunn 0684843056 Dan 4 Stumbling into his life comes a Mexican troublemaker. That is a woman who is trying to make trouble for both American and Mexican industrial criminals. The kind our politicians love to take money from and in turn save their butts. Adventure ensures.
Mr. Nunn gives us a guided tour of the horrors of Mexican industry and pollution. Educational. Exciting. Disgusting.
We cause immense suffering across the border. Letting in a few brave souls seems a small price to pay for letting all those millionaires and billionaires have free rein.
Recommended.]]> 3.53 2004
author: Kem Nunn
name: Dan
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:
Not much surfing action here, but plenty of surfing attitude. Our hero used to be a top surfer. He got off the track. He has a couple of prison stints behind him, as well as drug running and other various misdeeds. Presently he runs a worm farm.
Stumbling into his life comes a Mexican troublemaker. That is a woman who is trying to make trouble for both American and Mexican industrial criminals. The kind our politicians love to take money from and in turn save their butts. Adventure ensures.
Mr. Nunn gives us a guided tour of the horrors of Mexican industry and pollution. Educational. Exciting. Disgusting.
We cause immense suffering across the border. Letting in a few brave souls seems a small price to pay for letting all those millionaires and billionaires have free rein.
Recommended.
]]> 8171378
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration�� within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.]]> 622 Isabel Wilkerson 0679444327 Dan 5 We have four stories here: the three migrants who are followed as if this were their biography and the fourth the history of our United States as it suffered. The result is highly readable and a gut-wrenching portrait of America.
Highly Recommended ]]> 4.45 2010
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves:
review:
This masterful historical and humane exposition is terrifically well-written, laboriously researched, detailed enough to be seriously weighed, and superbly organized.
We have four stories here: the three migrants who are followed as if this were their biography and the fourth the history of our United States as it suffered. The result is highly readable and a gut-wrenching portrait of America.
Highly Recommended
]]> 200869472 George Orwell devoted his career to exposing social injustice and political duplicity, urging his readers to face hard truths about Western society and politics. Now, the uncanny parallels between the interwar era and our own—rising inequality, censorship, and challenges to traditional social hierarchies—make his writing even more of the moment. In Orwell’s Ghosts , historian Laura Beers considers Orwell’s full body of work—his six novels, three nonfiction works, as well as his brilliant essays—to examine what “Orwellian�� means and to take it out of the hands of political pundits. She explores how Orwell’s writing on free speech addresses the proliferation of “fake news,�� highlights his vivid critiques of capitalism, and, in contrast, analyzes his failure to understand feminism. Timely, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking, Orwell’s Ghosts investigates how the writings of a lionized champion of truth and freedom can help us face the crises of modernity.]]> 240 Laura Beers 1324075082 Dan 5 Reading about George Orwell in August 2024 means one must think about Donald Trump. His name does come up in the text. Orwell taught Donald well, taught him doublethink. Don had, of course, other teachers, such as Adolf Hitler, who propounded the idea of "The Big Lie" in "Mein Kamph".
George had many ideas besides those we most remember from "1984". Laura Beers does a cracker-jack job of rounding them up, defining pros and cons, and putting Orwell's work into a perspective we can use today.
Recommended. ]]> 3.62 2024
author: Laura Beers
name: Dan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:
Once again I crossed paths with people who steered me to wonderful books, some early on. There is great delight in reading a book at age, say, 14, while steeped in ignorance and innocence, and then, 15 years on, reading it again. In George Orwell's case, several other books of his were read between first finding "1984" and later readings. Dr. Laura Beers found George about the time I did, but she has studied his work at length and in-depth.
Reading about George Orwell in August 2024 means one must think about Donald Trump. His name does come up in the text. Orwell taught Donald well, taught him doublethink. Don had, of course, other teachers, such as Adolf Hitler, who propounded the idea of "The Big Lie" in "Mein Kamph".
George had many ideas besides those we most remember from "1984". Laura Beers does a cracker-jack job of rounding them up, defining pros and cons, and putting Orwell's work into a perspective we can use today.
Recommended.
]]> 195790865
Jen Stonebreaker hasn't entered into a big-wave surfing competition since witnessing her husband's tragic death twenty-five years ago at the Monsters of the Mavericks. Now, Jen is ready to tackle those same Monsters with her twin sons Casey and Brock, who have become competitive surfers in a perilous sport.

When he’s not riding waves, modeling for surfing magazines, or posting viral content for his many fans, Casey Stonebreaker spends his days helping with the family restaurant �� catching fish in the morning and bartending at night. Casey’s love for the ocean and his willingness to expose illegal poachers on his platforms puts him on a collision course with a crime syndicate eager to destroy anyone threatening their business.

Outspoken Brock Stonebreaker couldn’t be more different from his twin. The founder of Breath of Life, a church and rescue mission that assists with natural disasters that no one else will touch, Brock has lived an adventurous and sometimes violent life. Not everyone appreciates the work that Brock's Breath of Life mission accomplishes, and threats to destroy his mission―and his family―swirl around him.

As the big-wave contest draws closer, a huge, late fall swell is headed toward the Pacific coastline. Jen's fears gnaw at her �� fear for herself, for her sons, for what this competition will mean for the rest of her life.]]> 320 T. Jefferson Parker 1250907888 Dan 5
It is too soon to proclaim this the best that T. Jefferson has written. He has given us some superb novels, for sure. And I think the strike that hit Hollywood recently may have made a difference. We have been given more movies on streaming services featuring women sporting Eastern world beauty. Maybe that perks up one's emotional receptors. In any event, I want Mr. Parker to write a sequel to this, one with a large dose of Bette Wu. The Stonebreaker family is welcome to be along for the ride.

"Desperation Reef" is a ride, mostly on big waves. The tension in the book comes from some bad guys and the threats they pose, and from the big waves some of the characters insist on 'riding'. These are not East Coast waves and not most of the West Coast waves. We are talking about walls of water as high as a five-story building. When those waves fall on you it might as well be the building.

Recommended.]]> 3.08 2024
author: T. Jefferson Parker
name: Dan
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves:
review:
What do I know about surfing? Only what I remember from reading Kem Nunn's seminal "Tapping the Source" and two novellas of Don Winslow's, all of which Mr. Parker mentions in his Acknowledgements. Oh, and what I learned from "Desperation Reef".

It is too soon to proclaim this the best that T. Jefferson has written. He has given us some superb novels, for sure. And I think the strike that hit Hollywood recently may have made a difference. We have been given more movies on streaming services featuring women sporting Eastern world beauty. Maybe that perks up one's emotional receptors. In any event, I want Mr. Parker to write a sequel to this, one with a large dose of Bette Wu. The Stonebreaker family is welcome to be along for the ride.

"Desperation Reef" is a ride, mostly on big waves. The tension in the book comes from some bad guys and the threats they pose, and from the big waves some of the characters insist on 'riding'. These are not East Coast waves and not most of the West Coast waves. We are talking about walls of water as high as a five-story building. When those waves fall on you it might as well be the building.

Recommended.
]]> 173476110
It’s tempting to think that science gives us a God’s-eye view of reality. But we neglect the place of human experience at our peril. In The Blind Spot, astrophysicist Adam Frank, theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser, and philosopher Evan Thompson call for a revolutionary scientific worldview, where science includes—rather than ignores or tries not to see—humanity’s lived experience as an inescapable part of our search for objective truth. The authors present science not as discovering an absolute reality but rather as a highly refined, constantly evolving form of human experience. They urge practitioners to reframe how science works for the sake of our future in the face of the planetary climate crisis and increasing science denialism.

Since the dawn of the Enlightenment, humanity has looked to science to tell us who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going, but we’ve gotten stuck thinking we can know the universe from outside our position in it. When we try to understand reality only through external physical things imagined from this outside position, we lose sight of the necessity of experience. This is the Blind Spot, which the authors show lies behind our scientific conundrums about time and the origin of the universe, quantum physics, life, AI and the mind, consciousness, and Earth as a planetary system. The authors propose an alternative scientific knowledge is a self-correcting narrative made from the world and our experience of it evolving together. To finally “see�� the Blind Spot is to awaken from a delusion of absolute knowledge and to see how reality and experience intertwine.

The Blind Spot goes where no science book goes, urging us to create a new scientific culture that views ourselves both as an expression of nature and as a source of nature’s self-understanding, so that humanity can flourish in the new millennium.]]> 328 Adam Frank 0262048809 Dan 3
"The Blind Spot", is a dazzling display of erudition across centuries and disciplines. But I kept thinking about Snow and having a feeling I was in a review course for The Great Books. Mortimer Adler wrote "How to Read a Book" and either pontificated himself or quoted someone (Ezra Pound?), saying one should put as much effort into reading a book as the author did in writing it. Certainly, I have not done that with this tome, as the three writers have done a yeoman's job. I simply can't say I was wise to read it.]]> 3.96
author: Adam Frank
name: Dan
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves:
review:
C.P. Snow, in 1959, offered us a lecture titled "The Two Cultures". It is short enough, trenchant enough, and good enough to be satisfying.

"The Blind Spot", is a dazzling display of erudition across centuries and disciplines. But I kept thinking about Snow and having a feeling I was in a review course for The Great Books. Mortimer Adler wrote "How to Read a Book" and either pontificated himself or quoted someone (Ezra Pound?), saying one should put as much effort into reading a book as the author did in writing it. Certainly, I have not done that with this tome, as the three writers have done a yeoman's job. I simply can't say I was wise to read it.
]]> 198494009
Myron Bolitar and Windsor Horne Lockwood III�� reunite to find a dead man come back to life in this gripping thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Will Find You.

Former basketball star Myron Bolitar has barely restarted his agency for sports stars and celebrities when two federal agents walk into his office, asking for answers. Assuming they want to talk about the highly publicized Callister murders—of which he and Win know nothing, other than what's been saturating the news lately—he's stunned when, instead, they demand to know where Greg Downing is.

Greg, a former NBA player-turned-beloved-coach, was an old client of Myron’s, one of his very first. The reason for Myron's surprise is simple: Greg Downing died three years ago.

But according to these federal agents, Greg is still alive—and somehow involved in the Callister case.

Before his death, Greg made some strange money moves, but nothing about his reappearance makes any sense. As Myron and Win investigate, they're also surprised to uncover a seemingly related case where someone was murdered. Then another. And another. Is Greg alive? And if he is, where is he? And ultimately, are they looking for Greg? Or are they looking for a dangerously clever serial killer?]]> 368 Harlan Coben 1538756315 Dan 4
Being Harlan Coben, he invented a way out albeit an unusual one. After 36 novels that gave us great rewards, the seduction of Hollywood et al perhaps has drawn some of his mojo to itself. That is fine. We get to enjoy his genius while streaming. And we can always go back and re-read 'Play Dead'.
Recommended.]]> 4.07 2024
author: Harlan Coben
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:
This time out, Mr. Coben dug himself a hole so deep even he couldn't get out in time. Having created a delightful web of conundrums, he twisted it into a knot that Myron would need two hundred pages to unravel. What great fun!

Being Harlan Coben, he invented a way out albeit an unusual one. After 36 novels that gave us great rewards, the seduction of Hollywood et al perhaps has drawn some of his mojo to itself. That is fine. We get to enjoy his genius while streaming. And we can always go back and re-read 'Play Dead'.
Recommended.
]]> 195790583 A sardonic chronicle of how conservatism turned into a racketeering enterprise �� and why Donald Trump became the living emblem of the American right’s moral decay.The Longest Con tells the fascinating story of the partisan con artists who have corrupted conservative politics in our time, creating a toxic phenomenon that culminated in the election of Donald Trump, a bumptious fraud whose checkered career and tawdry retinue, including his presidential cabinet, have featured almost every variety of scam. But long before he appeared, Trump’s path to power was blazed by the motley horde of swindlers and quacks who preceded him.From the “professional anti-communists�� (whose tactics even J. Edgar Hoover despised) to the “populist�� grifters of the Tea Party movement and the religious charlatans of the “prosperity gospel�� (who provided a pious front for Trump), the right-wing ripoff has remained remarkably consistent, even as personalities change and new technologies Stir up anger and resentment, demonize political opponents, promise vengeance, and collect donations from the gullible. It’s a highly lucrative game that any unscrupulous charlatan can play, as many have �� and they are named in these pages.In an unsparing and often comic narrative, Joe Conason explores the right’s long, steep descent into a movement whose principal aim is not to protect freedom or defend the Constitution, but merely to line the pockets of pretenders and blowhards whose malevolent tactics now endanger the nation.]]> 320 Joe Conason 125062116X Dan 4
Mr. Conason brings back memories of those thieves, con men, and grifters, as they were. He goes on through the decades and scammers, liars, and con artists up to the present day. If, like me, you lived through those years, then this book will bring back memories for you, too. If you are a bit younger, then some of this will be new material for you. But whatever your age, eventually the narrative will reach crooks whose names you will recognize.
This is a work of history, not investigating reporting. It relates well-documented activity, much of it already enshrined in court records, all too little attested by prison time. It wraps up discussing The Big Lie, the ridiculous claim by Donald J. that he won the election.

There are many traditional Republican values, and Conservative tenants, which we would do well to be living by. None of them are evident in today's Republican Party. For instance, honesty and courage. Practically all officials of the Party have knelt to kiss Trump's feet (at least) even though they know full well he represents the antithesis of America. This is the kind of book some reviewers will say "Every citizen who cares about the country needs to read this". Today's voters, sadly, will not read it. Tomorrow's historians will find it a delightful guide.
Recommended.]]> 4.07 2024
author: Joe Conason
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
Remember Roy Cohn? Or Richard Nixon declaring "I am not a crook"?

Mr. Conason brings back memories of those thieves, con men, and grifters, as they were. He goes on through the decades and scammers, liars, and con artists up to the present day. If, like me, you lived through those years, then this book will bring back memories for you, too. If you are a bit younger, then some of this will be new material for you. But whatever your age, eventually the narrative will reach crooks whose names you will recognize.
This is a work of history, not investigating reporting. It relates well-documented activity, much of it already enshrined in court records, all too little attested by prison time. It wraps up discussing The Big Lie, the ridiculous claim by Donald J. that he won the election.

There are many traditional Republican values, and Conservative tenants, which we would do well to be living by. None of them are evident in today's Republican Party. For instance, honesty and courage. Practically all officials of the Party have knelt to kiss Trump's feet (at least) even though they know full well he represents the antithesis of America. This is the kind of book some reviewers will say "Every citizen who cares about the country needs to read this". Today's voters, sadly, will not read it. Tomorrow's historians will find it a delightful guide.
Recommended.
]]> 28586675 222 Ragnar Jónasson 1910633267 Dan 3 Here we again follow Ari Thor Arason, the Siglufjordur policeman, as he solves one of the world's unlikely mysteries: the murder of an Icelandic policeman. The veteran mystery reader should have no trouble 'solving' the case well before the heavy clues are dropped.
The writing/translation is workmanlike with only a few egregious errors (another editing crew who do not know the meaning of 'nauseous') and the tale is short enough to merit a quick read.]]> 4.21 2014
author: Ragnar Jónasson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2016/07/27
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
This is #2 in the English language series. I was less than thrilled with number one, but somehow this found its way to my shelf. As I cautioned in my first little review, Ragnar Jonasson used to translate Agatha Christie. His "Dark Iceland" books are on the order of 'cozies' set in the cold, although Christie certainly used English settings which if not Arctic were certainly not balmy.
Here we again follow Ari Thor Arason, the Siglufjordur policeman, as he solves one of the world's unlikely mysteries: the murder of an Icelandic policeman. The veteran mystery reader should have no trouble 'solving' the case well before the heavy clues are dropped.
The writing/translation is workmanlike with only a few egregious errors (another editing crew who do not know the meaning of 'nauseous') and the tale is short enough to merit a quick read.
]]> 3245889 Winesburg, Ohio, written when Anderson was forty, was the book in which he achieved the freshness and rightness of an author who, for the first time, is touching his highest mark. Through the years it has come to be regarded as the best of his works. This is the first completely new edition of the book since its first publication in 1919, reset and re-edited to provide the permanent text of an American classic.

Malcom Cowley’s brilliant and penetrating introduction is a reappraisal of “the only storyteller of his generation who left a mark on the style and vision of the generation that followed�� and a reinterpretation of Winesburg itself as a unified work rather than a mere collection of stories. “Hemingway, Faulkner, Wolfe, Steinbeck, Caldwell, Saroyan, and Henry Miller...each owes an unmistakable debt to Anderson,�� again to quote Cowley. The general reader also owes him a debt for the intrinsic pleasure in sharing in the lives of people in a small town in a more innocent past; writers of a new generation will find in Winesburg an inspiring guide to the craft of storytelling.

Malcolm Cowley, author of The Literary Situation, Exile’s Return, The Faulkner-Cowley File, A Second Flowering, and other works, has edited and done introductions for many books, particularly in the field of American letters, including Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (First Edition), The Portable Hawthorne, and The Portable Faulkner.]]> 247 Sherwood Anderson Dan 5 Let me quote: "The Presbyterian Church held itself somewhat aloof from the other churches of Winesburg. It was larger and more imposing and its minister was better paid." Said minister, middle-aged and married, glimpses, through a broken window, the school teacher next door, who has a bare shoulder and smokes a cigarette. What a grotesquerie! How sinful. The experience almost unhinges the poor man.
He is representative of the town: repressed, secretive, troubled, and connected to George Willard.
George is a young man of the town to whom the stories are loosely connected. This is not a novel in the normal sense, but a collection of interlaced short stories. Taken together they give us a picture of middle American life pre WW I. His simple, direct style connected him to Falkner, Hemingway, Wolfe, and others He was friends with all those mentioned, and had a falling out with all of them, at least according to the masterful introduction by Malcolm Crowley.
I have rated this 5 Stars because of the insight Mr. Anderson gives us of his subjects.
Recommended. ]]> 3.90 1919
author: Sherwood Anderson
name: Dan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1919
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves:
review:
This stalwart pillar of American letters delineates the life led by inhabitants of a small town, the core of America, the myth of American greatness.
Let me quote: "The Presbyterian Church held itself somewhat aloof from the other churches of Winesburg. It was larger and more imposing and its minister was better paid." Said minister, middle-aged and married, glimpses, through a broken window, the school teacher next door, who has a bare shoulder and smokes a cigarette. What a grotesquerie! How sinful. The experience almost unhinges the poor man.
He is representative of the town: repressed, secretive, troubled, and connected to George Willard.
George is a young man of the town to whom the stories are loosely connected. This is not a novel in the normal sense, but a collection of interlaced short stories. Taken together they give us a picture of middle American life pre WW I. His simple, direct style connected him to Falkner, Hemingway, Wolfe, and others He was friends with all those mentioned, and had a falling out with all of them, at least according to the masterful introduction by Malcolm Crowley.
I have rated this 5 Stars because of the insight Mr. Anderson gives us of his subjects.
Recommended.
]]> 197525334
Clete Purcel—private investigator, former New Orleans cop, and war veteran with a hard shell covering a few soft spots—is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and detective partner. But he has a troubled past. When Clete picks up his Caddy from a local car wash, only to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade, it feels personal—his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose—and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

As Clete traces the connections in this far-reaching criminal enterprise, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past, hires Clete to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths link back to a heavily tattooed man who lurks around every corner. Clete experiences shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questions Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined.

Gripping and violent yet interlaced with Clete’s humor and fierce drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to an iconic series. James Lee Burke proves yet again that he is the “heavyweight champ�� and “great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed�� (Michael Connelly).]]> 336 James Lee Burke 0802163076 Dan 4 I fear some stalwart reader might stumble upon this little essay, which is more a reminder to myself, and sneer with accusation that I have done that very thing: read into the story things not meant to be there. I beg to differ. I claim knowledge beyond this volume; I claim knowledge of James Lee Burke's work. I have read everyone with attention and gusto.
In the present effort, told with license granted by the title, the writing is looser, more repetitious, more accusatory than usual. The themes and condemnations are familiar, but bolder, deeper, broader, sometimes more pointed. Why? I believe we are being told that the force behind the political right has gotten out of hand, and, must be stopped from getting the upper hand.

The woo-woo material we see through much of Mr. Burke's work is in full bloom here. It must be considered as foolish or forceful or merely entertaining, as one wishes. I do prefer the slightly indirect approach, but will never quibble about a direct poke in the nose. Whether our fellow citizens are of a different, evil species or are citizens misled by environment --- as "South Pacific" had it, were 'carefully taught'---is immaterial here. What counts is that "Clete" implores us to vote out those who would savage human rights as well as humans.
Recommended ]]> 3.77 2024
author: James Lee Burke
name: Dan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves:
review:
For longer than James Lee Burke has been writing I have been castigating fellow students, readers, critics, and teachers for putting into reviews and critiques material that simply was not in the book. Or text, if you will.
I fear some stalwart reader might stumble upon this little essay, which is more a reminder to myself, and sneer with accusation that I have done that very thing: read into the story things not meant to be there. I beg to differ. I claim knowledge beyond this volume; I claim knowledge of James Lee Burke's work. I have read everyone with attention and gusto.
In the present effort, told with license granted by the title, the writing is looser, more repetitious, more accusatory than usual. The themes and condemnations are familiar, but bolder, deeper, broader, sometimes more pointed. Why? I believe we are being told that the force behind the political right has gotten out of hand, and, must be stopped from getting the upper hand.

The woo-woo material we see through much of Mr. Burke's work is in full bloom here. It must be considered as foolish or forceful or merely entertaining, as one wishes. I do prefer the slightly indirect approach, but will never quibble about a direct poke in the nose. Whether our fellow citizens are of a different, evil species or are citizens misled by environment --- as "South Pacific" had it, were 'carefully taught'---is immaterial here. What counts is that "Clete" implores us to vote out those who would savage human rights as well as humans.
Recommended
]]> 17915235 375 Robert Penn Warren 1111896046 Dan 5
With no idea of what I was getting into, I opened the book and began to read. Before long I was at sea in 2024, beset by the same foibles, evils, lies and horrors that splatter across my screens each day. It turns out Band Of Angels is set mostly in the American South, beginning pre-Civil War and running on for a lifetime. The delusions and hardships experienced by the national community that were inflicted by slavery persist to this day. The picture Mr. Warren drew in 1954 revealed people in the North and the South, before, during, and after the War, who had no comprehension of what slavery had done to the nation. Although still in print, a one-time best seller, and the inspiration for a movie, this well-written novel by a three-time Pulitzer winner has become relatively unknown. His "All The Kings Men" has fared much better. Band of Angels is unsparing in its use of language verboten today but quite accurate for the time Like Mark Twain's great works, the ignorant but well-meaning want to ban the use of the word 'nigger', at least by white folk. Penn Warren uses it as it would be sued by his characters. He does not write sexual descriptions but is unsparing when he wants to make a point. I found it curious that in the last few pages, when some self-knowledge had been achieved, the words became less harsh.

At this writing, we are embroiled in a presidential election, probably between a popular convicted felon and the surprise candidate who used to be a criminal prosecutor. We are 70 years on from Band of Angels' first publication. Much of the post-Civil War rancor and hate discussed in the novel has been suppressed during that time. But it has been seeping, indeed bubbling, out of cauldrons of repressed hate. As proposed in "South Pacific", the magisterial Broadway musical which preceded Band of Angels by a few years (and which was still playing at the publication of the novel), racial hate has "Got to Be Carefully Taught". Without a doubt, some of the darker-skinned folk in this nation have been carefully teaching hate, but the powerful, pervasive, corrosive, and malignant brand belongs to white people, especially males. The greatest tragedy may be that so many have no real grasp of why they hate, any more than Warren's characters understand their conflicting emotions.

The story is narrated by an older woman who starts the story when she is very young. She is overwrought, given to acting without thought or understanding. The writing and the style have long been fashionable in this country, but not by any means modern. One could compare this to "Gone With the Wind", Margaret Mitchell's ridiculous whitewash of Southern gentility. Both books were made int movies, some years apart. Both movies starred Clark Gable. One had historical sense and became 'beloved'. The other flopped, even if it barely told the book's story. Therein is an American lesson.
Recommended.]]> 3.71 1955
author: Robert Penn Warren
name: Dan
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:
Somehow I reached 1969 without having read Robert Penn Warren. Considering I knew the name and had read widely in American letters, the omission seemed worthy of remedy. I bought "Band Of Angels" at a used book sale. As frequently happens with BOMC titles, the dust jacket was missing. I put it on the to-be-read shelf. There it rested through moves, library re-shuffles, and decades. Until last week, when it caught my eye.

With no idea of what I was getting into, I opened the book and began to read. Before long I was at sea in 2024, beset by the same foibles, evils, lies and horrors that splatter across my screens each day. It turns out Band Of Angels is set mostly in the American South, beginning pre-Civil War and running on for a lifetime. The delusions and hardships experienced by the national community that were inflicted by slavery persist to this day. The picture Mr. Warren drew in 1954 revealed people in the North and the South, before, during, and after the War, who had no comprehension of what slavery had done to the nation. Although still in print, a one-time best seller, and the inspiration for a movie, this well-written novel by a three-time Pulitzer winner has become relatively unknown. His "All The Kings Men" has fared much better. Band of Angels is unsparing in its use of language verboten today but quite accurate for the time Like Mark Twain's great works, the ignorant but well-meaning want to ban the use of the word 'nigger', at least by white folk. Penn Warren uses it as it would be sued by his characters. He does not write sexual descriptions but is unsparing when he wants to make a point. I found it curious that in the last few pages, when some self-knowledge had been achieved, the words became less harsh.

At this writing, we are embroiled in a presidential election, probably between a popular convicted felon and the surprise candidate who used to be a criminal prosecutor. We are 70 years on from Band of Angels' first publication. Much of the post-Civil War rancor and hate discussed in the novel has been suppressed during that time. But it has been seeping, indeed bubbling, out of cauldrons of repressed hate. As proposed in "South Pacific", the magisterial Broadway musical which preceded Band of Angels by a few years (and which was still playing at the publication of the novel), racial hate has "Got to Be Carefully Taught". Without a doubt, some of the darker-skinned folk in this nation have been carefully teaching hate, but the powerful, pervasive, corrosive, and malignant brand belongs to white people, especially males. The greatest tragedy may be that so many have no real grasp of why they hate, any more than Warren's characters understand their conflicting emotions.

The story is narrated by an older woman who starts the story when she is very young. She is overwrought, given to acting without thought or understanding. The writing and the style have long been fashionable in this country, but not by any means modern. One could compare this to "Gone With the Wind", Margaret Mitchell's ridiculous whitewash of Southern gentility. Both books were made int movies, some years apart. Both movies starred Clark Gable. One had historical sense and became 'beloved'. The other flopped, even if it barely told the book's story. Therein is an American lesson.
Recommended.
]]> 13538760
The last place Bing expected to find the stunningly beautiful Madame Fang―a woman Headquarters wants closely watched―was on his front doorstep. Then, as suddenly as she shows up, Madame Fang mysteriously disappears across the river into North Korea, leaving in her wake both consternation and a highly sensitive assignment for Bing to bring back from the North a long missing Chinese security official. Concerned for his nephew's safety, O reluctantly helps him navigate an increasingly complex and deadly maze, one that leads down the twisted byways of O's homeland. In the tradition of Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy, and the Inspector Arkady Renko novels, A Drop of Chinese Blood presents an unfamiliar world, a perplexing universe where the rules are an enigma to the reader and even, sometimes, to Inspector O. Once again, James Church has crafted a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart.]]> 320 James Church 0312550634 Dan 4 The second criterion is that you have read at least one and preferably all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. They will explain the red velvet chair.
Having met those prerequisites, read away, hoping for enlightenment, hoping to catch the vital clue, hoping to stop laughing long enough to remember the cast of characters.
Good luck.
Recommended (as noted)]]> 3.49 2012
author: James Church
name: Dan
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves:
review:
While I have given this novel a 4-star rating, it is not meant for you unless you meet certain criteria. First, you need to have read some other James Church novel so you know how they work. Alternatively, you may have spent a week adrift in the North Atlantic having forgotten how you got there, or perhaps you woke up one day in an insane asylum unable to speak or write. That is, you have been completely and totally lost.
The second criterion is that you have read at least one and preferably all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. They will explain the red velvet chair.
Having met those prerequisites, read away, hoping for enlightenment, hoping to catch the vital clue, hoping to stop laughing long enough to remember the cast of characters.
Good luck.
Recommended (as noted)
]]> 6905079
Coming to terms with his haunted past and desperate for answers, Mike and a retired warden pilot journey deep into the Maine wilderness to clear his father's name and find out why Jack is on the run. But the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real killer before the killer finds him.]]> 324 Paul Doiron 0312558465 Dan 3 Mr. Doiron does a creditable job with the plotting. His writing is competent; with practice, I think he will develop a worthy style. He writes guns knowingly, has his canoe lore down, nails the Warden parts, but he does refer to Jack Daniels as bourbon. Homer nods.]]> 3.79 2010
author: Paul Doiron
name: Dan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves:
review:
Looking back to the first publication of this adventure one must bump against several subsequent editions as well as 20 or so further adventures of first-time hero Mike Bowditch. The foundation for a cast of supporting characters seems laid here. One hopes that Warden Bowditch grows up. He is 24 here as I counted. In his job, he should get over hysterics quickly, and lose impulsivity while learning to use his brain before he is tied up or shot.
Mr. Doiron does a creditable job with the plotting. His writing is competent; with practice, I think he will develop a worthy style. He writes guns knowingly, has his canoe lore down, nails the Warden parts, but he does refer to Jack Daniels as bourbon. Homer nods.
]]> 63697 243 Oliver Sacks Dan 4
Encountering these case histories and reflections in 2024, in a world with fMRI and computational power far beyond anything Dr. Sacks had, leaves one wondering where the clinical status of these patients would be today. Sadly, some would be in an unchanged world. Others could find help and new lives as we approach the second quarter of the 21st century. I was left with hope and insight.

Recommended.

]]> 4.08 1985
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Dan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/30
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:
This particular effort by Dr. Sacks has escaped my attention until now. As with many other tomes by this talented, sensitive man, I feel as if he is slipping spice of great value into my pockets while filling my socks with offal. I do not know exactly why this is, but it keeps me ready to raise an eyebrow.

Encountering these case histories and reflections in 2024, in a world with fMRI and computational power far beyond anything Dr. Sacks had, leaves one wondering where the clinical status of these patients would be today. Sadly, some would be in an unchanged world. Others could find help and new lives as we approach the second quarter of the 21st century. I was left with hope and insight.

Recommended.


]]> 205313234 The #1 New York Times–bestselling author shares the origin story of his infamous game warden character, Joe Pickett, as he investigates a local poachers attack.

Since his first appearance in Open Season, Wyoming gamekeeper Joe Pickett has solved all sorts of mysteries. But now his daughter, Sheridan, would like to solve the mystery that is her father��.��.��.

The Pickett family is gathered around the table for Thanksgiving dinner when they’re interrupted by a telephone call. Poachers struck a nearby ranch, and a suspicious red truck was seen driving away. Before Joe leaves to investigate, Sheridan persuades him to let her tag along. After the two depart, Sheridan reveals her true she is writing a school essay about her father.

In this enlightening and heartwarming tale, Sheridan discovers the man behind the game warden, from his childhood, growing up with his parents and brother, to what motivated his career choice and more.

Don’t miss the Joe Pickett series now on Paramount+.

Praise for #1 New York Times–bestselling author C.��J. Box and the Joe Pickett Mysteries

“One of today’s solid-gold, A-list, must-read writers.�� —Lee Pace

“C.��J. Box is a great storyteller.�� —Tony Hillerman, Edgar Award–winning author of Dance Hall of the Dead

“Box has established a terrific cast of Western characters.��.��.��. When it comes to western contemporary thrillers with intriguing characters, no one does it better than Box.�� ��The Columbus Dispatch

“Fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe.�� ��Kirkus Reviews]]> 37 C.J. Box 1504094298 Dan 3 4.38
author: C.J. Box
name: Dan
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves:
review:
This is a vanity project/collectors special from The Mysterious Bookshop. For fans of Joe Pickett books, this is a cute exploration of Joe's biographical details not found in the novels. Enjoyable.
]]> 198691200 88 George P. Pelecanos 1636141706 Dan 3 Buster's story has a happy ending. Those who work in animal rescue/welfare know how mistreated dogs and other animals are: their endings are often not happy. As all is said, this is a nice little tale.]]> 3.81 2024
author: George P. Pelecanos
name: Dan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves:
review:
This slight, well-intended story is too simplisticly written to be an enjoyable read. But it is by George Pelecanos and therefore worthwhile, even if only to explore what he is interested in.
Buster's story has a happy ending. Those who work in animal rescue/welfare know how mistreated dogs and other animals are: their endings are often not happy. As all is said, this is a nice little tale.
]]> 4575223 Beautifully illustrated by the author.
Good for children and adults. It can touch all. A little mature themed for small children. I first read it when I was 8 to 10 and many, many times after that.]]> 360 Ernest Thompson Seton Dan 4
By today's standards, these stories are heavily anthropomorphic and sappy. Several end in tragedy; if you cried watching "Ol Yeller" you might mist up here. But it is a useful and therapeutic sappy feeling, one conducive to hugging a tree, contributing to the Humane Society, or supporting an ecological effort. The stories are informative ( although not entirely correct) and entertaining. Worth reading.

Recommended. ]]> 4.24 1901
author: Ernest Thompson Seton
name: Dan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1901
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves:
review:
I do like to take note of what edition I have read: in this case, the copyright page states that The Devinne Press gave us a book by Ernest Seton-Thompson, copyright 1901; First Impression October 12, 1901. There are 361 numbered pages, 8 stories, and an Author's Note to kick things off. This is not listed in the extensive Editions section ŷ������ maintains, although the cover illustration is used; my copy is embossed in gold: I am not going to adventure into that mess. I found this volume in a used book booth at The Chestnut Hill Hospital in May 1972. For 52 years it sat on my shelves where I occasionally admired it. Now I have read it, honored to have held a one-hundred-twenty-three-year-old book of such quality.

By today's standards, these stories are heavily anthropomorphic and sappy. Several end in tragedy; if you cried watching "Ol Yeller" you might mist up here. But it is a useful and therapeutic sappy feeling, one conducive to hugging a tree, contributing to the Humane Society, or supporting an ecological effort. The stories are informative ( although not entirely correct) and entertaining. Worth reading.

Recommended.
]]> 195474144 From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories set in New York and Los Angeles. The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of compromise which operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles’s novel, Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September, 1938, with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood�� describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in the midst of Hollywood’s golden age. Throughout the stories, two characters often find themselves sitting across a table for two where the direction of their futures may hinge upon what they say to each other next. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting historical fiction.]]> 451 Amor Towles 0593296370 Dan 5 These stories talk about characters worth knowing, written about in a way worth reading, set in a time worth remembering.
Recommended.]]> 4.14 2024
author: Amor Towles
name: Dan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
review:
Many of us may be in love with Miss Ross while others simply admire her. Most would like to read more about her. What a terrific creation. When "Eve In Hollywood" appeared as a stand-alone I bought it, read it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I discovered the present volume had a reprint of "Eve" I paused, then decided to read it again. And a good decision that was because 1) it is not the same and 2) I was in the Towles groove from the first six entries.
These stories talk about characters worth knowing, written about in a way worth reading, set in a time worth remembering.
Recommended.
]]> 9190085 The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a stunning meditation on loneliness, love, and what it means to be human.]]> 271 Paolo Giordano 0143118595 Dan 3 Recommended.]]> 3.61 2008
author: Paolo Giordano
name: Dan
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves:
review:
First, a 'thank you' to Dan Pope, writer, bookseller, critic, and good guy who sometimes gifts fortunate readers with his surplus. This was one of those, and I am grateful. In the usual course of events, this would not have come across my desk; not my cuppa, so to speak. But it is well-written (translated from the original Italian) and well-conceived. Since I have been a mathematics admirer following high school geometry the title intrigued and proved itself true. This is a love story, one told cleverly and enticingly.
Recommended.
]]> 196968157
Danny Ryan is rich. Beyond his wildest dreams rich.

The former dock worker, Irish mob soldier and fugitive from the law is now a respected businessman �� a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. Finally, Danny has it all: a beautiful house, a child he adores, a woman he might even fall in love with.

Life is good. But then Danny reaches too far.

When he tries to buy an old hotel on a prime piece of real estate with plans to build his dream resort, he triggers a war against Las Vegas power brokers, a powerful FBI agent bent on revenge and a rival casino owner with dark connections of his own.

Danny thought he had buried his past, but now it reaches up to him from the grave to pull him down. Old enemies surface, and when they come for Danny they vow to take everything �� not only his empire, not just his life, but all that he holds dear, including his son.

To save his life and everything he loves, Danny must become the ruthless fighter he once was �� and never wanted to be again.]]> 400 Don Winslow 006307947X Dan 5 As with any series that comes to an end, there is a bit of sadness, a bittersweet aura about this effort, but a satisfying, deftly drawn end to a saga.
Not to be missed, as most will, are the several pages of thank-yous gathered at the end, including one to Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ.
Recommended

]]> 4.28 2024
author: Don Winslow
name: Dan
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/12
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves:
review:
Whew! That was a long haul. From "A Cool Breeze on the Underground" through everything until the final of the present novel. Mr. Winslow experienced a few low points, as I gathered from the Acknowledgements, but I read every novel with glee and hoped for the next, even when it was the expose co-written with Peter Maslowski. And now we come to a close. Knowing Winslow, we probably have seen the last of his novels. But he is a writer and maybe has a political/critical volume in him somewhere. Maybe not. We'll see.
As with any series that comes to an end, there is a bit of sadness, a bittersweet aura about this effort, but a satisfying, deftly drawn end to a saga.
Not to be missed, as most will, are the several pages of thank-yous gathered at the end, including one to Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ.
Recommended


]]> 199798200
In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone—ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk—has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty.

But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife’s guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old, twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built.

A house, and what dwells beneath.]]> 512 John Connolly 1668022311 Dan 5 All the writing was competent. Some of it was brilliant. And so it has been for these many years and volumes, highly readable pages interspersed with fluid beauty. And, of course, that indefinable something that glues one to the seat while forcing the pages to turn. Part of it is the characters. Parker himself fascinates. The other main associates offer humor as well as deadly skills.
The instruments in question happen to be people. People as tools is a common phenomenon, puppet masters abound. Here the master is darkly discerned, never seen, hardly described: we descend into the realm of woo-woo. While not vital to the tale---the mystery is solvable without extra-sensory help---in Mr. Connolly's hands the supernatural does add to the sweetness.
Recommended.
PS The 107 chapters are numerated with Roman Numerals. I would claim I never looked at them, but when LCIX turned up, it arrested me. Maybe something sly I missed? ( Should be XCIX )]]> 4.20 2024
author: John Connolly
name: Dan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves:
review:
Here I am, back with John Connolly again. Several life cycles ago the fiancee of a friend's daughter was a bookseller for, I think, a Waldenbooks. It was in the Fairgrounds Mall. In Reading, PA. A pocket store, not a behemoth like Borders. A Chinese man had a chair massage booth in front, in the corridor. Mr. Connolly had been to visit. Twice. I was told he was delightful and wrote like a crazy man. I took the hint and bought the books.
All the writing was competent. Some of it was brilliant. And so it has been for these many years and volumes, highly readable pages interspersed with fluid beauty. And, of course, that indefinable something that glues one to the seat while forcing the pages to turn. Part of it is the characters. Parker himself fascinates. The other main associates offer humor as well as deadly skills.
The instruments in question happen to be people. People as tools is a common phenomenon, puppet masters abound. Here the master is darkly discerned, never seen, hardly described: we descend into the realm of woo-woo. While not vital to the tale---the mystery is solvable without extra-sensory help---in Mr. Connolly's hands the supernatural does add to the sweetness.
Recommended.
PS The 107 chapters are numerated with Roman Numerals. I would claim I never looked at them, but when LCIX turned up, it arrested me. Maybe something sly I missed? ( Should be XCIX )
]]> 175749555 368 James Lee Burke 0802160964 Dan 4 One can be sure that if Mr. Burke does not like President Biden, he loathes Donald Trump. In his frequent pinings for a gone-by America, he does not want Trump's idea of what was. Exactly what time either of them thinks was the zenith of us is unclear: when were we a nation living up to its Constitutional promise?
Whatever the answer, there is no question that these are powerful stories, wrenching at the reader's guts. Students of Burke who read the novels will recognize characters, family lines, and geographies although Dave Robicheaux does not appear. The level of woo-woo material is high.
Recommended.
]]> 3.62 2024
author: James Lee Burke
name: Dan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/04
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves:
review:
Students of contemporary American literature who want to cheat themselves by skipping some novels might consider these shorter works. They embody Mr. Burke's themes and tropes while presenting his stunning writing.
One can be sure that if Mr. Burke does not like President Biden, he loathes Donald Trump. In his frequent pinings for a gone-by America, he does not want Trump's idea of what was. Exactly what time either of them thinks was the zenith of us is unclear: when were we a nation living up to its Constitutional promise?
Whatever the answer, there is no question that these are powerful stories, wrenching at the reader's guts. Students of Burke who read the novels will recognize characters, family lines, and geographies although Dave Robicheaux does not appear. The level of woo-woo material is high.
Recommended.

]]> 127280189
One year after the clash with his former students in upstate New York, retired Marine Warrant Officer and SERE instructor Derek Harrington is the tip of the FBI’s spear in their mission to eradicate the domestic terrorist group known as Autumn’s Tithe. After several successful operations intelligence points to one final camp in the remote Kentucky wilderness, and Derek prepares to take down Autumn’s Tithe for good.

At the same time ex-FBI Special Agent Hannah Kittle, or Sarah as she is known to the group, devises a plan to meet Derek and her one-time Bureau colleagues head on. Yet her benefactor's faith in Sarah's ability to lead Autumn's Tithe is waning, and other plans are being enacted. Knowing full well what it means for her should those plans succeed where she has failed, Sarah will stop at nothing to see that she is the victor.

As the competing agendas unravel, events place Derek and Sarah on a collision course, setting the stage for a confrontation that will bring Autumn’s Tithe right to Derek’s doorstep.]]> 304 T.R. Hendricks 1250832268 Dan 3 As noted elsewhere, the battle scenes are engaging if a bit full of the same kind of misses. The scenes of meetings are as painful as those endured in real life. That may be considered good writing in some quarters. For me, it is writing for the delete key.
The final decision about a writer's work is whether the reader will be back. I intend to have another of Hendrick's books at the ready should I ever fly again or have to wait in an Emergency Room.
]]> 4.16
author: T.R. Hendricks
name: Dan
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves:
review:
Mr. Hendrick's power as a writer comes from his determination to put ink on paper. Given time he may learn rhythm and eloquence.
As noted elsewhere, the battle scenes are engaging if a bit full of the same kind of misses. The scenes of meetings are as painful as those endured in real life. That may be considered good writing in some quarters. For me, it is writing for the delete key.
The final decision about a writer's work is whether the reader will be back. I intend to have another of Hendrick's books at the ready should I ever fly again or have to wait in an Emergency Room.

]]> 2279
The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid characters—Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Wallace Truman, George Marshall, Joe McCarthy, and Dean Acheson—and dramatic events. In this riveting biography, acclaimed historian David McCullough not only captures the man—a more complex, informed, and determined man than ever before imagined—but also the turbulent times in which he rose, boldly, to meet unprecedented challenges. The last president to serve as a living link between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, Truman’s story spans the raw world of the Missouri frontier, World War I, the powerful Pendergast machine of Kansas City, the legendary Whistle-Stop Campaign of 1948, and the decisions to drop the atomic bomb, confront Stalin at Potsdam, send troops to Korea, and fire General MacArthur. Drawing on newly discovered archival material and extensive interviews with Truman’s own family, friends, and Washington colleagues, McCullough tells the deeply moving story of the seemingly ordinary “man from Missouri�� who was perhaps the most courageous president in our history.]]> 1120 David McCullough 0671869205 Dan 5 To the point: If only we had more like Mr. Truman. And like Mr. McCullough who spent ten years on this book. Aside from the 1000 pages of text there is a generous collection of photographs.
Highly Recommended.
PS There was a misplaced period on page 727. Horrors.]]> 4.15 1992
author: David McCullough
name: Dan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/26
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves:
review:
One of the best biographies I have read. There have been many. At this late date, I assume there is little I can say that has not been included in the flood of reviews of this book. But then, I write these reviews for my edification. As my mind tries to leave me bereft I will have a secret source of inspiration and information.
To the point: If only we had more like Mr. Truman. And like Mr. McCullough who spent ten years on this book. Aside from the 1000 pages of text there is a generous collection of photographs.
Highly Recommended.
PS There was a misplaced period on page 727. Horrors.
]]> 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett 0385550367 Dan 5 Now, "James". What came to mind was all the fuss over the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". It was heralded as a revisit to Homer's "Ullyses". Hmm. Really? Exactly how so? Today's subject has been called a reimagining of Mark Twain's characters Jim and Huck. From the hocus-pocus with the title to the very last page, Percival Everett invokes the old classics as he forges a new one. The experience of reading Professor Everett's creation 'James' will last long into my dotage.
Recommended.
]]> 4.45 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Dan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves:
review:
Of late I find myself reading other people's reviews of books I read. This feels as if I am back in class listening to my peers discuss one of the Great Books. That was always an enlightening experience as so often a peer found either no meaning where I had been overcome with content or another would find things which would have amazed the author. As I prepared to make a few notes about "James" I read several ŷ������ reviews. And was gobsmacked by the insight and awareness contained in them.
Now, "James". What came to mind was all the fuss over the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". It was heralded as a revisit to Homer's "Ullyses". Hmm. Really? Exactly how so? Today's subject has been called a reimagining of Mark Twain's characters Jim and Huck. From the hocus-pocus with the title to the very last page, Percival Everett invokes the old classics as he forges a new one. The experience of reading Professor Everett's creation 'James' will last long into my dotage.
Recommended.

]]> 165937983
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage—killing, among others, the fiancee of Joe’s daughter. At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a list of six names tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him the people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property.
��������Targeted are a judge, the county prosecutor, his lawyer, a prison guard—and both Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett. Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates devises a method of violence identical to the bear killings and sets out to methodically check off his list.]]> 378 C.J. Box 0593331354 Dan 4 Aside from that quibble the structure here, and the plotting, together with the courageous handling of the arc, vaults this novel into the highest ranks. The handling of the last few pages is as deft as we have seen.
Recommended. ]]> 4.34 2024
author: C.J. Box
name: Dan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
One wonders if Mr. Box has watched the first Iron Man movie too often. His human bad guys are the same bad guys we have met before. They are still quite evil. But the mechanical beast they construct as an instrument of revenge strains our suspension of disbelief.
Aside from that quibble the structure here, and the plotting, together with the courageous handling of the arc, vaults this novel into the highest ranks. The handling of the last few pages is as deft as we have seen.
Recommended.
]]> 195820829 ��
Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories , doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
��
Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas, and the cemetery becomes a mysterious sanctuary for their true narratives. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener as Alma’s characters unspool their secret tales. Among them: Bienvenida, the abandoned second wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo, consigned to oblivion by history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.
��
The characters defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories.
��
Readers of Isabel Allende’s Violeta and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead will devour Alvarez’s extraordinary new novel about beauty and authenticity that reminds us the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.]]> 243 Julia Alvarez 1643753843 Dan 4 Yes, there is an element of woo-woo here. Odd things happen, as one expects in cemetery stories. We are presented with characters, stories, time shifts, and geographical changes which could be confusing. But Alvarez brilliantly weaves her tapestry. The attentive reader should follow with interest and joy.

Recommended]]> 3.63 2024
author: Julia Alvarez
name: Dan
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves:
review:
While not to be confused with Zafon's "The Cemetery of Lost Books", this effort by Ms. Alvarez is an outstanding contribution to the literature about literature, stories and authors. And Julia Alvarez does it in under 250 pages.
Yes, there is an element of woo-woo here. Odd things happen, as one expects in cemetery stories. We are presented with characters, stories, time shifts, and geographical changes which could be confusing. But Alvarez brilliantly weaves her tapestry. The attentive reader should follow with interest and joy.

Recommended
]]> 138696689
The revolution that emerged from Albert Einstein’s work in the early twentieth century transformed our understanding of space, time, motion, gravity, matter, and radiation. Beginning with Einstein’s miracle year of 1905 and continuing through his development of the theory of general relativity, Einstein spurred a revolution that continues to reverberate in modern-day physics. In The Einsteinian Revolution , Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen Renn trace the century-long transformation of classical physics and argue that the revolution begun by Einstein was in fact the result of a long-term evolution. Describing the origins and context of Einstein’s innovative research, Gutfreund and Renn work to dispel the popular myth of Einstein as a lone genius who brought about a revolution in physics through the power of his own pure thought. We can only understand the birth of modern physics, they say, if we understand the long history of the evolution of knowledge.

Gutfreund and Renn outline the essential structures of the knowledge system of classical physics on which Einstein drew. Examining Einstein’s discoveries from 1905 onward, they describe the process by which new concepts arose and the basis of modern physics emerged. These transformations continued, eventually resulting in the establishment of quantum physics and general relativity as the two major conceptual frameworks of modern physics―and its two unreconciled theoretical approaches. Gutfreund and Renn note that Einstein was dissatisfied with this conceptual dichotomy and began a search for a unified understanding of physics―a quest that continued for the rest of his life.]]> 272 Jürgen Renn 0691168768 Dan 5 ŷ������ seems to be committed to the concept that books are written by single individuals; this is evident here, where credit is given to Professor Doctor Renn while his co-author, Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, is nowhere to be found. Ach, such is the life of writers and academics.

What the authors have given us, as admirably explained on the back cover, is an explanation of how Albert Einstein came to develop his theory of relativity and other phenomena not, as many have been led to believe, as an isolated genius working in obscurity, but as a social creature bolstered by many others from disparate disciplines. Indeed, the array of fields Prof. Einstein contributed to is almost as alarming as the revolution in physics he precipitated.

One of the mini-stories offered concerns Sir Arthur Eddington whose expedition to photograph an eclipse has recent echoes with us in the Eastern United States. Prof. Eddington showed, for the first time, light being bent as it passed by a star (our Sun) on its way to us. This cruise of his produced worldwide press coverage. And when the English explorer's data was explained by a German Jew who held a Swiss passport---this was immediately after WW 1---the furor made Einstein an internationally renown figure (pg 19). With this nugget, the authors send us on our way to historical clarity with clear, superbly edited prose.

Highly Recommended ]]> 4.25
author: Jürgen Renn
name: Dan
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/25
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves:
review:
One of the hidden, because so obvious, charms of this volume is the collection of blurbs on the back cover. An industrious if demented individual could turn over half a library without finding a book with four such trenchant and accurate comments on the cover.
ŷ������ seems to be committed to the concept that books are written by single individuals; this is evident here, where credit is given to Professor Doctor Renn while his co-author, Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, is nowhere to be found. Ach, such is the life of writers and academics.

What the authors have given us, as admirably explained on the back cover, is an explanation of how Albert Einstein came to develop his theory of relativity and other phenomena not, as many have been led to believe, as an isolated genius working in obscurity, but as a social creature bolstered by many others from disparate disciplines. Indeed, the array of fields Prof. Einstein contributed to is almost as alarming as the revolution in physics he precipitated.

One of the mini-stories offered concerns Sir Arthur Eddington whose expedition to photograph an eclipse has recent echoes with us in the Eastern United States. Prof. Eddington showed, for the first time, light being bent as it passed by a star (our Sun) on its way to us. This cruise of his produced worldwide press coverage. And when the English explorer's data was explained by a German Jew who held a Swiss passport---this was immediately after WW 1---the furor made Einstein an internationally renown figure (pg 19). With this nugget, the authors send us on our way to historical clarity with clear, superbly edited prose.

Highly Recommended
]]> 75593495 ��
NONE OF YOU ARE SAFE
��
Jack Queen has been exonerated and freed from prison thanks to retired LAPD officer Cato Hightower. But when guilt gnaws at Jack, he “I actually did it.�� To which Hightower “Yeah, no kidding.�� You see, the ex-cop has a special job in mind for the ex-con��
��
Fifteen-year-old Matilda Finnerty has been handed a potential death sentence in the form of a leukemia diagnosis. But that’s not going to stop her from tackling the most important mystery of her life: is her father guilty of murder?
��
Jeanie Hightower mends family trees for a living, but the genealogist is unable to repair her own marriage. And her soon-to-be ex may have entangled her in a scheme that has drawn the bloody wrath of��
��
A prolific serial killer who disappeared forty years ago, who is only now emerging from hibernation when the conditions are just right. And this time, the California Bear is not content to hunt in the shadows��
��
From two-time Edgar nominee Duane Swierczynski, California Bear is clever, moving, and surprising as it takes aim at the true crime industry, Hollywood, justice, and the killers inside us all.]]> 368 Duane Swierczynski 0316382973 Dan 3 3.85 2024
author: Duane Swierczynski
name: Dan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves:
review:
With over seven years having slipped by since I last read Mr. Swierczynski I was looking forward to this novel. Have I changed or has the writing slipped along with the years? The wild madcap bouncing off the walls ride I expected never appeared. Yes, the book is nutty and has twists and so forth but I saw them as soon as the setup was made, even though I once had to wait a couple of hundred pages for the trap to spring. Still, I read the book and if The Girl Detective should turn up again, I will read about her next adventure karma permitting.
]]> 134115745 Read by Liz Cheney with 50+ audio source material clips included, Oath and Honor is a gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution—leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.

Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.]]> 372 Liz Cheney 0316572063 Dan 5
Generally, to give 5 Stars, I would want a better quality of writing. But this kind of book needs only to be properly written; this one is. An index would be useful. Perhaps some kind soul will furnish one, a great boon to future scholars. The Notes are claimed to be available from the publisher, although I could not find them with minimal effort.

One of my lawyer friends pointed out that in most areas of the world throughout most of history actions such as Mr. Trump and his cronies performed would have left them hanging from towers or lamp posts; the fate he urged for his Vice President. Taking heed of Ms. Cheney's warnings means we might well be wishing such a fate had befallen the Orange One.

Highly Recommended.]]> 4.55 2023
author: Liz Cheney
name: Dan
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/06
date added: 2024/04/06
shelves:
review:
After watching thugs desecrate the Capitol and later watching the Jan. 6 hearings, I need not have read this disturbing book. But the sheer craven behavior of my Republican Party's Representatives and the galling performance of lawyers related daily in the paper drove me to embrace one of our American heroes. Liz Cheney is, no mistake, a hero, even if one did, inexplicably, still support Donald Trump. She stood up for her country knowing the weakling sycophants behind her in Congress were unsheathing knives. She saw the path and strode it. I await our vaunted legal system to indite, try, and imprison the coward, the traitor, the whining idol of millions.

Generally, to give 5 Stars, I would want a better quality of writing. But this kind of book needs only to be properly written; this one is. An index would be useful. Perhaps some kind soul will furnish one, a great boon to future scholars. The Notes are claimed to be available from the publisher, although I could not find them with minimal effort.

One of my lawyer friends pointed out that in most areas of the world throughout most of history actions such as Mr. Trump and his cronies performed would have left them hanging from towers or lamp posts; the fate he urged for his Vice President. Taking heed of Ms. Cheney's warnings means we might well be wishing such a fate had befallen the Orange One.

Highly Recommended.
]]> 54874296 288 Ross Macdonald Dan 5 The second reveal did not startle. In the decades past I read a lot of MacDonald to the point I stopped because I thought I had read it all. Maybe. But all the more pleasant to be rereading this effort.

Ross MacDonald was never nice at the cost of accuracy: "She placed one hand on her breast. Her fingers were pale and speckled like breakfast sausages. All of her flesh was lard like: if you poked it the hole would stay. Some of it had run like candle wax down her ankles and over her shoes." Yeah, there is a reason the term 'noir' is used.

The story is complex and sprawling, the morality difficult. The mystery can not be solved with Holmesian reasoning; only dogged pursuit of truth wins here.

Recommended.]]> 4.17 1961
author: Ross Macdonald
name: Dan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves:
review:
This nice old paperback came to hand as I was off on a trip. After a few pages I realized, 1), I had forgotten how well MacDonald wrote; and 2), I had read this before.
The second reveal did not startle. In the decades past I read a lot of MacDonald to the point I stopped because I thought I had read it all. Maybe. But all the more pleasant to be rereading this effort.

Ross MacDonald was never nice at the cost of accuracy: "She placed one hand on her breast. Her fingers were pale and speckled like breakfast sausages. All of her flesh was lard like: if you poked it the hole would stay. Some of it had run like candle wax down her ankles and over her shoes." Yeah, there is a reason the term 'noir' is used.

The story is complex and sprawling, the morality difficult. The mystery can not be solved with Holmesian reasoning; only dogged pursuit of truth wins here.

Recommended.
]]> 179940702


Initially wary of becoming involved in the investigation, Jack finds he cannot stay away from the mystery surrounding these vicious attacks. He also cannot shake a feeling of darkness that has haunted him since he awoke from his coma—a darkness that is far too close for comfort. Luckily an old friend is there to help see him through and there is always Jack’s dark wit and a drink to help shore up his mood.]]> 252 Ken Bruen 1613164807 Dan 4 This outing Jack has gotten involved with a nun killer. Oh, and a couple of spoiled psychopathic teens. A normal day in West Ireland. Breun keeps things moving, a wee shot of Jameson nuzzling a pint never far off.
Recommended

]]> 4.11 2024
author: Ken Bruen
name: Dan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves:
review:
Mr. Bruen continues to write in an apparently inimitable way. He does seem to have expanded to dropping the names of movies as well as books. In addition, we are given the news of the world every few pages. Jack may inhabit Galway but he keeps an eye on the world. Of course, the barbarian invasion launched by Russia, or maybe one should say Putin, is affecting Jack's life as Ireland shelters large numbers of refugees. The worst of Covid occurred while Jack was in a coma. Nice trick.
This outing Jack has gotten involved with a nun killer. Oh, and a couple of spoiled psychopathic teens. A normal day in West Ireland. Breun keeps things moving, a wee shot of Jameson nuzzling a pint never far off.
Recommended


]]> 65678550
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.]]> 385 James McBride 0593422945 Dan 5 In the telling at the start of THAEGS (sorry, it won't happen again) the route of Pottstown's houses to the Atlantic Ocean is described without mentioning the Delaware River. Major omission. Since Pottstown is about 15 miles away from me and I know it and the area, I spent a fair amount of time checking up on geography and other historical bits.
McBride gives us wonderful characters for our pleasure. He gives us a lot of education in our history, most of which is not pleasurable. Certainly, the fact that Pennhurst Asylum existed as it did is no point of pride for Pennsylvanians, Americans or humans. Given GOP statements recently, it is good we know this, as they seem to be thinking another go at it would be a good idea.

McBride writes like a crazy fool. He carries us along with great mini-stories. Every time a character is introduced a mini-biography follows. All delightful. And frequently funny.

Recommended]]> 3.83 2023
author: James McBride
name: Dan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/21
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves:
review:
For openers, Mr. McBride describes the washing away of Pottstown in 1972. Hurricane Agnes. I remember it well. Berks County remembers it since Agnes kicked the Corps of Engineers into gear: they finally got to create the Blue Marsh Lake Reservoir and Flood Control Basin.
In the telling at the start of THAEGS (sorry, it won't happen again) the route of Pottstown's houses to the Atlantic Ocean is described without mentioning the Delaware River. Major omission. Since Pottstown is about 15 miles away from me and I know it and the area, I spent a fair amount of time checking up on geography and other historical bits.
McBride gives us wonderful characters for our pleasure. He gives us a lot of education in our history, most of which is not pleasurable. Certainly, the fact that Pennhurst Asylum existed as it did is no point of pride for Pennsylvanians, Americans or humans. Given GOP statements recently, it is good we know this, as they seem to be thinking another go at it would be a good idea.

McBride writes like a crazy fool. He carries us along with great mini-stories. Every time a character is introduced a mini-biography follows. All delightful. And frequently funny.

Recommended
]]> 11847430 The first edition of The Peregrine Falcon was widely recognised as a classic of its kind, documenting not only the species' biology but also the sad tale of its decline due to the impact of pesticides. This extensively revised and enlarged second edition takes full account of important new developments in the story of this bird during the intervening 12 years. It reports one of the few notable successes in wildlife the full restoration of British and Irish Peregrine populations, and their appreciable recovery in other countries where numbers had also been greatly reduced by the impact of organochlorine pesticides. The pattern of increase in Britain has been extremely varied, from districts where numbers are now far higher than at any time in recorded history, to others where the bird is now at its lowest ebb. The examination of the reasons for these differences helps us to understand the most recent developments in the Peregrine saga. Particular attention has been paid to the recent major advances in our knowledge of Peregrine biology, such as its movements, population turnover, food and nesting habits. Many of the tables and figures have been revised and brought up to date so that this volume, like its predecessor, is once again by far the most detailed and readable reference on this most evocative of birds. Donald Watson's colour paintings, monochrome washes and line drawings, and the original photographs, illustrate the book as before. Cover illustration by Donald Watson.]]> 493 Derek Ratcliffe Dan 5
This is a gem. Beautifully bound, with some color plates, many black and white photographs and loads of line drawings. Honestly, it is not for the usual reader. I doubt ten people ever read the thing cover to cover. That is my habit and I had to struggle a bit. This is data-dense, with graphs and pages filled with stats about birds: breeding calendars, foods consumed, egg weights, eerie heights, population densities, migration habits and more. There is an extensive chapter on DDT and other life destroyers.
While there is data gleaned from around the world, mostly this is a book about Britain. As such it talks about game-keepers, the once bitterly reviled lackeys of the landed gentry. Historically they were very hard on birds of prey as well as the starving populace. Of late, the people are better off by far and the game-keepers and their employers have come to recognize the value of the Peregrine. And to adhere to the laws about the same.
I feel a mention of the work done by naturalists, mostly unpaid, who gathered the data presented herein. While I have little sympathy for nest raiders and egg thieves, I do see how, by accident, their collections contributed strongly to proving some other trolls, the purveyors of chemical death, were destroying the Peregrine and other fowl.
Highly Recommended]]> 5.00 1993
author: Derek Ratcliffe
name: Dan
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves:
review:
Well, almost. What I read was a signed first edition of the hardback I gleefully found in a bookstore in Glasgow, Scotland, last summer. I bought several books and if it were not for weight restrictions on the airplane ( and sanity restrictions on the checking account) I would have carted away plenty more.

This is a gem. Beautifully bound, with some color plates, many black and white photographs and loads of line drawings. Honestly, it is not for the usual reader. I doubt ten people ever read the thing cover to cover. That is my habit and I had to struggle a bit. This is data-dense, with graphs and pages filled with stats about birds: breeding calendars, foods consumed, egg weights, eerie heights, population densities, migration habits and more. There is an extensive chapter on DDT and other life destroyers.
While there is data gleaned from around the world, mostly this is a book about Britain. As such it talks about game-keepers, the once bitterly reviled lackeys of the landed gentry. Historically they were very hard on birds of prey as well as the starving populace. Of late, the people are better off by far and the game-keepers and their employers have come to recognize the value of the Peregrine. And to adhere to the laws about the same.
I feel a mention of the work done by naturalists, mostly unpaid, who gathered the data presented herein. While I have little sympathy for nest raiders and egg thieves, I do see how, by accident, their collections contributed strongly to proving some other trolls, the purveyors of chemical death, were destroying the Peregrine and other fowl.
Highly Recommended
]]> 128713431 282 Mike Lawson 0802160883 Dan 4 Number 17 seems as fresh and spunky as any other in the series. Always a happy moment when one picks up a DeMarco book, even if the word "to" has been omitted at least twice in the present volume.
Recommended. ]]> 4.07 2024
author: Mike Lawson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves:
review:
The description of 'pulse-pounding' is a bit over the top for any Lawson story, certainly this one. Enjoyable, well crafted, entertaining, twisty, ingenious, humorous: all these are useful for describing Lwson's books. They are also sparingly written, almost always between 270 and 299 pages.
Number 17 seems as fresh and spunky as any other in the series. Always a happy moment when one picks up a DeMarco book, even if the word "to" has been omitted at least twice in the present volume.
Recommended.
]]> 139988291 Cassidy Hutchinson’s desk was mere steps from the most controversial president in recent American history. Now, she provides a riveting account of her extraordinary experiences as an idealistic young woman thrust into the middle of a national crisis, where she risked everything to tell the truth about some of the most powerful people in Washington.

Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.

Her life took a dramatic turn on January 6, 2021, when, at twenty-four, she found herself in one of the most extraordinary and unprecedented calamities in modern political history.

Hutchinson was faced with a choice between loyalty to the Trump administration or loyalty to the country by revealing what she saw and heard in the attempt to overthrow a democratic election. She bravely came forward to become the pivotal witness in the House January 6 investigations, as her testimony transfixed and stunned the nation. In her memoir, Hutchinson reveals the struggle between the pressures she confronted to toe the party line and the demands of the oath she swore to defend American democracy.

Enough reaches far beyond the typical insider political account. It’s the saga of a woman whose fierce determination helped her overcome childhood challenges to get her dream job, only to face a crisis of conscience that more senior White House aides tried to evade and, in the process, find her voice and herself. This is a portrait of how the courage of one person can change the course of history.]]> 379 Cassidy Hutchinson 1668028301 Dan 5 Years ago, Google was a terrific site. You asked a question and it gave you a correct, definitive answer. Now it resembles a corpse.

(I wrote about the Google information on 'Enough', which is total crap. Then I wrote about the terrific book ms. Hutchinson gave us. Then ŷ������ lost my work. Just threw it away. Maybe it is time to go elsewhere. )]]> 4.31 2023
author: Cassidy Hutchinson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/02/28
shelves:
review:
First, a note on Google.
Years ago, Google was a terrific site. You asked a question and it gave you a correct, definitive answer. Now it resembles a corpse.

(I wrote about the Google information on 'Enough', which is total crap. Then I wrote about the terrific book ms. Hutchinson gave us. Then ŷ������ lost my work. Just threw it away. Maybe it is time to go elsewhere. )
]]> 194805565
When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, until one sees the potential for an easy grift. A teenage boy must step into the man he'd like to be as a hostage crisis grips his hometown. A woman adrift meets a man tied to her grandmother's past, an encounter that awakens her to a bloody history that undergirds the place she grew up.��

Pelecanos' portraits are characterized by shades of grey, resisting the mold of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators, good and evil. At once streetwise and full of heart, Owning Up grapples with random chance, the bind of consequence, and the forked paths a life can take.��]]> 240 George P. Pelecanos 0316570478 Dan 5 George Pelecanos gave us 21 novels, most of them before he got sucked into The Wire, Treme, and other soul-wrenchingly great cinema. Ah, well, good for him. And good for us that we now have this volume of shorter works to educate us.
School in the rearview mirror is where most people seem to want it. Yet we seem to want to learn, to be 'up on things', too. Pelecanos tasked himself with teaching us some history by giving us enjoyable stories. He succeeded.
Highly Recommended ]]> 3.52
author: George P. Pelecanos
name: Dan
average rating: 3.52
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:
Readers often love it when their favorite authors make it to the big bucks by having their work adapted for TV, movies or streaming services. On the other hand...
George Pelecanos gave us 21 novels, most of them before he got sucked into The Wire, Treme, and other soul-wrenchingly great cinema. Ah, well, good for him. And good for us that we now have this volume of shorter works to educate us.
School in the rearview mirror is where most people seem to want it. Yet we seem to want to learn, to be 'up on things', too. Pelecanos tasked himself with teaching us some history by giving us enjoyable stories. He succeeded.
Highly Recommended
]]> 128713634 From New York Times bestselling author Karl Marlantes comes a propulsive and sweeping novel in which loyalty, friendship, and love are put to the ultimate test.

Helsinki, 1947. Finland teeters between the Soviet Union and the West. Everyone is being watched. A wrong look or a wrong word could end in catastrophe. Natalya Bobrova, from Russia, and Louise Koski, from the United States, are young wives of their country’s military attachés. When they meet at an embassy party, their husbands, Arnie and Mikhail, both world-class skiers, drunkenly challenge each other to a friendly—but secret—cross-country wilderness race.

This is another masterful novel from the author of the modern classic Matterhorn, whose “breakneck writing style is both passionate and haunting�� (W. E. B. Griffin). Layered with fast-paced action, historical detail, and a keen eye for the way totalitarianism and loss of truth and privacy threatens love and friendship, Cold Victory is a triumph.]]> 352 Karl Marlantes 0802161421 Dan 4 The trouble I was having was integral to the characters, especially the military wife. We are in Finland, starting in 1946. The innocence and ignorance of the Oklahoma-born and bred wife of the U.S. military attache is infuriating. Granted such a creature might have existed, but after a bit of time learning the ropes in post-war Finland even the densest naif ought to wake up. But the story depends on obdurate ignorance or what one might term ineffable niceness.
Anyway. Friends are made, he-man bets follow, Russian brutality rises, an ending arrives; story triumphs.
Recommended]]> 3.67 2024
author: Karl Marlantes
name: Dan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/23
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves:
review:
Rarely do I read a book that is saved by its last 50 pages. This is one.
The trouble I was having was integral to the characters, especially the military wife. We are in Finland, starting in 1946. The innocence and ignorance of the Oklahoma-born and bred wife of the U.S. military attache is infuriating. Granted such a creature might have existed, but after a bit of time learning the ropes in post-war Finland even the densest naif ought to wake up. But the story depends on obdurate ignorance or what one might term ineffable niceness.
Anyway. Friends are made, he-man bets follow, Russian brutality rises, an ending arrives; story triumphs.
Recommended
]]> 176443344
In The Night Train , Charles Swagger is on the hunt for notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stock yards. While there, he’s brutally assaulted and discovers that the madman who attacked him is involved in a nearby narcotics ring with plans to spread its new drug to the residents of the disenfranchised 7th District of Chicago. Worse, this is no ordinary drug—it makes some users happy, drives others insane, and kills many of the rest. Will Charles be able to stop the ring before it’s too late? Or is he in over his head among the dark streets of Chicago?

Earl Swagger investigates a violent bank robbery in Johnny Tuesday that left two dead and a fortune missing in small-town Maryland. At every turn, however, he’s met with silence and hostility from the townsfolk, which makes sense when he uncovers municipal corruption, working-class exploitation, gang politics, jaded aristocrats, scheming gamblers, a hitman, a femme fatale. And a whole bunch of men with guns. Luckily, Earl has brought his own guns in this unputdownable noir mystery.

Finally, in Five Dolls for the Gut Hook , a thirty-two-year-old Bob Lee Swagger is back from Vietnam nearly broken over good men lost for nothing. He’s turned hard down that whiskey road to hell. But one afternoon he’s wakened from his nightmares by two men with a problem. As nearby Hot Springs tries to retool its image from gambling paradise to family resort, a butcher has begun to prey on the city’s young women, a figure straight out of a horror movie. Hot Springs Homicide is baffled. “I’m a sniper,�� says Bob, “not a detective.��

“But,�� comes the reply, “you are the son and grandson of two of the greatest detectives this state has ever produced.�� On that premise alone, Bob takes up the hunt for a killer who not only kills but desecrates. Using his sniper’s mind, Swagger is able to see things others have missed, drawing ever closer to a showdown. But equally, we understand, Bob Lee Swagger is hunting his own salvation.]]> 480 Stephen Hunter 1668030365 Dan 4
Mr. Humter tries a few dodges but not really in a way to fool his fans. Secret identities, hidden baddies, and twisty endings go with the territory.

Story number two reads like an adopted screenplay and is cited as such in the Acknowledgments. If some brave soul stepped up to produce it, here is one viewer for sure, if the lights stay on.

Recommended]]> 3.98
author: Stephen Hunter
name: Dan
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:
A triple treat. Three generations of Swagger. Three stories tied together by blood and firearms.

Mr. Humter tries a few dodges but not really in a way to fool his fans. Secret identities, hidden baddies, and twisty endings go with the territory.

Story number two reads like an adopted screenplay and is cited as such in the Acknowledgments. If some brave soul stepped up to produce it, here is one viewer for sure, if the lights stay on.

Recommended
]]> 171077929 0 Alexandra Bonafante-Warren Dan 5 When visiting Paris one can find thousands of important places to be and things to see. Visiting The Louvre ranks high among them. I have walked its corridors for hours searching for great art and quiet. But the best time I have had there was in my library with this book.

How can this be? For $15 at Barnes & Noble, I find this marvel. Over three hundred oversize pages, thirty of them a brief history of the museum. Otherwise, the leaves are filled with terrific full-color photos of paintings and sculptures, each with a small descriptor. A marvelous volume one can come back to many times without having to buy a plane ticket or suffer the rudeness of the French.
Recommended.]]> 5.00 2000
author: Alexandra Bonafante-Warren
name: Dan
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/16
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves:
review:
The Louvre. Home to 4 million visitors a year. Chewing tobacco, snapping gum, radiating bottles of perfume and body wash, redolent of tobacco smoke. Many from the ranks of the great unwashed---you can tell by the odor--- while representing the chattering classes, too. And there she is, the Mona Lisa, thirty feet away, behind glass, besieged by the crowd. Another half hour and we will be ten feet closer. Well, could have been, but no.
When visiting Paris one can find thousands of important places to be and things to see. Visiting The Louvre ranks high among them. I have walked its corridors for hours searching for great art and quiet. But the best time I have had there was in my library with this book.

How can this be? For $15 at Barnes & Noble, I find this marvel. Over three hundred oversize pages, thirty of them a brief history of the museum. Otherwise, the leaves are filled with terrific full-color photos of paintings and sculptures, each with a small descriptor. A marvelous volume one can come back to many times without having to buy a plane ticket or suffer the rudeness of the French.
Recommended.
]]> 16115453 Beautiful Owls, takes the best of the strigiform family, offering up such stunning examples as the Abyssinian Eagle, the Sunda Scops and the adorable Pygmy Burrowing Owl, every one shown in stunning high-definition detail.

��]]> 112 Marianne Taylor 1908005971 Dan 5 Highly Recommended. ]]> 4.76 2013
author: Marianne Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/14
date added: 2024/02/14
shelves:
review:
Blow me away beautiful. The pictures (photos by Andrew Perris) make this a dazzling effort. Add the delightful little drawings that ornament the data sheets (apparently by David Anstey), and one can spend hours marveling at the beauty and anthropomorphic appearance of these 36 owls. Many are comical, some foreboding, all spectacular.
Highly Recommended.
]]> 65211783
"An engrossing, psychologically complex and politically astute novel." ―The New York Times

Haiti, 1991. When a violent coup d’état leads to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American expat Matt Amaker is forced to abandon his idyllic, beachfront scuba business. With the rise of a brutal military dictatorship and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country’s most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaos–and others are just looking to make it through another day.

Desperate for money―and survival―Matt teams up with his best friend and business partner Alix Variel, the adventurous only son of a socially prominent Haitian family. They set their sights on legendary shipwrecks that have been rumored to contain priceless treasures off a remote section of Haiti’s southern coast. Their ambition and exploration of these disastrous wrecks come with a cascade of ill-fated incidents―one that involves Misha, Alix’s erudite sister, who stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S. government humanitarian aid office, and rookie CIA case officer Audrey O’Donnell, who finds herself doing clandestine work on an assignment that proves to be more difficult and dubious than she could have possibly imagined.

Devil Makes Three ’s depiction of blood politics, the machinations of power, and a country in the midst of upheaval is urgently and insistently resonant. This new novel is sure to cement Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the twenty-first century’s boldest and most perceptive writers.]]> 544 Ben Fountain 1250776511 Dan 4 Mr. Fountain covers all that and more in this sprawling novel of love, family, politics, and, of course, craven Americans. What would happen if the United States were not active? Beats me. But the truth of Haiti inextricably resides with U.S. funds and influence lavished on a few moral bankrupts who form Haiti's leadership. That is the fiction of "Devi Makes Three" and the truth of reality. What could be a tropical paradise is presented here as a handful of palaces and prisons pitted against peasants: or one could rephrase it as "power and guns vs. poverty and religion".
To steal from Chesterton's comment on Britain and Ireland, The United States' history with Haiti has been akin to that of a man who, in a fit of absentmindedness, kills his wife and buries her in the backyard. Ireland eventually recovered from the horrors of British involvement. Haiti may someday escape from America's rapacity. The progress will be paid in death, a toll rising every day, going back centuries. But for our purposes, Mr. Fountain delivers a delightful novel with intertwined plot lines, suffering, sadness and survival.
Recommended.]]> 3.73 2023
author: Ben Fountain
name: Dan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/13
date added: 2024/02/13
shelves:
review:
Haiti. The name resonates. L'Overture. Beating the pants off Napoleon's army. Striking fear into white people throughout the slave-holding world. Poverty. Vudoo-hoodu. Poverty. Hurricanes. Coups. Shared island---how odd. Poverty.
Mr. Fountain covers all that and more in this sprawling novel of love, family, politics, and, of course, craven Americans. What would happen if the United States were not active? Beats me. But the truth of Haiti inextricably resides with U.S. funds and influence lavished on a few moral bankrupts who form Haiti's leadership. That is the fiction of "Devi Makes Three" and the truth of reality. What could be a tropical paradise is presented here as a handful of palaces and prisons pitted against peasants: or one could rephrase it as "power and guns vs. poverty and religion".
To steal from Chesterton's comment on Britain and Ireland, The United States' history with Haiti has been akin to that of a man who, in a fit of absentmindedness, kills his wife and buries her in the backyard. Ireland eventually recovered from the horrors of British involvement. Haiti may someday escape from America's rapacity. The progress will be paid in death, a toll rising every day, going back centuries. But for our purposes, Mr. Fountain delivers a delightful novel with intertwined plot lines, suffering, sadness and survival.
Recommended.
]]> 53483395 American Idol, Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk, Step It Up and Go celebrates homegrown music just as essential to the state as barbecue and basketball.

Spanning a century of history from the dawn of recorded music to the present, and with sidebars and photos that help reveal the many-splendored glory of North Carolina's sonic landscape, this is a must-read for every music lover.]]> 328 David Menconi 1469659352 Dan 5 Mr. Menconi is a master.
For me, as a listener, the first half of the book had heart and soul. If I did not know about the artist being discussed, I knew the genre well enough. And as with the entire book, I had my phone next to me, a wire into around the world's music regardless of country or time. Menconi's reverence for the early players of mountain/country/hillbilly/ folk/blues soothes the soul. His understanding of how dancers define a style of music---beach---is rare and valuable.
About half of the latter part of the book introduced me to artists whom I missed along the way, some of whom were simply outside my regular listening orbit. All were worth the time spent with the phone; all were well treated by Menconi.
I'd like to look around Ashville, check out Warren Wilson College, pop over to check out the Music Makers, visit a shag dance and the clubs in the tri-city area, and so on. But for now, the internet and Mr. Menconi's book will do.
Recommended.]]> 4.06
author: David Menconi
name: Dan
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/06
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves:
review:
Writing about music takes a special kind of talent. Not only must one know how to write an essay and what the music is about, but one must convey both the feeling of the music and the jolt the listener gets from the performance.
Mr. Menconi is a master.
For me, as a listener, the first half of the book had heart and soul. If I did not know about the artist being discussed, I knew the genre well enough. And as with the entire book, I had my phone next to me, a wire into around the world's music regardless of country or time. Menconi's reverence for the early players of mountain/country/hillbilly/ folk/blues soothes the soul. His understanding of how dancers define a style of music---beach---is rare and valuable.
About half of the latter part of the book introduced me to artists whom I missed along the way, some of whom were simply outside my regular listening orbit. All were worth the time spent with the phone; all were well treated by Menconi.
I'd like to look around Ashville, check out Warren Wilson College, pop over to check out the Music Makers, visit a shag dance and the clubs in the tri-city area, and so on. But for now, the internet and Mr. Menconi's book will do.
Recommended.
]]> 179846483
Unable to stand the embarrassment of his lackeys having been defeated by a lone woman, Mr. Conger puts in a call to the one man who can make his problems disappear. Known for his swiftness and subtlety, Leo Sealy will kill anyone for a price. All he needs is a name and a face, any starting point to pick up his victim’s trail. Luckily for him, the local news is as eager as he is for any information about the heroic bodyguard―and quick to broadcast their findings, regardless of what it might mean for her safety. But Sealy isn’t prepared for just how quick and resourceful Justine can be. So begins a cat and mouse game between two people who know more about how to take down one’s enemies than anyone else in the business.

Justine finds herself up against both a hardened killer and the fickle media landscape that can turn on her just as quickly as it celebrated her in this high-stakes thriller from the author of The Old Man .]]> 274 Thomas Perry 1613164777 Dan 4 One of the best features is the way the press turns a heroic stand by a bodyguard into a putative murder of innocent young men. Whether we realize it or not we see this type of thing happening on the news frequently, as we see guilt projected without trial or proof. Of course, the opposite also happens: we stand by while scoundrels pass through our 'justice' system untouched.
Here, though, the baddies get theirs. Joy!
Recommended]]> 3.75 2024
author: Thomas Perry
name: Dan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/03
date added: 2024/02/03
shelves:
review:
Thomas Perry is back. He has all the moves, the plot and a new character. Rather than a cross-country chase/evasion sage such as we saw in the Jane Whitefield novels, we frolic around Los Angeles.
One of the best features is the way the press turns a heroic stand by a bodyguard into a putative murder of innocent young men. Whether we realize it or not we see this type of thing happening on the news frequently, as we see guilt projected without trial or proof. Of course, the opposite also happens: we stand by while scoundrels pass through our 'justice' system untouched.
Here, though, the baddies get theirs. Joy!
Recommended
]]> 71872848
Los Angeles, August 4, 1962. The city broils through a midsummer heat wave. Marilyn Monroe ODs. A B-movie starlet is kidnapped. The overhyped LAPD overreacts. Chief Bill Parker’s looking for some getback. The Monroe deal looks like a moneymaker. He calls in Freddy Otash.��

The freewheeling Freddy tainted ex-cop, defrocked private eye, dope fiend, and freelance extortionist. A man who lives by the maxim “Opportunity is love.�� Freddy gets to work. He dimly perceives Marilyn Monroe’s death and the kidnapped starlet to be a poisonous riddle that only he has the guts and the brains to untangle. We are with him as he tears through all those who block his path to the truth. We are with him as he penetrates the faux -sunshine of Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the shuck of Camelot. We are with him as he falters, and grasps for love beyond opportunity. We are with him as he tracks Marilyn Monroe’s horrific last charade through a nightmare L.A. that he served to create �� and as he confronts his complicity and his own raging madness.��

It’s the Summer of ��62, baby. Freddy O’s got a hot date with history. The savage Sixties are ready to pop. It’s just a shot away.

The Enchanters is a��transcendent work of American popular��fiction. It is James Ellroy at his most crazed, brilliant, provocative, profanely hilarious, and stop-your-heart tender. It is a luminous psychological drama and an unparalleled thrill ride. It is, resoundingly, the great American crime novel.]]> 448 James Ellroy 0593320441 Dan 3 In the present instance, the rapid-fire alliteration and other annoying tricks have fled the building. And a building it is, dragging on for 60-100 pages too long. One grips the book and screams "Get on with it". The irreverence, the slang, the dreary sexual references (I almost wrote 'innuendos' but Ellroy uses sharp knives and blunt instruments, never tact), and the total disregard for integrity one comes to expect from this author are all here. He drives a fast sled, rips around the course, cuts corners, and packs three or four books worth of data and plots into his pages. Alas, the weight of the story overcomes the heavy foot. The story drags for an eternity until the blazing final pages.
But, as I have stated elsewhere, it is Ellroy:
Recommended]]> 3.58 2023
author: James Ellroy
name: Dan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
review:
When I read "Brown's Requiem" in 1981 neither I nor anyone else could have predicted "The Enchanters". Or any of Mr. Ellroy's 'mature' work.
In the present instance, the rapid-fire alliteration and other annoying tricks have fled the building. And a building it is, dragging on for 60-100 pages too long. One grips the book and screams "Get on with it". The irreverence, the slang, the dreary sexual references (I almost wrote 'innuendos' but Ellroy uses sharp knives and blunt instruments, never tact), and the total disregard for integrity one comes to expect from this author are all here. He drives a fast sled, rips around the course, cuts corners, and packs three or four books worth of data and plots into his pages. Alas, the weight of the story overcomes the heavy foot. The story drags for an eternity until the blazing final pages.
But, as I have stated elsewhere, it is Ellroy:
Recommended
]]> 35087049 noir classics L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia, and The Cold Six Thousand, he has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the best writers of our era." A self-proclaimed Luddite, Ellroy is turning to technology for the first time with the publication of Shakedown, a novella released by the digital publisher Byliner. In it, Ellroy is as frenetically depraved as ever, minting an antihero who is a cad for the ages.

Meet Freddy Otash: a corrupt cop turned sleaze hustler, extortionist, pimp, and an actual historical figure who made the 1950s magazine Confidential the go-to source for the sins of the rich and famous. In his prime, Freddy raised hell, and in the pages of Shakedown he finds himself stuck in purgatory��-literally��-waiting for a transfer to heaven. Will he make it there, or will fate keep him down below? Promised redemption if he confesses his past sins and transgressions, Freddy writes a tell-all peopled by Hollywood greats like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, and James Dean (to name a few) who are up to all sorts of wrong. Threesomes, foursomes, you name it��-anything goes in this licentious world.

Shakedown explodes the postwar America of June and Ward Cleaver, breathing randy new life into the man who whetted our national appetite for sex and scandal. Freddy's lack of scruples��-and lack of morality��-make today's gossip culture seem almost innocent. What's true and what's fiction? Ellroy's certainly not telling.]]> James Ellroy Dan 5
No one can be blamed for disliking the alliteration, the language, the fast---make that ultra-rapid----pace of the prose. Dishing the dirt on celebrities---who deserves it and who doesn't? How to tell. Some we know about; others, who knows? Probably Google, but who has time? And today who cares? Back in the early 1950s black/white sex, homo-sex, extramarital sex, Communist leanings---they were all very bad. Career enders, Jail time earners.

The deal here is Fred Otash, former LAPD, former PI, former dirt digger, has gone to Purgatory. Long dead, he is approached by the Devil who offers a deal: spill what he knows to James Ellroy the author and Otash gets an interview for heaven. Mind meld with Ellroy. Otash's facts, Ellroy's writing. You hate it, or you jump on board for the roller coaster ride---all down hill, all a blast, all fun, fun, fun.
Recommended]]> 4.67 2012
author: James Ellroy
name: Dan
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2017/05/17
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
review:
Well, it is James Ellroy. And it is really a short story punched up into a hardback limited edition book. And it started off as an 'e-book' now due out in paperback. But. It is Ellroy

No one can be blamed for disliking the alliteration, the language, the fast---make that ultra-rapid----pace of the prose. Dishing the dirt on celebrities---who deserves it and who doesn't? How to tell. Some we know about; others, who knows? Probably Google, but who has time? And today who cares? Back in the early 1950s black/white sex, homo-sex, extramarital sex, Communist leanings---they were all very bad. Career enders, Jail time earners.

The deal here is Fred Otash, former LAPD, former PI, former dirt digger, has gone to Purgatory. Long dead, he is approached by the Devil who offers a deal: spill what he knows to James Ellroy the author and Otash gets an interview for heaven. Mind meld with Ellroy. Otash's facts, Ellroy's writing. You hate it, or you jump on board for the roller coaster ride---all down hill, all a blast, all fun, fun, fun.
Recommended
]]> 106291410 From the internationally best-selling author, a twisted, multi-layered spin on the classic horror novel

In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

You know who I am. She's going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There's not a thing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence--and preserve his sanity--as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .]]> 245 Jo Nesbø 0593537165 Dan 0 Is this for young readers? If so, that makes its sins worse. Youth should be given the best writing in order that they may acquire taste and knowledge.

After barely avoiding a Tom Swifty in the first paragraph, either Nesbo or his translator, Neal Smith, tells us that the river is surrounded---"on both sides". That is followed by an awkward sentence that lacks apostrophes in sequential possessives.

Sorry, Jo. Count me out on this one.]]> 3.22 2023
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Dan
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves:
review:
Unreadable. Therefore, no Star Rating.
Is this for young readers? If so, that makes its sins worse. Youth should be given the best writing in order that they may acquire taste and knowledge.

After barely avoiding a Tom Swifty in the first paragraph, either Nesbo or his translator, Neal Smith, tells us that the river is surrounded---"on both sides". That is followed by an awkward sentence that lacks apostrophes in sequential possessives.

Sorry, Jo. Count me out on this one.
]]> 55502882
Welcome to the world of the malevolent monarch of the Hollywood underground - a tale of pervasive paranoia teeming with communist conspiracies, FBI finks, celebrity smut films and strange bedfellows.]]> 336 James Ellroy 0593319346 Dan 4 So too does the unmitigated trashing of the characters. Hardly a politician or Hollywood figure goes unsullied, it seems. Merely being outed as gay, for instance, is never enough. People are always defined in raw terms, always pejorative. Many men are defined by the putative dimensions of their penis, although that word is never used. The demeaning course runs unfettered because some of the people have been known to be as Ellroy describes them. But unless one wants to spend days researching the 'secret lives' of others, we are left with the choice of accepting the fictional universe unraveling before our eyes or moving on to another book. Those who choose the latter course earn no ill will from this reviewer. Perhaps a bit of admiration.
I have been an Ellroy fan since his first book and a reader of noir for well over a half-century. For others in the same boat, this entry is
Recommended.]]> 3.31 2021
author: James Ellroy
name: Dan
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/31
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
review:
Rating this outing took some hard thought. I settled on 4 Stars because it continues the arc of Mr. Ellroy's oeuvre. He has written better books although the unstinting use of alliteration he used in headlines and articles for his long-running fictional rag, "Confidential", emerges here as the body of the novel. It can get wearing.
So too does the unmitigated trashing of the characters. Hardly a politician or Hollywood figure goes unsullied, it seems. Merely being outed as gay, for instance, is never enough. People are always defined in raw terms, always pejorative. Many men are defined by the putative dimensions of their penis, although that word is never used. The demeaning course runs unfettered because some of the people have been known to be as Ellroy describes them. But unless one wants to spend days researching the 'secret lives' of others, we are left with the choice of accepting the fictional universe unraveling before our eyes or moving on to another book. Those who choose the latter course earn no ill will from this reviewer. Perhaps a bit of admiration.
I have been an Ellroy fan since his first book and a reader of noir for well over a half-century. For others in the same boat, this entry is
Recommended.
]]>